100-fs time-resolved streak tube design based on anisotropy and post-acceleration technology
Authors: Tian Li-Ping , Shen Ling-Bin , Chen Ping , Liu Yu-Zhu , Chen Lin , Hui Dan-Dan , Chen Xi-Ru , Zhao Wei , Xue Yan-Hua , Tian Jin-Shou ,   School of Network and Communication Engineering, Jinling Institute of Technology, Nanjing 211169, China,   Key Laboratory of Ultra-fast Photoelectric Diagnostics Technology, Xi’an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Xi’an 710119, China,   School of Atmospheric Science, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Published: December 2023

Reducing the space charge effect and the time dispersion caused by the edge field effect of the scanning deflection system is the key to realizing a 100-fs streak tube. In this paper, a novel fs streak tube is proposed and designed. The factors affecting its temporal resolution are analyzed theoretically and the specifications are given. Parameters including the electric field distribution and electron transmittance of the two common acceleration systems (planar cathode-mesh accelerating electrode and planar cathode-slit accelerating electrode) are compared with each other and analyzed theoretically. The results show that although the electric field distribution formed by the planar cathode (mesh accelerating electrode) can form uniform electric field, the electron transmittance is very low; planar cathode-slit accelerating structure will defocus the photoelectron beam along the scanning direction, but the electron transmittance in the effective detection range of the cathode is as high as 100%. The defocusing of the photoelectron beam can be removed by setting a narrow slit in front of the anode. The focusing electrode adopts two sets of plate-like structures which are vertically positioned in front and back to form a one-dimensional focusing electric fields along the scanning direction and the slit direction, respectively. The spatial focusing electrode is arranged close to the phosphor screen, which is beneficial to pushing back the cross-point of the electron beam along the spatial direction. Thus, the electron transit time dispersion in the condition of large electron density will decrease. At the same time, the anode can provide a post-accelerating voltage of +5000 V, which is beneficial to shortening the transit time and dispersion of the photoelectrons, thereby improving the temporal resolution. Based on the above theoretical analysis, a novel femtosecond streak tube is designed by using the planar cathode-slit accelerating electrode, anisotropic focusing system and post-accelerating method. The influence of the anode slit width on the spatial and temporal resolution is simulated. The results show that the temporal resolution deteriorates with the increase of the anode slot width (10－50 μm), due to the fact that the increase of the anode slit width will lead to the gradual increase of the size of the electron spot along the scanning direction, which will lead to the increase of the technical time dispersion. In addition, this study gives the simulation results of the femtosecond streak tube when the anode slit width is in a range of 10－50 μm. The results show that the static spatial resolution is higher than 100 lp/mm at MTF = 10%, dynamic spatial resolution is higher than 29 lp/mm at MTF = 10%, the temporal resolution is better than 122 fs in the range of 4-mm cathode effective detection length. When the effective detection length of the cathode is increased to 8 mm, the dynamic spatial resolution of the streak tube is higher than 22 lp/mm at MTF = 10%, and the temporal resolution is better than 191 fs.