We propose to complete a radial shear differential interference contrast (DIC) microscope based on Greek-ladder sieves, in which three structures are set up to demonstrate the feasibility of radial shear interference phase contrast imaging. A detailed analysis and mathematical derivation is presented based on the fact that DIC contrast is spatially separated by the optical path difference of two interfering beams in a small focal volume, focusing on the optical range difference between the three structures. An important reference is provided for subsequent applications, in particular radial shear differential interference in the localisation of surface damage points and tweezers in large-scale integrated circuits.
Diffraction lens had been widely used in the field of super-resolution imaging, laser dicing, and particle trapping. Although Greek-ladder photon sieves is a kind of amplitude-only diffraction lens and suitable for EUV and soft x-ray focusing and imaging, the focal length are hard to be measured precisely by non-destruction testing due to its fine feature. Here quasi-Walsh phase retrieval is proposed to measure the focal length in one-single exposure. Compared to the random scatter plate, a quasi-Walsh phase plate can not only greatly decrease the alignment precision, but also provide the unique solution of the test wavefront. Simulation experiments show that the proposed single-shot Walsh-modulation phase retrieval can measure the focal lengths of the Greek-ladder photon sieves with high precision, which can greatly facilitate the development of multi-focal diffraction lens.
Lateral Shearing Interferometer (LSI), as a kind of self-interference technology, can achieve high-precision wavefront sensing and phase imaging. Quadriwave Lateral Shearing Interferometry (QWLSI) divides the wavefront into four transverse dislocated beams by a checkerboard phase grating. The lateral-shearing interferogram of the four waves occurs on the image plane, and then the test wavefront is reconstructed. The reconstruction precision is determined by the shear ratio, thus the variable shear ratio can meet the requirement of the different measurement accuracy. Here we proposed variable-ratio lateral-shearing interferometry with a vortex-splitting grating. Different from the checkerboard grating, topological charge is first encoded into grating and is then optimized to obtain two shear ratios in the same interference setup. The proposed variable-ratio lateral-shearing setup including of only an axial motion device is robust, effective and variable precision for wavefront sensing.
Laser multi-focus separation technology is used as an efficient way to cut thick transparent materials and composites. In this paper, we propose a multi-focal design and experimental scheme based on refractive Fresnel lenses. Various refractive type multi-focal Fresnel lens designs were completed by combining theoretical calculations and Trace Pro software simulations, and the designed tri-focal optical system was experimentally verified by using N-BK7 glass, and the experimental errors were analyzed. The results show that the organic plastic (PMMA) processed multi-focal Fresnel lens can be applied to the high-power laser multi-focal optical system. The multi-focal optical system is highly stable and low cost, and has great application prospects.
Lateral shearing interferometry with different shear ratio has different measurement sensitivity, which corresponds to different measurement accuracy. To image the wavefront of an unknown system, high precision measurement accuracy is particularly important. Here a quadriwave lateral shearing interferometry (QWLSI) with continuous adjustable shear ratio is proposed, in which the light splitting grating is placed in the front of the first condenser lens rather than in late position for the traditional QWLSI. In this case, the shear ratio is proportional to the ratio of the defocusing amount to the focal length of the imaging lens. The newly developed QWLSI with continuously variable shear ratio, not only can measure the system aberration, but also calibrate the spatial resolution of the measured wavefront. Software GLAD simulation and experimental results on phase imaging show that the proposed scheme can not only realize variable-shear-ratio interferogram but also has a good robustness, which is well suitable for quantitative phase imaging.
