
Photonics measurement and testing
Photonics measurement and testing covers a large variety of infra ranging from fundamental research to characterization of device level photonic components. Resesearch categories connected to the infra are:
- Characterization of photonic and optoelectronic components
- Fundamental research on nonlinear light phenomena
- Experimental quantum optics
- Nonlinear microscopy
- Nonlinear fiber optics
- Development of Supercontinuum light sources
- Spectroscopic applications
- Litography
- Fiber laser research
- Metamaterials
Characterization of photonic and optoelectronic components
- OAI Trisol dual purpose solar simulator: Equipped with a 7 kW xenon lamp, two measurement stages, a Keithley Source meter, an Arroyo temperature controllers and a IV-rider software. The system uses filters to control the spectral conditions. AM0, AM1.5D, AM1.5G spectra are available. The system can be used for measuring single 15.6 cm x 15.6 cm solar cells at one sun illumination and a few mm sized solar cells at continuous ~1000 suns illumination with concentrated light.
- Oriel solar simulator: Equipped with a 1000 W Xenon lamp to produce wide light spectrum for solar cell measurements, source meters and and in-house build control software. The system uses filters to simulate different solar conditions such as AM0 or AM1.5. I dedicated for light-current-voltage measurements. It also has a limited capability for concentrated sunlight measurements (a few suns). The system is enhanced by additional lamps to provide three separate spectral bands for characterization of multi-junction solar cells.
- External quantum efficiency measurement system: A system based on an Oriel 250 W QTH lamp, DK240 monochromator, SRS830 lock-in amplifier and NIST-calibrated reference detectors for measuring quantum efficiency of solar cells in the wavelength range from 350 nm to 1800 nm. The system is also equipped with various light sources and can accommodate laser light sources for optical biasing enabling characterization of individual sub-junctions of the multi-junction solar cells.
- Dark current measurement system
- Optical table setups for laser applications and external cavity laser characterization
- Nonlinear reflectance setup
- Photonic integration and integrated circuits
- High-speed and high-power optoelectronic devices
- Near-to-mid-IR components
Measurement setups
Testing novel materials (such as metasurfaces and/or resonant waveguide grating structures) for their nonlinear optical response. Angle- and polarization-dependent second-harmonic generation (SHG) and third-harmonic generation (THG), at pump wavelengths of 800–1300 nm. Measurements are performed with use of Chameleon OPO system.
3D point-scanning nonlinear microscope for imaging the second- and third harmonic generation from microscopic and nanoscopic samples, excitation is NIR femtosecond laser, detection is UV to visible with photomultiplier tubes, maximum scanning volume is 70 x 70 x 50 um^3.

The automated femtosecond Transient Absorption Spectrometer (TAS) is a unique system at the national and international level with its microscopy extension. The microscopy extension provides the measurement from a very focused region compared to other systems where a bulk or liquid sample is needed. This system provides a very high-quality measurement of the samples fabricated with nanofabrication techniques such as focused ion beam and electron beam lithography. This system produces spectral and kinetic data needed for investigations of photoexcitation events on the sub-picosecond and longer timescale. It features a broad probe visible spectral range and high sensitivity with low energy (nJ) excitation pulses.
Experimental setup characteristics:
Fully automated optical parametric amplifier designed to work with an amplified Ti:Sapphire laser. Optimized for Helios and Halcyone spectrometers.
Pump wavelength: ca 800 nm Output wavelengths: 1160-2600 nm
Fully automated OPA frequency mixer. Output wavelengths: 300-800 nm
NIR extension to HELIOS FIRE, automated broadband VIS pump-probe transient absorption spectrometer. The extension allows for probing the photoinduced transients in the 800-1600 nm range. The extension is fully integrated into the HELIOS FIRE spectrometer.
Features:
· Continuum generation unit (800-1600 nm) and all necessary optics and optomechanics. · NIR Detector: fiber optics coupled multichannel spectrometer with InGaAs sensor (13 nm resolution with 200 um slit). Sensitivity range: 800-1600 nm. Maximum spectral acquisition rate - 2400 spectra/s.
Single photons and photon pairs generated through different processes (nonlinear interactions, quantum dots, etc.) can be characterized in terms of brightness (detection rates), quality (pureness), and quantum features such as entanglement in polarization and spatiotemporal domain. Wavelength range of the detection system spans the spectrum from around 500 nm to 1600 nm (with highest efficiencies at 800 nm and at 1550 nm).
