Spectro-temporal analysis in normal-hearing and cochlear-impaired listeners

Detection thresholds for a 1.0-kHz pure tone were determined in unmodulated noise and in noise modulated by a 15-Hz square wave. Comodulation masking release (CMR) was calculated as the difference in threshold between the modulated and unmodulated conditions. The noise bandwidth varied between 100 and 1000 Hz. Frequency selectivity was also examined using an abbreviated notched-noise masking method. The subjects in the main experiment consisted of 12 normal-hearing and 12 hearing-impaired subjects with hearing loss of cochlear origin. The most discriminating conditions were repeated on 16 additional hearing-impaired subjects. The CMR of the hearing-impaired group was reduced for the 1000-Hz noise bandwidth. The reduced CMR at this bandwidth correlated significantly with reduced frequency selectivity, consistent with the hypothesis that the across-frequency difference cue used in CMR is diminished by poor frequency selectivity. The results indicated that good frequency selectivity is a prerequisite, but not a guarantee, of large CMR.     

Effects of modulation on signals obtained in saturated absorption spectroscopy experiments

An analysis of the useful signals detected in saturated absorption spectroscopy experiments is given. Both Gaussian and plane-wave fields are considered. The various cases of unmodulated, square-wave modulated and sinusoidally modulated saturating beams are examined. It is found that square-wave and sinusoidal modulations give different results. The first is identical to no modulation, and detection at the fundamental frequency records a fraction of the total signal which is also a square wave. The second gives fundamental or higher-harmonic signals each with a very different dependence on the saturation parameter. The signal at the fundamental saturates faster and more completely than that for square-wave modulation. The results suggest experimental methods for the determination of the absolute value of the saturation parameter.     

Electrophoretic investigations by laser light scattering

The electrophoresis of various colloidal suspensions has been investigated by laser light scattering. The electric field was applied to the solution by means of a narrow gap electrode configuration using a frequency modulated square wave electric field. The power spectrum of the intensity fluctuations of the scattered light was determined by direct sampling of the light intensity using an A/D converter and an on-line minicomputer. This experimental arrangement is capable of measuring very small Doppler shifts.     

Frequency-modulated excitation of Rydberg potassium atoms by using B-spline

By using the B-spline expansion technique and a model potential of the alkali atoms, the properties of frequency- modulated excitation of Rydberg potassium atoms in a static electric field and a microwave field are investigated by using the time-dependent two-level approach. We successfully reproduce the square wave oscillations in the low frequency, the stair step population oscillations in the intermediate frequency, and the multiphoton transitions in the high frequency with respect to the unmodulated Rabi frequency, which have been observed experimentally by Noel et al. [Phys. Rev. A 58 2265 (1998)]. Furthermore, we also numerically obtain the discretized Rabi oscillations predicted in the Landau-Zener accumulation model.     

Electric field effect on refraction of light in a layer of chiral liquid crystal with large pitch

The effect of an alternating electric field on the trajectory of an extraordinary light wave in a layer of a chiral liquid crystal with a 180° turn of the director is studied. In this structure, in the absence of the field and at a large angle of incidence of the light wave on the liquid crystal layer, the light undergoes refraction inside the layer. It is shown that the deformation of the director that arises under the action of the electric field changes the character of refraction of the extraordinary wave and the layer begins to transmit the light. The threshold voltage of this effect is determined. The dynamics of the effect is studied. At large voltages, in addition to the extraordinary wave, an ordinary light wave is observed in the light passed through the cell. The ordinary wave intensity is modulated by the initial frequency of the control signal, whereas the extraordinary wave intensity is modulated by the double initial frequency.     

