We report optical Nyquist pulse train generation by non-auxiliary wavelength selective switch (WSS) in communication band. Nyquist pulses have the attractive feature of tolerance to inter-symbol interference (ISI), which means that densely arranged pulse trains are possible. The typical approach for optical Nyquist pulse train generation uses an auxiliary optical circuit for time division multiplexing as well as a WSS for a single Nyquist pulse generation. The auxiliary use of the optical circuit gives rise to optical losses and inflexibility of pulse-train parameters. The optical loss is estimated as 10 dB even if an ideal optical circuit is used in the case of 10-multiplexing. To resolve these problems, we have recently proposed a new approach for optical Nyquist pulse train generation by non-auxiliary WSS in the near-infrared band, where the WSS combines a single Nyquist pulse generation and time division multiplexing. The key point of the approach is how to design a filter function to minimize the optical loss. We have established the method to design the low-loss filter function, which takes advantage of the ISI-free property of Nyquist pulses. We have experimentally demonstrated Nyquist pulse train generation with the proposed approach in the near-infrared band. In this report, we widen its application range to the optical communication band, and experimental results show that the optical loss for 10- multiplexing is successfully reduced to 1.36 dB. The new approach without an auxiliary optical circuit realizes low-loss, highly flexible and compact optical Nyquist pulse train generator in the optical communication band.
Laser dicing with tightly focused nanosecond pulsed laser light inside a semiconductor wafer is a dry, debris-free dicing method achieved by the generation of thermal microcracks. This method has two practical issues: a dicing speed that is limited by the repetition rate of the pulsed laser and potential damage to integrated circuits on the wafer from excessive laser intensity due to insufficient beam divergence. By correcting aberrations and generating multiple beams via wavefront modulation, multiple focused beams inside the wafer will become sufficiently divergent to avoid undesirable potential laser damage. We confirmed these improvements by dicing sapphire wafers with a pulsed laser and a high-numerical-aperture objective lens.
We attempted to observe deep regions in biological samples through two-photon excitation microscopy adopting a spatial light modulator (SLM). The SLM is used for correcting spherical aberration (SA) caused by the refractive-index mismatch between the immersion medium and sample. In the observation of fluorescent beads in transparent epoxy resin, the fluorescence intensity from a scan with SA correction was 50 times that from a scan without SA correction. After that, we observed blood vessels in a mouse brain, which became transparent with a clearing agent.
Conventional methods of compensating for self-distortion in liquid-crystal-on-silicon spatial light modulators (LCOS-SLM) are based on aberration correction, where the wavefront of the incident beam is modulated to compensate for aberrations caused by the imperfect optical flatness of the LCOS-SLM surface. Previously, we proposed an effective method to compensate for the distortion by displaying a compensation phase pattern obtained from interferometry However, the phase distribution of an LCOS-SLM varies with changes in ambient temperature and requires additional correction. The ambient temperature of LCOS-SLMs can vary under certain circumstances, i.e. equipped inside systems for field use or long-term operations. In this presentation, we discussed a novel phase compensation method under temperature-varying conditions based on an orthonormal Legendre series expansion of the phase distribution from viewpoint of multiple beam holographic generation. We found several Legendre coefficients that follow quadratic functions of ambient temperature. This prompted us to propose an algorithm for correcting the temperature dependency by displaying a phase pattern using two simple steps: an initializing step and a temperature correction step. We investigated the temperature dependency by controlling the ambient temperature with an incubator and successfully corrected for self-distortion in a temperature range of approximately 68°F to 122°F, giving an optical flatness of <λ /10. Our approach has the potential to be adopted in tight-focusing applications which require wavefront modulation with very high accuracy. Additionally, the concept of this method is extensible to the thermal behavior of other optical devices, such as lenses and mirrors, which have the possibility of causing unexpected aberrations.
