Optical scanning endoscope via a single multimode optical fiber

Optical endoscopy has become an essential diagnostic and therapeutic approach in modern biomedicine for directly observing organs and tissues deep inside the human body,enabling non-invasive,rapid diagnosis and treatment.Optical fiber endoscopy is highly competitive among various endoscopic imaging techniques due to its high flexibility,compact structure,excellent resolution,and resistance to electromagnetic interference.Over the past decade,endoscopes based on a single multimode optical fiber(MMF)have attracted widespread research interest due to their potential to significantly reduce the footprint of optical fiber endoscopes and enhance imaging capabilities.In comparison with other imaging principles of MMF endoscopes,the scanning imaging method based on the wavefront shaping technique is highly developed and provides benefits including excellent imaging contrast,broad applicability to complex imaging scenarios,and good compatibility with various well-established scanning imaging modalities.In this review,various technical routes to achieve light focusing through MMF and procedures to conduct the scanning imaging of MMF endoscopes are introduced.The advancements in imaging performance enhancements,integrations of various imaging modalities with MMF scanning endoscopes,and applications are summarized.Challenges specific to this endoscopic imaging technology are analyzed,and potential remedies and avenues for future developments are discussed.

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.

Optical polarization response at gold nanosheet edges probed by scanning near-field optical microscopy

Optical properties of metallic edge-like structures known as knife-edges are a topic of interest and possess potential applications in enhanced Raman scattering, optical trapping, etc. In this work, we investigate the near-field optical polar- ization response at the edge of a triangular gold nanosheet, which is synthesized by a wet chemical method. A homemade scanning near-field optical microscope （SNOM） in collection mode is adopted, which is able to accurately locate its probe at the edge during experiments. An uncoated straight fiber probe is used in the SNOM, because it s611 preserves the prop- erty of light polarization though it has the depolarization to some extent. By comparing near-field intensities at the edge and glass substrate, detected in different polarization directions of incident light, the edge-induced depolarization is found, which is supported by the finite differential time domain （FDTD） simulated results. The depolarized phenomenon in the near-field is similar to that in the far-field.

Influence of the probe-sample interaction on scanning near-field optical microscopic images in the far field

We have studied the influence of probe-sample interaction in a scanning near-field optical microscopy （SNOM） in the far field by using samples with a step structure. For a sample with a step height of - λ/4, the SNOM image contrast between the two sides of the step changes periodically at different scan heights. For a step height of-λ/2, the image contrast remains approximately the same. The probe-sample interaction determines the SNOM image contrast here. The influence of different refractive indices of the sample has been also analysed by using a simple theoretical model.

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.

Multi-mode Scanning Near-field Optical Microscope

A scanning near-field optical microscope using uncoated fiber tipis described, which can work in transmission and reflectionconfigurations, both capable of working in illumination andcollection-mode, so that either transparent of opaque sample can beinvestigated. Depending on different applications, eitherconstant-gap or constant-height images can be achieved. A compacthomemade translator permits to elect interested area of sample in therange of 4 mm×4 mm.

A historical overview of nano-optics:From near-field optics to plasmonics

Nano-optics is an emergent research field in physics that appeared in the 1980s,which deals with light–matter optical interactions at the nanometer scale.In early studies of nano-optics,the main concern focus is to obtain higher optical resolution over the diffraction limit.The researches of near-field imaging and spectroscopy based on scanning near-field optical microscopy(SNOM)are developed.The exploration of improving SNOM probe for near-field detection leads to the emergence of surface plasmons.In the sense of resolution and wider application,there has been a significant transition from seeking higher resolution microscopy to plasmonic near-field modulations in the nano-optics community during the nano-optic development.Nowadays,studies of nano-optics prefer the investigation of plasmonics in different material systems.In this article,the history of the development of near-field optics is briefly reviewed.The difficulties of conventional SNOM to achieve higher resolution are discussed.As an alternative solution,surface plasmons have shown the advantages of higher resolution,wider application,and flexible nano-optical modulation for new devices.The typical studies in different periods are introduced and characteristics of nano-optics in each stage are analyzed.In this way,the evolution progress from near-field optics to plasmonics of nano-optics research is presented.The future development of nano-optics is discussed then.

Multiple Scanning Effects in Radiochromic Film Dosimetry: A Method to Reduce the Increase of Optical Density

In this work, a method to reduce increase in optical density (OD) caused by multiple scanning in radiochromic film dosimetry in combination with a flatbed scanner is presented. Gafchromic EBT3 films are scanned with Epson Pro 1680 Expression scanner and time intervals of 15 minutes and 30 minutes are observed between consecutive scans to reduce the increase in temperature of the scanner. The maximum variations in OD after consecutive scans are calculated and compared to the values obtained for scans without interruption. For film irradiated to 3 Gy, a time interval of 15 minutes between two successive scans leads to a reduction of the OD increase of 56.2% compared to when films are scanned without interruption. Reductions of OD increase of 86.72% and 78.72% respectively for film irradiated to 1 Gy and 2 Gy are obtained when a time interval of 30 minutes is left between two successive scans. These results show that when time intervals are observed between consecutive scans, the increase in OD has significantly reduced. However, the method has the drawback of increasing the time needed to perform radiochromic film dosimetry.

