Readout Area

The area on the streak tube phosphor screen captured by the readout camera is called readout area. Its dimension along the sweep direction is typically limited by the range of the constant sweep speed. Its dimension along the slit length depends on the electro-optical magnification of the streak tube and the length of the slit image on the photocathode.

Readout Camera

The image on the phosphor screen of the streak tube is captured by a sensitive camera and transferred to a computer for further processing. A streak camera readout camera should provide high sensitivity and low noise but also high coupling efficiency to the phosphor screen.

Readout Noise

High sensitive CCD and CMOS cameras are provided with a readout noise specification. The readout noise defines the temporal fluctuations of the output signal generated by the camera electronics. In order to relate this noise to CCD characteristics, it is defined in electrons. The readout noise should not be confused with the noise behaviour of the detector.