Synchrotron Radiation and Imaging IR

New IR focal plane array (FPA) detectors implemented at ultra-bright SR facilities will extend performance and overcome the existing limitations, possibly allowing the achievement within the next few years of the ultimate sensitivity necessary for high contrast molecular imaging. 

Infrared imaging was originally developed for remote sensing for military purposes, later applied for astronomical applications and only in the early 1990s for pioneering IR spectroscopical applications. Spectral images collected with FPAs, or by scanning with linear arrays, are a three-dimensional 

In fact, confocal single element mapping aehieves higher spatial resolution than apertureless imaging systems sueh as FPA, in particular when dealing with extremely brilliant SR sources. However, not all experiments need the ultimate resolution and, as addressed by reeent experimental data, SR emission is characterized by a sufficient photon flux density to illuminate the array detector in order to operate with a high S/N.  

The massive and fast data collection of array detectors enables a drastic reduction in the image acquisition time. For example an nxn pixel FPA detector may provide up to an time saving compared with a single element detector, e.g. if = 64 a gain of more than three orders of magnitude can be obtained with read out around 1 kHz and noise characteristics similar to single element detector acquisition. 

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