This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 9193 including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, Introduction, and the Conference Committee listing.

A fundamental way of describing a photon-limited imaging system is in terms of a Poisson random process sin spatial, angular and wavelength variables. The mean of this random process is the spectral radiance. The principle of conservation of radiance then allows a full characterization of the noise in the image (conditional on viewing a specified object). To elucidate these connections, we first review the definitions and basic properties of radiance as defined in terms of geometrical optics, radiology, physical optics and quantum optics. The propagation and conservation laws for radiance in each of these domains are reviewed. Then we distinguish four categories of imaging detectors that all respond in some way to the incident radiance, including the new category of photon-processing detectors. The relation between the radiance and the statistical properties of the detector output is discussed and related to task-based measures of image quality and the information content of a single detected photon.

Ray-optically, optical components change a light-ray field on a surface immediately in front of the component into a different light-ray field on a surface behind the component. In the ray-optics limit of wave optics, the incident and outgoing light-ray directions are given by the gradient of the phase of the incident and outgoing light field, respectively. But as the curl of any gradient is zero, the curl of the light-ray field also has to be zero. The above statement about zero curl is true in the absence of discontinuities in the wave field. But exactly such discontinuities are easily introduced into light, for example by passing it through a glass plate with discontinuous thickness. This is our justification for giving up on the global continuity of the wave front, thereby compromising the quality of the field (which now suffers from diffraction effects due to the discontinuities) but also allowing light-ray fields that appear to be (but are not actually) possessing non-zero curl and there by significantly extending the possibilities of optical design. Here we discuss how the value of the curl can be seen in a light-ray field. As curl is related to spatial derivatives, the curl of a light-ray field can be determined from the way in which light-ray direction changes when the observer moves. We demonstrate experimental results obtained with light-ray fields with zero and apparently non-zero curl.

In the last years the requirement of special illumination optics increased in the course of developing specific optical systems for wide range of applications in industries and science. Standard components become continuously substituted by more complex freeform surfaces with higher efficiency. Therefore, other methods in evaluating optical systems are of special interest. In illumination design the classic way to check the performance of a system is to trace a huge number of rays through the system and analyze the radiance and irradiance distribution on the target surface. Another access to the most important illumination quantities like radiance is to look at the transformation of etendue in phase space. This offers a new perspective for the optical designer onto illumination systems. Another interesting aspect is the analysis of aberrations also for freeform elements where standard aberration theory for rotational symmetric systems fail.

Two microlens arrays that are separated by the sum of their focal lengths form arrays of micro-telescopes. Parallel light rays that pass through corresponding lenses remain parallel, but the direction of the transmitted light rays is different. This remains true if corresponding lenses do not share an optical axis (i.e. if the two microlens arrays are shifted with respect to each other). The arrays described above are examples of generalized confocal lenslet arrays, and the light-ray-direction change in these devices is well understood [Oxburgh et al., Opt. Commun. 313, 119 (2014)]. Here we show that such micro-telescope arrays change light-ray direction like the interface between spaces with different metrics. To physicists, the concept of metrics is perhaps most familiar from General Relativity (where it is applied to spacetime, not only space, like it is here) and Transformation Optics [Pendry et al., Science 312, 1780 (2006)], where different materials are treated like spaces with different optical metrics. We illustrate the similarities between micro-telescope arrays and metric interfaces with raytracing simulations. Our results suggest the possibility of realising transformation-optics devices with micro-telescope arrays, which we investigate elsewhere.

Optical systems are increasingly being used in safety-critical applications. Due to the complexity and sensitivity of optical systems, their verification raises many challenges for engineers. Traditionally, the analysis of such systems has been carried out by paper-and-pencil based proofs and numerical computations. However, these techniques cannot provide accurate results due to the risk of human error and inherent approximations of numerical algorithms. In order to overcome these limitations, we propose to use theorem proving (i.e., a computer-based technique that allows to express mathematical expressions and reason about their correctness by taking into account all the details of mathematical reasoning) as a complementary approach to improve optical system analysis. This paper provides a higher-order logic (a language used to express mathematical theories) formalization of electromagnetic optics in the HOL Light theorem prover. In order to demonstrate the practical effectiveness of our approach, we present the analysis of resonant cavity enhanced photonic devices.

High resolution, wide field-of-view and large depth-of-focus imaging systems are greatly desired and have received much attention from researchers who seek to extend the capabilities of cameras. Monocentric lenses are superior in performance over other wide field-of-view lenses with the drawback that they form a hemispheric image plane which is incompatible with current sensor technology. Fiber optic bundles can be used to relay the image the lens produces to the sensor's planar surface. This requires image processing to correct for artifacts inherent to fiber bundle image transfer. Using a prototype fiber coupled monocentric lens imager we capture single exposure focal swept images from which we seek to produce extended depth-of-focus images. Point spread functions (PSF) were measured in lab and found to be both angle and depth dependent. This spatial variance enforces the requirement that the inverse problem be treated as such. This synthesis of information allowed us to establish a framework upon which to mitigate fiber bundle artifacts and extend the depth-of-focus of the imaging system.

