This editorial describes the hybrid open access policy of Optical Engineering.

Visible light communication (VLC) is a unique alternative for indoor data transfer and developing beyond point-to-point. However, for realizing high-capacity networks, VLC is facing challenges including the constrained bandwidth of the optical access point and random occlusion. A network coding scheme for VLC (NC-VLC) is proposed, with increased throughput and system robustness. Based on the Lambertian illumination model, theoretical decoding failure probability of the multiuser NC-VLC system is derived, and the impact of the system parameters on the performance is analyzed. Experiments demonstrate the proposed scheme successfully in the indoor multiuser scenario. These results indicate that the NC-VLC system shows a good performance under the link loss and random occlusion.

This guest editorial introduces the Special Section on Plasmonics Systems and Applications.

This paper presents important parameters in performance of long-range surface plasmon (LRSP) structure (SF4/PVA/silver/PMMA-DR1) that are improved. We select poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) as the first dielectric layer due to its water solubility and good optical properties. The thickness of PVA and silver layers is optimized by transfer matrix method based on Fresnel equations. Surface morphologies of PVA and silver surfaces are analyzed by AFM imaging due to their important role in the performance of an LRSP structure. Furthermore, the sensitivity of an all-optical switch based on plasmon is investigated. In order to compare the sensitivity of LRSP and conventional surface plasmon (SP) structures in switching mode, full wide of half maximum, resonance angles, and pump powers of both structures are measured by a custom-made optical setup based on angular interrogation with a precision of 0.01 deg. Finally, we conclude that for creating equal signal levels in both samples, the required pump power for LRSP structure was about three times less than that for conventional SP; thus, these results led to power savings in optical switches.

We have proposed and numerically investigated two plasmonic structures for bandpass and band-stop filters. The bandpass filter is composed of two metal–insulator–metal (MIM) waveguides coupled to each other by a nonlinear rectangular nanocavity. The band-stop filter consists of an MIM waveguide side coupled to a Kerr-type nonlinear rectangular nanocavity. The optical filtering effect is verified by two-dimensional (2-D) finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations. It is demonstrated that based on optical nonlinearity we can easily make the proposed filters tunable by properly adjusting the intensity of incident light without changing the dimensions of the structures. The simulation results revealed that within the transmission spectrum, the selected central wavelength and the bandwidth of the filter can be tuned by the input signal intensity. The proposed structures are suitable to be used as highly dense integrated optical circuits, where limitations on the dimensions of the filter structure are vital.

We present the analytical solution of multiple core-shell nanoparticles using the multiple scattering theory. Plasmonic resonance from two and three core-shell nanoparticles is investigated to understand the optical properties of multiple core-shell nanoparticles. It is shown that the optical properties can be tuned either by changing the distance between core-shell nanoparticle or by changing their core-to-shell ratio. If the distance of two core-shell nanoparticle increases, the particles respond like two isolated core-shell nanoparticle, and if the distance decreases they show stronger resonance. We also demonstrate that the relative position of multiple core-shell nanoparticles plays a vital role for the enhancement of field intensity. The results provide a fast approach to analytically probe the tunable optical properties that solid single or multiple metal nanoparticles can demonstrate. We have validated our results using finite element method.

We have proposed and demonstrated numerically an ultrasmall and highly sensitive plasmonic hydrogen sensor based on an integrated microring resonator, with a footprint size as small as 4×4  μm2. With a palladium (Pd) or platinum (Pt) hydrogen-sensitive layer coated on the inner surface of the microring resonator and the excitation of surface plasmon modes at the interface from the microring resonator waveguide, the device is highly sensitive to low hydrogen concentration variation, and the sensitivity is at least one order of magnitude larger than that of the optical fiber-based hydrogen sensor. We have also investigated the tradeoff between the portion coverage of the Pd/Pt layer and the sensitivity, as well as the width of the hydrogen-sensitive layer. This ultrasmall plasmonic hydrogen sensor holds promise for the realization of a highly compact sensor with integration capability for applications in hydrogen fuel economy.

We treat fundamental resonance effects in hybridized metal–dielectric elements that may find applications in absorption, sensing, and displays. The hybrid structures support guided-mode resonance (GMR) and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) operating independently or in unison. Numerical simulations of periodic resonant films coated in gold that effectively combine principles of both resonance effects show viability of absorbers with equalized spectra and hybrid waveguides. The experimentally measured spectra show qualitative agreement with theoretical models. We introduce a hybrid GMR/SPR refractive-index sensor consisting of a thin aluminum film integrated with a subwavelength silicon-dioxide grating. The sensor operates between the Rayleigh wavelengths of the cover and the substrate. A GMR is excited by TE-polarized light and is subsequently attenuated by the Rayleigh anomaly as the cover index increases. In transverse-magnetic-polarized light, it operates as a Rayleigh sensor with sharp spectral features that would be easily monitored with a spectrum analyzer. As a final device example, we present simulation results pertaining to a one-dimensional color filter utilizing SPR, GMR, and the Rayleigh anomaly and convert it into a polarization insensitive two-dimensional device. With dual periods along orthogonal directions, two resonant peaks are induced within the visible spectrum for unpolarized input light rendering a color-mixing effect. The output color of the dual pixel is tunable with the input polarization state.

Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), widely considered to be the next generation technology for high-density data storage devices, uses a tiny plasmonic antenna called a near-field transducer (NFT) to focus light down to a subdiffraction volume. This results in a temporary and local rise in temperature of the recording medium thereby reducing its coercivity, allowing the external magnetic field to write data bits in the medium. The performance of any HAMR system strongly depends on the design of the NFT. The optical performance in terms of the optical coupling efficiency and the spot size for several different NFT designs, including the triangle antenna, E antenna, bowtie aperture, lollipop antenna, and C-aperture, are considered. Also, the corresponding temperature rise in the recording medium and the NFT is calculated and several figures of merit based on the temperature profile are compared for the different designs. This work gives a comparison of the relative performances of different types of NFT and can be a basis for choosing a suitable design for HAMR applications.

The problems related to the development of a multielement immunosensor device with the prism type of excitation of a surface plasmon resonance in the Kretschmann configuration and with the scanning of the incidence angle of monochromatic light aimed at the reliable determination of the levels of three molecular markers of the system of hemostasis (fibrinogen, soluble fibrin, and D-dimer) are considered. We have analyzed the influence of a technology for the production of a gold coating, modification of its surface, and noise effects on the enhancement of sensitivity and stability of the operation of devices. A means of oriented immobilization of monoclonal antibodies on the surface of gold using a multilayer film of copper aminopentacyanoferrate is developed. For the model proteins of studied markers, the calibrating curves (maximum sensitivity of 0.5  μg/ml) are obtained, and the level of fibrinogen in blood plasma of donors is determined. A four-channel modification of the device with an application of a reference channel for comparing the elimination of the noise of temperature fluctuations has been constructed. This device allows one to execute the express-diagnostics of prethrombotic states and the monitoring of the therapy of diseases of the blood circulation system.

A plasmonic metal–insulator–metal (MIM) waveguide has great success in confining the surface plasmon up to a deep subwavelength scale. The structure of a nonlinear Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) using a plasmonic MIM waveguide has been analyzed. A one-bit magnitude comparator has been designed using an MZI and two linear control waveguides. The device works on the Kerr effect inside the plasmonics waveguide. The mathematical description of the device is explained. The simulation of the device is done using MATLAB® and the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method.

CdS quantum dots (QDs) embedded in a phosphate glass matrix were investigated. The time-resolved Z-scan technique was used to determine the nonlinear refraction and absorption for different concentrations of CdS QDs. The results indicate that the nonlinear absorption presents a reverse saturable character, which is a desirable feature in the design of optical limiting devices. In addition, strong experimental evidence that the main contribution onto the refractive index variation is not of thermal origin was found. The observed variation presents a character similar to an electronic-like effect. These evidences are supported by numerical simulations.

This work employs the complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) camera to acquire images in a scanning manner for laser line scan (LLS) underwater imaging to alleviate backscatter impact of seawater. Two operating features of the CMOS camera, namely the region of interest (ROI) and rolling shutter, can be utilized to perform image scan without the difficulty of translating the receiver above the target as the traditional LLS imaging systems have. By the dynamically reconfigurable ROI of an industrial CMOS camera, we evenly divided the image into five subareas along the pixel rows and then scanned them by changing the ROI region automatically under the synchronous illumination by the fun beams of the lasers. Another scanning method was explored by the rolling shutter operation of the CMOS camera. The fun beam lasers were turned on/off to illuminate the narrow zones on the target in a good correspondence to the exposure lines during the rolling procedure of the camera’s electronic shutter. The frame synchronization between the image scan and the laser beam sweep may be achieved by either the strobe lighting output pulse or the external triggering pulse of the industrial camera. Comparison between the scanning and nonscanning images shows that contrast of the underwater image can be improved by our LLS imaging techniques, with higher stability and feasibility than the mechanically controlled scanning method.

We present an improved iteration algorithm for speckle-correlation imaging through scattering media. We employ an approximate solution obtained from a bispectrum-analysis method as the initial condition of the iterative process. This method avoids several different runs performed with different random initial conditions in the traditional iteration algorithm and reduces the execution time in comparison with the conventional bispectrum-analysis method. Therefore, we obtain a balance between image quality and reconstruction speed. The feasibility of the proposed method is proved by the experimental results.

