Inelastic light scattering by dipolar excitons

The cross section for inelastic light scattering by a system of spatially indirect excitons is calculated. It is shown that there are two resonant scattering channels, one related to the transitions via the vacuum and the other via the two-exciton states of the crystal, and their contributions to the scattering amplitude cancel each other. As a result, there is no resonance enhancement of light scattering by excitons for photon energies in the vicinity of the band gap.     

Theory of stimulated concentration scattering of light in a liquid suspension of transparent microspheres

A theory of stimulated light scattering in a nonlinear liquid suspension of transparent microspheres—an artificially created medium whose nonlinearity is caused by modulation of the concentration of microspheres by gradient forces in a field of spatially inhomogeneous laser radiation—is constructed. The threshold, angular, and spectral characteristics of the scattering are studied in the diffusion-limit approximation based on the solution of the system of wave equations in combination with the Planck-Nernst two-dimensional equation for the concentration of microspheres. The transient regime of scattering in the field of a specified step-like pump pulse is considered. A sharp angular dependence of the scattering efficiency on the microsphere radius is predicted and proposed for use in optical diagnostics of liquid suspensions of dielectric microspheres—highly efficient wideband nonlinear media.     

Simulation of spatial correlations of impurity ions in solids using configurational entropy and the hard-sphere model

Based on the hard-sphere model, the spatial correlations are considered in a system of impurities with variable valency. In a zeroth approximation, the configurational entropy of the spatially correlated system of impurity ions is identified with the configurational entropy of a system of hard spheres. The electron mobility limited by scattering on the correlated system of impurity ions at finite temperatures is found. The theory developed explains experimentally observed anomalies of the carrier mobility in an iron-doped HgSe gapless semiconductor.     

From superradiant Rayleigh scattering to Bragg scattering

We present the results of an experiment on light scattering from an elongated Bose-Einstein condensate interacting with far off resonant laser light. Due to superradiant Rayleigh scattering a coherent superposition of two atomic wavepackets with different momenta forms in the presence of a single laser beam. Varying the intensity of a weak counterpropagating laser beam we observe the transition from the pure superradiant regime to the Bragg scattering regime, where Rabi oscillations in a two-level system are observed. The process is limited by the decoherence between the two atomic wavepackets.     

透过散射介质对直线运动目标的全光成像及追踪技术

光散射是限制光传输以及降低和破坏光学成像性能的主要因素,透过复杂散射介质对运动目标的全光成像是光学领域极具挑战性的技术之一.本文提出一种利用散斑差值自相关透过散射介质对运动目标进行实时追踪的方法.采用赝热光照明,基于光学记忆效应理论,通过对运动目标采集的两帧散斑做差值,然后做自相关运算,计算目标移动的距离,实现对目标的实时追踪,并且利用相位恢复算法进行简单处理就可以重建隐藏目标.对该方法进行了实验验证,成功地对隐藏的运动目标实现了成像与追踪.这种透过散射介质对运动目标的全光成像及实时追踪技术,在生物医学等领域具有重要应用潜力.     

超光谱成像差分吸收光谱技术研究

基于散射光的被动差分吸收(DOAS)技术利用气体的特性吸收谱线可实现对不同大气污染气体的定量测量,介绍了一种基于成像光谱仪的光学遥感系统,该系统运用被动DOAS原理实现了对大气污染气体的二维成像测量,并报道了该系统对实验室样品池一维测量与城市道路上方NO₂组分的成像测量实验. 基于成像光谱仪的被动DOAS系统利用太阳散射光可获取垂直方向一维的光谱信息,结合扫描装置,便可实现对污染气体的二维成像解析. 关键词： 被动差分吸收光谱 成像光谱仪 污染气体 二维成像     

Intensities of resonant brillouin scatterings from multicomponent exciton-polaritons

To reduce the arbitrariness in the current analysis of resonant Brillouin scattering (RBS) from multicomponent polaritons, the intensities of scattering peaks are theoretically studied. The interaction among the multicomponent excitons may contain linear and quadratic terms in translational wave vector, electron-hole exchange interaction, and any other terms that retain translational symmetry. As the scattering mechanisms due to TA and LA phonons, we consider various deformation and piezoelectric potentials. In certain cases, this theory leads to a “selection rule”, which can solve the controversy between the two different dispersion curves for CuBr obtained from RBS and two photon resonant Raman scattering, in favor of the latter. The theory also provides a basis to discuss the problem of additional boundary conditions for multicomponent polaritons in terms of the relative intensities of scattering peaks.     

