Search Results (21)

Given the exceptional capabilities of femtosecond laser processing in achieving high-precision ablation for air-film cooling hole fabrication on turbine blades, it is imperative to develop an advanced monitoring methodology that enables real-time feedback control to automatically terminate the laser upon complete penetration detection, thereby effectively preventing backside damage. To tackle this issue, a spectrum-domain coherent imaging technique has been developed. This innovative approach adapts the fundamental principle of fiber-based Michelson interferometry by integrating the air-film hole into a sample arm configuration. A broadband super-luminescent diode with a 830 nm central wavelength and a 26 nm spectral bandwidth serves as the coherence-optimized illumination source. An optimal normalized reflectivity of 0.2 is established to maintain stable interference fringe visibility throughout the drilling process. The system achieves a depth resolution of 11.7 μm through Fourier transform analysis of dynamic interference patterns. With customized optical path design specifically engineered for through-hole-drilling applications, the technique demonstrates exceptional sensitivity, maintaining detection capability even under ultralow reflectivity conditions (0.001%) at the hole bottom. Plasma generation during laser processing is investigated, with plasma density measurements providing optical thickness data for real-time compensation of depth measurement deviations. The demonstrated system represents an advancement in non-destructive in-process monitoring for high-precision laser machining applications. Full article

A spatial light modulator (SLM) is a key element in several applications, but it is subject to surface deformation due to manufacturing imperfections or environmental factors. Therefore, the current study aims to analyze and compensate for such deformations in a phase-only SLM using a Michelson interferometer. The recorded interferogram represents the interference between the wavefront reflected from the SLM surface (object wave) and a reference wave. Noise in the recorded interferogram can degrade the accuracy of phase measurements. Various digital filtering techniques were applied to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the interferogram. The filtered interferogram enabled accurate phase extraction through Fourier transform processing and side peak selection using a spatial carrier frequency method. Additionally, phase errors caused by the tilt of the reference beam were corrected. Thereafter, the conjugate of the corrected phase distribution was used to calculate a phase-only computer-generated hologram (CGH), which was displayed on the SLM to compensate for surface deformations. The effectiveness of the proposed compensation procedure was confirmed by a second phase measurement, which demonstrated improved SLM performance. This study highlights the impact of combining the interferometric techniques with digital processing for precise surface deformation analysis. Full article

In this paper we demonstrate a new approach to the measurement of dispersion of light reflected in integrated optical devices. The approach utilizes the fact that light reflected from the end facet of an integrated waveguide will interfere with light reflected from points inside the device under test (DUT), effectively creating a Michelson interferometer. The distance between the measured fringes of this interferometric signal will depend directly on the group delay experienced in the device under test, allowing for fast and easy measurement of waveguide dispersion. This approach has been used to determine the dispersion of a fabricated linearly chirped Bragg gratings waveguide and the result agrees well with the designed value. Full article

This study presents an all-optical approach based on an XOR logic gate for encryption by interference and the assistance of multiphotonic effects exhibited by carbon nanotubes. We integrate a Michelson interferometer to propose the encryption system. The key innovation lies in the use of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) to control the XOR operation through intensity-dependent nonlinear optical absorption. We introduce control based on nanosecond nonlinear optical absorption in MWCNT. By measuring irradiance propagation through thin-film samples of MWCNT, we demonstrate a threshold-based binary data recording system that is highly resistant to unauthorized access. The combination of interferometric response, MWCNT-based intensity control, and multicriteria decision analysis through nonlinear absorption presents a powerful and versatile approach to optical encryption. This method has the potential to be a base for secure communication systems and optical computing, with possible extensions to biological computing and microbiology. While challenges in power optimization and scaling remain, this research marks a significant step towards advanced, ultrafast encryption systems. Full article

Due to the ability of optical modulators to achieve rapid modulation of optical signals, meeting the demands of high-speed data transmission, modulators based on different novel nanomaterials have become one of the research hotspots over the past dacade. Recently, TiN/Ti₃C₂ heterojunction exhibits highly efficient thermo-optic performance and extremely strong stability. Therefore, we have demonstrated an all-optical modulator based on the principle of Michelson interference and the thermo-optic effect in this paper. The modulator employs a TiN/Ti₃C₂ heterojunction-coated microfiber (THM) and further demonstrates its ability to generate phase shifts through an ASE light source. The modulator, with a phase shift slope of 0.025π/mW, can also convert the phase shifts of signal light into amplitude modulation through Michelson interference. The fixed signal light wavelength is 1552.09 nm, and the modulation depth is stable at about 26.4 dB within a wavelength detuning range of −10 to 6 nm; The waveforms of signal light at modulation rates of 500 Hz, 1000 Hz, 2000 Hz, and 3000 Hz were tested, and a 3 dB modulation bandwidth of 2 kHz was measured. The all-optical modulator based on THM has the advantages of high efficiency and stability and has broad application prospects in the fields of all-optical signal processing and high-speed optical communication. Full article

