This PDF file contains the editorial “Take the High Road” for OE Vol. 56 Issue 05

Optical imaging systems are often degraded by scattering due to atmospheric particles, such as haze, fog, and mist. Imaging under nighttime haze conditions may suffer especially from the glows near active light sources as well as scattering. We present a methodology for nighttime image dehazing based on an optical imaging model which accounts for varying light sources and their glow. First, glow effects are decomposed using relative smoothness. Atmospheric light is then estimated by assessing global and local atmospheric light using a local atmospheric selection rule. The transmission of light is then estimated by maximizing an objective function designed on the basis of weighted entropy. Finally, haze is removed using two estimated parameters, namely, atmospheric light and transmission. The visual and quantitative comparison of the experimental results with the results of existing state-of-the-art methods demonstrates the significance of the proposed approach.

We studied periodic aperture imaging with various subaperture configurations in terms of their point spread functions, optical transfer functions, and imaging quality. A circular-shaped unit cell provides the best performance compared to square- and cross-shaped unit cells when the total aperture size and collection area are kept the same. Moreover, decreasing the separation among the unit cells or the number of subapertures also improve the imaging performance. Results have potential applications in optical periodic aperture telescopes, diffraction masks, and coded aperture imaging.

The progress on laser feedback interferometry technology is reviewed. Laser feedback interferometry is a demonstration of interferometry technology applying a laser reflected from an external surface, which has features including simple structure, easy alignment, and high sensitivity. Theoretical analysis including the Lang–Kobayashi model and three-mirror model are conducted to explain the modulation of the laser output properties under the feedback effect. In particular, the effect of frequency and polarization shift feedback effects are analyzed and discussed. Various applications on various types of lasers are introduced. The application fields range from metrology, to physical quantities, to laser parameters and other applications. The typical applications of laser feedback technology in industrial and research fields are discussed. Laser feedback interferometry has great potential to be further exploited and applied.

This PDF file contains the editorial “Special Section Guest Editorial: Wearable Vision Systems: Head/Helmet-Mounted Displays” for OE Vol. 56 Issue 05

In the design of pilot helmets with night vision capability, to not limit or block the sight of the pilot, a transparent visor is used. The reflected image from the coated part of the visor must coincide with the physical human sight image seen through the nonreflecting regions of the visor. This makes the alignment of the visor halves critical. In essence, this is an alignment problem of two optical parts that are assembled together during the manufacturing process. Shack–Hartmann wavefront sensor is commonly used for the determination of the misalignments through wavefront measurements, which are quantified in terms of the Zernike polynomials. Although the Zernike polynomials provide very useful feedback about the misalignments, the corrective actions are basically ad hoc. This stems from the fact that there exists no easy inverse relation between the misalignment measurements and the physical causes of the misalignments. This study aims to construct this inverse relation by making use of the expressive power of the neural networks in such complex relations. For this purpose, a neural network is designed and trained in MATLAB^® regarding which types of misalignments result in which wavefront measurements, quantitatively given by Zernike polynomials. This way, manual and iterative alignment processes relying on trial and error will be replaced by the trained guesses of a neural network, so the alignment process is reduced to applying the counter actions based on the misalignment causes. Such a training requires data containing misalignment and measurement sets in fine detail, which is hard to obtain manually on a physical setup. For that reason, the optical setup is completely modeled in Zemax^® software, and Zernike polynomials are generated for misalignments applied in small steps. The performance of the neural network is experimented and found promising in the actual physical setup.

See-through distortion can occur when a pilot looks through a curved aircraft transparency because of a weak lens effect. A helmet-mounted display (HMD) system must either compensate for this distortion or incur a distortion error in its total error budget. We describe a method for characterization of and compensation for aircraft transparency distortion, allowing for increased targeting accuracy and reduced binocular vergence errors from any position within a large head box. We present techniques for compensating for transparency distortion for the entire HMD head box and implications observed based on applying these techniques for A-10 and F-16 aircraft transparencies.

When color is implemented in helmet-mounted displays (HMDs) that are eyes-out, see-through displays, visual perception issues become an increased concern. A major confound with HMDs is their inherent see-through (transparent) property. The result is color in the displayed image that combines with color from the outside (or in-cockpit) world, producing an image with additive color. As luminance of the HMD imagery is reduced, the color separation between the HMD imagery and the background is also reduced. It is because of this additive effect that luminance contrast is so vitally important in developing HMD standards for color symbology. As a result, this paper identifies luminance requirements for full-color HMDs based upon two lines of investigation. The first is based on a study of white symbology against natural static backgrounds, where the quality of symbology was judged to be a function of not only the background luminance but also of the background complexity as well. The second is based on an evaluation of the complexity inherent in natural backgrounds and from this investigation, a predictive curve was found that describes the complexity of natural backgrounds as a function of ambient luminance.

NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) has conducted research in the area of helmet-mounted display (HMD)/head-worn display (HWD) over the past 30 years. Initially, NASA LaRC’s research focused on military applications, but recently NASA has conducted a line of research in the area of HWD for commercial and business aircraft. This work revolved around numerous simulation experiments as well as flight tests to develop technology and data for industry and regulatory guidance. This paper summarizes the results of NASA’s HMD/HWD research. Of note, the work tracks progress in wearable collimated optics, head tracking, latency reduction, and weight. The research lends credence to a small, sunglasses-type form factor of the HWD being acceptable to commercial pilots, and this goal is now becoming technologically feasible. The research further suggests that an HWD may serve as an “equivalent” head-up display (HUD) with safety, operational, and cost benefits. “HUD equivalence” appears to be the economic avenue by which HWDs can become mainstream on the commercial and business aircraft flight deck. If this happens, NASA’s research suggests that additional operational benefits using the unique capabilities of the HWD can open up new operational paradigms.

A head-worn display combined with accurate head-tracking allows one to show synthetically generated symbols in a way that they appear as a part of the real world. Depending on the specific research context, different terms have been used for the ability to show display elements as parts of the outside world. These include contact analog, scene linked, augmented reality, and outside conformal. While the famous highway in the sky was one of the first applications in avionics, over the years more and more conformal counterparts have been devised for aircraft-related instruments. Among them are routing information, navigation aids, specialized landing displays, obstacle warnings, drift indicators, and many more. Conformal displays have been developed for more than 40 years. We present a review of some results, as well as look ahead to research trends for the next years. We suggest that naturalism is not the best choice for the design of conformal displays. Instead, more abstract representations often yield better pilot acceptance.

In the past couple of years, research on display content for helicopter operations headed in a new direction. The already reached goals could evolve into a paradigm change for information visualization. Technology advancements allow implementing three-dimensional and conformal content on a helmet-mounted see-through device. This superimposed imagery inherits the same optical flow as the environment. It is supposed to ease switching between display information and environmental cues. The concept is neither pathbreaking nor new, but it has not been successfully established in aviation yet. Nevertheless, there are certainly some advantages to expect—at least from perspective of a human-centered system design. Within the following pages, the next generation displays will be presented and discussed with a focus on human factors. Beginning with recalling some human factor related research facts, an experiment comparing the former two-dimensional research displays will be presented. Before introducing the DLR conformal symbol set and the three experiments about an innovative drift, indication related research activities toward conformal symbol sets will be addressed.

An ultrashort throw liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) projector for home cinema, virtual reality, and automobile heads-up display has been designed and fabricated. To achieve the best performance and highest-quality image, this study aimed to design wide-angle projection optics and optimize the illumination for LCoS. Based on the telecentric lens projection system and optimized Koehler illumination, the optical parameters were calculated. The projector’s optical system consisted of a conic aspheric mirror and image optics using either symmetric double Gauss or a large-angle eyepiece to achieve a full projection angle larger than 155 deg. By applying Koehler illumination, image resolution was enhanced and the modulation transfer function of the image in high spatial frequency was increased to form a high-quality illuminated image. The partial coherence analysis verified that the design was capable of 2.5  lps/mm within a 2  m×1.5  m projected image. The throw ratio was less than 0.25 in HD format.

The matched filter (MF) and adaptive coherence estimator (ACE) show great effectiveness in hyperspectral target detection applications. Practical applications in which on-board processing is generally required demand real-time or near-real-time implementation of these detectors. However, a vast amount of hyperspectral data may make real-time or near-real-time implementation of the detection algorithms almost impossible. Band selection can be one of the solutions to this problem by reducing the number of spectral bands. We propose a new band selection method that prioritizes spectral bands based on their influence on the detection performance of the MF and ACE and discards the least influential bands. We validate the performance of our method using real hyperspectral images. We also demonstrate our technique on near-real-time detection tasks and show it to be a feasible approach to the tasks.

Optical and infrared imaging is often used in ground-based optical space target observation. The fusion of the two types of images for a more detailed observation is the key problem to be solved. A space target multimodal image fusion scheme based on the joint sparsity model, which takes the correlations among the native sparse characteristics of the image, clarity features of the image, and multisource images into consideration, is proposed. First, using an overcomplete dictionary, the source images are represented as a combination of a shared sparse component and exclusive sparse components. Second, a method for image clarity feature extraction is proposed to design the fusion rules of exclusive sparse components to obtain the fused exclusive sparse components. Finally, the fused image is reconstructed with the fused sparse components and overcompleted dictionary. The proposed method was tested on the space target image and nature scene image data sets. Compared with traditional methods such as the multiscale transform-based methods, sparse representation-based methods, and joint sparsity representation-based methods, the final experimental results demonstrated that our method outperforms the existing state-of-the-art methods on the human visual effect and the objective evaluation indexes. In particular, for the evaluation indexes QAB/F and QE, the scores increase to nearly 10% more than those for traditional methods, which indicates that the fused image of our method has better edge clarity.

