Adaptive coded phase mask design and high-quality image reconstruction for interference-less coded aperture correlation holography.

The interference-less coded aperture correlation holography is a non-scanning, motionless, and incoherent technique for imaging three-dimensional objects without two-wave interference. Nevertheless, a challenge lies in that the coded phase mask encodes the system noise, while traditional reconstruction algorithms often introduce unwanted surplus background components during reconstruction. A deep learning-based method is proposed to mitigate system noise and background components simultaneously. Specifically, this method involves two sub-networks: a coded phase mask design sub-network and an image reconstruction sub-network. The former leverages the object's frequency distribution to generate an adaptive coded phase mask that encodes the object wave-front precisely without being affected by the superfluous system noise. The latter establishes a mapping between the autocorrelations of the hologram and the object, effectively suppresses the background components by embedding a prior physical knowledge and improves the neural network's adaptability and interpretability. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in suppressing system noise and background components, thereby significantly improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the reconstructed images.

Aluminum scandium nitride on 8-inch Si wafers: material characterization and photonic device demonstration.

The anisotropic optical properties of aluminum scandium nitride (Al1-xScxN) thin films for both ordinary and extraordinary light are investigated. A quantitative analysis of the band structures of the wurtzite Al1-xScxN is carried out. In addition, Al1-xScxN photonic waveguides and bends are fabricated on 8-inch Si substrates. With x = 0.087 and 0.181, the light propagation losses are 5.98 ± 0.11 dB/cm and 8.23 ± 0.39 dB/cm, and the 90° bending losses are 0.05 dB/turn and 0.08 dB/turn at 1550 nm wavelength, respectively.

Fast, intelligent and high-precision adaptive null interferometry for optical freeform surfaces by backpropagation.

In the past 10 years, adaptive wavefront interferometry (AWI) has been employed for measuring freeform surface profiles. However, existing AWI techniques relying on stepwise and model-free stochastic optimizations have resulted in inefficient tests. To address these issues, deterministic adaptive wavefront interferometry (DAWI) is firstly introduced in this paper based on backpropagation (BP), which employs a loss function to simultaneously reconstruct and sparsify initial incomplete interferometric fringes until they are nulled. Each iteration of BP requires two phase shifts. Through simulations, we have verified that freeform wavefront error with a peak-to-valley (PV) of up to 168 λ can be fully compensated in tens of iterations using a 1024 × 1024 pixel area of a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator. In experiments, we accomplished a null test of a freeform surface with 80% missing interference fringes in 39 iterations, resulting in a surface profile error PV of 66.22 λ and measurement error better than λ/4. The DAWI has at least 20 times fewer iterations in fringe reconstruction than the 3-step AWI methods, and nearly an order of magnitude fewer iterations in the whole process, paving the way for significantly enhanced efficiency, generality and precision in freeform surface adaptive interferometry.

Holistic calibration method of deflectometry by holonomic framework priors.

Phase measuring deflectometry is a powerful measurement tool of optical surfaces, but the measuring accuracy relies on the quality of system calibration. Calibration errors arise from the oversimplified imaging models, error accumulation and amplification, and the bias in numerical optimization. A holistic calibration method is proposed to shorten the error propagation chain. The descriptive prowess of the imaging system is enhanced by calculating each incident ray independently and compensating the systematic errors resulting from the form error of the calibration mirror. Finally, a holonomic framework prior is defined to guarantee the calibration reliability by utilizing the physical constraints of the measurement system. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method improves measurement accuracy by at least 38% compared to traditional approaches.

Balancing the Efficiency and Sensitivity of Defect Inspection of Non-Patterned Wafers with TDI-Based Dark-Field Scattering Microscopy.

In semiconductor manufacturing, defect inspection in non-patterned wafer production lines is essential to ensure high-quality integrated circuits. However, in actual production lines, achieving both high efficiency and high sensitivity at the same time is a significant challenge due to their mutual constraints. To achieve a reasonable trade-off between detection efficiency and sensitivity, this paper integrates the time delay integration (TDI) technology into dark-field microscopy. The TDI image sensor is utilized instead of a photomultiplier tube to realize multi-point simultaneous scanning. Experiments illustrate that the increase in the number of TDI stages and reduction in the column fixed pattern noise effectively improve the signal-to-noise ratio of particle defects without sacrificing the detecting efficiency.

Somatostatin Receptor Gene Functions in Growth Regulation in Bivalve Scallop and Clam.

