Angular dependence of screen speckle and fiber speckle of coupled output of nine high-power blue laser diodes through a multi-mode fiber

Angular dependence of speckle contrast of speckle pattern projected out of a multi-mode fiber connected to a high-power blue laser module is investigated. The laser module has nine high-power InGaN/GaN blue laser diodes arranged in a three-by-three array. Each of the arrayed laser diodes have slightly different incident angle to the fiber. We have successfully extracted the fine screen speckle pattern from the projected pattern mixed up with the coarse fiber speckle pattern by processing the measured data. It is found that the speckle contrast of the both screen and fiber speckles are larger around the center area where the guided-light component closest to the paraxial direction is projected. This is because the output of the center laser in the array is likely to couple into the paraxial mode more than the rest. Speckle contrast behaviors when applying the speckle reduction methods, fiber vibration, diffuser, and spinning diffuser are also investigated.     

利用振动光纤减弱激光散斑的研究

在激光投影显示技术中,引入振动光纤的方法能够以较小的能量损失减弱激光散斑.本文利用广义范西特-泽尼克定理对激光投影显示中采用振动光纤抑制散斑做了理论分析.结果表明,散斑衬比度的大小取决于光纤的模式数和投影系统的光瞳大小,对于相同大小的像面,收集更多的光纤模式数和增大孔径均可减弱散斑衬比度.用两种不同的多模光纤所做的对比实验定性证实了这一结论.研究结果对光纤的选择和投影系统的设计有一定的指导意义.     

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.     

Suppressed speckle contrast of blue light emission out of white lamp with phosphors excited by blue laser diodes for high-brightness lighting applications

The speckle contrast of blue light emission out of high-brightness white lamps using phosphors excited by InGaN/GaN blue laser diodes is evaluated as a measure of coherence. As a result, speckle contrast of as low as 1.7%, the same level as a blue light emitting diode, is obtained. This implies that the original blue laser light can be converted into incoherent light through lamp structures without any dynamic mechanisms. This unique speckle-free performance is considered to be realized by multiple scattering inside the lamp structure, the multi-longitudinal mode operation of the blue laser diodes, and the use of multiple laser diodes. Such almost-incoherent white lamps can be applied for general lighting without any nuisance of speckle noise and should be categorized as lamps rather than lasers in terms of laser safety regulation.     

Effect of the point spread function on the average contrast of image speckle patterns

The effect of the point spread function on the average contrast of image speckle patterns is studied by varying its form depending on the optical imaging system. This effect is actually evaluated on the basis of a computer simulation of various rough surfaces by investigating the average contrast variation of image speckle patterns as a function of the point spread of the optical system. It becomes clear that the form of the point spread function, i.e. the type of the optical imaging system producing image speckle patterns, does not largely affect the average contrast of image speckle patterns.     

Speckle contrast evaluation of multi-emitter broad area 638-nm red laser diodes

Speckle contrast of single, dual, and triple emitter broad area laser diodes (BA-LDs) with a wavelength of 638 nm was experimentally investigated. Speckle noise was relatively small near the threshold current probably due to the longitudinal mode competition. Higher output power led to smaller speckle noise owing to the spectrum widening. A wide stripe presented an advantage in terms of speckle reduction in the single emitter LDs. It is also found that wider emitter width leads to the smaller the speckle noise. A larger number of emitters decreased speckle noise due to the beam superposition effect, even for multi-emitter LDs in which the emitters are built into one chipa.

     

Variation of the speckle contrast in a graded-index fibre by misalignment of the incident beam

The speckle pattern observed at the output end of a multimode fibre is closely related to the modal noise. In this paper, the average contrast of the speckle pattern is studied as a function of the radial position in the output end plane for three kinds of misalignment of the incident beam, i.e. defocusing, axial misalignment and angular misalignment. It is found that a variation of the speckle contrast is very sensitive to all kinds of misalignment of the incident beam and that its varying form strongly depends on the kind of misalignment of the incident beam. The speckle contrast at the centre of the output end plane is also examined as a function of the magnitude of misalignment. It is found that the contrast increases from a minimum value in the correct alignment to a certain saturated value with an increase of misalignment.     

