CdSe quantum dots decorated by mercaptosuccinic acid as fluorescence probe for Cu

Water-soluble CdSe quantum dots (QDs) were synthesized using mercaptosuccinic acid (MSA) as a stabilizer. The growth process and characterization of CdSe quantum dots were determined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, Ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Results demonstrated the MSA-capped CdSe QDs were highly crystalline and possessed good optical properties. Further, the resulting products could be used as fluorescent probes to detect Cu²⁺ ions in physiological buffer solution. The response was linearly proportional to the concentration of Cu²⁺ ion in the range 2×10⁻⁸- 3.5×10⁻⁷ mol L⁻¹ with a detection limit of 3.4 nmol L⁻¹.     

Inverse transient radiation analysis in one-dimensional non-homogeneous participating slabs using particle swarm optimization algorithms

Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithms, including standard PSO, Stochastic PSO, and Multi-Phase PSO, are applied to solve the time-domain inverse transient radiation problems in the present research. Time-resolved transmittance and reflectance signals of four different measuring models serve as the measurement data, which estimate absorption, scattering coefficients, and geometric position within one-dimensional non-homogeneous media by inverse simulation. To check retrieval performances and accuracies of PSO-based approaches, four different inverse transient radiation cases are investigated to deal with one homogeneous layer, two-layer, three-layer, and continuous non-homogenous media. The influences of different searching ranges, swarm sizes, and maximum fly velocities on the fitness function of PSO are discussed. Meanwhile, the effects of measurement errors on the reconstruction accuracy are also investigated. All the results confirm that radiative parameters could be estimated accurately with measurement noise using PSO-based approaches.     

A piecewise local regularized Richardson-Lucy algorithm for remote sensing image deconvolution

As it is not possible to obtain an accurate point spread function (PSF) in remote sensing imaging, classic deconvolution methods such as Wiener filtering often introduce strong noise and ringing artifacts, which contaminate the restored images. In this paper, we modify the standard Richarson-Lucy (RL) algorithm with a piecewise local regularization term and combine it with residual deconvolution method. Experimental results show that it is effective in suppressing negative effects, and images with rich details and sharp edges are obtained.     

Analytical vectorial structure of Hermite-cosine-Gaussian beam in the far field

Based on the vector angular spectrum representation of electromagnetic beams and the method of stationary phase, the vectorial structure of a Hermite-cosine-Gaussian (HcosG) beam in the far field is derived in analytical form. Energy flux distributions for the TE term, TM term and the whole beam are represented. The vectorial structures of HcosG beams with different Hermite models are depicted. The effects of cosine displacement parameters on the vectorial structure are also demonstrated. The results may provide a flexible approach to manipulate HcosG beams in free space.     

Propagation properties of Lorentz beam in uniaxial crystals orthogonal to the optical axis

The properties of Lorentz beams propagating in uniaxial crystals orthogonal to the optical axis are studied. The diffraction field components and effective beam sizes of the Lorentz beams are derived in analytical forms. Numerical results show that, upon propagating in uniaxial crystals, a Lorentz beam loses its initial Lorentz type distribution. Also, after propagating for sufficient distances, the transverse components would finally convert into a specific four-petal profile with an axial shadow, which may find applications in the optical trapping of particles. It also shows that the Lorentz beam parameters w_0x, w_0y and the ratios of refractive indices have strong influences on the diffraction field components and on the effective beam sizes when propagating in uniaxial crystals.     

Surface plasmon resonance sensors based on Ag-metalized nanolayer in microstructured optical fibers

Surface plasmon resonance sensors based on Ag-metalized nanolayer in microstructured optical fibers are theoretically analyzed by using finite element method (FEM). In our simulations we use Drude-Lorentz model to describe the metal dielectric constant. The numerical results show that the sensitivity of Ag-metalized SPR sensor could reach 1167 nm/RIU and corresponding resolution is 8.57×10⁻⁵ RIU. Compared to conventional Au-metalized SPR sensors the performance of our device is obviously better.     

Double random-phase encryption based on discrete quaternion fourier-transforms

In this paper, a new method for color-image encryption using Discrete Quaternion Fourier-Transforms (DQFT) combined with double random-phase encryption is reported, by which color images can be processed as single channel architecture, instead of as separated color components in three channels, so that the complexity of the encryption system can be effectively reduced without any reduction of its security. The principle of both encryption and decryption is detailed and the noise robustness of the system has been examined experimentally.     

Phase dependence of cross-phase modulation in asymmetric quantum wells

We study the Kerr nonlinearity associated with cross-phase modulation based on electromagnetically induced transparency in asymmetric double quantum wells. It is shown that, different from atomic system, not only the nonlinear dispersion and absorption but also the linear absorption depends on the relative phase of the laser fields because of the Fano interference. By choosing the parameters appropriately, large cross-phase modulation with nearly vanishing two-photon absorption, even π phase shift with single photon level, could be achieved in the asymmetric quantum wells.     

Modeling Fraunhofer diffractive characteristics for modulation transfer function analysis of tilted ring metallic mesh

In order to analyze the Fraunhofer diffractive characteristics and modulation transfer function (MTF) of a tilted ring metallic mesh, an optical intensity distribution model of Fraunhofer diffraction is built using Huygens–Fresnel diffraction theory and the diffraction integral is carried out directly in the tilted mesh plane. The diffraction characteristics of the tilted ring metallic mesh are in good agreement with experimental results, which proves the correctness of the model established. MTF of an optical system with metallic mesh is calculated based on the model established and Fourier transform. Analysis shows that the degradation of MTF caused by diffraction of a ring mesh is much less than that of a square mesh whether they are vertical or tilted to the optical axis. Therefore, ring mesh can provide higher imaging quality than square mesh when they are used as high-pass filters in optical windows. A tilted array diffraction modulating factor is abstracted and believed useful in the analysis of diffractive characteristics of tilted square mesh and ring mesh, and it can be extended to Fraunhofer diffractive characteristics analysis of other tilted diffraction arrays.     

Image displacement based on phase-encoded reference joint fractional transform correlator

In order to utilize the space of an input plane efficiently and make the optical structure more flexible, an image displacement measurement based on phase-encoded reference joint fractional transform correlator (PER-JFrTC) is proposed. We use a random phase mask to encode the reference image and overlay it with the target image forming the input image. Joint power spectrum (JPS) of the input image is obtained by Fourier transform and the resultant is encoded by the same phase mask. Then a fractional Fourier transform with an order p is applied to the phase-encoded JPS (PJPS), resulting in a correlation output with a sharp cross-correlation peak, which includes the displacement information between the reference and the target image. Contrast to displacement measurement based on traditional joint transform correlator (JTC), PER-JFrTC can use the space of the input plane efficiently and reduces the influence of the auto-correlation. Also the position of cross-correlation peak can be fixed arbitrarily according to the fractional order p as well as the optical set-up can be more flexible and easier to implement. Results based on digital computation show that PER-JFrTC could detect the displacement accurately and verify our proposal. A possible optical set-up is suggested.