Single-beam homodyne SPIDER for multiphoton microscopy

We report a new version of spectral phase interferometry for direct electric field reconstruction (SPIDER) requiring only a single phase-shaped laser beam. A narrowband probe pulse is selected out of a broadband ultrafast laser pulse by a phase pulse-shaping technique and mixed with the original broadband pulse to generate a second-harmonic generation (SHG) signal. Using another SHG signal solely generated by the broadband pulse as a local oscillator, the spectral phase of the broadband laser pulse can be analytically retrieved by a combination of double-quadrature spectral interferometry and homodyne optical technique for SPIDER (HOT SPIDER). An arbitrary spectral phase at the sample position of a microscope can be compensated with a precision of 0.05 rad over the FWHM of the laser spectrum. It is readily applicable to a nonlinear microscopy technique with a phase-controlled broadband laser pulse.     

Phase profile analysis of transparent objects through the use of a two windows interferometer based on a one beam splitter configuration

In this research we implemented a two windows interferometer based on polarization phase shifting and grating interferometry techniques in order to retrieve the phase data profile of the object in a single capture. The optical configuration has two optical beams with circular polarization in opposite directions, and it is coupled with a 4-f system. An amplitude grid is used as a filter which is placed at the Fourier plane to obtain replicas of each beam which can properly interfere, depending on the separation between beams. The interferometer presents the capability of changing the beam separation in order to make different orders interfere properly. The interference patterns produced can be separately modulated through the operation of linear polarizer's placed on each interference replica. In order to present the capabilities of the system we will select four interferograms result of contiguous orders interference.     

Measurement of group-velocity dispersion of Bloch modes in photonic-crystal-fiber rocking filters

We use low-coherence interferometry to measure the group-velocity dispersion (GVD) of the fast and slow Bloch modes of structural rocking filters, produced by twisting a highly birefringent photonic crystal fiber to and fro while scanning a focused CO(2) laser beam along it. The GVD curves in the vicinity of the resonant wavelength differ dramatically from those of the unperturbed fiber, suggesting that rocking filters could be used in the optimization of, e.g., four-wave mixing and supercontinuum generation. Excellent agreement is obtained between theory and experiment.     

Continual deformation analysis with scanning phase method and time sequence phase method in temporal speckle pattern interferometry

If a laser beam illuminates a continual deformation object surface, it will lead to a temporal speckle pattern on the observation plane. Recording this time-dependent speckle pattern the deformation of the surface of an object can be obtained. Two methods, scanning phase method (SPM) and time sequence phase method (TSPM), have been introduced for measuring the displacement caused by the deformation in temporal speckle pattern interferometry (TSPI). Their principle is that by capturing a series of speckle interference patterns related to the object deformations, the fluctuations in the intensity of the interference patterns can be obtained. Through scanning these fluctuations and estimating both the average intensity and modulation of the temporal speckle interference patterns, the phase maps for whole-field displacements are calculated. In this way one is capable of quantitatively measuring continual displacements simply using a conventional electronic speckle pattern interferometry (ESPI) system without phase shifting or a carrier. The elaboration on the new methods is given in this paper and experiments are performed to demonstrate their performance with a conventional ESPI system.     

Characterization of a broadband pulse for phase controlled multiphoton microscopy by single beam SPIDER

We present what we believe to be a new version of spectral phase interferometry for direct electric field reconstruction (SPIDER) using only a single-phase and polarization controlled laser beam. Two narrow pulses and one broadband pulse are selected out of an ultrafast laser pulse by a polarization and phase control technique to generate second harmonic generation (SHG) signals, which are equivalent to a spectral shear interferogram in the conventional SPIDER method. The spectral phase of the broadband laser pulse is extracted analytically with double quadrature spectral interferometry (DQSI). An arbitrary spectral phase can be retrieved with great precision and compensated in situ at the sample position of a microscope. This new method requires no separate reference beam and is suitable for nonlinear optical microscopy with a phase controlled laser pulse.     

同时获得高亮度检测场和高衬比条纹的实时全息记录方法

讨论了实时全息法应用于检测透明物体的情况下获得高衍射效率和高衬比条纹的若干问题。给出了同时获得高亮度检测场和高衬比条纹的最佳参数。在最佳光束比等于１和最佳相位调制度为１．４２时,衍射效率和光能利用率均可达到２９％。     

Controlling the phase of a light beam with a single molecule

We employ heterodyne interferometry to investigate the effect of a single organic molecule on the phase of a propagating laser beam. We report on the first phase-contrast images of individual molecules and demonstrate a single-molecule electro-optical phase switch by applying a voltage to the microelectrodes embedded in the sample. Our results may find applications in single-molecule holography, fast optical coherent signal processing, and single-emitter quantum operations.     

