400-Hz mechanical scanning optical delay line.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed a simple, high-speed, nearly vibration-free, mechanically scanned, optical delay line suitable for femtosecond time-resolved signal-averaging measurements.
Abstract: We have developed a simple, high-speed, nearly vibration-free, mechanically scanned, optical delay line suitable for femtosecond time-resolved signal-averaging measurements. We demonstrate a 2-ps time window autocorrelator with a display updated at 400 Hz. The delay line uses a dithering planar mirror as a time-varying linear phase ramp in the spectral plane of a modified grating-lens femtosecond pulse shaper. The time delay is linearly proportional to the angular deviation of the mirror. The high speed and low vibration are a result of the extremely small angular changes required to generate a large time delay.
Citations
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16 Nov 1992
TL;DR: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has developed rapidly since its first realisation in medicine and is currently an emerging technology in the diagnosis of skin disease as mentioned in this paper, where OCT is an interferometric technique that detects reflected and backscattered light from tissue.
Abstract: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has developed rapidly since its first realisation in medicine and is currently an emerging technology in the diagnosis of skin disease. OCT is an interferometric technique that detects reflected and backscattered light from tissue and is often described as the optical analogue to ultrasound. The inherent safety of the technology allows for in vivo use of OCT in patients. The main strength of OCT is the depth resolution. In dermatology, most OCT research has turned on non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) and non-invasive monitoring of morphological changes in a number of skin diseases based on pattern recognition, and studies have found good agreement between OCT images and histopathological architecture. OCT has shown high accuracy in distinguishing lesions from normal skin, which is of great importance in identifying tumour borders or residual neoplastic tissue after therapy. The OCT images provide an advantageous combination of resolution and penetration depth, but specific studies of diagnostic sensitivity and specificity in dermatology are sparse. In order to improve OCT image quality and expand the potential of OCT, technical developments are necessary. It is suggested that the technology will be of particular interest to the routine follow-up of patients undergoing non-invasive therapy of malignant or premalignant keratinocyte tumours. It is speculated that the continued technological development can propel the method to a greater level of dermatological use.
6,095 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the field of femtosecond pulse shaping is reviewed, and applications of pulse shaping to optical communications, biomedical optical imaging, high power laser amplifiers, quantum control, and laser-electron beam interactions are reviewed.
Abstract: We review the field of femtosecond pulse shaping, in which Fourier synthesis methods are used to generate nearly arbitrarily shaped ultrafast optical wave forms according to user specification. An emphasis is placed on programmable pulse shaping methods based on the use of spatial light modulators. After outlining the fundamental principles of pulse shaping, we then present a detailed discussion of pulse shaping using several different types of spatial light modulators. Finally, new research directions in pulse shaping, and applications of pulse shaping to optical communications, biomedical optical imaging, high power laser amplifiers, quantum control, and laser-electron beam interactions are reviewed.
2,051 citations
TL;DR: OCT as discussed by the authors synthesises cross-sectional images from a series of laterally adjacent depth-scans, which can be used to assess tissue and cell function and morphology in situ.
Abstract: There have been three basic approaches to optical tomography since the early 1980s: diffraction tomography, diffuse optical tomography and optical coherence tomography (OCT). Optical techniques are of particular importance in the medical field, because these techniques promise to be safe and cheap and, in addition, offer a therapeutic potential. Advances in OCT technology have made it possible to apply OCT in a wide variety of applications but medical applications are still dominating. Specific advantages of OCT are its high depth and transversal resolution, the fact, that its depth resolution is decoupled from transverse resolution, high probing depth in scattering media, contact-free and non-invasive operation, and the possibility to create various function dependent image contrasting methods. This report presents the principles of OCT and the state of important OCT applications. OCT synthesises cross-sectional images from a series of laterally adjacent depth-scans. At present OCT is used in three different fields of optical imaging, in macroscopic imaging of structures which can be seen by the naked eye or using weak magnifications, in microscopic imaging using magnifications up to the classical limit of microscopic resolution and in endoscopic imaging, using low and medium magnification. First, OCT techniques, like the reflectometry technique and the dual beam technique were based on time-domain low coherence interferometry depth-scans. Later, Fourier-domain techniques have been developed and led to new imaging schemes. Recently developed parallel OCT schemes eliminate the need for lateral scanning and, therefore, dramatically increase the imaging rate. These schemes use CCD cameras and CMOS detector arrays as photodetectors. Video-rate three-dimensional OCT pictures have been obtained. Modifying interference microscopy techniques has led to high-resolution optical coherence microscopy that achieved sub-micrometre resolution. This report is concluded with a short presentation of important OCT applications. Ophthalmology is, due to the transparent ocular structures, still the main field of OCT application. The first commercial instrument too has been introduced for ophthalmic diagnostics (Carl Zeiss Meditec AG). Advances in using near-infrared light, however, opened the path for OCT imaging in strongly scattering tissues. Today, optical in vivo biopsy is one of the most challenging fields of OCT application. High resolution, high penetration depth, and its potential for functional imaging attribute to OCT an optical biopsy quality, which can be used to assess tissue and cell function and morphology in situ. OCT can already clarify the relevant architectural tissue morphology. For many diseases, however, including cancer in its early stages, higher resolution is necessary. New broad-bandwidth light sources, like photonic crystal fibres and superfluorescent fibre sources, and new contrasting techniques, give access to new sample properties and unmatched sensitivity and resolution.
1,914 citations
Patent•
06 Mar 1998
TL;DR: An imaging system for performing forward scanning imaging for application to therapeutic and diagnostic devises used in medical procedures is described in this article, which includes forward directed optical coherence tomography (OCT), and non-retroreflected forward scanning OCT.
