Hi,

I am looking into what is the most practical method to add optical
capabilities to my 8510C. I need to be able to measure communication
laser diodes and photodiodes over the wavelength range of 850nm to
1550nm (from 1Gbps to 10Gbps). I don't have the budget to purchase
an off the shelf lightwave component analyzer (especially since I
probably need more than one to cover this range), so I am looking
into adding calibrated laser sources and detectors to my existing
VNA. From what I gather the biggest challenge is to calibrate the
detector, and then that can be used to calibrate the source.

I see many papers regarding calibrating photodetectors, but this
seems to be fairly involved. Is this the only practical option, or
does anyone sell reasonably priced calibrated photodetectors? So
far, I have only seen a single wavelength model by Anritsu.

For the light source, is there anything good that is commercially
available, or am I best off building something myself. For home
built, is it better to directly modulate or use and external
modulator?

Any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks,
Cory