Chaojie Ma

Harmonic mode locking of bound-state solitons fiber laser based on MoS 2 saturable absorber

We present a kind of harmonic mode locking of bound-state solitons in a fiber laser based on molybdenum disulfide (MoS(2)) saturable absorber (SA). The mode locker is fabricated by depositing MoS(2) nanosheets on a D-shaped fiber (DF). In the fiber laser, two solitons form the bound-state pulses with a temporal separation of 3.4 ps, and the bound-state pulses are equally distributed at a repetition rate of 125 MHz, corresponding to 14th harmonics of fundamental cavity repetition rate (8.968 MHz). Single- and multiple-pulses emissions are also observed by changing the pump power and optimizing the DF based MoS(2) SA. Our experiment demonstrates an interesting operation regime of mode-locked fiber laser, and shows that DF based MoS(2) SA can work as a promising high-power mode locker in ultrafast lasers.

Transmission and total internal reflection integrated digital holographic microscopy.

We develop a transmission and total internal reflection (TIR) integrated digital holographic microscopy (DHM) by introducing a home-made Dove prism with a polished short side. With the help of angular and polarization multiplexing techniques, the 2D refractive index distribution of a specimen adhered on the prism surface is determined using TIR-DHM. Meanwhile, the thickness profile is unambiguously calculated from the phase information using transmission DHM. This integrated microscopy is nondestructive and dynamic and can be used to simultaneously measure the index distribution and thickness profile of transparent or semi-transparent liquid or solid samples.

Dual-wavelength common-path digital holographic microscopy for quantitative phase imaging based on lateral shearing interferometry

A dual-wavelength common-path digital holographic microscopy based on a single parallel glass plate is presented to achieve quantitative phase imaging, which combines the dual-wavelength technique with lateral shearing interferometry. Two illumination laser beams with different wavelengths (λ1=532  nm and λ2=632.8  nm) are reflected by the front and back surfaces of the parallel glass plate to create the lateral shear and form the digital hologram, and then the hologram is reconstructed to obtain the phase distribution with a synthetic wavelength Λ=3339.8  nm. The experimental configuration is very compact, with the advantages of vibration resistance and measurement range extension. The experimental results of the laser-ablated pit, groove, and staircase specimens show the feasibility of the proposed configuration.

Simultaneous measurement of refractive index distribution and topography by integrated transmission and reflection digital holographic microscopy

We propose a method for simultaneously measuring dynamic changes of the refractive index distribution and surface topography, which integrates the transmission and reflection digital holographic microscopy based on polarization and angular multiplexing techniques. The complex amplitudes of the transmitted and reflected object waves can be simultaneously retrieved. The phase information of the reflected object wave is directly used to determine the topography of the specimen which corresponds to its physical thickness. Assuming that the refractive index distribution is uniform in the direction of the specimen thickness, the refractive index distribution can be deduced from the phase distributions of the transmitted and reflected object waves without any approximation. The refractive index distribution and dynamic changes of the topography of a tiny deionized water droplet have been measured for the availability of the proposed method.

Lateral shearing common-path digital holographic microscopy based on a slightly trapezoid Sagnac interferometer

We propose a compact and easy-to-align lateral shearing common-path digital holographic microscopy, which is based on a slightly trapezoid Sagnac interferometer to create two laterally sheared beams and form off-axis geometry. In this interferometer, the two beams pass through a set of identical optical elements in opposite directions and have nearly the same optical path difference. Without any vibration isolation, the temporal stability of the setup is found to be around 0.011 rad. Compared with highly simple lateral shearing interferometer, the off-axis angle of the setup can be easily adjusted and quantitatively controlled, meanwhile the image quality is not degraded. The experiments for measuring the static and dynamic specimens are performed to demonstrate the capability and applicability.

Improvement of measurement accuracy in digital holographic microscopy by using dual-wavelength technique

Abstract. In traditional dual-wavelength digital holographic microscopy (DHM), a synthetic wavelength is obtained by using two lasers with different wavelengths, and the measurement range of the samples’ step height can be expanded from nanometers to micrometers. However, the measurement accuracy reduces along with the expansion of the measuring range, and significant noise is simultaneously introduced in this process. For cases where the sample’s step height is smaller than the wavelength of the illumination light, the measurement accuracy is very important. We present a new approach for dual-wavelength DHM. The synthetic wavelength is shorter than either of the two lasers, and thus higher measurement accuracy can be achieved. The numerical simulation and experiment results show the feasibility of this technique.

Dual-wavelength common-path digital holographic microscopy for quantitative phase imaging of biological cells

Abstract. Biological cells are usually transparent with a small refractive index gradient. Digital holographic interferometry can be used in the measurement of biological cells. We propose a dual-wavelength common-path digital holographic microscopy for the quantitative phase imaging of biological cells. In the proposed configuration, a parallel glass plate is inserted in the light path to create the lateral shearing, and two lasers with different wavelengths are used as the light source to form the dual-wavelength composite digital hologram. The information of biological cells for different wavelengths is separated and extracted in the Fourier domain of the hologram, and then combined to a shorter wavelength in the measurement process. This method could improve the system’s temporal stability and reduce speckle noises simultaneously. Mouse osteoblastic cells and peony pollens are measured to show the feasibility of this method.

Common-path digital holographic microscopy and its applications

To significantly increase the stability of the digital holographic microscope, some common-path configurations with a piece of glass plate, Lloyd mirror and lensless structure are introduced in digital holographic microscopy to make up several compact experiment systems. Meanwhile, dual-wavelength technique and some numerical algorithms are also employed to improve the measurement accuracy. As examples, we apply these configurations to measure a mouse osteoblastic cell, laser ablated pit specimen and silicon wafer. The experiment results show the feasibility of the proposed configurations.

Reconstruction of structured laser beams through a multimode fiber based on digital optical phase conjugation

The digital optical phase conjugation (DOPC) technique is being actively developed for optical focusing and imaging through or inside complex media. Due to its time-reversal nature, DOPC has been exploited to regenerate different intensity targets. However, whether the targets with three-dimensional information through complex media could be recovered has not been experimentally demonstrated, to the best of our knowledge. Here, we present a method to regenerate structured laser beams based on DOPC. Although only the phase of the original scattered wave is time reversed, the reconstruction of a quasi-Bessel beam and vortex beams through a multimode fiber (MMF) is demonstrated. The regenerated quasi-Bessel beam shows the features of sub-diffraction focusing and a longer depth of field with respect to a Gaussian beam. Moreover, the reconstruction of vortex beams shows the fidelity of DOPC both in amplitude and phase, which is demonstrated for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. We also prove that the reconstruction results of DOPC through the MMF are indeed phase conjugate to the original targets. We expect that these results could be useful in super-resolution imaging and optical micromanipulation through complex media, and further pave the way for achieving three-dimensional imaging based on DOPC.

Quantitative phase microscopy for cellular dynamics based on transport of intensity equation

We demonstrate a simple method for quantitative phase imaging of tiny transparent objects such as living cells based on the transport of intensity equation. The experiments are performed using an inverted bright field microscope upgraded with a flipping imaging module, which enables to simultaneously create two laterally separated images with unequal defocus distances. This add-on module does not include any lenses or gratings and is cost-effective and easy-to-alignment. The validity of this method is confirmed by the measurement of microlens array and human osteoblastic cells in culture, indicating its potential in the applications of dynamically measuring living cells and other transparent specimens in a quantitative, non-invasive and label-free manner.