Single-shot ultrafast imaging attaining 70 trillion frames per second.

Real-time imaging of countless femtosecond dynamics requires extreme speeds orders of magnitude beyond the limits of electronic sensors. Existing femtosecond imaging modalities either require event repetition or provide single-shot acquisition with no more than 1013 frames per second (fps) and 3 × 102 frames. Here, we report compressed ultrafast spectral photography (CUSP), which attains several new records in single-shot multi-dimensional imaging speeds. In active mode, CUSP achieves both 7 × 1013 fps and 103 frames simultaneously by synergizing spectral encoding, pulse splitting, temporal shearing, and compressed sensing-enabling unprecedented quantitative imaging of rapid nonlinear light-matter interaction. In passive mode, CUSP provides four-dimensional (4D) spectral imaging at 0.5 × 1012 fps, allowing the first single-shot spectrally resolved fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (SR-FLIM). As a real-time multi-dimensional imaging technology with the highest speeds and most frames, CUSP is envisioned to play instrumental roles in numerous pivotal scientific studies without the need for event repetition.