Streak Cameras - Where do we go from here?

Streak Cameras – Where do we go from here

 

by Dr. Paul Jaanimagi, PJ Research Co.

 

            A streak camera is a measuring tool that provides intensity information along one spatial dimension versus time.  I will discuss the state of the art – the Rochester Optical Streak System (ROSS) - a comprehensive streak camera based diagnostic system with auto-focus and self calibration capabilities.  Even as oscilloscope and diode bandwidth moves into the multi-GHz region, picosecond and sub-picosecond time resolution remains the domain of streak cameras.

Dr. Paul Jaanimagi was born in

Toronto, Ontario .  He earned a B.Sc. in Physics from McMaster, followed by an M.Sc. and PhD from the Universityof Waterloo , also in Physics.  In 1983 he joined with Dr. Burton Henke at the Universityof Hawaii to build an absolutely calibrated, time-resolved, x-ray spectrometer as part of a National Laser User Facility project for the Laboratory for Laser Energetics.  Following the successful deployment of this diagnostic he was offered a position as scientist at LLE where he worked until retiring in 2013.  His career focused on ultra high-speed diagnostics for laser fusion, from the visible to the x-ray region of the spectrum.

In 1994 Dr. Jaanimagi won the Photosonics Award for his work on a neutron streak camera.  In 2003, he and Bob Boni, (Sr. Engineer at LLE) were awarded a patent for the “Photometric calibration of streak cameras”.  The technology transfer and licensing of this patent led to the formation of Sydor Instruments Inc., the builder of the world’s best streak cameras