107,015 research outputs found
Image Slicer Performances from a Demonstrator for the SNAP/JDEM Mission - Part I: Wavelength Accuracy
A well-adapted visible and infrared spectrograph has been developed for the
SNAP (SuperNova/Acceleration Probe) experiment proposed for JDEM. The
instrument should have a high sensitivity to see faint supernovae but also a
good redshift determination better than 0.003(1+z) and a precise
spectrophotometry (2%). An instrument based on an integral field method with
the powerful concept of imager slicing has been designed. A large prototyping
effort has been performed in France which validates the concept. In particular
a demonstrator reproducing the full optical configuration has been built and
tested to prove the optical performances both in the visible and in the near
infrared range. This paper is the first of two papers. The present paper focus
on the wavelength measurement while the second one will present the
spectrophotometric performances. We adress here the spectral accuracy expected
both in the visible and in the near infrared range in such configuration and we
demonstrate, in particular, that the image slicer enhances the instrumental
performances in the spectral measurement precision by removing the slit effect.
This work is supported in France by CNRS/INSU/IN2P3 and by the French spatial
agency (CNES) and in US by the University of California.Comment: Submitted to PAS
MScMS-II: an innovative IR-based indoor coordinate measuring system for large-scale metrology applications
According to the current great interest concerning large-scale metrology applications in many different fields of manufacturing industry, technologies and techniques for dimensional measurement have recently shown a substantial improvement. Ease-of-use, logistic and economic issues, as well as metrological performance are assuming a more and more important role among system requirements. This paper describes the architecture and the working principles of a novel infrared (IR) optical-based system, designed to perform low-cost and easy indoor coordinate measurements of large-size objects. The system consists of a distributed network-based layout, whose modularity allows fitting differently sized and shaped working volumes by adequately increasing the number of sensing units. Differently from existing spatially distributed metrological instruments, the remote sensor devices are intended to provide embedded data elaboration capabilities, in order to share the overall computational load. The overall system functionalities, including distributed layout configuration, network self-calibration, 3D point localization, and measurement data elaboration, are discussed. A preliminary metrological characterization of system performance, based on experimental testing, is also presente
Maskless imaging of dense samples using pixel super-resolution based multi-height lensfree on-chip microscopy.
Lensfree in-line holographic microscopy offers sub-micron resolution over a large field-of-view (e.g., ~24 mm2) with a cost-effective and compact design suitable for field use. However, it is limited to relatively low-density samples. To mitigate this limitation, we demonstrate an on-chip imaging approach based on pixel super-resolution and phase recovery, which iterates among multiple lensfree intensity measurements, each having a slightly different sample-to-sensor distance. By digitally aligning and registering these lensfree intensity measurements, phase and amplitude images of dense and connected specimens can be iteratively reconstructed over a large field-of-view of ~24 mm2 without the use of any spatial masks. We demonstrate the success of this multi-height in-line holographic approach by imaging dense Papanicolaou smears (i.e., Pap smears) and blood samples
Multicascade-linked synthetic wavelength digital holography using an optical-comb-referenced frequency synthesizer
Digital holography (DH) is a promising method for non-contact surface
topography because the reconstructed phase image can visualize the nanometer
unevenness in a sample. However, the axial range of this method is limited to
the range of the optical wavelength due to the phase wrapping ambiguity.
Although the use of two different wavelengths of light and the resulting
synthetic wavelength, i.e., synthetic wavelength DH, can expand the axial range
up to a few tens of microns, this method is still insufficient for practical
applications. In this article, a tunable external cavity laser diode
phase-locked to an optical frequency comb, namely, an optical-comb-referenced
frequency synthesizer, is effectively used for multiple synthetic wavelengths
within the range of 32 um to 1.20 m. A multiple cascade link of the phase
images among an optical wavelength (= 1.520 um) and 5 different synthetic
wavelengths (= 32.39 um, 99.98 um, 400.0 um, 1003 um, and 4021 um) enables the
shape measurement of a reflective millimeter-sized stepped surface with the
axial resolution of 34 nm. The axial dynamic range, defined as the ratio of the
maximum axial range (= 0.60 m) to the axial resolution (= 34 nm), achieves
1.7*10^8, which is much larger than that of previous synthetic wavelength DH.
Such a wide axial dynamic range capability will further expand the application
field of DH for large objects with meter dimensions.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figure
Laser induced strong-field ionization gas jet tomography
We introduce a novel in-situ strong field ionization tomography approach for
characterizing the spatial density distribution of gas jets. We show that for
typical intensities in high harmonic generation experiments, the strong field
ionization mechanism used in our approach provides an improvement in the
resolution close to factor of 2 (resolving about 8 times smaller voxel volume),
when compared to linear/single-photon imaging modalities.
We find, that while the depth of scan in linear tomography is limited by
resolution loss due to the divergence of the driving laser beam, in the
proposed approach the depth of focus is localized due to the inherent physical
nature of strong-field interaction and discuss implications of these findings.
We explore key aspects of the proposed method and compare it with commonly used
single- and multi-photon imaging mechanisms. The proposed method will be
particularly useful for strong field and attosecond science experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure
Quantum metrology and its application in biology
Quantum metrology provides a route to overcome practical limits in sensing
devices. It holds particular relevance to biology, where sensitivity and
resolution constraints restrict applications both in fundamental biophysics and
in medicine. Here, we review quantum metrology from this biological context,
focusing on optical techniques due to their particular relevance for biological
imaging, sensing, and stimulation. Our understanding of quantum mechanics has
already enabled important applications in biology, including positron emission
tomography (PET) with entangled photons, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using
nuclear magnetic resonance, and bio-magnetic imaging with superconducting
quantum interference devices (SQUIDs). In quantum metrology an even greater
range of applications arise from the ability to not just understand, but to
engineer, coherence and correlations at the quantum level. In the past few
years, quite dramatic progress has been seen in applying these ideas into
biological systems. Capabilities that have been demonstrated include enhanced
sensitivity and resolution, immunity to imaging artifacts and technical noise,
and characterization of the biological response to light at the single-photon
level. New quantum measurement techniques offer even greater promise, raising
the prospect for improved multi-photon microscopy and magnetic imaging, among
many other possible applications. Realization of this potential will require
cross-disciplinary input from researchers in both biology and quantum physics.
In this review we seek to communicate the developments of quantum metrology in
a way that is accessible to biologists and biophysicists, while providing
sufficient detail to allow the interested reader to obtain a solid
understanding of the field. We further seek to introduce quantum physicists to
some of the central challenges of optical measurements in biological science.Comment: Submitted review article, comments and suggestions welcom
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