Magnetic resonance (MR) images suffer from intensity inhomogeneity. Segmentation-based approaches can simultaneously achieve both intensity inhomogeneity compensation (IIC) and tissue segmentation for MR images with little noise, but they often fail for images polluted by severe noise. Here, we propose a noise-robust algorithm named noise-suppressed multiplicative intrinsic component optimization (NSMICO) for simultaneous IIC and tissue segmentation. Considering the spatial characteristics in an image, an adaptive nonlocal means filtering term is incorporated into the objective function of NSMICO to decrease image deterioration due to noise. Then, a fuzzy local factor term utilizing the spatial and gray-level relationship among local pixels is embedded into the objective function to reach a balance between noise suppression and detail preservation. Experimental results on synthetic natural and MR images with various levels of intensity inhomogeneity and noise, as well as in vivo clinical MR images, have demonstrated the effectiveness of the NSMICO and its superiority to three competing approaches. The NSMICO could be potentially valuable for MR image IIC and tissue segmentation.

Computer-generated holography (CGH), which is a process of generating digital holograms, is computationally expensive. Recently, several methods/systems of parallelizing the process using graphic processing units (GPUs) have been proposed. Indeed, use of multiple GPUs or a personal computer (PC) cluster (each PC with GPUs) enabled great improvements in the process speed. However, extant literature has less often explored systems involving rapid generation of multiple digital holograms and specialized systems for rapid generation of a digital video hologram. This study proposes a system that uses a PC cluster and is able to more efficiently generate a video hologram. The proposed system is designed to simultaneously generate multiple frames and accelerate the generation by parallelizing the CGH computations across a number of frames, as opposed to separately generating each individual frame while parallelizing the CGH computations within each frame. The proposed system also enables the subprocesses for generating each frame to execute in parallel through multithreading. With these two schemes, the proposed system significantly reduced the data communication time for generating a digital hologram when compared with that of the state-of-the-art system.

An inspection system using estimated three-dimensional (3-D) surface characteristics information to detect and classify the faults to increase the quality control on the frequently used industrial components is proposed. Shape from shading (SFS) is one of the basic and classic 3-D shape recovery problems in computer vision. In our application, we developed a system using Frankot and Chellappa SFS method based on the minimization of the selected basis function. First, the specialized image acquisition system captured the images of the component. To eliminate noise, wavelet transform is applied to the taken images. Then, estimated gradients were used to obtain depth and surface profiles. Depth information was used to determine and classify the surface defects. Also, a comparison made with some linearization-based SFS algorithms was discussed. The developed system was applied to real products and the results indicated that using SFS approaches is useful and various types of defects can easily be detected in a short period of time.

A single-channel encryption method for color images is proposed using chessboard grating and a phase-retrieval algorithm in the Fresnel domain. The pixel sampling operation is introduced to convert the color image to be encrypted into a Bayer image. Thereafter, with a single channel, the Bayer image is encoded by the chessboard grating before being sent into a diffractive-imaging-based encryption scheme. The cryptosystem is simple owing to only one single intensity pattern being required during encryption. In the decryption procedure, the phase-retrieval algorithm and the chessboard grating are combined to extract the plaintext from the intensity pattern. This proposal not only can successfully encrypt a color image into a single diffractive intensity pattern but also can recover the primary color image with high quality from the one single diffraction pattern with a compact optical setup. Numerical simulations are carried out to prove the feasibility and validity of the proposal.

Fourier ptychographic microscopy (FPM) is a recently developed computational imaging technique that achieves gigapixel images with both high resolution and large field-of-view. In the current FPM experimental setup, the dark-field images with high-angle illuminations are easily overwhelmed by stray lights and background noises due to the low signal-to-noise ratio, thus significantly degrading the achievable resolution of the FPM approach. We provide an overall and systematic data preprocessing scheme to enhance the FPM’s performance, which involves sampling analysis, underexposed/overexposed treatments, background noises suppression, and stray lights elimination. It is demonstrated experimentally with both US Air Force (USAF) 1951 resolution target and biological samples that the benefit of the noise removal by these methods far outweighs the defect of the accompanying signal loss, as part of the lost signals can be compensated by the improved consistencies among the captured raw images. In addition, the reported nonparametric scheme could be further cooperated with the existing state-of-the-art algorithms with a great flexibility, facilitating a stronger noise-robust capability of the FPM approach in various applications.

Using the entangled photons generated by the spontaneous parametric down conversion as a light source, we demonstrate the first quantum ghost imaging system with a modified compressive sensing technique based on the spatial correlation of sensing matrix (SCCS). The ghost image is achieved at 16.27% sampling ratio of raster scanning and 0.65  photons/pixel at each measurement on average. Our results show that image quality and photon-utilization efficiency are remarkably enhanced in comparison with the traditional compressive imaging technique, due to the sensing matrix and noise-free measurement vector rebuilt by SCCS technique. It suggests the great potential of SCCS technique applied in quantum imaging and other quantum optics fields, such as quantum charactering and quantum state tomography to use the information loaded in each photon with high efficiency.

