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

A self-scanned 1024 element photodiode array and minicomputer are used to measure the phase (wavefront) in the interference pattern of an interferometer to lambda/100. The photodiode array samples intensities over a 32 x 32 matrix in the interference pattern as the length of the reference arm is varied piezoelectrically. Using these data the minicomputer synchronously detects the phase at each of the 1024 points by a Fourier series method and displays the wavefront in contour and perspective plot on a storage oscilloscope in less than 1 min (Bruning et al. Paper WE16, OSA Annual Meeting, Oct. 1972). The array of intensities is sampled and averaged many times in a random fashion so that the effects of air turbulence, vibrations, and thermal drifts are minimized. Very significant is the fact that wavefront errors in the interferometer are easily determined and may be automatically subtracted from current or subsequent wavefrots. Various programs supporting the measurement system include software for determining the aperture boundary, sum and difference of wavefronts, removal or insertion of tilt and focus errors, and routines for spatial manipulation of wavefronts. FFT programs transform wavefront data into point spread function and modulus and phase of the optical transfer function of lenses. Display programs plot these functions in contour and perspective. The system has been designed to optimize the collection of data to give higher than usual accuracy in measuring the individual elements and final performance of assembled diffraction limited optical systems, and furthermore, the short loop time of a few minutes makes the system an attractive alternative to constraints imposed by test glasses in the optical shop.

Digital wavefront measuring interferometer for testing optical surfaces and lenses

Modal decomposition of light has been known for a long time, applied mostly to pattern recognition. With the commercialization of liquid-crystal devices, digital holography as an enabling tool has become accessible to all, and with it all-digital tools for the decomposition of light have finally come of age. We review recent advances in unravelling the properties of light, from the modal structure of laser beams to decoding the information stored in orbital angular momentum (OAM)-carrying fields. We show application of these tools to fiber lasers, solid-state lasers, and structured light created in the laboratory by holographic laser beam shaping. We show by experimental implementation how digital holograms may be used to infer the intensity, phase, wavefront, Poynting vector, polarization, and OAM density of some unknown optical field. In particular, we outline how virtually all the previous ISO-standard beam diagnostic techniques may be readily replaced with all-digital equivalents, thus paving the way for unravelling of light in real time. Such tools are highly relevant to the in situ analysis of laser systems, to mode division multiplexing as an emerging tool in optical communication, and for quantum information processing with entangled photons.

Creation and detection of optical modes with spatial light modulators

Interference microscopy plays a central role in noncontact strategies for process development and quality control, providing full 3D measurement of surface characteristics that influence the functional behavior of manufactured parts. Here I briefly review the history and principles of this important technique, then concentrate on the details of hardware, software, and applications of interference microscopy using phase-shifting and coherence scanning measurement principles. Recent advances considered here include performance improvements, vibration robustness, full color imaging, accommodation of highly sloped surfaces, correlation to contact methods, transparent film analysis, and international standardization of calibration and specification.

Principles of interference microscopy for the measurement of surface topography

Particle tracking is a fundamental technique for investigating a variety of biophysical processes, from intracellular dynamics to the characterization of cell motility and migration. However, observing three-dimensional (3D) trajectories of particles is in general a challenging task in classical microscopy owing to the limited imaging depth of field of commercial optical microscopes, which represents a serious drawback for the analysis of time-lapse microscopy image data. Therefore, numerous automated particle-tracking approaches have been developed by many research groups around the world. Recently, digital holography (DH) in microscopy has rapidly gained credit as one of the elective techniques for these applications, mainly due to the uniqueness of the DH to provide a posteriori quantitative multiple refocusing capability and phase-contrast imaging. Starting from this paradigm, a huge amount of 3D holographic tracking approaches have been conceived and investigated for applications in various branches of science, including optofluids, microfluidics, biomedical microscopy, cell mechano-trasduction, and cell migration. Since a wider community of readers could be interested in such a review, i.e., not only scientists working in the fields of optics and photonics but also users of particle-tracking tools, it should be very beneficial to provide a complete review of state-of-the-art holographic 3D particle-tracking methods and their applications in bio-microfluidics.

