A New High Spatial Resolution Electronic Streak Tube

A high-resolution, electrostatically-focused streak tube is being developed as a major component for a streak camera system. The design goals for the tube include a time resolution of 100 ps and 500 line pairs of spatial resolution across the 1-in. photocathode. This would provide about twice the total number of resolution elements presently available in existing tubes. Sophisticated computer programs were used in the design of the tube to trace electron trajectories in the two-dimensional, azimuthally-symmetric electric fields. Both tangential and sagital trajectories were considered, so that the tangential and sagital focal surfaces can be designed to be in proximity to each other, thus affording better spatial resolution.