Digital Holographic Interferometer Research Articles

Digital holographic interferometry method for tracking detector modules displacement

In high energy particle physics scattering experiments, the precision of the reconstructed particle tracks can be fundamental. For this reason, a method for detecting the displacement of tracking detector modules is developed. The modules are silicon planes mounted on a frame and used in the MUonE project, which aims at a precision measurement of the scattering angle of elastic muon-electron scattering. From the scattering angle, the hadronic contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon is extracted. To achieve the desired accuracy, the position of the tracking detector planes must be monitored. The allowable relative displacements must be less than 10 μ m. To meet the specifications and to monitor as large an area of the detector as possible, a digital holographic interferometer was developed. It is based on a novel lens-less design in off-axis holographic geometry. Light from a fiber-coupled laser source is split by a fiber beam splitter, with one output used to illuminate the detector plane and the other for the reference beam. The two beams produce an interference pattern on a CMOS image sensor. To obtain relative displacement information, successive images are superimposed on an initial reference image and reconstructed by solving the Rayleigh-Sommerfeld diffraction integral taking into account the spherical wavefronts of the beams. The interference fringes that appear in the reconstructed holographic image provide a measure of the relative displacement of the detector plane compared to the initial position. The performance of the reconstruction method used was verified with the proposed setup at a real tracking station.

On-chip digital holographic interferometry for measuring wavefront deformation in transparent samples.

This paper describes on-chip digital holographic interferometry for measuring the wavefront deformation of transparent samples. The interferometer is based on a Mach-Zehnder arrangement with a waveguide in the reference arm, which allows for a compact on-chip arrangement. The method thus exploits the sensitivity of digital holographic interferometry and the advantages of the on-chip approach, which provides high spatial resolution over a large area, simplicity, and compactness of the system. The method's performance is demonstrated by measuring a model glass sample fabricated by depositing SiO2 layers of different thicknesses on a planar glass substrate and visualizing the domain structure in periodically poled lithium niobate. Finally, the results of the measurement made with the on-chip digital holographic interferometer were compared with those made with a conventional Mach-Zehnder type digital holographic interferometer with lens and with a commercial white light interferometer. The comparison of the obtained results indicates that the on-chip digital holographic interferometer provides accuracy comparable to conventional methods while offering the benefits of a large field of view and simplicity.

Compact lensless Fizeau holographic interferometry for imaging domain patterns in ferroelectric single crystals.

Domain patterns in ferroelectric single crystals are physical systems that are fascinating from a theoretical point of view and essential for many applications. A compact lensless method for imaging domain patterns in ferroelectric single crystals based on a digital holographic Fizeau interferometer has been developed. This approach provides a large field-of-view image while maintaining a high spatial resolution. Furthermore, the double-pass approach increases the sensitivity of the measurement. The performance of the lensless digital holographic Fizeau interferometer is demonstrated by imaging the domain pattern in periodically poled lithium niobate. To display the domain patterns in the crystal, we have used an electro-optic phenomenon, which, when an external uniform electric field is applied to the sample, produces a difference in refractive index values in domains with different polarization states of the crystal lattice. Finally, the constructed digital holographic Fizeau interferometer is used to measure the difference in the index of refraction in the antiparallel ferroelectric domains in the external electric field. The lateral resolution of the developed method for ferroelectric domain imaging is discussed.

Relating hydrodynamic test data with aerodynamics using t-DHI

An optical full-field non-invasive technique is introduced to study hydrodynamic interactions within a scale water tunnel as a simile of a wind tunnel. The ad-hoc water tunnel is a transparent chamber that allows the observation of the hydrodynamics generated from the water's interaction with the objects in it. A slow laminar water flow circulates into the tunnel serving as the surrounding media for the samples to be studied. This interaction is monitored with a transmission digital holographic interferometer (t-DHI) that uses a high-speed camera to analyze the changing flow in short periods. As proof of principle, three different tests are presented: the first test is to verify the laminar flow inside the water tunnel. Hence, no sample is inside the chamber. The second uses a barrier placed perpendicularly to the flow to modify the fluid's direction by blocking half of the chamber's path. The last test uses a scale car model, showing how the liquid deviates around the car, similar to the information reported when using a wind tunnel. The t-DHI system used to monitor the ad-hoc water tunnel proves the latter's potential to be used as a wind tunnel in a down-scaled and simple form. For this, as a first-order approximation, consider that a more significant water displacement implies a faster flow; and a slow flow results in small water displacements.

