A compact Interferometric Tomograph has flown on a MASER sounding rocket in spring 2002. This original instrument has been developed by Lambda-X (optics) and the Swedish Space Corporation-SSC (electronics) to measure 3-dimentional temperature (through refractive index) distribution in a liquid while it evaporates though a limited free surface. The tomograph includes 6 interferometers arranged symmetrically around a liquid cell. The paper describes the module and concentrates on the optical beam splitting and combining original systems that have been implemented in the compact instrument; holographic gratings are used to split the sole laser beam into 6 beams and to combine the 6 interferometer views on 2 CCD cameras. Finally, 3-dimentional temperature distributions reconstructed from flight data are presented.
The Protein Crystallisation Diagnostic Facility (PCDF) is a multi-user facility to study the protein crystallisation under the conditions of micro-gravity onboard the International Space Station (ISS) Columbus facility. Large size protein crystals will growth under reduced gravity in thermally controlled reactors. A combination of diagnostic tools like video system, microscope, interferometer, and light scattering device shall help to understand the growth phenomena.
The Fluid Science Laboratory (FSL) is a multiuser facility developed and built by the European Space Agency (ESA). Its launch onboard the Columbus Laboratory, a module of the International Space Station (ISS) is foreseen in June 2005 according to the present planning. FSL can host sequentially Experiment Containers dedicated to a specific experiment in various scientific areas like fluid science, crystal growth, foams and directional solidification within transparent media and, owing to its adaptable diagnostic tools and its modularity on several levels, complementary science areas such as colloid and aerosol physics, particle agglomeration and plasma crystals are envisaged. The visualisation, monitoring and control of the experiment is based on a set of optical diagnostics included in the FSL facility such as visualisation in two perpendicular directions, velocimetry, ESPI and Wollaston interferometry, Schlieren working in transmission and reflection modes, infrared and a high speed camera. The paper will describe the optical tools included in FSL and their performances.
Optical components are routinely tested with inteferometric based techniques. It is show in this paper that Fourier based
deflectometry method can be used for optical component inspection through very sensitive and precise wavefront
reconstruction. The wavefront is expressed from the raw measurements of the wavefront derivatives as a Zernike
polynomial expansion. The form of the polynomials permits absolute instrumental error characterization by repeated
measurement of the element under test oriented at several azimuthal angles. It is shown that nanometric precision of
Zernike based reconstructions can be performed and that the air turbulences are the experimental limiting factor to the
instrumental precision.
We present a new optical tomography technique based on phase-shifting schlieren deflectometry. The principle is that of
computerized tomography. The three-dimensional profile is reconstructed from the deflection angles of rays passing
through the tested object. We have investigated optical phantoms chosen in view of the characterization of dendritic
growth in a solidification process. Promising results have been obtained with a homogeneous sphere and a bundle of
200μm fibers. The deviation angles exceed two degrees with a variation of the refractive index ▵n=0.025.
PURPOSE. To assess a new method of power measurement of soft and rigid contact lenses. The method is the phase
shifting schlieren method, as embodied in the Nimo TR1504 instrument.
MATERIALS and METHODS. Three Nimo TR1504 instruments were used to measure the power related dimensions of:
a) a range of custom toric rigid lenses; b) a range of commercially available spherical hydrogel lenses; and c) a
commercially available range of toric silicone hydrogel lenses.
The measurements were carried out using a standard ISO ring test protocol where independent tests were carried out
under conditions of reproducibility. The analysis of the measurements was carried out using ISO methods which enabled
the reproducibility standard deviation, SR, of the method to be calculated.
RESULTS. The results show that this new method has a reproducibility standard deviation SR of 0.048D for spherical
soft (hydrogel) lenses. This means the back vertex power of spherical soft lenses having a power in the range ±20.0D can
be determined to current ISO product tolerances with a single measurement.
The method has SR of 0.059D for sphere power and 0.093D for cylinder power for toric soft lenses having powers in the
range ±10.0D and cylinder powers in the range ±2.0D. A single measurement will determine sphere power to current
ISO tolerance limits with 95% confidence while two measurements are required to determine the cylinder power to the
same confidence level.
Optical deflectometry, likewise many other optical methods, permits to reconstruct the wavefront deformations induced
by a refractive or a phase object. In this paper, a Fourier based deflectometry method is presented. A telecentric imaging
system acquires pictures of a grating being the superposition of two crossed Ronchi rulings of the same spatial
frequency. The object under test is inserted in the optical path between the grating and the telecentric imaging system.
The presented Fourier based image analysis permits to extract the wavefront derivatives, and therefore permits to
reconstruct the wavefront or the local power of the object. In this paper, the method is illustrated on several free form
thermoplasic elements, the sensitivity is determined experimentally, the precision is analyzed and the ability to
characterize cosmetic defects is evaluated.