We present an extensible local feature descriptor that can encode both geometric and photometric information. We first construct a unique and stable local reference frame (LRF) using the sphere neighboring points of a feature point. Then, all the neighboring points are transformed with the LRF to keep invariance to transformations. The sphere neighboring region is divided into several sphere shells. In each sphere shell, we calculate the cosine values of the point with the x-axis and z-axis. These two values are then mapped into two one-dimensional (1-D) histograms, respectively. Finally, all of the 1-D histograms are concatenated to form the signature of position angles histogram (SPAH) feature. The SPAH feature can easily be extended to a color SPAH (CSPAH) by adding another 1-D histogram generated by the photometric information of each point in each shell. The SPAH and CSPAH were rigorously tested on several common datasets. The experimental results show that both feature descriptors were highly descriptive and robust under Gaussian noise and varying mesh decimations. Moreover, we tested our SPAH- and CSPAH-based three-dimensional object recognition algorithms on four standard datasets. The experimental results show that our algorithms outperformed the state-of-the-art algorithms on these datasets.

We present an experimental configuration that enables form measurement from a single-shot camera exposure. It combines two-wavelength contouring with spatial multiplexing digital holography. This is achieved by simultaneously illuminating the test object from two different angles. The two illumination directions and the two-wavelength contouring result in four holograms, which are spatially multiplexed on a single camera target avoiding unwanted cross interference between them by means of coherence gating. In contrast to standard holographic contouring methods, the proposed technique reduces speckle decorrelation noise and enables single-shot form measurement. To demonstrate this technique, the shape of a microcold drawing part is determined.

Multiple digital image correlation (DIC) systems can enlarge the measurement field without losing effective resolution in the area of interest (AOI). However, the results calculated in substereo DIC systems are located in its local coordinate system in most cases. To stitch the data obtained by each individual system, a data merging algorithm is presented in this paper for global measurement of multiple stereo DIC systems. A set of encoded targets is employed to assist the extrinsic calibration, of which the three-dimensional (3-D) coordinates are reconstructed via digital close range photogrammetry. Combining the 3-D targets with precalibrated intrinsic parameters of all cameras, the extrinsic calibration is significantly simplified. After calculating in substereo DIC systems, all data can be merged into a universal coordinate system based on the extrinsic calibration. Four stereo DIC systems are applied to a four point bending experiment of a steel reinforced concrete beam structure. Results demonstrate high accuracy for the displacement data merging in the overlapping field of views (FOVs) and show feasibility for the distributed FOVs measurement.

The development and implementation of a practical instrument based on an embedded technique for autofocus and polarization alignment of polarization maintaining fiber is presented. For focusing efficiency and stability, an image-based focusing algorithm fully considering the image definition evaluation and the focusing search strategy was used to accomplish autofocus. For improving the alignment accuracy, various image-based algorithms of alignment detection were developed with high calculation speed and strong robustness. The instrument can be operated as a standalone device with real-time processing and convenience operations. The hardware construction, software interface, and image-based algorithms of main modules are described. Additionally, several image simulation experiments were also carried out to analyze the accuracy of the above alignment detection algorithms. Both the simulation results and experiment results indicate that the instrument can achieve the accuracy of polarization alignment <±0.1  deg.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technology holds the potential for onsite real-time measurements of steel products. However, for a mobile and robust LIBS measurement system, an adequate small and ruggedized laser source is a key requirement. In this contribution, we present tests with our compact high-power laser source, which, initially, was developed for ignition applications. The CTR HiPoLas® laser is a robust diode pumped solid-state laser with a passive Q-switch with dimensions of less than 10  cm3. The laser generates 2.5-ns pulses with 30 mJ at a maximum continuous repetition rate of about 30 Hz. Feasibility of LIBS experiments with the laser source was experimentally verified with steel samples. The results show that the laser with its current optical output parameters is very well-suited for LIBS measurements. We believe that the miniaturized laser presented here will enable very compact and robust portable high-performance LIBS systems.

Autonomous aerial refueling is a significant technology that can significantly extend the endurance of unmanned aerial vehicles. A reliable method that can accurately estimate the position and attitude of the probe relative to the drogue is the key to such a capability. A drogue pose estimation method based on infrared vision sensor is introduced with the general goal of yielding an accurate and reliable drogue state estimate. First, by employing direct least squares ellipse fitting and convex hull in OpenCV, a feature point matching and interference point elimination method is proposed. In addition, considering the conditions that some infrared LEDs are damaged or occluded, a missing point estimation method based on perspective transformation and affine transformation is designed. Finally, an accurate and robust pose estimation algorithm improved by the runner-root algorithm is proposed. The feasibility of the designed visual measurement system is demonstrated by flight test, and the results indicate that our proposed method enables precise and reliable pose estimation of the probe relative to the drogue, even in some poor conditions.