Observation on the Droplet Ranging from 2 to 16 μm in Cloud Droplet Size Distribution Based on Digital Holography

Cloud droplets size distribution (DSD) is one of the significant characteristics for liquid clouds. It plays an important role for the aerosol–droplet–cloud mechanism and variation in cloud microphysics. However, the minuscule sampling space is insufficient for the observation of whole DSD when using high-magnification optical systems. In this paper, we propose an observation method for cloud droplets ranging from 2 to 16 μm, by which the balance relationship between sampling space and optical magnification is realized. The method combines an in-line digital holographic interferometer (DHI) with the optical magnification of 5.89× and spatial stitching technique. The minimum size in DSD is extended to 2 μm, which improves the integrity of size distribution. Simultaneously, the stability of DSD is enhanced by increasing the tenfold sampling volume of cloud droplets. The comparative experiment between the in-line DHI and fog monitor demonstrates that the DSD obtained by this method is reliable, which can be used for the analysis of microphysical parameters. In the Beijing Aerosol and Cloud Interaction Chamber (BACIC), the observation results show that the size of cloud droplets follows the Gamma distribution, which is consistent with the theoretical DSD. The results of cloud microphysical parameters indicate that each pair of parameters has a positive correlation, and then the validity of observation method is confirmed. Additionally, the high-concentration aerosol condition significantly mitigates the effect of random turbulence and enhances the robustness of the microphysical parameter data.

Impact of the rolling shutter effect in optical phase measurements using spatial carrier

The impact of the rolling shutter effect in interferometry using the spatial carrier method is presented. A spatial carrier method is of interest as it avoids moveable devices inside the interferometer, thus allowing the design of low-cost and portable optical systems. An out-of-plane digital holographic interferometer is used to analyze the retrieved optical phase acquired by a camera sensor which can be hardware switched between rolling and global shutter mode. Under well-controlled and repeatable deformations, a series of image holograms were recorded. Optical phase comparison is performed for both shutter modes to analyze the presence or absence of the rolling shutter effect (RSE) in the spatial carrier. The optical phase study involves the Fourier spectrum, where this spatial carrier could be explored in a bi-dimensional form. Results show a significant distortion of the spatial carrier at the Fourier space, close to the edges of the optical aperture image, indicating a phase error that can be reduced using a reduced section of the aperture.

Flame analysis using a simple transmission digital holographic interferometer.

A digital holographic interferometer using a collimated beam in transmission mode to illuminate a flow coming from a diffusion flame is presented. The optical system proposes an indirect visualization of the flow to avoid saturation at the sensor. It can detect the intensity signal as a classical schlieren technique and the phase changes due to the presence of the flow. It is possible to retrieve a pseudo-3D flow's view and different gradient maps using the optical phase. According to the knife edge's position, these gradients could be observed in classical schlieren one at a time, but the proposed system could retrieve them all with a single image hologram. As proof of principle, a flame's flow is simultaneously observed with the optical system and a Z-type schlieren set up. A comparison of the visualized flows at different stages of the flame is presented and discussed. A temperature profile is obtained and validated with a thermocouple's point thermal measurements taking the resulting optical phase. Results from both optical techniques show a good agreement.

