A NEW OPTICAL OSCILLOSCOPE

A new optical oscilloscope has been developed on the basis of the imag e-converter tube camera technology. Optical or electrical pulses in si ngle or repetitive mode can be tested. When single pulse without time dependence on the sweep circuit is tested, an optical-fiber delay unit is adopted to ensure the pulse is captured. The optical oscilloscope works at a fixed frequency while repetitive pulses of any frequency le ss than 20 GHz were tested. A newly designed photocathode optical osci lloscope tube, control circuits, and a linear charge-coupled device re adout system have been incorporated into the optical oscilloscope. Exp erimental results show that the temporal resolution of the optical osc illoscope is better than 5 ps, the spectral response range is 380-850 nm, and the single pulse can be captured with the probability of 100%. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(98)02902-5].