The 4f7 6s(9S)np 8PJ (J=5/2, 7/2, 9/2) Rydberg series converging to the first ionization limit 4f7 6s 9S4 of the Eu atom using the three-step laser excitation and electric-field-ionization (EFI) method are studied. First, the Eu atom is excited from the 4f7 6s2 8So7/2 ground state to the 4f76s7s 8So7/2 state through the 4f7 6s6p 10P9/2 state by the first two dye lasers. Next, it is populated to many higher-n members of the 4f7 6s(9S)np 8PJ Rydberg series by the third dye laser whose wavelength is scanned within a certain range. Finally, the atom in these higher-n states is ionized by the external pulsed electric field. With the field strength up to 2 kV/cm, we can detect the atom in 4f76s(9S)np 8PJ states with n>40. With the given laser line width, the level energies of Rydberg states with n as high as 72 can be determined. We not only confirm the previous data on the 4f76s(9S) np 8PJ Rydberg series, but also extend the n-value assignment significantly by detecting more states.

Bias of ring-laser-gyroscope (RLG) changes with temperature in a nonlinear way. This is an important restraining factor for improving the accuracy of RLG. Considering the limitations of least-squares regression and neural network, we propose a new method of temperature compensation of RLG bias-building function regression model using least-squares support vector machine (LS-SVM). Static and dynamic temperature experiments of RLG bias are carried out to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Moreover, the traditional least-squares regression method is compared with the LS-SVM-based method. The results show the maximum error of RLG bias drops by almost two orders of magnitude after static temperature compensation, while bias stability of RLG improves by one order of magnitude after dynamic temperature compensation. Thus, the proposed method reduces the influence of temperature variation on the bias of the RLG effectively and improves the accuracy of the gyro scope considerably.

We propose a novel photonic technique for microwave frequency measurement based on transversal microwave filters with high resolution. Two parallel microwave filters with sine and cosine frequency responses are obtained by cross gain modulation in a single semiconductor optical amplifier, which introduces two different frequency responses to achieve an amplitude comparison function. We also demonstrate a proof-of-concept experiment. The measurement error is less than +-0.04 GHz for the first band range of 0-3.45 GHz and less than +-0.03 GHz for the second band range of 3.45-5.8 GHz. Our scheme is found to be capable of being extended for larger frequency range measurements using a shorter fiber length.

A tunable slow light of 2.5-Gb/s pseudo-random binary sequence signal using a 1550-nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) is experimentally demonstrated. The influences of the bias current and the gain saturation on the slow light are investigated. With bias current increasing, tunable optical group delay up to 98 ps is obtained at room temperature. Demonstration of the time delay between 16 and 24 ps by signal intensity change is reported. Under an appropriate bias current, by tuning the input signal to track the peak gain wavelength of the VCSEL, slow light of a power penalty as low as 1 dB is achieved. With such a low power penalty, the VCSEL has a great potential application as a compact optical buffer.

The application of a thermal source in non-contact forming of sheet metal has long been used. However, the replacement of this thermal source with a laser beam promises much greater controllability of the process. This yields a process with strong potential for application in aerospace, shipbuilding, automobile, and manufacturing industries, as well as the rapid manufacturing of prototypes and adjustment of misaligned components. Forming is made possible through laser-induced non-uniform thermal stresses. In this letter, we use the geometrical transition from rectangular to circle-shaped specimen and ring-shaped specimen to observe the effect of geometry on deformation in laser forming. We conduct a series of experiments on a wide range of specimen geometries. The reasons for this behavior are also analyzed. Experimental results are compared with simulated values using the software ABAQUS. The utilization of line energy is found to be higher in the case of laser forming along linear irradiation than along curved ones. We also analyze the effect of strain hindrance. The findings of the study may be useful for the inverse problem, which involves acquiring the process parameters for a known target shape of a wide range of complex shape geometries.

