Control of temperature dependent viscosity for manufacturing of Bi-doped active fiber

Bi-activated photonic materials are promising for various applications in high-capacity telecommunication,tunable laser,and advanced bioimaging and sensing.Although various Bi-doped material candidates have been explored,manufacturing of Bi heavily doped fiber with excellent optical activity remains a long-standing challenge.Herein,a novel viscosity evolutional behavior mediated strategy for manufacturing of Bi-doped active fiber with high dopant solubility is proposed.The intrinsic relation among the evolution of Bi,reaction temperature and viscosity of the glass system is established.Importantly,the effective avenue to prevent the undesired deactivation of Bi during fiber drawing by tuning the temperature dependent viscosity evolution is built.By applying the strategy,for the first time we demonstrate the success in fabrication of heavily doped Bi active fiber.Furthermore,the principal fiber amplifier device is constructed and broadband optical signal amplification is realized.Our findings indicate the effectiveness of the proposed temperature dependent viscosity mediated strategy for developing novel photonic active fiber,and they also demonstrate the great potential for application in the next-generation high-capacity telecommunication system.

Transverse Multimode Evolution in Non-Adiabatic Optical Micro/Nanofiber Tapers

The multimode evolution, optical losses and wavelength response of non-adiabatic micro/nano-fiber （MNF） tapers are numerically simulated using a three-dimensional finite-difference beam propagation method. For a non-adiabatic MNF taper, it is illustrated that optical losses vary with the transition region length and the optical wavelength. We explain how the complicated multimode evolutions result in the complicated optical loss and wavelength response properties, especially when the waist diameters are large enough to allow much higher-order modes. These results may offer valuable references for trapping and guiding cold atoms in atom optics and practical application of micro/nano-devices.

Ultrasensitive skin‐like wearable optical sensors based on glass micro/nanofibers

Electronic skin,a class of wearable electronic sensors that mimic the functionalities of human skin,has made remarkable success in applications including health monitoring,human-machine interaction and electronic-biological interfaces.While electronic skin continues to achieve higher sensitivity and faster response,its ultimate performance is fundamentally limited by the nature of low-frequency AC currents.Herein,highly sensitive skin-like wearable optical sensors are demonstrated by embedding glass micro/nanofibers(MNFs)in thin layers of polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS).Enabled by the transition from guided modes into radiation modes of the waveguiding MNFs upon external stimuli,the skin-like optical sensors show ultrahigh sensitivity(1870 k·Pa^-1),low detection limit(7 mPa)and fast response(10μs)for pressure sensing,significantly exceeding the performance metrics of state-of-the-art electronic skins.Electromagnetic interference(EMI)-free detection of high-frequency vibrations,wrist pulse and human voice are realized.Moreover,a five-sensor optical data glove and a 2×2-MNF tactile sensor are demonstrated.These initial results pave the way toward a new category of optical devices ranging from ultrasensitive wearable sensors to optical skins.

Ostensibly perpetual optical data storage in glass with ultra-high stability and tailored photoluminescence

Long-term optical data storage(ODS)technology is essential to break the bottleneck of high energy consumption for information storage in the current era of big data.Here,ODS with an ultralong lifetime of 2×10^(7)years is attained with single ultrafast laser pulse induced reduction of Eu^(3+)ions and tailoring of optical properties inside the Eu-doped aluminosilicate glasses.We demonstrate that the induced local modifications in the glass can stand against the temperature of up to 970 K and strong ultraviolet light irradiation with the power density of 100 kW/cm^(2).Furthermore,the active ions of Eu^(2+)exhibit strong and broadband emission with the full width at half maximum reaching 190 nm,and the photoluminescence(PL)is flexibly tunable in the whole visible region by regulating the alkaline earth metal ions in the glasses.The developed technology and materials will be of great significance in photonic applications such as long-term ODS.

Quantification methodologies on organization and morphology features of fiber-like structures:A review

Among all the structural formations,fiber-like structure is one of the most common modalities in organisms that undertake essential functions.Alterations in spatial organization of fibrous structures can refiect information of physiological and pathological activities,which is of significance in both researches and clinical applications.Hence,the quantification of subtle changes in fiber-like structures is potentiallymeaningful in studying structure-function relationships,disease progression,carcinoma staging and engineered tissue remodeling.In this study,we examined a wide range of methodologies that quantify organizational and morphological features of fibrous structures,including orientation,alignment,waviness and thickness.Each method was demonstrated with specific applications.Finally,perspectives of future quantification analysis techniques were explored.

