Few questions about laser beam and its detection

Hi,

I have a few questions which i would like some help with, after trailing the Internet for a couple of days they have gone unanswered, and has lead me here.

First of all I have zero-little electronic knowledge, thats why im here.

If i have posted on the wrong section of this forum I apologize.

My questions:

1. Is there such a component that can detect a laser beam pointed at it from varied distances (say 0-500 feet atleast)

2. Can laser beams transmit a small amount of information i.e a "signature"

3. Where would be the best place to find these components if they exist.

I realise this may be touching into laser technology rather than electronics, but as of yet I cannot find a more relevant place to answer these questions.

Any and all help would be much appreciated.

James

Re: Need some help.

A simple component you could use to detect laser light, or any light for that matter, is a photoresistor. However what you use depends on a few things:

1. Is the device going to be located such that it will be illuminated by a significant amount of ambient light? ---> This will make it more difficult to detect a laser due to a "noisy" environment.
2. How complex is the signature you want to read? With enough filtering just about anything is possible, but some things are much harder than others.
3. What are you planning on doing with this signal after it is received.

It sounds like you want to pass a digital signal here, so a better choice than a photoresistor would be a photodiode or phototransistor. These two will give you better sensitivity to a laser wavelength and are better suited for digital electronics.

You can find all of these components at Digikey.com or Newark.com or alliedelec.com.

Need some help.

Check this circuit, it might help.
https://www.aaroncake.net/circuits/laserxmt.htm