Two-photon autofluorescence spectroscopy and second-harmonic generation of epithelial tissue

A spectroscopy system is developed for studying the two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) and second-harmonic generation (SHG) of epithelial tissue in backscattering geometry. Our findings show that TPEF signals from epithelial and underlying stromal layers exhibit different spectral characteristics, providing information on the biomorphology and biochemistry of tissue. The SHG signal serves as a sensitive indicator of collagen to separate the epithelial layer from underlying stroma. The polarization dependence of the SHG signal reveals a well-ordered orientation of collagen fibers in the stromal layer. The results demonstrate the potential of depth-resolved TPEF and SHG in determining the pathology of epithelial tissue.     

Combined depth- and time-resolved autofluorescence spectroscopy of epithelial tissue

A time-resolved confocal fluorescence spectroscopy system is built to measure the fine structure and localized biochemistry of epithelial tissue. It is found that the autofluorescence excited at 405 nm is sensitive to the cellular metabolism and can be used to sense the metabolic status of epithelial tissue. The decay of autofluorescence excited at 405 nm can be accurately fitted with a dual-exponential function consisting of short lifetime (0.4-0.6 ns) and long lifetime (3-4 ns) components. The ratio of the amplitudes of the two components provides information on the fine structure of epithelial tissue. We demonstrate that the combined depth- and time-resolved measurements with single excitation can potentially provide accurate information for the diagnosis of tissue pathology.     

Optical fibres for material processing lasers

Fibre transmission of high-power radiation has opened the laser a new dimension of material processing applications. The three-dimensional treatment revolutionised a far field of the production technology. One impressed example is the laser welding process in the automotive industry. The Nd–YAG solid state laser in combination with the optical fibre increase the automation and the flexibility of a whole industry. The next generation of Audis aluminium alloy car body is mainly welded by fibre-guided Nd–YAG laser beams. Since the past 10 years the maximum average laser power transmitted through optical fibres increase from some 100 W up to 10 kW. For industrial application only Nd–YAG lasers and recently the diode lasers are economically suited for fibre transmission.     

Optical processing of one-dimensional signals

Long one-dimensional signals can be processed efficiently by optical methods if they are represented in a two-dimensional version. We show that by choosing an appropriate scanning pattern either new types of operations can be synthesized or classical operations like Fourier transformation or correlation can be implemented for this type of signals. Besides coherent illumination, incoherent light can also be used in order to reduce stability requirements, to increase the signal to noise ratio and to accommodate self-luminous inputs.     

Optical characterization methods for solid-state image sensors

The accurate measurement of the optoelectronic properties of imaging sensors is of utmost importance for their appropriate use in various modern application fields, such as in metrology, quality control, environmental monitoring, medicine or for automotive applications. Key sensor parameters include spatial resolution, uniformity, sensitivity, linearity, signal to noise ratio and dynamic range. Today high-end optical systems mostly rely on charge coupled device (CCD) image sensors. Continuous progresses in CMOS submicron technology and the advent of ‘active pixel sensor’ (APS) imagers have however led to a wealth of novel line and area array imaging devices with added functionalities (eg. on-chip control and read-out electronics) or performance optimized for specific tasks (eg. a dynamic range in excess of 120 dB). The optimal use of CMOS image sensing technology nevertheless depends strongly on the absolute and accurate optoelectronic characterization of these devices. Modern measurement techniques for a reliable, traceable, precise and absolute measurement of the most relevant parameters of CCD and CMOS imaging sensors are described and discussed in the present paper, with examples based on recent state-of-the art CMOS imagers.     

Laser processing of ormosils for tissue engineering applications

Hybrid methacrylates based on silane derivates (ormosils) have been considered for applications in electronics, microtechnology, corrosion resistant coatings, dentistry, and biomedical implants. The presence of both inorganic chains, responsible for chemical and thermal stability, hardness, and transparency, and organic groups, which bring new advantages such as the possibility of functionalization and easy, low temperature processing, can result in the appearance of unique properties.     

