A lateral super-resolution differential confocal technology with phase-only pupil filter

In order to achieve a higher lateral resolution required for ultraprecision measurement of microstructural workpieces, phase-only pupil filtering differential confocal microscopy (PFDCM), a new approach is proposed based on the differential confocal microscopy (DCM), which uses a three-zone phase-only pupil filter with lateral super-resolution capability obtained through optimized design to change the distribution of DCM three-dimensional point spread function, so that the DCM lateral resolution is therefore significantly improved while its axial resolution is slightly improved. Preliminary experimental comparison and analyses indicate that, the lateral and axial resolutions of PFDCM are better than 0.2 μm and 2 nm, respectively, when wavelength of incidence laser beam , numerical aperture of measuring lens NA=0.85, and lateral spot size with a three-zone phase-only pupil filter G_T=0.65. It is therefore concluded that PFDCM is a new approach to further improvement of lateral resolution in laser probe measurement systems.     

Deconvolution of vibroacoustic images using a simulation model based on a three dimensional point spread function

Vibro-acoustography (VA) is a medical imaging method based on the difference-frequency generation produced by the mixture of two focused ultrasound beams. VA has been applied to different problems in medical imaging such as imaging bones, microcalcifications in the breast, mass lesions, and calcified arteries. The obtained images may have a resolution of 0.7–0.8 mm. Current VA systems based on confocal or linear array transducers generate C-scan images at the beam focal plane. Images on the axial plane are also possible, however the system resolution along depth worsens when compared to the lateral one. Typical axial resolution is about 1.0 cm. Furthermore, the elevation resolution of linear array systems is larger than that in lateral direction. This asymmetry degrades C-scan images obtained using linear arrays. The purpose of this article is to study VA image restoration based on a 3D point spread function (PSF) using classical deconvolution algorithms: Wiener, constrained least-squares (CLSs), and geometric mean filters. To assess the filters’ performance on the restored images, we use an image quality index that accounts for correlation loss, luminance and contrast distortion. Results for simulated VA images show that the quality index achieved with the Wiener filter is 0.9 (when the index is 1.0 this indicates perfect restoration). This filter yielded the best result in comparison with the other ones. Moreover, the deconvolution algorithms were applied to an experimental VA image of a phantom composed of three stretched 0.5 mm wires. Experiments were performed using transducer driven at two frequencies, 3075 kHz and 3125 kHz, which resulted in the difference-frequency of 50 kHz. Restorations with the theoretical line spread function (LSF) did not recover sufficient information to identify the wires in the images. However, using an estimated LSF the obtained results displayed enough information to spot the wires in the images. It is demonstrated that the phase of the theoretical and the experimental PSFs are dissimilar. This fact prevents VA image restoration with the current theoretical PSF. This study is a preliminary step towards understanding the restoration of VA images through the application of deconvolution filters.     

Fiber-based chromatic confocal microscope with Gaussian fitting method

The chromatic confocal microscopy is an effective method for displacement measurement. However, with relatively low detection efficiency, chromatic confocal systems from previous studies suffer from either a limited measuring range or an unsatisfying resolution. In this paper, a novel chromatic confocal system is proposed based on optical fiber with large diameter that is specifically chosen to allow more light to be detected, thus greatly improving the detection efficiency of the system. To accurately locate the peak wavelength of the recorded spectrum, four data processing methods are proposed and compared, within which the Gaussian fitting model is considered best for the system. A series of experiments are done to verify the feasibility, resolution and stability of the system. An applicable measuring range of 600 μm is discovered with a highly linear range of 400 μm. The system has a high resolution close to 0.10 μm with satisfying stability shown by a long-term displacement standard deviation of 0.16 μm.     

