Super-resolution microscope using a two-color phase plate for generating quasi-Laguerre–Gaussian beam

To achieve high lateral resolution overcoming the diffraction limit, a two-color phase plate (TPP) for generating a quasi-Laguerre–Gaussian beam was applied to super-resolution microscopy (SRM) based on fluorescence depletion. Putting the TPP into a robust optical path in a commercial laser-scanning microscope, we obtained a point spread function with a full width at half maximum three times smaller than diffraction limit. The measured contrast transfer function shows that line and space patterns finer than the diffraction limit were clearly resolved and the image contrast was improved. Since the TPP can easily improve lateral resolution in SRM without any precise adjustment, our setup provides a practical super-resolution microscope.     

Application of the nitroanisole as an infrared detector used in middle infrared interferometer

We propose the application of nitroanisole as a detector for middle infrared (mid-IR) interferometry or holography. The present experiment utilizes the liquid form of nitroanisole, which has a thermal lens effect, i.e. a temperature dependent refractive index. Since the nitroanisole absorbs IR radiation as heat, it is possible to estimate the IR intensity distribution on the nitroanisole from the diffraction pattern made by visible laser light that is transmitted through the nitroanisole. In this study, the time resolution and the diffraction efficiency of the nitroanisole was measured under various conditions. The experimental results show that the nitroanisole has a time resolution as high as that of a standard video camera, as well as a high diffraction efficiency and the spatial resolution equivalent to that of a conventional IR camera. Furthermore, we confirmed that the phase shift in mid-IR region can be estimated by analyzing the change in the visible diffraction pattern.     

Subdiffraction resolution in total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy with a grating substrate

We propose a fluorescence surface imaging system that presents a power of resolution beyond that of the diffraction limit without resorting to saturation effects or probe scanning. This is achieved by depositing the sample on an optimized periodically nanostructured substrate in a standard total internal reflection fluorescence microscope. The grating generates a high-spatial-frequency light grid that can be moved throughout the sample by changing the incident angle. An appropriate reconstruction procedure permits one to recover the fluorescence amplitude from the images obtained for various incidences. Simulations of this imaging system show that the resolution is not limited by diffraction but by the period of the grating.     

超分辨近场结构光盘读出信号的计算模型

给出了超分辨近场结构光盘(Super RENS)读出信号的计算模型。以时域有限差分法为基础,结合高斯光束矢量模型和衍射方法,通过计算得到了物镜出瞳上的读出信号。计算结果表明,Super RENS具有超衍射极限的空间分辨能力,并且其读出信号的特征完全不同于传统光盘。     

Region-based fusion of infrared and visible images using nonsubsampled contourlet transform

With the nonsubsampled contourlet transform (NSCT), a novel region-segmentation-based fusion algorithm for infrared (IR) and visible images is presented.The IR image is segmented according to the physical features of the target.The source images are decomposed by the NSCT, and then, different fusion rules for the target regions and the background regions are employed to merge the NSCT coefficients respectively.Finally, the fused image is obtained by applying the inverse NSCT.Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the pixel-based methods, including the traditional wavelet-based method and NSCT-based method.     

红外扫描和频振动光谱系统的激光线宽与光谱分辨率

本文报道了一个简化的利用可见光和红外光带宽来计算和频光谱分辨率的公式. 公式显示和频振动光谱的Voigt线宽可以通过振动模式的均匀线宽(洛伦兹线宽)、非均匀线宽(高斯线宽)、红外光与可见光的高斯线宽计算获得. 利用本实验室新搭建的频率分辨及偏振分辨的皮秒和频光谱系统验证了该公式的准确性. 实验结果显示,本激光系统获取的红外光的高斯线宽为1.5 cm^-1. 本激光系统的光谱分辨率约为4.6 cm^-1,结果与胆固醇单层膜光谱获取的光谱分辨率(3.5~5 cm^-1)基本一致.     

高分辨率红外导引头光学系统小型化设计

设计一种高分辨率中波红外成像制导光学系统。采用折射一次成像的结构形式,初始结构为远摄型物镜组。所设计的系统共用3个光学元件,通过引入非球面和二元光学衍射元件,增加光学设计的自由度,全视场达到10,系统总长为49 mm,焦距为70 mm。并且系统在-40℃~60℃温度范围内具有良好的消热差作用,成像质量接近衍射极限,最大弥散斑直径小于15 m。适用于像元数为640512,像元尺寸为15 m,F数为2的红外焦平面探测器。系统具有成像分辨率高、视场大且体积小等优点,可用于小型红外导引头中。     