Morphology evolution of prior \beta grains of laser solid forming (LSF) Ti-xAl-yV (x \leq 11,y \leq 20) alloys from blended elemental powders is investigated. The formation mechanism of grain morphology is revealed by incorporating columnar to equiaxed transition (CET) mechanism during solidification. The morphology of prior \beta grains of LSF Ti-6Al-yV changes from columnar to equiaxed grains with increasing element V content from 4 to 20 wt.-%. This agrees well with CET theoretical prediction. Likewise, the grain morphology of LSF Ti-xAl-2V from blended elemental powders changes from large columnar to small equiaxed with increasing Al content from 2 to 11 wt.-%. The macro-morphologies of LSF Ti-8Al-2V and Ti-11Al-2V from blended elemental powders do not agree with CET predictions. This is caused by the increased disturbance effects of mixing enthalpy with increasing Al content, generated in the alloying process of Ti, Al, and V in the molten pool.

We investigate guided modes in the asymmetric waveguide structure with a left-handed material (LHM) layer surrounded by air and metal. A graphical method is proposed to determine the guided modes. New properties of the oscillating and surface guided modes, such as absence of the fundamental mode, coexistence of the oscillating and surface guided modes, fast attenuation of the surface guided modes, and mode degeneracy, are analyzed in detail. We also investigate dispersive characteristics of the metal-LHM-air optical waveguide. The propagation constant increases with decreasing slab thickness for the first-order oscillating mode, which is different from that in traditional metal-cladding waveguides.

To decrease the performance difference between the actual microscanning thermal imager and the theoretical value, a germanium lens (placed at a certain angle between the infrared focal plane array and infrared lens) dip angle model of flat optical component microscanning is introduced in this letter. The model is the basis for choosing the dip angle of the germanium lens, which is used in the microscanning thermal imager. In addition, the actual dip angle of the germanium lens is chosen according to the model, the infrared lens parameters of the thermal imager, and the germanium lens parameters of manufacture and installation. Only in this manner can the optimal performance of the microscanning thermal imager based on the flat optical component be obtained. Results of the experiments confirm the accuracy of the conclusions above.

We experimentally investigate the transmission performance of 60-GHz signals over standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) and wireless links at different bit rates. Experimental results show that in a transmission of over 10-km SSMF and 1.3-m wireless link, bit rate reaches up to 5 Gb/s and bit error rate (BER) is less than 10^{-4}. The main limiting factor in such radio-over-fiber (ROF) systems is intersymbol interferences caused by the so-called walk-off effect when BER is below 10^{-8}. In addition, a transmission of over 20-km SSMF without chromatic dispersion compensation is brie°y investigated. For a BER of 10?8, the optical penalty is 2 dB.

By using a graded-index multimode fiber (GI-MMF) with a relatively flat index profile and high refractive index of the fiber core, a microextrinsic fiber-optic Fabry?P′erot interferometric (MEFPI) strain sensor is fabricated through chemical etching and fusion splicing. Higher reflectance of the microcavity is obtained due to the less-curved inner wall in the center of the fiber core after etching and higher index contrast between the GI-MMF core and air. The maximum reflection of the sensor is enhanced 12 dB than that obtained by etching of the Er- or B-doped fibers. High fringe contrast of 22 dB is obtained. The strain and temperature responses of the MEFPI sensors are investigated in this experiment. Good linearity and high sensitivity are achieved, with wavelength-strain and wavelength-temperature sensitivities of 7.82 pm/\mu \varepsilon and 5.01 pm/?C, respectively.

