Single-photon sensitive light-in-fight imaging

The ability to record images with extreme temporal resolution enables a diverse range of applications, such as fluorescence lifetime imaging, time-of-flight depth imaging and characterization of ultrafast processes. Recently, ultrafast imaging schemes have emerged, which require either long acquisition times or raster scanning and have a requirement for sufficient signal that can only be achieved when light is reflected off an object or diffused by a strongly scattering medium. Here we present a demonstration of the potential of single-photon detector arrays for visualization and rapid characterization of events evolving on picosecond time scales. The single-photon sensitivity, temporal resolution and full-field imaging capability enables the observation of light-in-flight in air, as well as the measurement of laser-induced plasma formation and dynamics in its natural environment. The extreme sensitivity and short acquisition times pave the way for real-time imaging of ultrafast processes or visualization and tracking of objects hidden from view.

[1]  N. Abramson.  Light-in-flight recording by holography. , 1978, Optics letters.

[2]  N. Abramson.  Light-in-flight recording: high-speed holographic motion pictures of ultrafast phenomena. , 1983, Applied optics.

[3]  N H Abramson,et al.  Single pulse light-in-flight recording by holography. , 1989, Applied optics.

[4]  I. Freund.  Looking through walls and around corners , 1990 .

[5]  G Häusler,et al.  Observation of light propagation in volume scatterers with 10(11)-fold slow motion. , 1996, Optics letters.

[6]  B. Vojnovic.  Advanced Time‐Correlated Single Photon Counting Techniques , 2006 .

[7]  A. Couairon,et al.  Femtosecond filamentation in transparent media , 2007 .

[8]  Yasuhiro Awatsuji,et al.  Moving picture recording and observation of three-dimensional image of femtosecond light pulse propagation. , 2007, Optics express.

[9]  G. Buller,et al.  Ranging and Three-Dimensional Imaging Using Time-Correlated Single-Photon Counting and Point-by-Point Acquisition , 2007, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[10]  Michael Wahl,et al.  Time-Correlated Single Photon Counting , 2009 .

[11]  B. Jalali,et al.  Serial time-encoded amplified imaging for real-time observation of fast dynamic phenomena , 2009, Nature.

[12]  Edoardo Charbon,et al.  A 32×32 50ps resolution 10 bit time to digital converter array in 130nm CMOS for time correlated imaging , 2009, 2009 IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference.

[13]  S. Chin,et al.  The mechanism of nitrogen fluorescence inside a femtosecond laser filament in air , 2009 .

[14]  R. Henderson,et al.  Edinburgh Research Explorer A Low Dark Count Single Photon Avalanche Diode Structure Compatible with Standard Nanometer Scale CMOS Technology , 2009 .

[15]  Edoardo Charbon,et al.  Real-time fluorescence lifetime imaging system with a 32 x 32 0.13microm CMOS low dark-count single-photon avalanche diode array. , 2010, Optics express.

[16]  Sylvain Gigan,et al.  Image transmission through an opaque material. , 2010, Nature communications.

[17]  I. Ial,et al.  Nature Communications , 2010, Nature Cell Biology.

[18]  A. Tosi,et al.  Two-Dimensional SPAD Imaging Camera for Photon Counting , 2010, IEEE Photonics Journal.

[19]  Ramesh Raskar,et al.  Slow art with a trillion frames per second camera , 2011, SIGGRAPH '11.

[20]  R. Raskar,et al.  Recovering three-dimensional shape around a corner using ultrafast time-of-flight imaging , 2012, Nature Communications.

[21]  O. Katz,et al.  Looking around corners and through thin turbid layers in real time with scattered incoherent light , 2012, Nature Photonics.

[22]  Evelyn L. Hu,et al.  Large spontaneous emission enhancement in plasmonic nanocavities , 2012, Nature Photonics.

[23]  B. Heshmat,et al.  The effect of detector distance and beam width in acousto-optical beam deflection probing in air , 2012 .

[24]  Ramesh Raskar,et al.  Reconstruction of hidden 3D shapes using diffuse reflections , 2012, Optics express.

[25]  Wolfgang Heidrich,et al.  Low-budget transient imaging using photonic mixer devices , 2013, ACM Trans. Graph..

[26]  Robert Fickler,et al.  Real-Time Imaging of Quantum Entanglement , 2012, Scientific Reports.

[27]  Michael C. Downer,et al.  Single-shot tomographic movies of evolving light-velocity objects , 2014, Nature Communications.

[28]  Vivek K Goyal,et al.  First-Photon Imaging , 2014, Science.