Time-resolved infrared spectral photography.

A new technique for time-resolved (5-nsec) recording of broadband infrared absorption spectra is demonstrated. Resonantly enhanced, third-order nonlinearities of metal vapors are used both to produce a pulsed infrared continuum that interrogates the sample and to upconvert this infrared continuum into the visible. Single-shot absorption spectra of CO(2) and H(2)O bands in the region 2.55-2.85 microm were obtained.