Combined with vortex light and airglow, some different physical phenomena are presented in this paper. Based on the ground-based airglow imaging interferometer (GBAII) made by our group, a liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) device on one arm of a wide-angle Michelson interferometer (MI) of the GBAII is replaced by the reflector mirror to become the GBAII-LCoS system. LCoS generates a vortex phase to convert a Gaussian profile airglow into a vortex light pattern. After the Gaussian profile vortex light equation is obtained by combining the Gaussian profile airglow with the Laguerre–Gauss light, three different physical phenomena are obtained: the simulated Gaussian vortex airglow beam exhibits a hollow phenomenon with the introduction of the vortex phase, and as the topological charge (TC) l increases, the hollow range also increases; after adding the vortex factor, the interference fringe intensity can be ‘broadened’ with the optical path difference (OPD) and TC l increases, which match the field broadening technology for solid wide-angle MI; the ‘Four-point algorithm’ wind measurement for the upper atmosphere based on the vortex airglow is derived, which is different from the usual expressions. Some experimental results are presented: We obtained the influence modes of vortex light interference and a polarization angle from 335° to 245°. We also obtained a series of interference images that verifies the rotation of the vortex light, onto which is loaded a set of superimposed vortex phase images with TC l = 3 into LCoS in turn, and the interference image is rotated under the condition of the polarization angle of 245°. The controlled vortex interference image for different TC and grayscale values are completed. Full article

In this paper, a fiber optic microprobe displacement sensor is proposed considering characteristics of micro-Michelson interference structure and its components. The principal error of micro Fabry–Perot interferometric structure is avoided, and high-precision interferometric displacement measurement is realized. The collimated microprobe and convergent microprobe are analyzed, simulated, and designed for the purposes of measuring long-distance displacement and small spot rough surface, respectively. The core parameters of the probes’ internal components are mapped to coupling efficiency and contrast of the sensor measurements, which provides a basis for the probes’ design. Finally, simulation and experimental testing of the two probes show that the collimated probe’s working distance and converging probe’s tolerance angle can reach 40 cm and ±0.5°, respectively. The designed probes are installed in the fiber laser interferometer, and a displacement resolution of 0.4 nm is achieved. Full article

Slightly off-axis digital holography is proposed using transmission grating to obtain quantitative phase distribution. The experimental device is based on an improved 4f optical system in which a two-window input plane is used to form the object beam and reference beam. Then, the two beams are diffracted into multiple orders by the transmission grating placed at the Fourier plane. By applying a modified Michelson configuration, the interference patterns can be generated by the object and reference beams from different diffraction orders. After translating the grating, a random phase shift can be introduced to the hologram. To demonstrate the feasibility of our method, both thick and thin phase specimens are retrieved using two carrier phase-shifting holograms. Furthermore, we use the phase reconstruction algorithm based on the NVIDIA CUDA programming model to reduce the retrieval time. Meanwhile, we optimize the discrete cosine transform (DCT)-based least-squares unwrapping algorithm to unwrap the phase. By porting the entire phase reconstruction process to the graphics processing unit (GPU), the phase retrieval acceleration and execution efficiency significantly improve. To demonstrate the feasibility of our method, it is found that our method can measure the surface profiles of standard elements, such as a plano-convex cylinder lens and a microlens array, with a relative error of about 0.5%. For holograms with a different phase shift, the root-mean-square (RMS) value of the phase difference for the main imaging region is about 0.2 rad. By accelerating the phase reconstruction with GPU implementation, a speedup ratio of about 20× for the thick phase specimen and a speedup ratio of about 15× for the thin-phase specimen can be obtained for holograms with a pixel size of 1024 × 1024. Full article

A photonic integrated interference imaging system (PIIIS) is a computational imager based on Michelson interference and photonic integrated circuits (PICs). In this paper, a PIIIS based on a compact sampling lenslet array that can sample the zero spatial frequency through a single lenslet, densely sample the frequency in the azimuth direction through the configuration of a hierarchical multistage lenslet array, and continuously sample the frequency in the radial direction through a Langford sequence is proposed. We introduce the design process of the compact sampling lenslet array in detail and simulate the imaging of the system. The simulation results demonstrate that the lenslet array can effectively improve the imaging quality of a PIIIS. In addition, we design a silicon PIC and a silicon nitride transition PIC that match the compact sampling lenslet array and simulate the imaging of the system under the influence of the on-chip optical loss of PICs (the average interference baseline loss is 15.4 dB at 1550 nm). The results show that on-chip optical loss mainly affects the brightness and contrast of the reconstructed image but has little effect on the structure. Full article

