Characterization of the streak camera for use as a plasma spectroscopy diagnostic in the magnetically insulated line oscillator

The MILO (Magnetically Insulated Line Oscillator) is a cross-field co-axial device capable of generating high power microwaves. A MILO designed to operate at 1.1 GHz at 500 kV, with an operating current of 45 kA and a design pulse length of 100-300ns was built by the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of New Mexico, to study plasma beam interactions. High voltage and the low impedance of the device produce a high current that self-insulates and propagates between the coaxial cylinders. The outer conductor includes a slow wave structure to couple the energy of the electrons to RF (radio frequency). Due to the impurities in the cathode and anode; high energy electrons ionize desorbed molecules around the cathode producing plasma. In order to detect and study the behavior of this plasma we need to characterize a streak camera that will be used to detect light from 200 nm to 850 nm. The characterization of the streak camera will be done using a laser comb generator which will then be divided into 5 separate laser beams, in order to characterize the total span of the camera´s tube. The temporal and spatial response of the streak camera will be given as well as the temporal and spatial resolution and optical aberrations will also be measured. This characterization will aid in the reduction of spectroscopic plasma data and in the analysis of those results. This poster presents the results of characterization of the streak camera in the time and frequency domains as well as the procedure by which this characterization was made.