The low intensity regions existed around the singular point of optical vortex (OV) beams influence the position detection accuracy of phase singular points, especially for OVs of large topological charge. A new method using Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor (SH-WFS) is proposed to solve this problem. In the method, we combine several phase slopes obtained at individual lenses of a lens array into one to avoid the influence of the low intensity region and use correlation matching with pre-calculated simulation data to get the accurate singular point position. The experimental results show that the position detection precision of this method is maintained less than 0.2 in unit of lens-size for OVs of charges -20 to 20.
We propose a simple method of realizing an accurate position detection of phase singularities in an optical vortex (OV) beam using a Shack–Hartmann wavefront sensor (SH-WFS). The method calculates circulations which are the discrete contour integrals of phase slope vectors measured by the SH-WFS and then determines the accurate positions of the singular points by calculating the centers-of-gravity with a fixed window size around the local peak of the circulation distribution. We use closed paths that connect the centers of eight-connected, instead of 2×2-neighboring lenslet apertures for calculating the circulations. Both the numerical analysis and proof-of-principle experiment were performed to confirm the measurement accuracy. In experiments, the positions of singular points in OV beams generated by a liquid-crystal-on-silicon spatial light modulator were measured. The root-mean-square error of the position measurement was approximately 0.09 in units of the lens size of the lenslet array used in the SH-WFS. We also estimated the topological charges of the singular points being detected based on the peak circulations, and the results agreed well with theoretical ones. The method achieves both rapid implementation and sublens-size spatial resolution detection and is suitable for applications that require real-time control of OV beams.
We propose a new method, based on Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor (SH-WFS), to achieve high-accuracy position detection of phase singular points of optical vortex (OV) beam. The method calculates evaluation values related to phase slopes of incoming wavefront from Hartmanngram recorded by SH-WFS, and then determines precisely the position of the singular points by calculating the centroid of the 3x3-evaluation-value distribution centered at peak position. A main point is that, in evaluation-value calculation, we use a closed contour connecting the centers of 8-connected, instead of 2x2, lenslet apertures. Theoretical analysis shows that the measurement errors can be greatly reduced in comparison to that of 2x2 closed contour. Proof experiments were performed to confirm its accuracy by measuring singular points of OV beams generated by a liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator. The root-mean-square error of the measured position of singular points was approximately 0.052, in units of the lens size of lenslet array used in the SH-WFS. The method achieves fast-speed and sub-lens size spatial resolution detection, is suitable for real-time control applications.
We have developed a confocal fluorescence laser scanning microscopy (CFLSM) incorporating a liquid crystal on silicon spatial light modulator (LCOS-SLM). To achieve high-resolution and high-contrast imaging for deeper part of the tissue with CFLSM, high numerical aperture objective lenses are required to tightly focus excitation light to meet Rayleigh limit(criterion) for the specimens. However, mismatch of refractive index at the boundary of interfacing materials, such as atmosphere, glass cover, and biological tissues, causes spherical aberration. Recently, we proposed a numerical method for correcting spherical aberration. In this method a pre-distorted wavefront pattern for aberration correction is calculated by ray tracing from a hypothetical focal point inside a specimen to the pupil plane. The resulting microscope can correct such spherical aberration. We observed 6.0μm fluorescent micro-beads dispersed three-dimensionally in agarose gel to confirm effectiveness of aberration correction. We reconstructed a three-dimensional image by taking 20 images by changing the depth with 1 μm interval and stacking them. It was apparent that the longitudinal/depth resolution was improved and that the intensity of fluorescence image was increased with aberration correction. While this method is applicable to other laser scanning microscopes, it has potential to enhance the signals for various super-resolution microscopic techniques, such as stimulated- emission-depletion (STED) fluorescence microscopy.
