Multicolor time-resolved upconversion imaging by Adiabatic Sum Frequency Conversion

Abstract: Upconversion imaging, where mid infrared (IR) photons are converted to visible and near IR photons via a nonlinear crystal and detected on cheap and high-performance Silicon detectors, is an appealing method to address the limitations of thermal sensors which are expensive, often require cooling and suffer from both limited spectral response and limited spatial resolution as well as poor sensitivity. However, phase matching severely limits the spectral bandwidth of this technique therefore requiring serial acquisitions in order to cover a large spectrum. Here, we introduce a novel upconversion imaging scheme covering the mid IR based on adiabatic frequency conversion. We present a mid IR multicolor imaging and demonstrate simultaneous imaging on a CMOS camera of radiation spanning a spectrum from 2 to 4 \mu m. Our approach being coherent and ultrafast in essence, we further demonstrate spectrally resolved spatio-temporal imaging which allows spatially distinguishing the temporal evolution of spectral components.