Fracture detection by grating moiré and in-plane ESPI techniques

Optical interferometry techniques have been used for high-precision displacement measuring. Commonly, in-plane sensitive arrangements use two symmetrical collimated wavefronts for object surface illumination. However, this is a limitation when large object surface, has to be analyzed. In this case spherical illumination is needed. As a consequence of using non-collimated symmetrical dual-beams the sensitivity vector varies with the local position on the surface target. Then, this kind of illumination is also capable of detecting a lightly and systematic out-of-plane component of deformation. In this paper a theoretical analysis of the sensitivity vector components behavior is made. Each component of the sensitivity vector to minimize the required displacement component uncertainty is calculated. This study is important in the stage of planning any interferometric measurement experiment, particularly, for moiré grating interferometric technique, which has been used only in collimated illumination. By using a spherical dual-beam optical setup, the present work shows results of fracture measuring by using moiré and speckle interferometric methods. As a result, advantages and disadvantages of both techniques are discussed and an accuracy study is reported.     

光学超外差法小平面角精密测量

文本用纵向塞曼双频稳频激光器作光源,提出了一种光学超外差法小平面角的精密测量方法.此方法采用相位干涉测量技术,测角灵敏度可达0.002”.优于其他平面角测量仪的测角灵敏度.     

He-Ne laser wavelength-shifting interferometry

The use of wavelength-shifting interferometry with a He-Ne laser source is presented. The approach is based on the thermal expansion of the laser cavity during the warm-up time, in conjunction with an unequal path interferometric configuration. The optics principles are reviewed, and a demonstrative measurement is presented. The technique extends the capability of phase-shift acquisition and processing to cases where conventional methods with piezoelectric transducers cannot be used, and particularly to external measurement cavities of large diameter.     

ATIR proximity sensing through an absorbing medium

In this paper we describe a new simple interferometric method for measurement of the thickness of a very thin quivette filled with absorbing liquid. The method is based on the interferometric restoration and analysis of both p- and s-components of the attenuated totally internal reflected (ATIR) field. Two different liquid samples were studied experimentally. The interferometric signal obtained by measurements is compared with the theoretical prediction.     

Measurement of optical nonlinearity by antiresonant ring interferometric nonlinear spectroscopic (ARINS) technique

We have reported the measurement of third-order optical nonlinearity by antiresonant ring interferometric nonlinear spectroscopic (ARINS) technique and discussed its usefulness over other popular measuring techniques such as Z-scan, degenerate four wave mixing (DFWM) and third harmonic generation (THG). The measurement has been simulated theoretically by taking different numerical values as well as sign of δ, which is a key parameter of ARINS. The technique has been benchmarked using toluene and the theoretical simulation has been substantiated experimentally by measuring the nonlinear optical coefficients (n₂ and β) of two different samples. The disadvantages of the technique have also been discussed. However, a number of advantages of ARINS override its disadvantages and therefore, ARINS may be preferred over other measuring techniques for the measurement of nonlinear optical parameters.     

Interference detection of flaws in periodic objects in real time with adjustable sensitivity

A technique of interferometric testing for macroscopic defects in periodic objects is proposed which works in real time and with an adjustable measurement sensitivity. The possibility of compensating the aberrations of the interferometer by using a reference hologram is demonstrated. Interference patterns with different measurement sensitivity are presented which visualize flaws in a metal screen consisting of two overlapping grids. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 69, 126–130 (October 1999)     

Measurement of small differences in refractive indices of solutions with interferometric optical method

Based on the principles of both surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and heterodyne interferometry, an optical method for measuring small differences in refractive indices of solutions was proposed. On a specially designed probe, two light beams are incident on both reference and test solutions. The phase differences between the p- and s-polarizations of each reflected light under SPR condition are measured simultaneously with heterodyne interferometric technique. The phase values are substituted into special equations derived from Fresnel's equations. Finally, the difference between the refractive indices of these two solutions can be estimated. The feasibility of this method was demonstrated and the measurement sensitivity of refractive index can reach a value of at least 8.57×10⁻⁷. This method should bear the merits of a simple structure, easy operation, high sensitivity and rapid measurement.     

Challenges in thermal noise for 3rd generation of gravitational wave detectors

Various noise sources limit the sensitivity of current interferometric gravitational wave detectors, including seismic noise, thermal noise of the optical components and suspension elements and photon shot noise. Plans are in place for a suite of hardware upgrades which should increase the sensitivity of these detectors by reducing the various noise sources. With these designs for 2nd generation detectors mature, techniques for further improvement of detector sensitivity by a factor of approximately 10 are under study. A particular challenge is the reduction of the thermal noise associated with the interferometer mirrors and their suspensions. We review the current status of research on thermal noise in interferometric gravitational wave detectors. Aspects of possible techniques for use in future ‘3rd generation detectors’ such as cryogenics and diffractive optics are discussed.     

