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Infrared chemical imaging through non-degenerate two-photon absorption in silicon-based cameras
Summary
Researchers demonstrated a way to take mid-infrared chemical images — which reveal what materials are made of — using ordinary silicon-based camera chips instead of expensive specialized infrared detectors, by exploiting a quantum light absorption effect. This affordable approach successfully identified different types of polymers and biological samples, and could make chemical imaging tools widely accessible for detecting microplastics and other materials.
Chemical imaging based on mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopic contrast is an important technique with a myriad of applications, including biomedical imaging and environmental monitoring. Current MIR cameras, however, lack performance and are much less affordable than mature Si-based devices, which operate in the visible and near-infrared regions. Here, we demonstrate fast MIR chemical imaging through non-degenerate two-photon absorption (NTA) in a standard Si-based charge-coupled device (CCD). We show that wide-field MIR images can be obtained at 100 ms exposure times using picosecond pulse energies of only a few femtojoules per pixel through NTA directly on the CCD chip. Because this on-chip approach does not rely on phase matching, it is alignment-free and does not necessitate complex postprocessing of the images. We emphasize the utility of this technique through chemically selective MIR imaging of polymers and biological samples, including MIR videos of moving targets, physical processes and live nematodes.
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