In this paper, feature extraction and pattern recognition of the distributed optical fiber sensing signal have been studied. We adopt Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficient (MFCC) feature extraction, wavelet packet energy feature extraction and wavelet packet Shannon entropy feature extraction methods to obtain sensing signals (such as speak, wind, thunder and rain signals, etc.) characteristic vectors respectively, and then perform pattern recognition via RBF neural network. Performances of these three feature extraction methods are compared according to the results. We choose MFCC characteristic vector to be 12-dimensional. For wavelet packet feature extraction, signals are decomposed into six layers by Daubechies wavelet packet transform, in which 64 frequency constituents as characteristic vector are respectively extracted. In the process of pattern recognition, the value of diffusion coefficient is introduced to increase the recognition accuracy, while keeping the samples for testing algorithm the same. Recognition results show that wavelet packet Shannon entropy feature extraction method yields the best recognition accuracy which is up to 97%; the performance of 12-dimensional MFCC feature extraction method is less satisfactory; the performance of wavelet packet energy feature extraction method is the worst.

For large depth of field and large aperture optical system, we design a novel optical system based on a structure of large aperture wave front coding (LAWFC). According to optical aberration theory and information optics theory, we also establish the theoretical model of large aperture wave front coding structure. Applied with the large aperture wave front coding, the optical structure overcomes the contradiction between extension depth of field and size of aperture, and the images have excellent consistency in each field of view. Within the simulation, it shows that the MTF curve of the large aperture wave front coding can achieve 90% consistency in the range of depth of field. Compared with the traditional wave front coding, the experience also shows that not only the depth of field and the size of aperture are extended, but also the LAWFC can significantly improve the illumination and the contrast of image plane, and restrain chromatic aberration. It is concluded that the novel structure can expand not only the depth of field but also the size of aperture.

We have developed the stereo matching image processing by synthesized color and the corresponding area by the synthesized color for ranging the object and image recognition. The typical images from a pair of the stereo imagers may have some image disagreement each other due to the size change, missed place, appearance change and deformation of characteristic area. We constructed the synthesized color and corresponding color area with the same synthesized color to make the distinct stereo matching. We constructed the synthesized color and corresponding color area with the same synthesized color by the 3 steps. The first step is making binary edge image by differentiating the focused image from each imager and verifying that differentiated image has normal density of frequency distribution to find the threshold level of binary procedure. We used Daubechies wavelet transformation for the procedures of differentiating in this study. The second step is deriving the synthesized color by averaging color brightness between binary edge points with respect to horizontal direction and vertical direction alternatively. The averaging color procedure was done many times until the fluctuation of averaged color become negligible with respect to 256 levels in brightness. The third step is extracting area with same synthesized color by collecting the pixel of same synthesized color and grouping these pixel points by 4 directional connectivity relations. The matching areas for the stereo matching are determined by using synthesized color areas. The matching point is the center of gravity of each synthesized color area. The parallax between a pair of images is derived by the center of gravity of synthesized color area easily. The experiment of this stereo matching was done for the object of the soccer ball toy. From this experiment we showed that stereo matching by the synthesized color technique are simple and effective.

Optical and photonic devices often comprise optical elements which interact with light on different geometric length scales, ranging from (sub-)wavelength to several millimetres. Well-established physical models exist to describe coherent or incoherent effects, like refraction or diffraction including polarization effects, which form the basis for several simulation approaches. While at dimensions much larger than the light wavelength the incoherent ray-tracing (RT) techniques are commonly used, at dimensions in the (sub)-wavelength regime simulation tools like the Finite- Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method are indispensable, as they allow for the simulation of coherence effects where phase relations play a crucial role. The two approaches are structurally entirely different, so that a proper description for the macroscopic and the (sub-)wavelength scale at once would only work by connecting the two approaches together, exploiting the best of both in a step-by-step simulation. In this contribution, the applicability of an interface procedure for combined ray-tracing and FDTD simulations of optical systems which contain two diffractive gratings is discussed. Suchlike systems require multiple FDTD↔RT steps for a complete simulation. For minimizing the error due to the loss of the phase information in an FDTD→RT step, we use a recently derived equation for calculating the maximal coherence correlation function (MCCF) to estimate the minimum distance between the different grating structures. In addition a waveguide system comprising two coupling grating structures is investigated with the MCCF and simulated using the simulation approach. As a consequence of the waveguide setup multiple FDTD↔RT steps in an iterative manner are necessary; the corresponding results are discussed.

