# Streak camera

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Instrument for measuring variation in light pulse intensity over time

Working principle of a streak camera

A **streak camera** is an instrument for measuring the variation in a pulse of [light](/source/Light)'s [intensity](/source/Intensity_(physics)) with time. They are used to measure the pulse duration of some [ultrafast laser](/source/Ultrafast_laser) systems and for applications such as [time-resolved spectroscopy](/source/Time-resolved_spectroscopy) and [LIDAR](/source/LIDAR).

## Mechanical types

Mechanical streak cameras use a rotating [mirror](/source/Mirror) or moving slit system to deflect the light beam. They are limited in their maximum scan speed and thus temporal resolution.[1]

## Optoelectronic type

[Optoelectronic](/source/Optoelectronics) streak cameras work by directing the light onto a [photocathode](/source/Photocathode), which when hit by photons produces [electrons](/source/Electron) via the [photoelectric effect](/source/Photoelectric_effect). The electrons are accelerated in a [cathode-ray tube](/source/Cathode-ray_tube) and pass through an [electric field](/source/Electric_field) produced by a pair of plates, which deflects the electrons sideways. By modulating the [electric potential](/source/Electric_potential) between the plates, the electric field is quickly changed to give a time-varying deflection of the electrons, sweeping the electrons across a [phosphor](/source/Phosphor) screen at the end of the tube.[2] A linear detector, such as a [charge-coupled device](/source/Charge-coupled_device) (CCD) array is used to measure the streak pattern on the screen, and thus the temporal profile of the light pulse.[3]

The time-resolution of the best optoelectronic streak cameras is around 180 [femtoseconds](/source/Femtosecond).[4] Measurement of pulses shorter than this duration requires other techniques such as [optical autocorrelation](/source/Optical_autocorrelation) and [frequency-resolved optical gating](/source/Frequency-resolved_optical_gating) (FROG).[5]

In December 2011, a team at [MIT](/source/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology) released images combining the use of a streak camera with repeated laser pulses to simulate a [movie](/source/Film) with a [frame rate](/source/Frame_rate) of one [trillion](/source/Orders_of_magnitude_(numbers)#1012) frames per second.[6] This was surpassed in 2020 by a team from [Caltech](/source/Caltech) that achieved frame rates of 70 trillion fps.[7]

## See also

- [Photo finish](/source/Photo_finish), which uses a much slower but 2-dimensional version of a camera mapping time into a spatial dimension

- [Femto-photography](/source/Femto-photography)

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Horn, Alexander (2009). [*Ultra-fast Material Metrology*](https://books.google.com/books?id=IdCg2dDZQr8C&pg=PA7). John Wiley & Sons. p. 7. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9783527627936](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9783527627936).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Mourou, Gerard A.; Bloom, David M.; Lee, Chi-H. (2013). [*Picosecond Electronics and Optoelectronics: Proceedings of the Topical Meeting Lake Tahoe, Nevada, March 13–15, 1985*](https://books.google.com/books?id=Vl7rCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA58). Springer Science & Business Media. p. 58. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9783642707803](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9783642707803).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["Guide to streak cameras"](http://www.hamamatsu.com/resources/pdf/sys/SHSS0006E_STREAK.pdf) (PDF). Retrieved 2015-07-07.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Akira Takahashi et al.: "New femtosecond streak camera with temporal resolution of 180 fs" Proc. SPIE 2116, Generation, Amplification, and Measurement of Ultrashort Laser Pulses, 275 (May 16, 1994); [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1117/12.175863](https://doi.org/10.1117%2F12.175863)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Chang, Zenghu (2016). [*Fundamentals of Attosecond Optics*](https://books.google.com/books?id=J5HLBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA84). CRC Press. p. 84. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9781420089387](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9781420089387).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** ["MIT's trillion frames per second light-tracking camera"](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16163931). BBC News. 2011-12-13. Retrieved 2011-12-14.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** Wang, Peng; Liang, Jinyang; Wang, Lihong V. (29 April 2020). ["Single-shot ultrafast imaging attaining 70 trillion frames per second"](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7190645). *Nature Communications*. **11** (1): 2091. [Bibcode](/source/Bibcode_(identifier)):[2020NatCo..11.2091W](https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020NatCo..11.2091W). [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1038/s41467-020-15745-4](https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fs41467-020-15745-4). [PMC](/source/PMC_(identifier)) [7190645](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7190645). [PMID](/source/PMID_(identifier)) [32350256](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32350256).

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