Recent advances in holographic 3D particle tracking

This article presents an overview of recent advances in the field of digital holography, ranging from holographic techniques designed to increase the resolution of microscopic images, holographic imaging using incoherent illumination, phase retrieval with incoherent illumination, imaging of occluded objects, and the holographic recording of depth-extended objects using a frequency-comb laser, to the design of an infrastructure for remote laboratories for digital-holographic microscopy and metrology. The paper refers to current trends in digital holography and explains them using new results that were recently achieved at the Institute for Applied Optics of the University Stuttgart.

Recent advances in digital holography [Invited]

Modern optical sensors and measurement systems usually are a powerful combination of optical elements, active hardware components like actuators or sensing devices as well as a sophisticated control software and data evaluation algorithms. In order to develop and operate such systems, it is necessary to have a flexible, intuitive, and fast underlying software framework that also allows for rapid prototyping of a sensor in a dynamic lab environment. This software must be able to control and communicate with all necessary hardware devices and has to provide all the highly performant evaluation, data, and image processing algorithms required. In this publication, we want to present the open source measurement and data evaluation software suite itom, which has been designed considering the denoted requirements and whose development began in 2011.

itom: an open source metrology, automation, and data evaluation software

For the society it is of great interest to make cultural heritage accessible to the general public. The subsequent increase of museum loan services increases the risk of accelerated degeneration. Hence, in addition to the age related deterioration, transportation can be another source of damage. Despite modern packaging technologies, vibrations and environmental climate change can add up and damage the transported object. Besides obvious mechanical influencing quantities, a main concern is the detection of climate induced damages. Changes in the relative humidity cause inner strain, which may lead to defect formations and damages. White light fringe projection was applied to detect object changes due to variations of the relative humidity. First measurements
indicated a sensitivity down to a relative humidity change of 6 %. Recently, the Stuppach Madonna, a painting
by Matthias Grunewald (painted 1514 - 1516), was investigated with shearography after the return from an exhibition. The obtained shearograms revealed a variety of defects like bubbles, delaminations and tunnels caused by wood worms. Even the planking of the wooden panel and existing putty could be detected.
This paper describes the first steps of a project with the aim of investigating and implementing a method to detect and classify transport related damages on works of art.

Detection of transport and age induced damages on artwork: an advanced concept

Despite extensive social changes and intensive political efforts to establish equal opportunities, women are still a minority in the fields of natural science and technology studies, as well as in the related professional fields. The causes for this female “technical abstinence” discussed in literature can be divided into five areas, all highly interlocked and interconnected: the attitude of society, pre-academic education, differences in the access to technology as well as in self-evaluation and finally the image of technological studies. In this talk we concentrate on the latter point and discuss how technology related studies can be designed in order to match female interests. While it is necessary to reform existing curricula, a second, no less relevant problem has to be to considered. Changes in technology-related studies have to be communicated quickly to potentially interested parties which poses a problem in itself: prejudice and the perceived technocratic image are so deeply rooted that modifications and modernizations are often barely noticed. Modernization of these studies should therefore be accompanied by the development of completely new models for technology-oriented studies explicitly addressing the interests of women, in particular concerning interand multidisciplinary aspects. The project GENESIS, located at Technische Universität Berlin, funded by the European Social Fund, is developing several models of co-educative, gender-sensitive model-courses within the three major areas of natural sciences, computer sciences and engineering. These courses and their underlying concepts will be presented in this talk.

/pdf/overcoming-the-gender-gap-new-concepts-of-study-in-1v2jb9mqjx.pdf

Overcoming The Gender Gap: New Concepts Of Study In Technological Areas

Advances in information technology open up the potential of combining optical systems with net based infrastructures,
allowing for remote inspection and virtual metrology. In this paper, we report our recent work on
building a remote laboratory for digital holographic metrology. We describe the architecture and the techniques
involved in setting up the remote controlling metrology system. Further consideration will be given to the integration
into an advanced infrastructure for remote experimentation, data storage and publication. Some other
important issues such as information security will not be addressed.

/pdf/remote-laboratory-for-digital-holographic-metrology-3cjnomlcco.pdf

Marc Wilke

Papers

Recent advances in digital holography [Invited]

itom: an open source metrology, automation, and data evaluation software

Detection of transport and age induced damages on artwork: an advanced concept

Overcoming The Gender Gap: New Concepts Of Study In Technological Areas

Remote laboratory for digital holographic metrology