Measurement of the vector character of electric fields by optical second-harmonic generation

We present a scheme for the determination of the vector nature of an electric field by optical second-harmonic generation. We demonstrate the technique by mapping the two-dimensional electric-field vector of a biased transmission line structure on silicon with a spatial resolution of ~10mum .     

Near-field terahertz imaging with a dynamic aperture

By introduction of an optical gating beam on a semiconductor wafer, near-field terahertz (THz) imaging with a dynamic aperture has been realized. The spatial resolution is determined by the focus size of the optical gating bean and the near-field diffraction effect. THz imaging with subwavelength spatial resolution (better than 50mum) is demonstrated.     

Extended depth of focus in tomographic phase microscopy using a propagation algorithm

Tomographic phase microscopy is a laser interferometry technique in which a 3D refractive index map of a biological sample is constructed from quantitative phase images collected at a set of illumination angles. Although the resulting tomographic images provide valuable information, their resolution declines at axial distances beyond about 1 microm from the focal plane. We describe an improved 3D reconstruction algorithm in which the field at the focal plane is numerically propagated to depths throughout the sample. Diffraction is thus incorporated, extending the depth of focus to more than 10 mum. Tomograms with improved focal depth are demonstrated for single HT29 cells.     

Depth-resolved monitoring of glucose diffusion in tissues by using optical coherence tomography

We demonstrate the capability of the optical coherence tomography (OCT) technique for depth-resolved monitoring and quantifying of glucose diffusion in fibrous tissues (sclera). The depth-resolved and average permeability coefficients of glucose were calculated. We found that the glucose diffusion rate is not uniform throughout the tissue and is increased from approximately 2.39+/-0.73 x 10(-6) cm/s at the epithelial side to 8.63+/-0.27 x 10(-6) cm/s close to the endothelial side of the sclera. Results demonstrated that the OCT technique is capable of depth-resolved monitoring and quantification of glucose diffusion in sclera with a resolution of approximately 40 mum.     

Interference microscopy for three-dimensional imaging with wavelength-to-depth encoding

A novel interference microscope for three-dimensional (3D) imaging based on a wavelength-to-depth encoding technique is presented. Wavelength-to-depth encoding is realized by use of a diffractive lens and wavelength tuning. A high depth resolution of 0.71 mum is obtained with 0.90-N.A. objective lenses. Experimental measurements of a four-level grating are presented, and the results are found to be comparable with those obtained with a Dektak profilometer and a similar interference microscope that uses mechanical depth scanning. The system is promising for fast, noncontact, high-resolution 3D imaging.     

All-fiber high-sensitivity pressure sensor with SiO2 diaphragm

The design and fabrication of a miniature fiber Fabry-Perot pressure sensor with a diameter of 125 microm are presented. The essential element in the process is a thin SiO2 diaphragm that is fusion spliced at the hollow end of an optical fiber. Good repeatability and high sensitivity of the sensor are achieved by on-line tuning of the diaphragm thickness during the sensor fabrication process. Various sensor prototypes were fabricated, demonstrating pressure ranges of from 0 to 40 kPa to 0 to 1 MPa. The maximum achieved sensitivity was 1.1 rad/40 kPa at 1550 nm, and a pressure resolution of 300 Pa was demonstrated in practice. The presented design and fabrication technique offers a means of simple and low-cost disposable pressure sensor production.     

Design of a superconducting volume coil for magnetic resonance microscopy of the mouse brain

We present the design process of a superconducting volume coil for magnetic resonance microscopy of the mouse brain at 9.4T. The yttrium barium copper oxide coil has been designed through an iterative process of three-dimensional finite-element simulations and validation against room temperature copper coils. Compared to previous designs, the Helmholtz pair provides substantially higher B(1) homogeneity over an extended volume of interest sufficiently large to image biologically relevant specimens. A custom-built cryogenic cooling system maintains the superconducting probe at 60+/-0.1K. Specimen loading and probe retuning can be carried out interactively with the coil at operating temperature, enabling much higher through-put. The operation of the probe is a routine, consistent procedure. Signal-to-noise ratio in a mouse brain increased by a factor ranging from 1.1 to 2.9 as compared to a room-temperature solenoid coil optimized for mouse brain microscopy. We demonstrate images encoded at 10x10x20mum for an entire mouse brain specimen with signal-to-noise ratio of 18 and a total acquisition time of 16.5h, revealing neuroanatomy unseen at lower resolution. Phantom measurements show an effective spatial resolution better than 20mum.     

