AVCO Rotating Mirror

Author: Tim

The AVCO Rotating Mirror Camera

Model No. MC300 -1.

The mirror is really a six faceted hexagonal high polished bar mounted between two bearings. The mirror rotates up to 180,000 rpm.

A simple example of the rotating mirror camera: a laser beam is being pulsed by a chopper wheel, then entering the rotating mirror housing, and then projected onto the paper pad in the background. This smears out the time structure of the laser into a spatial dimension.

A permanent magnet mounted in the rotating mirror induces a signal in a magneto fix in the mirror housing, this enables precise triggering of the event to be capture as well as measurement of the timebase.

The following is a video of the mirror spinning up from the flow of high pressure dry nitrogen:

An advertisement for the Avco rotating mirror camera in the March 1963 issue of Physics Today:

An advertisement for the Avco rotating mirror camera in the March 1963 issue of Physics Today