Optical diffraction tomography microscopy with transport of intensity equation using a light-emitting diode array

Optical diffraction tomography (ODT) is an effective label-free technique for quantitatively refractive index imaging, which enables long-term monitoring of the internal three-dimensional (3D) structures and molecular composition of biological cells with minimal perturbation. However, existing optical tomographic methods generally rely on interferometric configuration for phase measurement and sophisticated mechanical systems for sample rotation or beam scanning. Thereby, the measurement is suspect to phase error coming from the coherent speckle, environmental vibrations, and mechanical error during data acquisition process. To overcome these limitations, we present a new ODT technique based on non-interferometric phase retrieval and programmable illumination emitting from a light-emitting diode (LED) array. The experimental system is built based on a traditional bright field microscope, with the light source replaced by a programmable LED array, which provides angle-variable quasi-monochromatic illumination with an angular coverage of ±37 degrees in both x and y directions (corresponding to an illumination numerical aperture of ∼0.6). Transport of intensity equation (TIE) is utilized to recover the phase at different illumination angles, and the refractive index distribution is reconstructed based on the ODT framework under first Rytov approximation. The missing-cone problem in ODT is addressed by using the iterative non-negative constraint algorithm, and the misalignment of the LED array is further numerically corrected to improve the accuracy of refractive index quantification. Experiments on polystyrene beads and thick biological specimens show that the proposed approach allows accurate refractive index reconstruction while greatly reduced the system complexity and environmental sensitivity compared to conventional interferometric ODT approaches.     

Comparison of the Optical Connectivity Method to X-Ray spray measurements in the near field of a diesel injector

For diesel sprays, the primary breakup processes are only rarely understood due to the high optical density and the resulting difficulties to measure them with extremely high spatial and sufficient temporal resolution. The Optical Connectivity Method (OCM) has been proposed in the last years to allow the determination of the breakup length of the connected liquid core, thus giving a measurement quantity of the primary breakup. In this work, an improved optical setup of the OCM is applied to a three-hole test injector nozzle where several measurement techniques are compared currently under well-defined conditions up to 100?MPa injection pressure. In this work, the direct comparison with X-Ray measurements done at the Advanced Photon Source of the Argonne National Laboratory will be described. This allows an evaluation of the OCM technique and a comparison of the different measurement quantities in the first 500?µm range of the spray. The structure of the spray is measured by X-Ray phase contrast imaging and the fuel mass distribution is measured by X-Ray absorption imaging. A detailed comparison of the two X-Ray techniques and the OCM technique has been possible for the first time. It is found that the measurement data of the spray near field are very congruent with all three methods. Due to this comparison, the measurement of the non-perturbed length, which describes the distance from the nozzle orifice up to the point where the formation of surface disturbances is starting, by the OCM is validated for the first time. Within this non-perturbed length of the spray, the OCM signal is weak before it starts to illuminate from the scattering of the perturbed surface. Thus, the OCM technique can deliver two characteristic length scales, the non-perturbed length and the breakup length, characterizing the primary spray breakup.     

Polymerization shrinkage of a dental resin composite determined by a fiber optic Fizeau interferometer

A fiber optic sensing method based on a Fizeau-type interferometric scheme was employed for monitoring linear polymerization shrinkage in dental restoratives. This technique offers several advantages over the conventional methods of measuring polymerization contraction. This simple, compact, non-invasive and self-calibrating system competes with both conventional and other high-resolution bulk interferometric techniques. In this work, an analysis of the quality of interference signal and fringes visibility was performed in order to characterize their resolution and application range. The measurements of percent linear contraction as a function of the sample thickness were carried out in this study on two dental composites: Filtek P60 (3M ESPE) Posterior Restorer and Filtek Z250 (3M ESPE) Universal Restorer. The results were discussed with respect to others obtained employing alternative techniques.     

A review on refractive index and temperature profile measurements using laser-based interferometric techniques

In this review we have discussed laser-based interferometric techniques for measurement of refractive index, temperature and temperature profile of burners with special emphasis on laser speckle techniques and Talbot interferometric technique.     

A study on the 3-D measurement by using digital projection moiré method

Moiré topography method is a well-known non-contacting 3-D measurement method. Recently, the automatic 3-D measurement technique by moiré topography has been developed in order to apply to the engineering and medical fields. The projection moiré topography is very attractive because of its high measuring speed and high sensitivity. In this paper, using the two-wavelength methods of projection moiré topography was investigated to measure the 3-D shape of an object with 2π-ambiguity problems. Rapid measurement can be accomplished by the synchronization between CCD camera and projector. The experimental results prove that the proposed scheme is capable of finding absolute fringe orders, so that the 2π-ambiguity problems can be effectively overcome so as to treat large step discontinuities in measured objects.     

