Posted on 10/13/2018 10:59:28 AM PDT by ETL
What happens when a new technology is so precise that it operates on a scale beyond our characterization capabilities? For example, the lasers used at INRS produce ultrashort pulses in the femtosecond range (10-15 s), which is far too short to visualize. Although some measurements are possible, nothing beats a clear image, says INRS professor and ultrafast imaging specialist Jinyang Liang. He and his colleagues, led by Caltech's Lihong Wang, have developed what they call T-CUP: the world's fastest camera, capable of capturing 10 trillion (1013) frames per second (Fig. 1). This new camera literally makes it possible to freeze time to see phenomena—and even light—in extremely slow motion.
In recent years, the junction between innovations in non-linear optics and imaging has opened the door for new and highly efficient methods for microscopic analysis of dynamic phenomena in biology and physics. But harnessing the potential of these methods requires a way to record images in real time at a very short temporal resolution—in a single exposure.
Using current imaging techniques, measurements taken with ultrashort laser pulses must be repeated many times, which is appropriate for some types of inert samples, but impossible for other more fragile ones. For example, laser-engraved glass can tolerate only a single laser pulse, leaving 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 ultrafast photography (CUP) 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 on the concept, the new T-CUP system was developed based on a femtosecond streak camera that also incorporates a data acquisition type used in applications such as tomography.
Real-time imaging of temporal focusing of a femtosecond laser pulse at 2.5 Tfps. Credit: Jinyang Liang, Liren Zhu & Lihong V. Wang "We knew that by using only a femtosecond streak camera, the image quality would be limited," says Professor Lihong Wang, the Bren Professor of Medial Engineering and Electrical Engineering at Caltech and the Director of Caltech Optical Imaging Laboratory (COIL). "So to improve this, we added another camera that acquires a static image. Combined with the image acquired by the femtosecond streak camera, we can use what is called a Radon transformation to obtain high-quality images while recording ten trillion frames per second."
Setting the world record for real-time imaging speed, T-CUP can power a new generation of microscopes for biomedical, materials science, and other applications. This camera represents a fundamental shift, making it possible to analyze interactions between light and matter at an unparalleled temporal resolution.
The first time it was used, the ultrafast camera broke new ground by capturing the temporal focusing of a single femtosecond laser pulse in real time (Fig. 2). This process was recorded in 25 frames taken at an interval of 400 femtoseconds and detailed the light pulse's shape, intensity, and angle of inclination.
"It's an achievement in itself," says Jinyang Liang, the leading author of this work, who was an engineer in COIL when the research was conducted, "but we already see possibilities for increasing the speed to up to one quadrillion (10 exp 15) frames per second!" Speeds like that are sure to offer insight into as-yet undetectable secrets of the interactions between light and matter.
Explore further: Physicists produce extremely short and specifically shaped electron pulses for materials studies
When we return from travel I always have thousands of pictures to review and so forth. I can’t wait until I get one of these babies...I’ll have deca-trillions of pictures to review.
Maybe you can catch a trip on a Hyper-Velocity aircraft. They won’t even know you’ve been there.
It really messes up your memory card though.
“The fastest time ever recorded was the time between the light turning green and the idiot behind you is on his horn. /s”
Yeh, BUT ! Now we can watch paint dry and hair grow !
So thats just a bit quicker than a smidgen?
In other news,
I was so pleased to have finally, in my life,
moved up to LEICA,
(Olympus for 10 years, then Nikon, then, finally Leica,)
but the R4 bodies really are so terrible I am “moving out.”
Two bodies and both have unbearable battery drain and electronics issues.
I’ll keep the lenses and do something else...
I miss my FEs and F3s.
My OMs were miraculous.
Any advice appreciated.
“In Memory of SWAMPSNIPER.”
Was the R4 one of those collaboration bodies with Minolta?
Really? More than a B-CUP is wasted.
*possible ping of interest*
Never owned either one, but I remember well the marketing for the Minolta XE-7, how it was based on internals common to Leica. Never knew the Leica’s in question suffered in quality though. That “connection” was a big force in marketing camera’s back then, i.e. the Contax/Yashica - Zeiss connection, the Rollei - Zeiss relationship, even after the Rollei’s became cheap Singapore camera’s.
I think the Rolleiflex 35 was German if I remember correctly...the 35M’s were from Singapore, correct?
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