Laser imaging systems are prominent candidates for detection and tracking of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in current and future security scenarios. Laser reflection characteristics for laser imaging (e.g., laser gated viewing) of small UAVs are investigated to determine their laser radar cross section (LRCS) by analyzing the intensity distribution of laser reflection in high resolution images. For the first time, LRCSs are determined in a combined experimental and computational approaches by high resolution laser gated viewing and three-dimensional rendering. An optimized simple surface model is calculated taking into account diffuse and specular reflectance properties based on the Oren–Nayar and the Cook–Torrance reflectance models, respectively.

Phase measuring profilometry and moiré methodology have been widely applied to the three-dimensional shape measurement of target objects, because of their high measuring speed and accuracy. However, these methods suffer from inherent limitations called a correspondence problem, or 2π-ambiguity problem. Although a kind of sensing method to combine well-known stereo vision and phase measuring profilometry (PMP) technique simultaneously has been developed to overcome this problem, it still requires definite improvement for sensing speed and measurement accuracy. We propose a dynamic programming-based stereo PMP method to acquire more reliable depth information and in a relatively small time period. The proposed method efficiently fuses information from two stereo sensors in terms of phase and intensity simultaneously based on a newly defined cost function of dynamic programming. In addition, the important parameters are analyzed at the view point of the 2π-ambiguity problem and measurement accuracy. To analyze the influence of important hardware and software parameters related to the measurement performance and to verify its efficiency, accuracy, and sensing speed, a series of experimental tests were performed with various objects and sensor configurations.

Localized heating of roughened steel surfaces using highly divergent laser light emitted from high-power laser diode arrays was experimentally demonstrated and compared with theoretical predictions. Polarization dependence was analyzed using Fresnel coefficients to understand the laser-induced temperature rise of HY-80 steel plates under 383- to 612-W laser irradiation. Laser-induced, transient temperature distributions were directly measured using bulk thermocouple probes and thermal imaging. Finite-element analysis yielded quantitative assessment of energy deposition and heat transport in HY-80 steel using absorptivity as a tuning parameter. The extracted absorptivity values ranged from 0.62 to 0.75 for S-polarized and 0.63 to 0.85 for P-polarized light, in agreement with partially oxidized iron surfaces. Microstructural analysis using electron backscatter diffraction revealed a heat affected zone for the highest temperature conditions (612 W, P-polarized) as evidence of rapid quenching and an austenite to martensite transformation. The efficient use of diode arrays for laser-assisted advanced manufacturing technologies, such as hybrid friction stir welding, is discussed.

Recent advances in precision manufacturing have generated an increasing demand for accurate microscale three-dimensional metrology approaches. Structured light (SL) sensory systems can be used to successfully measure objects in the microscale. However, there are two main challenges in designing SL systems to measure complex microscale objects: (1) the limited measurement volume defined by the system triangulation and microscope optics and (2) the increased random noise in the measurements introduced by the microscope magnification of the noise from the fringe patterns. In a paper, a methodology is proposed for the design of SL systems using image focus fusion for microscale applications, maximizing the measurement volume and minimizing measurement noise for a given set of hardware components. An empirical calibration procedure that relies on a global model for the entire measurement volume to reduce measurement errors is also proposed. Experiments conducted with a variety of microscale objects validate the effectiveness of the proposed design methodology.

A straight effective method to produce partially coherent beams with controllable time-dependent coherence is demonstrated. We theoretically deduce that a time-dependent partially coherent beam can be generated by imposing dynamic random phase on a coherent laser beam. The degree of coherence of the beam is determined by an amplitude control parameter of the dynamic random phase. We experimentally corroborate that after a completely coherent laser beam reflected from a spatial light modulator, loaded with a particular dynamic random phase, this beam is transformed into a partially coherent beam with time-dependent coherence.

Microfluidic devices provide a platform with wide ranging applications from environmental monitoring to disease diagnosis. They offer substantive advantages but are often not optimized or designed to be used by nonexpert researchers. Microchannels of a microanalysis platform and their geometrical characterization are of eminent importance when designing such devices. We present a method that is used to optimize each microchannel within a device using high-throughput particle manipulation. For this purpose, glass-based microfluidic devices, with three-dimensional channel networks of several geometrical sizes, were fabricated by employing laser fabrication techniques. The effect of channel geometry was investigated by employing an optical tweezer. The optical trapping force depends on the flow velocity that is associated with the dimensions of the microchannel. We observe a linear dependence of the trapping efficiency and of the fluid flow velocity, with the channel dimensions. We determined that the highest trapping efficiency was achieved for microchannels with aspect ratio equal to one. Numerical simulation validated the impact of the device design dimensions on the trapping efficiency. This investigation indicates that the geometrical characteristics, the flow velocity, and trapping efficiency are crucial and should be considered when fabricating microfluidic devices for cell studies.