Near-Field Characterization of Optical Micro/Nanofibres

Near-field scanning optical microscopy is used to investigate the waveguiding properties of optical micro/nanofibres （MNFs） by means of detecting optical power carried by evanescent waves. Taper drawn silica and tellurite MNFs, supported on low-index substrates, are used to guide a 532-nm-wavelength light beam for the test. Modification of the single-mode condition of the MNF in the presence of a substrate is observed. Spatial modulation of the longitudinal field intensity （with a 195-nm period） near the output end of a 760-nm-diameter silica MNF is well resolved. Energy exchange through evanescent coupling between two parallel MNFs is also investigated.

Propagation Effect of Hollow Gaussian Beams Passing through a Misaligned Optical System

A generalized formula of hollow Gaussian beams through the first-order misaligned ABCD systems is derived by using the generalized diffraction integral formula. It is shown that the hollow Gaussian beam passing through the misaligned system becomes a decentred hollow Gaussian beam. The propagation properties of the output beam are investigated when it propagates through a simple misaligned lens system. These results provide a powerful theoretical tool for applications of optical traps.

Optical Properties of BDK-Doped Highly Photosensitive Sol-Gel Hybrid Film

A new organic-inorganic hybrid material doped with BDK that exhibits a large photo-induced change in optical properties is prepared by the sol-gel method.The photosensitivity of the film under ultraviolet irradiation is investigated with various exposure times.An increase in refractive index from 1.558 to 1.592 atλ=550 nm is observed together with a 57.3%expansion in physical thickness.The film's optical thickness exhibits an exponential change with the irradiation time.The photo-decomposition of BDK organic groups confirmed by the infrared absorption spectrum contributes to the photosensitive mechanism.A first example of photo-patterning is finally presented by direct light writing.

DEVELOPMENT OF HIGH-SPEED SWEPT-SOURCE OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY SYSTEM AT 1320 nm

A swept-source optical coherence tomography(SSOCT)system based on a high-speed scanning laser source at center wavelength of 1320 nm and scanning rate of 20 kHz is developed.The axial resolution is enhanced to 8.3μm by reshaping the spectrum in frequency domain using a window function and a wave number calibration method based on a Mach-Zender Interferometer(MZI)integrated in the SSOCT system.The imaging speed and depth range are 0.04 s per frame and 3.9 mm,respectively.The peak sensitivity of the SSOCT system is calibrated to be 112 dB.With the developed SSOCT system,optical coherence tomography(OCT)images of human finger tissue are obtained which enable us to view the sweat duct(SD),stratum corneum(SC)and epidermis(ED),demonstrating the feasibility of the SSOCT system for in vivo biomedical imaging.

Simplifying the detection of optical distortions by machine learning

Adaptive optics has been widely used in biological science to recover high-resolution optical image deep into the tissue,where optical distortion detection with high speed and accuracy is strongly required.Here,we introduce convolutional neural networks,one of the most popular machine learning models,into Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor(SHWS)to simplify optical distortion detection processes.Without image segmentation or centroid positioning algorithm,the trained network could estimate up to 36th Zernike mode coefficients directly from a full SHWS image within 1.227ms on a personal computer,and achieves prediction accuracy up to 97.4%.The simulation results show that the average root mean squared error in phase residuals of our method is 75.64%lower than that with the modal-based SHWS method.With the high detection accuracy and simplified detection processes,this work has the potential to be applied in wavefront sensor-based adaptive optics for in vivo deep tissue imaging.

Knot-inspired optical sensors for slip detection and friction measurement in dexterous robotic manipulation

Friction plays a critical role in dexterous robotic manipulation.However,realizing friction sensing remains a challenge due to the difficulty in designing sensing structures to decouple multi-axial forces.Inspired by the topological mechanics of knots,we construct optical fiber knot(OFN)sensors for slip detection and friction measurement.By introducing localized self-contacts along the fiber,the knot structure enables anisotropic responses to normal and frictional forces.By employing OFNs and a change point detection algorithm,we demonstrate adaptive robotic grasping of slipping cups.We further develop a robotic finger that can measure tri-axial forces via a centrosymmetric architecture composed of five OFNs.Such a tactile finger allows a robotic hand to manipulate human tools dexterously.This work could provide a straightforward and cost-effective strategy for promoting adaptive grasping,dexterous manipulation,and human-robot interaction with tactile sensing.

