Real-time non-linear spatial filtering with a leaky OASLM

In this paper we demonstrate image processing techniques such as edge enhancement and phase contrast by using an optically addressed liquid crystal spatial light modulator (OASLM) in the frequency plane of an optical 4f processor. The transfer function of the device is derived on the basis of the Jones formalism. Faced with a lack of a general theory for such non-linear optical processors, we show that an analogy to the propagation of optical pulses in fibres is helpful for the understanding of the image processing operation.     

Wideband versatile radio-frequency spectrum analyzer

Operation of a wideband, versatile optical spectrum analyzer for radio-frequency (RF) signals is demonstrated. The device is based on spectral hole burning (SHB). The demonstration features 2.3-GHz instantaneous bandwidth, 500-kHz resolution, and a 32-dB dynamic range. A true RF signal, transferred to the optical carrier with the help of a Mach-Zehnder modulator, is analyzed with optical carrier suppression and zooming capabilities. This is to the authors' knowledge the largest instantaneous bandwidth ever demonstrated for a SHB-based processor in rare-earth-doped crystals.     

双通道红外光谱辐射计的研制及标定

研制了一台双通道(1.40±0.02μm,4.50±0.03μm)光谱辐射亮度计(以下简称辐射计),并进行了光谱辐亮度定标[1]。该辐射计主要由前置光学系统、精密机械调制器、双路单元红外探测器、锁相放大器、A/D转换器和单片机等组成。在短波红外波段,由InGaAs探测器和积分球光源传递国家光谱辐照度标准灯的标准[15],对辐射计进行标定[7];在中波红外波段,用大面积标准黑体辐射源和腔型黑体辐射源,标定辐射计的光谱辐亮度。由数据统计分析,得出辐射计的光谱辐亮度响应度的不确定度[12,14]。     

Opto-electronic bistable devices in real-time optical information processing

An opto-electronic bistable device using a twisted nematic liquid crystal cell is described. The optical bistability characteristics of this device are used in a new liquid crystal light valve with bistability in cellular array structure. Experimental studies demonstrate the applications of such opto-electronic bistable devices in real-time optical information processing such as intensity limiting for contrast improvement and noise elimination, edge enhancement for pattern recognition, linear and nonlinear optical filtering (in spatial and spectral domains).     

Accumulated programming of a complex spectral grating

A complex spectral grating is accumulated by repeated application of a pair of low-power optical programming pulses to a short-term persistent inhomogeneously broadened transition in Tm:YAG at 4.5 K and then probed to investigate the buildup dynamics. The necessary frequency stability is obtained by locking a cw Ti:sapphire laser to a regenerating transient spectral hole in the same transition. Grating accumulation is demonstrated for both a periodic spectral grating, representing a true-time delay, and a complex spectral grating, permitting correlation-based pattern recognition. This work is a step toward demonstrating an optical coherent transient continuously programmed continuous processor.     

Optical coherent transient continuously programmed continuous processor

A novel technique for continuously programming an optical coherent transient spatial-spectral signal processor is proposed. The repeated application of two spatially distinct optical programming pulses to a nonpersistent hole-burning material writes an accumulated spatial-spectral population grating. An optical data stream is introduced on a third beam, resulting in a processor output signal that is spatially distinct from all the input pulses. Programming and processing take place simultaneously, asynchronously, and continuously. In the case of true-time delays, the efficiency that is achievable with currently available materials is of the order of that predicted for a perfect photon-gated device.     

Long-delay engraving and recovery of chirped femtosecond pulses by spectro-temporal holography in spectral hole-burning molecular solids

The persistent spectral hole-burning (PSHB) phenomenon observed in molecular doped polymers cooled down to liquid helium temperatures allows the engraving of spectral structures in the inhomogeneous absorption profile of the material. Therefore, a PSHB molecular-doped solid can be programmed in the spectral domain and then converted in an optical processor capable to achieve user-defined optical functions. We demonstrate the high storage capacity of naphthalocyanine-doped polymer materials by engraving and retrieving the phase information stored in femtosecond-chirped pulses, even with nanosecond time delay, which correspond to information registered with sub-GHz spectral resolution. Perspectives for the coherent control of light fields or photochemical processes are also evoked.     