Measuring physical parameters with surface plasmon resonance heterodyne interferometry

If the incident angle of a light beam on the boundary surface between the thin metal film of a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) apparatus and a test medium is equal to or very near the resonant angle, then the phase difference between the p- and s-polarizations of the reflected light is related to the associated physical parameter. The phase difference can be measured accurately with heterodyne interferometry. If the relationship between the phase difference and the associated physical parameter is specified, then the associated physical parameter can be estimated from the phase difference data. This method has the benefits of both common-path interferometry and heterodyne interferometry, such as simple structure, high stability, high resolution, easy operation, and rapid real-time measurement.     

Sequential hologram interferometry with diffusely illuminated objects

Two simple holographic multiplexing techniques for sequential hologram interferometry of a diffusely illuminated object are described. These techniques enable one to use the frozen-fringe hologram interferometry to study a quasi-continuous change in the object and so regain some of the advantages of real-time hologram interferometry. In the first method of multiplexing with a single reference beam, a small angle prism is used for varying the direction of the reference beam between successive exposures and a double-exposure hologram is recorded at each position of the prism. In the second method of multiplexing with multiple reference beams, a separate reference beam is used for recording each state of the object independently and the interference pattern between any two states is obtained by simultaneous reconstruction of two light fields. The advantage of this method over the previous one is that it is also suitable for dynamic studies. Some reconstructed interferograms of a diffusely illuminated transparent object under different stresses are presented as illustrations.     

A novel approach to high-sensitivity grating interferometry

The authors propose a new approach for obtaining information about in-plane and out-of-plane displacements of an object tested using high-sensitivity grating interferometry. The interferences of each of the specimen grating diffraction orders with a reference beam are recorded separately. Computer addition and subtraction of the phase functions calculated from the interferograms give the in-plane and out-of-plane displacement values, respectively. The authors present their experimental work, and then compare their results with those obtained using a conventional grating interferometry approach.     

On the interaction of a beam of polar molecules with a static and a resonant RF field as a source of molecular interferences

A molecular beam interference model is presented based on a two-state interaction between a polar molecule and a resonant RF field as it occurs in the so-called C-field of a typical molecular beam electric resonant spectrometer. The treatment shows the onset of interferences in the beam transmission spectra as well as in its transverse profile. It is demonstrated how the molecular interferences are originated by the wavefunction phase shift introduced by the resonant RF field. Furthermore it is shown that for a given beam velocity and oscillating field frequency the fringes’ visibility depends on the strength of the RF field, i.e. the Rabi frequency, in the transmission spectra. Likewise the presence of a RF field gradient in the perpendicular beam direction gives rise to a peak structure in the transverse beam profile. The theoretical model was applied to simulate a variety of beam transmission spectra under resonant conditions as well as some experimental data already published by our group showing a satisfactory agreement between experimental and simulated data. Finally, the potentiality of this internal state molecular interferometer to carry out studies in matter-wave interferometry is remarked.     

Direct near-field phase measurement of laser diodes employing a single-mode fiber interferometer

A method of direct measurement of near-field phase and intensity distribution of laser diodes employing a single-mode fiber interferometer is proposed and demonstrated. The phase and intensity of the output beam of the laser in the vicinity of the output facet are measured directly via interferometry. Using a 980 nm laser diode as an example, we obtained a beam width of 0.9 and 3.6 μm at the output facet in the vertical and horizontal axes, respectively. In addition, the phase information of the output beam was also obtained by using interferometry. This technique is particularly useful for laser diodes whose near-field phases are difficult to measure directly. The measured vertical and horizontal wavefront radius of curvatures of a laser diode are in good agreement with the calculation from Gaussian beam theory. Detailed understanding and measurement of the near-field phase and intensity distributions of light sources and optical components are essential for micro-optic designs with better mode matching to minimize the insertion loss.     

