Study on the application of optical interferometry in the measurement of the coating thickness of color-coated plates

The principle and application of optical interferometry to measure the coating thickness of color-coated plates were introduced in this paper.Additionally,several factors affecting the test results,including coating refractive index,wavelength range,and film thickness range setting,were analyzed.Among these,the refractive index of the color coating,which cannot be measured directly,was identified as the key factor.A solution to this problem was proposed.Finally,the optical interference method and the current detection methods,including the micrometer method and the magnetic eddy current method,were analyzed and compared.The results show that optical interferometry has better repeatability and reproducibility than the current methods and show no significant difference from the current methods through statistical tests.Therefore,the method can be applied to the detection of the coating thickness of color-coated plates.

Wide-spectrum optical synthetic aperture imaging via spatial intensity interferometry

High resolution imaging is achieved using increasingly larger apertures and successively shorter wavelengths.Optical aperture synthesis is an important high-resolution imaging technology used in astronomy.Conventional long baseline amplitude interferometry is susceptible to uncontrollable phase fluctuations,and the technical difficulty increases rapidly as the wavelength decreases.The intensity interferometry inspired by HBT experiment is essentially insensitive to phase fluctuations,but suffers from a narrow spectral bandwidth which results in a lack of effective photons.In this study,we propose optical synthetic aperture imaging based on spatial intensity interferometry.This not only realizes diffraction-limited optical aperture synthesis in a single shot,but also enables imaging with a wide spectral bandwidth,which greatly improves the optical energy efficiency of intensity interferometry.And this method is insensitive to the optical path difference between the sub-apertures.Simulations and experiments present optical aperture synthesis diffraction-limited imaging through spatial intensity interferometry in a 100 nm spectral width of visible light,whose maximum optical path difference between the sub-apertures reaches 69λ.This technique is expected to provide a solution for optical aperture synthesis over kilometer-long baselines at optical wavelengths.

Simulation of distributed optical fiber disturbance detection system based on Sagnac/Mach-Zehnder interferometer and cross-correlation location

A distributed optical fiber disturbance detection system consisted of a Sagnac interferometer and a Mach-Zehnder interferometer is demonstrated. Two interferometers outputs are connected to an electric band-pass filter via a detector respectively. The central frequencies of the two filters are selected adaptively according to the disturbance frequency. The disturbance frequency is obtained by either frequency spectrum of the two interferometers outputs. An alarm is given out only when the Sagnac interferometer output is changed. A disturbance position is determined by calculating a time difference with a cross-correlation method between the filter output connected to the Sagnac interferometer and derivative of the filter output connected to the Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The frequency spectrum, derivative and cross-correlation are obtained by a signal processing system. Theory analysis and simulation results are presented. They show that the system structure and location method are effective, accurate, and immune to environmental variations.

Optical System Design of Inter-Spacecraft Laser Interferometry Telescope

The fundamental measurement of space gravitational wave detection is to monitor the relative motion between pairs of freely falling test masses using heterodyne laser interferometry to a precision of 10 pm. The masses under test are millions of kilometers apart. The inter-spacecraft laser interferometry telescope deliver laser efficiently from one spacecraft to another. It is an important component of the gravitational wave detection observatory. It needs to meet the requirements of large compression ratio, high image quality and extraordinary stray light suppression ability. Based on the primary aberration theory, the method of the large compression ratio off-axis four-mirror optical system design is explored. After optimization, the system has an entrance pupil of 200 mm, compression ratio of 40 times, scientific field of view (FOV) of ±8 μrad. To facilitate suppressing the stray light and delivering the laser beam to the back-end scientific interferometers, the intermediate images and the real exit pupils are spatially available. Over the full FOV, the maximum root mean square (RMS) wavefront error is less than 0.007λ, PV value is less than 0.03λ (λ = 1064 nm). The image quality is approached to the diffraction-limit. The TTL noise caused by the wavefront error of the telescope is analyzed. The TTL noise in the image space of 300 μrad range is less than 1 × 10-10 m whose slope is lower than 0.6 μm/rad, which is under the noise budget of the laser interferometer space antenna (LISA), satisfying the requirements of space gravitational wave detection.

