Conclusion

When I took the responsivity data, the temperature controller was not working. This means that the temperature of the APD drifted by a few degrees during the course of the data collection. Since the resonsivity and dark current are very dependant on the temperature, this makes my data somewhat uncertain. However, I did manage to determine approximate values for responsivity and rise time. Hopefully the detector can be put to some use analyzing light from four-wave mixing.

Acknowledgements

Dr. Steve Rolston for suggesting the idea for the project.
Dr. Louis Orozco for the opportunity to take this course.
Tommy Willis and Elohim Becerra, the two graduate students in the lab who gave me help and advice when I needed it.

Matthew Adams
31 March 2009