Compact and low-cost instrument for digital holographic microscopy of immobilized micro-particles

A compact and low-cost system capable of Digital Holographic Microscopic (DHM) imaging of immobilized micro-particles is presented. The proposed design, integration, and manufacturing can lead to wider use and increased accessibility of this device for research, education, and biomedical applications. The optical tweezer system for particle immobilization is built using the optical pickup unit taken from a DVD burner. DHM is integrated into the system through the addition of a glass plate which enables one arm of the system to operate as a lateral shearing digital holographic interferometer. The operation of the system is confirmed by trapping, quantitative phase imaging and analysis of polystyrene micro-spheres for which the corner frequency measurements, carried using an in-house developed low-cost Quadrant Photodiode, compare favorably with simulated results. Furthermore, the system is illustrated for trapping and simultaneous quantitative phase imaging of micro-particles, including biological specimen such as red blood cells. The use of a low-cost easily implementable DHM integrated optical tweezer system provides vast information content, which enable in-depth analysis of immobilized micro-particles.

Design and development of volume phase holographic grating based digital holographic interferometer for label-free quantitative cell imaging.

In this paper, a volume phase holographic optical element based digital holographic interferometer is designed and used for quantitative phase imaging of biological cells [white blood cells, red blood cells, platelets, and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) bacteria cells]. The experimental results reveal that sharp images of the S. aureus bacteria cells of the order of ${\sim}{1}\;{\unicode{x00B5}{\rm m}}$∼1µm can be clearly seen. The volume phase holographic grating will remove the stray light from the system reaching toward the grating and will minimize the coherent noise (speckle noise). This will improve the sharpness in the image reconstructed from the recorded digital hologram.

Micrometric size measurement of biological samples using a simple and non-invasive transmission interferometric set up.

An interferometer with a minimum of optical hardware is employed to measure invasiveness the size of biological samples. Nowadays, there are several techniques in microscopy that render high quality resolved images. For instance, consider optical microscopy that has been around for over a century and has since developed in different configurations such as: bright and dark field, phase contrast, confocal, polarized, and so on. However, only a few of these use interferometry to retrieve not only the sample's amplitude but also its phase. An interesting example of the latter is digital holography which normally uses a Mach Zehnder interferometer setup. In the research work reported here a transmission digital holographic interferometer designed with a simple and minimal optical hardware, that avoids the drawback of the small field of view present in classical optical microscopic systems, is used to measure the microscopic dimensions of pollen grains. This optical configuration can be manipulated to magnify and project the image of a semitransparent sample over a neutral phase screen. The use of a collimated beam through the sample prevents geometrical distortions for high magnification values. The measurements using this novel configuration have been validated using a standard precision pattern displacement specimen with certified dimensions. As proof of principle, microscopically characterized pollen grains are placed in the transmission set up in order to estimate their dimensions from the interferometrically retrieved optical phase. Results match and thus show a relation between the sample's size and the optical phase magnitude.

Holographic optical element based digital holographic interferometer for the study of macro flames, micro flames and their temperature instability

In this communication, the measurement of flame temperature and flame temperature instability in macro, micro-sized flames using digital holographic interferometer based on volume phase holographic optical element is experimentally demonstrated. Volume phase holographic optical element (grating) recorded on dichromatic gelatine is used as a beam splitter to design digital holographic interferometer. Volume phase holographic grating will split the incoming light beam into zero, +1, −1 orders. The two beams (zero order and +1 order) can be made of equal intensities by slightly tilting the grating in the path of the beam. Volume phase holographic grating can be designed and fabricated to have high diffraction efficiency (≈90%) and remove stray light from the system reaching to the grating and will lower the coherent noise (speckle pattern). This will improve the contrast of interference fringes while recording the hologram and thus will provide better quality interferograms of temperature field. This type of system is expected to give more accurate measurements as noise due to the speckle pattern, and scattering will become almost negligible.

Optical-Radiation-Calorimeter Refinement by Virtual-Sensitivity Analysis.