A simple design procedure is used to generate photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) with ultra-flattened chromatic dispersion. Only four parameters are required, which not only considerably saves the computing time, but also distinctly reduces the air-hole quantity. The influence of the air-hole diameters of each ring of hexagonal PCFs (H-PCF, including 1-hole-missing and 7-hole-missing H-PCFs), circular PCFs (C-PCF), square PCFs (S-PCF), and octagonal PCFs (O-PCF) is investigated through simulations. Results show that regardless of the cross section structures of the PCFs, the 1st ring air-hole diameter has the greatest influence on the dispersion curve followed by that of the 2nd ring. The 3rd ring diameter only affects the dispersion curve within longer wavelengths, whereas the 4th and 5th rings have almost no influence on the dispersion curve. The hole-to-hole pitch between rings changes the dispersion curve as a whole. Based on the simulation results, a procedure is proposed to design PCFs with ultra-flattened dispersion. Through the adjustment of air-hole diameters of the inner three rings and hole-to-hole pitch, a flattened dispersion of 0+-0.5 ps/(nm.km) within a wavelength range of 1.239–2.083 \mum for 5-ring 1-hole-missing H-PCF, 1.248–1.992 \mum for 5-ring C-PCF, 1.237–2.21 \mum for 5-ring S-PCF, 1.149–1.926 \mum for 5-ring O-PCF, and 1.294–1.663 \mum for 7-hole-missing H-PCF is achieved.

A novel, compact, and highly efficient fiber-to-chip evanescent coupling structure is proposed based on a subwavelength-diameter fiber. The coupling structure is characterized by a large misalignment tolerance and easy fabrication. The dependence of coupling efficiency on various parameters is calculated and analyzed. The simulation results show that a coupling efficiency as high as 95% can be obtained within a coupling length of <4 \mum.

An optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) aware lightpath provisioning mechanism (OSNR-LPM) is proposed for distributed optical networks. This OSNR-LPM takes the OSNR value of the lightwave along the lightpath into consideration when establishing the lightpath for the connection request using resource reservation protocol-traffic engineering (RSVP-TE). Moreover, the OSNR-LPM makes full advantages of the OSNR monitoring function in each node and assigns the lightwave by judging the OSNR value carried by the signaling message in order to guarantee the reliable establishment of the lightpath in the data plane.The simulation results show that the OSNR-LPM outperforms other lightpath assignment mechanisms in terms of real blocking probability in the data plane.

Using e-beam evaporation, the ellipsometric parameters of thick transparent films are studied with the modified analysis method for the SiO2 film samples deposited onto the Si substrate. The ellipsometric parameters are measured at the incidence angles changing from 50? to 70? and in the 3–4.5 eV photon energy range. The error in the conventional method can be significantly reduced by the modified ellipsometric method considering the spatial effect to show good agreement between the theoretical and experimental results. The new method presented in this letter can be applied to other optical measurement of the periodic or non-periodic film structures.

We prepare Six(ZrO2)100?x composite films using the co-sputtering method. The chemical structures of the films which are prepared under different conditions are analyzed with X-ray photoemission spectroscopy. Thermal treatment influences on optical property and resistance switching characteristics of these composite films are investigated by spectroscopic ellipsometry and semiconductor parameter analyzer, respectively. With the proper Si-doped Six(ZrO2)100?x interlayer, the Al/ Six(ZrO2)100?x/Al device cell samples present very reliable and reproducible switching behaviors. It provides a feasible solution for easy multilevel storage and better fault tolerance in nonvolatile memory application.

Red frequency-upconversion fluorescence emission is observed in europium (III) complex with encapsulating polybenzimidazole tripodal ligands, pumped with 930- and 1070-nm picosecond laser pulses. The luminescence of transition 5D0->7F2 (612 nm) is induced by two-photon absorption of hypersensitive transitions 7F0->5D2 (465 nm) and 7F1->5D1 (535 nm). Analysis results suggest that the two-photon excitation strength of these hypersensitive transitions is increased dramatically owing to the C3 symmetry of the coordination field.

We propose a novel terahertz-wave source through the four-wave mixing effect in a conventional single-mode optical fiber pumped by a dual-wavelength laser whose difference frequency lies in the terahertz range. Surface-emitted geometry is employed to decrease absorption loss. A detailed derivation of the terahertz-wave power expression is presented using the coupled-wave theory. This is a promising way for realizing a reasonable narrow-band terahertz-wave source.

We use a transient-grating (TG) process in a Kerr bulk medium to clean a femtosecond laser pulse. Using the technique, the temporal contrast of the generated TG signal is improved by more than two orders of magnitude in comparison with the incident pulse in a 0.5-mm-thick fused silica plate. The laser spectrum is smoothed and broadened, and the pulse duration is shortened simultaneously. We expect to extend this technique to a clean pulse with broadband spectral bandwidth at a wide spectral range because it is a phase-matched process.