Sequential beamforming for synthetic aperture imaging

Synthetic aperture sequential beamforming (SASB) is a novel technique which allows to implement synthetic aperture beamforming on a system with a restricted complexity, and without storing RF-data. The objective is to improve lateral resolution and obtain a more depth independent resolution compared to conventional ultrasound imaging. SASB is a two-stage procedure using two separate beamformers. The initial step is to construct and store a set of B-mode image lines using a single focal point in both transmit and receive. The focal points are considered virtual sources and virtual receivers making up a virtual array. The second stage applies the focused image lines from the first stage as input data, and take advantage of the virtual array in the delay and sum beamforming. The size of the virtual array is dynamically expanded and the image is dynamically focused in both transmit and receive and a range independent lateral resolution is obtained. The SASB method has been investigated using simulations in Field II and by off-line processing of data acquired with a commercial scanner. The lateral resolution increases with a decreasing F#. Grating lobes appear if F# ⩽ 2 for a linear array with λ-pitch. The performance of SASB with the virtual source at 20 mm and F# = 1.5 is compared with conventional dynamic receive focusing (DRF). The axial resolution is the same for the two methods. For the lateral resolution there is improvement in FWHM of at least a factor of 2 and the improvement at −40 dB is at least a factor of 3. With SASB the resolution is almost constant throughout the range. For DRF the FWHM increases almost linearly with range and the resolution at −40 dB is fluctuating with range. The theoretical potential improvement in SNR of SASB over DRF has been estimated. An improvement is attained at the entire range, and at a depth of 80 mm the improvement is 8 dB.     

Spatially variant regularization of lateral displacement measurement using variance

The purpose of this work is to confirm the effectiveness of our proposed spatially variant displacement component-dependent regularization for our previously developed ultrasonic two-dimensional (2D) displacement vector measurement methods, i.e., 2D cross-spectrum phase gradient method (CSPGM), 2D autocorrelation method (AM), and 2D Doppler method (DM). Generally, the measurement accuracy of lateral displacement spatially varies and the accuracy is lower than that of axial displacement that is accurate enough. This inaccurate measurement causes an instability in a 2D shear modulus reconstruction. Thus, the spatially variant lateral displacement regularization using the lateral displacement variance will be effective in obtaining an accurate lateral strain measurement and a stable shear modulus reconstruction than a conventional spatially uniform regularization. The effectiveness is verified through agar phantom experiments. The agar phantom [60 mm (height) × 100 mm (lateral width) × 40 mm (elevational width)] that has, at a depth of 10 mm, a circular cylindrical inclusion (dia. = 10 mm) of a higher shear modulus (2.95 and 1.43 × 10⁶ N/m², i.e., relative shear modulus, 2.06) is compressed in the axial direction from the upper surface of the phantom using a commercial linear array type transducer that has a nominal frequency of 7.5-MHz. Because a contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) expresses the detectability of the inhomogeneous region in the lateral strain image and further has almost the same sense as that of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for strain measurement, the obtained results show that the proposed spatially variant lateral displacement regularization yields a more accurate lateral strain measurement as well as a higher detectability in the lateral strain image (e.g., CNRs and SNRs for 2D CSPGM, 2.36 vs 2.27 and 1.74 vs 1.71, respectively). Furthermore, the spatially variant lateral displacement regularization yields a more stable and more accurate 2D shear modulus reconstruction than the uniform regularization (however, for the regularized relative shear modulus reconstructions, slightly accurate, e.g., for 2D CSPGM, 1.51 vs 1.50). These results indicate that the spatially variant displacement component-dependent regularization will enable the 2D shear modulus reconstruction to be used as practical diagnostic and monitoring tools for the effectiveness of various noninvasive therapy techniques of soft tissue diseases (e.g., breast, liver cancers). Application of the regularization to the elevational displacement will also increase the stability of a three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction.     

Effect of an annular pupil filter on differential confocal microscopy

Combining differential confocal microscopy and an annular pupil filter, we obtained the normalized axial intensity distribution curve of an optical system. We used the sharp slopes of the axial response curve of the optical system to measure the surface profile of a reflection grating. Experimental results prove that this method can extend the axial dynamic range and improve the transverse resolution of three-dimensional profilometry by sacrificing axial resolution.     

An optical system incorporating gradient-index lens for confocal inspection

A differential confocal measurement system features high lateral resolution and depth-discriminated sections. In comparison with conventional lens, gradient-index lens is lighter in weight, smaller in volume and easy to couple. In order to facilitate the measurement of a small irregular surface in a limited space, a small optical inspection system is presented, which combines the high axial resolution and absolute position tracking capability of a differential confocal microscopy and the compact design of gradient-index lens, and uses gradient-index lens to obtain a small detector of 1 mm in diameter. The operating principle and construction of the measurement system are detailed. The differential design of the two detectors eliminates both the fluctuation of light source and the electronic noise from probes, and increases the axial resolution as well.     

