In May 2018 the Institut für Strahlwerkzeuge (IFSW) handed over a high-speed Imacon camera (model 790) to the Deutsches Museum in Munich to expand the museum's optics collection.
As early as the 1960s, this camera was able to take either streak shots (2-dimensional line images) or up to 18 images in series with a time interval of 100 ns and shorter and exposure times of 20 ns by using Polaroid films.
Among other things, the first CO-Ar gas lasers in the 1970s and 1980s were examined with this camera. The investigations of the discharge phenomena were used to optimize the electrode geometry and arrangement, the gas mixture to be ignited and the precise routing of all equipment such as electron beam accelerators, gas opening valves, and electrodes which were required to generate a plasma.
The picture shows the handover to one of the employees of the museum by Daniel Förster (IFSW) and Werner Hennig (formerly IFSW), the latter carried out the experiments to optimize the discharge of the CO-Ar gas lasers. The camera itself is visible in the background.
Contact: Daniel Förster