A method is proposed to suppress speckle noise using only part of the pixels in a single-exposure digital hologram. Different holographic patterns are first generated from a single-exposure digital hologram using specially designed binary masks; then, these holographic patterns are reconstructed according to the Fresnel transform. The reconstructed images are superposed and averaged on the intensity to achieve the suppression of speckle noise. The entire denoising process does not need any additional digital holograms or specific requirements for recording a hologram. Theoretical simulation and experiment verification were carried out and confirm that the proposed method is a very convenient and effective way to suppress speckle noise in digital holography. The proposed method has wide applications in holographic imaging, holographic storage, and art display.

The use of spectral reflectance as fundamental color information finds application in diverse fields related to imaging. Many approaches use training sets to train the algorithm used for color classification. In this context, we note that the modification of training sets obviously impacts the accuracy of reflectance reconstruction based on classical reflectance reconstruction methods. Different modifying criteria are not always consistent with each other, since they have different emphases; spectral reflectance similarity focuses on the deviation of reconstructed reflectance, whereas colorimetric similarity emphasizes human perception. We present a method to improve the accuracy of the reconstructed spectral reflectance by adaptively combining colorimetric and spectral reflectance similarities. The different exponential factors of the weighting coefficients were investigated. The spectral reflectance reconstructed by the proposed method exhibits considerable improvements in terms of the root-mean-square error and goodness-of-fit coefficient of the spectral reflectance errors as well as color differences under different illuminants. Our method is applicable to diverse areas such as textiles, printing, art, and other industries.

Existing denoising algorithms based on a simplified signal-dependent noise model are valid under the assumption of the predefined parameters. Consequently, these methods fail if the predefined conditions are not satisfied. An adaptive method for eliminating random noise from the simplified signal-dependent noise model is presented in this paper. A linear mapping function between multiplicative noise and noiseless image data is established using the Maclaurin formula. Through demonstrations of the cross-correlation between random variables and independent random variable functions, the mapping function between the variances of multiplicative noise and noiseless image data is acquired. Accordingly, the adaptive denoising model of simplified signal-dependent noise in the wavelet domain is built. The experimental results confirm that the proposed method outperforms conventional ones.

Light detection and ranging (LIDAR) has become a widely used tool in remote sensing for mapping, surveying, modeling, and a host of other applications. The motivation behind this work is the modeling of piping systems in industrial sites, where cylinders are the most common primitive or shape. We focus on cylinder parameter estimation in three-dimensional point clouds, proposing a mathematical formulation based on angular distance to determine the cylinder orientation. We demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of the technique on synthetically generated cylinder point clouds (where the true axis orientation is known) as well as on real LIDAR data of piping systems. The proposed algorithm is compared with a discrete space Hough transform-based approach as well as a continuous space inlier approach, which iteratively discards outlier points to refine the cylinder parameter estimates. Results show that the proposed method is more computationally efficient than the Hough transform approach and is more accurate than both the Hough transform approach and the inlier method.

Pattern recognition and feature extraction are image processing applications of great interest in defect inspection and robot vision among others. In comparison to purely digital methods, the attractiveness of optical processors for pattern recognition lies in their highly parallel operation and real-time processing capability. This work presents an optical implementation of the generalized Hough transform (GHT), a well-established technique for recognition of geometrical features in binary images. Detection of a geometric feature under the GHT is accomplished by mapping the original image to an accumulator space; the large computational requirements for this mapping make the optical implementation an attractive alternative to digital-only methods. We explore an optical setup where the transformation is obtained, and the size and orientation parameters can be controlled, allowing for dynamic scale and orientation-variant pattern recognition. A compact system for the above purposes results from the use of an electrically tunable lens for scale control and a pupil mask implemented on a high-contrast spatial light modulator for orientation/shape variation of the template. Real-time can also be achieved. In addition, by thresholding of the GHT and optically inverse transforming, the previously detected features of interest can be extracted.

There are several types of steel products, such as wire rods, cold-rolled coils, hot-rolled coils, thick plates, and electrical sheets. Surface stains on cold-rolled coils are considered defects. However, surface stains on thick plates are not considered defects. A conventional optical structure is composed of a camera and lighting module. A defect inspection system that uses a dual lighting structure to distinguish uneven defects and color changes by surface noise is proposed. In addition, an image processing algorithm that can be used to detect defects is presented in this paper. The algorithm consists of a Gabor filter that detects the switching pattern and employs the binarization method to extract the shape of the defect. The optics module and detection algorithm optimized using a simulator were installed at a real plant, and the experimental results conducted on thick steel plate images obtained from the steel production line show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Subwavelength periodic gratings, which are widely used in optical systems, exhibit only zero-order diffraction, owing to a diffraction limit. This limits the resolution of optical critical dimension (OCD) metrology. We propose a method to enhance the diffraction of subwavelength periodic gratings using a far-field superlens (FSL), which has the potential to obtain higher resolution in OCD metrology. All simulations in this study are performed using the rigorous coupled-wave analysis method. An FSL grating structure is developed for verifying the proposed method and for evaluating the role of the incident angle, misalignment, and air gap on the diffraction by the FSL grating structure. The simulation results show that, when overlaid with an FSL, a silicon grating with a period of 100 nm, which evoked zero-order diffraction only, can also evoke first- and second-order diffraction in the case of a large incident angle. Last, the potential application of an FSL in OCD metrology is discussed.

