Search

Passive polarimetric imaging has gained substantial attention over the past three decades in various applications in defense. The complexity of polarimetry modeling and measurement in the thermal infrared exceeds that of the visible and near-infrared due to the complementary polarization orientation of reflected and emitted radiance. This paper presents a comprehensive polarimetric radiance model and a degree of linear polarization (DOLP) model, both of which are specifically tailored for the infrared spectrum, accounting for both reflected and emitted radiance. Building on this foundation, we conduct an analysis and simulation of the DOLP's variation as the object temperature changes. This analysis enables the observation of relationships that can be strategically utilized in subsequent experiments focused on measuring polarized model parameters. To mitigate the influence of reflected radiance components, the samples are subjected to high temperatures. The observed Stokes images from the sample surfaces are normalized to eliminate the dependence of each Stokes image on temperature. This parameters acquisition measurement method is particularly well-suited for refractories. Finally, the efficacy of the polarized model parameters acquisition technique is demonstrated through experiments involving three distinct refractory materials in the MWIR.

The line optical tweezers (LOT) has been proven to be an alternative technique to manipulating the biological cells because of the bigger potential compared with traditional optical tweezers with a highly focused spot. We deduce the 4 × 4 optical matrix of the astigmatic LOT to investigate the optical characteristics related to the systematic parameters. The comparison of the initial and scattered electric fields by the cell under the astigmatic and stigmatic LOT is implemented to illustrate that the forward scattered light from the astigmatic LOT is much stronger than that from the stigmatic LOT, so as to the cell deformations. It is demonstrated that the astigmatic LOT could provide a more efficient way to deform the cell not only in the focal plane, but also along the optical axis to screen large biomaterials in biomechanics.

Passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC) as a zero-energy consumption cooling method has broad application potential. Common commercial crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cell arrays suffer working efficiency loss due to the incident light loss and overheating. In this work, a radiative cooler with PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) film and embedded SiO 2 microparticles was proposed to use in silicon solar cells. Both anti-reflection and radiative cooling performance can be improved through numerical parametric study. For the best performing of PDMS/SiO 2 radiative cooler, the thickness of PDMS layer, volume fraction and radius of the embedded SiO 2 particles have been determined as 55 µm, 8% and 500 nm, respectively. 94% of emissivity in first atmospheric window band (8-13 µm) for radiative cooling and 93.4% of solar transmittance at the crystalline silicon absorption band (0.3-1.1 µm) were achieved. We estimated that the PDMS/SiO 2 radiative cooler can lower the temperature of a bare c-Si solar cell by 9.5°C, which can avoid 4.28% of efficiency loss. More incident light can enter and be utilized by silicon layer to enhance the efficiency of the solar cells. The proposed difunctional radiative cooling coating may become guidance for next generation encapsulation of crystalline silicon solar cells.

This paper proposes a deep learning method for phase retrieval from two interferograms. The proposed method converts phase retrieval into the Zernike coefficient extraction problem, which can achieve Zernike coefficient extraction from two interferograms with random phase shifts. After knowing Zernike coefficients, the phase distribution can be retrieved using Zernike polynomials. The pre-filtering and phase unwrapping process are not required using the proposed method. The simulated data are analyzed, and the root mean square (RMS) of phase error reaches 0.01 λ. The effectiveness of the method is verified by the measured data.

We demonstrate the first application of a Cr:CdSe laser for highly-sensitive multicomponent intracavity absorption spectroscopy around λ = 3.1-3.4 µm. A detection scheme based on an integrated recording of multiple (∼70) individual Cr:CdSe laser pulses after a single pump-pulse excitation is reported. The sensitivity of our system corresponds to an effective absorption path length of L eff ≈ 850 m. Exemplary measurements of atmospheric H 2 O and CH 4 , and additionally introduced gas-phase HCl, C 2 H 4 , or C 2 H 6 are presented. The achieved noise-equivalent detection limits are in the ppb range. Possibilities for further sensitivity enhancement by up to a factor of 10 4 are discussed.

