Patent ID: 8183514

Claim:
A signal waveform measuring apparatus comprising: a signal optical system guiding pulsed signal light that is to be subject to measurement of a time waveform; a reference optical system guiding reference light used in measuring the time waveform of the signal light; a time difference setting unit disposed at least in one of either the signal optical system or the reference optical system and setting a time difference between the signal light and the reference light; a wavelength conversion element including an aggregate of crystals of a dye molecule and generating converted light, which has been wavelength-converted to a shorter wavelength than incident light made incident on the dye molecule crystal aggregate, at an intensity proportional to an r-th power (r>1) of the intensity of the incident light; a photodetecting unit detecting the converted light, which is generated at the wavelength conversion element by the incidence of the signal light from the signal optical system and the reference light from the reference optical system and at the intensity that is in accordance with the intensity of the signal light, the intensity of the reference light, and the time difference between the two; and a signal waveform analyzing unit performing analysis of the converted light detection result at the photodetecting unit and thereby acquiring the time waveform of the signal light.