Tenfold sensitivity increase in streak camera detection by propagation synchronous integration without compromising time resolution

Abstract

For many applications that involve measuring ultrafast optical phenomena, the streak camera is the device of choice because of its excellent time resolution, its high sensitivity, the possibility to simultaneously measure lifetimes and spectra, and because it can capture the temporal dynamics in a single shot. Nevertheless, to obtain a good time resolution, often narrow slits have to be employed that restrict the image source area and, therefore, limit the light collection efficiency in the experiment. For some applications, it is therefore challenging to find an acceptable balance between the time resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. To overcome this limitation, we have devised the propagation synchronous integration principle for the streak camera, in which an effective spatio-dependent time-shift in the excitation of a sample is introduced and counteracted by the streak sweep, thereby effectively allowing for an increased image source area while maintaining the optimal time resolution. Using the Optronis streak camera with tunable streak sweep and large (1 mm) photocathode width, we could achieve a sevenfold increase in light collection efficiency without affecting the time resolution. Furthermore, we were also able to achieve an 11-fold increase in light collection at the cost of a 26% decrease in the time resolution.