Wide-field mid-infrared hyperspectral imaging beyond video rate

Abstract

Mid-infrared hyperspectral imaging has become an indispensable tool to spatially resolve chemical information in a wide variety of samples. However, acquiring three-dimensional data cubes is typically time-consuming due to the limited speed of raster scanning or wavelength tuning, which impedes real-time visualization with high spatial definition across broad spectral bands. Here, we devise and implement a high-speed, wide-field mid-infrared hyperspectral imaging system relying on broadband parametric upconversion of high-brightness supercontinuum illumination at the Fourier plane. The upconverted replica is spectrally decomposed by a rapid acousto-optic tunable filter, which records high-definition monochromatic images at a frame rate of 10 kHz based on a megapixel silicon camera. Consequently, the hyperspectral imager allows us to acquire 100 spectral bands over 2600-4085 cm${}^{-1}$ in 10 ms, corresponding to a refreshing rate of 100 Hz. Moreover, the angular dependence of phase matching in the image upconversion is leveraged to realize snapshot operation with spatial multiplexing for multiple spectral channels, which may further boost the spectral imaging rate. The high acquisition rate, wide-field operation, and broadband spectral coverage could open new possibilities for high-throughput characterization of transient processes in material and life sciences.

References in corpus (5)

• Wide-field mid-infrared single-photon upconversion imaging
• Mid-infrared photon counting and resolving via efficient frequency upconversion
• Mid-infrared single-photon 3D imaging
• Mid-Infrared Single-Photon Edge Enhanced Imaging based on Nonlinear Vortex Filtering
• High-speed mid-infrared single-photon upconversion spectrometer

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Mid-Infrared Single-Photon Compressive Spectroscopy
• Highly-sensitive mid-infrared upconversion detection based on external-cavity pump enhancement
• Mid-infrared Fourier ptychographic upconversion imaging
• Mid-infrared edge-enhanced imaging via angle-selective nonlinear filtering
• High-speed mid-infrared imaging via nonlinear multiplexed detection
• High-order mid-infrared nonlinear topological differentiator
• Mid-infrared temporal ghost imaging via two-photon structured encoding
• Wide-field mid-infrared edge-enhanced upconversion imaging