We have developed a measurement system based on a correlation method to characterize the nonlinearity of a detector's response over a large range of laser pulse energy. The system consists of an excimer-laser source, beam-shaping optics, a beam splitter, a monitor detector, a set of optical filters, and the detector under test. Detector nonlinearities as large as 10% or greater over an entire m...

This thesis describes the laser Doppler technique based on a self-mixing effect in a diode laser to noninvasive cardiovascular pulse detection in a human wrist above the radial artery. The main applications of self-mixing interferometry described in this thesis in addition to pulse detection are arterial pulse shape and autonomic regulation measurements. The elastic properties of the arterial w...

A photonic approach to the simultaneous measurement of the frequency, pulse amplitude (PA), pulse width (PW), and time of arrival (TOA) of an unknown pulsed microwave signal is proposed and demonstrated. The measurement is performed based on optical carrier-suppressed modulation, complementary optical filtering, low-speed photodetection, and electrical signal processing. A proof-of-concept expe...

A unique length measurement method, called the multiple pulse train interference-based time-of-flight (TOF) method, is proposed and demonstrated for the first time. By taking advantage of both the high-accuracy measurement capability of a pulse train interference method and the arbitrary and absolute length measurement capability of a TOF method, the present method is expected to be useful for ...

Oxygen saturation in the arterial blood (SaO2) provides information on the adequacy of respiratory function. SaO2 can be assessed noninvasively by pulse oximetry, which is based on photoplethysmographic pulses in two wavelengths, generally in the red and infrared regions. The calibration of the measured photoplethysmographic signals is performed empirically for each type of commercial pulse-oxi...