High Speed Electromechanical Shutter for Time Resolved Spectroscopy

Time resolved spectroscopy can be obtained using the ordinary time integrating spectrograph and the very rapid response, high speed electromechanical shutter described in this paper. The interacting magnetic field between parallel wire segments of a small flattened insulated wire set up by a high current surge is used to deliver, by the motion of a wire segment, a very rapid high amplitude impulse to a low mass slotted plate. The resultant high velocity motion of the slotted plate uncovers the spectrographic slit, keeps it open for a calibrated time, and then closes it. The present range of open times used is from 5 0 to 1000 μsec.