The cat-eye effect reflected beam profiles of most optical detectors have a certain characteristic of periodicity, which is caused by array arrangement of sensors at their optical focal planes. It is the first time to find and prove that the reflected beam profile becomes several periodic spots at the reflected propagation distance corresponding to half the imaging distance of a CCD camera. Furthermore, the spatial cycle of these spots is approximately constant, independent of the CCD camera’s imaging distance, which is related only to the focal length and pixel size of the CCD sensor. Thus, we can obtain the imaging distance and intrinsic parameters of the optical detector by analyzing its cat-eye reflected beam profiles. This conclusion can be applied in the field of non-cooperative cat-eye target recognition.

A robust image dehazing algorithm based on the first-order scattering of the image degradation model is proposed. In this work, there are three contributions toward image dehazing: (i) a robust method for assessing the global irradiance from the most hazy-opaque regions of the imagery is proposed; (ii) more detailed depth information of the scene can be recovered through the enhancement of the transmission map using scene partitions and entropy-based alternating fast-weighted guided filters; and (iii) crucial model parameters are extracted from in-scene information. This paper briefly outlines the principle of the proposed technique and compares the dehazed results with four other dehazing algorithms using a variety of different types of imageries. The dehazed images have been assessed through a quality figure-of-merit, and experiments have shown that the proposed algorithm effectively removes haze and has achieved a much better quality of dehazed images than all other state-of-the-art dehazing methods employed in this work.

Digital holographic microscopy (DHM) is an optoelectronic technique that is made up of two parts: (i) the recording of the interference pattern of the diffraction pattern of an object and a known reference wavefield using a digital camera and (ii) the numerical reconstruction of the complex object wavefield using the recorded interferogram and a distance parameter as input. The latter is based on the simulation of optical propagation from the camera plane to a plane at any arbitrary distance from the camera. A key advantage of DHM over conventional microscopy is that both the phase and intensity information of the object can be recovered at any distance, using only one capture, and this facilitates the recording of scenes that may change dynamically and that may otherwise go in and out of focus. Autofocusing using traditional microscopy requires mechanical movement of the translation stage or the microscope objective, and multiple image captures that are then compared using some metric. Autofocusing in DHM is similar, except that the sequence of intensity images, to which the metric is applied, is generated numerically from a single capture. We recently investigated the application of a number of sparsity metrics for DHM autofocusing and in this paper we extend this work to include more such metrics, and apply them over a greater range of biological diatom cells and magnification/numerical apertures. We demonstrate for the first time that these metrics may be grouped together according to matching behavior following high pass filtering.

A point light source (PLS) display with enhanced viewing angle (VA) is proposed. The maximum VA of a conventional PLS display is equal to the propagation angle of the PLS, so a light-source array (3×3) was used to enlarge the propagation angle of the PLS in the horizontal and vertical directions. The number of converging elemental image points increases due to the large propagation angle of the PLS; thus, the VA of the integrated point was enhanced. From the experimental results, the VA of the proposed method was 2.6 times larger than the maximum VA of a conventional PLS display.

We replicate a diffraction grating by soft lithography. Tunable diffraction is accomplished by modifying groove spacing through the application of strain on the elastomeric replica. The range of strain-variable diffraction angles is extended by adding a refracting liquid layer to the grating. Using a water layer, the diffraction angle is tuned from 38 to 33.4 deg with an applied strain of 17.7%. With an equal amount of strain, employing a glycerol layer results in the diffraction angle varying from 38.8 to 34.4 deg. Our experimental results are accurately described by the combined effects of diffraction by a deformable grating and refraction by a fluid with a curved surface.

A field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-controlled sweep velocity-locked laser pulse generator (SV-LLPG) design based on an all-digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL) is proposed. A distributed feedback laser with modulated injection current was used as a swept-frequency laser source. An open-loop predistortion modulation waveform was calibrated using a feedback iteration method to initially improve frequency sweep linearity. An ADPLL control system was then implemented using an FPGA to lock the output of a Mach–Zehnder interferometer that was directly proportional to laser sweep velocity to an on-board system clock. Using this system, linearly chirped laser pulses with a sweep bandwidth of 111.16 GHz were demonstrated. Further testing evaluating the sensing utility of the system was conducted. In this test, the SV-LLPG served as the swept laser source of an optical frequency-domain reflectometry system used to interrogate a subterahertz range fiber structure (sub-THz-FS) array. A static strain test was then conducted and linear sensor results were observed.

To realize online rapid measurement for complex workpieces, a flexible measurement system based on an articulated industrial robot with a structured light sensor mounted on the end-effector is developed. A method for calibrating the system parameters is proposed in which the hand-eye transformation parameters and the robot kinematic parameters are synthesized in the calibration process. An initial hand-eye calibration is first performed using a standard sphere as the calibration target. By applying the modified complete and parametrically continuous method, we establish a synthesized kinematic model that combines the initial hand-eye transformation and distal link parameters as a whole with the sensor coordinate system as the tool frame. According to the synthesized kinematic model, an error model is constructed based on spheres’ center-to-center distance errors. Consequently, the error model parameters can be identified in a calibration experiment using a three-standard-sphere target. Furthermore, the redundancy of error model parameters is eliminated to ensure the accuracy and robustness of the parameter identification. Calibration and measurement experiments are carried out based on an ER3A-C60 robot. The experimental results show that the proposed calibration method enjoys high measurement accuracy, and this efficient and flexible system is suitable for online measurement in industrial scenes.

