Streak
tubes and
streak cameras
Method of
optoelectronic registration of high speed processes is based on usage
of pulsed
streak tubes as time analyzing units of high speed systems and
facilities. This
method permits to obtain space-time characteristics of physical
phenomenons and
has a wide application in thermonuclear synthesis, quantum electronics,
non-linear optics, aerodynamics, ballistics, biology, medicine
researches and
other fields of science and technology.
Two
methods of image registration by using streak tubes are the most widely
adopted. They are photochronographic and frame imaging methods. In case
of
photochronographic mode an image of an object is projected on a
photocathode as
a narrow slit which is swept at a screen. Meanwhile a spatial
coordination is transferred into the temporal one.
Under the
frame imaging mode two-dimension
image-frame- is projected at a photocathode. A streak tube is blanked
in the
initial state. In time of unblanking the image is transferred to the
screen and
register one of the stages of a process. Step-by-step blanking and
unblanking
of a tube in combination with displacement of the frames along the
screen
permit to realize multiframe imaging.
Fig. 1
Structure and principal of operation of a streak tube in a linear
sweeping mode
(a) and (for example) brightness profile of a swept at the screen image
during
Δt time period (b), B(t)-brightness
of the image as function of time, Δt-duration
of sweep.
Fig.
2. Structure and principle of operation of a
streak tube operated in a frame mode(2х2 frames) (а) and (for example)
brightnesses B1,
B2,
B3
и
B4
of consecutive frames at the moments of time t1, t2, t3
и
t4 (b).
Streak tubes operate in the
temporal range from several seconds to
femtoseconds.
Different types of
photocathodes used in streak tubes permit to register
processes occurred in NIR (up to 1.6 μm), visible and UV regions of the
spectrum as well as in the range of vacuum UV, soft sand hard (up to
1MeV)
X-ray radiation.
More detailed information about
parameters of our streak tubes and
streak cameras you can find in their description on our web-site, by
looking
through our publications about application of our devices, mailing us or calling.
