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Buying Pulse Duration Measurement Devices

Top-level product category: icon detectors and measurements

More specific product categories: autocorrelators, frequency-resolved optical gating devices, spectral phase interferometry instruments, streak cameras

Related product categories: ultrafast lasers, pulse compressors, pulse stretchers

Measuring the durations of nanosecond pulses can be done with fast photodiodes. However, for ultrashort pulses in the picosecond or femtosecond range, advanced instruments like autocorrelators, FROG, SPIDER, or streak cameras are required.

Making Good Purchase Decisions

As the most professional photonics purchasing portal, RP Photonics helps you to not only to find all relevant suppliers (not limited to our advertisers), but also to make good purchasing decisions.

NEW: Structured Decision Process

Purchasing involves a lot of responsibility. We recommend that you apply best practice by using the following structured process: Go through the following expandable sections, complete the form and finally come to a purchase decision. You can then print that to a PDF for documenting the process.

Our article on best practices for purchasing and another one explaining this tool give you valuable insights.

1. Understand the technical background

It is important to sufficiently understand the technology before buying.

Use the comprehensive learning resources of RP Photonics:

encyclopedia article pulse duration light pulses ultrashort pulses pulse characterization photodiodes autocorrelators frequency-resolved optical gating streak cameras

If you need personal help, contact RP Photonics to get technical consultancy.

2. Define your requirements

It is essential to fully understand and clearly define your requirements before you buy.

We recommend that you develop a list of clear specifications according to your specific needs, against which you can later check the suitability of found product offers:

To help you, we have already listed some aspects we recommend you consider when buying pulse duration measurement devices. Of course, there may be other aspects that are relevant to your specific case.

This list is for your own preparation, and can later (possibly in modified form) be used for quotation requests to suppliers.

Otherwise, you will need to talk to your technical colleagues.

If you cannot sufficiently clarify your requirements, you may want to get technical consultancy from RP Photonics.

You find these buttons in the supplier list below or under "3. Find suitable suppliers".

3. Find suitable suppliers

We suggest three steps:

  • Below, you can find our list of suppliers for pulse duration measurement devices. Use the checkboxes to mark possibly suitable suppliers.
  • The selected suppliers will appear below this list, along with your list of specifications. You can then indicate which specifications they meet according to your research. (You should finalize your specifications before doing this.)
  • Based on the results, you can finally choose a supplier that is hopefully a good enough fit.

Selected suppliers:

(none so far)

Decision

The most suitable supplier you found:

Comments, e.g. reasons for your choice, or things which still need to be checked:

Suppliers for Pulse Duration Measurement Devices

22 suppliers for pulse duration measurement devices are listed in the RP Photonics Buyer's Guide, out of which 5 present their product descriptions. Both manufacturers and distributors can be registered.

Suppliers with Advertising Package

presenting their product descriptions

Lasers, Optics, Electronics. Made in Germany.

ALPHALAS GmbH
Bertha-von-Suttner-Str. 5
37085 Göttingen
Germany
Profile page  Website  
pulse duration measurement devices

Ultrafast photodetectors from ALPHALAS in combination with high-speed oscilloscopes are the best alternative for measurement of optical waveforms with spectral coverage from 170 to 2600 nm (VUV to IR) and picosecond pulse duration. For example, photodetectors with rise time 10 ps and bandwidth 30 GHz, combined with a 50-GHz sampling oscilloscope, can be used to measure optical pulse widths down to 10 ps using deconvolution.

Configurations of the photodetectors include free-space, fiber receptacle or SM-fiber-pigtailed options and have compact metal housings for noise immunity. The UV-extended versions of the Si photodiodes are the only commercial products that cover the spectral range from 170 to 1100 nm with a rise time < 50 ps. For maximum flexibility, most models are not internally terminated. A 50 Ohm external termination supports the specified highest speed operation.

Product-specific web page
few-cycle Inc.
1650 Boul. Lionel-Boulet
J3X 1P7 Varennes, Quebec
Canada
Profile page  Website  
pulse duration measurement devices

The orchestra™ FROG (Frequency-Resolved Optical Gating) combines SHG (second harmonic generation) and TG (transient grating) FROG in one device with total spectral range from 200 nm to 2 μm (up to 3.4 μm optional). It comes with user-friendly software for acquisition and phase retrieval.

Product-specific web page
APE Angewandte Physik und Elektronik GmbH
Plauener Straße 163–165 / Haus N
13053 Berlin
Germany
Profile page  Website  
pulse duration measurement devices

APE autocorrelators are used to measure the pulse duration of femtosecond and picosecond laser systems. The technology is based on either second harmonic generation (SHG) detection or two-photon absorption (TPA) detection principle.

APE Autocorrelator Models:

  • pulseCheck: multitalent for any task
  • Mini TPA: compact and tuning-free
  • Mini PD: routine tasks with a fixed wavelength range
  • Carpe: first choice for multiphoton microscopy
Product-specific web page
Thorlabs
43 Sparta Avenue
Newton, NJ 07860
United States
Profile page  Website  

See us at OFC 2025 in San Francisco, April 1–3 (booth 1551)!

pulse duration measurement devices

The FSAC benchtop interferometric autocorrelator manufactured by Thorlabs is designed to characterize ultrafast pulse durations from 15 – 1,000 fs in the 650 – 1100 nm range. This autocorrelator for use with femtosecond lasers compliments our ultrafast family of lasers, amplifiers, and specialized optics, including nonlinear crystals, chirped mirrors, low GDD mirrors/beamsplitters, and dispersion compensating fiber.

Product-specific web page
Femto Easy
Batiment Gienah, Cite de la Photonique
11 avenue de Canteranne
33600 Pessac
France
Profile page  Website  
pulse duration measurement devices

Femto Easy offers two different types of very compact and handy autocorrelators for ultrashort pulse characterization:

  • The ROC autocorrelator is a single-shot autocorrelator, thus it needs only a single pulse to measure its duration. It is very compact and extremely easy to use. It covers a wide range of pulse energies from a few hundred picojoules to a few millijoules, and durations from 5 fs to 10 ps.
  • The MS-ROC autocorrelator is a multi-shot autocorrelator. It uses a particularly fast optical delay line to scan the delay, minimizing the measurement time. It can measure pulses with energies as low as 50 pJ, and with its fine-scan mode for durations even below 50 fs.
Product-specific web page

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Other Suppliers

Coherent Corp.
United States
Profile page  Website  
Crisel Instruments s.r.l.
Italy
Del Mar Photonics, Inc.
United States
Dyneos AG
Switzerland
Fastlite
France
Profile page  Website  
Femtochrome Research
United States
GMP SA, Büro Zürich
Switzerland
Laser Peak
Austria
Profile page  Website  
Mesa Photonics
United States
Profile page  Website  
Mountain Photonics GmbH
Germany
New Technologies and Consulting
Germany
Optoprim Germany GmbH
Germany
Profile page  Website  
Polytec GmbH
Germany
Southern Photonics Ltd
New Zealand
Sphere Ultrafast Photonics, SL
Spain
Profile page  Website  
Swamp Optics, LLC
United States
Profile page  Website  
Topag Lasertechnik GmbH
Germany
Profile page  Website  

If any displayed information is incorrect (e.g., a listed supplier does not offer such products) or legally problematic, please notify RP Photonics so that the problem can be solved.



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