Three-dimensional remodeling of collagen fibers within cervical tissues in pregnancy

The cervix is a collagen-rich connective tissue that must remain closed during pregnancy while undergoing progressive remodeling in preparation for delivery,which begins before the onset of the preterm labor process.Therefore,it is important to resolve the changes of collagen flbers during cervical remodeling for the prevention of preterm labor.Herein,we assessed the spatial organization of collagen flbers in a three-dimensional(3D)context within cervical tissues of mice on day 3,9,12,15 and 18 of gestation.We found that the 3D directional variance,a novel metric of alignment,was higher on day 9 than that on day 3 and then gradually decreased from day 9 to day 18.Compared with two-dimensional(2D)approach,a higher sensitivity was achieved from 3D analysis,highlighting the importance of truly 3D quantification.Moreover,the depthdependent variation of 3D directional variance was investigated.By combining multiple 3D directional variance-derived metrics,a high level of classification accuracy was acquired in distinguishing different periods of pregnancy.These results demonstrate that 3D directional variance is sensitive to remodeling of collagen fibers within cervical tissues,shedding new light on highly-sensitive,early detection of preterm birth(PTB).

A bioinspired flexible optical sensor for force and orientation sensing

Flexible optical sensors have been an emerging paradigm for applications in robotics,healthcare,and human–machine interfaces due to their high sensitivity,fast response,and anti-electromagnetic interference.Recently,Marques reports a bioinspired multifunctional flexible optical sensor(BioMFOS),achieving a forces sensitivity of 13.28μN,and a spatial resolution of 0.02 mm.The BioMFOS has a small dimension(around 2 cm)and a light weight(0.8 g),making it suitable for wearable application and clothing integration.As proof-of-concept demonstrations,monitoring of finger position,trunk movements,and respiration rate are realized,implying their prominent applications in remote healthcare,intelligent robots,assistance devices teleoperation,and human-machine interfaces.

Self-confocal NIR-II fluorescence microscopy for multifunctional in vivo imaging

Fluorescence imaging in the second near-infrared window(NIR-II,900–1880 nm)with less scattering background in biological tissues has been combined with the confocal microscopic system for achieving deep in vivo imaging with high spatial resolution.However,the traditional NIR-IIfluorescence confocal microscope with separate excitation focus and detection pinhole makes it possess low confocal e±ciency,as well as di±cultly to adjust.Two types of upgraded NIR-IIfluorescence confocal microscopes,sharing the same pinhole by excitation and emission focus,leading to higher confocal e±ciency,are built in this work.One type is-ber-pinhole-based confocal microscope applicable to CW laser excitation.It is constructed forfluorescence intensity imaging with large depth,high stabilization and low cost,which could replace multiphotonfluorescence microscopy in some applications(e.g.,cerebrovascular and hepatocellular imaging).The other type is air-pinhole-based confocal microscope applicable to femtosecond(fs)laser excitation.It can be employed not only for NIR-IIfluorescence intensity imaging,but also for multi-channelfluorescence lifetime imaging to recognize different structures with similarfluorescence spectrum.Moreover,it can be facilely combined with multiphotonfluorescence microscopy.A single fs pulsed laser is utilized to achieve up-conversion(visible multiphotonfluorescence)and down-conversion(NIR-II one-photonfluorescence)excitation simultaneously,extending imaging spectral channels,and thus facilitates multi-structure and multi-functional observation.

Design of non-polarizing thin film edge filters

The separation between s- and p-polarization components invariably affects thin film edge filters used for tilted incidence and is a difficult problem for many applications, especially for optical communication. This paper presents a novel design method to obtain edge filters with non-polarization at incidence angle of 45°. The polarization separation at 50% trans-mittance for a long-wave-pass filter and a short-wave-pass filter is 0.3 nm and 0.1 nm respectively. The design method is based on a broadband Fabry-Perot thin-film interference filter in which the higher or lower interference band at both sides of the main transmittance peak can be used for initial design of long-wave-pass filter or short-wave-pass filter and then can be refined to reduce the transmittance ripples. The spacer 2H2L2H or 2L2H2L of the filter is usually taken. Moreover, the method for expanding the bandwidth of rejection and transmission is explained. The bandwidth of 200 nm for both rejection region and transmission band is obtained at wavelength 1550 nm. In this way, the long-wave-pass and short-wave-pass edge filters with zero separation between two polarization components can easily be fabricated.