Digital holographic interferometry (DHI) radiation dosimetry has been proposed as an experimental metrology technique for measuring absorbed radiation doses to water with high spatial resolution via noninvasive optical calorimetry. The process involves digitally recording consecutive interference patterns resulting from variations in the refractive index as a function of the radiation-absorbed dose. Experiments conducted on prototype optical systems revealed the approach to be feasible but strongly dependent on environmental-influence quantities and setup configuration. A virtual dosimeter reflecting the prototype was created in a commercial optical modelling package. A number of virtual phantoms were developed to characterize the performance of the dosimeter under ideal conditions and with simulated disruptions in environmental-influence quantities, such as atmospheric and temperature perturbations as well as mechanical vibrations. Investigations into the error response revealed that slow drifts in atmospheric parameters and heat expansion caused the measured dose to vary between measurements, while atmospheric fluctuations and vibration contributed to system noise, significantly lowering the spatial resolution of the detector system. The impact of these effects was found to be largely mitigated with equalisation of the dosimeter’s reference and object path lengths, and by miniaturising the detector. Equalising path lengths resulted in a reduction of 97.5% and 96.9% in dosimetric error introduced by heat expansion and atmospheric drift, respectively, while miniaturisation of the dosimeter was found to reduce its sensitivity to vibrations and atmospheric turbulence by up to 41.7% and 54.5%, respectively. This work represents a novel approach to optical-detector refinement in which metrics from medical imaging were adapted into software and applied to a a virtual-detector system. This methodology was found to be well-suited for the optimization of a digital holographic interferometer.

Dual-reference digital holographic interferometry for analyzing high-density gradients in fluid mechanics.

This Letter proposes a dual-reference digital holographic interferometer for analyzing the high refractive index encountered in transonic and supersonic flows. For that, a Wollaston prism is inserted in the reference arm in order to simultaneously generate two orthogonally polarized reference waves. As a consequence, recorded interferograms contain two crossed and perpendicular interference patterns that give two orders fully separated in the Fourier spectrum. It is then possible to analyze a transparent object regardless of the orientation of the refractive index gradient using the two phase maps reconstructed with each of the two first interference orders. Fusion of the phase maps yields a single phase map in which the phase singularities are removed. Experimental results demonstrate the suitability of the proposed approach for analyzing shock waves in the unsteady wake flow around a circular cylinder at Mach 0.75.

Transmission out-of-plane interferometer to study thermal distributions in liquids.

An optical setup that does not need in-line alignment of the object illumination and camera sensor, or requires a reflection mirror after the sample, is introduced to observe the optical phase in a heating liquid. This system uses an out-of-plane transmission digital holographic interferometer that uniformly adds speckle to the image holograms by means of a neutral phase screen. The way in which the liquid is illuminated allows having a variable magnification of the observed area of the sample. As a proof of principle, a thermal time-dependent distribution experiment is presented, whose resulting optical phase readily depicts the temperature-time-varying distribution in the liquid.

Surface structural damage study in cortical bone due to medical drilling.

A bone's fracture could be produced by an excessive, repetitive, or sudden load. A regular medical practice to heal it is to fix it in two possible ways: external immobilization, using a ferule, or an internal fixation, using a prosthetic device commonly attached to the bone by means of surgical screws. The bone's volume loss due to this drilling modifies its structure either in the presence or absence of a fracture. To observe the bone's surface behavior caused by the drilling effects, a digital holographic interferometer is used to analyze the displacement surface's variations in nonfractured post-mortem porcine femoral bones. Several nondrilled post-mortem bones are compressed and compared to a set of post-mortem bones with a different number of cortical drillings. During each compression test, a series of digital interferometric holograms were recorded using a high-speed CMOS camera. The results are presented as pseudo 3D mesh displacement maps for comparisons in the physiological range of load (30 and 50lbs) and beyond (100, 200, and 400lbs). The high resolution of the optical phase gives a better understanding about the bone's microstructural modifications. Finally, a relationship between compression load and bone volume loss due to the drilling was observed. The results prove that digital holographic interferometry is a viable technique to study the conditions that avoid the surgical screw from loosening in medical procedures of this kind.