Combined optical fiber interferometric sensors for the detection of acoustic emission

A type of combined optical fiber interferometric acoustic emission sensor is proposed. The sensor can be independent on the laser source and make light interference by matching the lengths of two arms,so it can be used to monitor the health of large structure. Theoretical analyses indicate that the system can be equivalent to the Michelson interferometer with two optical fiber loop reflectors,and its sensitivity has been remarkably increased because of the decrease of the losses of light energy. PZT is powered by DC regulator to control the operating point of the system,so the system can accurately detect feeble vibration which is generated by ultrasonic waves propagating on the surface of solid. The amplitude and the frequency of feeble vibration signal are obtained by detecting the output light intensity of interferometer and using Fourier transform technique. The results indicate that the system can be used to detect the acoustic emission signals by the frequency characteristics.

Seeing invisible objects with intelligent optics IsaacNape&AndrewForbes

Transparent objects are invisible to traditional cameras because they can only detect intensity fluctuations,necessitating the need for interferometry followed by computationally intensive digital image processing.Now it is shown that the necessary transformations can be performed optically by combining machine learning and diffractive optics,for a direct in-situ measurement of transparent objects with conventional cameras.

Plasmonic Mach-Zehnder interferometric sensor based on a metal-insulator-metal nanostructure

A plasmonic Mach-Zehnder interferometric sensor based on a semicircular aperture-slit nanostructure patterned on a metal-insulator-metal film is proposed and demonstrated by finite difference time domain（FDTD） simulation. Due to the interference between two different surface plasmon polariton modes in this design, the transmission spectra exhibit oscillation behaviors in a broad bandwidth, and can be readily tailored by changing the SPP path length and core layer thickness. Based on this principle, the characteristics of refractive index sensing are also demonstrated by simulation. This structure is illuminated with a collimated light source from the back side to avoid impacts on the interference. Meanwhile,these results show that the proposed structure is promising for portable, efficient, and sensitive biosensing applications.

Measurement of refrative index based on fiber Mach-Zehnder interference

In order to detect the refractive index of liquid with high precision,based on modular interference,Mach-Zehnder optical fiber refractive rate sensor was studied.Sensor structure is composed of ordinary single-mode fiber and multimode fiber,according to the singlemode multimode singlemode sequence to fuse together,and the fused optical fiber is used to process the taper.As a result,the diameter of the sensing head is about 10μm.Experimental results show that,as liquid refractive index increases range from 1.33 to 1.35,the loss peak of the transmission spectrum will shift to long wave direction.

Chip-Based High-Dimensional Optical Neural Network

Parallel multi-thread processing in advanced intelligent processors is the core to realize high-speed and high-capacity signal processing systems.Optical neural network(ONN)has the native advantages of high parallelization,large bandwidth,and low power consumption to meet the demand of big data.Here,we demonstrate the dual-layer ONN with Mach-Zehnder interferometer(MZI)network and nonlinear layer,while the nonlinear activation function is achieved by optical-electronic signal conversion.Two frequency components from the microcomb source carrying digit datasets are simultaneously imposed and intelligently recognized through the ONN.We successfully achieve the digit classification of different frequency components by demultiplexing the output signal and testing power distribution.Efficient parallelization feasibility with wavelength division multiplexing is demonstrated in our high-dimensional ONN.This work provides a high-performance architecture for future parallel high-capacity optical analog computing.

A novel phase-sensitive scanning near-field optical microscope

Phase is one of the most important parameters of electromagnetic waves. It is the phase distribution that determines the propagation, reflection, refraction, focusing, divergence, and coupling features of light, and further affects the intensity distribution. In recent years, the designs of surface plasmon polariton （SPP） devices have mostly been based on the phase modulation and manipulation. Here we demonstrate a phase sensitive multi-parameter heterodyne scanning near-field opti- cal microscope （SNOM） with an aperture probe in the visible range, with which the near field optical phase and amplitude distributions can be simultaneously obtained. A novel architecture combining a spatial optical path and a fiber optical path is employed for stability and flexibility. Two kinds of typical nano-photonic devices are tested with the system. With the phase-sensitive SNOM, the phase and amplitude distributions of any nano-optical field and localized field generated with any SPP nano-structures and irregular phase modulation surfaces can be investigated. The phase distribution and the interference pattern will help us to gain a better understanding of how light interacts with SPP structures and how SPP waves generate, localize, convert, and propagate on an SPP surface. This will be a significant guidance on SPP nano-structure design and optimization.

