Efficient optical Kerr gate of Bi2O3–B2O3–SiO2 glass for acquiring high contrast ballistic imaging in turbid medium

Abstract

We investigated the ballistic imaging of a 1.41 line pair mm−1 section of a resolution test chart hidden behind a solution of polystyrene spheres with a femtosecond optical Kerr gate (OKG). A better transillumination image contrast could be acquired with an OKG of Bi2O3–B2O3–SiO2 (BI) glass than that with an OKG of fused silica in a highly scattering media, which indicated that the BI glass was a better OKG medium due to its large nonlinear refractive index.