A modified digital image correlation (DIC) method is presented to balance the influence of subset size choice, improve the calculation efficiency, and enhance the measurement accuracy. The relations between pixels and the central pixel are investigated. A relatively large subset size is selected in the method and all the pixels in a subset are treated nonuniformly. Weight is assigned to each pixel dependent on the significance of the pixel to track a subset from deformed images, and weights are computed by Butterworth function based on the distances between the pixels and the central pixel in the subset. Compared with classical DIC, the proposed method is a compromise between a small and a large subset. The choice of subset size for classical DIC is displaced by choice of parameters of Butterworth function in the presented method. The influence of subset size is reduced, and the calculation efficiency is improved with enhanced measurement accuracy by the modified method. Computer-simulated speckle patterns and real experiments are applied to verify the proposed method.

Deformation measurement at macro/microscale can be fulfilled by a variety of methods with the development of experimental measuring techniques. However, the measurement of free-standing thin films is still difficult, especially for full-field measurement. The difficulty is the fabrication of the deformation markers (such as gratings or speckles) on the free-standing thin films. A grating fabrication technique based on focused ion beam (FIB) deposition is introduced in our previous works, and the superiority of this technique is minimal damage to the surface of the specimen. We adopted this FIB deposition technique to fabricate a frequency of 2000  line/mm gratings on the free-standing metallic films with a thickness of 2  μm. Notches of 10  μm length and 2  μm width are prepared by the FIB etching at the edge of the films. An in situ tensile test is operated in the scanning electronic microscope system. At the crack initiation stage, the displacement field is measured from the deformation of the gratings. The fracture parameter J integral is characterized for the 2-μm metallic films. The results demonstrate that the full-field measurement of the free-standing thin films at microscale can be realized successfully by this method.

An absolute measurement method involving a computer-generated hologram to facilitate the identification of manufacturing form errors and mounting- and gravity-induced deformations of a 300-mm aspheric mirror is proposed. In this method, the frequency and magnitude of the curve graph plotted from each Zernike coefficient obtained by rotating the mirror with various orientations about optical axis were adopted to distinguish the nonrotationally symmetric aberration. In addition, the random ball test was used to calibrate the rotationally symmetric aberration (spherical aberration). The measured absolute surface figure revealed that a highly accurate aspheric surface with a peak-to-valley value of 1/8 wave at 632.8 nm was realized after the surface figure was corrected using the reconstructed error map.

The propagation of three-dimensional controllably accelerating and decelerating Airy-elegant-Laguerre–Gaussian (CAiELG) wave packets in free space is investigated theoretically and numerically by solving the (3+1)D Schrödinger equation in cylindric coordinates. The CAiELG wave packets are constructed with the Airy pulses with the initial velocity in temporal domain and the elegant-Laguerre–Gaussian beams in space domain. Decelerating and accelerating AiELG wave packets are obtained by selecting different initial velocities. The initial velocities can be determined by incident angle and directions. According to the intensity distribution of CAiELG wave packets at the propagating section, two special types of wave packets are accessed: one type is ring shaped with the modulation depth q=1 and another type is necklace shaped with q=0. The direction of the energy flow of CAiELG wave packets is kept away from the center during propagation, and their Poynting vector snapshots at different propagating distances are shown.

We propose an experimental demonstration of visible light communication (VLC) based on interleave division multiple access (IDMA), which offers low peak-to-average power ratio, low complexity, and high robustness against multiple access interference and burst error. Bidirectional IDMA-VLC transmission is experimentally demonstrated. The experiment results indicate that IDMA offers better bit error rate performance compared with orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing access.

A high-accuracy Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) measurement system for vector Brillouin optical time-domain analysis-based temperature sensor is proposed, in which double sideband modulation is used and the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) gain and loss processes work together to generate a superimposed SBS phase-shift spectrum. The measurement principle is analyzed by mathematical modeling and the proof-of-concept experiment is performed by using a 100-m long standard single-mode fiber. The theoretical and experimental results reveal that the temperature sensitivity of BFS obtained from the measured SBS phase-shift spectrum is 1.059  MHz/°C, and the measurement error of temperature is only half that in traditional single sideband-based system, which indicates that the proposed technique can realize high-accuracy temperature measurement and have huge potential in the field of long-distance and high-accuracy sensing.

