Ultra-High Speed Photography of Picosecond Light Pulses

The electronically switched Kerr cell has for many years been used as a shutter in ultra-high-speed photographic systems and is capable of framing times as fast as 1 ns. A new type of optically driven Kerr cell is more than 100 times faster; it has been used to photograph laser pulses in flight. Pulses of 0.53-μm (green) light 6 ps in duration, which were derived by second harmonic generation from a mode-locked Nd: glass laser, were passed through a cell containing a colloidal dispersion. The dispersion, which is an efficient scatterer, thus rendered the light pulses visible. They were then photographed from the side by a camera positioned behind a shutter of 10-ps framing time. The shutter is similar in configuration to the conventional Kerr cell, but differs in that no electrodes are used and the medium is CS2 rather than nitrobenzene. Peak transmission of the shutter is dependent upon the power density of the 1.06-μm pulses, and in this case is typically 5–10%.

Print ISSN

0361-4573

Published

1971-02

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/J13520