Scaling reduction of the contrast of fractal speckles detected with a finite aperture

It is known that speckle patterns with fractal properties, called fractal speckles, are produced by illuminating a diffuser with the coherent light having the intensity distribution obeying a negative power law. One of key properties of fractal speckles is the spatial correlation function obeying a negative power law, which implies that such speckles have scaling properties. In detecting fractal speckles, the effect of the spatial integration is inevitable in most cases since they have speckle grains of various scales including very fine ones. To evaluate this effect, in this paper, the contrast of spatially integrated intensity distributions is investigated theoretically and experimentally for fractal speckles. The results show that the contrast reduction with the size of the detector aperture obeys a negative power function related with the exponent of the intensity correlation coefficient of fractal speckles.     

Static point-spread function correction dominating higher-order speckle terms at high adaptive correction

At high adaptive correction, the randomly shifting speckles familiar in conventional astronomical imaging become organized into patterns with distinct regularities that may permit partial suppression of the image noise they produce. Mathematically, the phase exponential in the Fourier-optical imaging expression may be expanded in a Taylor series in remnant phase phi, which is small at very high correction, leading to a perturbed point-spread function (PSF) that is a sum of algebraic terms, each of distinct spatial symmetry. At sufficiently high correction, one need deal with only a few of the lowest-order terms. A first-order expansion gives an ideal PSF plus two terms, linear and quadratic, describing the two brightest, physically most relevant kinds of speckle. A second-order expansion gives three new terms, the brightest of which is primarily a static correction to the PSF, with a much smaller true speckle component. When the correction is great enough to isolate individual speckle terms, the two terms from the first-order expansion alone determine the essential physics. A general observational strategy is outlined for reducing speckle noise in highly corrected companion searches, dominated by a few speckle terms of definite spatial symmetry.     

Toward Defeating Diffraction and Randomness for Laser Beam Propagation in Turbulent Atmosphere

A large distance propagation in turbulent atmosphere results in disintegration of laser beam into speckles. We find that the most intense speckle approximately preserves both the Gaussian shape and the diameter of the initial collimated beam while loosing energy during propagation. One per 1000 of atmospheric realizations produces at 7 km distance an intense speckle above 28% of the initial power. Such optimal realizations create effective extended lenses focusing the intense speckle beyond the diffraction limit of vacuum propagation. Atmospheric realizations change every several milliseconds. We propose to use intense speckles to greatly increase the time-averaged power delivery to the target plane by triggering the pulsed laser operations only at times of optimal realizations. Resulting power delivery and laser irradiance at the intense speckles well exceeds both intensity of diffraction-limited beam and intensity averaged over typical realizations.     

Speckle reduction in optical coherence tomography images by use of a spatially adaptive wavelet filter

A spatially adaptive two-dimensional wavelet filter is used to reduce speckle noise in time-domain and Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) images. Edges can be separated from discontinuities that are due to noise, and noise power can be attenuated in the wavelet domain without significantly compromising image sharpness. A single parameter controls the degree of noise reduction. When this filter is applied to ophthalmic OCT images, signal-to-noise ratio improvements of >7 dB are attained, with a sharpness reduction of <3%.     

Determination of the resolving power of optical systems in the formation of speckle images

Relations for the calculation of the limiting resolvable spatial frequency of a speckle image of a line mira used as a test object in the determination of the optical power of optical systems are presented. The influence of the speckle structure on the extraction of information about the shape of the object observed from the image recorded is taken into account by using the equivalent modulation transfer characteristic of the optical system than determines the transfer of spatial frequencies of the envelope of the speckle image and the threshold characteristic of speckle noise conditioned by fluctuations of the amplitudes of individual speckles. Conditions, in which the prevailing influence on the quality of the image recorded is exerted by the speckle structure, atmospheric phase distortions, and discretization noise, are determined.     

粗糙表面对散斑统计特性的影响

为研究高速摄影中激光相干噪声的影响因素,降低激光照明中散斑噪声对高速摄影成像质量的影响,对激光照射表面的粗糙程度与形成的散斑场统计特性之间的关系进行了研究。基于菲涅尔-基尔霍夫衍射原理,分析了高斯光束入射在随机粗糙表面上经反射形成的散斑图样,通过对大量散斑图样的数据统计,得出了激光散斑的信噪比、自相关函数、概率密度函数与入射表面粗糙度之间的变化关系。计算结果表明:粗糙度的增大使散斑场信噪比降低、相干程度减小、概率密度降低,即表面越粗糙散斑噪声越严重。     

Specific features of speckle structure formed by dispersed laser beams

The geometry of statistical average of intensity speckles formed by a broadband dispersed laser beam spatially coherent in initial plane z = 0 is studied theoretically. A computer simulation was used to obtain two-dimensional distributions of random intensity that provide a clear picture of the transformations experienced by the speckle structure upon laser beam propagation. Correlation functions and power spectra of random intensity are calculated in order to determine the characteristic size and shape of speckles as a function of longitudinal coordinate z, the width and shape of the frequency spectrum, and the degree of dispersion of the light beam. Analytical expressions that describe an increase in the speckle size along the beam axis and in the direction of beam dispersion as a function of distance from the initial plane are obtained. The ultimate (at z → ∞) width of speckles in the direction of beam dispersion is calculated.     

