<title>Photodetectors for fiber optic communication systems</title>

Abstract

This paper presents an brief overview of some of the common high-speed and high-sensitivity photodetectors. These devices are the key components in long-haul, high bit-rate fiber optic communication systems. In this paper, while we describe several types of photodetectors, we concentrate on avalanche photodiodes since they are the current preferred candidates for high bit-rate long-haul fiber optic communication systems. We describe and compare some analytical and stochastic modeling results with experimental data and conclude with a discussion of some state-of-the-art results on photodetectors.