Single-shot tomographic movies of evolving light-velocity objects.
Tomography--cross-sectional imaging based on measuring radiation transmitted through an object along different directions--enables non-invasive imaging of hidden stationary objects, such as internal bodily organs, from their sequentially measured projections. Here we adapt tomographic methods to visualize--in one laser shot--the instantaneous structure and evolution of a laser-induced object propagating through a transparent Kerr medium. We reconstruct 'movies' of a laser pulse's diffraction, self-focusing and filamentation from phase 'streaks' imprinted onto probe pulses that cross the main pulse's path simultaneously at different angles. Multiple probes are generated and detected compactly and simply, making the system robust, easy to align and adaptable to many problems. Our technique could potentially visualize, for example, plasma wakefield accelerators, optical rogue waves or fast ignitor pulses, light-velocity objects, whose detailed space-time dynamics are known only through intensive computer simulations.
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, C1600, 2512 Speedway, Austin, Texas 78712-1081, USA.
Zhengyan
Z
Li
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, C1600, 2512 Speedway, Austin, Texas 78712-1081, USA.
Rafal
R
Zgadzaj
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, C1600, 2512 Speedway, Austin, Texas 78712-1081, USA.
Xiaoming
X
Wang
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, C1600, 2512 Speedway, Austin, Texas 78712-1081, USA.
Yen-Yu
YY
Chang
Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, C1600, 2512 Speedway, Austin, Texas 78712-1081, USA.
Michael C
MC
Downer