Two-dimensional synthetic aperture imaging in the optical domain

In scan-mode synthetic aperture imaging radar, spatial resolution in a range is given by a frequency-swept waveform, whereas resolution in the orthogonal direction is derived from the record of phase as the beam footprint executes linear motion over the object. We demonstrate here what is to our knowledge the first two-dimensional imaging that uses exactly this process in the optical domain for a 1 cm x 1 cm object with 90 mumx170 mum resolution.     

In vivo ultrahigh-resolution optical coherence tomography

Ultrahigh-resolution optical coherence tomography (OCT) by use of state of the art broad-bandwidth femtosecond laser technology is demonstrated and applied to in vivo subcellular imaging. Imaging is performed with a Kerr-lens mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser with double-chirped mirrors that emits sub-two-cycle pulses with bandwidths of up to 350 nm, centered at 800 nm. Longitudinal resolutions of ~1mum and transverse resolution of 3mum, with a 110-dB dynamic range, are achieved in biological tissue. To overcome depth-of-field limitations we perform zone focusing and image fusion to construct a tomogram with high transverse resolution throughout the image depth. To our knowledge this is the highest longitudinal resolution demonstrated to date for in vivo OCT imaging.     

Molecular vibration imaging in the fingerprint region by use of coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy with a collinear configuration

We have developed a new coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy system with a collinear configuration for use in the fingerprint region. The system consists of a picosecond laser system and a transmission-type laser scanning microscope without a pinhole in front of the detector. The observable Raman-shift region is 900-1750 cm(-1), the spectral resolution is 30cm(-1), and the spatial resolution is smaller than 1 mum in the lateral direction and 3.2 mum in the depth direction, with objectives with a numerical aperture of 0.65. CARS spectra and images of polystyrene beads are demonstrated, and CARS imaging of a viable yeast cell is attempted.     

Measurement of birefringence in integrated optical waveguides by use of a microwave-modulated optical wave

We present a technique for measuring birefringence (B) in integrated optical waveguides by use of a microwave-modulated optical wave. It is shown that the technique is able to yield an accurate measurement of birefringence. In addition, an approximate estimate of birefringence dispersion (dB/dlambda) can be achieved by means of tuning the wavelength of the light source and measuring the dependence of the birefringence on the wavelength. As an example of the use of the technique, we show how to evaluate an innovative Ti:LiNbO (3) waveguide. The results show that such a Ti:LiNbO (3) waveguide has a birefringence of 0.0783+/-0.0001 and a birefringence dispersion of 0.05+/-0.01mum (-1) when the optical wavelength is approximately 1.560mum .     

Six-bit all-optical quantization using photonic crystal fiber with soliton self-frequency shift and pre-chirp spectral compression techniques

In this paper,we propose an optical quantization scheme for all-optical analog-to-digital conversion that facilitates photonics integration.A segment of 10-m photonic crystal fiber with a high nonlinear coefficient of 62.8 W 1/km is utilized to realize large scale soliton self-frequency shift relevant to the power of the sampled optical signal.Furthermore,a 100-m dispersion-increasing fiber is used as the spectral compression module for further resolution enhancement.Simulation results show that 317-nm maximum wavelength shift is realized with 1550-nm initial wavelength and 6-bit quantization resolution is obtained with a subsequent spectral compression process.     

Fabrication of high-spatial-frequency gratings through computer-generated near-field holography

We demonstrate an innovative method for fabrication of high-spatial-frequency grating structures. This technique makes use of the near-field diffraction patterns from computer-generated phase holograms for lithographic fabrication of grating structures with periods that are one half that of the phase hologram mask. Linear, rectilinear, and circular gratings were fabricated with this technique. Experimental results from gratings with periods to 0.5 mum and feature sizes to ~0.2 mum are presented.     

Continuous-wave 4.3-mum intracavity difference frequency generation in an optical parametric oscillator

We have achieved 150 mW of cw output at 4.3mum, using difference frequency mixing in a singly resonant optical parametric oscillator (OPO). We pumped the OPO cavity, which contains periodically poled LiNbO(3) (PPLN), with a 14-W 1.06-mum Nd:YAG laser to generate a signal at 1.7 mum and an idler at 2.8 mum. Mixing of the two waves at the same crystal temperature and grating spacing yielded emission in the mid IR. This technique avoids the mid-IR absorption-high-threshold problem, which has limited the cw performance of PPLN OPO's at wavelengths beyond 4 mum. Provided that tunability is not required, this method is a simple alternative to multiple-crystal configurations.     

