Optical design of a full-pupil field,non-contact and high resolution corneal curved objective lens

It has been a challenge to overcome the corneal curvature radius to design a full-pupil field, non-contact and high resolution corneal curved objective lens, which covers the cornea full-pupil field and has the ability to resolve corneal cells. In this paper, we report an optical design of a full-pupil field, non-contact corneal curved objective lens for high resolution cornea imaging. The advantages of this lens are that it has a wide field of view (FOV) with the corneal curved image surface, maintains the beam normal incidence, as well as non-contact lens imaging, and offers a cell-level lateral resolution of cornea structure. The analysis of optimization shows that the system achieves diffraction limit in a circular FOV of 4 mm diameter covering the full-pupil zone. The theoretical lateral resolution is about 2.5 μm with an image space NA of 0.16, which is sufficient to resolve corneal cells of 7 μm diameter, and the working distance is larger than 15 mm which is enough for a non-contact objective lens. So the optical design is effectively and efficiently meeting the demand of specifications.     

Aberration athermal design for infrared search and trace optical system

To satisfy environment requirement of infrared search and trace optical system, an infrared diffractive/refractive hybrid optical system in 3.7–4.8 μm with 11.42° of field of view for passive athermalization is presented. The system is consisted of three lenses, including two aspheric surfaces and a diffraction surface, which has only two materials Ge and Si. The optical system has compact structure, small volume and light weight. The image quality of the system approaches the diffraction limit in the temperature range −80 °C to 160 °C. It is compatible with staring focal plane array which has a format of 320 × 240 and the pixel pitch of 30 μm. The system need not move the compensated lens repeatedly to obtain the best images from −80 °C to 160 °C and enhances the performance of target tracking and recognition.     

Scattering from unidirectional ground steel surfaces in the specular direction

Scattering in the specular direction from unidirectional ground steel surfaces having random roughness is studied theoretically and experimentally. The grooves were oriented perpendicular and parallel to the plane of incidence and were illuminated by a light beam that was smaller than the sample size. Expressions for scattering from a one-dimensional rough surface in the specular direction were derived for the both orientations of the grooves. For the same groove orientations, scattering (λ = 0.633 μm) from the ground surfaces was measured in the specular direction at angles of incidence from 6° to 82°. The measured rms roughnesses of the surfaces were 0.096 μm, 0.143 μm, 0.311 μm, and 0.501 μm, respectively. The measured scattering was independent of the orientation of the grooves for the two smoother surfaces and depended on the groove orientation for the other surfaces. Calculations using the derived expressions taking into account the experimental results show that the scattering is independent of the orientation of the grooves if the rms roughness is no larger than ∼0.16 μm.     

Ring resonator with multimode waveguide turning-mirror couplers in InGaAsP-InP

Compact In_0.67Ga_0.33As_0.6P_0.4/In_0.71Ga_0.29As_0.74P_0.26 on InP single ring resonators incorporating 2 × 2 multimode interference (MMI) turning-mirror couplers with cross coupling factor of 0.15 have been demonstrated. The form of race tracks is a 15-degree arc of 260 μm radius joined with a 60-degree arc of 110 μm radius, and finished with another 15-degree arc of 260 μm radius. The MMI turning-mirror coupler of 128 μm in length is used in the single ring resonators, which correspond to free spectral ranges of 82 GHz. A contrast of 4 dB, a finesse of nearly 3 and full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 0.24 nm for the drop port have been achieved in this single ring resonator. From the experimental value T_max/T_min of 21 dB, the experiment coupling factor coincides with the simulation.     

The design of an apochromatic optical spectrograph for astronomical purposes

An optical spectrograph for use in the OGS (Optical Ground Station), a 1 m telescope in Izaña Observatory (Tenerife, Spain) and the GTC telescope at Islas Canarias observatory has been designed, built and tested. The dispersive part was designed and built at the Centro de Investigaciones en Óptica, A.C. Due to requirements from Instituto Astrofísico de Canarias this Spectrograph has an f/5 collimator and camera with a plate factor of 6.55 nm/mm. Since the resolution of the system has to have a high resolution of the order of 15 μm or less, an apochromatic design was selected. This article describes this design and its main characteristics.     