Temperature sensing using the spectral interference of polarization modes in a highly birefringent fiber

The spectral interference of polarization modes in a highly birefringent (HB) fiber to measure temperature is analyzed theoretically and experimentally. A tandem configuration of a birefringent delay line and a sensing HB fiber is considered and the spectral interferograms are modelled for the known birefringence dispersion of the HB fiber under test. As the delay line, a birefringent quartz crystal of a suitable thickness is employed to resolve a channeled spectrum. The channeled spectra are recorded for different temperatures and the polarimetric sensitivity to temperature, determined in the spectral range from 500 to 850 nm, is decreasing with wavelength. It is demonstrated that the temperature sensing is possible using the wavelength interrogation, i.e., the position of a given interference maximum is temperature dependent. The temperature sensitivity of the HB fiber under test is −0.25 nm/K and the resolution is better than 0.5 K.     

Three-dimensional space charge cartographies by FLIMM in electron irradiated polymers

High resolution three-dimensional space charge cartographies obtained on 50 μm PTFE samples by using FLIMM technique are presented in this article. Samples were irradiated by a 30 keV electron beam. Charges were injected according to the grid pattern put on the sample during irradiation. A new measurement strategy associated with a new set-up leads to an improvement in measurements accuracy and precision. With this new strategy, measurements were performed rapidly, at a chosen depth and with a low lateral resolution in order to map the space charge profile in the whole sample and to choose a study area. After selecting an interesting area, space charge cartographies were carried out with a very high lateral resolution of about 1 μm. The irradiated zones according to the grid pattern were well reconstructed and the injection depth did not exceed 4 μm.     

Improvement of confocal microscope performance by shaped annular beam and heterodyne confocal techniques

In order to further improve the performance of a confocal microscope (CM) used for measurement of surface profiles and 3D microstructures, a shaped annular beam heterodyne confocal measurement method based on annular pupil filter technique and reflection confocal microscopy, is proposed to expand the measurement range and to improve the defocused property of CM. The approach proposed uses a confocal dual-receiving light path arrangement and a heterodyne subtraction of two signals received from detectors with axial offset to enable CM to be used for bipolar absolute measurement and to improve the defocused property of CM, and it uses the annular pupil filter technique to produce a binary optical shaped annular beam, which expands the measurement range by expanding the full-width at half-maximum of intensity curve received from two detectors in a heterodyne confocal microscopy system. Theoretical analyses and experimental results indicate that a shaped annular beam heterodyne microscope has a measurement range expanded from 4 to 14 μm, achieved an axial resolution of 2 nm and improved the defocused property, when ε=0.5 and NA=0.65. It can be therefore concluded that the shaped annular beam heterodyne confocal measuring method proposed is a new approach to ultraprecision measurement of surface profiles and 3D microstructures.     

High spatial resolution imaging in a clipping Kagomé lattice photonic crystal

In this paper, a two-dimensional Kagomé lattice photonic crystal (PC) made of GaAs (ɛ = 12.96) dielectric rods in air is considered. This Kagomé lattice PC has an effective refractive index n_eff = −1 at a low normalized frequency ω = 0.187 × 2πc/a. Imaging quality and the capability of the super-resolution of two point sources are studied for a superlens made of such PC structure. In order to achieve a high quality image and to improve the spatial super-resolution of two sources, a clipping Kagomé lattice PC is designed. Results simulated by finite-difference time-domain method show that imaging quality and super-resolution of two sources can be enhanced greatly as the perfect Kagomé lattice structure are superseded by the clipping Kagomé lattice structure. Coupled-mode theory analysis gives an explanation why the clipping structure is superior to the perfect one for both the imaging quality and the capability of the super-resolution of two sources. This clipping Kagomé lattice PC structure would be widely used in optical devices and integrated circuit.     