Investigation of the resolution ability of an image inversion interferometer

The present paper presents the experimental measurement of the interferometric point spread function of an image inversion interferometer (III). The measurement was realized by scanning a pointlike source in the object plane and integrating the intensity in the image plane for each position of the point source. The achieved results are compared to the theoretical expectations and the results, which we received in a previous work by using a different method. The improved resolution of two neighbouring points in comparison to the conventional image is demonstrated. In addition we propose an explanation concerning the divergences of the values to be expected in theory.     

Ultimate quantum limits for resolution of beam displacements

We compare two high sensitivity techniques which are used to measure very small displacements of physical objects by optical techniques: the interferometric devices, measuring longitudinal phase shifts, and the devices used to monitor transverse displacement of light beams. We detail the differences and the similarities for the quantum limits on the resolution of both systems. In both cases squeezed light can be used to resolve beyond the standard quantum limit and number correlated states allow us to reach the “Heisenberg” limit. Received 12 September 2002 Published online 21 January 2003     

Least-squares fitting of wavefront using rational function

This paper describes a mathematical method for approximation of the measurement data in optical testing techniques. Presented method uses a least-squares fit of two-dimensional rational function model to interferometric data. It is suitable for an analytical expression of wavefront, and one can obtain sufficient accuracy with a relatively small number of approximation coefficients. Properties of the proposed method are analyzed in this work. It is shown that the technique can be used for analyzing wavefront deformation in optical testing methods.     

Highly sensitive laser-based sensor for nanoparticles in air using a dual-ring-mirror setup

One of the most frequently applied techniques to detect nanoparticles in air is analyzing laser light scattering. This technique is very flexible while offering high accuracy and reliability. Yet its functionality highly depends on the sensitivity of the measurement system components. Especially for miniaturized sensor devices with limited space, additional techniques are needed to preserve high intensity of scattered light. In our work we demonstrate a technique using two spherical ring mirrors to identify nanoparticles with diameters below 100 nm in a forward-scattering setup. We succeeded measuring polystyrene particles with diameters of 92 nm with a signal-to-noise-ratio of more than 10.     

In-line silica capillary tube all-silica fiber-optic Fabry-Perot interferometric sensor for detecting high intensity focused ultrasound fields

Aiming at detecting high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) fields, this letter reports on a novel in-line silica capillary tube all-silica fiber-optic Fabry-Perot (ILSCT-ASFP) interferometric sensor fabricated by splicing a commercially available silica capillary tube to two single-mode fibers. The experimental results show that such a novel ILSCT-ASFP interferometric sensor with a cavity length of ～60.76 μm has an excellent fringe visibility of up to ～20 dB, and the fringe visibility is still good when the cavity length extends up to ～1031.07 μm. The measured wavelength-temperature sensitivity of 0.000858 nm/°C shows that the wavelength drift of the fabricated ILSCT-ASFP interferometric sensor towards temperature is extremely low. Meanwhile, the measurement of HIFU fields by this novel sensor is demonstrated, and the experimental results indicate that the signal-to-noise ratio of the sensing system for sensing a 0.93 MHz HIFU field with a pressure of 2.69 MPa in the focus area can reach 42.8 dB. The corresponding noise equivalent pressure is 0.0194 MPa, and the calculated acoustic sensitivity is 65.4 mV/MPa over a 2.5 MHz measurement bandwidth.     

Experimental intensity patterns obtained from a 2D shearing interferometer with adaptable sensitivity

The interferometric intensity patterns from a 2D shearing interferometer are shown and discussed. The intensity patterns can be obtained in two different approaches incorporating differential and extended wavefront controlled displacements. The reliable directional sensitivity of this interferometer allows the optimization of the measurement parameters to estimate the wavefront of the intensity patterns by regularization techniques.     

Stereophotogrammetric 3D shape measurement by holographic methods using structured speckle illumination combined with interferometry

We present a unique combination of the numerical three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of the shape of an object with interferometric deformation measurements. Two cameras record several holograms of an object that is illuminated by structured illumination. This illumination is realized by speckle patterns. To improve the image quality, an inplace speckle reduction technique is combined with the structured illumination to reduce the effect of disturbing subjective speckles which appear in the reconstructed images. Stereophotogrammetric methods are applied to extract the 3D surface information of the object out of the reconstructed images. Since the recording is done by holography and because stereophotogrammetry enables a pointwise correlation between the two views, it is possible to combine other holographic techniques with the reconstructed 3D shape. This is demonstrated by an interferometric deformation measurement of an object cooling down. The resulting interferometric fringes are mapped onto the reconstructed 3D surface. Hence, the proposed method enables automatic and dense matching of interferometric fringe-maps recorded by spatially separated holograms onto the surface of the object, which has not yet been realized by existing techniques.