Bivalves hold an important role in marine aquaculture and the identification of growth-related genes in bivalves could contribute to a better understanding of the mechanism governing their growth, which may benefit high-yielding bivalve breeding. Somatostatin receptor (SSTR) is a conserved negative regulator of growth in vertebrates. Although SSTR genes have been identified in invertebrates, their involvement in growth regulation remains unclear. Here, we identified seven SSTRs (PySSTRs) in the Yesso scallop, Patinopecten yessoensis, which is an economically important bivalve cultured in East Asia. Among the three PySSTRs (PySSTR-1, -2, and -3) expressed in adult tissues, PySSTR-1 showed significantly lower expression in fast-growing scallops than in slow-growing scallops. Then, the function of this gene in growth regulation was evaluated in dwarf surf clams (Mulinia lateralis), a potential model bivalve cultured in the lab, via RNA interference (RNAi) through feeding the clams Escherichia coli containing plasmids expressing double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) targeting MlSSTR-1. Suppressing the expression of MlSSTR-1, the homolog of PySSTR-1 in M. lateralis, resulted in a significant increase in shell length, shell width, shell height, soft tissue weight, and muscle weight by 20%, 22%, 20%, 79%, and 92%, respectively. A transcriptome analysis indicated that the up-regulated genes after MlSSTR-1 expression inhibition were significantly enriched in the fat digestion and absorption pathway and the insulin pathway. In summary, we systemically identified the SSTR genes in P. yessoensis and revealed the growth-inhibitory role of SSTR-1 in bivalves. This study indicates the conserved function of somatostatin signaling in growth regulation, and ingesting dsRNA-expressing bacteria is a useful way to verify gene function in bivalves. SSTR-1 is a candidate target for gene editing in bivalves to promote growth and could be used in the breeding of fast-growing bivalves.

Polarized angle-resolved spectral reflectometry for real-time ultra-thin film measurement.

We propose a polarized, angle-resolved spectral (PARS) reflectometry for simultaneous thickness and refractive-index measurement of ultra-thin films in real time. This technology acquires a two-dimensional, angle-resolved spectrum through a dual-angle analyzer in a single shot by radially filtering the back-focal-plane image of a high-NA objective for dispersion analysis. Thus, film parameters, including thickness and refractive indices, are precisely fitted from the hyper-spectrum in angular and wavelength domains. Through a high-accuracy spectral calibration, a primary PARS system was built. Its accuracy was carefully verified by testing a set of SiO2 thin films of thicknesses within two µm grown on monocrystalline-Si substrates against a commercial spectroscopic ellipsometer. Results show that the single-shot PARS reflectometry results in a root-mean-square absolute accuracy error of ∼1 nm in film thickness measurement without knowing its refractive indices.

Phase-based reconstruction optimization method for digital holographic measurement of microstructures.

Digital holography has transformative potential in measuring stacked-chip microstructures due to its noninvasive, single-shot, full-field characteristics. However, uncertainties in reconstruction distance inevitably lead to resolving blur and reconstruction distortion. Herein, we propose a phase-based reconstruction optimization method that consists of a phase-evaluation function and a structured surface-characterization model. Our proposed method involves setting a reconstruction distance range, obtaining phase information using sliced numerical reconstruction, and optimizing the reconstruction distance by finding the extreme value of the function, which identifies the focal plane of the reconstructed image. The structure of the surface topography is then characterized using the characterization model. We perform simulations of the recording, reconstruction, and characterization to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. To further demonstrate the approach, a simple holographic recording system is constructed to measure a standard resolution target, and the measurement results are compared with a commercial instrument. The simulation and experiment demonstrate, respectively, 31.16% and 34.41% improvement in step-height characterization accuracy.

Flexible Measurement of High-Slope Micro-Nano Structures with Tilted Wave Digital Holographic Microscopy.

Digital holographic microscopy is an important measurement method for micro-nano structures. However, when the structured features are of high-slopes, the interference fringes can become too dense to be recognized. Due to the Nyquist's sampling limit, reliable wavefront restoration and phase unwrapping are not feasible. To address this problem, the interference fringes are proposed to be sparsified by tilting the reference wavefronts. A data fusion strategy including region extraction and tilt correction is developed for reconstructing the full-area surface topographies. Experimental results of high-slope elements demonstrate the validity and reliability of the proposed method.

Angular multiplexation of partial helical phase modes in orbital angular momentum holography.