Increasing plasma parameters using sheared flow stabilization of a Z-pinch

The ZaP and ZaP-HD Flow Z-pinch experiments at the University of Washington have successfully demonstrated that sheared plasma flows can be used as a stabilization mechanism over a range of parameters that has not previously been accessible to long-lived Z-pinch configurations. The stabilization is effective even when the plasma column is compressed to small radii, producing predicted increases in magnetic field and electron temperature. The flow shear value, extent, and duration are shown to be consistent with theoretical models of the plasma viscosity, which places a design constraint on the maximum axial length of a sheared flow stabilized Z-pinch. Measurements of the magnetic field topology indicate simultaneous azimuthal symmetry and axial uniformity along the entire 100 cm length of the Z-pinch plasma. Separate control of plasma acceleration and compression has increased the accessible plasma parameters and has generated stable plasmas with radii of 0.3 cm, as measured with a high resolution digital holographic interferometer. Compressing the plasma with higher pinch currents has produced high magnetic fields (8.5 T) and electron temperatures (1 keV) with an electron density of 2×1017 cm−3, while maintaining plasma stability for many Alfvén times (approximately 50 μs). The results suggest that sheared flow stabilization can be applied to extend Z-pinch plasma parameters to high energy densities.

Fully automated digital holographic interferometer for 360 deg contour and displacement measurements

A fully automated optomechatronic system based on an out-of-plane sensitivity digital holographic interferometer is proposed to measure both the 360-deg object’s contour and its surface displacements due to sound stimulation. The digital holograms to measure the surface contour are acquired using the two points of illumination method whose optimal height sensitivity for this particular case is Δ z = 2.98 mm . This method renders a phase map that has a tilt produced by the angle change of the object beam relative to the optical axis, a tilt that is removed by subtracting the phase difference from a physical reference plane tangentially located at the back of the object, which contrasts with former methods that locate this plane usually in the middle portion of the object. By using rotation and averaging matrices, the 360-deg object’s contour digital reconstruction was obtained, and with it, the displacements around the object can be accurately placed on its surface. The main contribution of the proposed fully automated system is to get a 360-deg object’s contour and its surface displacements in a hands-free rapid and accurate evaluation.

디지털 홀로그래피를 이용한 포토리소그래피 공정 제품 패터닝의 폭과 단차 측정

반도체 산업은 우리나라 주력산업중 하나로 매년 꾸준한 성장세를 보이며 지속적인 성장을 하고 있다. 이러한 반도체 산업에서의 중요한 기술은 소자의 고 집적화이다. 이는 면적당 메모리 용량을 증가시키는 것으로 핵심역할을 하는 것이 바로 포토리소그래피 기술이다. 포토리소그래피란 마스크의 표면에 빛을 쬐어 생기는 그림자를 웨이퍼 상에 인쇄하는 기술이며 반도체 제조공정에서의 가장 중요한 공정이다. 이러한 공정을 통해 나온 패터닝을 분석 시에 폭과 단차의 균일성을 측정한다. 이에 따라 본 논문은 포토리소그래피 공정이 적용된 시험편 패터닝에 폭과 판 사이와의 단차를 투과형 디지털 홀로그래피를 구성하여 측정하고자 한다. 투과형 디지털 홀로그래피 간섭계를 구성하고 시험편에 임의의 9포인트를 설정하여 각 포인트를 측정하고 상용장비인 SEM (scanning electron microscopy)과 alpha step으로 측정한 결과와 비교하고자 한다. 투과형 디지털 홀로그래피는 측정시간이 타 기법에 비에 짧다는 장점과 배율렌즈를 사용하기 때문에 저 배율에서 고 배율로 변경하여 측정할 수 있는 장점을 가지고 있다. 실험 결과로부터 투과형 디지털 홀로그래피가 포토 리소그래피가 적용된 패터닝 측정에 유용한 기술임을 확인할 수 있었다. The semiconductor industry is one of the key industries of Korea, which has continued growing at a steady annual growth rate. Important technology for the semiconductor industry is high integration of devices. This is to increase the memory capacity for unit area, of which key is photolithography. The photolithography refers to a technique for printing the shadow of light lit on the mask surface on to wafer, which is the most important process in a semiconductor manufacturing process. In this study, the width and step-height of wafers patterned through this process were measured to ensure uniformity. The widths and inter-plate heights of the specimens patterned using photolithography were measured using transmissive digital holography. A transmissive digital holographic interferometer was configured, and nine arbitrary points were set on the specimens as measured points. The measurement of each point was compared with the measurements performed using a commercial device called scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Alpha Step. Transmission digital holography requires a short measurement time, which is an advantage compared to other techniques. Furthermore, it uses magnification lenses, allowing the flexibility of changing between high and low magnifications. The test results confirmed that transmissive digital holography is a useful technique for measuring patterns printed using photolithography.