Light sources
- Tsunami Ti-Sapphire Modelocked laser (Spectra Physics), 80 MHz repetition rate, pico-second and femto-second operation modes, up to 3 W average power, wavelength range 700 - 920 nm
- APE Synchroneus OPO, used with Tsunami laser, ps and fs operation 1100-1600nm tuning range.
- Chameleon Vison II (Coherent), Ti-Sapphire modelocked laser, laser:680-1080 nm tuning range, up to 3 W average power, OPO: 1000-1350 nm tuning range, up to 700 mW average power.
- Chameleon Compact OPO (Coherent), optical parametric oscillator used with Chameleon Vision II laser, 1000-1350 nm tuning range, up to 700 mW average power.
- TOPAS C Optical Parametric Oscillator (Light conversion), pumped by Spirit One 8 laser (Spectra Physics). Repetition rate 500 kHz and subharmonics, 300 fs pulses energy up to 800 nJ, tuning range 1300-3800 nm.
- Astrella laser system (Coherent), High high pulse energy laser system (6 mJ), 1 kHz pulse repetition rate, 100 fs pulse duration, 800 nm center wavelength.
- GLX 200 (Time Bandwidth) Nd-glass modelocked laser, 200 fs pulses at ~1060 nm, 80 MHz repetition rate, 200 mW average power
- Origami 15-40 (NKT), Turn key pulsed laser operating at 1560nm, 174 fs, 41 MHz rep rate, 91mW
- FemtoLux 3 (Ekspla), ~300 fs pulses at 1030 nm, 4 W max power, tunable repetition rate and pulse duration
- Ekspla 340, 10Hz pulse laser system with TGH 355nm pump OPO, tuning range 410-720 nm, up to 30 mJ pulse energy
- Ultra 100 (Quantel), ns pulse laser offering output at 1064 nm, 532 nm and 355 nm, with respective pulse energies 100 mJ, 55 mJ and 30 mJ, at 20 Hz repetition rate
- Q-smart 100 (Quantel), ns pulse laser, sub-10 ns pulses at 20Hz rep rate, 60 mJ pulse energy at 532 nm
- IPG Tunable mid-IR laser (IPG Photonics), 2300-3000 nm range tunable mid-IR laser, 10 ns pulse duration, 1 kHz repetition rate, up to 3 mJ pulse energy
- Toptica CTL 1500, Continuously tunable CW laser, tuning range 1460-1570nm CW, sub 10 kHz bandwidth, up to 40mW, single mode output
- Verdi laser (Coherent), CW 532 nm usually used as a optical pump, 6W power
- LaseQuantum 1064 nm laser, 0.5W power
- Range of Keopsys-Lumibird puled lasers operating at 1032 nm and 1545 nm central bandwidth, single nanosecond pulse duration, triggered electronically with tunable repetition rate (tens of kHz to 1 MHz). Single mode fiber output.
- Continuous wave and superluminescent butterfly mount diodes operating at various wavelengths
Pulse characterization
- FROG (Femto Easy), FROG pulse characterization system, pulse duration 50 fs - 40 ps; wavelength range: config1: 800-1200nm, config2: 1500-2000nm
- Femtochrome FR-103PD, FR-103XL, FR-103MN, FR-103WS, FR-103HP, autocorrelators for femtosecond and picosecond pulses.
- Thorlabs Autocorrelator for femtosecond lasers, 50fs-10ps, 650-1100 nm.
