Single-shot real-time characterization of optical waveforms with
sub-picosecond resolution is essential for investigating various ultrafast
optical dynamics. However, the finite temporal recording length of current
techniques hinders comprehensive understanding of many intriguing ultrafast
optical phenomena that evolve over a time scale much longer than their fine
temporal details. Inspired by the space-time duality and by stitching of
multiple microscopic images to achieve a larger field of view in the spatial
domain, here a panoramic-reconstruction temporal imaging (PARTI) system is
devised to scale up the temporal recording length without sacrificing the
resolution. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, the PARTI system is applied to
study the dynamic waveforms of slowly-evolved dissipative Kerr solitons in an
ultrahigh-Q microresonator. Two 1.5-ns-long comprehensive evolution portraits
are reconstructed with 740-fs resolution and dissipative Kerr soliton
transition dynamics, in which a multiplet soliton state evolves into stable
singlet soliton state, are depicted
