Path Length Changes Research Articles

A Miniature Fabry Perot Sensor for Twist/Rotation, Strain and Temperature Measurements Based on a Four-Core Fiber.

In this article, a novel miniature Fabry-Perot twist/rotation sensor using a four core fiber and quadruple interferometer setup is presented and demonstrated. Detailed sensor modeling, analytical evaluation and test measurement assessment were conducted in this contribution. The sensor structure comprises a single lead-in multicore fiber, which has four eccentrically positioned cores, a special asymmetrical microstructure, and an inline semi-reflective mirror, all packed in a glass capillary housing. A four core fiber positioned in front of a special asymmetrical microstructure and the inline semi reflective mirror defines four Fabry-Perot interferometers. Rotation of the sensors’ asymmetrical microstructure around the axis of the in-line four core fibers´ modulates the path lengths of all four interferometers simultaneously. Proper processing of path length changes of all four interferometers allows for unambiguous and temperature independent determination of the sensor’s rotation angle.

Network neurobiology of electroconvulsive therapy in patients with depression

Graph theory, a popular analytic tool for resting state fMRI (rsfMRI) has provided important insights in the neurobiology of depression. We aimed to analyze the changes in the network measures of segregation and integration associated with the administration of ECT in patients with depression and to correlate with both clinical response and cognitive deficits. Changes in normalised clustering coefficient (γ), path length (λ) and small-world (σ) index were explored in 17 patients with depressive episode before 1st and after 6th brief-pulse bifrontal ECT (BFECT) sessions. Significant brain regions were then correlated with differences in clinical and cognitive scales. There was significantly increased γ and σ despite significant increase in λ in several brain regions after ECT in patients with depression. The brain areas revealing significant differences in γ before and after ECT were medial left superior frontal gyrus, left paracentral lobule, right pallidum and left inferior frontal operculum; correlating with changes in verbal fluency, HAM-D scores and delayed verbal memory (last two regions) respectively. BFECT reorganized the brain network topology in patients with depression and made it more segregated and less integrated; these correlated with clinical improvement and associated cognitive deficits.

Multiparameter miniature fiber-optic sensor: design and signal interrogation

Miniature, all-silica, fiber-optic sensors capable of independent measurement of at least two different parameters are presented. Sensors were produced by a micromachining process based on the selective etching of specially designed phosphorousdoped optical fibers and an assembly-procedure that included fiber cleaving, fiber splicing and etching of fiber-micro-assemblies. Furthermore, an efficient method for independent readout of parameters in sensors that are composed of multiple resonators was also developed. The method utilizes a discrete Furrier transform of sensor’s optical spectrum and allows for simultaneous, crosstalk-free and highly sensitive readout of individual resonators’ path length changes.

Interfacial Kinetics of HOR/MOR at the AEM/Pt Microelectrode Interface: Investigation of the Influence of CO32− on the Reaction Kinetics and the Mass Transport through Membrane

The kinetics of hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) and methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) at the Tokuyama anion exchange membrane/ Pt microelectrode interface were investigated using a solid state electrochemical cell. Carbonate ions in the membrane which are strongly adsorbing anions; suppress both HOR and MOR kinetics. Carbonate ions not only have a site blocking effect, but at low pHs sufficient amount of hydroxyl ions are not available for adsorption. Adsorption effects by the quaternary ammonium species in the membrane, on the Pt electrode is found to be minimal. However, an ionomer film (AS4) coated on the membrane, significantly decreased the rate of HOR. Diffusion of hydrogen molecules through the membrane was not influenced by the carbonate ions due to the smaller size of the gaseous molecule. However, hydrogen concentration in the anion exchange membrane is low in the presence of carbonate ions. Methanol diffusion is facilitated in the anion exchange polymer electrolyte due to its high water content. However, change of the diffusion path length in carbonate polymer electrolytes caused methanol permeability to drop significantly.

