Evaluation of a Photon-counting Streak Camera with CCD Recording

Abstract Streak cameras with CCD recording have definite advantages over those with film recording. The CCD system is directly amenable to computer analysis of the streak camera results and offers better quantitative data reduction than does film. The poor calibration of streak cameras has so far excluded them from many quantitative absorption spectroscopic studies and limited their use to relative measurements, even though they are capable of quantitative measurements. The calibration results from a Dellistrique DS-3 streak camera and a liquid- nitrogen-cooled CCD camera combination were presented. The system detected photoelectrons from the streak tube, which was fibre-optically coupled to one- or two-channel plate intensifiers. The characteristics of the CCD camera, the channel plate intensifier and CCD camera combination, and the streak camera plus CCD camera combination were separately evaluated. The system was then compared with Ilford HP5 film for recording of the data. The system dynamic range was limited by the noisy channel plate intensifier to around 500, while the CCD camera and the streak tube were capable of operating with a dynamic range of 10 000 and 1000 respectively, when used in the streak mode. The system was calibrated to work as a single-channel photometer with better than 10 picosecond accuracy and with single-photoelectron counting ability. The usefulness of such a system for picosecond absorption and emission spectroscopy was discussed.