Colorimetric characterization of imaging device by total color difference minimization

Colorimetric characterization is to transform the device-dependent responses to device-independent colorimetric values, and is usually conducted in CIEXYZ space. However, the optimal solution in CIEXYZ space does not mean the mini-mization of perceptual error. A novel method for colorimetric characterization of imaging device based on the minimization of total color difference is proposed. The method builds the transform between RGB space and CIELAB space directly using the downhill simplex algorithm. Experimental results showed that the proposed method performs better than traditional least-square (LS) and total-least-square (TLS) methods, especially for colors with low luminance values.

Performance measurement of broadband, wide-angle polarizing beam splitter

Polarizing beam splitter (PBS) is a critical optical component in projection display system because PBS performance greatly influences the contrast and brightness of the system. PBS performance is usually measured by spectrophotometer after coating and cementing, but the measured result cannot represent the actual performance in practice because people usually change the incident angle in one plane (horizontal plane) and do not consider the other plane (vertical plane). Geometrical polarization rotation occurring at reduced F-number influences the measuring precision of s-polarization transmittance (Ts) and p-polarization reflectance (Rp). A more accurate and practical way to measure the performance of broadband, wide-angle PBS is presented in this paper.

Near-perfect fidelity polarization-encoded multilayer optical data storage based on aligned gold nanorods

Encoding information in light polarization is of great importance in facilitating optical data storage(ODS)for information security and data storage capacity escalation.However,despite recent advances in nanophotonic techniques vastly en-hancing the feasibility of applying polarization channels,the data fidelity in reconstructed bits has been constrained by severe crosstalks occurring between varied polarization angles during data recording and reading process,which gravely hindered the utilization of this technique in practice.In this paper,we demonstrate an ultra-low crosstalk polarization-en-coding multilayer ODS technique for high-fidelity data recording and retrieving by utilizing a nanofibre-based nanocom-posite film involving highly aligned gold nanorods(GNRs).With parallelizing the gold nanorods in the recording medium,the information carrier configuration minimizes miswriting and misreading possibilities for information input and output,respectively,compared with its randomly self-assembled counterparts.The enhanced data accuracy has significantly im-proved the bit recall fidelity that is quantified by a correlation coefficient higher than 0.99.It is anticipated that the demon-strated technique can facilitate the development of multiplexing ODS for a greener future.

Nonlinear effect of the structured light profilometry in the phase-shifting method and error correction

Digital structured light （SL） profilometry is increasingly used in three-dimensional （3D） measurement technology. However, the nonlinearity of the off-the-shelf projectors and cameras seriously reduces the measurement accuracy. In this paper, first, we review the nonlinear effects of the projector-camera system in the phase-shifting structured light depth measurement method. We show that high order harmonic wave components lead to phase error in the phase-shifting method. Then a practical method based on frequency domain filtering is proposed for nonlinear error reduction. By using this method, the nonlinear calibration of the SL system is not required. Moreover, both the nonlinear effects of the projector and the camera can be effectively reduced. The simulations and experiments have verified our nonlinear correction method.

Highly sensitive and fast response strain sensor based on evanescently coupled micro/nanofibers

Flexible strain sensors play an important role in electronic skins,wearable medical devices,and advanced robots.Herein,a highly sensitive and fast response optical strain sensor with two evanescently coupled optical micro/nanofibers(MNFs)embedded in a polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS)film is proposed.The strain sensor exhibits a gauge factor as high as 64.5 for strain≤0.5%and a strain resolution of 0.0012%which corresponds to elongation of 120 nm on a 1 cm long device.As a proof-of-concept,highly sensitive fingertip pulse measurement is realized.The properties of fast temporal frequency response up to 30 kHz and a pressure sensitivity of 102 kPa^(−1) enable the sensor for sound detection.Such versatile sensor could be of great use in physiological signal monitoring,voice recognition and micro-displacement detection.