An attempt has been made to propose a passive flexure-based semikinematic optimized mounting design for mirror fixing devices (MFDs) to mount spacecraft mirrors made of brittle materials, especially for high aspect ratio mirrors with low available space for mounting in satellites. The traditionally used tangent cantilever spiders occupy a lot of space and are suitable only for small mirrors. Similarly, the efficiency of flexural bipods is lost if not placed 120 deg apart, which is not possible in high aspect ratio mirrors. Two mounting configurations, one with collinear MFDs and the other with staggered MFDs, have been studied. An optimization problem is set up with dimensions of the proposed design as design variables and constraints imposed on structural performance of the mirror assembly. Investigations indicate that both configurations have potential applications in spacecrafts as they have provided feasible results and have satisfactory optical performance as well.

Ion beam sputtering (IBS) possesses strong surface nanostructuring behaviors, where dual microscopic phenomenon can be aroused to induce the formation of ultrasmooth surfaces or regular nanostructures. Low-energy IBS of fused silica surfaces is investigated to discuss the formation mechanism and the regulation of the IBS-induced nanostructures. The research results indicate that these microscopic phenomena can be attributed to the interaction of the IBS-induced surface roughening and smoothing effects, and the interaction process strongly depends on the sputtering conditions. Alternatively, ultrasmooth surface or regular nanostructure can be selectively generated through the regulation of the nanostructuring process, and the features of the generated nanostructures, such as amplitude and period, also can be regulated. Consequently, two different technology aims of nanofabrication, including nanometer-scale and nanometer-precision fabrication, can be realized, respectively. These dual microscopic mechanisms distinguish IBS as a promising nanometer manufacturing technology for the optical surfaces.

A multilayer comprising birefringent thin films is devised to present to function as a polarization beam splitter and waveplate simultaneously. By arranging such a multilayer on a right triangle-shaped corrugated surface, a polarizer is realized to align the randomly oscillating electric field of an unpolarized wave into a linear polarized wave without loss.

We demonstrated the noise-like pulse (NLP) generation in an ytterbium-doped fiber (YDF) laser with tungsten disulphide (WS2). Stable fundamental mode locking and second-order harmonic mode locking were observed. The saturable absorber (SA) was a WS2-polyvinyl alcohol film. The modulation depth of the WS2 film was 2.4%, and the saturable optical intensity was 155  MW cm−2. Based on this SA, the fundamental NLP with a pulse width of 20 ns and repetition rate of 7 MHz were observed. The autocorrelation trace of output pulses had a coherent spike, which came from NLP. The average pulse width of the spike was 550 fs on the top of a broad pedestal. The second-order harmonic NLP had a spectral bandwidth of 1.3 nm and pulse width of 10 ns. With the pump power of 400 mW, the maximum output power was 22.2 mW. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a noise-like mode locking in an YDF laser based on WS2-SA in an all normal dispersion regime was obtained.

This paper proposes an original scheme to generate the photonic dual-tone optical millimeter wave (MMW) carrying the 16-star quadrature-amplitude-modulation (QAM) signal via an optical phase modulator (PM) and an interleaver with adaptive photonic frequency-nonupling without phase precoding. To enable the generated optical vector MMW signal to resist the power fading effect caused by the fiber chromatic dispersion, the modulated −5th- and +4th-order sidebands are selected from the output of the PM, which is driven by the precoding 16-star QAM signal. The modulation index of the PM is optimized to gain the maximum opto-electrical conversion efficiency. A radio over fiber link is built by simulation, and the simulated constellations and the bit error rate graph demonstrate that the frequency-nonupling 16-star QAM MMW signal has good transmission performance. The simulation results agree well with our theoretical results.

We experimentally investigate the polarization insensitivity and cascadability of an all-optical wavelength converter for differential phase-shift keyed (DPSK) signals for the first time. The proposed wavelength converter is composed of a one-bit delay interferometer demodulation stage followed by a single semiconductor optical amplifier. The impact of input DPSK signal polarization fluctuation on receiver sensitivity for the converted signal is carried out. It is found that this scheme is almost insensitive to the state of polarization of the input DPSK signal. Furthermore, the cascadability of the converter is demonstrated in a two-path recirculating loop. Error-free transmission is achieved with 20 stage cascaded wavelength conversions over 2800 km, where the power penalty is <3.4  dB at bit error rate of 10−9.

We present an analytical study on the mutual injection mechanism of a spectral beam combining elements using ray tracing and diffraction integrals. We elucidate how mutual injection degrades the beam quality of combined lasers, while the feedback interinjection of the emitters oscillates in an external cavity. Because of the grating diffraction and feedback from the output plane mirror, the mutual injection beam establishes a stable positive feedback between the two emitters. The proposed theoretical model is also verified experimentally by comparing the output under different conditions.

