Kuo-Jen Hsu

Low-loss propagation in Cr 4+ :YAG double-clad crystal fiber fabricated by sapphire tube assisted CDLHPG technique

Cr4+:YAG double-clad crystal fiber with an uniform 10-microm core was fabricated by using a sapphire tube as a heat capacitor to stabilize the power fluctuation of the CO2 laser in the co-drawing laser-heated pedestal growth system. The uniformity of the fiber core showed a factor of 3 improvement compared to that without the use of sapphire tube. The variation of the core diameter is within the +/-1.35-degree adiabatic criterion and has a autocorrelation length of 1.7 mm. The measured propagation loss is only 0.02 dB/cm. The sapphire tube also reduces the vertical temperature gradient during the crystal fiber growth process so the 10-microm crystal core exhibits a smooth perimeter. The sapphire tube assisted system can be applied to the growth of many other optical crystal materials.

Direct Side Pumping of Double-Clad Fiber Laser by Laser Diode Array Through the Use of Subwavelength Grating Coupler

An electron-beam-fabricated subwavelength grating coupler for direct side coupling of light emission from a high-power laser diode array (LDA) was studied theoretically and implemented experimentally. A gold-embedded silica-based design for grating coupler was employed to minimize the thermal expansion caused by the accumulated heat from light absorption by metal part of the grating coupler. In addition, with the consideration of the backward diffraction loss and the groove wall nonverticality caused by fabrication distortion, the grating pitch and groove width were optimized for the highest coupling efficiency. According to the experimental results, the grating coupler is capable of coupling light power up to 21 W from a 976-nm continuous-wave-operated LDA into the inner clad of a 400-μm-diameter double-clad fiber with an overall coupling efficiency of 50%. Furthermore, an LDA side-pumped ytterbium-doped DCF laser by using the grating coupler was demonstrated. By fine tuning the slow-axis collimation lens array, the laser-pumping scheme can easily be switched between bidirectional pumping and unidirectional pumping. Compared with the unidirectionally pumped fiber laser of the same gain fiber length, the laser slope efficiency of the bidirectionally pumped fiber laser was increased by 18% because of a better gain distribution over the fiber length. Finally, the signal output power of 10 W with a slope efficiency of 61% was achieved for the bidirectional side-pumped fiber laser.

Effect of Lorentz local field for optical second order nonlinear susceptibility in ZnO nanorod

Nonlinear optical properties of ZnOnanorods (NRs) are strongly influenced by its dimension and aspect ratio. Size-dependent second harmonic generation(SHG) in ZnO NRs has been investigated with polarized excitations recently. However, detailed description to the SHG dependency with NR dimensions has not yet been given. In this paper, the relationship between rod diameter/length and corresponding χ(2) values based on Lorentz local field is established, both theoretically and experimentally, for the first time. Theoretically,Lorentz local field induced spectral red shift and the consequent dielectric constant modification is used to elucidate the size effect for χ(2) under the condition that both excitation and SHG wavelengths are far from the band gap. Experimentally, χ(2) of ZnOnanorods with various sizes is measured via Maker fringe technique, and the results fit well to our theory.

Glass-clad single crystalline fiber lasers

Yttrium aluminium garnet (YAG) has been widely used as a solid-state laser host because of its superior optical, thermal, mechanical properties, as well as its plurality in hosting active ions with a wide range of ionic radii. Drawing YAG into single crystalline fiber has the potential to further scale up the attainable power level with high mode quality. The recent advancement on the codrawing laser-heated pedestal growth (CDLHPG) technique can produce glass-clad YAG crystalline fibers for laser applications. The drawing speed can reach 10 cm/min for mass production. The CDLHPG technique has shown advantages on transition-metal ion doped YAG and short-fluorescent-lifetime ion doped YAG host. Compared to silica fiber lasers, the crystalline core offers high emission cross section for transition metal ions because of the unique local matrix. The challenges on the development of glass-clad YAG fibers, including core crystallinity, diameter uniformity, dopant segregation, residual strain, post-growth thermal treatment, and the thermal expansion coefficient mismatch between the crystalline core and glass clad are discussed. Chromium, ytterbium, and neodymium ions doped YAG fiber lasers have been successfully achieved with high efficiency and low threshold power. Power scaling with a clad-pump/side-coupling scheme using single clad or double clad YAG fibers is also discussed.

Whole-brain imaging and characterization of Drosophila brains based on one-, two-, and three-photon excitations

To study functional connectome, optical microscopy provides the advantages of in vivo observation, molecular specificity, high-speed acquisition, and sub-micrometer spatial resolution. Now, the most complete single-neuron-based anatomical connectome is built upon Drosophila; thus it will be a milestone to achieve whole-brain observation with sub-cellular resolution in living Drosophila. Surprisingly, two-photon microscopy cannot penetrate through the 200-μm-thick brain, due to the extraordinarily strong aberration/scattering from tracheae. Here we achieve whole-Drosophila-brain observation by degassing the brain or by using three-photon microscopy at 1300-nm, while only the latter provides in vivo feasibility, reduced aberration/scattering and exceptional optical sectioning capability. Furthermore, by comparing one-photon (488-nm), two-photon (920-nm), and three-photon (1300-nm) excitations in the brain, we not only demonstrate first quantitative reduction of both scattering and aberration in trachea-filled tissues, but unravel that the contribution of aberration exceeds scattering at long wavelengths. Our work paves the way toward constructing functional connectome in a living Drosophila.