Biosensing and bioimaging are essential in understanding biological and pathological processes in a living system, for example, in detecting and understanding certain diseases. Optical fiber has made remarkable contributions to the biosensing and bioimaging areas due to its unique advantages of compact size, immunity to electromagnetic interference, biocompatibility, fast response, etc. This review paper will present an overview of seven common types of optical fiber biosensors and optical fiber-based ultrasound detection in photoacoustic imaging (PAI) and the applications of these technologies in biosensing and bioimaging areas. Of course, there are many types of optical fiber biosensors. Still, this paper will review the most common ones: optical fiber grating, surface plasmon resonance, Sagnac interferometer, Mach–Zehnder interferometer, Michelson interferometer, Fabry–Perot Interferometer, lossy mode resonance, and surface-enhanced Raman scattering. Furthermore, different optical fiber techniques for detecting ultrasound in PAI are summarized. Finally, the main challenges and future development direction are briefly discussed. Full article

A modified two-axis surface encoder is proposed to separately measure both the in-plane displacement and the Z-directional out-of-plane displacement with minor crosstalk errors. The surface encoder is composed of a scale grating and a small-sized sensor head. In the modified surface encoder, the measurement laser beam from the sensor head is designed to be projected onto the scale grating at a right angle. For measurement of the X- and Y-directional in-plane scale displacement, the positive and negative first-order diffracted beams from the scale grating are superimposed on each other in the sensor head, producing interference signals. On the other hand, the Z-directional out-of-plane scale displacement is measured based on the principle of a Michelson-type interferometer. To avoid the influence of reflection from the middle area of the transparent grating, which causes periodic crosstalk errors in the previous research, a specially fabricated transparent grating with a hole in the middle is employed in the newly designed optical system. A prototype sensor head is constructed, and basic performances of the modified surface encoder are tested by experiments. Full article

In comparison with traditional space infrared spectroscopy technology, the interference signals of a large focal plane array (FPA) can be used to obtain spectra over a larger area range and rapidly achieve large-scale coverage of hyperspectral remote sensing. However, the low signal-to-noise ratio of the interference signals limits the application of spectral data, especially when atmospheric detection occurs in the long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) band. In this paper, we construct an LWIR hyperspectral system of a Fourier transform spectrometer composed of a HgCdTe photovoltaic IR FPA and a Michelson interferometer. The LWIR interference signals are obtained by a high-frequency oversampling technique. We use the Kalman filter (KF) and its improved weighted adaptive Kalman filter (WAKF) to reduce the noise of multiple measured data of each pixel. The effect of overshoot and ringing artifacts on the objective signals is reduced by the WAKF. The applicability is studied by the interference signals from the different sampling frequencies and different pixels. The effectiveness is also verified by comparing the spectra of denoised interferograms with the reference spectrum. The experimental results show that the WAKF algorithm has excellent noise suppression, and the standard deviation of the interferogram can be reduced by 39.50% compared with that of KF. The WAKF is more advantageous in improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the interferogram and spectra. The results indicate that our system can be applied to atmospheric vertical detection and hyperspectral remote sensing over large area ranges because our denoised technique is suitable for large LWIR FPA. Full article

Signal recognition accuracy and recognition time are the two most important parameters of pattern recognition in a fiber optic vibration sensing system. To obtain high recognition accuracy and short recognition time, this paper optimized the VGG16 algorithm and carried out VGG16-1D and VGG16-2D recognition on big data signals generated by a Michelson–Sagnac interferometric vibration sensor system. The results indicate that VGG16-1D has a higher accuracy of 98.44% and a shorter recognition time of 0.03 s. The proposed method is a more accurate and faster pattern recognition method for big data signals from optical fiber vibration sensing systems, which is helpful in promoting further applications of optical fiber sensing systems. Full article

An all-fiber temperature and refractive dual-parameter-sensing Michelson interferometer is designed based on the waist-enlarged bitaper. At 5 mm from the fiber end, the waist-enlarged bitaper is manually spliced and the probe is formed. Since the input light encounters the waist-enlarged bitaper, it will excite high-order modes to transmit in the fiber cladding, and there will be an optical path difference between the basic mode and the higher-order mode. The light transmitted in the core and cladding is reflected upon encountering the fiber end face and the interference occurs due to the optical path difference between basic mode and higher-order mode. Changes in temperature and refractive index at the fiber probe can be detected by monitoring the interference fringes. The refractive response sensitivity is −191.06 dBm/RIU from 1.351 RIU to 1.4027 RIU, and the temperature response sensitivity is 0.12 nm/°C from 11 °C to 98 °C. Through the sensitivity matrix equation, the superimposed refractive index and temperature signals can be effectively demodulated. The sensor has the advantages of multi-parameter measurement, compact structure, low cost, easy fabrication and high reliability. Full article