The orbital angular momentum (OAM) holography has been identified as a vital approach for achieving ultrahigh-capacity multiplexation without a theoretical helical phase index limit. However, the encoding and decoding of an OAM hologram require a complete helical phase mode, which does not take full utilization of the angular space. In this paper, the partial OAM holography is proposed by dividing an OAM mode into several partial orbital angular momentums and encode each partial mode with a different target image. An image can only be reconstructed using an appropriate partial OAM mode within a specific illuminating angular range, henceforth holographic multiplexation of images can be realized. This method can significantly increase the holographic information capacity and find widespread applications.

Iterative space-variant sphere-model deflectometry enabling designation-model-free measurement of the freeform surface.

Freeform optics, offering high degrees of design freeform to control light propagation, have already been widely applied in various photoelectric equipment. The form quality of those optics is crucial to their opto-electronics functionalities, which requires to be measured accurately. The deflectometry is a promising technology to test the complex freeform surfaces. In general, there is a designed surface model for the monoscopic deflectometry to estimate the positions of whole measured points to solve the issue of height-slope ambiguity. However, the unknown or inaccurate surface model can induce errors into the measured normal, thereby decreasing the measurement precision. In this paper, without relying on the known surface model, the proposed method iteratively optimizes a sphere model to describe the measured surface by changing the spherical radius. In order to reduce the global error, the space-variant spheres are optimized, respectively, to estimate the whole-aperture surface coordinate. With the help of the iteration surface reconstruction process, the optimal number of the space-variant spheres is achieved to meantime obtain the final reconstructed surface. Compared to the measurements by using the plane model, the form accuracy can be improved by three times. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed method can successfully reconstruct the complex surfaces without the need of a known surface model, which can greatly improve the measuring flexibility and measurement accuracy.

Depth multiplexing in an orbital angular momentum holography based on random phase encoding.

The orbital angular momentum (OAM) holography has been identified as a vital approach for achieving ultrahigh-capacity in 3D displays, digital holographic microscopy, data storage and so on. However, depth has not been widely applied as a multiplexing dimension in the OAM holography mainly because of the serious coherence crosstalk between different image layers. The multi-layered depth multiplexing OAM holography is proposed and investigated. To suppress the coherence crosstalk between different image channels, random phases are used for encoding different image layers separately. An image can be reconstructed with high quality at a specific depth from an appropriate OAM mode. It is demonstrated that the depth multiplexing of up to 5 layers can be achieved. This work can increase the information capacity and enhance the application of the OAM holography.

Tunable optofluidic microbubble lens.

Optofluidic microlenses are one of the crucial components in many miniature lab-on-chip systems. However, many optofluidic microlenses are fabricated through complex micromachining and tuned by high-precision actuators. We propose a kind of tunable optofluidic microbubble lens that is made by the fuse-and-blow method with a fiber fusion splicer. The optical focusing properties of the microlens can be tuned by changing the refractive index of the liquid inside. The focal spot size is 2.8 µm and the focal length is 13.7 µm, which are better than those of other tunable optofluidic microlenses. The imaging capability of the optofluidic microbubble lens is demonstrated under a resolution test target and the imaging resolution can reach 1 µm. The results indicate that the optofluidic microbubble lens possesses good focusing properties and imaging capability for many applications, such as cell counting, optical trapping, spatial light coupling, beam shaping and imaging.

Areal measurement of vibration modes of a hemispherical shell resonator by deflectometry.

The hemispherical shell resonator (HSR) is the core and sensitive part of a hemispherical resonator gyro. The geometrical accuracy and vibration properties of HSR determine the navigation performance of the system. A lack of areal measurement methods of vibration modes limits investigation of the kinetic mechanism and improvement in navigation performance. Consequently, an areal measurement method is developed based on deflectometry. The blurry spots on the image plane reflected from the vibrating HSR are extracted, and the blurring trajectories are obtained by the Wiener deconvolution method. The vibrating amplitude distribution of a standing wave mode is transformed into the swing angle distribution of normal vectors. The parameters of the vibration mode are fitted by the Levenberg-Marquardt method. This method can find widespread applications in the areal inspection of vibration modes.

Correction of aberration-induced phase errors in phase measuring deflectometry.