Design, simulation, fabrication and testing of ultrasonic gas flowmeter transducer (sensor)

PurposeInvasive transit-time ultrasonic flow measurement involves the use of ultrasonic transducers, which sense the flowing fluid and are the most important parts of an ultrasonic flowmeter. In this study, two ultrasonic transducers were designed, numerically simulated and fabricated to be used in an ultrasonic gas flowmeter.Design/methodology/approachPZT-5H piezoceramic elements with specific dimensions were designed and used as beating heart inside the transducers. Different methods, including impedance-frequency analysis, optical emission spectroscopy and performance tests in pressurized chambers were used to evaluate the piezoelectric elements, ultrasonic transducer housings and the fabricated transducers, respectively. In addition, finite element method results showed its ability for design stages of ultrasonic transducer.FindingsExperimental results for transit time difference (TTD) and the normalized received voltage were compared with simulation results at the same conditions. There was a quite good agreement between the two method results. Extensive simulation results showed that under the considered range of environmental conditions, the change of acoustic path length has the most impact on TTD, with respect to temperature and pressure. A change of 1 mm in acoustic path length leads to 0.74 per cent change in TTD, approximately. In addition, for normalized received voltage, 1 bar change in pressure has the most impact and its value is as high as 3.76 per cent.Practical implicationsThis method is possibly used in ultrasonic gas flowmeter fabrication.Originality/valueIn this work, design, fabrication, experimental tests and numerical simulation of ultrasonic transducers are presented.

A Method for Defining the Position of Ion Formation in a MALDI TOFMS by Analysis of the Laser Image on the Sample Surface.

A method is developed to determine the position of ion formation along the flight axis of a MALDI TOFMS instrument using the image of the laser on the sample surface. Previous work (JASMS 2018, 29, 422-434) showed that misalignment of the sample stage in a Bruker Autoflex III MALDI TOFMS as well as multiple insertions/mountings of the target plate and differences in target plate shape itself produced reproducible changes in the measured ion time-of-flight which could be attributed to changes in the position of ion formation along the instrument flight axis. Here, a small but reproducible change in the position of the laser in the sample-viewing camera image was observed, with the movement depending on both the sample position and target plate used. Using the change in coordinates of the laser position in the camera image and the known angle of incidence of the laser on the sample surface, the initial z-axis position of the ion at different locations on the plate can be calculated, exactly defining changes in the ion flight path length and the distance between the sample plate and first extraction plate/grid with sample position on the target plate. A correction method is developed to correct the time-of-flight values collected from different locations on the sample plate using the laser images, with the relative standard deviation (RSD) being reduced from 23ppm to below 6ppm. The laser images, along with the measured target plate heights, are also used to calculate the misalignment of the sample stage. Graphical Abstract.

Correction for stress-induced optical path length changes in a refractometer cell at variable external pressure

In the field of interferometry for high-precision length measurements the influence of the refractive index of air can either be eliminated by completely measuring in a vacuum or by the application of a refractometer cell which enables the precise in situ determination of the refractivity. In the latter case, systematic effects can occur in connection with the operation of the refractometer cell due to mechanical stress induced at different pressures. Operation at a pressure range beyond the usual atmospheric pressure variation is needed when, for instance, the compressibility of a material measure is investigated or the pressure dependence of the refractive index of gases is aimed at. In this work an approach is shown for the correction of pressure-induced effects for the type of interference refractometer being used at PTB when starting from a reference state in vacuum. The required correction of the refractivity’s value was found to be of the order of for a refractometer cell of 420 mm length which corresponds to a relative contribution of when determining the air refractivity at standard laboratory conditions. For instance, in the application of high-precision length measurements (up to 1000 mm) the effect amounts to a length correction of several nanometers.

Automatic Detection of Multi-Modality in Self-Mixing Interferometer

Laser feedback-based self-mixing interferometry (SMI) has been demonstrated for diverse metric sensing applications. Typically, SMI sensors are based on such laser diodes (LDs) which provide mono-modal emission resulting in SMI signals in which each interferometric fringe occurs due to change in optical path length of $\lambda $ /2, where $\lambda $ is emission wavelength. However, in case multiple laser modes undergo SMI, then each mode contributes its own set of fringes. As LDs can emit multiple modes under variable operating conditions, so, non-detection of multiple SMI modes can cause drastic increase in measurement error due to wrong interpretation of fringes. Previously, the detection of multiple laser modes undergoing SMI was achieved by adding spectroscopic instruments to the SMI set-up. This, however, compromises the inherent simplicity of SMI sensing. In this paper, an automatic SMI-based multi-modality detection method is proposed which is able to detect if multiple modes of deployed LD are undergoing SMI and are contributing additional fringes within the SMI signal under variable sensing conditions. Such detection enables correct interpretation of SMI fringe count and can be used to signal occurrence of mode-hopping or secondary mode excitation. The method uses an artificial neural network, able to automatically identify uni-, bi-, or tri-modal SMI signals. Two different LDs (emitting at 637 and 650 nm) were used to acquire 131 experimental uni-, bi-, and tri-modal SMI signals for variable operating conditions and target vibration amplitude. The proposed system has achieved modality detection accuracy of 98.57% on 70 unseen experimental SMI signals.

