The cerebral blood flow (CBF) alterations related to sound-induced opening of the blood–brain barrier (BBB) in adult mice are studied using laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) and wavelet analysis of vascular physiology. The results clearly show that the opening of the BBB is accompanied by the changes of venous but not microvessel circulation in the brain. The elevation of the BBB permeability is associated with the decrease of venous CBF and the increase of its complexity. These data suggest that the cerebral veins rather than microvessels are sensitive components of the CBF related to the opening BBB.

To visualize the structure and organization of the brain is a fundamental requirement in the research of neuroscience. Here, combining with two-photon excitation fluorescence microscopy and transgenetic mouse GAD67, we demonstrate a custom-built second harmonic generation (SHG) microscope to discriminate brain layers and sub regions in the cerebellum and brain stem slices with cellular resolution. In particular, the cell densities of neurons in different brain layers are extracted due to the cell soma appearing as dark shadow on an SHG image. Further, the axon initial segments of the Purkinje cell are easily recognized without labeling, which would be useful for guiding micropipettes for electrophysiology.

In this Letter, we present a high-speed volumetric imaging system based on structured illumination and an electrically tunable lens (ETL), where the ETL performs fast axial scanning at hundreds of Hz. In the system, a digital micro-mirror device (DMD) is utilized to rapidly generate structured images at the focal plane in synchronization with the axial scanning unit. The scanning characteristics of the ETL are investigated theoretically and experimentally. Imaging experiments on pollen samples are performed to verify the optical cross-sectioning and fast axial scanning capabilities. The results show that our system can perform fast axial scanning and three-dimensional (3D) imaging when paired with a high-speed camera, presenting an economic solution for advanced biological imaging applications.

We report a new application of optical coherence tomography (OCT) to investigate the cranial meninges in an animal model of brain injury in vivo. The injury is induced in a mouse due to skull thinning, in which the repeated and excessive drilling exerts mechanical stress on the mouse brain through the skull, resulting in acute and mild brain injury. Transcranial OCT imaging reveals an interesting virtual space between the cranial meningeal layers post skull thinning, which is gradually closed within hours. The finding suggests a promise of OCT as an effective tool to monitor the mechanical trauma in the small animal model of brain injury.

The aim of this study is to develop a novel technique for improving the intraoperative margin assessment of glioblastoma by examining the total extrinsic extracellular matrix (ECM) with eosin staining using fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) and scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) descriptor analysis. Pseudo-color FLIM images obviously exhibit ECM distributions, changes in sequential sections, and different regions of interest. Meanwhile, SIFT descriptors are first utilized for the discrimination of glioblastoma margins by matching similar ECM regions and extracting keypoint orientations from FLIM images obtained from a series of continuous slices. The findings indicate that FLIM imaging with SIFT analysis of the total ECM is a promising method for improving intraoperative diagnosis of frozen and surgically excised brain specimen sections.

Multiple reference optical coherence tomography (MR-OCT) is a recently developed, low-cost and compact time-domain OCT solution for primary care and consumer level applications. A combination of a voice coil actuator and a partial mirror (PM) extends the scan range for imaging depths of approximately 1 mm in biological samples. Our previous research on MR-OCT is based only on intensity information obtained from the depth-resolved interference signal. In this Letter, we extract the phase information from the MR-OCT signal and, hence, provide an additional contrast modality. The phase sensitivity of the system is measured to be approximately 0.2 and 1.5 rad for the first and twelfth orders of reflection when using a mirror as the sample. This Letter describes first results of phase-sensitive data measured on a phantom obtained with MR-OCT. Data from a chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) is used to demonstrate the feasibility of MR-OCT for in vivo phase-sensitive imaging.

The biochemical composition of atherosclerotic plaques is closely related to plaque stability and, therefore, to the associated risk of plaque evolution and rupture. Combinations of current imaging modalities, such as optical coherence tomography (OCT) with spectroscopic methods, therefore offer the possibility of concurrently obtaining morphological as well as chemical information. Raman spectroscopy is one of the most promising techniques that can be combined with intravascular imaging modalities. A microscopy setup merging both techniques has been applied to characterize plaque depositions of a human aorta affected by the disease. Calcified depositions were clearly identified and subsequently confirmed by histopathology.

The Cramer–Rao lower bound on range error is modeled for pseudo-random ranging systems using Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes. The theoretical results are shown to agree with the Monte Carlo simulation, satisfying boundary evaluations. Experimental tests prove that range errors caused by the fluctuation of the number of photon counts in the laser echo pulse leads to the range drift of the time point spread function. The function relationship between the range error and the photon counting ratio is determined by using numerical fitting. Range errors due to a different echo energy is calibrated so that the corrected range root mean square error is improved to 1 cm.