在空间-时间域测量飞秒脉冲

依据飞秒脉冲测量中的空间-时间耦合理论,通过采用空间分辨和光谱分辨在时间和空间域对飞秒脉冲强度和相位进行测量.测量装置主要由两个光学元件组成,实现了空间和光谱干涉.待测脉冲和参考脉冲通过一个绕中心轴转过某一角度的二维衍射光栅,产生倾斜的二维阵列全息图;一个带通滤波片对全息图进行分离,从而每个全息图含有一个唯一的频率.用照相机记录下所有的全息图,可以在时间和空间域再现出待测脉冲,并给出了测量结果. 关键词： 飞秒脉冲 时间-空间耦合 二维衍射光栅 带通滤光片     

Spatially resolved amplitude and phase characterization of femtosecond optical pulses

Ultrabroadband pulses exhibit a frequency-dependent mode size owing to the wavelength dependence of free-space diffraction. Additionally, rather complex lateral dependence of the temporal pulse shape has been reported for Kerr-lens mode-locked lasers and broadband amplifier chains and in frequency-domain pulse shapers, for example. We demonstrate an ultrashort-pulse characterization technique that reveals lateral pulse-shape variations by spatially resolved amplitude and phase measurements by use of spectral phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction (SPIDER). Unlike with autocorrelation techniques, with SPIDER we can obtain spatially resolved pulse characterization even after the nonlinear process. Thus, with this method the spectral phase of the pulse can be resolved very rapidly along one lateral beam axis in a single measurement.     

载波相移全息干涉计量

本文报道了一项称为载波相移全息干涉计量的自动相位估算的新技术。该技术的主要特点是不同相移的条纹图案可用双曝光全息重视。这样即可用来对与时间相关的问题进行自动相位估算。     

Phase modulation by polarization recording in bacteriorhodopsin: application to phase-shifting interferometry

A novel phase-control method with application to phase-shifting interferometry is presented. The linear polarization state of an external (green) light beam is recorded on a bacteriorhodopsin film, and this polarization state is read by a circular polarized (red) laser beam. By reading the bacteriorhodopsin film, the original (red) wave reverses its circularity and becomes phase shifted by an amount that is dependent on the polarization of the external (green) beam. This method of phase control can be applied in a two-beam interferometer in which the test and reference waves are orthogonally polarized, which allows one to obtain phase modulation without moving parts inside the interferometer.     

Additive-subtractive phase-modulated speckle interferometry: Fringe visibility under partial decorrelation

Additive-subtractive phase modulated speckle interferometry (ASPMSI) is a technique that minimizes the susceptibility of speckle methods to environmental noise while providing fringes of good visibility. The method requires the acquisition of two consecutive video frames of additive-speckle images of the same two deformed states of an object at a rapid enough rate such that ambient noise is not a problem. The additive-speckle images as expected are of very poor visibility due to the presence of the self-interference term. An interframe phase-modulation is introduced and the two additive-speckle images are digitally subtracted to improve the fringe visibility by removing the self-interference term. The ASPM-SI method works with in-plane and out-of-plane deformation sensitive ESPI as well as with displacement-gradient sensitive speckle-shearing interferometry. It is shown that the ASPM-SI scheme has higher visibility than conventional additive-SI and performs consistently better than subtractive-SI schemes in the presence of partial interframe speckle decorrelating optical noise. Furthermore, it is shown that the fringe visibility of the out-of-plane displacement sensitive interferometer which uses a protected reference beam separate from the object beam can be made to be essentially unity even at complete interframe decorrelation.     

Comparative analysis of phase extraction methods based on phase-stepping and shifting curve in grating interferometry

Two phase extraction methods which are based separately on phase-stepping and shifting curve are mainly used in phase-sensitive imaging in gating interferometry to determine the x-ray phase shift induced by an object in the beam. In this paper, the authors perform a full comparative analysis and present the main virtues and limitations of these two methods according to the theoretical analysis of the grating interferometry.     

Digital phase shift holographic interferometry and its application in the experimental flow study

The application of digital phase shift holographic interferometry to flow-visualization and flow temperature measurement of a 2D thermal flow field was experimentally investigated. An improved recording system for two reference beam phase shift holographic interferometry is set up for this experiment, and details of this experimental technique are described. The phase distribution obtained by this technique presents an excellent picture of flow visualization. From this phase image, temperature distribution of the 2D thermal flow field is also calculated and compared with some measured values obtained using thermocouple probes.     

Shaping the beam profile of a partially coherent beam by a phase aperture

By use of a tensor method, an analytical formula for a partially coherent Gaussian Schell-model (GSM) beam truncated by a circular phase aperture propagating through a paraxial ABCD optical system is derived. The propagation properties of a GSM beam truncated by a circular phase aperture in free space are studied numerically. It is found that the circular phase aperture can be used to shape the beam profile of a GSM beam and generate partially coherent dark hollow or flat-topped beam, which is useful in many applications, e.g., optical trapping, free-space optical communication, and material thermal processing. The propagation factor of a GSM beam truncated by a circular phase aperture is also analyzed.