基于消失点检测算法的束靶红外图像畸变校正

传统的霍夫变换、Cannylines直线检测算法、霍夫概率变换方法在图像上的直线检测效果不佳,存在检测线段不连续不正确的问题,因而,利用Sobel滤波对红外图像横轴和纵轴两个方向分别进行锐化,通过线段检测(LSD)算法实现线段特征检测,进而经线段聚类拟合获得图像中完整的直线,通过对直线交点计算获得消失点,最后依据透视关系计算得到校正图像。实验结果表明,该方法可以实现对中性束红外图像的自动有效校正。     

Generation and detection of linearly polarized axially symmetric beam by an amplitude computer-generated hologram

A novel beam combination scheme was proposed to generate high order linearly polarized axially symmetric beam (LPASB) by superposing two Laguerre–Gaussian (LG) beams with opposite azimuthal quantum numbers. An amplitude computer-generated hologram (CGH) was not only used to generate two LG beams but also used in the combination scheme. Amplitude CGH was also used to detect the order of the LPASB.     

One color contrast enhanced infrared and visible image fusion method

Color constancy (Toet and Franken, 2003 [2]; Toet, 2003 [7]) and color contrast (Scribner et al., 2000 [21]; Lee et al., 2005 [23]) are two important topics for color image fusion. The paper focuses on the low color contrast problem of linear fusion algorithms with color transfer method. Color transfer technology is popular in infrared (IR) and visible image fusion to give the fused image a natural day-time color appearance (Toet, 2003 [7]; Wang et al., 2007 [8]; Zheng and Essock, 2008 [9]). However, in the color transfer step, all three channels of the color space are processed with the same linear mapping without color enhancement, resulting in low color contrast between the target and the background (Wang et al., 2007 [8]). Based on the characteristics of the IR image, we introduce a ratio of local to global divergence of the IR image to improve the color contrast. The enhancement ratios for both hot and cold targets are larger than one, while it tends to one for the background. As a result, the proposed method pops out both hot and cold targets in color, where hot targets will appear intense red, and cold targets will appear cyan. Subjective results show visible color contrast enhancement effects. Target detection experiments through hue and saturation components of the fused image show an improvement in the hit rate for target detection, owing to larger color distance between the target and the background.     

Higher-order Laguerre-Gauss mode generation and interferometry for gravitational wave detectors

We report on the first experimental demonstration of higher-order Laguerre-Gauss (LG(p)(?)) mode generation and interferometry using a method scalable to the requirements of gravitational wave (GW) detection. GW detectors which use higher-order LG(p)(?) modes will be less susceptible to mirror thermal noise, which is expected to limit the sensitivity of all currently planned terrestrial detectors. We used a diffractive optic and a mode-cleaner cavity to convert a fundamental LG(0)(0) Gaussian beam into an LG(3)(3) mode with a purity of 98%. The ratio between the power of the LG(0)(0) mode of our laser and the power of the LG(3)(3) transmitted by the cavity was 36%. By measuring the transmission of our setup using the LG(0)(0), we inferred that the conversion efficiency specific to the LG(3)(3) mode was 49%. We illuminated a Michelson interferometer with the LG(3)(3) beam and achieved a visibility of 97%.     

A tilting procedure to enhance compositional contrast and reduce residual diffraction contrast in energy-filtered TEM imaging of planar interfaces

This paper systematically demonstrates that energy-filtered transmission electron microscope (EFTEM) images of a planar interface between two single crystals have increased compositional contrast and decreased residual diffraction contrast when the sample is oriented so that the electron beam is parallel to the interface, but not directly on a zone axis. This off-axis orientation reduces diffraction contrast in the unfiltered (and zero-loss) image, which in turn, reduces residual diffraction contrast in single energy-filtered TEM (EFTEM) images, thickness maps, jump-ratio images, and elemental maps. Most importantly, this procedure produces EFTEM images that are more directly interpretable and, in most cases, possess superior spatial resolution compared to EFTEM images acquired directly on a zone axis.     

Field properties and vacuum electron acceleration in a laser beam of high-order Laguerre–Gaussian mode

The electric field intensity distribution and the phase velocity distribution of high-order Laguerre–Gaussian (LGρ?) mode laser beams are analyzed. Using three-dimensional test particle simulation, the numerical results of electrons accelerated by LG00, LG40 and LG41 mode laser beams are presented. Compared with the LG00 mode (the fundamental mode) laser beam, low-energy injection electrons can be more favorably accelerated in a high-order LG mode laser beam. Contrary to anticipation, a high-order LG mode laser beam with intense axial electric field distribution is inferior to the LG00 mode in capture acceleration for electrons with high injection energy.     