Variation of the speckle patterns in graded-index fibres with a misaligned joint

The intensity variation of a speckle pattern on the exit end face of graded-index multimode fibres with a misaligned fibre-to-fibre joint is experimentally studied from its first-order statistics of the average contrast and the probability density function for two different kinds of longitudinal and axial misalignments. It is found that the speckle contrast varies as a function of the radial position with a peak which shifts towards the periphery of the speckle pattern with an increase of the joint loss. A varying form of the speckle contrast also depends on the type of misalignment. The probability density function of the speckle intensity variation is also found to vary as a function of the radial position but to scarcely vary as a function of the joint loss.     

Spatial field distributions in the transition from ballistic to diffusive transport in randomly corrugated waveguides

A detailed analysis of the statistical properties of the transmitted field in corrugated waveguides in the transition from ballistic to diffusion transport is presented. The field distributions are found to be highly dependent on the incident mode excited. When the speckle contrast is one, our results agree with recent experiments where the intensity distribution follows the predictions of the random-phasor-sum model, even though the field phase is not uniformly distributed. Clear deviations from the Gaussian statistics are found which can be interpreted in terms of " K" distributions arising either from a small number of scatterers or from perturbations of the speckle pattern on propagation.     

Understanding the exposure-time effect on speckle contrast measurements for laser displays

To evaluate the influence of exposure time on speckle noise for laser displays, speckle contrast measurement method was developed observable at a human eye response time using a high-sensitivity camera which has a signal multiplying function. The nonlinearity of camera light sensitivity was calibrated to measure accurate speckle contrasts, and the measuring lower limit noise of speckle contrast was improved by applying spatial-frequency low pass filter to the captured images. Three commercially available laser displays were measured over a wide range of exposure times from tens of milliseconds to several seconds without adjusting the brightness of laser displays. The speckle contrast of raster-scanned mobile projector without any speckle-reduction device was nearly constant over various exposure times. On the contrary to this, in full-frame projection type laser displays equipped with a temporally-averaging speckle-reduction device, some of their speckle contrasts close to the lower limits noise were slightly increased at the shorter exposure time due to the noise. As a result, the exposure-time effect of speckle contrast could not be observed in our measurements, although it is more reasonable to think that the speckle contrasts of laser displays, which are equipped with the temporally-averaging speckle-reduction device, are dependent on the exposure time. This discrepancy may be attributed to the underestimation of temporal averaging factor. We expected that this method is useful for evaluating various laser displays and clarify the relationship between the speckle noise and the exposure time for a further verification of speckle reduction.     

Speckle from a rough surface when the illuminated region contains few correlation areas: The effect of changing the surface height variance

We report speckle contrast measurements taken at the centre of the far-field diffraction pattern of weak, medium and strong diffusers illuminated by a focused laser beam. We study the evolution of curves of speckle contrast as a function of the radius of the laser spot as the variance of surface height is steadily increased for a fixed correlation length. We also present experimental curves of speckle contrast as a function of the distance of the rough surface from the beam focus for three of the diffusers.     

激光光斑形状和尺寸对扫描显示中散斑对比度的影响

计算了圆形、矩形激光光斑对于激光扫描显示系统中散斑对比度的影响.对于圆形光斑,当光斑尺寸大于散射表面相关长度时,得到的散斑对比度随着光斑尺寸变小而下降;当光斑尺寸接近表面相关长度大小时,由于光斑中包含的散射颗粒变少,得到的是非高斯散斑,散斑的对比度反而会变大;随着激光斑进一步变小,由于镜面反射效果散斑的对比度会很快下降.对圆形光斑部分结果给出了实验验证.为了保证光斑中有足够的散射颗粒,只在一个方向压窄光斑,分别计算了平行于扫描方向和垂直于扫描方向压窄光斑得到的散斑对比度.平行于扫描方向压窄光斑,散斑的时间相关性会下降,平均效果变明显,散斑的对比度变小;垂直于扫描方向压窄,散斑对比度变化不大.     

