title: Performance of serial time-encoded amplified microscope.
abstract: Serial time-encoded amplified microscopy (STEAM) is an entirely new imaging modality that enables ultrafast continuous real-time imaging with high sensitivity. By means of optical image amplification, STEAM overcomes the fundamental tradeoff between sensitivity and speed that affects virtually all optical imaging systems. Unlike the conventional microscope systems, the performance of STEAM depends not only on the lenses, but also on the properties of other components that are unique to STEAM, namely the spatial disperser, the group velocity dispersion element, and the back-end electronic digitizer. In this paper, we present an analysis that shows how these considerations affect the spatial resolution, and how they create a trade-off between the number of pixels and the frame rate of the STEAM imager. We also quantify how STEAM's optical image amplification feature improves the imaging sensitivity. These analyses not only provide valuable insight into the operation of STEAM technology but also serve as a blue print for implementation and optimization of this new imaging technology.
authors.affiliation: UCLA Photonics Laboratory, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095 USA. tsia@hku.hk
authors.forename: Kevin K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Tsia
authors.forename: Keisuke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Goda
authors.forename: Dale
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Capewell
authors.forename: Bahram
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jalali
mesh_terms: D000669:Amplifiers, Electronic; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation*; D007909:Lenses; D008853:Microscopy / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*