An erbium-doped fiber ring laser with embedded Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) is constructed and experimentally demonstrated for strain and refractive index (RI) measurement. The MZI consists of a segment of thin-core fiber sandwiched between two single-mode fibers and acts as both the sensing component as well as a bandpass filter to select the lasing wavelength. The strain sensitivity of ∼-0.97  pm/μϵ and RI sensitivity of ∼44.88  nm/RIU are obtained in the range of 0 to 1750  μϵ and 1.3300 to 1.3537, respectively. The high-optical signal-to-noise ratio of >50  dB and narrow 3-dB bandwidth of <0.11  nm obtained indicate that the fiber ring laser sensor is promising for high-precision strain and RI measurement.

A generalized inhomogeneous coupled nonlinear Schrödinger system, which has certain applications in nonlinear optics or Bose–Einstein condensation, is investigated. The bilinear form and bilinear Bäcklund transformation are obtained via the Hirota method. N-soliton solutions are derived, and we graphically investigate the effects of the time-dependent coefficients on the solitons and their interactions. Physical quantities, such as the amplitude, width, velocity, and energy, are also derived. We see that the time-dependent coefficients have no influence on the amplitude of the soliton. With the changes in the amplitudes, the two solitons can, respectively, be enhanced and suppressed after the interaction. Interactions between the two cubic and two periodic solitons are also derived. The interactions are inelastic.

In space optical communications, it is important to obtain the most efficient performance of line of sight (LOS) pointing system. The errors of position (latitude, longitude, and altitude), attitude angles (pitch, yaw, and roll), and installation angle among a different coordinates system are usually ineluctable when assembling and running an aircraft optical communication terminal. These errors would lead to pointing errors and make it difficult for the LOS system to point to its terminal to establish a communication link. The LOS pointing technology of an aircraft optical communication system has been researched using a transformation matrix between the coordinate systems of two aircraft terminals. A method of LOS calibration has been proposed to reduce the pointing error. In a flight test, a successful 144-km link was established between two aircrafts. The position and attitude angles of the aircraft have been obtained to calculate the pointing angle in azimuth and elevation provided by using a double-antenna GPS/INS system. The size of the field of uncertainty (FOU) and the pointing accuracy are analyzed based on error theory, and it has been also measured using an observation camera installed next to the optical LOS. Our results show that the FOU of aircraft optical communications is 10 mrad without a filter, which is the foundation to acquisition strategy and scanning time.

A theoretical approach is presented to evaluate the bit error rate (BER) performance of an optical fiber transmission system with quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) modulation under the combined influence of polarization mode dispersion (PMD) and group velocity dispersion (GVD) in a single-mode fiber (SMF). The analysis is carried out without and with polarization division multiplexed (PDM) transmission considering a coherent homodyne receiver. The probability density function (pdf) of the random phase fluctuations due to PMD and GVD at the output of the receiver is determined analytically, considering the pdf of differential group delay (DGD) to be Maxwellian distribution and that of GVD to be Gaussian approximation. The exact pdf of the phase fluctuation due to PMD and GVD is also evaluated from its moments using a Monte Carlo simulation technique. Average BER is evaluated by averaging the conditional BER over the pdf of the random phase fluctuation. The BER performance results are evaluated for different system parameters. It is found that PDM-QPSK coherent homodyne system suffers more power penalty than the homodyne QPSK system without PDM. A PDM-QPSK system suffers a penalty of 4.3 dB whereas power penalty of QPSK system is 3.0 dB at a BER of 10−9 for DGD of 0.8 Tb and GVD of 1700  ps/nm. Analytical results are compared with the experimental results reported earlier and found to have good conformity.

A superfluorescent fiber source (SFS) with the low Ge-doped and Er/Ce codoped photonic crystal fiber (ECPCF) is proposed to improve the radiation resistance of SFS. The radiation effects of SFSs for an Er/Ce codoped conventional fiber (ECF) and a low Ge-doped and ECPCF are investigated in a Co60 gamma-ray environment. Results show that the low Ge-doped photonic crystal fiber exhibits better radiation tolerance than its counterpart in the Er/Ce codoped fibers, and the attenuation of the power of ECPCF-SFS is significantly smaller than that of ECF-SFS. In addition, the radiation-induced spectral variation of ECPCF-SFS with increased radiation dose is less than that of ECF-SFS. ECPCF-SFS simultaneously exhibits higher recovery performance than ECF-SFS.