A stable passive Q-switched ytterbium-doped fiber laser (YDFL) operating at 1057.4 and 1044.5 nm is demonstrated using two types of topological insulator-based saturable absorbers (SAs): bismuth (III) selenide (Bi2Se3) and bismuth (III) telluride (Bi2Te3). These materials are embedded in polyvinyl alcohol film and incorporated in the YDFL cavity. Using Bi2Se3 SA, the YDFL obtains a stable train of pulses with a repetition rate that is tunable from 48.83 to 102 kHz. Meanwhile, the corresponding pulse width decreases from 8.9 to 3.48  μs as the pump power increases from 67.6 to 88.3 mW. For the Bi2Te3-based Q-switched YDFL, the repetition rate grows from 43.25 to 93.63 kHz and the pulse width shrinks from 5.65 to 2.01  μs as the 980-nm pump power rises from 72.8 to 98.4 mW. The maximum pulse energy is obtained with the Bi2Te3 SA at 29.95 n

The cantilever-beam accelerometer based on dual-fiber-Bragg gratings (FBGs) is proposed to detect the geosound caused by debris flow. The structure and working principle of the accelerometer are demonstrated. Dual FBGs are introduced to improve the sensitivity and frequency response of the accelerometer. By using a bend insensitive optical fiber and ultrathin coating, the sensitivity and serial multiplexing performance of the sensor are improved remarkably. Experimental results show that the accelerometer, with a sensitivity of 900  pm/g and the natural frequency of 280 Hz, can effectively detect the geosound caused by debris flow.

Indoor positioning using visible light communication has become a topic of intensive research in recent years. Because the normal of the receiver always deviates from that of the transmitter in application, the positioning systems which require that the normal of the receiver be aligned with that of the transmitter have large positioning errors. Some algorithms take the angular vibrations into account; nevertheless, these positioning algorithms cannot meet the requirement of high accuracy or low complexity. A visible light positioning algorithm combined with angular vibration compensation is proposed. The angle information from the accelerometer or other angle acquisition devices is used to calculate the angle of incidence even when the receiver is not horizontal. Meanwhile, a received signal strength technique with high accuracy is employed to determine the location. Moreover, an eight-light-emitting-diode (LED) system model is provided to improve the accuracy. The simulation results show that the proposed system can achieve a low positioning error with low complexity, and the eight-LED system exhibits improved performance. Furthermore, trust region-based positioning is proposed to determine three-dimensional locations and achieves high accuracy in both the horizontal and the vertical components.

The presence of atmospheric turbulence in the free space causes fading and degrades the performance of a free space optical (FSO) system. To mitigate the turbulence-induced fading, multiple copies of the signal can be transmitted on a different wavelength. Each signal, in this case, will undergo different fadings. This is known as the wavelength diversity technique. Bit error rate (BER) performance of the FSO systems with wavelength diversity under strong turbulence condition is investigated. K-distribution is chosen to model a strong turbulence scenario. The source information is transmitted onto three carrier wavelengths of 1.55, 1.31, and 0.85  μm. The signals at the receiver side are combined using three different methods: optical combining (OC), equal gain combining (EGC), and selection combining (SC). Mathematical expressions are derived for the calculation of the BER for all three schemes (OC, EGC, and SC). Results are presented for the link distance of 2 and 3 km under strong turbulence conditions for all the combining methods. The performance of all three schemes is also compared. It is observed that OC provides better performance than the other two techniques. Proposed method results are also compared with the published article.

The linewidth performance of all-fiber, linear-cavity Fabry–Perot structures based on fiber Bragg gratings operating at 2-μm band has been investigated numerically. The output linewidth performance of two symmetrical and asymmetrical cavities has been theoretically studied and comprehensively compared. The numerical analysis is based on the transmission matrix method with the simplified parameters. The simulation results show that cavity lengths, cavity lengths ratio, grating lengths, grating lengths ratio, as well as index modulation depths, affect the output linewidth performance. The tolerance ability of the asymmetrical structure is first proposed and investigated under 1 mm accuracy, and single-frequency output can be realized by properly adjusting the properties of the proposed composite linear cavity structure.

Block-level detection is required to decode what may be classified as selective control information (SCI) such as control format indicator in 4G-long-term evolution systems. Using optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing over radio-over-fiber (RoF) links, we report the experimental evaluation of an SCI detection scheme based on a time-domain correlation (TDC) technique in comparison with the conventional maximum likelihood (ML) approach. When compared with the ML method, it is shown that the TDC method improves detection performance over both 20 and 40 km of standard single mode fiber (SSMF) links. We also report a performance analysis of the TDC scheme in noisy visible light communication channel models after propagation through 40 km of SSMF. Experimental and simulation results confirm that the TDC method is attractive for practical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing-based RoF and fiber-wireless systems. Unlike the ML method, another key benefit of the TDC is that it requires no channel estimation.

A complex adaptive equalizer using a least-mean-square (LMS) algorithm is proposed to mitigate the effect of nonlinear interference induced by cross-phase modulation in wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) coherent optical systems. We show the effect of nonlinear interference is equivalent to slow time-varying intersymbol interference. Simulations of dual-polarization 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) WDM systems are conducted to test the effectiveness of our proposed compensation method. The consequences show that significant improvement in system performance can be achieved by using the adaptive LMS equalization method.