Optical microwave filter based on spectral slicing by use of arrayed waveguide gratings

We have experimentally demonstrated a new optical signal processor based on the use of arrayed waveguide gratings. The structure exploits the concept of spectral slicing combined with the use of an optical dispersive medium. The approach presents increased flexibility from previous slicing-based structures in terms of tunability, reconfiguration, and apodization of the samples or coefficients of the transversal optical filter.     

Multi-functional real-time optical processor with self-pumped phase conjugator of Cu:KNSBN

A multi-functional real-time optical processor with a self-pumped phase conjugator of Cu:KNSBN crystal is presented. The key device, self-pumped phase conjugator, has functions of both a mirror and a real-time recording medium in the processor.     

Nano-scale sensing transducer using entangled photon walk-off compensation

We propose a new concept of a nano-sensing transducer system using a nano-waveguide. The small change in physical quantity affects to the change in device parameters such as refractive index or length which is relatively absorbed and observed by the resonant signals. In principle, the stored light pulse at the specified wavelength is generated by using a soliton propagating within the ring resonators, whereas a resonant signals can be stored within the nano-waveguide, i.e. a sensing transducer, which is formed by the sensing ring device. The induced change in the resonant signals by the surrounded environment is occurred, and can be detected by using the optical/quantum processor. Such a proposed device is namely suitable to perform the measurements in the nano-scale regime such as force, stress and temperature.     

Performance and simulation of an on-board guided-wave optical processor for airborne SAR applications

This paper describes the performance and simulation of a compact integrated optical processor for the real-time reconstruction of two-dimensional images in airborne stripmap synthetic aperture radar applications. The functional behavior of the processor is explained in some detail. The design criteria are briefly given. The simulation step allowed the main processor characteristics and properties to be identified. A number of comparisons were obtained in airborne SAR mission scenarios between the predictions of the optical device and those achieved by the modern electronic digital approach, based on the wavefront reconstruction method by matched filtering.     

Multi-functional real-time optical processor with self-pumped phase conjugator of Cu:KNSBN

A multi-functional real-time optical processor with a self-pumped phase conjugator of Cu: KNSBN crystal is presented. The key device, self-pumped phase conjugator, has functions of both a mirror and a real-time recording medium in the processor.     

Apparent transfer function for partially coherent optical information processing

In this paper, the general formulations of the apparent transfer function for the partially coherent optical processor will be derived. Although these formulas show that the apparent transfer function is dependent upon the degree of spatial and temporal coherence, there is actually more variability in the spatial coherence. We note that the obtained formulas may also be used as a criterion in the selection of source size and spectral bandwidth of an incoherent light source. Thus a specific optical information processing operation can be carried out with an incoherent source.     

All-Optical Holographic Label Processing for Photonic Packet Switching

A holographic label processor for photonic packet switching is proposed. We observe the process of time-to-space conversion for an optical code consisting of 2 ps pulses at a wavelength of 1.55 $mUm with 100 km fiber transmission. Label recognition using an angular multiplexed spectral hologram (AMSH) as a label bank is experimentally demonstrated. We also investigate the AMSH by CGH and confirm its feasibility in computer simulations.     

A PMD-supported 100-Gb/s optical frequency-domain IM-DD transmission system

A novel method for distortion-free optical pulse transmission is theoretically proposed and simulated, in which two time lenses formed by dispersion fibers and quadratic phase modulations are utilized. One is used as an optical inverse Fourier transformation （OIFT） device to transform the initial time-domain data to frequency-domain one at the transmitter and the other as an optical Fourier transformation （OFT） device to recover the data at the receiver. By using the unchanged spectral envelope in linear optical fiber communication, the initial data can be recovered. Through simulations, a 10× 100 Gb/s intensity-modulated direct-detection （IM-DD） dense wavelength division multiplexing （DWDM） system over 20000 km transmission without the compensation for polarization mode dispersion （PMD） and dispersion slope is achieved, which can be used to upgrade the current 100Gb/s IM-DD system to a 100-Gb/s one directly.     

