Sensors (Feb 2024)

Exposure Time Control Method for Higher Intermediate Frequency in Optical Heterodyne Imaging and Its Application to Electric-Field Imaging Based on Electro-Optic Effect

  • Kiyotaka Sasagawa,
  • Ryoma Okada,
  • Yoshihiro Akamatsu,
  • Maya Mizuno,
  • Hironari Takehara,
  • Makito Haruta,
  • Hiroyuki Tashiro,
  • Jun Ohta

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/s24041249
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 24, no. 4
p. 1249

Abstract

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We propose and demonstrate a method for equivalent time sampling using image sensors to selectively detect only the target frequency. Shortening the exposure time of the image sensor and using equivalent time sampling allows for the detection of frequency components that are higher than the frame rate. However, the imaging system in our previous work was also sensitive to the frequency component at 1/4 of the frame rate. In this study, we control the phase relationship between the exposure time and observed signal by inserting an additional interval once every four frames to detect the target frequency selectively. With this technique, we conducted electric field imaging based on the electro-optic effect under high noise conditions in the low-frequency band to which the conventional method is sensitive. The results demonstrated that the proposed method improved the signal-to-noise ratio.

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