A fast-Fourier-transform method of topography and interferometry is proposed. By computer processing of a noncontour type of fringe pattern, automatic discrimination is achieved between elevation and depression of the object or wave-front form, which has not been possible by the fringe-contour-generation techniques. The method has advantages over moire topography and conventional fringe-contour interferometry in both accuracy and sensitivity. Unlike fringe-scanning techniques, the method is easy to apply because it uses no moving components.

Fourier-transform method of fringe-pattern analysis for computer-based topography and interferometry

I consider the physical basics of slow light propagation in atomic media, photonic
structures, and optical fibers. I show similarities and differences between all of
the above media and develop set of criteria that are then used to compare different
media. Special attention is given to dispersion of group velocity and loss, which are
shown to limit the bandwidth and delay capacity of all the slow light schemes.

Slow light in various media: a tutorial

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the concept of optical pattern formation. The field of optical pattern formation (OPF) studies the spatial and spatiotemporal phenomena that arise in the structure of electromagnetic field in the planes orthogonal with respect to the direction of propagation. Most theoretical treatments of the interaction between matter and radiation introduce the plane wave approximation—that is, they assume that the electric field is uniform in each transverse plane. However, the field of OPF studies mainly the interaction with nonlinear media, where the phenomena emerge spontaneously as a consequence of an instability; another name that is commonly used to designate OPF is “transverse nonlinear optics.” Historically, the broad interest in OPF emerged as a natural evolution of the previous development of the field of optical instabilities and chaos, when the main attention shifted gradually from purely temporal effects to spatio-temporal phenomena. For both the fields of optical instabilities and OPF, continuous inspiration arose from the formulation of general disciplines as Haken's synergetics or Prigogine's theory of dissipative structures

Optical Pattern Formation

We demonstrate the effectiveness of the nonlocal means (NLM) filter for speckle denoising in digital holography. The speckle noise adapted version of the NLM filter is compared with other common speckle denoising filters and is found to give better visual and quantitative results.

Speckle denoising in digital holography by nonlocal means filtering.

I propose a spatial-mode demultiplexing (SPADE) measurement scheme for the far-field imaging of spatially incoherent optical sources. For any object too small to be resolved by direct imaging under the diffraction limit, I show that SPADE can estimate its second or higher moments much more precisely than direct imaging can fundamentally do in the presence of photon shot noise. I also prove that SPADE can approach the optimal precision allowed by quantum mechanics in estimating the location and scale parameters of a subdiffraction object. Realizable with far-field linear optics and photon counting, SPADE is expected to find applications in both fluorescence microscopy and astronomy.

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Subdiffraction incoherent optical imaging via spatial-mode demultiplexing

We propose what we believe to be a novel approach to measure the 3D shape of arbitrary diffuse-reflecting macroscopic objects in holographic setups. Using a standard holographic setup, a second CCD and a liquid-crystal-on-silicon spatial light modulator to modulate the object wave, the method yields a dense 3D point cloud of an object or a scene. The calibration process is presented, and first quantitative results of a shape measurement are shown and discussed. Furthermore, a shape measurement of a complex object is displayed to demonstrate its universal use.

3D shape measurement of macroscopic objects in digital off-axis holography using structured illumination

Digital synthesis of multiple off-axis holograms with overlapping Fourier spectra

We show theoretically and experimentally that switching an applied square-wave field produces strong and short pulses of the outgoing signal during two-wave mixing in sillenite crystals. These pulses originate from the strong effect of the field on the optical eigenmodes and can be used in new optical schemes based on time-separated recording and readout processes.

Giant momentary readout produced by switching electric fields during two-wave mixing in sillenites.

We present a method to determine the three-dimensional (3D) deformation vectors of an arbitrary stressed object by combining stereophotogrammetry and digital holography in a setup with four cameras. The resulting data consists of a dense 3D point cloud, where every point is associated with a deformation vector. Our method is able to calculate the deformation without prior knowledge of the sensitivity vectors or the object surface. In the experimental setup only the base distance of the cameras needs to be known.

Measurement of three-dimensional deformation vectors with digital holography and stereophotogrammetry

We present a unique combination of the numerical three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of the shape of an object with interferometric deformation measurements. Two cameras record several holograms of an object that is illuminated by structured illumination. This illumination is realized by speckle patterns. To improve the image quality, an inplace speckle reduction technique is combined with the structured illumination to reduce the effect of disturbing subjective speckles which appear in the reconstructed images. Stereophotogrammetric methods are applied to extract the 3D surface information of the object out of the reconstructed images. Since the recording is done by holography and because stereophotogrammetry enables a pointwise correlation between the two views, it is possible to combine other holographic techniques with the reconstructed 3D shape. This is demonstrated by an interferometric deformation measurement of an object cooling down. The resulting interferometric fringes are mapped onto the reconstructed 3D surface. Hence, the proposed method enables automatic and dense matching of interferometric fringe-maps recorded by spatially separated holograms onto the surface of the object, which has not yet been realized by existing techniques.

Armin Kiessling

Papers

3D shape measurement of macroscopic objects in digital off-axis holography using structured illumination

Digital synthesis of multiple off-axis holograms with overlapping Fourier spectra

Giant momentary readout produced by switching electric fields during two-wave mixing in sillenites.

Measurement of three-dimensional deformation vectors with digital holography and stereophotogrammetry

Stereophotogrammetric 3D shape measurement by holographic methods using structured speckle illumination combined with interferometry.