New Ultrafast Imaging Technique Provides Insight into Combustion Processes

Amazing stuff! Breath taking!

"Now a team of scientists ... have developed an ultrafast imaging technique, called femtosecond laser sheet-compressed ultrafast photography (fsLS-CUP), that can compile videos of those incredibly transient details.

Capturing 250 billion frames per second, the new technique is 20,000 times faster than conventional high-speed imaging cameras, and about 100 times faster than state-of-the-art imaging systems. It has already revealed some of the underlying dynamics involved in the formation of soot particles during combustion. ..."

New Ultrafast Imaging Technique Provides Insight into Combustion Processes - www.caltech.edu "Details of combustion—the chemical reactions that take place when, for example, a flame is lit—are fleeting and, therefore, difficult to study. But scientists would like to better understand the complex processes that occur in those billionths of seconds, not only to make engines more efficient but also to shed light on how candle flames, cars, and airplanes produce gases and particles that are harmful to humans and the environment."

Single-pulse ultrafast real-time simultaneous planar imaging of femtosecond laser-nanoparticle dynamics in flames (open access)

Fig. 1: fsLS-CUP for time-resolved 2D imaging of femtosecond laser-induced flame signals.