Optical excitation and detection of neuronal activity.

Optogenetics has emerged as an exciting tool for manipulating neural activity, which in turn, can modulate behavior in live organisms. However, detecting the response to the optical stimulation requires electrophysiology with physical contact or fluorescent imaging at target locations, which is often limited by photobleaching and phototoxicity. In this paper, we show that phase imaging can report the intracellular transport induced by optogenetic stimulation. We developed a multimodal instrument that can both stimulate cells with subcellular spatial resolution and detect optical pathlength (OPL) changes with nanometer scale sensitivity. We found that OPL fluctuations following stimulation are consistent with active organelle transport. Furthermore, the results indicate a broadening in the transport velocity distribution, which is significantly higher in stimulated cells compared to optogenetically inactive cells. It is likely that this label-free, contactless measurement of optogenetic response will provide an enabling approach to neuroscience.

Method for measurement of eccentricity and tilt of lenslet array integral field spectrometer.

This paper proposes a more accurate eccentricity and tilt measurement method based on Young's interference experiment. The basic principle of the method is introduced first before the method is simulated. Then the results are obtained when a to-be-adjusted focusing lens with eccentricity and tilt is simulated. The optical sensitivity also is obtained from these simulation results, and the expression for the change in optical path length caused by eccentricity and tilt is analyzed. Use of this method to detect eccentricity and tilt and assist in adjustment of the system allows the instrument to achieve higher accuracy and thus obtain improved imaging quality and spectral resolution.

Photothermal spectroscopy of CO2 in an intracavity mode-locked fiber laser configuration.

A novel configuration of a photothermal gas sensor is demonstrated. Photothermal-induced gas refractive index (RI) modulation is probed by a simple, mode-locked (ML) ring cavity fiber laser, operating in the 1.55 µm wavelength region. The measured gas sample is placed in an open-path section of the ML laser and the RI variations directly translate to its optical path-length change, which is easily detectable as pulse repetition frequency deviations. Wavelength modulation spectroscopy (WMS) technique was used along with a custom-built FM demodulator simplifying the signal retrieval and acquisition. Normalized noise equivalent coefficient calculated for the sensor was 1 x 10-5 cm-1 W Hz-1/2.

Structural Colored Balloon Composed of Temperature-Responsive Polymers Showing LCST Behavior.

Structural colored balloons (SCBs) consisting of polymer thin film developed structural color by thin-layer interference on the shell. Thermoresponsive SCBs were prepared with poly(diethylene glycol monomethyl ether methacrylate)- co-poly( N-phenylacrylamide), which shows lower critical solution temperature (LCST) behavior. When cooling gelatin aqueous solution in which osmotic pressure was not operated, only hydration of the copolymer progressed due to LCST transition. The optical path length of the SCB increased due to swelling by water and subsequently decreased due to dissolution. The structural color changed according to the change in optical path length. In cold pure water, in addition to the hydration, osmotic pressure was operated to induce an influx of the outer solvent and the resulting diameter change also affected the shell thickness. The structural color change was analyzed to reveal that the dissolution of the polymer had significant effect on the developed structural color.

Interplay Effect of Target Motion and Pencil-Beam Scanning in Proton Therapy for Pediatric Patients.

