A simple jitter-free picosecond streak camera
Abstract
Using a DC-biased room-temperature photoconductive switching element, a picosecond resolution optical streak camera is operated at sweep rates up to 7 ps/mm. Single-shot jitter is 2 ps with complete absence of short and long-term drift characteristic of all other sweep drivers. This high accuracy allows the streak camera to be used in a single-shot averaging mode which leads to a sub-picosecond absolute timing accuracy. When operated in this manner, the streak camera becomes a highly reliable and accurate device for measuring transient events on a time scale of single picoseconds. The simplicity of this method makes it highly attractive for many applications in laser fusion and picosecond chemistry and photophysics studies where reliable no-drift operation is highly desirable.
- Publication:
-
Optics Communications
- Pub Date:
- May 1981
- DOI:
- 10.1016/0030-4018(81)90418-1
- Bibcode:
- 1981OptCo..37..203K
- Keywords:
-
- High Speed Cameras;
- Instrument Errors;
- Streak Cameras;
- Switching Circuits;
- Temporal Resolution;
- Absorption Spectroscopy;
- Beam Switching;
- Electron Beams;
- Laser Fusion;
- Photoconductors;
- Room Temperature;
- Transient Response;
- Instrumentation and Photography