Patent ID: 7245836

Claim:
An optical pulse timing detection apparatus comprising: an optical switch for forming an on-state region at only an irradiated portion thereof when irradiated with a control beam pulse, and transmitting or reflecting incident signal beam pulses at the on-state region so as to spatially switch an optical path for the signal beam pulses; a photo-detector equipped with a plurality of pixels to detect signal beam pulses transmitted or reflected at the on-state region of the optical switch, at a pixel corresponding to the region; and a timing computation unit for acquiring 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 computing timing of arrival of a predetermined signal beam pulse at the optical switch on the basis of the position information of the pixel and a time when a region corresponding to the pixel is brought into an on-state.