We introduce an open-source fiber laser and amplifier design toolbox written in Matlab. A graphical user in-terface provides access to analysis functions for both core- and cladding-pumped, erbium- and ytterbium-dopedber lasers and amplifiers. These functions use a combination of analytical calculations and numerical simulation to predict performance and generate output plots. The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) numerical simu-lator used implements a Lax-Wendro approach that is second-order accurate in both time and space for fast convergence. The simulator solves general active fiber wave propagation and rate equations, allowing modeling of other dopants, other system configurations, and dynamic signals. The toolbox calculations show good agreement with published results and with our own experiments.

In the solid-state lighting industry, optical components are designed using simulation of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs). The accuracy of the simulation depends on a reliable LED source model. Several commercial products measure LEDs by taking photographs and generate source models comprised of rayset dat. However, little is published about the details of how rayset data are generated, and such details are often proprietary. Optical engineers and the solid-state lighting industry can benefit from a deeper understanding of the assumptions and limitations of currently available LED measurement systems. This paper details one process for generating rayset data from a series of photographs of an LED. It also discusses the assumptions and limitations of rayset generation. The quality of a rayset is limited by mechanical precision of the measurement process, angular resolution of the measurements, and the rays4et generation algorithm.

An integrated Structural-Thermal-Optical-Performance (STOP) model was developed for a field-widened Michelson interferometer which is being built and tested for the High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) project at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC). The performance of the interferometer is highly sensitive to thermal expansion, changes in refractive index with temperature, temperature gradients, and deformation due to mounting stresses. Hand calculations can only predict system performance for uniform temperature changes, under the assumption that coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch effects are negligible. An integrated STOP model was developed to investigate the effects of design modifications on the performance of the interferometer in detail, including CTE mismatch, and other threedimensional effects. The model will be used to improve the design for a future spaceflight version of the interferometer. The STOP model was developed using the Comet SimApp™ Authoring Workspace which performs automated integration between Pro-Engineer®, Thermal Desktop®, MSC Nastran™, SigFit™, Code V™, and MATLAB®. This is the first flight project for which LaRC has utilized Comet, and it allows a larger trade space to be studied in a shorter time than would be possible in a traditional STOP analysis. This paper describes the development of the STOP model, presents a comparison of STOP results for simple cases with hand calculations, and presents results of the correlation effort to bench-top testing of the interferometer. A trade study conducted with the STOP model which demonstrates a few simple design changes that can improve the performance seen in the lab is also presented.

When under high energy light source conditions, an optical system’s refractive lens will absorb heat from the light source. As such, the lens absorbs heat from light and transfers this to the surroundings by conduction. This heat transfer will result in lens temperature differences and introduce optical aberration into the optical system. This study aimed to calculate the heat absorption ratio and temperature distribution within the lens. The light source energy from each ray can be weighted using the Finite Element Method (FEM) of grids, which allows calculation of the thermal distribution within the lens. The optical system rays passing through the lens position are calculated by ray tracing in different Fields Of View (FOV). The lens temperature distribution is weighted to each incidence ray path, and the thermal Optical Path Difference (OPD) is calculated. The thermal OPD on the optical axis is transferred to optical aberration by fitting OPD and the Zernike polynomial. The aberration results can be used to evaluate the thermal effects upon the lens system.

In order to meet modern requirement, electronic products are made smaller and thinner. We used deformable mirrors (DMs) in optical systems that can make camera modules thinner and lighter in electronic products. An Ionic-Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC) plays the critical role in our design of deformable mirrors. It has good bending feature and can be driven by low voltage (usually less than 5 volts). Other technologies such as liquid lenses, MEMS deformable mirrors, and liquid crystal lens, all need higher voltage to reach similar optical power of IPMC. After fabrication of IPMC deformable mirrors, we used PDMS on one surface to improve the surface roughness before reflective metal is deposited. Key characteristics of IPMC deformable mirror are demonstrated in the paper. By coating a silver layer on the smoothed IPMC surface, the reflection is up to 90%. From simulation results, the zoom ratio of this module can be expected 1.8 times. Experimentally, the deformable mirror can be changed from flat to 65 diopters (m^-1) by only 3 volts. In this paper, we demonstrated a reflective optical zoom module with three mirrors and two deformable mirrors.

Micromachined membrane deformable mirror (MMDM) can serve as an ad hoc" free-form optical element. To test the repeatability and stability of the standard MMDM, we have conducted the test of surface figure during multiple thermal cycling, test of figure drift at elevated temperatures, and a long-term 16-day stability test of actively formed mirror figure. The average rms error did not exceed λ =25 at λ = 633 nm, after repeated cycling from -14 to +70 C, with return to the room temperature. The existing design provides ~10° stability in the temperature range of ~10°. Optimization of the design, eliminating astigmatism, would allow one to extend the temperature range to about 30. The long-term mirror figure instability at a constant temperature reaches λ/20 rms in 16 days. The P-V error with respect to the nearest sphere changes from λ/20 in the first day, to about λ/10 in the 16-th day. The tests show that MMDM is stable enough to make a reasonable alternative to free-form optics in applications that require various optical shapes to be formed with a single element.