High-power laser systems have high requirements on the size, shape, and uniformity of the focal spot. Both continuous phase plate (CPP) and lens array (LA) can be used for beam shaping and smoothing. However, their ability is limited and there are few studies on the cooperation of CPP and LA. In this paper, the joint design of the CPP and LA was proposed, we theoretically analyzed its principle and studied the method to achieve better shaping and smoothing performance. Then, the far-field focal spot properties of three beam smoothing methods of the LA, the CPP, the CPP combined with the LA were obtained and compared through numerical simulation. The result shows that the LA is mainly contribution to shaping and the CPP mainly reduces the high-contrast intensity modulation to a certain extent. The joint design of the CPP and the LA greatly improves the uniformity of the far-field focal spot, which is valuable for expanding the application scope of the CPP and the LA.
Wavefront sensor has been widely used for various research fields. Among these wavefront measuring techniques, Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor has the merit of simple structure, real-time detection and wide waveband. Traditional Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor is usually based on geometrical optics, which builds a micro-lens array in front of a CMOS sensor. Here amplitude-only photon-sieve array was proposed to replace the micro-lens array to reduce the cost and simultaneously to improve the measurement accuracy by super-resolution focusing of test wavefront. A simulation experiment was carried out through software GLAD and another optical experiment was implemented by Liquid crystal spatial light modulators (LC-SLM) to verify the effectiveness. As a kind of amplitude-only diffractive lens, largeaperture photon-sieve array can be easily fabricated by lithography, which has great potential to be applied for measurement of large-scale laser beam and optical element.
Interference wavefront detection technology has been widely used due to its non-contact, high sensitivity and high precision. Among many wavefront detection techniques, radial shearing interferometry is one of the most effective techniques because it does not need a standard reference beam, and it is easy to be designed as a common optical path without information loss and little affected by system error. However, the current radial shear interference technology still has the disadvantages that the optical path structure is not simple enough and cannot be applied to large-aperture optical systems. Focusing on the main problems of shear interference technology, we propose a radial shear interference technology based on a pair of photon sieves. A system consisting of two photon sieves can achieve radial shear interference, which greatly simplifies the optical setup and improves the stability of the optical system. In addition, the photon sieve has low manufacturing difficulty, flexible design, low cost and can meet the detection requirements of different optical systems. Therefore, the application of photon sieve in radial shear interference technology has great research significance.
Coherent diffractive imaging (CDI) is a lensless, high-resolution imaging method. In order to overcome the problems of poor-quality image and slow convergence of iterative algorithm in traditional CDI, here multimode fiber source is selected as the lighting source to replace the traditional plane-wave. A phase-only spatial light modulator (SLM) is used as a negative lens instead of a positive lens in a 4f imaging unit. The diffraction field can be rapidly changed at a very short distance so as to realize a fast convergence and then save a lot of iteration times. This proposed setup has advantages such as a simpler structure and static recording. Both simulations and visible-light experiments demonstrate the good imaging quality and robustness of this method.
Radial-shearing digital holography has been proposed to reconstruct the wavefront of test object in a common path, which can take use of a bifocal diffractive lens to realize radial-shearing interference. For coherent light source, the recording plane is usually located near the focal point in order to reduce the crosstalk. As for incoherent light source, on the one hand, the above recording cannot take advantage of the space-bandwidth product of optical detector, and on the other, the optical path length is far greater than the coherent length of the light source, which results in failure of effective interferogram. A high contrast interferogram must meet the requirement of nearly equal intensity between the two interference beams. Based on this viewpoint, a better recording plane for radial-shearing holography is in the middle location between the two images. Compared to the recording location with equal beam diameter, the midpoint of the two images is a better choice to improve the image quality on condition that one focal length is much greater than the other. Otherwise, this difference will gradually decrease as one focus is close to the other. The experiment was carried out to verify the validity of our proposed method.
The crosstalk problem between the background light and the signal light of the diffractive optical element severely degrades the image quality and limits the practical application. In this paper, we proposed an off-axis imaging technology aimed at multifocal diffractive lenses and performed geometrical imaging analysis to investigate the imaging distribution. Off-axis imaging ensured a high signal-to-noise ratio by separating the signal and the noise spatially and provided a larger space for parallel synchronization processing in different image plane. Taking the bifocal Greek-ladder lens as an example, the experiment achieved zero-crosstalk multiplanar images and verified the law of diffractive imaging. Besides, the critical condition for zero-crosstalk imaging was also studied.
