Single-shot ultrafast terahertz photography

Abstract

Multidimensional imaging of transient events has proven pivotal in unveiling many fundamental mechanisms in physics, chemistry, and biology. In particular, real-time imaging modalities with ultrahigh temporal resolutions are required for capturing ultrashort events on picosecond timescales. Despite recent approaches witnessing a dramatic boost in high-speed photography, current single-shot ultrafast imaging schemes operate only at conventional optical wavelengths, being suitable solely within an optically-transparent framework. Here, leveraging on the unique penetration capability of terahertz radiation, we demonstrate a single-shot ultrafast terahertz photography system that can capture multiple frames of a complex ultrafast scene in non-transparent media with sub-picosecond temporal resolution. By multiplexing an optical probe beam in both the time and spatial-frequency domains, we encode the terahertz-captured three-dimensional dynamics into distinct spatial-frequency regions of a superimposed optical image, which is then computationally decoded and reconstructed. Our approach opens up the investigation of non-repeatable or destructive events that occur in optically-opaque scenarios.