We explore, both by numerical simulations and experimentally, the flexibility in controlling Bessel beam parameters by re-imaging it into transparent material with a demagnifying collimator for the formation of high-aspect ratio nanochannels. Analysis of nanochannels produced by in-house precision-made axicon with 275 fs pulses in sapphire reveals the intensity threshold of ∼7.2 × 10 13 W/cm 2 required to create the cylindrical microexplosion. We estimate that the maximum applied pressure during the process was 1.5 TPa and that the resulting density of compressed sapphire in the nanochannel's shells are ∼1.19 ± 0.02 times higher than the pristine crystal, and higher than what was achieved before in spherical microexplosion with Gaussian pulses.

Vibration measurement, particularly mode shape measurement, is an important aspect of structural dynamic analysis since it can validate finite element or analytical vibration models. Scanning laser Doppler vibrometry (LDV) and high-speed digital image correlation have become dominant methods for experimental mode shape measurement. However, these methods have high equipment costs and several disadvantages regarding spatial or temporal performance. This paper proposes a laser Doppler vibrometer induced stroboscopic digital image correction for non-contact mode shape and operational deflection shape measurement. Our results verify that single-point LDV and normal rate cameras can be used obtain high spatial resolution mode shape and operational deflection shape. Measurement frequency range is much higher than the camera capturing rate. We also show that the proposed approach coincides well with time-averaged electronic speckle pattern interferometry.

We demonstrate an intracavity absorption spectroscopy system based on a broadband single-crystal pulsed Fe:ZnSe laser. The laser operates at room-temperature and is continuously tunable in the spectral range of 3.76-5.29 µm. The long-wavelength emission up to 5.29 µm is a record achievement for Fe:ZnSe lasers, to the best of our knowledge. The developed laser system is applied for measurements of gaseous absorption inside the laser resonator. We demonstrate sensitive detection of (i) CO 2 isotopes in the atmosphere and in human breath, (ii) CO in breath (after cigarette smoking) and in the smoke of a smoldering paper, and (iii) N 2 O in a gas flow. The achieved detection limits are: 0.1 ppm for 12 CO 2 and 13 CO 2 , 3 ppm for CO, and 1 ppm for N 2 O. The sensitivity of the current system is primarily limited by the short pump-pulse duration of 40 ns. Possibilities for sensitivity enhancement by up to a factor of 10 7 are discussed.

True-time delays are important building blocks in modern radio frequency systems that can be implemented using integrated microwave photonics, enabling higher carrier frequencies, improved bandwidths, and a reduction in size, weight, and power. Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) offers optically-induced continuously tunable delays and is thus ideal for applications that require programmable reconfiguration but previous approaches have been limited by large SBS gain requirements. Here, we overcome this limitation by using radio-frequency interferometry to enhance the Brillouin-induced delay applied to the optical sidebands that carry RF signals, while controlling the phase of the optical carrier with integrated silicon nitride microring resonators. We report a delay tunability over 600 ps exploiting an enhancement factor of 30, over a bandwidth of 1 GHz using less than 1 dB of Brillouin gain utilizing a photonic chip architecture based on Brillouin scattering and microring resonators.

Besides traditional lens-based imaging techniques, coded aperture imaging (CAI) can also provide target images but without using any optical lenses, therefore it is another solution in imaging applications. Most CAI methods reconstruct target image only from a single-shot coded image using a fixed coding mask; however, the collected partial information inevitably deteriorates the reconstruction quality. Though multi-exposure CAI methods are designed, these existed algorithms can hardly improve reconstruction signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and spatial resolution simultaneously; additionally, dynamic coding mask display still requires expensive devices and complicated systems. In order to reconstruct target image with both enhanced spatial resolution and SNR but using cost-effective devices and a simple system, we design a noise reduced dynamic synthetic coded aperture imaging camera (NoRDS-CAIC) in this paper. The NoRDS-CAIC only consists of a programmable liquid crystal display (LCD) and an image recorder, and both of them are integrated with a three-dimensional printed shell with the compact size of 19 cm × 15 cm × 16 cm and controlled by our designed software to automatically realize coding mask display, coded image recording and target image reconstruction. When using the NoRDS-CAIC, the optimized coding mask is first sent to the programmable LCD and displayed, then the corresponding coded image is automatically captured using the image recorder. Next, cycle the above procedures to capture enough coded images with previously known coding masks and measured point spread functions (PSFs), and the target image can be finally reconstructed using our designed NoRDS-CAIC decoding algorithm, which is shown with better noise suppression capability and higher reconstruction resolution compared to other classical CAI algorithms. According to the experimental verifications, the NoRDS-CAIC can reach the high resolution of 99.2 µm and the high SNR of 19.43 dB, proving that the designed NoRDS-CAIC can be potentially used for lensless imaging in practical applications.

