The fastest camera in the world can "freeze time", put the light in slow motion

Scientists have come up with what it could be the world's fastest camera, capable of capturing 10 trillion images per second, which can "freeze time" to see the light in slow motion. (Image Source: California Institute of Technology)

Scientists have come up with what it could be the world's fastest camera, capable of capturing 10 trillion images per second, which can "freeze time" to see the light in slow motion. This breakthrough could help better understand the still undetectable secrets of the interactions between light and matter, according to scientists at the California Institute of Technology in the United States.

In recent years, the junction between innovations in nonlinear optics and imaging has paved the way for new, extremely effective methods for the microscopic analysis of dynamic phenomena in biology and physics. However, harnessing the potential of these methods requires a way to record real-time images at a very short time resolution – in a single exposure. Using current imaging techniques, measurements taken with ultra-short laser pulses must be repeated several times, which is appropriate for some types of inert samples, but impossible for others more fragile.

For example, laser etched glass can tolerate only a single laser pulse, which leaves less than a picosecond to capture the results. In such a case, the imaging technique must be able to capture the entire process in real time. Compressed ultra-fast photography (UPC) was a good starting point. At 100 billion frames per second, this method approached, but did not meet, the specifications required to integrate femtosecond lasers. To improve the concept, the new T-CUP system was developed on the basis of a femtosecond scanning camera also incorporating a type of data acquisition used in applications such as tomography.

"We knew that using only a femtosecond scanning camera, the quality of the image would be limited," said Lihong Wang, director of the Caltech Optical Imaging Lab (COIL). "To improve this, we added another camera that acquires a static image. Combined with the image acquired by the femtosecond scanning camera, we can use what is called a radon transformation to obtain high quality images while recording ten billion billion images per second. second, "Wang said. Setting the world record for real-time imaging speed, the camera called T-CUP can power a new generation of microscopes for biomedical, materials science and other applications.

This camera represents a fundamental change, allowing us to analyze the interactions between light and matter at an unparalleled temporal resolution. When it was first used, the ultra-fast camera innovated by capturing in real time the temporal focus of a single femtosecond laser pulse. This process was recorded in 25 images taken at an interval of 400 femtoseconds and detailed the shape, intensity and angle of inclination of the light pulse. "It's a feat in itself, but we're already seeing opportunities to increase speed to a quadrillion frames per second!" Said Jinyang Liang, an engineer at COIL at the time of the research.

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