NIMO is a new measurement tool based on the Phase-Shifting Schlieren technique [1]. The technique combines the Schlieren principle with the phase-shifting technique generally used in interferometry. By an adequate Schlieren filter and an adapted set-up, some Schlieren Fringes coding light beam deviation angles are generated. After the application of the phase shift technique, the Schlieren phase is calculated and converted in beam deviation values. The technique has been validated on conventional optical element ranging from millimetre to decimetre scales. NIMO opens a new step in metrology in a wide industrial range in both reflection and transmission (e.g. optical manufacturing, glass industry, ophthalmic industry,...).
In [2],we focused on fluid physics applications and the implementation of the technique in a microscope for MEMS measurements. In [3], we described an adapted setup in which all the phase shifted images are acquired simultaneously opening the possibility to measure dynamic phenomena with NIMO.
This paper is focused on the instrument recently developed for ophthalmic industry. The performances of the instrument are given and industrial applications in free-form and aspherical surfaces metrology are demonstrated.
The phase shift schlieren (PSS), an improved method of the conventional schlieren imaging technique, enables direct quantitative measurements of optical path length gradients. Like all phase-shifting imaging methods, a successive acquisition of multiple images is required, therefore limiting the PSS use to quasi-steady-state phenomena. We show that PSS can be easily modified to access real-time data. A possible implementation is disclosed, as well as experimental results that validate the method. An application on gas jet is illustrated. We present the features and limitations of the real-time phase shift schlieren (RTPSS).
In the frame of science in microgravity, the investigation of dendritic growth in a solidification process has been chosen as a test case in order to determine the ultimate performance and the limits of interferometric optical tomography, a well dedicated optical diagnostic tool for transparent media. In the frame of 3D-shape measurements on the morphology of transparent succinonitril directional solidification front, the relatively slow temporal evolution of the solidification front allow to record tomographic projections during 30 seconds without having modifications. This would lead to the possibility to use a rotating device holding the sample in order to record sequentially the different views or set of views of the tomograph. Interferometry through its high sensitivity to refractive index variation is able to discriminate between solid phase and its surrounding solution. Due to a high number of parameters involved in tomographic measurements and reconstruction, it was necessary to analyze step by step their influences.
Representative static model scenes have been manufactured and in depth independently characterized by X-ray microtomography in air. The same model scenes have been inserted into a single arm phase-shift Mach-Zehnder interferometer again by rotating object in order to acquire up to 256 projections. Finally a tomographic reconstruction process has been performed, the results of which were compared to the reconstructions gained from the micro x-ray measurements. This work shows the potential of interferometric optical tomography as well as its limits.
A new technique to measure shapes and deformation with a high resolution is proposed. It combines the conventional Schlieren technique principle with the phase-shifting approach generally used in interferometry. By an adequate Schlieren filter and an adapted set-up, some Schlieren Fringes are generated. After the application of the phase shift technique, the Schlieren phase is calculated and converted into beam deviation values, which are integrated to deduce the object's shape. Both theoretical and experimental demonstrations are given. The technique is first validated on a reference target. With a setup working in reflection, we have measured the curvature radius of a lens surface with accuracy better than 1%. Then an application in a fluid physics experiment is given. The shape of a liquid-gas interface in a conventional Marangoni-Benard experiment has been measured with a resolution of 30nm and amplitudes up to 50μm. The shape of MEMS has also been measured in a PSS microscope with a nanometric resolution. Finally, we propose an adaptation of the setup to make it possible the measurement of fast phenomena at video frame rate.
We analyze 45 degree(s) Self-Aligned Integrated Mirrors (SAIM) with Finite-Difference Beam Propagation Method. For the first time, we compare the intrinsic losses of three self-aligned structures that are used in integrated optics or optical interconnection circuits. We underline trade-off to make between diffraction and part of reflected power in the choice of self-aligned structures. We consider monomode polyimide optical waveguides and propagation in both quasi-TE and quasi-TM polarization modes. Comparisons are also made with semiconductor optical waveguides. It is shown that, in both cases, intrinsic losses of SAIM can be lower than 0.05 dB. This result is promising for the fabrication of future complex photonic circuits including several ten of mirrors.
We present in this paper the results of two different modelings of photodetectors. The first is based on FD-BPM and presents the study of a waveguide PIN photodetector structure grown on InP substrate. It gives the possible cut-off frequency for such a photodetector. The second one is a modeling of a conventional PIN photodiode including the effects of the external circuit. The goal of this modeling is to analyze the behavior of the photodetector under very high optical power. We considered the case of an optical signal sinusoidally modulated at 20GHz and analyzed the output photocurrent in order to give the limitations of the photodetector.
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