New Trillion FPS Camera Developed

[Guest_Jim_*]

For most people, it may be hard to imagine something happening in a trillionth of a second, but for some researchers, that is how fast the processes they are trying to study occur. As you can guess, that tremendous speed makes studying these processes difficult, which is why one group of researchers have created a new camera to capture what happens. As reported by The Optical Society, researchers from Japan have succeeded in creating a camera capable of capturing 4.4 trillion frames per second.

Normally if someone wants to study some ultrafast processes, they have to utilize the pump-probe method to record what is happening. While this method can achieve astounding framerates, it can only capture a frame at a time. To create movies using the method requires repeating the process multiple times, which is not always viable. The new camera, called STAMP (Sequentially Timed All-optical Mapping Photography) however can capture multiple frames and at a resolution of 450x450 pixels. It works by splitting an ultrashort pulse of light into colored flashes, like sunlight dispersing into a rainbow. These flashes then strike the target at different times and can be analyzed to create a motion picture. As electrical and mechanical cannot keep up with the necessary processing speed, STAMP uses optical components exclusively.

The applications for STAMP are numerous, including studying nuclear fusion and lattice vibrations, and it is almost certain many have not yet been imagined. Currently the researchers are working on an improved STAMP system that will be capable of catching 25 sequential images, while the original was only able to capture 6. Eventually this could be pushed up to 100 frames.

Source: The Optical Society

Back to original news post