Measurement of contrast of speckle in and near the image plane

The contrast of a speckle pattern formed by a conventional imaging system has been experimentally investigated. A dip in contrast of the speckle pattern produced near the focal plane and the image plane has been observed. It is also found that the variation of contrast along the optical axis of the imaging system with a hard-edged aperture differs considerably from that with a soft aperture.     

The autocorrelation function of polychromatic laser speckle patterns near the image plane

The autocorrelation function of polychromatic speckle patterns produced near the image plane of a double diffraction imaging system is experimentally studied. The condition under which the polychromatic speckle field obeys Gaussian statistics is further investigated as a function of the numberN of scattering cells, using the average contrast of the speckle intensity fluctuations. The profile of the autocorrelation function is next investigated as a function ofN and the defocused distance from the image plane. It is found that the average contrast and autocorrelation function of the polychromatic speckle intensity fluctuations converge less rapidly with an increase inN than those of the monochromatic ones.     

Roughness and correlation-length determination of rough-surface objects using the speckle contrast

A method using the speckle contrast for the determination of both the roughness and the correlation length of surface-height variations of a rough-surface object is proposed on the basis of the statistical properties of the Gaussian speckle field in the image region. The expression for the speckle contrast is first theoretically derived in the optical imaging system as a function of the defocus distance and the surface parameters of the object. By solving the equations expressing the speckle contrasts at the image and defocus planes, a unique solution is found to exist for the roughness and the correlation length. In particular, a useful approximate relation that the roughness depends only on the contrast ratio is derived for relatively small values of the roughness. The experiments were performed to confirm the validity of the proposed method. The present method has an advantage of the simplicity in a measuring procedure where the contrasts at only the two points are required to determine the surface parameters.     

Contrast of time-averaged image speckle pattern for a vibrating object

In vibration analysis by speckle photography it is qualitatively known that the contrast of speckle patterns averaged in the exposure time varies, depending on the object motion. In this paper, the contrast of time-averaged image speckle patterns is theoretically evaluated and found to be determined by the ratio of the sinusoidally oscillating amplitude of the object motion to the average size of static speckles. An effect of the film response on the contrast of time-averaged speckle patterns is also studied.     

Effect of surface roughness on the statistical distribution of image speckle intensity

An experimental investigation is made of the effect of surface roughness on the statistical distribution of image speckle intensity. A speckle pattern is formed by spatially coherent light at the image plane of an object having some surface roughness and its statistical properties are investigated. It is found that the contrast of the speckle is related to the surface roughness. By this relation, a new technique for the measurement of surface roughness is proposed.     

Statistics of Gaussian Speckles with Enhanced Fluctuations

Some first-order statistics of speckle fields obeying the complex Gaussian probability density are investigated with the special emphasis on a possibility for the speckle contrast to exceed unity. It is shown that such enhanced fluctuations of speckle fields are generated when the probability density of the complex amplitude is non-circular with the vanishing mean. This means that Gaussian speckles having the contrast of unity are not necessarily fully developed speckles. Some practical situations producing such enhanced fluctuations in speckle fields are discussed.     

Experimental study of the angular correlation function in the double passage of waves through a one-dimensional random phase screen

Abstract

Experimental results are presented for the angular correlation function of far-field speckle patterns scattered in the double passage of waves through a one-dimensional random phase screen. The experiment for the correlation measurement was set up to use a CCD camera to obtain the image of the speckle patterns in the scattering directions for each given angle of incidence; the cross-correlation function is then calculated from the digitized images. The theoretical analysis of the motion of the speckle as the source is moved, as given by Escamilla, is verified experimentally. It is found that in contrast with the memory effect line of speckle motion, the speckle pattern produced in the region of observation tracks the backscattering direction.     

Verification of speckle contrast measurement interrelation with observation distance

The speckle contrasts of two types of laser projectors were measured at various observation distances and observation lens pinhole diameters using a quantitative measurement technique. We found that the speckle contrast as a function of the observation numerical aperture varies with the projection architecture. In a full-frame projector, it is proportional to the numerical aperture, but it is proportional to its square root in a raster-scanned projector. The difference in speckle contrast as a function of the numerical aperture was analyzed based on Goodman’s speckle theory. The obtained results were found to be very useful and applicable for speckle evaluation and display qualifications in an arbitrary observer’s position.