Design of midwave infrared athermalization optical system with a large focal plane array

Based on the most advanced staring focal plane array which had a format of 640 × 480 and the pixel pitch of 15 μm, a set of all-sphere midwave infrared ahermalization optical system was designed. The working wavelength was in 3–5 μm, the full field of view was 8.58°, the relative aperture was 1/2, the efficient focal length (EFL) was 80 m. The opticalsystem consisted of four lenses with three kinds of material – Ge, ZnSe and Si. All surfaces were sphere, which was easier to process test, making the cost inexpensive, and it could avoid using diffractive surface and aspheric surface. The image quality of the system approaches the diffraction limit in the temperature range −60 °C-180 °C. The design results proved that, the high resolution midwave infrared optical system had compact structure, small volume, high resolution and excellent image quality, meeting the design requirements, so that it could be used for photoelectric detection and tracking system.     

Design of off-axis reflective projection lens using spherical Fresnel surface

In this paper, an off-axis reflective projection lens with single Fresnel reflective surface and three aspheric surfaces were designed. The design method of reflective lens using spherical Fresnel surface is discussed. The MTF (Modulation Transfer Function) of the off-axis reflective lens, with optical magnification 100×, F-number 2.5 and field of view 120°, is over 40% at 0.6 lp/mm on the image side, the distortion is less than 2%. This design method can provide reference for application of Fresnel surface in wide field of view imaging, and possesses a bright future with the continuous development of fabrication technique.     

Effect of surface roughness on the optical constants of bulk polycrystalline gold samples

Four bulk polycrystalline samples of gold were subjected to different polishing treatments using diamond pastes of grain size 10, 6, 3 and 1 μm. The effect of surface roughness on the optical constants n and k is studied by 45° angle-of-incidence ellipsometry at 632.8 nm. Results for n and k are extrapolated to the case of an ideal surface which we believe to be highly representative of gold. Comparison with published results for the optical constants of gold thin films is presented.     

Quadrature fringes wide-field optical coherence tomography and its applications to biological tissues

We propose and demonstrate quadrature fringes wide-field optical coherence tomography (QF WF OCT) to expand an optical Hilbert transformation to two-dimensions. This OCT simultaneously measures two quadrature interference images using a single InGaAs CCD camera to obtain en face OCT images. The axial and lateral resolutions are measured at 29 μm in air and 70 μm limited by a pixel size of camera using a superluminescent diode with a wavelength of 1.3 μm as the light source; the system sensitivity is determined to be −90 dB. The area of the en face OCT images is 4.0 mm × 4.0 mm (160 × 160  pixels). The OCT images are measured axially with steps of 10 μm. The en face OCT images of a in vivo human fingertip and a in situ rat brain are three-dimensionally measured up to the depth of about 3 mm with some degradations of a lateral resolution.     

In vivo imaging of dynamic biological specimen by real-time single-shot full-field optical coherence tomography

We demonstrate the feasibility of a compact single-shot full-field time domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) for imaging dynamic biological sample in real-time. The system is based on a Linnik type polarization Michelson interferometer and a four-quadrature phase-stepper optics, which can simultaneously capture four quadraturely phase-stepped interferograms on a single CCD. Using a superluminescent diode as light source with center wavelength of 842 nm and spectral width of 16.2 nm, the system yields an axial resolution of 19.8 μm, and covers a field of view of 280 × 320 μm² (220 × 250 pixels) with a transverse resolution of 4.4 μm by using a 10× microscope objective (0.3 NA). Three-dimensional OCT images of biological samples such as an onion slice and a diaptomus were obtained without any image averaging or pixel binning. In addition, in vivo depth resolved dynamic imaging was demonstrated to show the beating internal structure of a diaptomus with a fame rate of 5 fps.     

The nonlinear refraction and absorption dependence on the thermal effect for 4 ns pulse duration in binuclear Zn(II) phthalocyanine solution

The influence of thermal effect on the third-order nonlinear optical properties of binuclear Zn(II) phthalocyanine in chloroform solution was studied. The nonlinear refraction and absorption of the sample was measured by using Z-scan technique with 4 ns laser pulses at 532 nm wavelength. The opposite signs of the effective nonlinear refraction index were observed by changing the focal length of focusing lens from 10 cm to 20 cm in the experimental setup. Changing the focusing lens increased the beam waist radius from 7 μm to 20 μm. The nonlinear absorption coefficient was reduced about 200 times based on changing the fluence or beam waist radius. The drastic changes in the third-order nonlinear optical parameters were attributed to thermal effect. To investigate the role of thermal effects even further the effective nonlinear refraction and absorption coefficients were studied by using different repetition rates, input powers and concentrations.     