A Zadoff–Chu (ZC) sequence-based low-complexity hitless upstream time synchronization scheme is proposed for an orthogonal frequency division multiple access passive optical network configured cloud radio access network fronthaul. The algorithm is based on gradual loading of the ZC sequences, where the phase discontinuity due to the cyclic prefix is alleviated by a frequency domain phase precoder, eliminating the requirements of guard bands to mitigate intersymbol interference and inter-carrier interference. Simulation results for uncontrolled-wavelength asynchronous transmissions from four concurrent transmitting optical network units are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

This work investigates the advantages of nonlinear optics of a cascaded intensity modulator (IM) and phase modulator (PM) to generate an initial optical frequency comb. The results show that when the direct current bias to amplitude ratio, α=0.1, and the IM and PM have the same modulation index and are equal 10, seed comb is achieved; it is generated by the modulation of two continuous wave lasers. Hence, based on these parameters, an intense four-wave mixing is created through 9 m of photonic crystal fiber. Moreover, a broadband spectrum was achieved, spaced by a 30-GHz microwave frequency.

The phase modulation (PM) and amplitude modulation (AM) of optical signals can be achieved using a direct-modulated (DM) optical injection-locked (OIL) semiconductor laser. We propose and theoretically analyze a simple method to extract the phase component of a PM signal produced by a DM-OIL semiconductor laser. The pure AM component of the combined PM–AM signal can be isolated by square-law detection in a photodetector and can then be used to compensate for the PM–AM signal based on an optical homodyne method. Using the AM compensation technique, we successfully developed a simple and cost-effective phase extraction method applicable to the PM–AM optical signal of a DM-OIL semiconductor laser.

A widely tunable multiwavelength single-longitudinal-mode fiber laser based on Rayleigh and Brillouin scattering effects is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The amplified Rayleigh backscattering of seed light serves as the original Brillouin pump while the Rayleigh and Brillouin scattering in the single mode fiber provide randomly distributed feedback. When the seed light wavelength varies in C-band with the power of −8  dBm, the fiber laser can generate more than nine lasing lines with narrow linewidth and their maximum power fluctuation is less than 2.4 dB. The lasing lines are stable, rigidly separated by 10.852 GHz.

An analog of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in plasmonic double disk resonators aperture-side-coupled to an InSb bus waveguide at the terahertz (THz) frequency region has been investigated. When there is a destructive interference coupling between these two disk resonators, the proposed plasmonic structure exhibits a transparency window. The simulation results show that the EIT-like response is dependent on the coupling distance between two disk resonators. Since the permittivity of InSb is modified by varying temperature, the central wavelength of the EIT-like transmission can be controlled by tuning the temperature. The proposed plasmonic structure may have applications in THz integrated circuits.

We report on a p-i-n photodetector based on type II InGaAs/GaAsSb SLs with a cutoff wavelength of 2.5  μm at room temperature. High quality materials were grown on an n-type (100) InP substrate by molecular beam epitaxy. Photoluminescence spectroscopy peak of the SLs around 2.5  μm and atomic steps in the atomic force microscope image were clearly observed. A device with the 100% cutoff wavelength of 2.5  μm at 293 K was fabricated. Temperature-dependent current-voltage measurements show that the diffusion current and generation-recombination current dominate at temperatures higher than 200 K while the generation-recombination current and trap-assisted tunneling current dominate at temperatures below 200 K. The optical response measurement quantum efficiency increases with reverse bias, and a diffusion length of 0.3  μm was extracted. The cause of the small diffusion length and possible approaches to improve it were briefly discussed.

A liquid device using two immiscible dielectric liquids is prepared. One liquid is black and forms a droplet on a glass substrate. The other liquid is used to fill the surrounding of the droplet. When a fringing field is applied to the device, the droplet is stretched by a dielectric force. The droplet can switch a probing beam. Our results show that the optical switch exhibits a hysteresis. The width of the hysteresis is dependent on the amplitude of the voltage, the frequency, and the viscosity of the surrounded liquid. By controlling the hysteresis, our device has potential applications in light shutters, optical attenuators, and displays.

The application of electro-optic effect in lithium-niobate-based Mach–Zehnder interferometer to design a 3-bit optical pseudorandom binary sequence (PRBS) generator has been proposed, which is characterized by its simplicity of generation and stability. The proposed device is optoelectronic in nature. The PBRS generator is immensely applicable for pattern generation, encryption, and coding applications in optical networks. The study is carried out by simulating the proposed device with beam propagation method.

Light trapping structures are a promising method of improving the efficiency of solar cells. We focused on the plasmonic thin-film solar cell. A structure is proposed consisting of an indium tin oxide layer with embedded metal nanoparticles, a hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) layer, and an aluminum (Al) layer. The finite-difference-time-domain (FDTD) method was used to calculate the absorption characteristics of the a-Si:H thin-film solar cells containing nanoparticles. By arranging the material, size, and locations of metal nanoparticles to maximize the scattering and minimize absorption of nanoparticles themselves, the optical absorption in the solar cell is significantly enhanced.

