Stress-induced birefringence in elastomers doped with ferrofluid magnetic particles: Mechanical and optical investigation

Magnetic nanoparticles from magnetic colloidal suspensions were incorporated in the urethane/urea elastomer (PU/PBDO) by adding to the prepolymers solution in toluene diverse amounts of magnetite grains. It is shown that ferrofluid grains can be efficiently incorporated into the elastomer according to this procedure. Mechanical and optical experiments performed show that the elastomer preparation procedure (casting) introduces a structural anisotropy on the optically isotropic sample. This fact is put in evidence by the measurements of the Young's moduli and orientation of the sample's optical axis under stress. The dependence of the phase shift of both the pure and ferrofluid-doped elastomer samples under strain is linear, and the strain-optic coefficient is show to be linear with the ferrofluid concentration.     

Phase-Space Analysis of Wavefront Coding Imaging Systems

We explore the use of the Radon-Wigner transform, which is associated with the fractional Fourier transform of the pupil function, for determining the point spread function （PSF） of an incoherent defocused optical system. Then we introduce these phase-space tools to analyse the wavefront coding imaging system. It is shown that the shape of the PSF for such a system is highly invariant to the defocus-related aberrations except for a lateral shift. The optical transfer function of this system is also investigated briefly from a new understanding of ambiguity function.     

Effects of γ-radiation on spectrophotometric determination of uranium as thiocyanate

The effects of γ-radiation on the spectrophotometric determination of uranium as the thiocyanate complex in water and acetone-water solutions have been studied. When tin(II) chloride is present, the absorbance of uranium thiocyanate in aqueous solution decreases with increasing radiation dose until the appcarance of radiolytic elemental sulfur causes an apparent increase. In the absence of tin(II) chloride, the turbidity caused by radiolytic sulfur causes an increase in absorbance over the whole dose range studied. In acetone-water solution, similar but much more severe effects occur. Observations of radiation effects of some of the individual reagents used in the spectrophotometric determinations are included, as well as indications of the errors caused by specific radiation doses.     

Nano-aquarium with microfluidic structures for dynamic analysis of Cryptomonas and Phormidium fabricated by femtosecond laser direct writing of photostructurable glass

We demonstrate fabrication of microchips with microfluidic structures for dynamic analysis of living cells using a femtosecond (fs) laser. Fs laser direct writing followed by annealing and successive wet etching in dilute hydrofluoric (HF) acid solution resulted in formation of three dimensional (3D) hollow microstructures embedded in photostructurable glass. The embedded microchannel structure enabled us to analyze unique phenomenon of Cryptomonas, which suddenly swims very fast under certain condition. Vector analysis of the driving force for the rapid motion was also carried out by introducing nano-beads into the microchannel, in which Cryptomonas was encapsulated. We also fabricated a microchip for observation of Phormidium moving toward a seedling root, which accelerates growth of the seedling. Using the embedded microchannel in the microchip, observation of Phormidium assemblage to the seedling root was easily carried out. Such microchips with microfluidic structures, referred to as a nano-aquarium, realize the efficient and highly functional observation of living cells.     

Phase-coded aperture for optical imaging

For the optical spectrum region, we describe a novel phase-coded aperture imaging system that can be used in a computational imaging camera. The optical design includes a phase-only screen followed by a detector array. A specific diffraction pattern forms at the detector array when the wavefront from a point source object passes through the phase screen. Since diffraction effects cannot be ignored in the optical regime, an iterative phase retrieval method is used to calculate the phase coded screen. Correlation type processing can be applied for the image recovery. Computer simulation results are presented to illustrate the excellent imaging performance of this camera.     

Ghost imaging and ghost interference with pseudo-thermal light: Mode-separation by pure software processing

We report on a new experiment in which ghost imaging and ghost interference with quasi-thermal light are simultaneously obtained from the same set of experimental reference patterns. By sliding the mask along the object arm in a continuous way, one can see imaging and diffraction patterns to come to light and fade out in opposite directions.     

Characterization of crystal lattice constant and dislocation density of crack-free GaN films grown on Si(1 1 1)

GaN have sphalerite structure (Cubic-GaN) and wurtzite structure (hexagonal GaN). We report the H-GaN epilayer with a LT-AlN buffer layer has been grown on Si(1 1 1) substrate by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). According to the FWHM values of 0.166° and 14.01 cm⁻¹ of HDXRD curve and E₂ (high) phonon of Raman spectrum respectively, we found that the crystal quality is perfect. And based on the XRD spectrum, the crystal lattice constants of Si (a = 5.3354 ?) and H-GaN (a_epi = 3.214 ?, c_epi = 5.119 ?) have been calculated for researching the tetragonal distortion of the sample. These results indicate that the GaN epilayer is in tensile strain and Si substrate is in compressive strain which were good agreement with the analysis of Raman peaks shift. Comparing with typical values of screw-type (D_screw = 7 × 10⁸ cm⁻²) and edge-type (D_edge = 2.9 × 10⁹ cm⁻²) dislocation density, which is larger than that in GaN epilayers growth on SiC or sapphire substrates. But our finding is important for the understanding and application of nitride semiconductors.     

Blind phase shift extraction and wavefront retrieval by two-frame phase-shifting interferometry with an unknown phase shift

An iterative algorithm to extract the arbitrary unknown phase shift in two-frame phase-shifting interferometry and then reconstruct the complex object wave is proposed. In combination with the least square principle and some calculation formulae we developed, this algorithm allows us to find the value of unknown phase shift by using only two interferograms without additional knowledge or measurement. Computer simulations have shown that this algorithm works well for both the smooth and diffusing objects to a very high accuracy over a wide range of the phase shift from 0.4 to 2.5 rad.