Source: INRS
A group of scientists from Université du Québec, Canada and California Institute of Technology, USA has developed the World's fastest camera named T-CUP.
T-CUP is capable of shooting at 10 trillion frames per second, smashing the previous records of Lund University's 5fps and MIT's 1fps.
This technology is capable of capturing phenomena including light at extremely slow motion. Just so we know how great this technology is, an average smartphone manages around 30 fps and this camera is capable of 10 trillion fps - incredible!
FPS is a measurement for how many unique consecutive images a camera can handle each second.
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T-CUP camera was built on an existing technology called compressed ultrafast photography (CUP), but this is capable of only 100 billion fps. So, researchers added what is called a femtosecond streak camera. Particles of light are then converted into electrons as they pass through a narrow slit. This allows the camera to take images at 10 trillion frames a second.
“We knew that by using only a femtosecond streak camera, the image quality would be limited. 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 ten trillion frames per second,” explained co-author of the study Lihong Wang.
Post doctoral scholar Pang Want carried out a test to see the light (laser beam) as it speeds through a bottle. The water was diltued with a small amount of milk to be able to see light. Testing the camera up to its maximum speed of 10 trillion frames per second, the whole process took only about 50 picoseconds.
Here is the YouTube video of the test.
Its level of accuracy was able to show the changes in the light pulses shape over time. It also revealed the light's intensity and angle of inclination in much better detail than ever before.
"It's an achievement in itself," said Jinyang Liang, "But we already see possibilities for increasing the speed to up to one quadrillion ( 10^15) frames per second!"
T-CUP was unveiled October, 2018.
References:
- https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/12/at-10-trillion-frames-per-second-this-camera-captures-light-in-slow-motion/amp/
- https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6862367/amp/Mesmerizing-video-captures-speed-light-looks-like-10-TRILLION-frames-second.html
- https://amp.interestingengineering.com/the-worlds-fastest-10-trillion-fps-camera-is-here-and-it-can-freeze-time