We propose a method for high precision modulation of the pupil function of a microscope objective lens to improve the performance of multifocal multi-photon microscopy (MMM). To modulate the pupil function, we adopt a spatial light modulator (SLM) and place it at the conjugate position of the objective lens. The SLM can generate an arbitrary number of spots to excite the multiple fluorescence spots (MFS) at the desired positions and intensities by applying an appropriate computer-generated hologram (CGH). This flexibility allows us to control the MFS according to the photobleaching level of a fluorescent protein and phototoxicity of a specimen. However, when a large number of excitation spots are generated, the intensity distribution of the MFS is significantly different from the one originally designed due to misalignment of the optical setup and characteristics of the SLM. As a result, the image of a specimen obtained using laser scanning for the MFS has block noise segments because the SLM could not generate a uniform MFS. To improve the intensity distribution of the MFS, we adaptively redesigned the CGH based on the observed MFS. We experimentally demonstrate an improvement in the uniformity of a 10 × 10 MFS grid using a dye solution. The simplicity of the proposed method will allow it to be applied for calibration of MMM before observing living tissue. After the MMM calibration, we performed laser scanning with two-photon excitation to observe a real specimen without detecting block noise segments.
In the laser wafer dicing technique of stealth dicing (SD), a laser beam that is tightly focused inside a silicon wafer is scanned multiple times at different depths. The focused beam creates multilayered cracks that allow dry, debris-free dicing. To reduce the dicing time, it is desirable to produce longer cracks with each scan. However, when the laser beam is focused in a deep region of the wafer, the beam is blurred, and its power density decreases owing to spherical aberration caused by a refractive index mismatch between air and the wafer. Consequently, the generated cracks become shorter. We present an approach to making longer cracks deep within the wafer by correcting the spherical aberration. This correction is made using an SD machine incorporating a phase-only spatial light modulator to apply aberration correction patterns, which are calculated by a method based on inverse ray tracing. Experimental results using 300-µm wafers show that, when the aberration was corrected, the cracks formed during multidepth scans became longer even deep within the wafer and that the dicing speed with correction is more than twice that without correction. This is because each scan produced longer cracks, so fewer scans were necessary. We also demonstrated that the quality of dicing was improved.
“Stealth Dicing” laser processing is a dry and debris-free semiconductor wafer dicing method achieved by generating
thermal micro-cracks inside a wafer with a tightly focused laser beam. This method has two practical issues: (1) the
dicing speed is limited by the repetition rate of the pulsed laser, and (2) integrated circuits on the opposite side of the
wafer from the laser light are potentially damaged by excessive laser intensity required to compensate for insufficient
beam convergence. The insufficient beam convergence is a result of spherical aberration due to a refractive index
mismatch between air and the wafer. These problems can be resolved by incorporating a phase-only spatial light
modulator (SLM) into the laser dicing system. The SLM produces two types of wavefront configurations simultaneously
for two different functions. One is for multi-beam generation with a phase grating pattern. This improves the dicing
speed by a factor equal to the number of diffracted beams. The other is for aberration correction of the multiple beams
using a pre-distorted wavefront pattern. By correcting aberrations, the focused multiple beams inside the wafer will
become sufficiently convergent to avoid undesirable laser damage. We demonstrated these improvements by dicing
sapphire wafers with a pulsed laser and a high-numerical-aperture objective lens.
We have developed a liquid-crystal-on-silicon spatial light modulator (LCOS-SLM) and examined its performance
capability as a wavefront corrector with an adaptive optics (AO) test system. The LCOS-SLM has a high light-utilization
efficiency so that it is suitable for AO in ophthalmic instruments. Experimental results with a static phase object showed
nearly diffraction-limited performance. The root-mean-square (RMS) value of residual wavefront error was reduced to
0.06 wavelength from 2.09 wavelength. The capability for dynamic aberration correction was also examined. The timevarying
aberration was created by rotating the same phase object. While the RMS wavefront error became slightly larger,
a nearly diffraction-limited performance could be confirmed as same as in the static aberration correction. Effective
stroke and refraction power of the LCOS-SLM were also discussed theoretically. The estimated effective stroke and
refraction power were 40 microns and 2.5D for a beam of 8-mm diameter on the LCOS-SLM, respectively.