Design and analysis of multi-ring microstructured-core optical fibers

A novel design of single-mode large-mode-area optical fiber is presented. The core is composed of alternate high and low-index regions to form an effectively low-index contrast between the core and the cladding. The proposed fiber is investigated by the finite-element method with anisotropic perfect matched layer boundary conditions. In addition, the bending losses of the fibers are calculated and compared with those of the step-index optical fibers. In particular, numerical simulations demonstrate that single-mode operation can be achieved in one such fiber with mode area larger than 600 μm² at the wavelength of 1.55 μm and bending loss lower than 0.02 dB/m for bending radius greater than 20 cm.     

Digital Micro-mirror Device-based broadband optical image sensor for robust imaging applications

To the best of the authors' knowledge, presented for the first time is the design of a robust broadband optical image sensor using a Digital Micro-mirror Device (DMD). Electronic focus control of the imaging lens and full programmability of the spatial sampling aperture shape, size, and location on the DMD plane that mechanically scans the incident incoherent optical irradiance distribution lead to imaging smartness. Dual port single-point photo-detection design provides imaging operation robustness to the global light irradiance variations such as via environmental effects, e.g., moving clouds. As the Texas Instruments (TI) DMD can provide light modulation over 400 nm to 2500 nm wavelengths, visible, Near Infrared (NIR), and Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR) bands can be simultaneously processed to generate three independent band images via three point photo-detectors. A proof-of-concept experiment in the SWIR band at 1580 nm is conducted using an incoherent heart-shaped target that is sampled using the DMD imager set for a 68.4 μm side square moving pinhole. A 60 × 60 pixel image from the proposed imager produces a 0.94 cross-correlation peak when compared to an optically attenuated heart shape image produced by a near 9 μm pixel size phosphor coated Charge Coupled Device (CCD) imager. Using the dual-detection method, robust 633 nm visible light imaging of an Air Force (AF) Chart figure is successfully demonstrated for 3 Hz global light fluctuation. Applications for the proposed imager include optical sensing in the fields of astronomy, defense, medicine, and security.     

Roughness measurement of metals using a modified binary speckle image and adaptive optics

This paper proposes an integrated roughness measurement system that is based on adaptive optics (AO) and binary analysis of speckle pattern images. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the necessity for AO compensation in regions containing both heat and fluid flow turbulences. A speckle image was obtained by projecting a laser beam onto the specimen surface, and the laser pattern image reflected from the surface was binarized to experimentally correlate the intensity with the surface roughness. In the absence of the AO correction scheme, induced turbulences can severely increase the residual rms error from 0.14 to 1.4 μm. After a real-time closed-loop AO correction, we can reduce the wavefront root mean square (rms) error to 0.12 μm, which not only compensates for the aberration error from induced disturbances but also improves the overall performance of the optical system. In addition, an AO system having different gains was investigated, and a threshold gain value was found to be able to steadily compensate for the wavefront errors in less than 2 s. Measurement results of five steel samples having roughness ranging from 0.2 to 3.125 μm (0.3λ and 5λ, where λ is the diode laser wavelength) demonstrate an excellent correlation between the intensity distribution of binary images and average roughness with a correlation coefficient of 0.9982. Furthermore, the proposed AO-assisted system is in good agreement with the stylus method and less than 9.73% error values can be consistently obtained.     

Real-time optical imaging and tracking of micron-sized particles

We report real-time imaging and dynamics monitoring of micrometer predefined and random sized particles by time-space-wavelength mapping technology using a single-detector. Experimentally, we demonstrate real-time line imaging of a 5 μm polystyrene microsphere, glass powder particles and patterns such as fingerprints with up to 5 μm resolution at 1 line/50 ns capture rate. By using the same setup, real-time displacement tracking of micrometer-size glass particles with 50 ns temporal resolution and up to 5 μm spatial resolution is achieved. We also show that existing correlation spectroscopy algorithms can be adopted to extract dynamic information in a complex environment.     

