Testing lab

The Lidar Components Testing Laboratory (LiCoTest) has a long expertise in characterizing laser beams and optical components using power and energy meters, Tektronics oscillioscopes, Beam Profiler with M2 option, BeamScope, goniometer and interferometer. This lab also covers spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements and spectral characterization of interferential filters, beam splitters and dichroic mirrors, characterization of the aging process with the Perkin Elmer UV-VIS NIR Spectrometer. Electronic blocks are tested with Agilent and Tektronics pulse/form generators and analysers. This installation delivers full characterization of the optical and electronic components which are part of the transmitter and receiver, essential when assessing the instrumental (systematic) errors.

Instruments:

  • Optical power and energy meters + power and energy sensors (energy, power) – Energy/Powermeter Gentec model  Solo-PE
  • Laser beam characterization instruments (pulse width, divergence, waist, energetic distribution, gaussian beam deviation) – Photodiode MenloSystems model FDP 310, Oscilloscope Tektronics model DPO 7254, Beam Profiler with M2 option, Melles-Griot BeamScope P7
  • Optical components measurements: (angles between plane surfaces, refractive index, surface characterization, focal lengths): Goniometer Moller-Wedel model Goniometer II-VIS, Moeller-Wedel Interferometer, Moeller-Wedel focal length measurement device
  • Spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements (thin surface refractive index measurements, thickness, interface investigation, optical gap, absorption, reflectivity) – Jobin Yvon Ellipsometer
  • Spectral characterization of optical components: interferential filters characterization (bandwidths, rejection, attenuation outside the band), beam splitters and dichroic mirrors characterization, characterization of the aging process for optical components – Perkin Elmer UV-VIS NIR Spectrometer
  • Polarization measurements: Stokes polarimetry – EXICOR Stokes Polarimeter
  • Paraxial analysis of optical systems: Zemax software