Spectral speckle displacement in defocused and tilted imaging systems.

Speckle patterns offer valuable insights into the surface characteristics or the characteristics of the light generating the speckle. One possible way to extract this information is via spectral speckle correlation (SSC). The cross-correlation between two speckle fields, generated at different wavelengths, can be used for example to determine the roughness of the illuminated surface. Taking defocused measurements of the surface or measuring on a tilted surface leads to a displacement between the speckle, which in turn affects the cross-correlation and leads to errors in the calculated roughness. In this work we present a model to determine the lateral speckle displacement for a change in wavelength in the case of subjective speckle and defocused, tilted objects. This model is therefore applicable to a wide range of applications and allows to estimate and correct for this speckle displacement. Experimental results show sub-pixel accuracy for object tilts up to ±7° and defocus distances up to ±25 mm.

Multiwavelength holography: height measurements despite axial motion of several wavelengths during exposure.

Interferometric measurements of rotating objects face an axial motion component if the optical axis of the measurement system is not pointing towards the axis of rotation. In a typical interferometer, axial motion of half a wavelength reduces the interference contrast to zero. Our setup compensates for this axial component by an adapted variation of the reference path length during exposure utilizing a piezoelectric actuator. We present off-center measurements on a cylinder, rotating with different angular velocities. The repeatability of these measurements is dominated by motion blur, which demonstrates that the compensation of the axial motion works accurately.

Digital holography on moving objects: interference contrast as a function of velocity and aperture width.

Digital holographic measurements on planar moving objects are investigated. We discuss the dependence of the interference contrast on velocity and aperture width for both diffusely and specularly reflecting objects. Using spatial phase shifting, the experimental results for motion in parallel and perpendicular to the optical axis are in good agreement with the theoretical considerations. Measurements with object velocities of up to 100 mm/s are conducted using only less than 1 mW of continuous-wave laser light. These considerations are used to determine the optimal angle between the direction of motion and the illuminating beam, resulting in the lowest decrease in contrast with increasing velocity.

Pseudo-type-II tuning behavior and mode identification in whispering gallery optical parametric oscillators.

Wavelength tuning of conventional mirror-based optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) exhibits parabolically-shaped tuning curves (type-0 and type-I phase matching) or tuning branches that cross each other with a finite slope (type-II phase matching). We predict and experimentally prove that whispering gallery OPOs based on type-0 phase matching show both tuning behaviors, depending on whether the mode numbers of the generated waves coincide or differ. We investigate the wavelength tuning of optical parametric oscillation in a millimeter-sized radially-poled lithium niobate disk pumped at 1 µm wavelength generating signal and idler waves between 1.7 and 2.6 µm wavelength. Our experimental findings excellently coincide with the theoretical predictions. The investigated whispering gallery optical parametric oscillator combines the employment of the highest nonlinear-optical coefficient of the material with a controlled type-II-like wavelength tuning and with the possibility of self-phase locking.