Whole-brain observation in a living Drosophila brain by three-photon excitation at 1300-nm (Conference Presentation)

Drosophila is an important model animal to study connectomics since its brain is complicated and small enough to be mapped by optical microscopy with single-cell resolution. Compared to other model animals, its genetic toolbox is more sophisticated, and a connectome map with single-cell resolution has been established, serving as an invaluable reference for functional connectome study. Two-photon microscopy (2PM) is now the most popular tool to study functional connectome by taking the advantages of low photobleaching, subcellular resolution and deep penetration depth. However, using GFP-labeling with excitation wavelength ~ 920-nm, the reported penetration depths in a living Drosophila brain are limited to ~ 100-μm, which are much smaller than that in living mouse or zebrafish brains. The underlying reason is air vessels, i.e., trachea, instead of blood vessels, are responsible for oxygen exchange in Drosophila brains. The trachea structures induce extraordinarily strong scattering and aberration since the air/tissue refractive index difference is much larger than blood/tissue. By expelling the air inside trachea, whole Drosophila brain can be penetrated by 2PM without difficulty. However, the Drosophila is not alive anymore. Here, three-photon microscopy based on a 1300-nm laser is demonstrated to penetrate a living Drosophila brain with single-cell resolution. The long wavelength intrinsically reduces scattering, when combined with normal dispersion of brain tissue, aberration from trachea/tissue interface is reduced to some extent. As a result, the penetration depth is improved more than twice using 1300-nm excitation. This technique is believed to significantly contribute on functional connectome studies in the future.

Optimizing depth-of-field extension in optical sectioning microscopy techniques using a fast focus-tunable lens

Volume imaging based on a fast focus-tunable lens (FTL) allows three-dimensional (3D) observation within milliseconds by extending the depth-of-field (DOF) with sub-micrometer transverse resolution on optical sectioning microscopes. However, the previously published DOF extensions were neither axially uniform nor fit with theoretical prediction. In this work, complete theoretical treatments of focus extension with confocal and various multiphoton microscopes are established to correctly explain the previous results. Moreover, by correctly placing the FTL and properly adjusting incident beam diameter, a uniform DOF is achieved in which the actual extension nicely agrees with the theory. Our work not only provides a theoretical platform for volumetric imaging with FTL but also demonstrates the optimized imaging condition.

STED-like resolution enhancement with focus extension

In recent years, the techniques of super-resolution have generated widespread impacts in science. Stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy is known for achieving sub-diffraction-limit resolution by using a donut-shaped beam to deplete the fluorescence around a focal spot while leaving a central part active to emit fluorescence. However, since STED microscopy is based on fluorescence, it suffers from photo-bleaching. We recently developed a new technique and termed it as suppression of scattering imaging (SUSI) microscopy. It uses a STED-like setup and achieves super resolution imaging by utilizing the nonlinearity of scattering from gold nanoparticles. Therefore, SUSI microscopy avoids the photo-bleaching issue. Nonetheless, for fast volumetric imaging, SUSI microscopy is limited with slow axial translation of the objective or sample. Here we combine SUSI microscopy with a refractive-index-variable lens to axially move the focus at very high speed. This combination allows simultaneous observation of tissue dynamics over a three-dimensional volume within one second. The new technique paves the way toward high-speed super-resolution imaging for biological tissues.

Chirality study inside biological tissue by second harmonic generation circular dichroism

Many biological systems are composed of chiral molecules and their functions depend strongly on their chirality. For example, most amino acids are of left-handed chirality while most polysaccharides are of right-handed chirality. Both of them are vital for human life, so it is important to perform chiral detection inside bio-tissues. Here we demonstrated second harmonic generation circular dichroism (SHG-CD) as a novel chiral imaging contrast in thick biotissue. Compared with conventional chiral detection, SHG-CD provides at least three orders higher contrast. In addition, due to the nonlinear nature of SHG, this technique provides optical sectioning capability, so the axial contrast is much better. The advantages of nonlinear optical microscopy are optical sectioning and deep penetration capabilities. The SHG-CD achieved 100% signal contrast with sub-micrometer spatial resolution. This method is expected to offer a novel contrast mechanism of imaging chirality inside complex bio-tissues.

Relationship of second order susceptibility to the dimensions of ZnO nanorods based on Lorentz local field

With the aid of Maker fringe technique, we have observed two nonlinear optical (NLO) phenomena separately on diameter and length of ZnO nanorod (NR). One is second harmonic generation (SHG) saturation in rod diameter, and the other is SHG enhancement in rod length. Besides that, the model based on Lorentz local field is proposed for the first time to elucidate the above phenomena. The deduced second order susceptibility χ(2) with various sizes of ZnO NR matches well to our theory, demonstrating that the size effect on χ(2) is governed by Lorentz local field. Our theory provides a theoretical basis to explain the mechanism of light-material interaction in nano-dimensions and is readily to be extended to other kind of semiconductor nanostructures when addressing NLO properties in them.