Saturated patterned excitation microscopy with two-dimensional excitation patterns

The techniques of patterned excitation microscopy (PEM, also referred to in the literature as structured illumination, harmonic excitation light microscopy, or laterally modulated excitation microscopy), has recently been extended to the non-linear regime, permitting a further increase in resolution breaking the Abbe diffraction limit (saturated PEM, saturated patterned excitation microscopy (SPEM)). Fluorescence saturation was suggested as the non-linear effect employed to achieve this aim. Here a two-dimensional extension of the linear and the non-linear patterned excitation technique is introduced and simulations of the expected resolution improvement are presented. The simulations account for photon statistics, a sub-optimal degree of modulation and a high amount of background fluorescence in the sample. The resulting point-spread-functions achieve a full width at half maximum of 215 nm (widefield), 118 nm (linear PEM), and 57 nm (saturated PEM, 9x9 orders). For higher resolution, an increased number of detected photons and of raw data images are required. A potential method for substantially decreasing the required number of raw images in PEM and SPEM is discussed.     

基于图像融合的动态轮廓线跟踪新方法

红外与可见光传感器是目标跟踪识别系统中常用的两种传感器,对这两种传感器图像进行融合能有效提高系统跟踪检测的准确性。将动态轮廓线模型与图像融合结合,在特征搜索过程中利用特征点准确地完成了图像配准,同时使用了一种新的特征级融合方法,将两种图像中目标轮廓的B样条曲线控制点进行实时微分耦合。这种耦合将Curwen提出的微分耦合机制作了改进,利用图像配准把刚性硬模板改变为实时的变换模板并推导了融合后动态轮廓线的新的动力学方程。这种融合利用了红外图像目标轮廓信息约束可见光图像中动态轮廓线的收敛形状,有效地提高了可见光图像目标跟踪的准确性。对运动人手序列图像的对比跟踪实验表明,这种融合使得可见光图像中动态轮廓线平均跟踪误差减小了60．25％。     

Electron holography with atomic focusers

In a modified form of electron holography, as originally proposed by Gabor, a specimen illuminated by the focused, convergent beam of a scanning transmission electron microscope is followed by a thin crystal which acts as a periodic array of atomic focusers. Each of the broad diffraction spots of the crystal then contains a magnified image of the specimen with a resolution limit of 0.05 nm or less. The method is illustrated by images of crystal lattice planes and tungsten atoms in the diffraction patterns formed by crystals in the walls of carbon nanoshells.     

相位片角向衍射产生拉盖尔-高斯光束的实验研究

设计了一种角向分布的相位片,利用离子束刻蚀技术加工成0和π二级的相位片.利用角向衍射理论对相位片的衍射场分析表明,衍射场为拓扑指数相反的两束拉盖尔-高斯光束的叠加场.用直径为4 mm的近平行光照射相位片,获得径向指数为零,拓扑荷相反的叠加拉盖尔-高斯光场.采用较大孔径的光束入射时,仍为拓扑荷相反的两束光的叠加,但径向指数会发生变化. 关键词： 信息光学 拉盖尔-高斯光束 相位片 离子束刻蚀     

Average intensity and spectral shifts of a partially coherent standard or elegant Laguerre-Gaussian beam beyond paraxial approximation

With the help of the Rayleigh-Sommerfeld diffraction integral, an analytical formula for the spectral density of a nonparaxial polychromatic partially coherent (NPPC) standard or elegant Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beam propagating through free space is derived. The evolution properties of the intensity distribution of a NPPC standard or elegant LG beam are studied numerically. It is found that the behavior of the intensity distribution of the NPPC standard or elegant LG beam is determined by the initial beam parameters (i.e., beam waist size, spatial coherence width and beam orders). Furthermore, we also study the influence of the initial beam parameters on the spectral change of a NPPC standard or elegant LG beam upon propagation in free space. It is shown that the on-axis spectral shift of a NPPC standard LG beam is almost the same with that of a NPPC elegant LG beam when the initial beam parameters of two type beams are identical. However, the difference between the off-axis spectral shift between a NPPC standard LG beam and a NPPC elegant LG beam is enhanced with the decrease of beam waist size or with the increase of spatial coherence width and beam mode orders.     

孔径光阑限制下高斯光束的传输

对高斯光束在硬边孔径限制下的衍射进行了详细的理论研究,就不同口径的圆孔限制下高斯光束在菲涅耳衍射区和夫琅禾费衍射区的分布进行了理论分析,从而得到了孔径受限高斯光束的横向以及轴向的衍射公式,进而对高斯光束在不同衍射区域内衍射光场分布形状随孔径尺寸变化时的演化规律进行了数值计算,并对小口径光阑受限的高斯光束的衍射与平行光经同尺寸光阑的衍射进行了比较。结果表明在较小口径下,两者的分布基本一致。得到的孔径光阑限制下高斯光束的传输规律为高斯光束在自由空间光通信和光学超分辨中的应用提供了理论基础。