激光陀螺光强扫模曲线模高的影响因素与改善途径分析

激光陀螺光强扫模曲线是陀螺稳频的依据,也是激光陀螺环形激光器振荡特性的基本表征,同时也是陀螺性能好坏的重要标志之一。通过引入新的参量——模高,描述光强扫模曲线的其他特征。光强扫模曲线模高是在腔长变化一个0.6328 μm条件下对应光强的最大变化量,是反映光强扫模曲线尖锐度的特征量,该特征量与陀螺稳频精度、稳频响应时间等物理量直接相关,模高越大,则对应的稳频精度就越高,稳频响应时间越短。通过对激光陀螺扫模过程中模高产生的物理机理进行理论分析,确定出了影响模高的主要因素。通过理论分析、数值仿真得出:采取增大球面镜曲率半径、增大腔长、降低损耗、增大增益等措施,可使激光陀螺光强扫模曲线的模高增大3倍以上,这对于提升稳频精度、缩短稳频响应时间、降低陀螺比例因子非线性度误差、提高激光陀螺快速稳定性等具有重要的指导意义和工程实用价值。     

激光陀螺克服高、低温冲击的技术研究

分析了激光陀螺在经历外部环境温度变化时光强和性能发生变化的原因,提出了利用新型腔长角度控制镜(光路程长控制镜)的角度控制元件作为驱动器件,应用类似小抖动稳频的原理对激光陀螺环形光路进行闭环控制,并通过对各光路控制单元采取分时控制的办法解决了光路稳定过程中的调制信号的冲突,使激光陀螺在环境变化时始终保持其光程长和光路相对位置的稳定从而保证其性能的稳定。实验结果表明,对原来在全使用温区(-40℃~ 60℃)光强变化达30%甚至只要有光的,通过光路稳定措施可将光强稳定在±3%以内,对于有些在高低温时不能出光的,也可以达到可使用的光强稳定水平。较好地解决了许多激光陀螺难以克服的耐高、低温冲击问题。     

New Characterization of Stochastic Resonance in Bistable Square Potential Well

The features of first passage time density function is analysed theoretically in a symmetric double square well system modulated periodically with a signal of arbitrary amplitude and frequency. Resonance is demonstrated as a maximum synchronization between periodic signal and noise. Resonance is characterized as a linear relation between noise strength at resonance and frequency. This characterization is shown to hold good for amplitude lesser or greater than the depth of the unmodulated potential well. The mean first passage time of the process at resonance is also shown to decrease linearly with the strength of the noise for high amplitude of the signal while it increases linearly with inverse of the noise strength for low amplitude.     

Intermittent frequency offset lock of a symmetric three-mode stabilized He-Ne laser to an iodine stabilized He-Ne laser

There is a need for an intense, unmodulated single-frequency stabilized laser light that guarantees absolute optical frequency in a rapid laser calibration or an ultra-high resolution interferometer. To obtain such a light, we developed a new laser system that uses an intermittent frequency offset lock of a symmetric three-mode stabilized He-Ne laser to an iodine stabilized He-Ne laser. The proposed laser system provides two operational modes: (1) independent and (2) slave mode. In the independent mode, frequency of the three-mode laser is stabilized via control of frequency difference between two intermode beats. The resultant output is a single longitudinal mode light of maximum intensity that locates at the top of the gain curve. Frequency instability of 8X10^-12 (at a sampling time of 100 s) which is better than conventional stabilized lasers is attained in the independent mode. Slow optical frequency drift during the independent mode is periodically corrected by the offset lock to the iodine stabilized laser (slave mode), resulting in accurate reset of the frequency drift. After reset of the frequency deviation, the three-mode laser is again operated in the independent mode. Due to such intermittent offset lock, duty factor of the iodine stabilized laser was reduced to a few % of continuous operation.     

Intensity modulation on polarization coupling and frequency conversion in periodically poled lithium niobate

Based on cascaded polarization coupling and frequency doubling, we present a scheme to modulate the polarization and intensity of light in periodically poled lithium niobate. In the coupled processes, the introduction of another pump (control light) results in energy redistribution among the optical waves. Numerical results indicate that polarization of the fundamental wave and magnitude of the second harmonic (SH) can be both modulated by adjusting the intensity of control light. This result would be useful when simultaneous signal tuning and frequency conversion are desired.     