Purpose:To investigate the effect of interplay between spot-scanning proton beams and respiration-induced tumor motion on internal target volume coverage for pediatric patients.Materials and Methods:Photon treatments for 10 children with representative tumor motions (1–13 mm superior-inferior) were replanned to simulate single-field uniform dose–optimized proton therapy. Static plans were designed by using average computed tomography (CT) data sets created from 4D CT data to obtain nominal dose distributions. The motion interplay effect was simulated by assigning each spot in the static plan delivery sequence to 1 of 10 respiratory-phase CTs, using the actual patient breathing trace and specifications of a synchrotron-based proton system. Dose distributions for individual phases were deformed onto the space of the average CT and summed to produce the accumulated dose distribution, whose dose-volume histogram was compared with the one from the static plan.Results:Tumor motion had minimal impact on the internal target volume hot spot (D2), which deviated by <3% from the nominal values of the static plans. The cold spot (D98) was also minimally affected, except in 2 patients with diaphragmatic tumor motion exceeding 10 mm. The impact on tumor coverage was more pronounced with respect to the V99 rather than the V95. Decreases of 10% to 49% in the V99 occurred in multiple patients for whom the beam paths traversed the lung-diaphragm interface and were, therefore, more sensitive to respiration-induced changes in the water equivalent path length. Fractionation alone apparently did not mitigate the interplay effect beyond 6 fractions.Conclusion:The interplay effect is not a concern when delivering scanning proton beams to younger pediatric patients with tumors located in the retroperitoneal space and tumor motion of <5 mm. Children and adolescents with diaphragmatic tumor motion exceeding 10 mm require special attention, because significant declines in target coverage and dose homogeneity were seen in simulated treatments of such patients.

A free-standing wire scattering technique to monitor calibration variations of the DIII-D density profile reflectometer.

Real-time phase calibration of the ITER profile reflectometer is essential due to the long plasma duration and expected waveguide path length changes during a discharge. Progress has been recently made in addressing this issue by employing a phase calibration technique on DIII-D that monitors calibration variations that occur during each plasma discharge. By installing a thin free-standing metallic wire (1 mm diameter) near the end of the overmoded waveguide transmission system (oriented perpendicular to the waveguide axis), the round-trip phase shift from the wire is detected simultaneously with the plasma phase shifts. Variations in the reflectometer round trip path length (∼26 m) are then calculated after each DIII-D plasma discharge, allowing the calibration phase to be accurately monitored and updated. The round-trip reflectometer path length is observed to vary by ∼3 mm (root mean square value) during a typical DIII-D discharge. Using the variations in calibration phase, the density profile measurement accuracy can be improved. Since the wire retro-reflected power is ∼0.01 of the plasma signal, minimal effect is observed on the reflected signal from the plasma. Importantly, through a suitable choice in wire diameter, the calibration signal can be made approximately independent of the V-band reflectometer launch polarization. This is particularly important on DIII-D since orthogonal X- and O-mode polarized beams are coupled into the same transmission waveguide and launch antenna.

Photothermal-induced frequency stabilization of a solid-state monolithic Nd:YVO4 laser

We report on a novel frequency stabilization method of a monolithic solid-state microchip laser. Here, a Nd:YVO4/YVO4 laser was constructed with an additional erbium and ytterbium co-doped phosphate glass (Er:Glass) incorporated into the resonator. By illuminating the Er:Glass with an intensity modulated auxiliary 1.55 µm beam controlled photothermal-induced optical path-length changes of the resonator were observed, and utilized for frequency stabilization of the main emission of the solid-state 1064 nm laser. Error signal was obtained from beating the emission with an identical, passively stabilized laser. The presented laser stabilization technique provides a relative frequency stability at the level of 4.5 × 10−12@10s, without affetcing the output power of the 1064 nm laser.

Measuring Seafloor Strain With an Optical Fiber Interferometer

AbstractWe monitored the length of an optical fiber cable stretched between two seafloor anchors separated by 200 m at a depth of 1900 m, 90 km west of Newport, OR, near the toe of the accretionary prism of the Cascadia subduction zone. We continuously recorded length changes using an equal arm Michelson interferometer formed by the sensing cable fiber and a mandrel‐wound reference fiber. A second, nearly identical fiber interferometer (sharing the same cable and housing), differing only in its fiber's temperature coefficient, was recorded simultaneously, allowing the separation of optical path length change due to temperature from that due to strain. Data were collected for 100 days following deployment on 18 October 2015, and showed an overall strain (length change) of −10.7 με (shorter by 2.14 mm). At seismic periods, the sensitivity was a few nε; at tidal periods the noise level was a few tens of nε. The RMS variation after removal of a −79 nε/day drift over the final 30 days was 36 nε. No strain transients were observed. An unexpected response to the varying hydrostatic load from ocean tides was observed with a coefficient of −101 nε per meter of ocean tide height.

