[Laser] test

[Steve J. Noll]

Silicon photodiodes match visible and near infrared lasers & LEDs well, 
are fast, and have reasonably large active areas.
Solar cell - essentially a silicon photodiode, but optimized for power 
generation, not small signal detection, slower, probably noisier, no 
gain, large area, good wavelength match.
Phototransistors also match said wavelengths well, have some gain, but 
are slower and have tiny active areas which are harder to get all of 
your light into.
Photoresistors are very slow responding, no gain, large areas, not bad 
wavelength-wise, but again, very slow response time.
Silicon avalanche photodiodes extremely fast, have gain, but take high 
voltage, expensive.
Photomultiplier tubes - if you're trying to set some extreme distance 
record. Take high voltage, very large sensitive area, tremendous gain, 
very fast, usually not great spectral match but gain makes up for it.

73, Steve WA6EJO


On 8/1/2016 1:52 PM, Zack Widup wrote:
> I've been wanting to play around with laser comms for quite a long time. I
> have various solid-state lasers and I have some lenses. I think I saw some
> recommendations on what to use for detectors once but I can't find that
> info now. What are best used for detectors?
>
> 73, Zack W9SZ
>