Polarization properties in a prism laser gyro with mechanical dither bias

<正>Theoretical analysis and experimental research on the polarization properties of output light in gyro are carried out to investigate the phenomenon that the amplitude of an output voltage signal is modulated by dither bias in laser gyros consisting of totally reflecting prisms.Taking the effect of prism stress birefringence into account,an analytical formula of the output light intensity in the gyro and the relationship between the polarization parameter and the amplitude modulation of the output signal are obtained and discussed.For the first time,the polarized power value of the output light is adopted as a basis to estimate the output signal amplitude fading extent of laser gyros.Experimental results demonstrate that when the value of polarized power of output light is below 25.5%of that in ideal static case,the standard error is over 0.0337 dBm,and the displacement extent of the prism is higher than 53%of the radius of the beam waist in the gyro cavity,the amplitude modulation extent of gyro output signal can reach up to 16%,which badly influences the measurement accuracy of the laser gyro.Using this polarized power detecting measurement method can repair the gyro immediately during its fabrication process,improve the testing and production efficiency and shorten the product development cycle.     

Modulated transfer process forced at phonon frequencies in optical heterodyne spectroscopy

A simple spectroscopic technique is used to detect low-frequency acoustical phonons. Resonantly enhanced modulated transfer processes in optical heterodyne spectroscopy are accomplished from a frequency shifted modulated beam to an unmodulated beam in a nonlinear medium having low-frequency induced phonons. The resonance condition is achieved when the phonon frequency is set equal to the beat frequency of the two beams.     

Analysis of low intensity square wave modulated light beams by measuring the Laplace or squared cosine transform of the time-interval probability

In this paper we study the possibility of analyzing a low-intensity light signal modulated by a square wave by measuring the Laplace or the squared cosine transform of the time interval probability. The error in the determination of the period of the signal is studied and compared with that obtained from the correlation function g⁽²⁾ (τ). We conclude that measurement of the squared cosine transform is a more advantageous method than measurement of g⁽²⁾ (τ) for low intensity light beams, the advantage increasing as the intensity of the light beam decreases. This technique can, for instance, be applied to the fields of laser Doppler velocimetry and optical communications.     

Sample Input Modulation and Lock-in-Amplifier Detection for Signal-to-Noise Ratio Improvement in Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy

The effect of modulation of the sample atomization, accomplished by pulsing the nebulizer pump, and lock-in-amplifier (LIA) detection of the modulated output signal of an ICP atomic emission spectrometer is studied. The time constant of the nebulizer spray chamber allows a maximum modulation frequency of approximately 2 Hz, but optimum performance for this system is found at a modulation frequency of approximately 1 Hz. A signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio improvement approaching a factor of three is found for the arrangement employed. It is proposed that more rapid modulation, achievable through the use of a nebulization system with a shorter time constant, should lead to even greater improvement in the SNR than was accomplished in this study. The dynamic range is improved, relative to the unmodulated system, as the detection limit is lowered without any loss of linearity at high concentrations. A linear dynamic range of greater than 4 orders of magnitude is found for the modulated system.     

一种基于微波谐振测量Sagnac效应的新方案

目前光学陀螺的主要工作原理是Sagnac效应, 如何提高Sagnac效应的测量精度是提高陀螺精度的一个重要研究课题. 传统的光学陀螺利用光短波长的特性来提高检测精度. 但考虑到微波的相位(频率)检测精度远高于光波的相位(频率)检测精度, 如果能够利用微波实现Sagnac效应的检测, 就能得到比光学陀螺更高的检测精度, 从而为实现高精度的微波陀螺提供了可能. 利用基于光电振荡器的光载微波结构实现了微波Sagnac效应的检测. 实验结果证明了微波检测Sagnac效应的可行性, 为将来实现高精度的微波谐振陀螺打下基础.     