改善共焦系统轴向分辨率的位相型光瞳滤波器

利用约束全局优化算法———CGO算法,设计了两种用于共焦系统的三区位相型光瞳滤波器.第一种滤波器在不改变系统的横向分辨率的同时,可以大幅度地提高轴向分辨率,提高了系统的层析能力.第二种滤波器在提高系统轴向分辨率的同时,又能提高其横向分辨率,适用于系统的三维成像. 关键词： CGO算法 光瞳滤波器 超分辨     

Designing superresolution optical pupil filter with constrained global optimization algorithm

In this paper, a new method for designing three-zone optical pupil filter is presented. The phase-only optical pupil filter and the amplitude-only optical pupil filters were designed. The first kind of pupil for optical data storage can increase the transverse resolution. The second kind of pupil filter can increase the axial and transverse resolution at the same time, which is applicable in three-dimension imaging in confocal microscopy.     

Frequency compounded imaging with a high-frequency dual element transducer

This paper proposes a frequency compounding method to reduce speckle interferences, where a concentric annular type high-frequency dual element transducer is used to broaden the bandwidth of an imaging system. In frequency compounding methods, frequency division is carried out to obtain sub-band images containing uncorrelated speckles, which sacrifices axial resolution. Therefore, frequency compounding often deteriorates the target-detecting capability, quantified by the total signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), when the speckle’s SNR (SSNR) is not improved as much as the degraded axial resolution. However, this could be avoided if the effective bandwidth required for frequency compounding is increased. The primary goal of the proposed approach, hence, is to improve SSNR by a factor of two under the condition where axial resolution is degraded by a factor of less than two, which indicates the total SNR improvement to higher than 40% compared to that of an original image. Since the method here employs a dual element transducer operating at 20 and 40 MHz, the effective bandwidth necessary for frequency compounding becomes broadened. By dividing each spectrum of RF samples from both elements into two sub-bands, this method eventually enables four sets of the sub-band samples to contain uncorrelated speckles. This causes the axial resolution to be reduced by a factor of as low as 1.85, which means that this method would improve total SNR by at least 47%. An in vitro experiment on an excised pig eye was performed to validate the proposed approach, and the results showed that the SSNR was improved from 2.081 ± 0.365 in the original image to 4.206 ± 0.635 in the final compounding image.     

Evaluation of thermal load during laser corneal refractive surgery using infrared thermography

Infrared thermography is used for evaluation of the mean temperature as a measure of thermal load during corneal refractive surgery. An experimental method to determine emissivity and to calibrate the thermografic system is presented. In a case study on the porcine eye two dimensional temperature distributions with lateral resolution of 170 μm and line scans with temporal resolution of 13 μs are discussed with respect to the meaning of mean temperature. Using the newest generation of surgery equipment it is shown, that the mean temperature rise can be kept below 5 °C during myopic laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) treatments corresponding to an aberration-free correction of ?2.75 diopter.     

A new electro-optic modulated circular heterodyne interferometer for measuring the rotation angle in a chiral medium

A new optical polarimeter capable of measuring the rotation angle in a chiral medium is developed successfully, and is an extension of previously developed simultaneous or sequential measurement system of the principal axis and retardance in linearly birefringent materials. The polarimeter for measuring the rotation angle is based on an electro-optic modulated circular heterodyne interferometer and using phase-lock technique to measure the rotation angle directly and precisely. The validity of the proposed design is demonstrated by the measurement of rotation angle in a half-wave plate and the glucose sample. The average relative error in rotation angle level of 0.00284° has been obtained for a half-wave plate. A correlation coefficient value of 0.9999975 is determined; it indicates a highly linear relationship between the reference values and the measured rotation angles. Moreover, a standard deviation in rotation angle level of 0.005275° has been obtained for glucose solutions with concentrations ranging from 0 to 1.2 g/dl in 0.2 g/dl increments, with a correlation coefficient value of 0.99915 between the reference and the measured values. This setup is compact in configuration, and is easy in calibration. The linearity and resolution characteristics of this system are comparable to those previous studies adopting phase-sensitive techniques.     

