Pulsduren

Pulsduren is a term used in signal processing and related disciplines to denote the duration of an electronic or optical pulse. Derived from Dutch, where pul s is pulse and duur means duration, the term has been adopted in European technical literature to describe a family of measures that quantify how long a pulse persists in time. In practice, pulsduren encompasses several conventional definitions; the most common is the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the pulse envelope, but other conventions define duration as the interval between chosen amplitude thresholds (for example, 10% to 90%). The choice of definition depends on the application and on the pulse shape.

Measurement methods: Pulsduren are measured using high-speed instrumentation such as oscilloscopes with sufficient bandwidth, fast photodetectors, or sampling analyzers. Accurate measurement requires adequate temporal resolution, proper calibration, and awareness of distortions from system bandwidth, dispersion, and detector response.

Applications and context: The concept is used in ultrafast optics to characterize laser pulses, in communications to describe modulation pulses, and in biomedical fields where stimulus or signal pulse duration matters. Some studies distinguish instantaneous pulse duration from energy-weighted duration or effective duration, depending on what aspect of the pulse is most relevant to the analysis.

Variations and standardization: Researchers sometimes introduce variant definitions to suit specific domains, and standardization bodies have discussed consistent terminology to facilitate cross-disciplinary comparison.

History: The term appears in late 20th-century European optics and electronics literature as pulse measurements increasingly demanded precise temporal characterization.

See also: pulse width, pulse duration, FWHM, rise time, fall time.