An approach for generating cycloidal pattern of liquid crystal (LC) molecules based on interference-free and single exposure is illustrated. The spatial manipulation of polarization state is achieved using birefringent prism and wave plates. And then, the spatially variant polarization of exposure beam is transferred to LC molecules by azo-dye photo-sensitive layer. Consequently, the LC samples fabricated shows periodically cycloidal texture and diffraction efficiency more than 99%. The measured period Λ and diffraction angle are in good consistency with theoretical results. Thus, this exposure method provides an effective and robust way for fabricating large-area LC elements, therefore paving the way for widespread applications of high-performance diffractive LC devices.

In this paper, we propose a design utilizing two identically parallel-aligned nematic liquid crystal (LC) plates for fast-response and polarization-independent phase modulator. Driven by synchronized voltage signals, such a polarizer-free variable phase modulator shows a wide tunable range from zero to more than 3π, back and forth at 532nm. Due to the optical compensation of the two plates, the rise and fall time of the phase retardation corresponds to the switching-on time of the two plates. Several advantages are illustrated based on the optical compensation of two identical parallel-aligned plates. First, zero phase retardation is obtained, which overcomes the residual phase due to surfaced anchored liquid crystal molecules. The second advantage is sub-millisecond response of rise and fall of retardation since simultaneous relaxation of the two plates remains optically hidden during the synchronized voltages fall. This fast-response and polarization-independent phase modulator has great potential for practical use, including optical communications and light field imaging systems.

We report Er-doped Ge-Ga-Se films and waveguides deposited using co-thermal evaporation and patterned with plasma etching. Strong photoluminescence at 1.54 µm with intrinsic lifetime of 1 ms was obtained from deposited films with 1490 nm excitation. Erbium population inversion up to 50% was achieved, with a maximum of ~55% possible at saturation for the first time to the author's knowledge, approaching the theoretical maximum of 65%. Whilst gain was not achieved due to the presence of upconversion pumped photoinduced absorption, this nonetheless represents a further important step towards the realization of future chalcogenide Erbium doped waveguide amplifiers at 1550 nm and in the Mid-infrared.

A novel method for registering imagery with Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) data is proposed. It is based on the phenomenon that the back-projection of LiDAR point cloud of an object should be located within the object boundary in the image. Using this inherent geometrical constraint, the registration parameters computation of both data sets only requires LiDAR point clouds of several objects and their corresponding boundaries in the image. The proposed registration method comprises of four steps: point clouds extraction, boundary extraction, back-projection computation and registration parameters computation. There are not any limitations on the geometrical and spectral properties of the object. So it is suitable not only for structured scenes with man-made objects but also for natural scenes. Moreover, the proposed method based on the inherent geometrical constraint can register two data sets derived from different parts of an object. It can be used to co-register TLS (Terrestrial Laser Scanning) LiDAR point cloud and UAV (Unmanned aerial vehicle) image, which are obtaining more attention in the forest survey application. Using initial registration parameters comparable to POS (position and orientation system) accuracy, the performed experiments validated the feasibility of the proposed registration method.

Using both acoustic-optic (AO) Q-switcher and GaAs saturable absorber, a diode-pumped doubly Q-switched Nd:YVO4/KTP green laser is realized for the first time to our knowledge. This laser can generate a symmetric and shorter pulse when compared with purely AO and passive Qswitching. A rate equation model is introduced to theoretically analyze the results obtained in the experiment, in which the spatial distributions of the intracavity photon density, the pump beam and the population-inversion density are taken into account. The numerical solutions of the rate equations are in good agreement with the experimental results.