Dual-channel compressed ultrafast photography for Z-pinch dynamic imaging

Area of Science:

• Physics
• Accelerator Physics
• Plasma Physics

Background:

• Compressed ultrafast photography (CUP) captures non-repetitive events at 7 × 10^13 fps.
• CUP has potential applications in physics, biomedical imaging, and materials science.
• Diagnosing ultrafast Z-pinch phenomena requires advanced imaging techniques.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the feasibility of using CUP for diagnosing ultrafast Z-pinch phenomena.
• To compare different mask strategies (identical, uncorrelated, complementary) for dual-channel CUP.
• To validate the CUP approach using synthetic and simulated Z-pinch data.

Main Methods:

• A dual-channel CUP design was implemented.
• Strategies included identical, uncorrelated, and complementary masks.
• One channel's image was rotated 90° to balance spatial resolution.
• Validation used five synthetic and two simulated Z-pinch videos.

Main Results:

• High-quality reconstructed images were acquired.
• The dual-channel CUP with uncorrelated, rotated masks achieved average PSNR of 50.55 dB (visible light) and 32.53 dB (laser shadowgraph).
• Simulations confirmed accurate retelling of plasma distribution and diagnosis of plasma instability.

Conclusions:

• Dual-channel CUP with uncorrelated masks is effective for diagnosing Z-pinch plasma instability.
• The method accurately reconstructs time-space-evolving plasma dynamics.
• This study promotes CUP applications in accelerator physics.