Use of Fresnel synthetic holograms in an optical processor

We describe a synthetic Fresnel hologram matrix inserted in a high energy physics oriented optical processor. The purpose of the device is to detect alignment of points in real time.     

Study of non-contact sensors of biophysical parameters of the human organism and the development of methods of coherent diffractometry of biological micro-objects

In this paper, we present the results of the study of laboratory mockups of optoelectronic sensing elements of speckle sensors of the velocity of the capillary blood flow in the human skin, pulse wave dynamics, and skin pathologies. Furthermore, the model of a multipurpose optical Fourier processor, which makes it possible to obtain information on objects under study simultaneously in the spectral form and as an image, is considered.     

Recognition of spectrally asynchronous speech by normal-hearing listeners and Nucleus-22 cochlear implant users

This experiment examined the effects of spectral resolution and fine spectral structure on recognition of spectrally asynchronous sentences by normal-hearing and cochlear implant listeners. Sentence recognition was measured in six normal-hearing subjects listening to either full-spectrum or noise-band processors and five Nucleus-22 cochlear implant listeners fitted with 4-channel continuous interleaved sampling (CIS) processors. For the full-spectrum processor, the speech signals were divided into either 4 or 16 channels. For the noise-band processor, after band-pass filtering into 4 or 16 channels, the envelope of each channel was extracted and used to modulate noise of the same bandwidth as the analysis band, thus eliminating the fine spectral structure available in the full-spectrum processor. For the 4-channel CIS processor, the amplitude envelopes extracted from four bands were transformed to electric currents by a power function and the resulting electric currents were used to modulate pulse trains delivered to four electrode pairs. For all processors, the output of each channel was time-shifted relative to other channels, varying the channel delay across channels from 0 to 240 ms (in 40-ms steps). Within each delay condition, all channels were desynchronized such that the cross-channel delays between adjacent channels were maximized, thereby avoiding local pockets of channel synchrony. Results show no significant difference between the 4- and 16-channel full-spectrum speech processor for normal-hearing listeners. Recognition scores dropped significantly only when the maximum delay reached 200 ms for the 4-channel processor and 240 ms for the 16-channel processor. When fine spectral structures were removed in the noise-band processor, sentence recognition dropped significantly when the maximum delay was 160 ms for the 16-channel noise-band processor and 40 ms for the 4-channel noise-band processor. There was no significant difference between implant listeners using the 4-channel CIS processor and normal-hearing listeners using the 4-channel noise-band processor. The results imply that when fine spectral structures are not available, as in the implant listener's case, increased spectral resolution is important for overcoming cross-channel asynchrony in speech signals.     

Spectral characterization of fiber gratings with high resolution

We demonstrate a high-resolution technique to measure the optical magnitude and phase responses of fiber gratings. The technique employs single-sideband modulation of an optical source and has spectral resolution in the hertz regime. The technique is demonstrated by measurement of the phase ripples of unapodized and apodized chirped gratings as well as the transmission spectrum of a pi-phase-shifted grating. Although it is demonstrated on fiber gratings, the technique is applicable to any optical device.     

Waveguide acoustooptic devices for the real-time spectral analysis of broadband optical signals

Computer simulation and experimental testing of the main characteristics of a waveguide acoustooptic device for the real-time spectral analysis of broadband optical signals are discussed. A mathematical model of such a device is similar to the experimentally tested mathematical model of a waveguide acoustooptic spectral analyzer of radio signals. Two modifications of the spectrum analyzer based on Y-cut lithium niobate are developed and numerically studied. These modifications make it possible to process broadband optical signals in the red and IR ranges. The parameters of the devices are chosen based on real technological and topological requirements for the elements. Comparative analysis shows that the theoretical data on the first modification are in good agreement with the corresponding experimental results.