Our research focuses on implementing laser modulation techniques in novel optical imaging devices. Currently, we are working on the following three areas:

1. Compressed ultrafast photography (CUP)
CUP is the world’s fastest receive-only camera. Synergistically combining compressed sensing and streak imaging, CUP can image transient events at 10 trillion frames per second with a single camera exposure. CUP’s operating principle consists of hardware-based image acquisition and software-based image reconstruction. CUP has led to many high-profile publications, including Nature (selected as the cover story), Science Advances, and Light: Science & Applications. CUP has also produced two patents licensed to Axis Photonique Inc.
INRSOur group is further advancing CUP technology from both technological development and novel applications. We are collaborating with groups in the Montreal area to apply CUP for physics and biomedicine applications. We are also working with Axis Photonique to commercialize this technique.
INRSSelected publications:
INRS1. Nature, 516 74-77 (2014). [PDF]
INRS2. Scientific Report 5, 15504 (2015). [PDF]
INRS3. Science Advances, 3 e0161814 (2017). [PDF]
INRS4. Light: Science & Applications, 7 42 (2018). [PDF]

2. Photoacoustic tomography (PAT)
PAT has emerged as an attractive technique for label-free imaging in deep biological tissue. In PAT, an expanded pulsed laser beam diffuses into biological tissue and generates a small but rapid temperature rise, which causes the emission of ultrasonic waves as a result of thermoelastic expansion. The short-wavelength ultrasonic waves are then detected to form high-resolution tomographic images.
INRSOf particular interest in our group is to integrate laser modulation techniques into PAT to significantly improve the system performance. We are also collaborating with biologists and physicists in Montreal area to explore novel applications of PAT.
INRSSelected publications:
INRS1. Optics Letters 39, 430-433 (2014). [PDF]
INRS2. Optics Letters 38, 2683-2686 (2013). [PDF]
INRS3.Journal of Biomedical Optics18 (9), 096004 (2013). [PDF]

3. High-precision laser beam shaping
Precisely shaping the laser beam to desired profiles is of great significance in physics. We developed a coded-aperture-imaging-based high-precision laser beam shaper, which can shape an incident laser pulse into arbitrary patterns with unprecedented intensity accuracy. This technique has been adopted by many research groups in condensed matter physics for the generation of programmable optical potentials. It has contributed recent breakthrough in Bose-Einstein condensation.
INRSWe are continuing exploring novel applications of this technique in laser physics, condensed matter physics, and metrology.
INRSSelected publications:
INRS1. Applied Optics 49,1323-1330 (2010). [PDF]
INRS2. Optical Engineering 51, 108201 (2012). [PDF]
INRS3. Optics Express 21, 32013-32018 (2013). [PDF]