The invention discloses a
femtosecond differential optical Kerr gate and an imaging device and method based on the optical Kerr gate. A probe light path is provided with a target to be detected, a scattering medium, the
femtosecond differential optical Kerr gate and two single-pulse triggering CCDs in sequence, wherein the
femtosecond differential optical Kerr gate is composed of a
polarizer, an optical Kerr medium, a first
beam splitting piece, two quarter-wave plates and two analyzers. The polarization direction of the
polarizer is the same as the polarization direction of femtosecond detecting
pulse light, the positive
heterodyne angle
ranging from 2 degrees to 5 degrees is formed by the polarization direction of one analyzer and the polarization vertical direction of the
polarizer, and the negative
heterodyne angle
ranging from 2 degrees to 5 degrees is formed by the polarization direction of the other analyzer and the polarization vertical direction of the polarizer. A switching light path is provided with a
half wave plate and an
optical delay line. The femtosecond switching
pulse light coincides with the femtosecond probe
pulse light in the optical Kerr medium. A positive
heterodyne single-pulse gating image and a negative heterodyne single-pulse gating image are obtained on the two single-pulse triggering CCDs respectively, subtraction is carried out on the two images to obtain a femtosecond differential optical Kerr gate single-pulse gating image of the target to be detected. The single-pulse imaging with the high
signal to
noise ratio is achieved, and the femtosecond differential optical Kerr gate and the imaging device and method based on the optical Kerr gate have the advantages that the
time resolution, the
image contrast and the
system resolution are high.