Photoelectronic Streak-Tube Technology Review

It was Courtney-Pratt's use of a deflectable image converter in l949, for measuring the high-speed optical characteristics of explosives, which first allowed the sub-microsecond time domain to be penetrated. Since that time,important applications have arisen for high speed chronography detectors and instruments in fields such as biology, chemistry, communications, materials sciences, nuclear physics and quantum electronics. At the present time, advances in the understanding of basic high-speed physical processes in these and other fields are proceeding hand-in-hand with advances in the technology of high-speed photography. In addition, high-speed detector improvements allow new tasks to be performed or greater accuracy to be obtained.