Photoswitching Kinetics and Phase‐Sensitive Detection Add Discriminative Dimensions for Selective Fluorescence Imaging

Non‐invasive separation‐free protocols are attractive for analyzing complex mixtures. To increase selectivity, an analysis under kinetic control, through exploitation of the photochemical reactivity of labeling contrast agents, is described. The simple protocol is applied in optical fluorescence microscopy, where autofluorescence, light scattering, as well as spectral crowding presents limitations. Introduced herein is OPIOM (out‐of‐phase imaging after optical modulation), which exploits the rich kinetic signature of a photoswitching fluorescent probe to increase selectively and quantitatively its contrast. Filtering the specific contribution of the probe only requires phase‐sensitive detection upon matching the photoswitching dynamics of the probe and the intensity and frequency of a modulated monochromatic light excitation. After in vitro validation, we applied OPIOM for selective imaging in mammalian cells and zebrafish, thus opening attractive perspectives for multiplexed observations in biological samples.     

3D Euler spirals for 3D curve completion

Shape completion is an intriguing problem in geometry processing with applications in CAD and graphics. This paper defines a new type of 3D curve, which can be utilized for curve completion. It can be considered as the extension to three dimensions of the 2D Euler spiral. We prove several properties of this curve - properties that have been shown to be important for the appeal of curves. We illustrate its utility in two applications. The first is “fixing” curves detected by algorithms for edge detection on surfaces. The second is shape illustration in archaeology, where the user would like to draw curves that are missing due to the incompleteness of the input model.     

Narrow spectral response of a Brillouin generator

We analyze both theoretically and experimentally the temporal response of a stimulated Brillouin scattering generator to an harmonically modulated pump beam in a 2.1 km optical fiber. It is shown that at certain frequencies (where m is an integer number and are frequencies which depends mainly on the fiber’s length L but also on the beam’s intensity via G) the first harmonic of the generated Stokes beam is relatively suppressed but never vanishes. These frequencies are considerably smaller than the Brillouin’s spectral width (∼20 MHz). Excellent agreement with the analytical model is presented.     

Development of FARICH detector for particle identification system at accelerators

Aerogel has been successfully used as a radiator in Cherenkov detectors. In 2004, a multilayer aerogel providing Cherenkov ring focusing was proposed and produced. FARICH (Focusing Aerogel Rich Imaging CHerenkov) detectors such as ARICH for Belle-II (KEK, Japan), Forward RICH for PANDA detector (FAIR, Germany), and FARICH for the Super Charm-Tau factory project (BINP, Novosibirsk) have been developed based on this aerogel. Prototypes of FARICH detector based on MRS APD and Philips DPC photosensors were developed and tested in the framework of this project. An angular resolution for Cherenkov rings of 3.6 mrad was achieved.     

Static envelope patterns in composite resonances generated by level crossing in optical toroidal microcavities

We study level crossing in the optical whispering-gallery (WG) modes by using toroidal microcavities. Experimentally, we image the stationary envelope patterns of the composite optical modes that arise when WG modes of different wavelengths coincide in frequency. Numerically, we calculate crossings of levels that correspond with the observed degenerate modes, where our method takes into account the not perfectly transverse nature of their field polarizations. In addition, we analyze anticrossing with a large avoidance gap between modes of the same azimuthal number.     

Electron-vibration interaction in single-molecule junctions: from contact to tunneling regimes

Point contact spectroscopy on a H(2)O molecule bridging Pt electrodes reveals a clear crossover between enhancement and reduction of the conductance due to electron-vibration interaction. As single-channel models predict such a crossover at a transmission probability of tau=0.5, we used shot noise measurements to analyze the transmission and observed at least two channels across the junction where the dominant channel has a tau=0.51 +/- 0.01 transmission probability at the crossover conductance, which is consistent with the predictions for single-channel models.     

Mode conversion in quadratic nonlinear crystals

We propose a novel all-optical, nonlinear mode-conversion scheme based on cascaded three-wave-mixing phase-matched interactions in quadratic nonlinear crystals. We demonstrate the method experimentally by performing all-optical mode conversion of an input 1636 nm Hermite-Gaussian mode from the zeroth order to the first order using two periodically poled LiNbO(3) crystals. Nonlinear mode conversion of an input beam into a higher order, orthogonally polarized output beam can be realized using only one quasiperiodic nonlinear structure. Moreover, it can be enhanced for conversion of complex modes, e.g., Laguerre-Gaussian or Bessel modes.     

Talbot solitons

We propose a new type of scalar wave-mixing optical solitons, Talbot solitons. The soliton consists of sinusoidal and uniform components that are mutually coherent and jointly trapped in one direction. The intensity structure of the soliton oscillates in the propagation direction as a result of the linear Talbot effect and periodic nonlinear energy exchange between the components. Talbot solitons induce a 1D waveguide and a 2D photonic lattice within the waveguide that may be used for quasi-phase matching of frequency conversion and as a tunable waveguide filter.