Measuring refractive index of glass by using speckle.

A method to measure the refractive index of an optically flat, regularly shaped slab of glass using speckle correlation-based techniques is reported. The intensity of the diffraction field of the diffuser is captured by a CCD both with and without the glass present. As the position of the peak correlation coefficient is quantitatively related to the change in optical path length arising due to the presence of the glass, the refractive index of the glass can be evaluated by cross-correlating the two captured images. The theoretical correlation function that describes the effects of such an optical path length change is discussed, and the resulting speckle decorrelation function derived. Two glass samples are measured to demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of the proposed technique.

(Invited) Fine Temperature Monitoring of Si Wafer for Plasma Processing

One of the critical parameters in many semiconductor-processing steps such as plasma etching, chemical vapor deposition, and so on, is the substrate temperature. For example, the etch rate and etch profile are sensitive to the substrate temperature in the plasma etching process. However, contact measurement such as thermo-couples and fluorescent temperature sensor cannot measure the accurate temperature, especially in low pressure due to poor thermal transfer between the wafer and the probe. We have developed the non-contact temperature measurement of substrates by using optical low-coherence interferometer. [1-6] The low-coherence interferometry is based on Michelson interferometry, and a white light such as a super-luminescent diode (SLD) was used as a low-coherence light source. SLD has the central wavelengths of 1325 nm and the full width at half maximum of 64.5 nm. The light which is reflected at the surface of Si substrate interfered with the light reflected at the scanning reference mirror. The interfered light was detected with a spectrometer and the signal which is a frequency domain spectrum was converted to a time domain signal by inverse Fourier transformation. The temperature of the Si substrate is derived from the change in the optical path length of Si substrate due to thermal expansion and changes in the refractive index. The temperatures of Si wafer and chamber parts made of Si were successfully monitored in the SiO2 plasma etching using capacitively coupled plasma. The performance was compared with that of fluorescent temperature sensor. From these results, we have demonstrated highly precise and rapid response measurement of the temperature of Si wafer at real time by using Fourier domain low coherence interferometer.

Achromatic phase shifting self-interference incoherent digital holography using linear polarizer and geometric phase lens.

A simple Fresnel-type self-interference incoherent digital holographic recording system is proposed. The main part of the system consists of the two linear polarizers and geometric phase lens. The geometric phase lens is employed as a polarization selective common-path interferometer. One of the polarizers is rotated by the motor and serves as a phase-shifter with the geometric phase lens, to eliminate the bias and twin image noise. A topological phase is obtained by the relative angle between the polarizer and geometric phase lens. Since this phase shifting method does not depend on the change of the optical path length, the phase shifting performance is almost constant in the broad spectral range. Using the proposed achromatic phase shifting method, a simultaneous three-color phase shifting digital hologram recording under the incoherent light source is demonstrated.

Investigation on the impact of irregular fringe patterns of a single-fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer on its sensing capabilities

Abstract A novel single-mode single-fiber (SMSF) MZI formed by cascading of two non-adiabatic fiber tapers, with stable and repeatable spectrum, has been found to be useful in sensing applications in recent times. A multimode interference based novel simulation approach is proposed to predict the sensing characteristics of SMSF-MZI and is validated with experimental observation. The proposed method includes solving of simultaneous non-homogenous equations for determining the amplitudes of the interfering modes excited in the tapered section of the interferometer. The simulated fringe pattern and the experimental spectral response converge to some important comprehension reported for the first time. A linear shift in output spectral response, of SMSF-MZI, due to change in optical path length induced by temperature/strain etc., is likely to be characterized by three modes interference occurring in the interference region of the interferometer. Whereas if the spectral shift starts saturating at moderately higher temperature/strain, then the formation of interference fringes are possibly governed by two modes interference. Further, it was also explained that a SMSF-MZI with variable fringe widths in its spectral pattern exhibits higher sensitivity than that of the SMSF-MZI having wavelength spectrum with uniform free spectral range. These findings are useful in selecting and predicting the sensitivity of a given SMSF-MZI, based on its spectrum, for sensing applications.