Identity certification in the cyberworld has always been troublesome if critical information and financial transaction must be processed. Biometric identification is the most effective measure to circumvent the identity issues in mobile devices. Due to bulky and pricy optical design, conventional optical fingerprint readers have been discarded for mobile applications. In this paper, a digital variable-focus liquid lens was adopted for capture of a floating finger via fast focusplane scanning. Only putting a finger in front of a camera could fulfill the fingerprint ID process. This prototyped fingerprint reader scans multiple focal planes from 30 mm to 15 mm in 0.2 second. Through multiple images at various focuses, one of the images is chosen for extraction of fingerprint minutiae used for identity certification. In the optical design, a digital liquid lens atop a webcam with a fixed-focus lens module is to fast-scan a floating finger at preset focus planes. The distance, rolling angle and pitching angle of the finger are stored for crucial parameters during the match process of fingerprint minutiae. This innovative compact touchless fingerprint reader could be packed into a minute size of 9.8*9.8*5 (mm) after the optical design and multiple focus-plane scan function are optimized.

Electroactive polymer (EAP) is capable of exhibiting large shape changes in response to electrical stimulation. EAPs can produce large deformation with lower applied voltage for actuation applications. IPMC (Ionic Polymer Metal Composite) is a well-known ionic EAPs. It has numerous attractive advantages, such as low electrical energy consumption and light weight. The mechanism of IPMC actuator is due to the ionic diffusion when the voltage gradient is applied, so that the type of ionic solution has a large impact on the physical properties of IPMC. In this paper, the reliability tests of IPMC with non-aqueous ionic solution are demonstrated. Pt-IPMC with LiOH aqueous solution exhibits the best maximum displacement, but the water in LiOH solution is electrolyzed because of the low electrolysis voltage 1.23 V of water. To improve electrolysis problems and the operation time in the air, proper solvents including high electrolysis voltage and low vapor pressure should be considered. The reliability tests focus on the durability of IPMC in the air. The surface resistance, tip displacement and response time of IPMC are presented. More improvements of IPMC fabrication, such as Ag-IPMC, was developed in this paper.

An adaptive chromatic doublet that designed by doublet variable focus lenses was proposed. Two lenses were in filled with different liquids, so that the lenses could perform low and high dispersion proprieties. The proposed doublet could performance a tunable focal length, and meanwhile its chromatic aberration could be corrected. Four available liquids candidates were proposed to fabricate two variable focus lenses that would be designed with liquid-membrane-liquid structure, so that they could realize a large aperture adaptive achromatic doublet. The improvement of the achromatic behaviors was confirmed that the chromatic focal shift range was 2.5% for the adaptive singlet and 0.05% for the adaptive doublet.

The paper is a follow up of the work presented in last year’s Optics and Music session on the perception of coherence between low frequency power modulated light and periodical acoustic stimuli. The composition of chords and harmonies from power modulated light sources and their effect as stand-alone stimulus and in conjunction with the equivalent acoustic signal is discussed. Of special interest here is the modulation near perceptible flicker frequency. The substitution of acoustical chord components by their optical counterpart and vice versa is investigated. Further, concepts of a training application for trombone players and other instrumentalists are presented: since the mean slide of the trombone does not have fixed positions, the note must be found and two players might influence each other. The possibility of helping them to synchronize by optical stimuli derived from their playing is investigated. Beside possible applications in emotional reinforcing multimedia oriented entertainment and training support for musicians, again implications for occupational medicine are discussed.

Following the recent work on the characterization of flexo-printing plates a concept for inspection of glossy surfaces using a defined out of focus image of the surface under parallel illumination is presented, which in principle represents a near field distribution of the reflection function of the surface. The image turns out to be equivalent to a focussed shadowgraph as used for the investigation of processes in transparent media. Beside the plain ’reflected shadow imaging’ several degrees of freedom can be exploited for configuration of the feature emphasis. The method is especially interesting for the quality control of printed matter. In the paper the definition of the system, the mechanism of the imaging process and its relation to the real image of the surface itself are considered. Further, questions of resolution, extractable features and extended applications are discussed.

Optical brightening agents (OBAs) or fluorescent whitening agents (FWAs) are often used additives in paper and board products as they improve both whiteness and brightness of the products. When printed, OBAs can even contribute to colour tone reproduction. Fluorescent emissions of OBAs depend on the UV content of the illuminant (light source). Adequate adjustment (control or adjustment) of UV content of measurement apparatus (e.g. spectrophotometer) is essential for accurate colour measurement and printing colour reproduction. We proposed a method to adjust the UV content against assigned spectra rather than, as adopted in current ISO standards, against single assigned values. Demonstrations of applying this method to the CIE standard illuminants used in papermaking and graphic industries, D65, C and D50 have been given. Thanks to the well-established traceability of reference standards (IRs), the UV contents of a spectrophotometer corresponding to the standard CIE illuminants have been achieved.

