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The use of ultrafast cylindrical vector vortex beams in laser–matter interactions permits new ablation features to be harnessed from inhomogeneous distributions of polarization and beam geometry. As a consequence, the ablation process can yield higher ablation efficiency compared with conventional Gaussian beams. These beams prevent surface quality degradation during the ablative processes. When processing stainless steel and titanium, the average surface roughness obtained by deploying the cylindrical vector is up to 94% lower than the Gaussian case, and the processing efficiency is 80% higher.

Femtosecond laser engraving offers appealing advantages compared to regular laser engraving such as higher precision and versatility. In particular, the inscription of deep patterns exhibits an increasing interest in industry. In this work, an optimization protocol based on constraining overlap ratio and scan number is demonstrated. The proposed method allows changing overlap ratio while maintaining depth in the same range, which reduces the sampling number. This study WAS applied to stainless steel 316 L and sapphire for engravings deeper than 100 μm. Results exhibit overall depths higher than threshold values and allowed to determine optimized engraving quality, for instance, roughness in steel can be reduced while maintaining depth and taper angle by reducing overlap ratio. The optimized laser parameters such as roughness and taper angle factors for sapphire were also found to be as follows: 200 kHz, 86% overlap and 12 J/cm2. As a demonstration, a logo engraving is illustrated at the end.

Photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) is an emerging imaging method combining light and sound. However, limited by the laser's repetition rate, state-of-the-art high-speed PAM technology often sacrifices spatial sampling density (i.e., undersampling) for increased imaging speed over a large field-of-view. Deep learning (DL) methods have recently been used to improve sparsely sampled PAM images; however, these methods often require time-consuming pre-training and large training dataset with ground truth. Here, we propose the use of deep image prior (DIP) to improve the image quality of undersampled PAM images. Unlike other DL approaches, DIP requires neither pre-training nor fully-sampled ground truth, enabling its flexible and fast implementation on various imaging targets. Our results have demonstrated substantial improvement in PAM images with as few as 1.4$\%$ of the fully sampled pixels on high-speed PAM. Our approach outperforms interpolation, is competitive with pre-trained supervised DL method, and is readily translated to other high-speed, undersampling imaging modalities.

Terahertz (THz) technology offers unique see-through imaging capability for various non-destructive inspection applications. In this work, we implemented a broadband continuous-wave THz imaging system to study technical issues related to the see-through imaging, including frequency-dependent resolution, material loss, and interference-induced artifacts. The interference-induced false contrast and artifacts were observed, which were suppressed by broadband imaging techniques adopting the homodyne signal amplification by interferometric setup to overcome the material loss.

Frontiers in physics 8, 568145 (2020). doi:10.3389/fphy.2020.568145, Published by Frontiers Media, Lausanne

Optoacoustic imaging is a medical imaging modality that uses optical excitation and acoustic detection to generate images of tissue structures based up optical absorption within a tissue sample. This imaging modality has been widely explored as a tool for a number of clinical applications, including cancer diagnosis and wound healing tracking. Recently, the optoacoustic imaging community has published a number of reports of hand-held optoacoustic imaging devices and platforms; these hand-held configurations improve the modality’s potential for commercial clinical implementation. Here, we review recent advancements in hand-held optoacoustic imaging platforms and methods, including recent pre-clinical applications, and we present an overview of the remaining limitations in optoacoustic imaging that must be addressed to increase the translation of the modality into commercial and clinical use. Keywords: Hand-held, Optoacoustic tomography, Photoacoustic microscopy, Multispectral, Raster scanning

Ancient wisdom and heritage of Southeast Asian countries were preserved in thousands of palm leaf manuscripts. Due to various factors like aging, insect bites, stains, etc., they are easily susceptible to deterioration. Hence preserving and digitizing such fragile documents is highly essential. Traditional scanning or camera-capturing of such documents suffer from multiple noise artifacts. A depth sensing approach is proposed to eliminate background noise for such manuscripts. The segmented characters extracted from Telugu palm scripts are further recognized using statistical approaches. The improved recognition accuracy is reported using the 3D feature (depth).

We propose a differential-type complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) sub-terahertz (THz) detector with a subthreshold preamplifier. The proposed detector improves the voltage responsivity and effective signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) using the subthreshold preamplifier, which is located between the differential detector device and main amplifier. The overall noise of the detector for the THz imaging system is reduced by the preamplifier because it diminishes the noise contribution of the main amplifier. The subthreshold preamplifier is self-biased by the output DC voltage of the detector core and has a dummy structure that cancels the DC offsets generated by the preamplifier itself. The 200 GHz detector fabricated using 0.25 μm CMOS technology includes a low drop-out regulator, current reference blocks, and an integrated antenna. A voltage responsivity of 2020 kV/W and noise equivalent power of 76 pW/√Hz are achieved using the detector at a gate bias of 0.5 V, respectively. The effective SNR at a 103 Hz chopping frequency is 70.9 dB with a 0.7 W/m² input signal power density. The dynamic range of the raster-scanned THz image is 44.59 dB.

