World’s fastest camera captures 10 trillion frames per second

Researchers have developed the world’s fastest camera till date that can capture 10 trillion frames per second, making slow-motion more real like.

Scientists have recently developed the world’s fastest camera, which is able to capture 10 trillion frames per second. This camera makes it possible to experience any phenomenon in extremely slow motion, similar to freezing time.

The new system is based on a femtosecond (one quadrillionth of a second) streak camera and integrated a data acquisition type used in applications like tomography. In the study published in the journal Light: Science & Applications, co-lead author Wang Lihong said, “We knew that by using only a femtosecond streak camera, the image quality would be limited.”

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“So to improve this, we added another camera that acquires a static image. Combined with the image acquired by the femtosecond streak camera, we can use what is called a Radon transformation to obtain high-quality images while recording 10 trillion frames per second,” explained Lihong.

The camera, developed by researchers at Caltech and INRS, was named ‘T-CUP’ and set the world record for real-time imaging speed. The camera makes it possible to analyze interactions between light and matter at an unparalleled temporal resolution.

New Atlas reported, in the first test, the camera captured a single femtosecond pulse of laser light and recorded 25 images that were each 400 femtoseconds apart this process showed scientists the changes in the light pulse’s shape, intensity and angle of inclination, in much slower motion than ever before.

The lead author Liang Jinyang called the work as ‘an achievement in itself’. “It’s an achievement in itself. But we already see possibilities for increasing the speed to up to one quadrillion frames per second!”