The measurement of ultraweak liquid surface wave by laser interferometry

We describe a simple experiment on the interference of refraction light by ultraweak liquid surface wave at low frequency. The surface wave profile is generated by electrically driven vertical oscillations exciters. The high visibility and stable laser interference fringes were gathered experimentally. The theoretical light intensity distribution agrees well with the observations. In particular, we show the relation between the light intensity distribution and the characteristic features of the surface wave. In addition, we can measure the amplitude and wavelength of the ultraweak liquid surface wave at low frequency by this means.     

Pseudo-Lock-in Light Detection Method for a Sinusoidally-Gain-Modulated Photomultiplier Tube

In order to detect a weak signal varied in an intensive background light, we propose a novel pseudo-lock-in light detection scheme used for a photomultiplier tube (PMT) whose gain is modulated sinusoidally. Let the signal light incident on the PMT be modulated sinusoidally at a frequency f. In this situation, one of the dynode voltages applied for the PMT is deeply biased and a sinusoidal reference signal with a frequency f is superimposed on the bias voltage. Then, we detect a frequency component of 2f at the output of the PMT selectively. To pick up only the 2f component, we connect a digital oscilloscope directly to the output of the PMT. Thereafter the digitized waveform stored on a temporal memory of the digital oscilloscope is fast-Fourier-transformed (FFT). Two numerical values obtained from the resultant amplitude and the phase spectrum at the frequency 2f, respectively, correspond to the intensity and the phase of the modulated signal light incident on the PMT. A fundamental performance test of the proposed scheme was carried out.     

机械抖动棱镜式激光陀螺出射光强度特性

针对棱镜式激光陀螺在抖动状态下出射光强度被调制的现象, 系统地研究了机械抖动对棱镜式激光陀螺中光传输轨迹和光电探测器的影响机理. 在对现有棱镜式激光陀螺性能进行分析的基础上, 应用数值模拟和有限元分析方法, 将对称型全反射棱镜纳入四棱镜陀螺的结构设计方案, 并给出了由机械抖动引起的应力双折射和光电探测器位置偏移与出射光强度的一般关系. 结果表明, 机械抖动会使棱镜产生应力双折射, 使激光光路发生改变, 同时造成光电探测器与出射光束产生相对位移, 导致出射光强度幅值产生调制. 使用全对称型的陀螺结构, 选取具有合适折射率的对称型棱镜, 减小探测器与出射光斑中心的相对位移, 可以将出射光强度调制幅值相比原先减小52.63%以上, 显著地改善出射光强度被调制的现象. 此分析结果为提高激光陀螺的可靠性提供了重要参考.     

Study of frequency-modulated excitation of Rydberg potassium atoms by using B-spline

With the B-spline expansion technique and a model potential of the alkali atoms, the properties of frequency-modulated excitation of Rydberg potassium atoms in a static electric field and a microwave field are investigated by using the time-dependent two-level approach. We successfully reproduce the square wave oscillations in the low frequency, the stair step population oscillations in the intermediate frequency, and the multiphoton transitions in the high frequency with respect to the unmodulated Rabi frequency, which have been observed experimentally by Noel et al. [Phys. Rev. A 58 2265 (1998)]. Furthermore, we also numerically obtain the discretized Rabi oscillations predicted in the Landau-Zener accumulation model.     

Modulation of discharge parameters caused by acoustic wave

The propagation of acoustic waves in a partially ionized plasma in an external electric field is studied theoretically. It is assumed that an acoustic wave propagating through ionized gas causes only perturbations in ion gas. The problem is studied in the hydrodynamic approach and the basic equation is solved by means of Laplace transformation. It was found that waves can propagate in plasma also at other frequencies and wave numbers except the wave with the frequency and wave number of the neutral sound wave. Relations are derived for the density of the perturbation current and the intensity of modulated light irradiated from the plasma and the possible mechanism of the interaction of an acoustic wave with a discharge is taken into account. The necessity of further theoretical and experimental investigation is shown in conclusion.The author is much indebted to Prof. J. Kracík, Dr. Sc., for his valuable remarks and stimulating discussions.