径向双折射滤波器的超分辨性能研究

超分辨技术因其可以超越经典的衍射极限而为人们所熟知．并且．在光存储和共焦扫描成像系统中有着广泛的应用。把由两个偏振器和一个圆对称的双折射元件组成的径向双折射滤波器引入超分辨技术,借助琼斯算法推导出其光瞳函数的表达式。由分析得出通过改变径向双折射滤波器中偏振器的偏振方向和双折射元件的主轴之间的夹角,即可实现光学系统的横向超分辨或轴向超分辨。同时对评价该器件超分辨性能的参量第一零点比、斯特尔比和旁瓣强度抑制比做了详细的讨论。该滤波器用于超分辨技术的优点在于其制作不涉及相位的变化而比较简单,且费用比较低。缺点是旁瓣能量过高,但可以通过采用共焦系统来抑制。     

Principal component analysis of shear strain effects

Shear stresses are always present during quasi-static strain imaging, since tissue slippage occurs along the lateral and elevational directions during an axial deformation. Shear stress components along the axial deformation axes add to the axial deformation while perpendicular components introduce both lateral and elevational rigid motion and deformation artifacts into the estimated axial and lateral strain tensor images. A clear understanding of these artifacts introduced into the normal and shear strain tensor images with shear deformations is essential. In addition, signal processing techniques for improved depiction of the strain distribution is required. In this paper, we evaluate the impact of artifacts introduced due to lateral shear deformations on the normal strain tensors estimated by varying the lateral shear angle during an axial deformation. Shear strains are quantified using the lateral shear angle during the applied deformation. Simulation and experimental validation using uniformly elastic and single inclusion phantoms were performed. Variations in the elastographic signal-to-noise and contrast-to-noise ratios for axial deformations ranging from 0% to 5%, and for lateral deformations ranging from 0 to 5° were evaluated. Our results demonstrate that the first and second principal component strain images provide higher signal-to-noise ratios of 20 dB with simulations and 10 dB under experimental conditions and contrast-to-noise ratio levels that are at least 20 dB higher when compared to the axial and lateral strain tensor images, when only lateral shear deformations are applied. For small axial deformations, the lateral shear deformations significantly reduces strain image quality, however the first principal component provides about a 1–2 dB improvement over the axial strain tensor image. Lateral shear deformations also significantly increase the noise level in the axial and lateral strain tensor images with larger axial deformations. Improved elastographic signal and contrast-to-noise ratios in the first principal component strain image are always obtained for both simulation and experimental data when compared to the corresponding axial strain tensor images in the presence of both axial and lateral shear deformations.     

Velocity measurement for moving surfaces using spatial filtering method based on area image sensor

The idea of using spatial filtering method to measure velocity of vehicles for an inertial navigation system is put forward. Corresponding optical system, including a 532 nm solid-state laser as active illumination, is established. A 17.92 mm × 14.34 mm area charge coupled device (CCD) is employed both as detector and as spatial filter. The spatial filtering characteristics are theoretically analyzed using a power spectral density function. The spatial filtering operation of CCD is performed fully by software. Therefore, the parameters of the spatial filter, such as the size and the number of spatial period, are changeable. In addition, the CCD is arranged as two differential spatial filters without any other additional elements. Experiments are carried out to examine the feasibility of CCD as two differential spatial filters and the influence of the number of spatial period on the signal frequency. The results indicate that the more number of spatial period the more accurate measurements can be obtained, and show that the relation between signal frequency and velocity has good linearity. So this velocimeter is suitable to provide velocity information for a vehicle self-contained inertial navigation system.     

Super-resolution imaging in digital holography by using dynamic grating with a spatial light modulator

A super-resolution imaging method using dynamic grating based on liquid-crystal spatial light modulator (SLM) is developed to improve the resolution of a digital holographic system. The one-dimensional amplitude cosine grating is loaded on the SLM, which is placed between the object and hologram plane in order to collect more high-frequency components towards CCD plane. The point spread function of the system is given to confirm the separation condition of reconstructed images for multiple diffraction orders. The simulation and experiments are carried out for a standard resolution test target as a sample, which confirms that the imaging resolution is improved from 55.7 μm to 31.3 μm compared with traditional lensless Fourier transform digital holography. The unique advantage of the proposed method is that the period of the grating can be programmably adjusted according to the separation condition.