Phys.org August 24, 2021
Time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC) is an enabling technology for applications such as low-light fluorescence lifetime microscopy and photon counting time-of-flight (ToF) 3D imaging. However, state-of-the-art TCSPC single-photon timing resolution (SPTR) is limited to 3–100 ps by single-photon detectors. Researchers at the University of Colorado experimentally demonstrated a time-magnified TCSPC (TM-TCSPC) that achieves an ultrashort SPTR of 550 fs with an off-the-shelf single-photon detector. It can resolve ultrashort pulses with a 130-fs pulse width difference at a 22-fs accuracy. When applied to photon counting ToF 3D imaging, the it greatly suppresses the range walk error that limits all photon counting ToF 3D imaging systems by 99.2% and thus providing high depth accuracy and precision of 26 µm and 3 µm, respectively. The work could lead to big improvements in a range of imaging technologies…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Schematic diagram of TM-TCSPC. Credit: Optica, Vol. 8, Issue 8, pp. 1109-1112 (2021)Â