Sebastian Köber

Three-dimensional holographic imaging of living tissue using a highly sensitive photorefractive polymer device

Photorefractive materials are dynamic holographic storage media that are highly sensitive to coherent light fields and relatively insensitive to a uniform light background. This can be exploited to effectively separate ballistic light from multiply-scattered light when imaging through turbid media. We developed a highly sensitive photorefractive polymer composite and incorporated it into a holographic optical coherence imaging system. This approach combines the advantages of coherence-domain imaging with the benefits of holography to form a high-speed wide-field imaging technique. By using coherence-gated holography, image-bearing ballistic light can be captured in real-time without computed tomography. We analyzed the implications of Fourier-domain and image-domain holography on the field of view and image resolution for a transmission recording geometry, and demonstrate holographic depth-resolved imaging of tumor spheroids with 12 microm axial and 10 microm lateral resolution, achieving a data acquisition speed of 8 x 10(5) voxels/s.

Large-Scale Parallel Surface Functionalization of Goblet-type Whispering Gallery Mode Microcavity Arrays for Biosensing Applications

A novel surface functionalization technique is presented for large-scale selective molecule deposition onto whispering gallery mode microgoblet cavities. The parallel technique allows damage-free individual functionalization of the cavities, arranged on-chip in densely packaged arrays. As the stamp pad a glass slide is utilized, bearing phospholipids with different functional head groups. Coated microcavities are characterized and demonstrated as biosensors.

Novel Non-Conjugated Main-Chain Hole-Transporting Polymers for Organic Electronics Application

A new class of hole-transporting polymers for use in organic electronic devices such as organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) or photorefractive holographic storage devices has been synthesized. The polymers contain tetraarylbenzidines or tetraarylphenylenediamines as charge-transporting units in the polymer backbone and are connected by non-conjugating fluorene bridges. For use in OLEDs the novel polymers were functionalized with oxetane groups that can be cross-linked via a cationic ring opening polymerization to yield insoluble networks. Such insoluble films are necessary for the fabrication of multilayer devices by wet deposition techniques. The novel materials feature improved film-formation properties as demonstrated in green-emitting double-layer OLEDs.

DAC-Less Amplifier-Less Generation and Transmission of QAM Signals Using Sub-Volt Silicon-Organic Hybrid Modulators

We demonstrate generation and transmission of optical signals by directly interfacing highly efficient silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) modulators to binary output ports of a field-programmable gate array. Using an SOH Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) and an SOH IQ modulator we generate ON-OFF-keying and binary phase-shift keying signals as well as quadrature phase-shift keying and 16-state quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM) formats. Peak-to-peak voltages amount to only 0.27 Vpp for driving the MZM and 0.41 Vpp for the IQ modulator. Neither digital-to-analog converters nor drive amplifiers are required, and the RF energy consumption in the modulator amounts to record-low 18 fJ/bit for 16QAM signaling.

Depth-resolved holographic optical coherence imaging using a high-sensitivity photorefractive polymer device

We present coherence-gated holographic imaging using a highly sensitive photorefractive (PR) polymer composite as the recording medium. Due to the high sensitivity of the composite holographic recording at intensities as low as 5 mW/cm2 allowed for a frame exposure time of only 500ms. Motivated by regenerative medical applications, we demonstrate optical depth sectioning of a polymer foam for use as a cell culture matrix. An axial resolution of 18 μm and a transverse resolution of 30 μm up to a depth of 600 μm was obtained using an off-axis recording geometry.

High-performance reflection gratings in photorefractive polymers

To date highest external diffraction efficiency and two-beam coupling gain at moderate applied fields (about 30% and 260cm−1, respectively, at 60V∕μm) are obtained in photorefractive reflection gratings with grating periods of about 0.2μm using a standard low-glass-temperature polyvinylcarbazole based composite. Reflection gratings exhibit five times faster growth/erasure rates than conventional transmission gratings. Further, their performance is very sensitive to changes in the saturation field. This allows a reliable calculation of the photorefractive trap density, which shows a significant enhancement with the field. Finally, the theoretical analysis reveals the geometry-dependent competition between the birefringence and electro-optic contributions.

1064-nm Sensitive Organic Photorefractive Composites

Organic photorefractive composites with sub-second response time and complete internal diffraction efficiency at low-intensity 1064 nm illumination are presented. Direct sensitization of the composites is provided by the C84 fullerene derivative [84]PCBM or the organic/inorganic hybrid Ni-dithiolene complex TT-2324. Holographic measurements on blends with varying contents of sensitizer are demonstrated.

Improving the lifetime of white polymeric organic light-emitting diodes

We report on efficient polymeric white organic light-emitting diodes with unprecedented stability. The investigated devices are based on an electroluminescent copolymer of electron and hole-transporting units and red-, green-, and blue-emitting chromophores. We find that the glass transition of the polymer (Tg=182.5 °C) is the process determining the relation between thermal annealing during fabrication and device lifetime. For devices annealed below Tg, the device lifetime significantly increases with increasing annealing temperature. For annealing temperatures above Tg, however, the current density in the devices rapidly increases while their lifetime slightly decreases. Insight into the underlying processes is provided by atomic force microscopy phase imaging and by UV/visible and fluorescence spectroscopy. We also investigated the influence of the operating temperature of the device: besides the commonly known fact that elevated operating temperatures reduce the lifetime, we discovered that the accele...

Bipolar charge transport in an organic photorefractive composite

The authors report on tuning the near-infrared holographic recording speed in a poly(N-vinylcarbazole) based photorefractive composite by illuminating it at a wavelength of very strong absorption. Due to the small penetration depth of the light under these conditions this approach allows to flood the material with charge carriers from the side of the sample. Even at light levels much stronger than the write beams, this additional illumination does allow for grating recording. However, under these conditions competition between positive and negative charges leads to sign inversion of the two-beam coupling gain coefficient during recording. An improvement of the recording speed is demonstrated.

Organic semiconductor distributed feedback laser as excitation source in Raman spectroscopy using free-beam and fibre coupling

Enabled by the broad spectral gain and the efficient energy conversion in the active material, organic semiconductor lasers are promising for spectroscopic applications and have been recently applied for high resolution absorption and transmission spectroscopy. Here, we present the application of organic semiconductor DFB laser (DFB-OSL) as excitation source in Raman spectroscopy. Utilizing an efficient small molecule blend of tris (8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq3) doped with the laser dye 4-(dicyano-methylene)-2-methyl-6-(p-dimethylaminostyryl)-4H-pyran (DCM), our encapsulated DFB-OSL achieved a high slope efficiency of 7.6%. The organic lasers were tested in the inverted and upright Raman microscope setups, using free-beam and fibre coupling, respectively. In the free-beam configuration, the emission beam was guided directly into an inverted microscope. Employing a spectrally tunable DFBOSL as the excitation source, we measured the Raman spectra of sulfur and improved the Raman signals for a given optical filter configuration. In the fibre coupling configuration, the organic laser was coupled into a 50 μm multi-mode optical fibre with an efficiency of 70 %. We utilized a round-to-line fibre-bundle for an efficient collection and transfer of Raman light to a spectrograph, by keeping a sufficient spectral resolution. Raman tests were performed on cadmium sulfide and cyclohexane. Our novel fibre-coupled organic laser provides a modular laboratory Raman system.