Phase measuring deflectometry is a powerful measuring method of complex optical surfaces that captures the reflected fringe images associated with a displaying screen and calculates the normal vectors of the surface under test (SUT) accordingly. The captured images are usually set conjugate to the SUT, which in turn makes the screen defocused. As a result, the blurring effect caused by the defocus and aberrations of the off-axis catadioptric imaging system can severely degrade the phases solved from the blurred images. In order to correct the phase errors, the space-variant point spread functions (PSFs) are modeled using a skew-normal function. The phase bias is estimated by forward convolution between the captured images and the PSF models. Demonstrated with a highly curved aspheric surface, the measurement accuracy can be improved by three times.

High-accuracy and high-repeatability measurement of the cut error of a nonlinear uniaxial crystal.

To accurately determine the optical axis cut error of a nonlinear uniaxial crystal, a measurement method based on dual-optical path second-harmonic energy (SHE) rocking curve acquisition is presented in, of which the measurement uncertainty can be controlled within 3.20 µrad , 26 times higher than that of a high-precision commercial x-ray diffractometer (XRD). To meet the measurement requirements, a Type I potassium dihydrogen phosphate reference crystal (RC) is first made, and its optical axis cut error is considered as a reference. Then, the optical axis cut error of a measured crystal (MC) with an aperture of 25mm×25mm and a thickness of 10 mm is determined by simultaneously recording the SHE scatter plots of the RC and the MC, where the measurement repeatability of 10 consecutive measurements is only 4.48 µrad and the measurement speed is within 20 s. During data processing, a third-order Fourier polynomial is proposed to fit the scatter plots into smooth curves, of which the regression coefficients are greater than 0.9975. The experimental method not only overcomes the shortcomings that XRDs will introduce scratches and defects to the crystal surface and are unable to measure large-aperture crystals, but can be used to guide the production of precise cutting of a nonlinear uniaxial crystal, thus ensuring the maximum conversion efficiency of a frequency multiplication system.

Traceable Reference Full Metrology Chain for Innovative Aspheric and Freeform Optical Surfaces Accurate at the Nanometer Level.

The design of innovative reference aspheric and freeform optical elements was investigated with the aim of calibration and verification of ultra-high accurate measurement systems. The verification is dedicated to form error analysis of aspherical and freeform optical surfaces based on minimum zone fitting. Two thermo-invariant material measures were designed, manufactured using a magnetorheological finishing process and selected for the evaluation of a number of ultra-high-precision measurement machines. All collected data sets were analysed using the implemented robust reference minimum zone (Hybrid Trust Region) fitting algorithm to extract the values of form error. Agreement among the results of several partners was observed, which demonstrates the establishment of a traceable reference full metrology chain for aspherical and freeform optical surfaces with small amplitudes.

Resolution enhancement for flexible microscopic imaging based on dictionary learning.

The idea of combining a flexible fiber bundle with the microscopic imaging system provides the possibility of the cross-scale detection of defects and textures on large-scale complex components. However, the pixelization artifacts caused by the inter-core spacing of the fibers degrade the image quality and make it difficult to identify the micro-features. A high-resolution reconstruction strategy is proposed based on dictionary learning. By training the high- and low-resolution image pairs after image registration, a coupled dictionary is obtained. Then high-quality images are obtained from the trained dictionary. Experimental results demonstrate that the pixelization artifacts can be effectively addressed, and the resolution of the reconstructed images can be promoted by 1.8 times.

Flexible one-shot geometric calibration for off-axis deflectometry.

Off-axis deflectometry is widely applied in the measurement of specular surfaces. However, the measuring accuracy depends on the reliability of geometrical calibration. Existing methods are inconvenient to be utilized due to their disadvantages of low efficiency and operational complexity. A simple geometrical calibration method is proposed by applying a flat mirror with markers, and only one image needs to be captured. A compensation process is introduced to correct the form error of the mirror. Experimental results show that the re-projection errors decrease from 0.319 pixels down to 0.12 pixels; thus the measuring efficiency and accuracy of optical surfaces can be greatly improved.

Testing of large-aperture aspheric mirrors using a single coated lens.

The measurement of aspheric surfaces is very difficult and challenging. An optical system with a single coated lens is proposed for measuring large-aperture aspheric convex/concave surfaces. In this system, the first surface of the compensator is used as an auto-collimation surface, which can realize high-precision null compensation. Based on the third-order aberration theory, the initial design parameters of the system are obtained by analytical calculation, and the parameters are then optimized numerically. An oblate spheroid with an equivalent aperture of 426 mm is taken as an example, and the measuring accuracy of the proposed method can achieve 0.0063λ rms.