Hyperspectral imaging device and method

Disclosed herein are a hyperspectral imaging device (1, 100, 200, 300, 400; 500; 600; 700; 800) and method. The device and method for hyperspectral imaging disclosed herein overcomes the technical problems of the prior art by replacing the intensity measurement performed by the single high-resolution 2D sensor of state-of-the-art methodologies, with the measurement of intensity (fluctuation) correlations retrieved by two high- resolution 2D sensors: one - the imaging/spatial sensor (4, 204, 304, 404; 504; 604; 704; 804) - dedicated to polychromatic image acquisition, the other - the spectral sensor (5, 205, 305, 405; 505; 605; 705; 805) - dedicated to pure spectral measurement. In hyperspectral correlation imaging according to the invention, the spectral information is encoded into the intensity correlation without requiring any spectral scanning. Even though multiple exposures (frames) are generally required to reconstruct light statistics and perform correlation measurements, the exposure times are several orders of magnitude shorter than those required in the scanning approach; in addition, no changes of the device are required during such multiple exposures: this simplifies the optics/optomechanics of the device (1, 100, 200, 300, 400; 500; 600; 700; 800) and avoids further time consumption.