The PSD General Response Function

The general response of a 1-D position-sensitive detector (PSD) is derived by solving the Lucovsky equation in a fully general way. A general light source is divided into many sections in space domain and pulse elements in time domain. Each section is regarded as a plane-wave element and each pulse as a square-wave pulse. By virtue of the linear superposition of the Green function, the general response is regarded as the summation of respective responses to those elements. The response indicates that a PSD is a decaying photocurrent accumulator, both in space and time domains. Results discussed in this paper are quite in agreement with the facts and the conclusions from the previous papers. In addition, analysis on the alternating current (ac) response characteristics by virtue of the general response shows that there is a hysteretic oscillation in accord with the light intensity variation and that the response is insensitive to high-frequency ac light signals.