Electronic-Recording, Time-Resolving Spectrometer*

A photoelectric means for recording an extended spectral region as a function of time has been developed. With this method, the recording procedure imposes no limitations on the time resolution other than that defined by the minimum detectable energy. The optical portion of the device, which includes the time-resolving mechanism, is very similar to a conventional photographic time-resolving spectrograph. However, the photographic plate has been replaced by a television camera which is used in much the same way. In fact, direct analogies can be drawn between the photographic plate and the storage surface of the television camera tube and also between the photographic developer and the scanning electron beam in the camera tube. The method is capable of sensitivities of the order of 103 times those available with Tri-X film in the visible. In addition, the usual cumbersome photographic calibration procedures are avoided since intensities are recorded as vertical deflections, yielding records similar in appearance to those obtained from strip chart recorders.