Laser wave-mixing detectors for microfluidics are presented as compact systems for parts-per-quadrillion-level detection of biomedical and environmental samples. Wave mixing offers unique advantages including absorption-based detection of micrometer-thin samples, generation of coherent laser-like signal beams, and sensitive detection of both fluorescing and non-fluorescing samples. Biomarkers could be detected in their native forms without labels, or if labels are desired, one could use both fluorophores and chromophores as labels. By coupling low-power (mW) solid-state lasers and microfluidics and microarrays, one can design compact optical systems that can be battery powered and used in the field for real-time fingerprinting of chemicals.

Gradient-index (GRIN) zoom lenses are shown to offer superior imaging performance to homogenous designs over the visible spectrum. For a given element count, copolymer GRIN designs are better corrected for axial and lateral color than homogeneous aspheric designs. A macro was developed in CODE V® to calculate the surface contributions to both axial and lateral color for a radial GRIN lens. This macro confirms the improved color correction of the GRIN systems over the homogeneous ones.

Plenoptic cameras have emerged in recent years as a technology for capturing light field data in a single snapshot. A conventional digital camera can be modified with the addition of a lenslet array to create a plenoptic camera. Two distinct camera forms have been proposed in the literature. The first has the camera image focused onto the lenslet array. The lenslet array is placed over the camera sensor such that each lenslet forms an image of the exit pupil onto the sensor. The second plenoptic form has the lenslet array relaying the image formed by the camera lens to the sensor. We have developed a raytracing package that can simulate images formed by a generalized version of the plenoptic camera. Several rays from each sensor pixel are traced backwards through the system to define a cone of rays emanating from the entrance pupil of the camera lens. Objects that lie within this cone are integrated to lead to a color and exposure level for that pixel. To speed processing three-dimensional objects are approximated as a series of planes at different depths. Repeating this process for each pixel in the sensor leads to a simulated plenoptic image on which different reconstruction algorithms can be tested.

We propose a microoptical approach to ultra-compact optics for real-time vision systems that are inspired by the compound eyes of insects. The demonstrated module achieves 720p resolution with a total track length of 2.0 mm which is about 1.5 times shorter than comparable conventional miniaturized optics. The partial images that are separately recorded in multiple optical channels are stitched together to form a final image of the whole FOV by means of image processing. The microlens arrays are realized by microoptical fabrication techniques on wafer-level which are suitable for a potential application in high volume e.g. for consumer electronic products.

High resolution, wide field-of-view and large depth-of-focus imaging systems are greatly desired and have received much attention from researchers who seek to extend the capabilities of cameras. Monocentric lenses are superior in performance over other wide field-of-view lenses with the drawback that they form a hemispheric image plane which is incompatible with current sensor technology. Fiber optic bundles can be used to relay the image the lens produces to the sensor's planar surface. This requires image processing to correct for artifacts inherent to fiber bundle image transfer. Using a prototype fiber coupled monocentric lens imager we capture single exposure focal swept images from which we seek to produce extended depth-of-focus images. Point spread functions (PSF) were measured in lab and found to be both angle and depth dependent. This spatial variance enforces the requirement that the inverse problem be treated as such. This synthesis of information allowed us to establish a framework upon which to mitigate fiber bundle artifacts and extend the depth-of-focus of the imaging system.

An efficient and uniform illumination system with a freeform mirror for a color-sequential LCOS pico projector based on LED is proposed in this paper. The novel homogenizer is composed of a micro lens array and a freeform mirror. A freeform mirror with XY polynomial profile is adopted for the reshaping of light pattern, the correction of keystone distortion and the folding mirror for the reduction of volume. Typically, the design of micro lens array, the aspect ratio of the lenslet is corresponding with that of the panel. However, the crosstalk phenomenon occurs due to each lenslet with different collecting angle in horizontal and vertical direction, especially when the aspect ratio of the panel in our study is 16:9. The crosstalk phenomenon not only reduces efficiency but also generates stray light on the panel. Therefore, we use a micro lens array with square lenslet to eliminate it. Subsequently, the square light pattern on the panel needs to be reshaped to fit the aspect ratio of the panel. A cylindrical mirror with a fixed power is used to compress the light pattern first. However, for the requirement of different focal distances from the cylindrical mirror to the panel on entire surface, it generates severe keystone distortion. A freeform mirror with progressive power variation is employed for the correction of keystone distortion with high overfilled efficiency and the reshaping of the light pattern fitting the ratio of the panel. In the results of optical simulation, JBMA uniformity on the panel is 98 % and the coupling efficiency from LED to the plane of the panel is 85 %. Furthermore, the alignment tolerance of the freeform mirror has also been discussed. Finally, the freeform mirror is fabricated by ultra-precision diamond milling process. The form accuracy and surface roughness of the freeform mirror are less than 0.5 um and 5 nm, respectively.

