Optical pulse timing detection apparatus, optical pulse timing detection method, optical pulse timing adjustment apparatus, and optical pulse timing adjustment method

Abstract

Incident signal beam pulses are transmitted by an on-state region, and an optical path for the signal beam pulses is spatially switched in an optical switch. Signal beam pulses transmitted by the on-state region of the optical switch are detected at a pixel corresponding to a transmitting region of a photo-detector equipped with a plurality of pixels. A timing computation unit acquires position information of a pixel at which a predetermined signal beam pulse has been detected, on the basis of a result of the detection conducted by the photo-detector, and computes timing of arrival of a predetermined signal beam pulse at the optical switch on the basis of the position information of the pixel and time when a region corresponding to the pixel is brought to an on-state.