Single-Shot Sub-Picosecond Ultrafast Microscopic Imaging Utilizing Spatial-Frequency Multiplexing for Ultrafast Laser-Induced Plasma Visualization

Ultrafast laser processing can produce micro/nanostructures, which is of great interest in advanced manufacturing. Ultrafast laser-induced events include non-equilibrium dynamic phenomena, occurring on the femtosecond to picosecond time scale and nanometer to micron space scale. Single-shot ultrafast imaging can provide multiple time-correlated evolution frames in one non-repeatable event with a temporal resolution of sub-picoseconds. However, previous approaches suffer from degraded spatial resolution, which is a bottleneck in microscopic imaging. For the spatial-frequency multiplexing methods based on structured illumination, a reconstruction strategy was proposed utilizing the frames' conjugate symmetry in the Fourier domain. The spatial resolution is double that of the traditional algorithm by evaluating with synthetic data, revealing that the reconstruction resolution can reach the diffraction limitation. A two-frame microscopic system was constructed with a frame interval of 300 fs and a maximum spatial resolution of 1.4 μm. The interaction between a femtosecond laser and a fused silica glass plate was captured in a single shot and the dynamic evolution of the induced plasma was observed, verifying the application feasibility in ultrafast laser processing, providing experimental observations for interaction mechanism research and theoretical model optimization.