Light travels at 300,000,000 meters per second—a lot faster than a speeding bullet. So taking photos of individual light photons (packets of light) moving through the air may seem impossible.
If you’re looking to advance your career in science, you could join MIT researchers--where they do the seemingly impossible, such as building a camera that can shoot at one trillion frames per second--fast enough to catch photons in the act.
Dubbed a “streak camera,” it uses a narrow slit, which turns entering photons 90 degrees by an electric field, sending them off in a perpendicular direction. The electric field is rapidly reshaped, forcing late-arriving photons toward the camera’s sensor with a tad more velocity than previous photons. This results in extremely fast frame captures.
The ultra-fast camera uses about $250,000 worth of special gear, including a titanium sapphire laser and streak-camera technology specially designed for high-speed photography. Streak cameras use an array of 500 sensors, each set to capture light 1 trillion times per second.
While the camera image captures are fast, creating a video of photons was far more cumbersome. Researchers had to collect an hour’s worth of one-dimensional images, then combine them into a single two-dimensional video using algorithms they developed specifically for this task.
Super fast cameras like these could be used to create three-dimensional ultrasound scans ideal for use in medical imaging or testing for defects during manufacturing processes. If you want to get in on breakthrough research like this, check out the career opportunities at MIT.
For an added perspective, check out this video:
If you have any thoughts on high-speed camera technology, feel free to share them in the comments section.
Alex A. Kecskes has written hundreds of published articles on health/fitness, "green" issues, TV/film entertainment, restaurant reviews and many other topics. As a former Andy/Belding/One Show ad agency copywriter, he also writes web content, ads, brochures, sales letters, mailers and scripts for national B2B and B2C clients. Please see more of his blogs and view additional job postings on Nexxt.
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