Single-shot compressed ultrafast photography at one hundred billion frames per second

Area of Science:

• Physics
• Optics
• Imaging Technology

Background:

• High-speed photography has historically aimed to capture rapid transient events.
• Charge-coupled device (CCD) and complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) sensors advanced imaging to 10(7) frames per second.
• Limitations in CCD/CMOS technology restrict further increases in frame rates due to storage and readout speeds.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel imaging technique for capturing non-repetitive, time-evolving events at unprecedented speeds.
• To overcome the fundamental limitations of existing ultrahigh-speed imaging technologies.
• To enable the observation of transient phenomena with picosecond temporal resolution.

Main Methods:

• Demonstration of compressed ultrafast photography (CUP), a two-dimensional dynamic imaging technique.
• CUP captures x-y-t scenes in a single camera snapshot, achieving up to 10(11) frames per second.
• The technique is receive-only, not requiring specialized active illumination.

Main Results:

• CUP successfully imaged transient events with temporal resolution in the tens of picoseconds.
• Four fundamental physical phenomena were visualized with single laser shots: laser pulse reflection, refraction, photon racing, and faster-than-light motion.
• The technique demonstrated capability in imaging luminescent objects, including fluorescent and bioluminescent ones.

Conclusions:

• Compressed Ultrafast Photography (CUP) represents a significant advancement in ultrahigh-speed imaging.
• Its ability to capture detailed temporal and spatial information in a single shot opens new avenues for scientific discovery.
• CUP is expected to have broad applications in fundamental and applied sciences, including biomedical research.