Statistical properties of the phase difference between two interfering speckle fields in speckle interferometry

The statistical properties of the phase difference between the two interfering partially correlated and partially developed speckle fields were studied experimentally as a function of the intensity correlation coefficient. The gaussian statistics are assumed for the formation of speckle fields in the diffraction region and the correlation coefficient between the two speckle intensities is used to evaluate the phase difference. The standard deviation of the phase difference can be uniquely determined in the fully developed speckle field from the correlation coefficient of the two speckle intensities. However, it was found in the partially developed speckle field that the standard deviation of the phase difference between the two speckle fields cannot be uniquely determined from the correlation coefficient of the two speckle intensities.     

Studies on the statistical properties of phase difference of speckle fields

According to the relations between the phase and the complex speckle amplitude, a phase angle is constructed to estimate the free standard deviation of phase difference of speckle fields. The relative accurate amending expression of evaluating the free standard deviation of phase difference is derived for the Gaussian speckle fields. The statistical properties of phase difference are studied for the Gaussian speckle fields of diffraction fields. The theoretical values of the free standard deviation of phase difference for the case of fully developed speckle fields are compared with the numerical values of the free standard deviation which are calculated from the Gaussian theory of the fully developed speckle fields.     

Real-time visualisation of deformation fields using speckle interferometry and temporal phase unwrapping

A real-time system for analysing data from speckle interferometers, and speckle shearing interferometers, has been developed. Interferograms are continuously recorded by a digital camera at a rate of 60 frames s⁻¹ with temporal phase shifting carried out at the same rate. The images are analysed using a pipeline image processor. With a standard 4-frame phase-shifting algorithm (phase steps of π/2), wrapped phase maps are calculated and displayed at 15 frames s⁻¹. These are unwrapped using a temporal phase unwrapping algorithm to provide a real-time colour-coded display of the relevant displacement component. Each camera pixel (or cluster of pixels) behaves in effect as an independent displacement sensor. The reference speckle interferogram is updated automatically at regular user-defined intervals, allowing arbitrarily large deformations to be measured and errors due to speckle decorrelation to be minimised. The system has been applied to the problem of detecting sub-surface delamination cracks in carbon fibre composite panels.     

A comparative study of phase-shifting algorithms in digital speckle pattern interferometry

Digital speckle pattern interferometry (DSPI) is a tool for making qualitative as well as quantitative measurements of deformation of objects. Phase-shifting algorithms in DSPI are useful for extracting quantitative deformation data from the system. Comparative studies of the different phase-shifting algorithms in DSPI for object deformation measurement are presented. Static and quasi-dynamic deformation of the object can be measured using these algorithms. Error compensating five-step phase-shifting method is used for the algorithms.     

Measurement of sub-surface delaminations in carbon fibre composites using high-speed phase-shifted speckle interferometry and temporal phase unwrapping

A high-speed phase-shifted speckle interferometer has been developed recently for studying dynamic events. Speckle interferograms are continuously recorded by a CCD camera operating at 1 kHz with temporal phase shifting carried out by a Pockels cell running at the same frequency. Temporal phase unwrapping through sequences of more than 1000 frames allows the determination of time-varying absolute displacement maps. This paper presents the application of this speckle interferometry system to the detection and measurement of sub-surface delamination defects in carbon fibre specimens. The influence of re-referencing the temporal phase unwrapping algorithm after different time intervals is analysed to reduce the random phase errors produced by speckle decorrelation and vibration. The performance of several phase-shifting algorithms to minimize the influence of the vibration noise caused by the vacuum pump used to load the specimen is also investigated.     

A new method of studying the statistical properties of speckle phase

A new theoretical method with generality is proposed to study the statistical properties of the speckle phase. The general expression of the standard deviation of the speckle phase about the first-order statistics is derived according to the relation between the phase and the complex speckle amplitude. The statistical properties of the speckle phase have been studied in the diffraction fields with this new theoretical method.     

Characterization of phase transition in liquid crystals by voltaic potential difference

Our investigations show that the determination of voltaic potential differences is a useful method to characterize the phase transition N → I and I → N for a liquid-crystal (LC) mixture and for a phase transition from one liquid-crystalline phase into another. The ΔV/T curves show reversible as well as an irreversible behaviour. Moreover, the transition from the smectic into the nematic phase is demonstrated on liquid-crystalline polymers.     

一种确定光纤传感器中3×3耦合器输出信号相位差的新算法

本文提出了一种基于Bessel函数展开,在频域内精确确定光纤传感器3×3耦合器输出信号相位差的算法。在Mach-Zehnder干涉仪原理的基础上,通过建立3~3耦合器输出信号的数学模型和利用耦合器输出光功率的Bessel展开,完成了算法的理论推导,并且在实验室中进行了声学实验。数据处理结果表明,该算法能够较精确地确定3×3耦合器输出信号的相位差,且相位差与调制频率无关,与理论相符。     

Theoretical analysis for surface tilt and translation detection based on speckle photography in the Fresnel domain

The theoretical and numerical analysis in this work show that both surface tilting and translational motion can be simultaneously calculated using the speckle photographic technique by recording consecutive speckle pattern images in two different Fresnel diffraction distances. A simulation example based on the proposed scheme is given to verify the method’s validity and high accuracy of the calculated motion detection. Compared with other previous works the results show that this method is efficient and easy to implement.     