A three-level lambda system driven by multicolor control, pump, and probe fields is investigated. The pump and probe fields are derived from the same laser with opposite propagating directions. Due to the Doppler effect, the zero group-velocity atoms face bichromatic fields, while other atoms face trichromatic fields. The atomic medium shows distinct characteristics and exhibits simultaneous electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) at two frequencies. EIT and EIA peaks have a fixed relationship with frequency, which is determined by the Doppler shifts.

A 1550 nm Q-switched fiber laser using a carbon platinum saturable absorber deposited on side-polished fiber (SPF) is proposed and demonstrated. The SPF is approximately 2 mm with a polarization-dependent loss (PDL) of 0.4 dB and an insertion loss of 2.5 dB. A stable Q-switched output spectrum is obtained at 1559.34 nm with a peak power of ～6mW, a pulse width of 1.02 μs, pulse energy of 5.8 nJ, average output power of 0.76 mW, and a repetition rate of 131.6 kHz taken at a pump power of 230.0 mW. A signal-to-noise ratio of 49.62 dB indicates that the Q-switched pulse is highly stable.

We propose a high temperature-sensitive long period fiber grating (LPFG) sensor fabricated by using the femtosecond laser transversal-scanning method. The femtosecond pulses scan over the whole fiber core and some part of the cladding region; the modified regions are more extended. It is found that the LPFG-I fabricated by the transversal-scanning method shows higher temperature sensitivity and better temperature uniformity than that of LPFG-II written by the femtosecond laser point-by-point method. The LPFG-I with a temperature sensitivity of 75.96 pm/°C in the range of 25°C–400°C is measured. Moreover, in the range from 400°C to 800°C, a higher temperature sensitivity of 148.64 pm/°C and good linearity of 0.99 are achieved, while the temperature sensitivity of LPFG-II is only 95.55 pm/°C. LPFG-I exhibits better temperature characteristics, which, to the best of our knowledge, has the highest sensitivity in silica fiber temperature sensors.

An approach for full duty frequency-doubled triangle shape lightwave generation is proposed and demonstrated. It requires a dual-parallel Mach–Zehnder modulator (DP-MZM) driven by a sinusoidal signal. A stop band filter is coupled to filter out two undesired sidebands. By tuning the bias voltage applied to the DP-MZM, the output optical intensity with a full duty cycle triangle shape profile can be obtained. It is found that the required modulation index is no longer a fixed one. It can vary within a range, without degrading the target waveform. The principle is analyzed by theory and evaluated by simulation. A proof-of-concept experiment is also conducted. Good agreements between theoretical prediction and experimental results have been found. This approach might be attractive due to the feature of a variable modulation index, which insures simple operation in practice.

Reflective fiber optic sensors have advantages for surface roughness measurements of some special workpieces, but their measuring precision and efficiency need to be improved further. A least-squares support vector machine (LS-SVM)-based surface roughness prediction model is proposed to estimate the surface roughness, Ra, and the coupled simulated annealing (CSA) and standard simplex (SS) methods are combined for the parameter optimization of the mode. Experiments are conducted to test the performance of the proposed model, and the results show that the range of average relative errors is 4.232%–2.5709%. In comparison with the existing models, the LS-SVM-based model has the best performance in prediction precision, stability, and timesaving.

We experimentally compare the output abilities of lightly and heavily doped Ti:Sapphire (Ti:S) amplifiers with diameters as large as 150 mm. Although a lightly doped Ti:S is more favorable to overcome parasitic lasing (PL) and transverse amplified spontaneous emission (TASE), the self-phase-modulation (SPM) effect becomes more pronounced when a longer crystal is used. Recompression of the amplified, stretched pulses can be seriously affected by the SPM effect. We then propose a temporal multi-pulse pump scheme to suppress PL and TASE in a thin, heavily doped Ti:S crystal. This novel temporal multi-pulse pump technique can find potential applications in 10 PW chirped-pulse amplification laser systems.

A high pulse repetition frequency (PRF), high energy Ho:YAG laser directly pumped by a Tm-doped fiber laser and its application to a mid-infrared ZnGeP2 (ZGP) optical parametric oscillator (OPO) is demonstrated. The maximum polarized 2.09 μm laser pulse energy is 13.46 mJ at a PRF of 1 kHz. The corresponding peak power reaches 504 kW. In a double-resonant ZGP-OPO, a maximum mid-infrared laser pulse energy of 1.25 mJ, corresponding to a peak power of 79 kW, is accomplished at a PRF of 3 kHz. The nonlinear conversion efficiency reaches 41.7%. The nonlinear slope efficiency reaches 53.3%.