Wolter I collector is the best collector for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, which has a series of nested mirrors. It has high collection efficiency and can obtain more uniform intensity distribution at the intermediate focus (IF). A new design with the calculation sequence from the outer mirror to the inner one on the premise of satisfying the requirements of the collector is introduced. Based on this concept, a computer program is established and the optical parameters of the collector using the program is calculated. The design results indicate that the collector satisfies all the requirements.

We propose improved multilevel filters (IMLFs) involving the absolute value operation into the algorithmic framework of traditional multilevel filters (MLFs) to improve the robustness of infrared small target enhancement techniques under a complex infrared cluttered background. Compared with the widely used small target enhancement methods which only deal with bright targets, the proposed technique can enhance the infrared small target, whether it is bright or dark. Experimental results verify that the proposed technique is efficient and practical.

A hand vein authentication system in which the identity of an individual can be readily confirmed upon gripping a handle is proposed. This recognition method incorporates infrared light-emitting diode (LED) onto a door handle and sets a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera on the other side of the hand. It builds on fuzzy c-means clustering and parallel neural networks (NNs); moreover, it is expected to solve the pattern recognition problem in large-scale databases using NNs due to its self-learning and parallel processing capabilities and by effectively incorporating training patterns. The experimental results validate the e±ciency of the proposed algorithm.

Stripe nonuniformity is very typical in line infrared focal plane (IRFPA) and uncooled starring IRFPA. We develop the minimum mean square error (MMSE) method for stripe nonuniformity correction (NUC). The goal of the MMSE method is to determine the optimal NUC parameters for making the corrected image the closest to the ideal image. Moreover, this method can be achieved in one frame, making it more competitive than other scene-based NUC algorithms. We also demonstrate the calibration results of our algorithm using real and virtual infrared image sequences. The experiments verify the positive effect of our algorithm.

Clromatic sensitivity along the protan, deutan, and tritan lines and the loci of the unique hues (red, green, yellow, blue) for a very large sample (n = 185) of colour-normal observers ranging from 18 to 75 years of age are assessed. Visual judgments are obtained under normal viewing conditions using colour patches on self-luminous display under controlled adaptation conditions. Trivector discrimination thresholds show an increase as a function of age along the protan, deutan, and tritan axes, with the largest increase present along the tritan line, less pronounced shifts in unique hue settings are also observed. Based on the chromatic (protan, deutan, tritan) thresholds and using scaled cone signals, we predict the unique hue changes with ageing. A dependency on age for unique red and unique yellow for predicted hue angle is found. We conclude that the chromatic sensitivity deteriorates significantly with age, whereas the appearance of unique hues is much less affected, remaining almost constant despite the known changes in the ocular media.

Although the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method is an effective tool for noise reduction in lidar signals, evaluating the effectiveness of the denoising method is difficult. A dual-field-of-view lidar for observing atmospheric aerosols is described. The backscattering signals obtained from two channels have different signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). The performance of noise reduction can be investigated by comparing the high SNR signal and the denoised low SNR signal without a simulation experiment. With this approach, the signal and noise are extracted to one intrinsic mode function (IMF) by the EMD-based denoising; thus, the threshold method is applied to the IMFs. Experimental results show that the improved threshold method can effectively perform noise reduction while preserving useful sudden-change information.

We fabricate an ultraviolet photodetector based on a blend of poly (N-vinylcarbazole) (PVK) and 2-tert-butylphenyl-5-biphenyl-1,3, 4-oxadiazole (PBD) using spin coating. The device exhibites a low dark current density of 2.2 \times 10?3 \muA/cm2 at zero bias. The spectral response of the device shows a narrow bandpass characteristic from 300 to 355 nm, and the peak response is 18.6 mA/W located at 334 nm with a bias of –1 V. We also study the performances of photodetectors with different blend layer thicknesses. The largest photocurrent density is obtained with a blend of 90 nm at the same voltage.