Characterization of a Commercial Gated Silicon Intensified Target Vidicon for Transient, Nonrepetitive Radiation Sources

Abstract

Response linearity and dynamic range of a gated silicon intensified target vidicon multichannel detector are evaluated for applications involving short pulse, nonrepetitive exposure. A high intensity pulsed hollow cathode lamp and an electrically vaporized thin film plasma generator were used as radiation sources. Qualitative aspects of the vidicon are discussed by analogy with photographic emulsions. The effects of intensifier stage voltage on image intensity and focus are considered. Charging curves are presented for various electron beam scan times and for multiple as well as single interrogation scans. The effect of erase scans prior to the exposure on the shape of the charging curves also is considered. These charging curves suggest that target surface saturation effects result in very inefficient target charging, and multiple interrogation scans are required for quantitative information retrieval. The use of target preparation scans reduces charging efficiency. Using the intensifer gate pulse width for exposure control, plots of target response vs exposure are shown to be linear over at least two decades of exposure but only with multiple interrogation scans using long scan times on a small region of the target surface.