三温区溶质传输助熔剂法生长BaTiO_3晶体

ＢａＴｉＯ３晶体新的生长方法，即感应加热三温区溶质传输熔剂法。其要点使高温熔体分为三个温区，坩埚顶部为生长区（Ａ区），温度最低，坩埚底部为溶解区（Ｃ区），温度高于生长区，营养料置于此区，坩埚中部为高温区（Ｂ区），在此区将杂晶熔解。还阐述了此法的机理，调试创造了稳定适宜的三温区温场。用此法生长出了优质ＳＴｉＯ３大单晶，尺寸达３０×３０×１５ｍｍ，并初步观测了其畴结构形貌，实验测定了晶格常数和居里点。     

数字剪切散班干涉术中的刚体位移补偿的新方法

给出一个数字剪切散斑干涉术中的刚体位移补偿的新方法。当刚体位移大于一个像素时，加载前后的散斑图将会由于位置的变化导致失相关。重新安排每一个像素将会克服此失相关。散斑平均、条纹重构以及迭代方法用来改善条纹质量，消除散斑噪声，最后得到可取结果。     

一种抑制合成孔径雷达图像相干斑的各向异性扩散滤波方法

本文提出了一种抑制合成孔径雷达图像乘性相干斑噪声的各向异性扩散滤波新方法.该方法将受自适应耦合函数控制的平均曲率运动嵌入到传统相干斑抑制的各向异性扩散方程中,形成了一种可有效抑制边缘区域相干斑与同质区块效应现象的各向异性扩散新方程,同时在新建的扩散方程中,引入了由改进Frost滤波与局部方向比率联合构建的一种带方向约束的新扩散函数,进一步削弱了块效应现象且明显改善了抑斑图像的边缘抖动扭曲问题.实验结果表明该方法在有效保护图像边缘的同时,能充分平滑同质区与边缘区域的相干斑,明显削弱块效应现象,有效改善抑斑图像边缘抖动扭曲问题,而抑斑图像无论视觉效果还是参数指标均比多种传统抑斑方法更具优势.     

Speckle characteristics of a broad-area VCSEL in the incoherent emission regime

We present a technique to reduce the speckle contrast of a NIR broad-area VCSEL based on the spatially incoherent emission regime that can be obtained when using the proper driving conditions. We evaluate the efficiency of this technique to reduce the speckle contrast by comparing it with the speckle characteristics in multimode emission under cw operation. Depending on the illumination setup, the incoherent emission regime can lead to a strongly reduced speckle contrast down to 1.3%. This is in agreement with estimates of the expected speckle contrast reduction when three contrast reducing effects are taken into account. These low contrast values make the investigated sources attractive for several applications that suffer from speckle noise.     

The smoothing of electronic speckle pattern interferometric images

A simple method of smoothing electronic speckle pattern interferometric images is demonstrated. A new image is created from the original by assuming that the speckles can be modelled as multiplicative noise, and replacing each pixel by the variance of grey level intensities taken over a rectangular window. Results from several window sizes are presented. The amount of smoothing is estimated by inspection of the amount of noise left following the application of a fringe minima detection algorithm to the smoothed image.     

参考光干涉提取复振幅的散斑统计函数的实验研究

由散斑场和参考光的干涉图样提取散斑场复振幅、相位和强度的数值分布,并对其统计特性进行实验研究,消除了散斑场强度统计函数特别是概率密度函数的传统测量方法中噪声引起的偏差,并实现了散斑场复振幅和相位统计特性的实验研究.通过对不同散射角处散斑场的研究发现随着散射角度的增大散斑颗粒逐渐呈现出横向展宽的现象,且其平均宽度表现为各向异性,但是其概率密度函数并没有发生变化,与小角度情况一样属于圆形高斯散斑场. 关键词： 散斑 概率密度 干涉     

Effects of red blood cell aggregates dissociation on the estimation of ultrasound speckle image velocimetry

Ultrasound speckle image of blood is mainly attributed by red blood cells (RBCs) which tend to form RBC aggregates. RBC aggregates are separated into individual cells when the shear force is over a certain value. The dissociation of RBC aggregates has an influence on the performance of ultrasound speckle image velocimetry (SIV) technique in which a cross-correlation algorithm is applied to the speckle images to get the velocity field information. The present study aims to investigate the effect of the dissociation of RBC aggregates on the estimation quality of SIV technique. Ultrasound B-mode images were captured from the porcine blood circulating in a mock-up flow loop with varying flow rate. To verify the measurement performance of SIV technique, the centerline velocity measured by the SIV technique was compared with that measured by Doppler spectrograms. The dissociation of RBC aggregates was estimated by using decorrelation of speckle patterns in which the subsequent window was shifted as much as the speckle displacement to compensate decorrelation caused by in-plane loss of speckle patterns. The decorrelation of speckles is considerably increased according to shear rate. Its variations are different along the radial direction. Because the dissociation of RBC aggregates changes ultrasound speckles, the estimation quality of SIV technique is significantly correlated with the decorrelation of speckles. This degradation of measurement quality may be improved by increasing the data acquisition rate. This study would be useful for simultaneous measurement of hemodynamic and hemorheological information of blood flows using only speckle images.     