Infrared (IR) spectromicroscopy, or chemical imaging, is an evolving technique that is poised to make significant contributions in the fields of biology and medicine. Recent developments in sources, detectors, measurement techniques and speciman holders have now made diffraction-limited Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) imaging of cellular chemistry in living cells a reality. The availability of bright, broadband IR sources and large area, pixelated detectors facilitate live cell imaging, which requires rapid measurements using non-destructive probes. In this work, we review advances in the field of FTIR spectromicroscopy that have contributed to live-cell two and three-dimensional IR imaging, and discuss several key examples that highlight the utility of this technique for studying the structure and chemistry of living cells.

Background In combined proton-carbon fixed-nozzle treatment facilities with raster scanning delivery, the scattering of proton pencil beams caused by nozzle elements and the relatively large nozzle-to-isocenter distance cause a beam broadening. This may pose limitations to the achievable dose conformity. One way to counteract this effect is by delivering the treatment in a position closer to the nozzle than the room isocenter. Purpose of this study was to assess the potential dosimetric benefit of such solution, in terms of dose conformity and normal tissue sparing, in intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) of intracranial tumors. Material and methods For 12 patients with intracranial lesions, IMPT-plans were created at two treatment positions: nozzle-to-treatment-isocenter distance: 100 cm (room isocenter) and nozzle-to-treatment-isocenter distance: 60 cm. The resulting plans were compared in terms of dose distributions, dose-volume histograms and selected dosimetric indexes. Results With comparable target coverage, statistically significant normal tissue sparing was achieved through the reduction of the distance between nozzle and treatment isocenter. The decrease in mean dose (Dmean) was 12.5% to the whole brain, 16.2% to the brainstem, 9.7% and 15.4% to the temporal lobes, 10.0% and 12.9% to the hippocampi, 11.8% and 12.5% to the optic nerves and 0.2% to the chiasm. The volume receiving at least 10% of the prescribed dose (V10%) was reduced by more than 10% for most organs at risk (OARs). The maximum dose (Dnear-max) values to most OARs remained without significant difference. Conclusion A reduced distance between nozzle and treatment isocenter leads to steeper lateral dose gradients and significantly reduces the volume of OARs adjacent to the target, which receives low to intermediate doses. Technical solutions shifting the treatment isocenter closer to the nozzle should be considered in clinical situations, where critical OARs are adjacent to the beam channel and where the integral dose should be minimized.

Full-field optical coherence tomography (FFOCT) acquires image data in parallel. It has a big advantage in high-speed imaging because 2-dimensional mechanical raster scanning in the sample arm, which is essentially needed in a common fiber-based OCT system, does not exist anymore. Swept-source FFOCT (SSFFOCT) further makes the system free of depth scanning that significantly increases the operation speed. National Instrument's LabVIEW is a powerful tool to fast develop optical-electronic systems which have motion/vision units, signal processing functions and easy-to-generate Graphic User Interface (GUI). In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of Labview program prepared for an SSFFOCT system. Basically, there are four modules of Labview programming in such a system: 1. Wavelength sweeping control; 2. Synchronized image grabbing; 3. SSFFOCT signal processing; 4. 3-dimensional tomogram displaying mode selection. A general graphic user interface is used to input the parameters and monitor all necessary data and curves. The tomographic images can be displayed at any given cutting direction. More details and examples are provided and discussed. © 2011 Copyright Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)., Photonics North 2011, May 16-18, 2011, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Series: Proceedings of SPIE; no. 8007

In photoelasticity, the method of obtaining the individual values of principal stresses/normal stresses separately is referred to as stress separation. Shear difference method is one of the widely used techniques for stress separation in digital photoelasticity. Normally a simple raster scanning approach is used in shear difference method in which stress separation is carried out for all the lines within the model domain by either row-wise horizontally or column-wise vertically starting from the boundary pixels. This requires the presence of a free boundary to start the integration scheme for every row of interest, which is not always possible in most of the practical problems. In order to overcome this, in this paper, an adaptive scanning scheme is proposed so that stress separation can be carried out even if there is only one free boundary pixel available in the model. The new scanning scheme is validated using the theoretically generated data for the problem of a ring subjected to internal pressure. Later, the applicability of this scheme is demonstrated by using two other example problems. � 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A high-frequency resonant horizontal scanner and a linearly driven vertical scanner at display frame rates can create a 2-D raster for video display. The combined motion of the two scanners forms a sinusoidal raster in the vertical direction where the raster line spacing is uniform only at the center and becomes progressively nonuniform towards the left and right edges of the display screen. Nonuniformities degrade the image quality and can be corrected by the addition of a third scanner to the system. Last year we reported the requirements and some of the early results in our MEMS-based raster correction scanner development effort. Since then, a lot of progress was made and the scanner was successfully incorporated into an SXGA resolution helmet-mounted display system. In this paper we report the results of thick copper coil development, new coil and magnet design for electromagnetic actuator, thermal flatness testing, new mounting design, and finally the performance measurements for the HMD system with a raster correction scanner., NA