Tolerance and tuning properties of the optical parametric processes using periodically poled RbTiOAsO4

The maximal tolerance parameters of poling period and phase-matching, temperature in second harmonic generation (SHG) using periodically poled RbTiOAsO₄(PPRTA) as a function of the fundamental wavelength are investigated theoretically. The tolerance of the poling period ΔΛ of PPRTA is found larger than that of PPLN and PPKTP when the fundamental wavelength is beyond 2 μm, which reaches its maximum ΔΛ_max for PPRTA at a fundamental wavelength of 2.7433 μm. However, the tolerance for the phase-matching temperature ΔT of PPRTA is found smaller than that of PPLN and PPKTP with an exception that PPRTA has a larger tolerance of the temperature or a larger temperature phase-matching bandwidth at fundamental wavelength of 2.2474 μm, where the maximum of ΔT(ΔT_max) is obtained. Furthermore, the tuning characteristics of the optical parametric processes using PPRTA for collinear quasi-phase-matching (CQPM) is analyzed. The combination of temperature tuning and poling period tuning enables a quasi-continuous wavelength tuning range of 1493.2-1593.7 nm for the signal and 3201.8-3699.2 nm for the idler, where poling period of 39 μm, 39.5 μm and 40 μm and a temperature between 20 and 120° have been employed in the corresponding theoretical analysis.     

High power room-temperature design of terahertz quantum cascade laser based on difference frequency generation

Terahertz (THz) quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) are key elements for high-power terahertz beam generation for integrated applications. In this study, we design a highly nonlinear THz-QCL active region in order to increase the output power of the device especially at lower THz frequencies based on difference frequency generation (DFG) process. It has been shown that the output power increases for a 3.2 THz structure up to 1.2 μW at room temperature in comparison with the reported power of P = 0.3 μW in [1]. The mid-IR wavelengths associated with this laser are λ₁ = 12.12 μm and λ₂ = 13.93 μm, which are mixed in a medium with high second-order nonlinearity. A similar approach has been used to design an active region with THz frequency of 1.8 THz. The output power of this structure reaches to 1 μW at room temperature where the mid-IR wavelengths are λ₁ = 12.05 μm, λ₂ = 12.99 μm.     

An optical technique for remote focusing in microscopy

We describe the theory of a new method of optical refocusing that is particularly relevant for confocal and multiphoton microscopy systems. This method avoids the spherical aberration that is common to other optical refocusing systems. We show that aberration-free refocusing can be achieved over an axial scan range of 70 μm for a 1.4 NA objective lens. As refocusing is implemented remotely from the specimen, this method enables high axial scan speeds without mechanical interference between the objective lens and the specimen.     

Influence of surface topography and pore architecture of alkali-treated titanium on in vitro apatite deposition

Alkali-treated titanium surfaces have earlier shown to induce bone-like apatite deposition. In the present study, the effect of surface topography of two-dimensional and pore architecture of three-dimensional alkali-treated titanium substrates on the in vitro bioactivity was investigated. Titanium plates with a surface roughness of R_a = 0.13 μm, 0.56 μm, 0.83 μm, and 3.63 μm were prepared by Al₂O₃ grit-blasting. Simple tetragonal and face-centered Ti6Al4V scaffolds with spatial gaps of 450-1100 μm and 200-700 μm, respectively, were fabricated by a three-dimensional fiber deposition (3DFD) technique. After alkali treatment, the titanium plates with a surface roughness of R_a = 0.56 μm were completely covered with hydroxyapatite globules after 7 days in simulated body fluid (SBF), while the coverage of the samples with other surface roughness values remained incomplete. Similarly, face-centered Ti₆Al₄ scaffolds with spatial gaps of 200-700 μm exhibited a full surface coverage after 21 days in SBF, while simple tetragonal scaffolds with spatial gaps of 450-1100 μm were only covered for 45-65%. This indicates the importance of surface topography and pore architecture for in vitro bioactivity.     

Preparation and in vitro characterization of aerosol-deposited hydroxyapatite coatings with different surface roughnesses

Hydroxyapatite (HA) coatings with different surface roughnesses were deposited on a Ti substrate via aerosol deposition (AD). The effect of the surface roughness on the cellular response to the coating was investigated. The surface roughness was controlled by manipulating the particle size distribution of the raw powder used for deposition and by varying the coating thickness. The coatings obtained from the 1100 °C-heated powder exhibited relatively smooth surfaces, whereas those fabricated using the 1050 °C-heated powder had network-structured rough surfaces with large surface areas and were superior in terms of their adhesion strengths and in vitro cell responses. The surface roughness (R_a) values of the coatings fabricated using the 1050 °C-heated powder increased from approximately 0.65 to 1.03 μm as the coating thickness increased to 10 μm. The coatings with a rough surface had good adhesion to the Ti substrate, exhibiting high adhesion strengths ranging from 37.6 to 29.5 MPa, depending on the coating thickness. The optimum biological performance was observed for the 5 μm-thick HA coating with an intermediate surface roughness value of 0.82 μm.