Picosecond Optical Shutter for Particle Detection.

摘要

Characteristics of an optical shutter utilizing Kerr effect induced by picosecond laser pulses in carbon disulfide are studied experimentally. The shutter has a gate time of 4.5to 5ps full width at half-maximum and a transmission of approximately 15percent at a wavelength 0.53mu m. Such an ultrafast shutter can be used as an optical signal gate in a sampling detection scheme that has picosecond time-resolution. The picosecond optical detection scheme is envisioned to have applications in experimental high-energy physics such as to time-resolve ultrashort Cherenkov or synchrotron radiation emitted by relativistic particles. Methods of synchronizing a laser-activated Kerr shutter with a particle accelerator or synchrotron are discussed.