High-speed shutter for mirror cameras

High-speed mirror cameras are mainly used for investigations of quick processes in a wide spectral range of radiation including ultraviolet and infrared regions (from 0.2 to 11 micrometer). High-speed shutters for these cameras must be non-selective and when opened must transmit the whole radiation without refraction, absorption and scattering. Electromechanical, electrodynamic and induction-dynamic shutters possess such properties because their optical channels contain no medium. Electromechanical shutters are devices where the displacement of the working blind which opens or closes an aperture is produced by a spring. Such shutters are relatively slow and are capable of closing an aperture of 50 mm in diameter in 10 - 15 ms. Electrodynamic and induction-dynamic shutters are devices where displacement of a blind is produced by the electromagnetic interaction between circuits with electric currents. In induction-dynamic shutter the secondary circuit is current-conducting blind itself in which a short-circuited loop forms. The latter is more quick because of the lower mass of its moveable secondary circuit. For this reason induction-dynamic shutters with a flat primary circuit coil and a tightly fitted to it load- bearing aluminum plate have been investigated. The blind which opens or closes an aperture was attached to this plate. The dependencies of cut-off time on the form, size and the number of turns of the primary circuit coil, on size, type of material, thickness and weight of the load-bearing plate and the blind, as well as on capacitance in the discharge circuit and the capacitor voltage have been investigated. The influence of the environmental atmosphere on the cut-off time was also studied. For this purpose the shutter was placed into the chamber where vacuum up to 10 - atm could be produced. As a result the values of the above mentioned parameters have been optimized and the designs of the shutters which are shown have been developed.