How to Generate Picosecond Light Pulses With an LED and Detect With a Photodiode?

Hi. I want to make a system that "shoots" light from a led. The idea is that the electrical system has to control the led to start, in a controlled fashion, and finish in the range of the picoseconds. It has to produce a light pulse that lasts only some picoseconds. I'm not an electrical technician, nor an engenieer. The system must also include a diode to detect light. What would I need to build a system like this? I was thinking to build some prototype using a protoboard, but my knowledge of electronics is only rudimentary.

Pico second pulses are only generated in the lab in specialised circumstances using lasers,
cheers,
Richard

Hi, thanks for your reply. So it can't be done with led light? how short a pulse done with a led might be?

Cheers,
John.

It is possible to get then down to hundreds of picoseconds, and the turn on is generally faster than the turn off. The bigger problem is getting detectors to work with short pulses,
cheers,
Richard

Thanks Richard, and with laser you avoid that problem? or is the same issue? perhaps a few hundreds of picoseconds could be just fine. Could I detect this with a photodiode?

I would also have to count the photons with some sort of data acquisition system. What could I use for that?

Kind regards,
John.

Perhaps the simplest way of generating fast pulses is using avalanche breakdown in transistors, nano second pulses are easily achieved. In any case, you are talking about ultra high speed RF engineering, so proto board is of no use.
How do you verify that your circuit is working is the first thought that comes to mind.
Using solid state lasers is more complicated than using LEDs, they are more difficult to keep in a region of safe operation.
Re photons, it depends on how many photons you have and the environment you are operating in. If you are operating in daylight, then more often than not the detector will be saturated, so it won't see your signal, sometimes narrow band optical filtering may help.
Have a look at the Hammamatsu web site, they specialize in all sorts of photonic detectors.
I guess you need to explain what you are hoping achieve with your idea a bit more if you want more comment, at present it is all a bit too general.
Cheers,
Richard