Proposal to streak optical pulses using a solid state optical deflector

Streak cameras are flexible cameras used to measure the temporal profile of optical pulses. Streak cameras have been employed to measure the longitudinal beam profile on accelerators around the world. In the present work, we highlight a potential alternative to a new streak camera. We consider particularly linear (Pockels) and quadratic (Kerr) electro-optical nonlinearity solid-state streaking systems. Of the possible solid state systems, we motivate the potential advantages of a Potassium Tantalum Niobate KTa1-xNbxO3 crystal as a photon beam deflector to measure the longitudinal profiles of electron beams in accelerators.