The concept of fluorescent sensing in a microchannel equipped with focusing light Fresnel lenses has been demonstrated. The concept employs a line or array of Fresnel lenses generating a line or array of focused light spots within a microfluidic channel, to increase the sensitivity of fluorescent signal detection in the system. We have presented efficient methods of master mold fabrication based on the lithography method and focused ion beam milling. The flexible microchannel was fabricated by an imprint process with new thiolene-epoxy resin with a good ability to replicate even submicron-size features. For final imprinted lenses, the measured background to peak signal level shows more than nine times the increase in brightness at the center of the focal spot for the green part of the spectrum (532 nm). The effectiveness of the microlenses in fluorescent-marked Escherichia coli bacteria was confirmed in a basic fluoroscope experiment, showing the increase of the sensitivity of the detection by the order of magnitude.

We demonstrate an optical Fabry–Perot interferometer fiber tip sensor based on a glass microsphere glued at the etched end of a multimode fiber. The fiber device is miniature and robust, with a convenient reflection mode of operation, a high temperature sensitivity of 202.6  pm/°C within the range from 5°C to 90°C, a good refractive index sensitivity of ∼119  nm/RIU within the range from 1.331 to 1.38, and a gas pressure sensitivity of 0.19  dB/MPa.

Design guidelines for a guided-wave optical pressure sensor based on dependences of sensitivity and resonance frequency on diaphragm dimensions were considered. The guided-wave optical pressure sensor consists of a diaphragm and a single-mode waveguide on the diaphragm. According to our theoretical study, the edge of the diaphragm was found to be the best position to obtain the highest sensitivity. Also, sensitivity is proportional to the cube of the side length of the diaphragm but inversely proportional to the square of the diaphragm thickness. On the other hand, resonance frequency of the diaphragm is proportional to the diaphragm thickness and inversely proportional to the square of the side length. Dependences were experimentally examined for fabricated sensors with different diaphragm dimensions to confirm theoretical predictions. The experimental results agreed well with the theoretical predictions. Moreover, a design assistant chart for the sensor was proposed based on the dependences.

The plasmonic resonance wavelength λres in ZnO doped with 3 wt.% Ga2O3 can be controlled over the range 1 to 4  μm by simple furnace annealing in flowing Ar. For each annealing temperature TA, the reflectance Rm and transmittance Tm are measured over a wavelength range, λ=185 to 3200 nm, (energy range, E=6.7 to 0.387 eV), and the reflectance coefficient R is calculated from Rm and Tm. The value of λres is t

Dynamic optical power distribution has great importance to network optimization. A three-dimensional (3-D) polymer thermo-optic switch is designed and fabricated to work at 650 nm. Two rectangular poly(methyl-methacrylate-glycidly-methacrylate) waveguides in neighboring and parallel layers couple with each other in a vertical direction. The lightwave is routed in two layers through a metal heater control. Waveguide configuration and relative position are optimized theoretically through beam propagation method calculations. The fabricated switch demonstrates an extinction ratio of 27.5 dB at a driving power of 57.7 mW. Measured rise time and fall time are 639.8 and 758.2  μs, respectively. Reliability characterizations within 125 days prove good operation stability at different extinction ratios. This work has potential in 3-D optical connections and visible light communication.

Three-dimensional finite-element-method numerical simulations are used to investigate a size-dependent sensing technique by observing the effects that a spherical nanoparticle had on the frequency resonances of whispering-gallery modes of a subwavelength silicon microdisk. Results show that the observed spectral shift varies significantly (∼2 to 8 nm) for the TM1,2 optical mode with an attached nanoparticle with radii between 150 and 400 nm. This frequency shift size-dependence makes it possible to identify viruses of different sizes by the resonant frequency change in the transmission spectrum in the mid-infrared.

A transverse-stress sensor with polarization filtering function based on a specially designed photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is proposed. Four ultralarge side-holes are introduced into the cladding layer, and two of them are gold-coated to enhance the stress sensitivity. The finite element method is applied to study the polarization-dependent wavelength-selective sensing characteristics at the optical communication wavelength. Results reveal that the sensor can achieve a high sensitivity in either direction that can be divided into an x-direction component and a y-direction component. Combining the advantages of side-hole structure and surface plasmon resonance technology, the proposed sensor is believed to be an excellent candidate for the transverse-stress measurement.

A polarization-maintaining fiber (PMF) sensor for simultaneous measurement of the temperature and refractive index (RI) based on the Mach–Zehnder interferometer is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. This fiber sensor is constructed by sandwiching a 20-mm waist-enlarged PMF between two single-mode fibers (SMFs). Using the wavelength shifts of different interference dips and the sensitivity matrix, two external parameters can be measured simultaneously. Experiment results show that the sensitivities to the temperature are 145.6  pm/°C and 0.1256  nm/°C and the sensitivities to the RI are −35.0502 and −23.3694  nm/RIU for two interference dips, respectively. This fiber sensor is simple and easy to fabricate, has high sensitivity, and can be applied to other fields, such as biological and chemical sensings.