Applications | Quantum cascade photodetector

Optical heterodyne detection

It is called Heterodyne detection to read out the frequency of beat-note generated by optical interference.
A frequency of beat-note comes higher when the emission wavelength of two lasers are far way, therefore, the photodetectors with high response frequency are required to detect beat-note covering broader wavelength range.
Hamamatsu photonics offers appropriate components to perform Heterodyne detection: QCD which has MIR sensitivity and high response feature, high stable QCL, and CW controller with ultra-low noise characteristic.

What is beat-note

Two coherent light sources (i.e. lasers) generate the beat signal corresponding to the difference of frequency when these light sources have close, but slightly different wavelength.
This beat signal is called optical beat or beat-note, and the freaquency of beat-note is called beat-note frequency. Beat-note reflect sensitively the variation of the intensity, phase, or frequency of the laser which compose the beat-note.
Therefore, beat-note is broadly used in the techniques such as a high sensitive, or high wavelength resolve spectroscopy.

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