An assembly (12) for rapid thermal data acquisition of a sample (10) includes a laser source (14), a light sensing device (26), and a control system (28). The laser source (14) emits a laser beam (16) that is directed at the sample (10), the laser beam (16) including a plurality of pulses (233). The light sensing device (26) senses mid-infrared light from the sample (10), the light sensing device (26) including a pixel array (348). The control system (28) controls the light sensing device (26) to capture a plurality of sequential readouts (402) from the pixel array (348) with a substantially steady periodic readout acquisition rate 405. The control system (28) can generate a spectral cube (13) using information from the readouts (402).