Phase-shifting digital holography (PSDH) is considered as a promising imaging technique with wide application in optical storage, topography measurement and defect detection. The amplitude-only vortex lens is a kind of diffractive optical elements (DOEs) which can be used for focusing and imaging in a wide spectral region, such as coherent X-rays and terahertz wave. Here four-step PSDH with an amplitude-only vortex lens is proposed. Four frames of hologram can be recorded by rotating the vortex lens installed in the reference beam path. Both a 1951 U.S. air force resolution test target and a vortex focal spot are measured by four-step PSDH with vortex lens. The experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical analysis and verify the validity of our proposed PSDH with vortex lens.
A kind of diffractive optical elements (DOE) with star-ring topological structure is proposed and their focusing and imaging properties are studied in detail. The so-called star-ring topological structure denotes that a large number of pinholes distributed in many specific zone orbits. In two dimensional plane, this structure can be constructed by two constrains, one is a mapping function, which yields total potential zone orbits, corresponding to the optical path difference (OPD); the other is a switching sequence based on the given encoded seed elements and recursion relation to operate the valid zone orbits. The focusing and imaging properties of DOE with star-ring topological structure are only determined by the aperiodic sequence, and not relevant to the concrete geometry structure. In this way, we can not only complete the traditional symmetrical DOE, such as circular Dammam grating, Fresnel zone plates, photon sieves, and their derivatives, but also construct asymmetrical elements with anisotropic diffraction pattern. Similarly, free-form surface or three dimensional DOE with star-ring topological structure can be constructed by the same method proposed. In consequence of smaller size, lighter weight, more flexible design, these elements may allow for some new applications in micro and nanphotonics.
The non-collinear phase-matching in Potassium Dideuterium Phosphate (DKDP) crystal is analyzed in detail with signal pulse of center wavelength at 808 nm and pump pulse of wavelength at 526.5 nm. By numerical analysis, parametric bandwidths for various DKDP crystals of different deuteration level are presented. In particularly for DKDP crystals of 95% deuteration level, the optimal non-collinear angles, phase-matching angles, parametric bandwidths, walk-off angles, acceptance angles, efficiency coefficients, gain and gain bandwidths are provided based on the parameter concepts. Optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier based on DKDP crystal is designed and the output characteristics are simulated by OPA coupled wave equations for further discuss. It is concluded that DKDP crystals higher than 90% deuteration level can be utilized in ultra-short high power laser systems with compressed pulses broader than 30fs. The disadvantage is that the acceptance angles are small, increasing the difficulty of engineering regulation.
In high power laser systems, crystal defects introduced by manufacturing have significant impact on quality of light beams; finally affect the output status of high power laser system. The phase retrieval algorithm can precisely measure the crystal defects, such as the residual periodic perturbations in a relatively large area and the relatively small point defects, with the resolution of micrometer magnitude. At the same time, the multiple near-focus intensity measurements algorithm used here can retrieve the morphology of focal spot, which is modulated by the defects and cannot be directly measured due to its high power. In addition, the algorithm has been improved in order to use less measurement planes and less iteration times to complete retrieval.
KEYWORDS: 3D modeling, Reflectivity, Amplifiers, Optical amplifiers, Glasses, Neodymium, Data modeling, Monte Carlo methods, Fusion energy, Laser systems engineering
Amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) causes the decrease of the inverted population density and the nonuniformity of gain in slab amplifier for high power laser systems. In this paper, a three dimension model, based on the data in SG-II, in which the residual reflection in the cladding and the ASE process are taken into consideration, is built to analyze the space distribution and time evolution of small signal gain coefficient using Monte Carlo algorithm and ray tracing. This model has been verified by comparing with the experimental data. The traverse size of slab is 68.2cm×36.3cm, which is usually decided by the clear aperture and the manufacture. By means of the model, the impact of thickness, residual reflectivity and the stimulated cross section of neodymium glass to the ASE are analyzed in detail.