Experimental study on off-axis scattering of flat top partially coherent laser beams when propagating under water in the presence of moving scatterers

Off-axis underwater scattering of spatially partially coherent Multi-Gaussian Schell-Model (MGSM) beams are compared with fully coherent Gaussian beams in both a stationary setting and in the presence of mechanically agitated scatterers in underwater environments. The analysis is carried out by comparing the mean intensities of scattered light, the normalized variance, and the scintillation index in various scenarios. Results indicate that fully coherent beams have increased off-axis scattered light variations in the presence of moving scatterers as compared with a spatially partially coherent MGSM beam. Additionally, in a stationary environment the coherent beam has less overall variations as expected due to the nature of constructing partially coherent MGSM beams. Metrics of normalized variance, scintillation index, and overall average intensity are discussed in the context of potential beam localization, reduced scattering, and off-axis detection.     

Numerical solution of the Fokker-Planck equation with variable coefficients

We study the numerical solution of the Fokker-Planck equation. This equation gives a good approximation to the radiative transport equation when scattering is peaked sharply in the forward direction which is the case for light propagation in tissues, for example. We derive first the numerical solution for the problem with constant coefficients. This numerical solution is constructed as an expansion in plane wave solutions. Then we extend that result to take into account coefficients that vary spatially. This extension leads to a coupled system of initial and final value problems. We solve this system iteratively. Numerical results show the utility of this method.     

Stokes parameters of an electromagnetic light wave on scattering

Stokes parameters of an electromagnetic light wave on scattering have been discussed, which permit us to study the spectral degree of polarization of the far-zone scattered field. An example of scattering of a spatially coherent electromagnetic light wave from a quasi-homogeneous medium has been discussed to illustrate the changes of the Stokes parameters and the changes of the spectral degree of polarization of the far-zone scattered field.     

Measurement and simulation of partially-premixed cellular tubular flames

Experimental and numerical simulation results are reported of partially-premixed cellular tubular flames. Parametric measurements across stretch rate and equivalence ratio are taken by chemiluminescent imaging and are presented for the first time. Select hybrid cases with both cellular and non-cellular flame structures are examined with laser-induced spontaneous Raman scattering. Results are spatially resolved in two dimensions and radial interpolations of reaction and extinction zones are compared to numerical simulations using multicomponent transport and detailed chemical kinetics. Experimental cell structures and extinction zones are well predicted by numerical simulation, with discrepancies of temperature and H₂O and temperature primarily observed in locations with moderate and high mole fractions of CO₂. A novel cellular structure, denoted as a “split-cell” flame, is reported for the first time with both chemiluminescent imaging and Raman scattering. Results indicate that partially-premixed flames are valuable as experimental and numerical benchmarks to advance fundamental combustion research.     

Spectral Changes of Light and Scattering Phenomena

In the last few years renewed attention has been paid to the study of light scattering from random media. This is due to the recent discovery of a phenomenon that dynamic light scattering from a fluctuating random medium may produce shifts of spectral lines, even when the source and the scattering medium are at rest relative to the observer. It has also been demonstrated that a similar phenomenon may occur in static light scattering from spatially random media without dynamic fluctuations. By the well-known analogy between the processes of scattering and radiation, these phenomena in scattering are found to be closely related to the correlation-induced spectral changes in the coherence theory which are often referred to as the Wolf effect. In this paper some recent developments are reviewed on research regarding the phenomena of changes in the spectrum of light induced by scattering from random media. Emphasis is placed on a number of up-to-date attempts for elucidating the effects of multiple scattering on these phenomena.This review was presented as an invited paper at the Symposium on Spectral Effects in Collective Phenomena organized as a satellite meeting of the Seventh Rochester Conference on Coherence and Quantum Optics, June 7–10 1995 (Rochester, NY).     

Analysis of non-ergodic behaviour in spatio-temporal coherence properties of speckle light

Spatio-temporal coherence properties of light scattered by rough surfaces that leads to speckle fluctuations are analysed. It is demonstrated that the scattered light is non-ergodic with the disorder due to the scattering process. Although the mutual coherence matrix vanishes with isotropic polarization fluctuations, it is shown that spatio-temporal coherence properties can be described with interference experiments that can be obtained between different speckles of the scattered light. For non-singular scattering processes, the maximal value of the modulus of the Wolf degree of coherence is analysed in the spatial time domain. This approach is also applied to totally unpolarized incident light with an isotropic and spatially independent scattering process. The mean value and the standard deviation of the Wolf degree of coherence are then determined from the coherence properties of the incident light.     

