Single-shot spatially-multiplexed ultrafast imaging with 682 billion frames per second

Abstract

Capturing rapid phenomena in science, such as the evolution of a plasma dynamics or neuronal signaling is a challenging imaging tasks due to the limited frame rate of conventional cameras. Ultrafast imaging of a dynamic scene, which can occur in picosecond to femtosecond ranges, can be achieved by a high-cost camera and is complex to operate. Using compressed imaging and streak camera, Wang et al. achieved 100 billion FPS with compressed ultrafast photography [1] and even reached up to 70 trillion FPS using compressed ultrafast spectral photography [2]. To simplify the operation principle and decrease the overall cost of ultrafast imaging systems, Liang et al. introduced a diffraction-gated real-time ultrahigh-speed mapping (DRUM) photography that can capture a transient event in a single exposure at 4.8 million FPS and a sequence depth of 7 frames using a DMD [3]. Here, we present a novel spatially-multiplexed low-cost ultrafast imaging technique that can easily achieve a sequence depth of 10 frames and 682 billion FPS. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.