Feasibility of 3D-Printed Locking Compression Plates with Polyether Ether Ketone (PEEK) in Tibial Comminuted Diaphyseal Fractures.

The applicability of a polyether ether ketone locking compression plate (PEEK LCP) fabricated using FDM (fused deposition modeling)-based 3D printing to treat actual patients was studied. Three different tests-bending, axial compression, and axial torsion-were conducted on tibial non-osteoporotic comminuted diaphyseal fracture samples fixed with the commercial titanium alloy LCP and 3D-printed PEEK LCP. Comparing the outcomes of these tests revealed that the commercial titanium alloy LCP underwent plastic deformation in the bending and axial torsion tests, though the LCP did not fail even when an external force greater than the maximum allowable load of the tibia fixture of the LCP was applied. Elastic deformation occurred in the 3D-printed PEEK LCP in the bending and axial torsion tests. However, deformation occurred even under a small external force, and its stiffness was 10% compared to commercial titanium alloy LCP. Thus, 3D-printed PEEK LCP can be applied to the fracture conditions in non-weight-bearing regions. The experimental results reveal detailed insights into the treatment of actual patients by considering the stiffness and high toughness of 3D-printed PEEK LCP.

Enhanced lateral resolution in continuous wave stimulated emission depletion microscopy using tightly focused annular radially polarized excitation beam.

The lateral resolution of continuous wave (CW) stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy is enhanced about 12% by applying annular-shaped amplitude modulation to the radially polarized excitation beam. A focused annularly filtered radially polarized excitation beam provides a more condensed point spread function (PSF), which contributes to enhance effective STED resolution of CW STED microscopy. Theoretical analysis shows that the FWHM of the effective PSF on the detection plane is smaller than for conventional CW STED. Simulation shows the donut-shaped PSF of the depletion beam and confocal optics suppress undesired PSF sidelobes. Imaging experiments agree with the simulated resolution improvement.

Investigation on improvement of lateral resolution of continuous wave STED microscopy by standing wave illumination.

In this paper, we report the enhancement of resolution of continuous wave (CW) stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy by a novel method of structured illumination of an excitation beam. Illumination by multiple excitation beams through the specific pupil apertures with high in-plane wave vectors leads to interference of diffracted light flux near the focal plane, resulting in the contraction of the point spread function (PSF) of the excitation. Light spot reduction by the suggested standing wave (SW) illumination method contributes to make up much lower depletion efficiency of the CW STED microscopy than that of the pulsed STED method. First, theoretical analysis showed that the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the effective PSF on the detection plane is expected to be smaller than 25% of that of conventional CW STED. Second, through the simulation, it was elucidated that both the donut-shaped PSF of the depletion beam and the confocal optics suppress undesired contribution of sidelobes of the PSF by the SW illumination to the effective PSF of the STED system. Finally, through the imaging experiment on 40-nm fluorescent beads with the developed SW-CW STED microscopy system, we obtained the result which follows the overall tendency from the simulation in the aspects of resolution improvement and reduction of sidelobes. Based on the obtained result, we expect that the proposed method can become one of the strategies to enhance the resolution of the CW STED microscopy.

Investigation on achieving super-resolution by solid immersion lens based STED microscopy.

The feasibility of stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy using a solid immersion lens was investigated. First, the theoretical feasibility of the considered system is discussed based on a vectorial field algorithm that uses a stratified medium composed of a SIL air-gap and test sample. Using the simulation, we verified that evanescent waves with much higher spatial frequencies corresponding to the high numerical aperture in the air-gap can be utilized to achieve a higher resolution than a confocal fluorescent image without a depletion beam. The simulated expectation was supported by actual imaging on two types of samples: fluorescent beads with a 20 nm diameter and an actin sample with a filamentous structure. The lateral resolution of the system was determined to be 34 nm via the imaging results on the nano-beads. The system was quite promising for achieving nano-scale surface imaging of biological samples; an even higher resolution was achieved by adjusting the wavelength and the intensity of the depletion beam.

A study on the realization of high resolution solid immersion lens-based near-field imaging optics by use of an annular aperture.

We report on the realization of solid immersion lens (SIL)-based near-field (NF) optics with an annular aperture, which is targeted to achieve high optical resolution. A numerical aperture (NA) = 1.84 hemisphere SIL-optics with an annular aperture achieves higher optical resolution than the conventional NA = 2.0 SIL-optics. The designed aperture is fabricated by photo-lithography and dry-etching technique. Experimental verification of the designed optics was performed through beam spot profile measurement under NF imaging conditions. A 15% smaller full-width-at-half-maximum spot diameter is obtained by the aperture. We verified that this method gives an improvement of the resolution in the optical imaging systems requiring higher resolution.

Cover-layer-protected solid immersion lens-based near-field recording with an annular aperture.

