High Resolution Nanosecond Gated Image Intensifier Diode

W. Pfeiffer; D. Wittmer

doi:10.1117/12.967740

1 March 1983 High Resolution Nanosecond Gated Image Intensifier Diode

W. Pfeiffer, D. Wittmer

Proceedings Volume 0348, 15th Intl Congress on High Speed Photography and Photonics; (1983) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.967740
Event: 15th International Congress on High Speed Photography and Photonics, 1982, San Diego, United States

Abstract

The temporally and spatially resolved investigation of ultraviolet, visible and infrared radiation is possible by use of image intensifiers. Today many of these are of the proximity focus type. The PROXIFIER is such a diode with a very high electric field and it shall be considered in this contribution. The very high electric field strength results in an output image with negligible distortion and very high resolution. If necessary, the gain can be increased by cascading several diodes. With a three stage cascade the same gain can be achieved as with an image intensifier tube using a microchannel-plate. The gain uniformity and especially the resolution of such an image intensifier cascade, however, are much better. For the analysis of transient radiating phenomena the PROXIFIER can be gated with very high speed. This gating is achieved by switching the operating voltage of about 9 kV. The limiting aperture time presently is about 2 ns. Even for shutter times below 10 ns the limiting resolution is better than 20 linepairs per millimeter. The performance is greatly de-pendent upon the efficiency of the high-voltage pulse generator and the image intensifier housing. The generator can be triggered with low time lag and negligible jitter. This is achieved by use of a 30-stage transistor cascade. In order to get pulses of very short duration, a pulse forming network is used. In this case the pulse half width can be below 5 nanoseconds. Due to the non-linear gain characteristics of the diode, which is strongly dependent upon the operating voltage, the effective shutter time is still smaller than the pulse half width. The shortest shutter times which are possible today are about 2 nano-seconds. Presently the gated image intensifier is used for the measurement of breakdown development in compressed gases and short time spectroscopy.

Citation Download Citation

W. Pfeiffer and D. Wittmer "High Resolution Nanosecond Gated Image Intensifier Diode", Proc. SPIE 0348, 15th Intl Congress on High Speed Photography and Photonics, (1 March 1983); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.967740

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