Applying an ultrafast vortex laser as the pump, optical parametric amplification can be used for spiral phase-contrast imaging with high gain, wide spatial bandwidth, and high imaging contrast. Our experiments show that this design has realized the 1064 nm spiral phase-contrast idler imaging of biological tissues (frog egg cells and onion epidermis) with a spatial resolution at several microns level and a superior imaging contrast to both the traditional bright- or dark-field imaging under a weak illumination of 7nW/cm2. This work provides a powerful way for biological tissue imaging in the second near-infrared region.

This paper presents a novel design for single-shot terahertz polarization detection based on terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS). Its validity has been confirmed by comparing its detection results with those of the THz common-path spectral interferometer through two separate measurements for the orthogonal components. Our results also show that its detection signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) are obviously superior to those of the 45° optical bias THz-TDS by electro-optical sampling due to its operation on common-path spectral interference rather than the polarization-sensitive intensity modulation. The setup works without need of any optical scan, which does not only save time, but also efficiently avoids the disturbances from the fluctuations of the system and environment. Its single-shot mode allows it to work well for the applications with poor or no repeatability.