Abstract: An imaging system for performing forward scanning imaging for application to therapeutic and diagnostic devises used in medical procedures. The imaging system includes forward directed optical coherence tomography (OCT), and non-retroreflected forward scanning OCT. Also interferometric imaging and ranging techniques and fluorescent, Raman, two-photon, and diffuse wave imaging can be used. The forward scanning mechanisms include a cam attached to a motor, pneumatic devices, a pivoting device, piezoelectric transducers, electrostatic driven slides for substantially transverse scanning; counter-rotating prisms, and offset lenses are used for arbitrary scanning. The imaging system of the invention is applied to hand held probes including probes integrated with surgical probes, scalpels, scissors, forceps and biopsy instruments. Hand held probes include forward scanning lasers. The imaging system is also applicable to laparoscopes and endoscopes for diagnostc and therapeutic intervention in body orifices, canals, tubes, ducts, vessels and cavities of the body. The imaging system includes application to surgical and high numerical aperture microscopes. An important application of the invention is implantation of the optical probe for periodic or continuous extraction of information from the tissue site where implanted.
758 citations
TL;DR: An optical coherence tomography system is described which can image up to video rate and features a high speed scanning delay line in the reference arm based on Fourier-transform pulse shaping technology.
Abstract: An optical coherence tomography system is described which can image up to video rate. The system utilizes a high power broadband source and real time image acquisition hardware and features a high speed scanning delay line in the reference arm based on Fourier-transform pulse shaping technology. The theory of low coherence interferometry with a dispersive delay line, and the operation of the delay line are detailed and the design equations of the system are presented. Real time imaging is demonstrated in vivo in tissues relevant to early human disease diagnosis (skin, eye) and in an important model in developmental biology (Xenopus laevis).
624 citations
References
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TL;DR: In this article, the synthesis of arbitrarily shaped femtosecond pulses by spectral filtering in a temporally nondispersive grating apparatus is demonstrated by utilizing spatially patterned masks to modify the amplitude and the phase of the optical frequency components that are spatially dispersed within the apparatus.
Abstract: The synthesis of arbitrarily shaped femtosecond pulses by spectral filtering in a temporally nondispersive grating apparatus is demonstrated. Spectral filtering is accomplished by utilizing spatially patterned masks to modify the amplitude and the phase of the optical frequency components that are spatially dispersed within the apparatus. We are able to pattern spectra over a large dynamic range (approaching 104) and with unprecedented resolution. We illustrate the power of this technique by synthesizing a number of femtosecond waveforms, including femtosecond tone bursts with terahertz repetition rates, picosecond square pulses with 100-fsec rise times, and highly complex pseudonoise bursts produced by spectral phase encoding.
597 citations
TL;DR: This work reports programmable shaping of femtosecond optical pulses by use of a multielement liquid-crystal modulator to manipulate the phases of spatially dispersed optical frequency components.
Abstract: We report programmable shaping of femtosecond optical pulses by use of a multielement liquid-crystal modulator to manipulate the phases of spatially dispersed optical frequency components. Our approach provides for continuously variable control of the optical phase and permits the pulse shape to be reconfigured on a millisecond time scale. We use the apparatus to demonstrate femtosecond pulse-position modulation as well as programmable compression of chirped femtosecond pulses.
378 citations
TL;DR: The temporal profile of ultrashort optical pulses may be tailored by physically manipulating the phase and the amplitude of frequency components that are spatially dispersed within a grating pulse compressor by generating a burst of evenly spaced picosecond pulses.
Abstract: The temporal profile of ultrashort optical pulses may be tailored by physically manipulating the phase and the amplitude of frequency components that are spatially dispersed within a grating pulse compressor. Arbitrary pulse shapes may be synthesized subject only to the usual restrictions imposed by finite bandwidth and spatial resolution. We demonstrate this technique by generating a burst of evenly spaced picosecond pulses, a pulse doublet with odd field symmetry, and a burst of evenly spaced pulse doublets with odd field symmetry.
248 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the spectral filter is the convolution of the mask with the beam's transverse intensity profile, and the effect of diffraction from the features of the physical mask is discussed.
Abstract: This paper analyzes the synthesis of arbitrarily shaped optical pulses by spectral filtering in a fiber-and-grating pulse compressor. Spectral filtering of phase and amplitude is achieved by masking the spatially dispersed frequency components within the compressor. We show that the spectral filter is the convolution of the mask with the beam's transverse intensity profile. We discuss the effect of diffraction from the features of the physical mask, and show how finite spatial resolution limits the range of attainable temporal profiles. The fundamental limitation on spectral resolution is derived. Spectra and temporal pulse shapes corresponding to a variety of physical masks are calculated and are found to be in excellent agreement with experiments done with compressed pulses from a mode-locked Nd: YAG laser.
183 citations
01 Dec 1987
Abstract: 2014 We review our work on the synthesis of arbitrarily shaped, coherent optical pulses, by spatial filtering in a grating pulse compressor. We describe picosecond pulses shaped using a fiber and grating pulse compressor and femtosecond pulses shaped using a nondispersive grating compressor. The discussion includes generation of coherent square pulses and abruptly phase-modulated « odd » pulses, two slit temporal interference measurements of the optical phase spectrum, and ultrashort pulse encryption and decoding by phase scrambling. We conclude with a proposal for an ultrafast optical self-routing switch based upon frequency domain phase coding of ultrashort pulses. Revue Phys. Appl. 22 (1987) -1628 DÉCEMBRE 1987, PAGE 1619
85 citations