Submicrometer axial resolution optical coherence tomography

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) with unprecedented submicrometer axial resolution achieved by use of a photonic crystal fiber in combination with a compact sub-10-fs Ti:sapphire laser (Femtolasers Produktions) is demonstrated for what the authors believe is the first time. The emission spectrum ranges from 550 to 950 nm (lambda(c)=725 nm , P(out)=27 mW) , resulting in a free-space axial OCT resolution of ~0.75 mum , corresponding to ~0.5 mum in biological tissue. Submicrometer-resolution OCT is demonstrated in vitro on human colorectal adenocarcinoma cells HT-29. This novel light source has great potential for development of spectroscopic OCT because its spectrum covers the absorption bands of several biological chromophores.     

Fiber-optic polarimetric strain sensor with three-wavelength digital phase demodulation

A fiber-optic polarimetric strain sensor of l(S)=10-cm sensing length with three-wavelength passive quadrature digital phase demodulation is investigated. The demodulation unit uses a superluminescent diode light source with narrow-band interference filters in front of the photodiodes and real-time processing of the interference intensities by an arctan-phase-stepping algorithm. Quasi-static strain sensing is performed during slow periodic compression of a composite reinforced plastic rod with a sensor glued to its surface. The measured displacement sensitivity of delta?/deltal=125 mrad/mum, with a resistive strain gauge as a reference, agrees well with the value of 119 mrad/mum previously determined by fringe-distance measurement [Bock et al., Pure Appl. Opt. 5, 125 (1996)]. Despite a coherence-limited fringe contrast of only a few percent, a linearity of the phase-strain characteristic of the order of 1% and a strain resolution of 2.5muepsilon are demonstrated.     

High resolution electron spin resonance microscopy

NMR microscopy is routinely employed in fields of science such as biology, botany, and materials science to observe magnetic parameters and transport phenomena in small scale structures. Despite extensive efforts, the resolution of this method is limited (>10 microm for short acquisition times), and thus cannot answer many key questions in these fields. We show, through theoretical prediction and initial experiments, that ESR microscopy, although much less developed, can improve upon the resolution limits of NMR, and successfully undertake the 1 mum resolution challenge. Our theoretical predictions demonstrate that existing ESR technology, along with advanced imaging probe design (resonator and gradient coils), using solutions of narrow linewidth radicals (the trityl family), should yield 64 x 64 pixels 2D images (with z slice selection) with a resolution of 1 x 1 x 10 microm at approximately 60 GHz in less than 1h of acquisition. Our initial imaging results, conducted by CW ESR at X-band, support these theoretical predictions and already improve upon the previously reported state-of-the-art for 2D ESR image resolution achieving approximately 10 x 10 mum, in just several minutes of acquisition time. We analyze how future progress, which includes improved resonators, increased frequency of measurement, and advanced pulsed techniques, should achieve the goal of micron resolution.     

Miniaturized time-scanning Fourier transform spectrometer based on silicon technology

We present a miniaturized Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) based on optical microelectromechanical system technology. The FTS is a Michelson interferometer with one scanning mirror. A new type of electrostatic comb drive actuator moves the mirror. We have measured a nonlinearity of the driving system of +/-0.5 mum for a displacement of 38.5 mum . A method is presented to correct the spectrum to get rid of the nonlinearity. The driving reproducibility is +/-25 nm. The measured resolution of the spectrometer after the phase correction is 6 nm at a wavelength of 633 nm.     

Femtosecond laser-assisted three-dimensional microfabrication in silica

We demonstrate direct three-dimensional (3-D) microfabrication inside a volume of silica glass. The whole fabrication process was carried out in two steps:(i) writing of the preprogrammed 3-D pattern inside silica glass by focused femtosecond (fs) laser pulses and (ii) etching of the written structure in a 5% aqueous solution of HF acid. This technique allows fabrication of 3-D channels as small as 10mum in diameter inside the volume with any angle of interconnection and a high aspect ratio (10mum -diameter channels in a 100mum -thick silica slab).     

Microscopic fluorescence imaging of bulk defect clusters in KH(2)PO(4) crystals

A microscopic fluorescence imaging system is used to detect optically active centers located inside a transparent dielectric crystal. Defect centers in the bulk of KH(2)PO(4) crystals are imaged based on their near-infrared emission following photoexcitation. The spatial resolution of the system is 1mum in the image plane and 25mum in depth. The experimental results indicate the presence of a large number of optically active defect clusters in different KH(2)PO(4) crystals, whereas the concentration of these clusters depends on the crystal sector and growth method.