Origin of peculiar inerratic diffraction patterns recorded by charge-coupled device cameras

Abstract

A peculiar and regular diffraction pattern is recorded while using either a color or a monochrome charge-coupled device (CCD) camera to capture the image of the micro air plasma produced by femtosecond laser pulses. The diffraction pattern strongly disturbs the observation of the air plasma, so the origin and eliminating method of these diffraction patterns must be investigated. It is found that the Fourier transform of the periodic surface structure of either the mask mosaic of the color CCD or the pixel array of the monochrome CCD is responsible for the formation of the observed pattern. The residual surface reflection from the protection window of a CCD camera plays the essential role in forming the interesting two-dimensional diffraction spots on the same CCD sensor. Both experimental data and theoretical analyses confirm our understanding of this phenomenon. Therefore removing the protection window of the CCD camera can eliminate these diffraction patterns.

Keywords

charge-coupled device (CCD) / scattering / ghost reflection

References

[1] Bosiers J T, Peters I M, Draijer C, Theuwissen A. Technical challenges and recent progress in CCD imagers. Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research. Section A, Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 2006, 565(1): 148–156

[2] Janesick J R. Scientific Charge-Coupled Devices. Bellingham WA: SPIE Press, 2001

[3] Jordan P R. Review of CCD technologies. In: Proceeding of Astrophysics Detector Workshop. 2009, 239–245

[4] Lalanne P, Morris G M. Antireflection behavior of silicon subwavelength periodic structures for visible light. Nanotechnology, 1997, 8(2): 53–56

[5] Xu K, Zhang N, Zhu X. Investigation of a peculiar diffraction pattern recorded by a CCD camera under coherent light illumination. In: Proceedings of International Symposium on Photoelectronic Detection and Imaging (ISPDI 2011), 2011

[6] Goodman J W. Introduction to Fourier Optics. 3rd ed. Englewood, CO: Roberts & Co. Publishers, 2005

[7] Dainty J C. Laser Speckle and Related Phenomena. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 1984

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11274185 and 61137001) and the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin City (No. 16JCQNJC01900).

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2018 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature