Abstract
Imaging across both the full transverse spatial and temporal dimensions of a scene with high precision in all three coordinates is key to applications ranging from LIDAR to fluorescence lifetime imaging. However, compromises that sacrifice, for example, spatial resolution at the expense of temporal resolution are often required, in particular when the full 3-dimensional data cube is required in short acquisition times. We introduce a sensor fusion approach that combines data having low-spatial resolution but high temporal precision gathered with a single-photon-avalanche-diode (SPAD) array with data that has high spatial but no temporal resolution, such as that acquired with a standard CMOS camera. Our method, based on blurring the image on the SPAD array and computational sensor fusion, reconstructs time-resolved images at significantly higher spatial resolution than the SPAD input, upsampling numerical data by a factor 12 times 12, and demonstrating up to 4 times 4 upsampling of experimental data. We demonstrate the technique for both LIDAR applications and FLIM of fluorescent cancer cells. This technique paves the way to high spatial resolution SPAD imaging or, equivalently, FLIM imaging with conventional microscopes at frame rates accelerated by more than an order of magnitude.
Highlights
Imaging across both the full transverse spatial and temporal dimensions of a scene with high precision in all three coordinates is key to applications ranging from LIDAR to fluorescence lifetime imaging
The high spatial resolution data cube is reconstructed according to Eq (3)
We show the potential of our method for fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) using a commercial microscope, the details of which are described in the “Methods” section
Summary
Imaging across both the full transverse spatial and temporal dimensions of a scene with high precision in all three coordinates is key to applications ranging from LIDAR to fluorescence lifetime imaging. Streak cameras accelerate and deflect photoelectrons in order to separate them depending on their time of production This allows very high temporal resolution but is limited to imaging one line at a time. Intensified charge-coupled devices (ICCD) provide high pixel counts and have recently been shown to be able to reach down to 10 ps temporal resolution for suitably prepared s cenes[13] This is, limited by various restrictions on the type of measured data, and requires bulky and costly hardware. A cheap alternative is the use of photonic mixer devices (PMD)[14], which are based on intensity modulated illumination and a special sensor pixel design that allows measuring the phase shift between outgoing and incoming illumination They are generally used as ToF sensors for depth imaging and provide high spatial, but low temporal resolution
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