Electronic streak camera

Abstract

An electronic streak camera is described which includes a housing enclosing an objective lens disposed along an optical axis for forming an image of optical radiation from an emissive body, a pinhole field stop at the focal point of the objective lens, a collimating lens for collimating radiation passing the pinhole field stop, a prism for splitting the radiation from the collimating lens into a characteristic optical spectrum of the radiation, an imaging lens for forming an image of the radiation from the prism.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention relates generally to electronic streak camera structures, and more particularly to an electronic streak camera structure having no moving parts for accurate imaging of high speed transient events.Conventional streak camera systems for measuring temperature of energetic environments have been substantially dominated by system noise, the primary effect of which is that energy gathered for in each measured wavelength is somewhat higher or lower than true readings. In a conventional streak camera, a mirror is rotated in the pupil of the optical system to separate time events onto a fixed focal plane. A prism or diffraction grating is typically used to disperse the optical energy onto a detector. Mechanical jitter of the rotating mirror inherently introduces error into the measurements. Additionally, conventional streak cameras are light-inefficient and are typically ten stops lower than a standard electronic camera, reducing the amount of...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Conventional streak camera systems for measuring temperature of energetic environments have been substantially dominated by system noise, the primary effect of which is that energy gathered for in each measured wavelength is somewhat higher or lower than true readings.

Mechanical jitter of the rotating mirror inherently introduces error into the measurements.

Additionally, conventional streak cameras are light-inefficient and are typically ten stops lower than a standard electronic camera, reducing the amount of light collected by a factor of 100 or more.

To amplify the light, photomultiplier tubes or multi-channel plates are used, which introduce substantial additional noise.

Only general radiative characteristics can be obtained with these systems because of the limited signal-to-noise performance.

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