In this paper, we present a novel optical design to overcome the over-exposure problem without increasing the specifications of sensors. A spatial light modulator (SLM), which is commonly used for modulating light intensity, is used in our design. In projector systems, SLM is commonly used in conjunction with DMD to modulate the intensity of the projected images. In our design, reverse of this design concept is employed. Intensity modulation is performed on object space, instead of image space. This paper shows two optical designs, one is image system, which image the outside object to SLM. This system has F/8 and Field of View (FOV) 40 degree Hyperfocal image design. The other is a relay image system, which relay the image from SLM to sensor. This relay system has F/4 and magnification of 0.5 times. Our design has successfully reduced over-exposure problems.

It is well known from transformation optics that a light pathway can be designed with artificial materials. When a coordinate transform technique is applied to optically resonating dielectric structures, interesting phenomena can be observed as well. Generally, a long-lived whispering gallery mode (WGM) has no preferential direction of radiation because of its rotationally symmetric structure. However, if the space inside the resonator is transformed so that the discontinuity of coordinates exists, it becomes possible to reconcile directional emission with WGMs. Here, we transform only the inner space of a deformed optical cavity, e.g., the Limaçon cavity into a virtual perfect disk via a conformal mapping and show these two seemingly incompatible behaviors can be observed simultaneously. The refractive index profiles that realize the transformed space can be obtained from the conformal space transformation. The resonant mode calculated with a transformed boundary element method shows that the WGMs can restore for the deformed cavity. The Husimi function calculated for this transformed cavity shows a weighted band-like profile, which implies that the optical rays inside the cavity is maintaining its reflecting angle as is for the original cavity. However, the far-field pattern shows anisotropic emission of radiation because it is determined by tunneling through the rotationally asymmetric boundary. For example, the conformal WGMs in Limaçon and center-shifted triangular cavities exhibit bidirectional and uni-directional emission patterns in the far-field, respectively. These conformal WGM cavities with both the ultra-high quality factor and the directional light emission may be used in the realization of efficient directional light sources.

A detailed study of the pulse characteristics emitted from a monolithic Quantum Dot (QD) passively Mode-Locked Laser (MLL) has been performed using a state-of-the-art Frequency Resolved Optical Gating (FROG) pulse measurement system. While traditionally the time-domain pulse characteristics of semiconductor MLLs have been studied using digital sampling oscilloscope or intensity autocorrelation techniques, the FROG measurements allow for simultaneous characterization of time and frequency, which has been shown to be necessary and sufficient for true determination of mode-locked stability. In this paper, FROG pulse measurements are presented on a two-section QD MLL operating over wide temperature excursions. The FROG measurement allows for extraction of the temporal and spectral intensity and phase profiles from which the Group Delay Dispersion (GDD) can be determined. The magnitude of the GDD is found to decrease from 16.1 to 3.5 ps/nm when the temperature is increased from 20 to 50 oC, mirroring the trend of pulse width reduction at elevated temperature, which has been shown to correlate strongly with reduced unsaturated absorption. The possibility to further optimize pulse generation via intra-cavity dispersion compensation in a novel three-section MLL design is also examined, and shows strong potential toward providing valuable insight into the optimal cavity designs and operating parameters for QD MLLs.

Reaction bonded silicon carbide (RB SiC) is a durable material that is well-suited for use as a high power laser mirror substrate. The reaction bonded material has a low mass density, a high Young’s Modulus, good thermal conductivity, and a very low coefficient of thermal expansion. All of these properties are beneficial in mirror substrates used in multikilowatt lasers. In conjunction with the development of RB SiC, special polishing processes, fabrication processes, and coatings have also been developed. In this paper we will present a comparison of the material properties of RB SiC and other mirror materials currently used in high power lasers. A brief overview of the critical fabrication and coating processes will also be reviewed. Finally, we will present thermal heat load test data showing the surface deformation of various high power mirrors used under heat loads typically found in laser systems operating at average powers greater than 10 kilowatts.

To improve the performance of SG-III prototype facility (TIL-Technical Integration Line), final optics assembly (FOA) is re-designed. It contains that stray light and focusing ghosts are optimized, operational performance and environments are improved and the total thickness of optics is reduced. With the re-designed FOA, Some performance advantages are achieved. First, the optics damages are mitigated obviously, especially crystals and Focus lens; Second, stray light and focusing ghosts are controlled better that organic contamination sources inside FOA are eliminated; Third, maintenance and operation are more convenient for the atoms environment; Fourth, the focusable power on target is increased for lower B-integral.