Spectral measurements
- Agilent 86140B, 600 - 1700 nm spectral range, 0.06 - 10 nm resolution selection
- Ando AQ-6315A (x2), AQ-6315B and AQ-6317B, Vis-IR 350-1750 nm spectral range, 0.05 - 10 nm resolution
- Anritsu MS9710C and MS9740A, 600-1750 nm spectral range, 0.05nm resolution
- Yokogawa AQ6375, 1200 - 2500 nm spectral range, 1nm resolution
- Yokogawa AQ6376, 1500 - 3400 nm spectral range, 1nm resolution
- Yokogawa AQ6377, 1900 - 5500 nm spectral range, 1nm resolution
- Horiba iHR550 (Horiba), Imaging spectrometer with 150, 300 and 600 grooves/mm gratings (4000 nm, 2000 nm and 2000 nm blaze respectively), 0.05 nm max resolution
- DK480 (Spectral Products), Imaging monochromator
- Andor Kymera 328i with Andor iStar i334T (Andor/Oxford Instruments) camera
- BWTek Sol 1.7 TE Cooled InGaAs Array Spectrometer, fiber input, 1500-1600nm range, 0.35nm resolution
- AvaSpec-2048L (Avantes), UV-Vis-NIR Fiber-optic Spectrometer 200-1100 nm range, 1 nm resolution
Detectors and data acquisition
- RXM42AF 45 kHz-42 GHz amplified photodetector (Thorlabs), 800-1650 nm sensitivity range, fiber input
- Single Quantum Eos CS SNSPD system, Array of high efficiency, liquid Helium cooled, fiber-coupled superconducting nanowire single photon detectors, peak efficiency at 1550 nm, 10% efficiency at 780-2000 nm band, sub-40-ps timing jitter, 20 ns dead time
- 33 GHz real time oscilloscope Tektronix DPO73304DX, Real time oscilloscope, 33 GHz bandwidth (2 channels), 20 GHz (all 4 channels in use),100GS/s readout speed, 250 M-samples per channel memory,
- 20 GHz real time oscilloscope Tektronix DSA72004, 20GHz bandwidth, 4 channels, 50 GS/s, 80 MS shared between channels memory
- Field programable Data Array (FPGA) National Instruments, PXIe-5774 FlexRIO Digitizer x2, 12-bits, 6.4 GS/s, NI PKI-5402 14-Bit 20MHz FGEN
- 2 GHz real time oscilloscope LeCroy WaveRunner 204i, 2 GHz bandwidth, 10GS/s (2 channels), 5GS/s(4 channels)
- 1 GHz real time oscilloscope Keysight InfiniiVision, 1 GHz bandwidth, 5 GS/s, two channels
- PerkinElmer 7225 DSP lock-in amplifier, sensitivity down to 2 nV, operating frequency range from 0.001 Hz to 120 kHz, the device has a switchable FET, bipolar voltage mode inputs and a built-in current preamplifier for optimum coupling to the signal source
- Andor Zyla 5.5, 5.5 Mpix sCMOS camera, 100fps (camera link),low noise, 6.5um pixel, 22mm diagonal, 12 and 16 bit modes, 0.9 e readout noise
- Owl640 COTS II (Raptor Photonics), In-Ga-As camera, 640x512 pixels, 15 um pixel size, 400-1700 nm sensitivity range
- Pyrocam III HR (Ophir), Beam profiling camera, Pyroelectric Array 160x160 pixels, pixel pitch 80 um, spectral range 1060- 3000 nm and 3000-5000 nm
Light control and modulation
- Spatial phase modulator Holoeye PLUTO-2.1-TELCO-059, Phase Only Spatial Light Modulator (1500- 1600 nm, 93% Fill Factor)
- 30GHz signal generator Rohde&Schwartz SMR30, Frequency range: 10MHz-30GHz
- 12 GHz pulse pattern generator D3185 (Advantest)
- 1 GS/s arbitrary waveform generator, AT-AWG 1104
- Waveshaper 4000s (Finisar), Multiport optical Processor is a 1x4/4x1 programmable optical filter with full control of filter amplitude and phase characteristics. 1527.4 nm to 1567.5 nm spectral range, 10GHz resolution, 35dB max attenuation
Software, databases and source codes
- HITRAN database, high-resolution transmission molecular absorption database. HITRAN is a compilation of spectroscopic parameters that a variety of computer codes use to predict and simulate the transmission and emission of light in the atmosphere
Fiber handling
- Ericsson fibre splicer, FSU 995 FA
- Fitel S183v2 fusion splicer (Furukawa Electric Co. LTD)
- Vytran glass processing system GPX-3000, fibre splicer
- Vytran fibre cleaver LDC-200

Research groups
Photonics measurement and testing infrastructure is essential part for whole Photonics research field.

Research collaboration
Our activities and infrastructure connect tightly to the PREIN Flagship Programme and we are part of the Finnlight infrastructure.