Laser-induced autofluorescence for medical diagnosis

The naturally occurring autofluorescence of cells and tissues is based on biomolecules containing intrinsic fluorophores, such as porphyrins, the amino acids tryptophan and tyrosine, and the coenzymes NADH, NADPH, and flavins. Coenzymes fluoresce in the blue/green spectral region (fluorecence lifetimes: 0.5–6 ns) and are highly sensitive indicators of metabolic function. Steadystate and time-resolved blue-green autofluorescence is, therefore, an appropriate measure of the function of the respiratory chain as well as of cellular and tissue damage. Autofluorescence in the yellow/red spectral region is based mainly on endogenous porphyrins and metalloporphyrins, such as coproporphyrin, protoporphyrin (fluorescence lifetime of porphyrin monomers: >10 ns), and Zn-protoporphyrin (2 ns). Various pathological microorganisms such asPropionibacterium acnes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Actinomyces odontolyticus, Bacteroides intermedius, andSaccharomyces cerevisiae are able to synthesize large amounts of these fluorophores and can therefore be located. This permits fluorescence-based detection of a variety of diseases, including early-stage dental caries, dental plaque, acne vulgaris, otitis externa, and squamous cell carcinoma. The sensitivity of noninvasive autofluorescence diagnostics can be enhanced by time-gated fluorescence measurements using an appropriate time delay between ultrashort laser excitation and detection. For example, videocameras with ultrafast shutters, in the nanosecond region, can be used to create caries images of the teeth. Alternatively, autofluorescence can be enhanced by stimulating protoporphyrin biosynthesis with the exogenously administered porphyrin precursor 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA). The fluorophore protoporphyrin IX (PP IX) is photolabile and photodynamically active. Irradiation of PP IX-containing tissue results in cytotoxic reactions which correlate with modifications in fluorescence due to photobleaching and singlet oxygen-dependent photoproduct formation. Therefore, on-line autofluorescence measurements during the phototreatment can yield information on the efficiency of ALA-based photodynamic therapy.     

Optical filters with panchromatic emulsion layers for image processing

Amplitude filters with non-linear adaptive performance in the Fourier plane of a mirror optical system are considered. Panchromatic silver bromide layers with a printout effect are employed. The processing of binary and grey-scale images with the aid of a passively adaptive mirror filtering block is investigated.     

Optical model of plant tissue

A P _L model of a planar multiply scattering multilayer plant tissue is developed based on the expansion of radiation intensity in spherical harmonics. The dependences of differential backscattering and fluorescence coefficients on the chlorophyll concentration are numerically studied in the first-order P _L approximation. It is shown that the P _L approximation yields the results that are close to the numerical Monte Carlo solution (the deviations do not exceed 5.3%). The contribution of fluorescence to the backscattering intensity is calculated to reach 16% at high chlorophyll concentrations.     

Optical characterization of metallic aerosols

Airborne metallic particulates from industry and urban sources are highly conducting aerosols. The characterization of these pollutant particles is important for environment monitoring and protection. Because these metallic particulates are highly reflective, their effect on local weather or regional radiation budget may also need to be studied. In this work, light scattering characteristics of these metallic aerosols are studied using exact solutions on perfectly conducting spherical and cylindrical particles. It is found that for perfectly conducting spheres and cylinders, when scattering angle is larger than 90° the linear polarization degree of the scattered light is very close to zero. This light scattering characteristics of perfectly conducting particles is significantly different from that of other aerosols. When these perfectly conducting particles are immersed in an absorbing medium, this light scattering characteristics does not show significant change. Therefore, measuring the linear polarization of scattered lights at backward scattering angles can detect and distinguish metallic particulates from other aerosols. This result provides a great potential of metallic aerosol detection and monitoring for environmental protection.     

Optical characterization of radiative semiconductors

This paper describes a direct photoluminescent method of characterizing high quantum efficiency semiconductors in terms of an “effective absorption coefficient” which is a function of the absorption coefficient and of the diffusion length of excess minority carriers injected optically.The results obtained by this method indicate that the diffusion lengths in unintentionally doped (pure) and n and p-type GaAs can be in excess of 0.03 cm at room temperature, and that surface and bulk radiation processes in these materials can be separated.     

Optical characterization of photochromic effect

Photochromic powders are powders whose color is sensitive to UV irradiation. When such a powder is exposed to the sunlight or any other UV rays, it becomes darker and then looks back progressively to its initial color. An optical method has been set up in order to quantify these colors variations. We can then quantify the variations in the colorimetric space, and the time response of the coming back phenomenon.     

Optical characterization of synthetic opals

The results of a structural-optical characterization of synthetic opals are presented. Information on the growth-induced features of the opal structure was derived from an analysis of the position and width of the one-dimensional photonic band gap. The structure of the samples was found to vary substantially along the growth axis coinciding with the [111] direction of the fcc lattice. It was shown that the regions corresponding to early stages in the opal structure growth are typically strongly disordered, which manifests itself, in particular, in the crystallites being misoriented relative to the sample growth axis. It was concluded that the regions of synthetic opals most suitable for application as photonic crystals are those corresponding to later growth stages.     