We propose a nonparallel double-grating structure in a spectral-beam combining technique, where two gratings are placed nonparallel satisfying the Littrow mount in the focal region of the convergent lens. The most attractive advantage of this approach is that it will compress the spectral span into half of its original spectrum, which means the number of combined elements can be doubled in the gain range of diode lasers. Experimental results demonstrate that the CW output power of the combined beam is 30.9 W with a spectral span of 7.0 nm, compared with its original spectrum span of 13.6 nm, and the spectral beam combining efficiency is 70.5%. In consideration that a single grating could have a high efficiency of >97% in a bandwidth of over ten nanometers, the efficiency loss of the grating pair should be less than 6%, which is acceptable for most applications, so this method of using double gratings should be highly interesting for practical applications when a nearly doubled number of diode lasers could be combined into one single laser compared with the previous single-grating methods.

Developing natural “free space” frequency upconversion is essential for photonic integrated circuits. In a single-crystal lithium niobate thin film planar waveguide of less than 1 μm thickness, we achieve type I and type II mode phase-matching conditions simultaneously for this thin film planar waveguide. Finally, by employing the mode phase matching of e+e→e with d33 at 1018 nm, we successfully achieve a green second-harmonic wave output with the conversion efficiency of 0.12%/(W·cm2), which verifies one of our simulation results. The rich mode phase matching for three-wave mixing in a thin film planar waveguide may provide a potential application in on-chip frequency upconversions for integrated photonic and quantum devices.

An injection-seeded single-resonant optical parametric oscillator (SROPO) with single frequency nanosecond pulsed 2.05 μm wavelength output is presented. Based on two potassium titanyl phosphate crystals and pumped by a 1064 nm single frequency laser pulse, injection seeding is performed successfully by using the ramp-hold-fire technique in a ring cavity with a bow-tie configuration. The SROPO provides 2.65 mJ single frequency signal pulse output with a 17.6 ns pulse duration at a 20 Hz repetition rate. A near-diffraction-limited beam is achieved with a beam quality factor M2 of about 1.2. The spectrum linewidth of the signal pulse is around 26.4 MHz, which is almost the Fourier-transform-limited value.

A hollow-core metal-cladding waveguide (HCMW) optofluidic resonator that works based on a free-space coupling technique is designed. An HCMW can excite ultra-high-order modes (UOMs) at the coupled angle, which can be used as an optofluidic resonator to detect alterations of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) concentration. Theoretical analysis shows that the UOMs excited in the HCMW have a highly sensitive response to the refractive index (RI) variation of the guiding layer. An EGFR solution with a 0.2 ng/mL alteration is detected, and the RI variation caused by the concentration alteration is about 2.5×10 3.

Loss is inevitable for the optical system due to the absorption of materials, scattering caused by the defects, and surface roughness. In quantum optical circuits, the loss can not only reduce the intensity of the signal, but also affect the performance of quantum operations. In this work, we divide losses into unbalanced linear losses and shared common losses, and provide a detailed analysis on how loss affects the integrated linear optical quantum gates. It is found that the orthogonality of eigenmodes and the unitary phase relation of the coupled waveguide modes are destroyed by the loss. As a result, the fidelity of single- and two-qubit operations decreases significantly as the shared loss becomes comparable to the coupling strength. Our results are important for the investigation of large-scale photonic integrated quantum information processes.

A scheme is proposed for tunable all-optical switching based on the double-dark states in a five-level atom-cavity system. In the scheme, the output signal light of the reflection and the transmission channels can be switched on or off by manipulating the control field. When the control light is coupled to the atom-cavity system, the input signal light is reflected by the cavity. Thus, there is no direct coupling between the control light and the signal light. Furthermore, the position of the double-dark states can be changed by adjusting the coherent field, and, thus, the switching in our scheme is tunable. By presenting the numerical calculations of the switching efficiency, we show that this type of the interaction-free all-optical switching can be realized with high switching efficiency.

Nonclassical optical frequency combs play essential roles in quantum computation in the continuous variable regime. In this work, we generate multimode nonclassical frequency comb states using a degenerate type-I synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator and directly observe the squeezing of the leading five temporal modes of femtosecond pulsed light. The overlapping spectra of these modes mean that the temporal modes are suitable for use in real-world quantum information applications.

As perovskite solar cells show tremendous potential for widespread applications, we find that adding inorganic thermal-stable cesium ions into MAPbI3 results in significantly improves thermal stability. For un-encapsulated perovskite devices, the energy conversion efficiency maintains about 75% of its original value (over 15%) in the MA0.85Cs0.05PbI3 device under 80 min of heating at 140°C in a dry atmosphere (RH≤30%). With significantly improved thermal stability achieved by a convenient process, it is expected that this type of mixed-cation perovskites can further facilitate large scale applications.