This article analyzes the current state of green technologies in optical telecommunications networks, analyzing in detail the basic structure of a hybrid network (Optical-Wireless), taking into account energy consumption by proposing a mathematical model is presented to establish the optimum number of ONUs in a network.

Light-emitting diode (LED) is gradually replacing the fluorescent lamp for lighting. Higher modulation bandwidth of LEDs makes the additional application of visible light communication (VLC) possible. Every location of a VLC system should be provided by equal data rate for smooth communication. However, locations away from the LED lamp have less power. These low-power locations have lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR); and hence lower data rate can be achieved. For achieving high capacity VLC, strategies should be adequately provided to mitigate this problem. Moreover, for some real-time continuous applications, such as video and voice, latency reduction plan should also be considered. In this paper, an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing access (OFDMA) based system was proposed to solve the above problem. Because we do not use time-division multiplexing access (TDMA) based system, the latency issue can be reduced. The OFDMA based system is also beneficial for large scale operation because the user bandwidth is not reduced by TDM mechanism. Signal-to-noise-plus-interference ratio (SNIR) distribution of the VLC system is designed to ensure uniform and optimal system capacity. Discrete multi-tone (DMT) is used for this VLC system. The DMT subcarriers are bit-loaded depending on the LED frequency response. More subcarriers are allocated for communication at low SNIR locations. Hence, nearly equal data rate can be provided everywhere. Demonstration of 17 Mb/s/LED data rate was provided.

This article is dealing with simulation of deployment of different optical amplifier types in different positions (power amplifier, in-line amplifier, preamplifier) in the WDM-PON network. For simulation available bit rates per chanell were taken in to account, specifically 125 Mbps, 1.25 Gbps and 2.5 Gbps. Optical amplifiers implementation than has influence on possible transmission distance for WDM-PON network. In simulated topology parameters as bit error ratio, attenuation, Q-factor, OSNR, etc. were observed. The whole designed WDM-PON network topology was based on real device Ericsson-LG EAST1100 available on the market. Necessary parameters and data for simulation were obtained from datasheets and real measurements so that the simulation resemble to the real measured results as much as possible.

In this paper, we propose and investigate an adaptively 84.44 to 190 Mb/s phosphor-LED visible light communication (VLC) system at a practical transmission distance. Here, we utilize the orthogonal-frequency-division-multiplexing quadrature-amplitude-modulation (OFDM-QAM) modulation with power/bit-loading algorithm in proposed VLC system. In the experiment, the optimal analogy pre-equalization design is also performed at LED-Tx side and no blue filter is used at the Rx side for extending the modulation bandwidth from 1 MHz to 30 MHz. In addition, the corresponding free space transmission lengths are between 75 cm and 2 m under various data rates of proposed VLC. And the measured bit error rates (BERs) of < 3.8×10^-3 [forward error correction (FEC) limit] at different transmission lengths and measured data rates can be also obtained. Finally, we believe that our proposed scheme could be another alternative VLC implementation in practical distance, supporting < 100 Mb/s, using commercially available LED and PD (without optical blue filtering) and compact size.

Our work is focused on a theoretical description and mathematical modeling of the shape of a circular edge clamped pressure actuated elastic membrane, which can be used as an optical surface of an active optical element such as the membrane lens. While the theory of small deformations of elastic membranes is well developed and the calculation of a deflection of the membrane can be done with a relatively good accuracy, modeling of large membrane deflections is more complicated. Classical approaches given in literature adopt certain approximations that affect the accuracy of the calculated shape of a membrane. In our work a generalized nonlinear differential equation describing a given problem is derived and the method for solving this equation is proposed. The numerical solution is based on the expansion of the solution into series and transformation of the problem into the constraint optimization problem. It is shown on examples that the deviation of the shape calculated using the proposed generalized equation and the classical solution is not negligible in terms of the requirements on the optical surface accuracy. The influence of the membrane shape on the optical quality of membrane fluidic lenses is also investigated.

Identity certification in the cyberworld has always been troublesome if critical information and financial transaction must be processed. Biometric identification is the most effective measure to circumvent the identity issues in mobile devices. Due to bulky and pricy optical design, conventional optical fingerprint readers have been discarded for mobile applications. In this paper, a digital variable-focus liquid lens was adopted for capture of a floating finger via fast focusplane scanning. Only putting a finger in front of a camera could fulfill the fingerprint ID process. This prototyped fingerprint reader scans multiple focal planes from 30 mm to 15 mm in 0.2 second. Through multiple images at various focuses, one of the images is chosen for extraction of fingerprint minutiae used for identity certification. In the optical design, a digital liquid lens atop a webcam with a fixed-focus lens module is to fast-scan a floating finger at preset focus planes. The distance, rolling angle and pitching angle of the finger are stored for crucial parameters during the match process of fingerprint minutiae. This innovative compact touchless fingerprint reader could be packed into a minute size of 9.8*9.8*5 (mm) after the optical design and multiple focus-plane scan function are optimized.

