– Scientists have created the world’s fastest camera that can capture footage at 156 trillion frames per second. This breaks the previous record of 70 trillion frames per second.
– The camera uses a novel optical technique to capture 132 frames from a single pulse from an ultrafast laser. This allows it to record extremely fast phenomena that occur in femtoseconds (quadrillionths of a second).
– Previous methods for recording ultrafast events required repeating a laser pulse many times over different time windows. This new single-shot approach provides a more complete view.
– The camera relies on a “chirped” laser that emits different wavelengths of light at different times. A grating splits these wavelengths which pass through a coded mask, essentially barcoding each wavelength.
– Software can then decode this to attribute different parts of the captured image to different points in time, allowing creation of very high frame rate videos up to 132 frames long from a single shot.
– The camera could provide insights into ultrafast processes like magnetic data storage and help study how cells respond to medical ultrasound. It opens a new window to observe previously unseen ultra-fast phenomena.
Source: livescience