Analysis of the Interference Signal of the Distributed Optical Fiber Sensing Based on DSP

In this paper, the author analyzes characteristics and extracting method of interference signal of the distributed optical fiber sensing. In the distributed optical fiber sensing, realizing alarm and positioning function only through the cross-correlation operation will increase the load of the system, can make misinformation rate of the system be improved greatly. Therefore, before the localization algorithm, adding a interference signal feature recognition is very necessary, can reduce unnecessary operation loss and reduce the load of the system, also reducing the number of the false positives.

Nonlinearity-Compensation-Free Optical Frequency Domain Reflectometry Based on Electrically-Controlled Optical Frequency Sweep

A nonlinearity-compensation-free optical frequency domain reflectometry(OFDR)scheme is proposed and experimentally demonstrated based on the electrically-controlled optical frequency sweep.In the proposed scheme,the linear frequency sweep light is generated by propagating an ultra-narrow-linewidth continuous-wave(CW)light through an electro-optic frequency shifter which consists of a dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator(DPMZM)and an electronic 90°hybrid,where the electro-optic frequency shifter is driven by a linear frequency modulated signal generated by a direct digital synthesizer(DDS).Experimental results show that the spatial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio(SNR)of the proposed OFDR scheme without the nonlinear phase compensation are comparable to those of OFDR employing a commercial tunable laser source(TLS),an auxiliary interferometer,and a software-based nonlinear phase compensation method.The proposed OFDR scheme is helpful to reduce the complexity of the optical structure and eliminate the difficulty of developing the nonlinear phase compensation algorithm.

FSK Modulation Scheme for High-Speed Optical Transmission

In this paper, we describe the generation, detection, and performance of frequency-shift keying （FSK） for high-speed optical transmission and label switching. A non-return-to-zero （NRZ） FSK signal is generated by using two continuous-wave （CW） lasers, one Mach-Zehnder modulator （MZM）, and one Mach-Zehnder delay interferometer （MZDI）. An RZ-FSK signal is generated by cascading a dual-arm MZM, which is driven by a sinusoidal voltage at half the bit rate. Demodulation can be achieved on 1 bit rate through one MZDI or an array waveguide grating （AWG） demultiplexer with balanced detection. We perform numerical simulation on two types of frequency modulation schemes using MZM or PM, and we determine the effect of frequency tone spacing （FTS） on the generated FSK signal. In the proposed scheme, a novel frequency modulation format has transmission advantages compared with traditional modulation formats such as RZ and differential phase-shift keying （DPSK）, under varying dispersion management. The performance of an RZ-FSK signal in a 4 x 40 Gb/s WDM transmission system is discussed. We experiment on transparent wavelength conversion based on four-wave mixing （FWM） in a semiconductor optical amplifier （SOA） and in a highly nonlinear dispersion shifted fiber （HNDSF） for a 40 Gb/s RZ-FSK signal. The feasibility of all-optical signal processing of a high-speed RZ-FSK signal is confirmed. We also determine the receiver power penalty for the RZ-FSK signal after a 100 km standard single-mode fiber （SMF） transmission link with matching dispersion compensating fiber （DCF）, under the post-compensation management scheme. Because the frequency modulation format is orthogonal to intensity modulation and vector modulation （polarization shift keying）, it can be used in the context of the combined modulation format to decrease the data rate or enhance the symbol rate. It can also be used in orthogonal label-switching as the modulation format for the payload or the label. As an example, we propose a simple orthogonal optical label switching technique based on 40 Gb/s FSK payload and 2.5 Gb/s intensity modulated （IM） label.

Standing-wave spectrometry in silicon nano-waveguides using reflection-based near-field scanning optical microscopy

Utilizing reflection-based near-field scanning optical microscopy(NSOM) to image and analyze standing-wave patterns, we present a characterization technique potentially suitable for complex photonic integrated circuits. By raster scanning along the axis of a straight nano-waveguide in tapping mode and sweeping wavelength, detailed information of propagating waves in that waveguide has been extracted from analyses in both space and wavelength domains. Our technique needs no special steps for phase stabilization, thus allowing long-duration and environment-insensitive measurements. As a proof-of-concept test, in a silicon single-mode waveguide with a few of etched holes, the locations and reflection strengths of the inner defects have been quantified. The measurement uncertainty of the reflection amplitude is less than 25% at current stage. Our technique paves the way for non-destructively diagnosing photonic circuits on a chip with sub-wavelength spatial resolution and detailed information extraction.

