August 13, 2014 at 21:44Japanese scientists have created a camera that shoots at a speed of 4.4 trillion frames per second
A group of scientists from various universities in Japan has developed high-speed shooting technology with a frame rate of 4.4 trillion per second and a resolution of 450 by 450 pixels. It can be used to study very fast processes — plasma dynamics, chemical reactions, the appearance and propagation of phonons in crystals.
The camera shoots only very short “videos”, literally several frames long. This limitation is due to the very principle of its work. For shooting, a femtosecond flash of white light is used. First, the light pulse stretches along its trajectory, turning from a compact “lump” of photons into a small segment in which the photons go one after another, lining up one after another along the wavelength. With the help of a system of mirrors, lenses, diffraction gratings and masks, this segment turns into a series of short flashes of different colors flying one after another. These flashes illuminate the subject, and then with the help of another combination of optical devices, flashes with different wavelengths are sent to different places of the photosensor. Thus, technically, only one frame is shot,
In addition to scientific applications, the camera can be useful in industry, for example, when monitoring various fast technological processes, as well as in medicine. Now scientists are working to make the camera more compact.
The camera shoots only very short “videos”, literally several frames long. This limitation is due to the very principle of its work. For shooting, a femtosecond flash of white light is used. First, the light pulse stretches along its trajectory, turning from a compact “lump” of photons into a small segment in which the photons go one after another, lining up one after another along the wavelength. With the help of a system of mirrors, lenses, diffraction gratings and masks, this segment turns into a series of short flashes of different colors flying one after another. These flashes illuminate the subject, and then with the help of another combination of optical devices, flashes with different wavelengths are sent to different places of the photosensor. Thus, technically, only one frame is shot,
In addition to scientific applications, the camera can be useful in industry, for example, when monitoring various fast technological processes, as well as in medicine. Now scientists are working to make the camera more compact.