Picosecond

A picosecond (abbreviated as ps) is a unit of time in the International System of Units (SI) equal to 10−12 or 1⁄1 000 000 000 000 (one trillionth) of a second. That is one trillionth, or one millionth of one millionth of a second, or 0.000 000 000 001 seconds.

A picosecond is to one second, as one second is to approximately 31,688.76 years.

Multiple technical approaches achieve imaging within single-digit picoseconds: for example, the streak camera or intensified CCD (ICCD) cameras are able to picture the motion of light.

One picosecond is equal to 1000 femtoseconds, or 1/1000 nanoseconds. Because the next SI unit is 1000 times larger, measurements of 10−11 and 10−10 second are typically expressed as tens or hundreds of picoseconds. Some notable measurements in this range include:

1.0 picoseconds (1.0 ps) – cycle time for electromagnetic frequency 1 terahertz (THz), an inverse unit. This corresponds to a wavelength of 0.3 mm, as can be calculated by multiplying 1 ps by the speed of light (approximately 3 × 108 m/s) to determine the distance traveled. 1 THz is in the far infrared.

1 picosecond – time taken by light in vacuum to travel approximately 0.30 mm

1 picosecond – half-life of a bottom quark

~1 picosecond – lifetime of a single H3O+ (hydronium) ion in water at 20 °C

picoseconds to nanoseconds – phenomena observable by dielectric spectroscopy

1.2 picoseconds – switching time of the world's fastest transistor (845 GHz, as of 2006)

1.7 picoseconds – rotational correlation time of water

3.3 picoseconds (approximately) – time taken for light to travel 1 millimeter

10 picoseconds after the Big Bang – electromagnetism separates from the other fundamental forces

34 picoseconds – signal rise time (20% to 80%) of a SFP+ transmitter for 10 Gigabit Ethernet.