ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ

A new imaging system could help us see deeper into the universe than ever before. The same powerful technology could also help us analyze the chemical makeup of everyday materials such as food and medicines much faster and with greater accuracy than current methods.

In a study in the journal Nature, researchers from Tsinghua University in China have introduced a tiny device called RAFAEL (Reconfigurable, Adaptive, FAst and Efficient Lithium-niobate spectro-imager) that uses advanced photonics to capture light in exceptional detail with high speed.

RAFAEL is designed to dramatically improve spectroscopy, the technique used to study the physical structure and chemical composition of matter. It is used for everything from mapping deep space to checking for contaminants in water and diagnosing diseases, and it works by breaking down the light that comes from an object and analyzing the different colors (wavelengths). While incredibly powerful, traditional spectrometers often face a trade-off: To get very fine detail you have to block much of the light. Or if you let in a lot of light, you lose resolution or sensitivity.

The researchers solved this problem by creating the RAFAEL chip, which replaces large, complex laboratory instruments with a tiny integrated system. They placed a layer of lithium niobate (a synthetic crystal known for its unique optical properties) on top of a standard camera chip. By applying a voltage, the system instantly changes the behavior of every pixel so each one encodes different wavelengths of light. Then powerful computer algorithms instantly decode the encoded image into a super-clear picture.

Testing RAFAEL

The team put RAFAEL through several performance tests to demonstrate its capabilities. In one, it achieved maximum clarity while capturing 73.2% of the light, making it twice as efficient as the best comparable imagers. They also integrated the chip with a commercial lens and pointed it at a region of the night sky. In a single, short exposure, it captured the high-resolution spectra of 5,600 stars, proving it can map the universe thousands of times faster and with greater sensitivity than existing instruments.

"RAFAEL breaks through the inherent trade-off among sensitivity, spectral resolution and observational efficiency, paving the way for high-performance yet integrated snapshot spectroscopy," wrote the researchers in their paper.

Despite the impressive performance, RAFAEL is still just a laboratory prototype and not ready for use just yet. Before it can be integrated into real-world devices, the researchers aim to enhance computational efficiency and reduce the overall system cost.

© 2025 Science X Network