Optical signal processing using nonlinear fibers

Ultra-fast optical signal processing is a promising technology for future photonic networks. This paper describes possible applications of nonlinear fibers to optical signal processing. The third-order optical nonlinearities in a fiber are discussed by analyzing the interaction of co-propagating optical waves. The properties of a nonlinear fiber are then considered in terms of optimizing the dispersion for achieving phase matching and decreasing walk-off. A highly nonlinear fiber (HNLF) is a practical candidate for an ultra-high-speed signal processor. Using HNLF, the following experiments are successfully demonstated: ultra-broadband wavelength conversion/optical phase conjugation by four-wave mixing, 160 Gb/s optical 3R-regeneration, and optical switching up to 640 Gb/s using a parametric amplified fiber switch. Steps for further improvements are also discussed.     

抛物面镜系统的光学图像处理

讨论了抛物面镜的变换特性;提出用一个凹抛物面反射镜组成光学图像处理系统,进行了相干光,部分相干光和白光的若干光学图像处理实验,证明了系统的可行性,并对系统的实用意义作了若干讨论.     

小半径柱面镜光学加工工艺研究

针对某新型导弹激光系统提出的小半径柱面镜,通过对传统柱面镜加工方法的综合分析比较,选择合适的加工方法、用不同抛光模层进行抛光比较,对多种分离器材料和分离器槽的长短、模具的摆动幅度等进行工艺试验,使小圆棒柱面镜的表面粗糙度最小值达到Ra 0.005 m,优于设计图纸表面粗糙度Ra 0.01 m的要求,后续再磨去多余的半个圆柱,形成并达到平面的技术要求,满足了此半圆柱状的小半径柱面镜全部技术条件,形成稳定批产加工能力。     

Stochastic characterization of small-scale algorithms for human sensory processing

Human sensory processing can be viewed as a functional H mapping a stimulus vector s into a decisional variable r. We currently have no direct access to r; rather, the human makes a decision based on r in order to drive subsequent behavior. It is this (typically binary) decision that we can measure. For example, there may be two external stimuli s([0]) and s([1]), mapped onto r([0]) and r([1]) by the sensory apparatus H; the human chooses the stimulus associated with largest r. This kind of decisional transduction poses a major challenge for an accurate characterization of H. In this article, we explore a specific approach based on a behavioral variant of reverse correlation techniques, where the input s contains a target signal corrupted by a controlled noisy perturbation. The presence of the target signal poses an additional challenge because it distorts the otherwise unbiased nature of the noise source. We consider issues arising from both the decisional transducer and the target signal, their impact on system identification, and ways to handle them effectively for system characterizations that extend to second-order functional approximations with associated small-scale cascade models.     

Measurement of the decay of light-induced gratings for characterization of QW heterostructures of type I and II

Using a non-resonant transient grating technique the mobility and recombination lifetime of free carriers in type I and type II QW heterostructures is measured. For the lattice-matched type II Ca_xSr_1−xF₂/GaAs structures the diffusion coefficient as well as the diffraction efficiency is found to be affected by carrier separation into different layers. For GaAs/GaAlAs superlattices a strong influence of the barrier parameters on the inplane diffusion of heavy holes is observed.     

Acoustic impedance microscopy for biological tissue characterization

A new method for two-dimensional acoustic impedance imaging for biological tissue characterization with micro-scale resolution was proposed. A biological tissue was placed on a plastic substrate with a thickness of 0.5 mm. A focused acoustic pulse with a wide frequency band was irradiated from the “rear side” of the substrate. In order to generate the acoustic wave, an electric pulse with two nanoseconds in width was applied to a PVDF-TrFE type transducer. The component of echo intensity at an appropriate frequency was extracted from the signal received at the same transducer, by performing a time–frequency domain analysis. The spectrum intensity was interpreted into local acoustic impedance of the target tissue. The acoustic impedance of the substrate was carefully assessed prior to the measurement, since it strongly affects the echo intensity. In addition, a calibration was performed using a reference material of which acoustic impedance was known. The reference material was attached on the same substrate at different position in the field of view. An acoustic impedance microscopy with 200 × 200 pixels, its typical field of view being 2 × 2 mm, was obtained by scanning the transducer. The development of parallel fiber in cerebella cultures was clearly observed as the contrast in acoustic impedance, without staining the specimen. The technique is believed to be a powerful tool for biological tissue characterization, as no staining nor slicing is required.