PHOTODETECTOR DESIGNS FOR LOW-NOISE, BROAD-BAND, AND HIGH-POWER APPLICATIONS

We present design and performance details of three photodetector circu its that have been developed in the authors laboratory over the past e ight years. These detectors have been optimized to meet the unique dem ands of experiments such as high power, high sensitivity interferometr y, nonlinear optics, and laser noise measurements. The circuits are: a low-noise dc coupled (dc 20 MHz) general purpose detector, a low-nois e broadband (15-1100 MHz) detector capable of detecting 10 mW of light , and a high-power large dynamic range detector (30 kHz-60 MHz) capabl e of detecting up to 100 mW of light. We present bandwidth dynamic ran ge and noise performance details for all three designs. In addition, w e present detailed circuit schematics along with design and constructi on guidelines to enable assembly and use of these designs. (C) 1998 Am erican Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(98)03910-0].