We report holographic generation of higher-order Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beams using a liquid crystal on silicon
spatial light modulator (LCOS-SLM) device. In our experimental set-up, a flat-top light beam was projected
on the LCOS-SLM to generate LG beams of various mode indices without changes of the optical system. Additionally,
the size of the holographic phase pattern was optimized for each beam to maximize the mode purity
of the obtained beam. Holographic generation of LG beams is easily influenced by a distortion of the optical
system and deviation of the phase setting from an ideal one. Nevertheless, we obtained high-quality LG beams
with an additional phase pattern on the LCOS-SLM for canceling the distortion of the optical system and with
calibration of the phase control voltage for precise expression of the phase patterns. Numerical analyses are
also performed for two-dimensional beam profiles to verify the quality of the obtained beams. Through fitting
the obtained profiles to theoretical ones, we calculate the correlation coefficients R between the observed and
fitted profiles to find that R > 0.95 for all beams and that the correlation coefficients behave similarly to the
theoretically estimated mode purities, facts indicating that the quality of the obtained LG beams is close to the
theoretical limit in our experiments.
We developed a liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCOS) spatial light modulator (SLM) for phase-only modulation. The SLM
was designed mainly for wavefront control in adaptive optics, optical manipulation, laser processing, etc. A dielectric
multilayer mirror was incorporated into the device to enhance the reflectivity. The number of pixels was 792 x 612 and
their size was 20 x 20 microns square. The range of the phase modulation exceeded one wavelength, and the light-utilization
efficiency for monochromatic light was approximately 90%. The silicon backplane of the SLM was
mechanically weak and its surface was not flat. The poor flatness degraded the output wavefront from the SLM. The
device was driven by electronics composed of a digital-visual-interface (DVI) receiver, a field programmable gate array,
and 12-bit digital-to-analog converters (DACs). The converted analog voltage signals from the DACs were transmitted to
the pixels of the SLM and created phase changes. The driver had several kinds of control modes for the device,
according to the level of flatness compensation. In one of the modes, the driver received 12-bit data and transferred them
directly to the DACs. This 12-bit control mode enabled highly flexible control of the device characteristics. In the
presentation, we report details of the device and experimental results on compensation of distortion in the output
wavefront from the device.
We have developed a hybrid liquid-crystal spatial light modulator (LC-SLM) in which a reflection-type optically addressed (OA) LC-SLM is combined with a liquid crystal display (LCD) via coupling optics. The LCD is controlled by 8-bit video signals. This construction allows us to eliminate diffraction artifacts due to the pixellated structure of the LCD from the modulated light of the hybrid LC-SLM and enables the hybrid device to be electrically addressed. Nematic liquid crystal molecules in the OA LC-SLM are homogeneously aligned to create pure phase modulation having a variation of one wavelength. These features make the hybrid LC-SLM suitable for wavefront control. Wavefront control with large phase stroke and high stability is desirable to realize high-quality adaptive optics, high-quality optical manipulation, and so forth. Therefore, we experimentally investigated the stroke and stability of the phase modulation of the hybrid LC-SLM. We used the wrapped-phase representation to expand the phase stroke virtually. The results show that the hybrid LC-SLM could produce a phase stroke of more than 20 wavelengths and a phase instability of less than 0.001 wavelengths. We also conducted an experiment to compensate for the nonlinearity of the phase modulation. The results suggest that nonlinearity could be suppressed to less than 1%, and that approximately 200 gray levels over one wavelength of phase variation were available, even after compensation.
We have developed a tabletop adaptive optics wavefront control system used to correct dynamic distortions. The system uses a Shack-Hartmann sensor constructed by using a lenslet array and a high-speed CMOS camera to measure distortion, a high-resolution liquid crystal spatial light modulator to correct distortion, and a personal computer to execute feedback control. A correction refresh rate of 50 cycles per second was achieved as the result of the high-speed vision system. The temporal characteristic measurement was based on the response to periodic signals of patterns, and the measured bandwidth was about 7Hz. We also describe the optical configuration and experimental results of a performance evaluation.
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