Laboratory apparatus for determination of the parameters of optical coherent systems

Apparatus was constructed for the determination of a range of optical characteristics of active devices performing coherent and direct detection of a signal. The characteristics determined in this way are the divergence and power of a probe beam, sensitivity threshold, conversion characteristic, photomixing coefficient, angle of field of view, etc. The results of a determination of the characteristics of the receiver part of a heterodyne rangefinder are given. The measurements are accurate to within 20–25%.