Patent ID: 7522285

Claim:
A method for determining the frequency response of an electrooptical component within a predefined frequency band comprising the steps of: generating optical pulses at a first carrier frequency and a predefined pulse frequency; driving an electrooptical component with a predefined electrical measurement signal, said predefined electrical measurement signal having a measurement frequency at an integral multiple of said predefined pulse frequency and including an additional predefined frequency offset; generating an electrooptical component output signal modulated at said measurement frequency, having a predefined second optical carrier frequency; frequency mixing said optical pulses and said electrooptical component output signal to form a plurality of mixed products detecting at least one mixed product having a modulation frequency which corresponds to said predefined frequency offset; determining the frequency behavior of said electrooptical component at said measurement frequency based on the intensity of the detected mixed product; and repeating the step of determining the frequency behavior of said electrooptical component at all measurement frequencies corresponding to n(f p )+Δf which lie within said predefined frequency band, where n(f p ) is an integral multiple of said pulse frequency and Δf is said predefined frequency offset.