Canadian researchers develop world’s fastest camera

 T-CUP, the latest camera developed by INRS researchers can freeze time in extremely slow motion; it can freeze even light!

The compressed ultrafast photography (CUP) had already provided speed up to 100 billion frames per second. However, the T-CUP system, which is based on a femtosecond streak camera could go for higher speeds. T-CUP system additionally incorporates a data acquisition system used in applications such as tomography. Researchers also used Radon transformation to obtain high-quality images.

T-CUP has a world record for real-time imaging speed and can power a new generation of microscopes for biomedical, materials science, and other applications. It could be used to analyze interactions between light and matter at an unparalleled temporal resolution.

"It's an achievement in itself," says Jinyang Liang, the leading author of this work, "but we already see possibilities for increasing the speed to up to one quadrillion (1015) frames per second!"

Speeds like that are sure to offer insight into as-yet undetectable secrets of the interactions between light and matter.

DOI: 10.1038/s41377-018-0044-7 ; DOI: 10.1364/OPTICA.5.001113