KEYWORDS: Modulation, Optical components, Standards development, High power lasers, Near field, Laser systems engineering, Phase modulation, Near field optics, Diffraction, National Ignition Facility
International standard ISO 10110-7 sets a strict limit on the size and quantity for surface defects of an optical element. For high-power laser, sub-beams caused by defects with different distributions interfere with each other in the transmission process, causing beam quality complex changes. So it is necessary to make a clear limitation on relative position of defects, thereby giving the standard a more comprehensive supplement. Based on the diffraction theory, the changes of beam modulation are studied. The influence of scratch depth on the distribution of near field beam modulation is also taken into account. Results demonstrate that when two parallel scratches are on the same or different surfaces of an element, they produce more severe modulation than single scratch, and the maximum modulation can be increased to 1.5 times. Meanwhile more strict requirements for scratch depth are put forward. The results could provide reference for the determination of defects specifications for large-diameter optical elements in high-power laser systems.
Zone plates and photon sieves can be used to focus soft X-rays and hard X-rays. Relative to the parallel plane wave incidence and focusing on the optical axis, we here present two different models to describe the other kinds of focusing properties. The former, the scaled zone plates or photon sieves are appropriate for the titled plane wave to image, which can alter the propagation direction. The latter, the eccentric elliptical zone plates or photon sieves are appropriate for the point-to-point off-axis focusing. Based on the above-mentioned models, the different algorithms are discussed in detail under the condition of different numerical apertures. Furthermore, the correctness of our model has been verified through the commercial software VirtualLAB. The obtained results can be used for the analysis, design, and simulation of different zone plates and photon sieves, meanwhile the non-coaxial characteristics can increase the flexibility of the optical system.
KEYWORDS: Modulation, Wavefronts, Phase shift keying, Near field, Near field optics, Contamination, High power lasers, Optical components, Particles, Diffraction
In high-power laser facilities for inertial confinement fusion, there are many large-diameter optical elements, which
inevitably have some flaws on the surface. The beam is modulated by these flaws after diffraction transmission, thereby
reducing the beam quality of the system. The optical field with high modulation may cause self-focusing in fused silica
and thus damage the optical components, which seriously affects the load capacity of the device. Therefore, for
high-power laser systems, near field beam quality also has a high demand. In this paper, the effect of flaws and nonideal
wavefront of sinusoidal modulation on the near-field quality at specific position behind the focusing lens is analyzed for
final target system of high power laser device based on the Huygens-Fresnel diffraction theory. Firstly the beam
modulation of ideal wavefront disturbed by flaws is investigated. And the modulation by phase type flaw is more serious
than amplitude type. Secondly, near field beam modulation of nonideal wavefront of sinusoidal phase disturbed by flaws
is analyzed. Results demonstrate that under some specific conditions of sinusoidal phase, modulation degree is reduced
and the beam quality is improved by the nonideal wavefront compared to the ideal wavefront. The results could give
some references to the improvement of near field beam quality and mitigation of risk of optical damage caused by
self-focusing.
Due to the limits of experimental conditions the laser damage test is confined to small area sample. By small area
damage test, some characteristics of the material can be obtained in qualitative. But the test result of the small area
damage testing cannot represent the performance of the material illuminated by large scale high power laser whose
typical scale is usually more than 250mm in diameter. Statistical approach is an important method to extrapolate the data
of small area test to predict large area performance to create the damage probability curve of large scale illuminated
material.
In this article, we represent a revised statistical representation of the damage probability which can be more useful to do
the extrapolation. A simulation based on the Monte Carlo method is also given to simulate the accuracy and reliability of
the extrapolation results.
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