Integral Photography Technique for Three-Dimensional Imaging of Dusty Plasmas

The integral photography technique has an advantage in which instantaneous three-dimensional (3D) information of objects can be estimated from a single-exposure picture obtained from a single viewing port. Recently, the technique has come into use for scientific research in diverse fields and has been applied to observe fine particles floating in plasma. The principle of integral photography technique and a design of a light-field camera for dusty plasma experiments are reported. The important parameters of the system, dependences of the size of the imaging area, and the spatial resolution on the number of lenses, pitch, and focal length of the lens array are calculated. Designed recording and reconstruction system is tested with target particles located on known positions and found that it works well in the range of dusty plasma experiment. By applying the integral photography technique to the obtained experimental image array, the 3D positions of dust particles floating in an RF plasma are identified.