Theoretical study on liquid crystal cyanobiphenyls: Phase stability and phase behavior

This article presents a theoretical study on liquid crystalline materials in homologous series of 4'-n-alkyl-4-cyanobiphenyl (nCB) with propyl (3CB), pentyl (5CB), and heptyl (7CB) groups. The atomic net charge and dipole moment components at each atomic center have been evaluated using the complete neglect differential overlap (CNDO/2) method. The modified Rayleigh–Schrodinger perturbation theory along with the multicentered-multipole expansion method has been employed to evaluate the long-range intermolecular interactions, while a ‘6-exp’ potential function has been assumed for short-range interactions. Further, these interaction energy values have been used as input to calculate the translational entropy, and free energy of nCB (n=3, 5, and 7) molecules during the stacking, and in-plane interactions. The observed results have been correlated with the mesogenic behavior and phase stability based on the thermodynamic parameters introduced in this article. Further, an attempt has been made to elucidate the flexibility of a configuration at a particular temperature, which has a direct relation with phase transition property of the molecules.     

Optimal phase difference reconstruction: comparison of two methods

The present study compares the performance of the weighted mean (WM) and sensitivity encoding (SENSE) methods for reconstructing phase difference images over a large range of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). It is found that the WM algorithm is suboptimal, compared to the SENSE method at low SNR. Numerical simulations, phantom and in vivo results are presented.     

The gated integration technique for the accurate measurement of the autocorrelation function of speckle intensities scattered from random phase screens

A new approach based on the gated integration technique is proposed for the accurate measurement of the autocorrelation function of speckle intensities scattered from a random phase screen. The Boxcar used for this technique in the acquisition of the speckle intensity data integrates the photoelectric signal during its sampling gate open, and it repeats the sampling by a preset number, m. The average analog of the m samplings output by the Boxcar enhances the signal-to-noise ratio by , because the repeated sampling and the average make the useful speckle signals stable, while the randomly varied photoelectric noise is suppressed by . In the experiment, we use an analog-to-digital converter module to synchronize all the actions such as the stepped movement of the phase screen, the repeated sampling, the readout of the averaged output of the Boxcar, etc. The experimental results show that speckle signals are better recovered from contaminated signals, and the autocorrelation function with the secondary maximum is obtained, indicating that the accuracy of the measurement of the autocorrelation function is greatly improved by the gated integration technique.     

Effects of the induced birefringence in photorefractive crystals on speckle optical vortices

In this work, we show that it is possible to change the properties of an optical vortex formed in a speckle pattern by the control of an external electric field applied to a sillenite-type photorefractive material in a non-holographic configuration. To show it, a scheme that allows the recovering of both, the polarization state and the phase distribution of an optical field was implemented. Changes in the polarization state of the light in the neighborhood of the vortex were observed with the application of an external electric field. Likewise, changes in the phase structure around the vortex and displacements of the vortices themselves were measured. These displacements have a fairly linear dependence on the applied field to the photorefractive crystal. Experimental results are qualitatively explained with the theoretical treatment of non-holographic recording in photorefractive crystals.     

Relation between statistical properties of surface roughness and the averaged speckle intensity in the diffraction field

A theoretical and experimental investigation is made on the relation between the statistical properties of a rough surface and the averaged speckle intensity in the diffraction field. The theoretical analysis is performed in some detail over a wide range of the random phase variation for various illuminated objects. The result gives an interpretation for the behavior of the averaged speckle intensity obtained experimentally for various states of rough surfaces.     

Analysis on diffraction properties of the transmission phase grating

Diffraction properties of the transmission phase grating are analyzed in terms of the Fourier optics theory. The analysis results show that the diffraction intensity distribution of the transmission phase grating is closely related to the optical thickness of the grating and the wavelength of the incident light, and not only determined by the grating's period and slit width. For monochromatic incident light, more than 80% of the diffraction energy will concentrate to the first diffraction order under certain conditions. For white incident light, the energy of the first order of diffraction spectrum may be much higher than other orders. Based on these results, some possible applications of the transmission phase grating are discussed.     

Simultaneous multiphoton ionization by two radiation fields. Effects of the statistical properties of the radiation

Summary We report on calculations of differential and total ionization cross-sections of hydrogen atoms irradiated by two radiation fields with different properties. One of the fields is of low intensity and relatively high frequency, the other is of low frequency and high intensity. In particular, we show that the inclusion of the multimode structure of the low-frequency laser field modifies considerably the shape of the angular distribution of the photoelectrons and the rates of ionization into the different channels characterized by the number of low-frequency photons exchanged. Further, we find that the average energy exchanged between the photoelectrons and the low-frequency radiation field is independent of the statistical properties of the low-frequency laser field.     

Effect of image fiber on the speckle fringe pattern in image fiber-guided DSPI endoscopy

The effect of using an image fiber on the speckle fringe visibility in an endoscopic DSPI is analyzed here. An endoscope system was designed and developed, using image fiber as the speckle pattern image conduit, to work in the out-of-plane speckle interferometric configuration and experiments were carried out using a curved phantom tissue specimen as the test target. Experimental results obtained using the developed system are compared with that obtained using conventional DSPI system. To obtain a relative and quantitative comparison of the quality of the fringes obtained employing the two methods, an evaluation method that can give a quantified ‘score’ is proposed here.     

Determination of strain and stress distribution on shearwalls by using the speckle photography technique

Speckle photography (SP) is a powerful tool that is adequate to determine small displacements in micrometer range. This information shows other characteristics of structure deformation under loads and can be determined as stress and strain distribution. In this paper we present the results of the application of the SP technique used to study the behaviour of discontinuities in a shearwall model. These structural elements are very important to the stability of buildings. The displacement whole field around the discontinuities and loading points was determined using the pointwise method. This allows us to determine stress distribution at the point of interest by means of the suitable equations. We also present the stress distribution obtained through the finite element method in order to compare the results obtained by means of these two techniques. Good correspondence was found between the displacements determined by both techniques (r=0.982) and also between the stress values we obtained.