Phase matched scanning optical parametric chirped pulse amplification based on pump beam deflection

Combined with the optical beam deflection,a novel approach of phase matched broadband scanning optical parametric chirped pulse amplification(OPCPA)was proposed.For this scheme,there was no superfluous operations to the chirped signal pulse which propagated in a changeless direction straightforward,but the pump beam were deflected in space with time by passing through a KTN crystal,which was applied with varied driving voltage.The theories of phase matching of each chirped signal frequency based on pump beam deflection was analyzed detailedly.And the type-I amplification of chirped signal with 800 nm central wavelength and 20 nm bandwidth pumped by 532 nm in BBO crystal was simulated as a case in point.The simulation results showed that the spectral distribution of chirped signal pulse was almost the same as the initial form,i.e.,there was nearly no narrowing on the amplified spectrum by using of the scanning OPCPA based on pump beam deflection.In addition,the simulations demonstrated that it was worth minimizing the voltage deviation applied to KTN crystal as much as possible for the sake of better waveform,larger bandwidth and higher conversion efficiency of amplified signal pulse in the proposed scanning OPCPA.

Scanning Head for the Apertureless near Field Optical Microscope

The design and characterization of a tip control unit for an apertureless scanning near field optical microscope (ASNOM) is reported. To make the instrument operation easier, the cantilever control parts (piezo excitation of the cantilever vibration for the dynamic mode feedback and the parts necessary for the optical lever scheme of the vibration control) were placed in a separate detachable assembly. To suppress the influence of vibrations of the setup, the assembly was made lightweight. Good optical access to the ASNOM tip from various directions is provided in the system. High long-term mechanical stability of the system (~50 nm lateral drift in 18 hours) as well as low sensitivity to seismic vibrations (~400 pm RMS) is demonstrated. It is shown that external sound is not a main source of noise in the topography image (~200 pm RMS). The light field distribution (with its amplitude and phase) around the ASNOM tip was acquired by scanning the focal spot around the tip, and a high optical quality of the system is demonstrated.

Endoscopic Optical Doppler Tomography Based on Two-Axis Scanning MEMS Mirror

We study the feasibility of endoscopic optical Doppler tomography with a micro-electro-mechanical system(MEMS) mirror based probe. The additional phase shifts introduced by the probe are tracked and formulated.The suppression method of the probe phase shifts is proposed and validated by fluid flow detection experiments.In vivo blood flow detection is also implemented on a hairless mouse. The velocities of the blood flow in two directions are obtained to be-8.1 mm/s and 6.6 mm/s, respectively.

A Compact MEMS-Based Optical Scanning System with Large Field of View for Lidars

In this work, a design of a compact optical MEMS-based lidar scanning system with a large field of view (FOV) and small distortion is presented. The scanning system applies an off-axis structure and the length of the system can be reduced to about 10 cm in an optimized way. Simulation results show that a large FOV is achieved under a uniform scanning scheme. In addition, the spot size less than 20 cm at distance of 100 m is also realized. The optical scanning system can be used for the vehicle-mounted Lidar.

Micro-Scanning Error Correction Technique for an Optical Micro-Scanning Thermal Microscope Imaging System

An error correction technique for the micro-scanning instrument of the optical micro-scanning thermal microscope imaging system is proposed. The technique is based on micro-scanning technology combined with the proposed second-order oversampling reconstruction algorithm and local gradient image reconstruction algorithm. In this paper, we describe the local gradient image reconstruction model, the error correction technique, down-sampling model and the error correction principle. In this paper, we use a Lena original image and four low-resolution images obtained from the standard half-pixel displacement to simulate and verify the effectiveness of the proposed technique. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed technique, two groups of low-resolution thermal microscope images are collected by the actual thermal microscope imaging system for experimental study. Simulations and experiments show that the proposed technique can reduce the optical micro-scanning errors, improve the imaging effect of the system and improve the system's spatial resolution. It can be applied to other electro-optical imaging systems to improve their resolution.

Integrated system of traditional THz time-domain spectroscopy and asynchronous optical sampling

Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy(THz-TDS)system,as a new means of spectral analysis and detection,plays an increasingly pivotal role in basic scientific research.However,owing to the long scanning time of the traditional THz-TDS system and the complex control of the asynchronous optical scanning(ASOPS)system,which requires frequent calibration,we combine traditional THz-TDS and ASOPS systems to form a composite system and propose an all-fiber trigger signal generation method based on the time overlapping interference signal generated by the collinear motion of two laser pulses.Finally,the time-domain and frequency-domain spectra are obtained by using two independent systems in the integrated systems.It is found that the full width at half maximum(FWHM)of the time-domain spectra and the spectral width of the frequency-domain spectra are almost the same,but the sampling speed of the ASOPS system is significantly faster than that of the traditional THz-TDS system,which conduces to the study of the transient characteristics of substances.

Adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscopy in fundus imaging, a review and update

Adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscopy（AOSLO） has been a promising technique in funds imaging with growing popularity. This review firstly gives a brief history of adaptive optics（AO） and AO-SLO. Then it compares AO-SLO with conventional imaging methods（fundus fluorescein angiography, fundus autofluorescence, indocyanine green angiography and optical coherence tomography） and other AO techniques（adaptive optics flood-illumination ophthalmoscopy and adaptive optics optical coherence tomography）. Furthermore, an update of current research situation in AO-SLO is made based on different fundus structures as photoreceptors（cones and rods）, fundus vessels, retinal pigment epithelium layer, retinal nerve fiber layer, ganglion cell layer and lamina cribrosa. Finally, this review indicates possible research directions of AO-SLO in future.

Particle Velocity Sensor and Its Application in Near-Field Noise Scanning Measurement

The Particle Velocity Sensor (PVS) is a kind of acoustic transducer which measures the particle velocity directly with figure-of-eight directivity. This paper proposes a near-field noise scanning technology based on the research of PVS, pressure-particle velocity (P-U) probe, and its application in noise source identification. Firstly, the principle and characteristics of PVS are presented. Secondly, a P-U probe is designed on the basis of PVS development. Finally, the noise measurement experiment for a single source is arranged and conducted. The result shows that the proposed P-U probe performs well in near-field noise source identification and localization.

Lens thickness assessment : anterior segment optical coherence tomography versus A-scan ultrasonography

AIMTo assess lens thickness measurements with anterior segment-optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT) in comparison with A-scan ultrasonography (A-scan US).METHODSThere were 218 adult subjects (218 eyes) aged 59.2±9.2y enrolled in this prospective cross-sectional study. Forty-three eyes had open angles and 175 eyes had narrow angles. Routine ophthalmic exam was performed and nuclear opacity was graded using the Lens Opacities Classification System III (LOCS III). Lens thickness was measured by AS-OCT (Visante OCT, Carl Zeiss Meditec, Dublin, CA, USA). The highest quality image was selected for each eye and lens thickness was calculated using ImageJ software. Lens thickness was also measured by A-scan US.RESULTSInterclass correlations showed a value of 99.7% for intra-visit measurements and 95.3% for inter-visit measurements. The mean lens thickness measured by AS-OCT was not significantly different from that of A-scan US (4.861±0.404 vs 4.866±0.351 mm, P=0.74). Lens thickness values obtained from the two instruments were highly correlated overall (Pearson correlation coefficient=0.81, P<0.001), and in all LOCS III specific subgroups except in grade 5 of nuclear opacity. Bland-Altman analysis revealed a 95% limit of agreement from -0.45 to 0.46 mm. Lens thickness difference between the two instruments became smaller as the lens thickness increased and AS-OCT yielded smaller values than A-scan US in thicker lens (β=-0.29, P<0.001)CONCLUSIONAS-OCT-derived lens thickness measurement is valid and comparable to the results obtained by A-scan US. It can be used as a reliable noncontact method for measuring lens thickness in adults with or without significant cataract.

Nonlinear optical properties in double-sided nonlinear media with Z-scan technique based on the Huygens-Fresnel principle

We present a theoretical model to analyse the propagation of a Gaussian laser beam through double-sided nonlinear media. This model is based on the Huygens-Fresnel diffraction integral method. This theoretical model is not only consistent with the cascade structure model for a small nonlinear phase-shift but also can be used for a large nonlinear phase-shift. It has been verified that it is suitable to characterize the double-sided nonlinear media compared with the cascade structure model. A good agreement between the experimental data and the results from the theoretical model is obtained. It will be useful for the design of multi-sided nonlinear materials.

Nonlinear optical properties of [（CH3）4N]Au（dmit）2 using Z-scan technique

The third-order optical nonlinearities of [（CH3）4N]Au（dmit）2 （dmit = 4,5-dithiolate-1,3-dithiole-2-thione） at 532 nm and 1064 nm are investigated using the Z-scan technique with pulses of picoseconds duration. The Z-scan spectra reveal a strong nonlinear absorption （reverse saturable absorption） and a negative nonlinear refraction at 532 nm. No nonlinear absorption is observed at 1064 nm. The molecular second-order hyperpolarizability γ for the [（CH3）4N]Au（dmit）2 molecule at 532nm is estimated to be as high as （2.1 ±0.1） × 10^-31 esu, which is nearly three times larger than that at 1064 nm. The mechanism responsible for the difference between the results is analysed. Nonlinear transmission measurements suggest that this material has potential applications in optical limiting.

Automated cone photoreceptor cell identication in confocal adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscope images based on object detection

Cone photoreceptor cell identication is important for the early diagnosis of retinopathy.In this study,an object detection algorithm is used for cone cell identication in confocal adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscope(AOSLO)images.An effectiveness evaluation of identication using the proposed method reveals precision,recall,and F_(1)-score of 95.8%,96.5%,and 96.1%,respectively,considering manual identication as the ground truth.Various object detection and identication results from images with different cone photoreceptor cell distributions further demonstrate the performance of the proposed method.Overall,the proposed method can accurately identify cone photoreceptor cells on confocal adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscope images,being comparable to manual identication.