We describe and demonstrate a pair of diopter-adjustable eyeglasses aimed to correct presbyopia; the glasses provide a tunable optical power in the whole surface of the lens cell, eliminating the optical distortion typical of bifocal/trifocal or progressive glasses. The wearer can actively control the optical power by a simple sliding gesture on the bridge of the glasses, so that presbyopic vision can be interactively corrected. Results from a preliminary experiment showed that a presbyopia sufferer could clearly observe near and far objects under the assistant accommodation of the glasses. Designing a truly wearable system poses some challenges – none of them theoretical – so the system should be feasible in the near future.

We present the development of wideband spectral dispersers of which the primary scientific objective is the characterization of the atmospheres of exoplanets, including the challenge of detecting biomarkers. A disperser comprising a prism with a grating pattern on its surface provides simultaneous wideband coverage with low spectral resolution (R ≥ 300). The optics is simple, compact, and contains no moving parts. A comparative study of 21 materials for the disperser was carried out for use in the optical, near-infrared, and mid-infrared wavelength regions. KRS-5, CdZnTe, ZnS LiF, Sapphire, and S-TIH11 were selected, and designs of the optics for single-channel wideband spectrometers using the selected six materials were considered. Then, trial designs of the multi-channel spectrometers were carried out taking the properties of the detectors into consideration. The 3-channel design covers the wavelength region of ∼0.2−23 μm using a CCD detector, an InSb detector, and a Si:As detector. The 2-channel design covers ∼0.4−23 μm using a HgCdTe detector and a Si:As detector. A fabricated ZnS disperser is shown together with a CsI subprism which compensates for the optical axis. The application of defocusing, high dispersion spectroscopy, extension to the UV wavelength region, and the combination of the disperser with future space telescopes are discussed.

The technology of electrowetting display (EWD) is the most important method for the traditional displays that can work more efficiently. When the voltage drives, the aperture ratio of the ink will reach 75% and the transmittance can reach 60%. Furthermore, the EWD technology has the advantages such as high transmittance, high switching speed, color performance, low power consumption, and etc. They make the advances of technology development for the transparent displays. However, due to the diffraction phenomenon resulted from periodic pixel structures, when the users observe the background object through the transparent display, the transmitted image will be blurred. In this paper, we recognized the problems by the simulation and constructed the optical model first. In order to avoid the diffraction, we use micro lens array to prevent the rays interfere on the micro structure, so that it will not produce the destructive and constructive interference, so the diffraction effect can be reduced. The micro lens array avoid the light touches the outer frame of EWD pixels. The simulations are simulate at different distance, and the distance of diffraction width is condensed to 91% with respect to the origin. In the future, this concept can apply in other transmitted images of transparent displays.

There is an increasing pressure nowadays on the efficient use of existing ICT infrastructure in order to provide the latest services for corporate customers or end users. With the increase in number of services, requirements for optical networks of all hierarchies are increasing as well. This increase in the requirements, however, involves risks which must be faced by Internet service providers. These include the maximum use of spectral range, bandwidth and reachable distance, suppression of dispersion effect, route planning efficiency, CAPEX and OPEX costs management, or successful combination of technologies of deployed networks. The aim of this article is to present the problems associated with interconnection of WDM-PON and ver.2 EPON (IEEE 802.3ah standard). The entire simulation is based on real parameters, which were provided by the manufacturers of the technologies and then measured in the laboratory. Then we were able to perform simulations based on more realistic features of these technologies.

We define Lorentz-transformation windows as windows that change the direction of transmitted light rays like a Lorentz transformation. Similarly, Galileo-transformation windows change the direction of transmitted light rays like a Galileo transformation. This light-ray-direction change distorts the scene seen through such a window in the same way in which the scene would be distorted in a photo taken with a camera moving through the scene. Lorentz-transformation windows can also undo the distortion of the scene when moving at relativistic velocity relative to it. For small angles between the direction of the light rays and the direction of the velocity, Galileo-transformation windows can be realised with relatively simple telescope windows, which consist of arrays of identical micro-telescopes.

In this paper, the relationship between the spatial coherence of light field and the speckle contrast in a laser based projection display system is studied under the consideration of human visual percept. By using a varifocal liquid-crystal lens and a monochromatic CCD, a system which is used for simulating the human eye is set up to record the speckle pattern. An efficient method for controlling the spatial coherence by using a dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) is proposed. The results show that the total efficiency for energy utilization is more than 60% during our experiment. When the distance between the observer and the screen is large enough (<3 meters), the speckle contrast can be eliminated well at last (<4%) and the observer won’t feel the speckle phenomenon.