Currently, data recording density in cover-layer-protected near-field-recording (NFR) and multiple-recording layered NFR optical data storage technology is limited by the difficulty in obtaining high-refractive-index cover layer materials. In addition, with the exception of improved resolution, the higher the numerical aperture (NA), the poorer the optical characteristics. However, in this study, we present novel cover-layer-protected solid immersion lens (SIL)-based NFR optics that provide superior optical performance with higher recording density, greatly enhanced focal depth, and less sensitivity to near-field air-gap-distance variation by modulating the amplitude and phase in the entrance pupil using annular pupil zones. Using an annular aperture consisting of three concentric annular zones to effect amplitude and phase modulation, the 1.45 NA cover-layer-protected SIL-based NFR optics achieved a data recording density as high as that of conventional 1.80 NA SIL-based NFR optics. These 1.45 NA optics yielded a full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) spot size of 0.315 lambda, a focal depth of 0.82 lambda, a focused beam spot sensitivity to air-gap-distance within the near-field region of 0.04 lambda, and a sidelobe intensity lower than 7%. In comparison with conventional 1.80 NA SIL-based NFR optics, the annular aperture optics achieved 3.5 times longer focal depth and much lower focused beam spot sensitivity to air-gap distance while maintaining the same high resolution. The introduction of this novel specially designed NFR optics could greatly improve data capacity in multiple-recording layered NFR.

Feasibility study of the application of radially polarized illumination to solid immersion lens-based near-field optics.

We analyzed the behavior of the electric field in a focal plane consisting of a solid immersion lens (SIL), an air gap, and a measurement sample for radially polarized illumination in SIL-based near-field optics with an annular aperture. The analysis was based on the Debye diffraction integral and multiple beam interference. For SIL-based near-field optics whose NA is higher than unity, radially polarized light generates a smaller beam spot on the bottom surface of a SIL than circularly polarized light; however, the beam spot on the measurement sample is broadened with a more dominant transverse electric field. By introducing an annular aperture technique, it is possible to decrease the effects of the transverse electric field, and therefore the size of the beam spot on the measurement sample can be small. This analysis could have various applications in near-field optical storage, near-field microscopy, lithography at ultrahigh resolution, and other applications that use SILs for high resolution.

Effects of motion of an imaging system and optical image stabilizer on the modulation transfer function.

This paper analyzes the effects due to the angular motion of a small-sized imaging system equipped with an optical image stabilizer (OIS) on image quality. Accurate lens moving distances for the OIS required to compensate the ray distortion induced by the angular motion are determined. To calculate the associated modulation transfer function, the integrated and the compensated point spread functions are defined. Finally, the deterioration of the image resolution due to angular motion and the restorative performance of the OIS are analyzed by isolating seven types of angular motion.

Effects of fabrication errors in the diffractive optical element on the modulation transfer function of a hybrid lens.

Diffractive optical elements (DOEs) are often used to improve the performance of optical systems. However, when a blazed DOE is machined, shape errors can be generated in the discontinuity region of the DOE due to the finite radius of the processing tool. We simulated the effects of this shape error on the optical path and modulation transfer function (MTF) in a hybrid lens for a compact camera module. The decrease rate of the MTF was larger in the low-spatial-frequency domain and when the light entered at a low incident angle.

Effects of optical variables in immersion lens-based near-field optics.

We analyze the effects of optical variables, such as illumination state, focal position variation, near-field air-gap height, and refractive index mismatch, in immersion lens-based near-field optics on the resultant field propagation characteristics, including spot size, focal depth, and aberrations. First, to investigate the general behaviors of various incident polarization states, focused fields near the focal planes in simple two- or three-layered media structures are calculated under considerations of refractive index mismatch, geometric focal position variations, and air-gap height in a multi-layered medium. Notably, for solid immersion near-field optics, although purely TM polarized illumination generates a stronger and 15% smaller beam spot size in the focal region than in the case of circularly polarized incident light, the intensity of the focused field decreases sharply from the interface between air and the third medium. For the same optical configurations, we show that changes in geometric focal position to the recording or detecting medium increases focal depth. Finally, through focused field analysis on a ROM (read-only memory) and a RW (rewritable) medium, compound effects of considered variables are discussed. The resultant field propagation behaviors described in this study may be applicable to the design of either highly efficient reflection or transmission near-field optics for immersion lens based information storage, microscopy and lithographic devices.

Design and fabrication of diffractive optical elements by use of gray-scale photolithography.

Diffractive optical elements (DOEs) are key components in the miniaturization of optical systems because of their planarity and extreme thinness. We demonstrate the fabrication of DOEs by use of gray-scale photolithography with a high-energy-beam sensitive glass photomask. We obtained DOE lenses with continuous phase profiles as small as 800 microm in diameter and 5.9 microm in the outermost grating pitch by selecting a suitable optical density for each height level and optimizing the process variables. Microlenses patterned with eight levels and replicated by UV embossing with the polymer master mold showed a diffraction efficiency of 81.5%, which was sufficiently high for the devices to be used as optical pickups. The effects of deviations in diffraction efficiency between the DOE height and profile design were analyzed.