The effect of the discrete values of the refractive index of the surrounding medium on the spectral behavior of the whispering-gallery modes (WGMs) in the elastic scattering spectra of high-refractive-index silica microspheres submerged in fluids, such as air, water, and glycerol, is studied. The elastic scattering spectral measurements, as well as the spectral autocorrelation analysis of these elastic scattering spectra show that the spectral-mode spacing, the spectral-mode density, and the spectral-mode definition of the WGMs decrease as the refractive index of the surrounding fluid increases. We believe that this work opens up the way for optofluidic applications of high-refractive-index silica microsphere-based guided wave optics.

The efficient coupling of photons from a free-space quantum channel into a single-mode optical fiber (SMF) has important implications for quantum network concepts involving SMF interfaces to quantum detectors, atomic systems, integrated photonics, and direct coupling to a fiber network. Propagation through atmospheric turbulence, however, leads to wavefront errors that degrade mode matching with SMFs. In a free-space quantum channel, this leads to photon losses in proportion to the severity of the aberration. This is particularly problematic for satellite-Earth quantum channels, where atmospheric turbulence can lead to significant wavefront errors. This report considers propagation from low-Earth orbit to a terrestrial ground station and evaluates the efficiency with which photons couple either through a circular field stop or into an SMF situated in the focal plane of the optical receiver. The effects of atmospheric turbulence on the quantum channel are calculated numerically and quantified through the quantum bit error rate and secure key generation rates in a decoy-state BB84 protocol. Numerical simulations include the statistical nature of Kolmogorov turbulence, sky radiance, and an adaptive-optics system under closed-loop control.

A wide-band (6,5) single-walled carbon nanotube metamaterial absorber design with near unity absorption in the visible and ultraviolet frequency regions for solar cell applications is proposed. The frequency response of the proposed design provides wide-band with a maximum of 99.2% absorption. The proposed design is also simulated with (5,4), (6,4), (7,5), (9,4), and (10,3) chiralities, and results are compared to show that the proposed design works best with (6,5) carbon nanotube (CNT) but also good for other chiral CNTs in the visible and ultraviolet frequency region. The geometric structure was carefully analyzed for its contribution to the absorption behavior. The absorber design is highly flexible and capable of keeping the wide-band with high absorption. Due to the excellent symmetric characteristics of the proposed design, which provides polarization independency under normal incidence (transverse electromagnetic mode), the proposed metamaterial absorber is a good candidate for the solar cell application, where absorbance can be kept high with respect to the polarization angle.

The finite-element method (FEM) and eigenmode expansion method (EEM) were adopted to analyze the guided modes and spectrum of phase-shift fiber Bragg grating at five phase-shift degrees (including zero, 1/4π, 1/2π, 3/4π, and π). In previous studies on optical fiber grating, conventional coupled-mode theory was crucial. This theory contains abstruse knowledge about physics and complex computational processes, and thus is challenging for users. Therefore, a numerical simulation method was coupled with a simple and rigorous design procedure to help beginners and users to overcome difficulty in entering the field; in addition, graphical simulation results were presented. To reduce the difference between the simulated context and the actual context, a perfectly matched layer and perfectly reflecting boundary were added to the FEM and the EEM. When the FEM was used for grid cutting, the object meshing method and the boundary meshing method proposed in this study were used to effectively enhance computational accuracy and substantially reduce the time required for simulation. In summary, users can use the simulation results in this study to easily and rapidly design an optical fiber communication system and optical sensors with spectral characteristics.

We prepared a lenticular microlens array (LMA) using a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) gel and an interdigitated electrode. By applying a DC voltage to the electrode, the surface of the PVC gel can be waved with an LMA character. When the voltage is removed, the wavy PVC gel can recover its flat surface gradually. With the aid of a polarity-inverted voltage, the recovering time can be largely reduced. The LMA can present a stable dynamic response when it is repetitively impacted by a pulse voltage. The experimental results are given, and the mechanism of reducing the dynamic response time is explained. Our LMA with improved response time has potential applications in sensing, beam steering, biometrics, and displays.

Detection of Hg2+ with high sensitivity is of great significance in the biochemical sensing field. Quantitative of Hg2+ was realized based on the influence of Hg2+ on the UV–vis absorption performance of Au–Pt–Au core-shell nanoraspberry (APA)–rhodamine-6G (R6G) structure. First, APA sol was added into R6G indicator solution and the UV–vis absorption signal intensity of R6G was evidently promoted. The signal intensity monotonously increased as more APA sol was added. However, when HgCl2 solution was introduced, the signal intensity declined. A linear relationship between Hg2+ concentration and signal intensity at 527 nm was revealed, based on which quantitative determination of Hg2+ could be realized. Hg2+ detection sensitivity was measured to be 0.031 a.u./M with a limit of detection of 10-7 M and the response time was 20 s. A high Hg2+ detection selectivity over Cu2+, Na+, Li+, and K+ was demonstrated. Due to its simplicity and high sensitivity, the proposed method could find an extensive application prospect in the Hg2+ detection field.