Dynamic brain spectrum acquired by a real-time ultraspectral imaging chip with reconfigurable metasurfaces

Spectral imaging paves the way for various fields, particularly in biomedical research. However, spectral imaging, mainly depending on spatial or temporal scanning, cannot achieve high temporal, spatial, and spectral resolution simultaneously. In this study, we demonstrated a silicon real-time ultraspectral imaging chip based on reconfigurable metasurfaces, comprising 155,216 ( 356 × 436 ) image-adaptive microspectrometers with ultra-high center-wavelength accuracy of 0.04 nm and spectral resolution of 0.8 nm. It is employed for imaging brain hemodynamics, and the dynamic spectral absorption properties of deoxyhemoglobin and oxyhemoglobin in a rat barrel cortex were obtained, which enlighten spectroscopy in vivo studies and other real-time applications.