Dynamic properties of speckled speckles with relation to velocity measurements of a diffuse object

This paper investigates, experimentally, the dynamic properties of triply-scattered speckled speckles and their application to the velocity measurement of a moving diffuse object, which is behind a transparent diffuse screen. The comparison between triply-scattered speckled speckles and singly-scattered normal speckles shows that the triply-scattered speckle pattern has a high degree of randomness in the spatial domain and that its time-varying intensity fluctuations have a rate 72 times that of the normal speckle case in the temporal domain. Consequently, a velocimeter using the triply-scattered speckles can measure the object velocity with a greatly reduced measuring time than when using normal speckles.     

Statistical properties of polarization image and despeckling method by multiresolution block-matching 3D filter

The theoretical and experimental investigations on the polarization imagery system of speckle statistical characteristics and speckle removing method are researched. A method to obtain two images encoded by polarization degree with a single measurement process is proposed. A theoretical model for polarization imagery system on Müller matrix is proposed. According to modern charge coupled device (CCD) imaging characteristics, speckles are divided into two kinds, namely small speckle and big speckle. Based on this model, a speckle reduction algorithm based on a dual-tree complex wavelet transform (DTCWT) and blockmatching 3D filter (BM3D) is proposed (DTBM3D). Original laser image data transformed by logarithmic compression is decomposed by DTCWT into approximation and detail subbands. Bilateral filtering is applied to the approximation subbands, and a suited BM3D filter is applied to the detail subbands. The despeckling results show that contrast improvement index and edge preserve index outperform those of traditional methods. The researches have important reference value in research of speckle noise level and removing speckle noise.     

一种基于并行化方法的自适应光学闭环预测控制器

自适应光学系统的性能受限于伺服系统的延迟误差和波前传感器的光电子噪声。提出了一种多模型单变量预测模型,该模型采用基于Levenberg-Marquardt学习算法的前馈型神经网络。利用计算机多核处理器,设计了一个具有并行处理能力的预测控制器,来实现对自适应光学闭环控制电压的预测,以消除延迟误差的影响。通过数值仿真实验,研究了预测控制器对控制电压和远场斯特雷尔比的影响,与未采用预测控制器的系统进行了比较,并对预测算法的并行性能进行了分析。实验结果表明,使用并行化方法的预测控制器可以有效缩短系统的预测时间,提高预测算法的加速比,与经典比例积分(PI)控制算法相比可以更有效地降低系统由于伺服延迟引起的误差,远场的斯特雷尔比有明显地提高。     

Dynamic laser speckles and their application to velocity measurements of the diffuse object

In connection with the parameters of the optical configuration used to produce speckles and under illumination of a Gaussian beam over a moving diffuse object, this paper discusses the statistical properties of dynamic speckles produced in the diffraction and image fields by the diffuse object moving in a plane with constant velocity. Especially, the space-time correlation function of the dynamic speckle intensity is examined in detail. Two typical speckle motions of translation and boiling are interpreted for various optical configurations in the diffraction and image fields. As one of the interesting applications of dynamic speckles to metrology, various methods for velocity measurements of the diffuse object are introduced.     

Experimental validation of Fourier-transform wave-front reconstruction at the Palomar Observatory

Wave-front reconstruction with use of the Fourier transform has been validated through theory and simulation. This method provides a dramatic reduction in computational costs for large adaptive (AO) systems. Because such a reconstructor can be expressed as a matrix, it can be used as an alternative in a matrix-based AO control system. This was done with the Palomar Observatory AO system on the 200-in. Hale telescope. Results of these tests indicate that Fourier-transform wave-front reconstruction works in a real system. For both bright and dim stars, a Hudgin-geometry Fourier-transform method produced performance comparable to that of the Palomar Adaptive Optics least squares. The Fried-geometry method had a noticeable Strehl ratio performance degradation of 0.043 in the K band (165-nm rms wave-front error added in quadrature) on a dim star.     

菲涅耳衍射区和夫琅和费衍射区的动态部分相干光散斑场特性

研究了菲涅耳衍射区和夫琅和费衍射区动态部分相干光散斑的特性.利用部分相干光互强度传播的理论，得出了在部分相干光照明时，由运动散射体产生的动态散斑光强时空交叉的自相关函数的一般形式，并由此得出了散斑沸腾和平移的一般规律.通过适当选择光源和调整光路参数，在实验上得到了菲涅耳和夫琅和费衍射区的部分相干光散斑，对夫琅和费面上的动态部分相干光散斑的平移和沸腾现象进行了定性研究；采用光子计数及数据自动采集的方法，对部分相干光散斑随时间的演化及动态部分相干光散斑的沸腾进行了定量测量.这些实验结果与理论结果相符合. 关键词： 部分相干光动态散斑 时空交叉相关函数 沸腾