Optical Measurements of Shock Waves in Critical Nozzles at Low Reynolds Numbers

Two-dimensional critical nozzle flows at low Reynolds numbers are visualized by the rainbow schlieren deflectometry. Experiments have been performed in a region of overexpanded nozzle flow. The variation of the shock structure against the back pressure ratio can be clearly visible with color gradation. Static pressure rises due to the shock-induced flow separation are compared with the previous theories. The unsteady characteristics of overexpanded critical nozzle flows at low Reynolds numbers are quantitatively and qualitatively visualized using laser schlieren and Mach-Zehnder interferometer systems combined with a high-speed digital camera. It was found that an oscillating normal shock wave appears inside the nozzle, and that the shock wave has a specified dominant frequency. Also the time-history of the oscillating shock wave is obtained from both the systems and compared with each other.

Low power all optical switches

In this paper, we propose a new design of all fiber optical switches by using a high finesse ring resonator (RR) side coupled Mach-Zehnder interferometer. We will show that by compensating the total loss in the RR the switching power can be decreased greatly and by loss, compensating the bistability effect in RR can be cancelled and the switching performance can be improved. In addition, we will show that by using Erbium doped fiber for fabricating the RR we can obtain switching power threshold in mW range.

Fiber Optic Fourier Transform White-Light Interferometry

Fiber optic Fourier transform white-light inter-fereometry is presented to interrogate the absolute optical path difference of an Maeh-Zehnder interferometer. The phase change of the interferometer caused by scanning wavelength can be calculated by a Fourier transform-based phase demodulation technique. A linear output is achieved.

基于声学-光学体制的水-空跨介质通信算法

为实现水-空跨介质上行无线通信,文中在激光干涉检测水下声信号的基础上,通过仿真计算获得了不同水深下到水平面的声信号衰减曲线,以及不同水声功率频率信号引起的水面微振动曲线;建立了水下声源特征与水表面扰动之间的定量关系;设计了跨介质通信的码元,并对多种解调方式进行了比较,分析了各个参数变化对传输过程误码率的影响,实现了声学-激光通信的调制与解调仿真。

基于四波前横向剪切干涉的波前传感技术与应用(特邀)

高科技的发展对精密干涉成像提出了更高的要求。在现代光学和生物医学领域,无标记成像技术不依赖于传统的染料或荧光标记,进行3D活细胞原位观察和分析,促进定量相位显微术的发展。在光学检测技术领域,对于干涉系统的现场化、实时化的应用具有迫切需求,如激光波前的瞬态检测分析、高速流场检测、自适应光学的检测和控制、高精度光学系统像差分析等都迫切需要一个紧凑型、抗环境干扰、瞬态成像的干涉系统。为此,针对针对这些需求,全面介绍了四波前横向剪切干涉相位成像技术的原理、发展历程、波前重构方法以及其广泛的应用。四波前横向剪切干涉仪能够通过在一个单一的干涉图中获取两个正交剪切方向的四个剪切波前来实现瞬态相位成像,由随机编码光栅和相位棋盘组成新颖的四波干涉传感器(Four-wave Interferometric Sensor,FIS4)。FIS4干涉传感器凭借其独特的优势,如紧凑性、鲁棒性、高时间分辨率以及与现有显微系统的兼容性,在生物医学、光学测量、材料表征等众多领域展现出广阔的应用前景。这一技术的发展不仅为相关领域提供了新的研究工具,也为跨学科的创新和发现开辟了新的可能性。

复杂曲面光学元件高精度面形检测技术概述

复杂曲面光学元件应用于光学系统中可以增大系统设计自由度,同时减少系统所需元件数量,有利于实现光学系统的紧凑化、轻量化,被誉为现代光学系统的变革性元件,被广泛应用于空间光学、光刻系统、汽车照明等领域,极大推动了航天、国防及高科技民用事业的发展。然而,复杂曲面光学元件对面形精度要求较高,如何对其面形进行高精度检测从而指导加工成为限制该类元件大范围应用的瓶颈。文章对10余种常用的复杂曲面光学元件面形检测方法进行了分类梳理,按照是否采用干涉原理,将检测方法分为非干涉检测法和干涉检测法两大类,分别介绍了各种检测方法的原理和适用范围,回顾了各方法的发展历程,着重分析了几种典型方法进行面形检测的特点,并对未来复杂曲面光学元件高精度面形检测技术的发展趋势加以展望。