Single-shot photofragment imaging by structured illumination

A laser method to suppress background interferences in pump-probe measurements is presented and demonstrated. The method is based on structured illumination, where the intensity profile of the pump beam is spatially modulated to make its induced photofragment signal distinguishable from that created solely by the probe beam. A spatial lock-in algorithm is then applied on the acquired data, extracting only those image components that are characterized by the encoded structure. The concept is demonstrated for imaging of OH photofragments in a laminar methane/air flame, where the signal from the OH photofragments produced by the pump beam is spatially overlapping with that from the naturally present OH radicals. The purpose was to perform for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, single-shot imaging of HO(2) in a flame. These results show an increase in signal-to-interference ratio of about 20 for single-shot data.