반사형 디지털 홀로그래피를 이용한 Molybdenum 박막의 손상 측정

전자제품에 필수적으로 사용되는 전자회로의 제작 시, 반도체 위에 증착하는 박막의 산화를 방지하기 위하여 molybdenum을 증착한다. Molybdenum 박막 증착 시 표면의 particle 또는 dust의 존재는 밀착력 감소 및 성능 저하, 수명 단축, 안전도 저하를 유발한다. 본 논문에서는 particle의 유무에 따른 molybdenum 박막 증착부의 변화를 보기 위하여, 두 가지 glass substrate를 대상으로 손상 측정 실험을 하였다. Sputtering 증착 기법으로 molybdenum이 glass substrate에 직접 코팅이 되는 clean과 dirty 두 종류의 molybdenum 박막을 제작하고, 손상 측정을 위해 반사형 디지털 홀로그래피를 구성하였다. 반사형 디지털 홀로그래피는 간섭계의 구성이 손쉽고 다양한 배율렌즈를 적용하여 측정영역에 다양성을 줄 수 있으며, 측정시간이 타 기법에 비해 짧다는 장점을 가진다. 실험 결과로부터 반사형 디지털 홀로그래피가 박막의 손상 및 결함 측정에 유용한 기술임을 확인하였다. In the fabrication of electronic circuits used in electronic products, molybdenum thin films are deposited on semiconductors to prevent oxidation. During the deposition, the presence of a particle or dust at the interface between the thin film and substrate causes the decrease of adhesion, performance, and life cycle. In this study, a damage measurement targeting two kinds of glass substrate, with and without particles, was performed in order to measure the change in the molybdenum thin film deposition area in the presence of a particle. Clean and dirty molybdenum thin film specimens were fabricated and directly deposited on a substrate using the sputtering method, and a reflection-type digital holographic interferometer was configured for measuring the damage. Reflection-type digital holography has several advantages; e.g., the configuration of the interferometer is simple, the measurement range can be varied depending on the magnification of a microscopic lens, and the measuring time is short. The results confirm that reflection-type digital holography is useful for the measurement of the damage and defects of thin films.

Quasi-common path three-wavelength holographic interferometer based on Wollaston prisms

This article presents a digital three-wavelength holographic interferometer based on the use of two Wollaston prisms. This provides an in-line setup with quasi common-path and as a consequence there is no additional independent reference wave to be added. Thus, immunity to external perturbations such as vibrations or thermal perturbations is achieved. Furthermore, the set-up exhibits a single shot and real time capability which is very useful to study dynamic events. By using the two Wollaston prisms in an astigmatic configuration, spatial carrier frequencies can be adjusted both in amplitude and orientation. The digital hologram processing is based on Fourier processing and filtering around the carrier spatial frequency so that phase shifting is not required. The use of three wavelengths leads to visualizing directly the zero order fringe and regions for which there is no air density variation in a dynamic flow. Experimental proof of concept is demonstrated with a supersonic jet when the injection pressure varies.