Invention:
This technology is a pump-probe imaging system designed to capture a sequence of events, even in non-repetitive processes, by employing a light field synthesizer. The system leverages the light field synthesizer to convert a single probe pulse into a train of temporally separated pulses, each with a distinct wavelength range. These pulses interact with a sample at different time delays, capturing multiple snapshots of the event's progression in a single measurement with high precision. These time delays can be adjusted by the user to optimally capture different types of events. This imaging technique makes it possible to take many shots of a sequence of events with only one measurement. This makes it ideal for the study of fast, non-repetitive phenomena in fields like material science, biophotonics, and chemical reactions.
Background:
Traditional pump-probe imaging techniques often require a sequence of events to be repeated multiple times. Images of different stages of the sequence are captured on each repeat to eventually build up a detailed series of images that can be used to analyze the sequence of events. However, many phenomena are non-repetitive, with only one opportunity to capture their temporal evolutions, where these methods fall short. For these phenomena, standard pump-probe imaging methods that rely on many repetitions of an event are ineffective. The technology to be licensed overcomes this limitation by capturing many images with a single, high-speed measurement, resulting in a set of detailed images with high temporal resolution with no need for the studied phenomenon to be repeated. By using a light field synthesizer to create a series of time-separated probe pulses and a diffraction grating to spatially resolve them, this system enables the acquisition of multiple images in a single shot, offering researchers a powerful tool to study complex, ultrafast processes that cannot be repeated.
Applications:
- Optical sciences
- Ultrafast spectroscopy
- Material science
- Chemical science
- Biophotonics
Advantages:
- Faster imaging
- Broader applications
- Single-shot capability
- High temporal and spectral resolution