Investigation of stimulated Brillouin scattering under well-defined interaction conditions

Ruby-laser light scattering was used to gain spatially and temporally resolved information about plasma parameters for nanosecond CO₂ laser-plasma interaction studies. The results confirm a heating model, where heat conduction in dense model plasmas can be described classically. CO₂-laser excited stimulated Brillouin scattering could directly be shown to arise from near thermal level by simultaneous Thomson scattering with a ruby-laser, and turbulence enhanced density fluctuations could be excluded.     

Spatially incoherent illumination as a mechanism for cross-talk suppression in wide-field optical coherence tomography

Comparison of two illumination modes for wide-field optical coherence tomography has revealed that spatially coherent illumination generates coherent cross talk, causing significant image degradation, and that spatially incoherent illumination, with an adequate interferometer design, provides an efficient mechanism for suppression of coherent cross talk. This is shown by comparison of a pulsed laser with a thermal light source for a U.S. Air Force resolution target covered with a scattering solution made from microbeads as well as for an ex vivo tooth.     

Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis of Polymer Nanoparticles in Blood Plasma

A successful drug delivery system must overcome complex biological barriers. For particles injected into the blood, one of the first and most critical barriers pertains to blood stability to circulate through the human body. To effectively design drug delivery vehicles, interactions between the particles and blood, as well as the aggregation behavior, must be understood. This work presents a method to analyze particle size and aggregation in blood plasma using a commercially available nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) system. As a model system, fluorescently labeled polystyrene nanoparticles are incubated in goat blood plasma and analyzed using NTA. The particles incubated in plasma are found to have a protein corona that is larger than what has been observed by dynamic light scattering (DLS) in diluted plasma. Particles that are decorated with a PEG layer are also found to have large protein coronas in undiluted plasma. Because NTA is based on a unique visualization method, large multicomponent aggregates could be observed and quantified in a manner not feasible with other techniques. PEGylation of the particles is found to decrease the multicomponent aggregation from 1000 ± 200 particles for unmodified to 200 ± 30 particles for 1K PEGylated per 1 × 10⁵ total particles.     

Dependence of the circular polarization of backscattered light in random media on anisotropy of scatterers

The scattering of linearly or circularly polarized light from a semi-infinite randomly inhomogeneous medium is considered. Using the Monte Carlo method, it is shown that, in the case of a wide front of incident and scattered optical radiation and irrespective of the degree of scattering anisotropy, the copolarized component of backscattered light dominates the cross-polarized component for the linear polarization and the cross-polarized component dominates the copolarized component for the circular polarization. If the beams of incident and scattered radiation are spatially separated and the size of scatterers exceeds the wavelength, the circular copolarized component dominates the cross-polarized one. A similar effect of the change in direction of the rotation of the plane of polarization in relation to the size of scatterers is revealed for pulsed radiation.     

The Boltzmann equation for very hard particles

The nonlinear Boltzmann equation is solved analytically for general initial distributions in a (spatially homogeneous) system of very hard particles (VHP) with two translational degrees of freedom and with a transition probability for binary collisions (vw →v′w′) proportional to δ(v² + w² − v′² −w′²).

The scattering cross-section corresponding to this model increases as the square root of the collision energy (hence the name VHP-model). As the total energy of the system is finite, essentially no highly energetic particles are present to probe the unphysical high-energy behavior of the cross-section.

The VHP-model is extended to a multicomponent mixture of particles, and solved by the same technique, viz. Laplace transformation. An analogous discrete variable model is solved by a generating function method.

Finally the solutions of the nonlinear and linearized Boltzmann equation are compared. Their large-energy behavior at a fixed (large) time is different; their large-time behavior at a fixed energy is the same.     

Hyper-Rayleigh light scattering in the third harmonic generation in silver island films

Hyper-Rayleigh scattering in the third harmonic generation (incoherent optical third harmonic) was experimentally observed in spatially inhomogeneous, quasi-two-dimensional structures formed by silver island films. A comprehensive analysis of the linear and nonlinear light scattering in combination with the results of atomic-force microscopy revealed the fractal nature of the island films studied in the experiment.