Computational simulation of multi-wavelength light-field thermometry based on a chromatic meta-lens.

This Letter proposes a light-field meta-lens multi-wavelength thermometry (MMT) system that is capable of modulating a full-spectrum incident radiation into four separate wavelength beams. The chromatic meta-lens is designed using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) software to function as a filter, ensuring its ability to separate four wavelengths. The chromatic meta-lens is positioned on the back focus plane of the main lens to replace the microlens used in traditional light-field systems and simplify the overall system. After detecting the acquired wavelengths and intensities of the image on photodiodes, a raw multispectral image can be decoupled and processed using the Chameleon swarm algorithm (CSA). Four full-spectrum incident radiations corresponding to four temperature characteristic curves are detected. The high accuracy of the reverse temperature calculation enables the measurement of surface high-temperature distribution with precision.

Chameleon swarm algorithm for data processing of a light-field multi-wavelength pyrometer.

It is recognized that unknown emissivity and ill-posed radiation equations present significant challenges to light-field multi-wavelength pyrometry. Furthermore, emissivity range and choice of initial value also have a significant impact upon the measurement results. This paper demonstrates that a novel chameleon swarm algorithm approach could be used to ascertain temperature information from light-field multi-wavelength data at a higher accuracy level without prior emissivity knowledge. The performance of chameleon swarm algorithm was experimentally tested and compared with the traditional internal penalty function and generalized inverse matrix-exterior penalty function algorithms. Comparisons of calculation error, time, and emissivity values for each channel show that the chameleon swarm algorithm is superior in terms of both measurement accuracy and computational efficiency.

Resolution analysis on light-field particle image velocimetry.

With rapid developments in light-field particle image velocimetry (LF-PIV) based on single-camera, dual-camera, and dual-camera with Scheimpflug lenses, comprehensive quantitative analysis and careful evaluation of their theoretical spatial resolutions are essential to guide their practical applications. This work presents a framework for and better understanding of the theoretical resolution distribution of various optical field cameras with different amounts and different optical settings in PIV. Based on Gaussian optics principles, a forward ray-tracing method is applied to define the spatial resolution and provides the basis of a volumetric calculation method. Such a method requires a relatively low and acceptable computational cost, and can easily be applied in dual-camera/Scheimpflug LF-PIV configuration, which has hardly been calculated and discussed previously. By varying key optical parameters such as magnification, camera separation angle, and tilt angle, a series of volume depth resolution distributions is presented and discussed. By taking advantage of volume data distributions, a universal evaluation criterion based on statistics that is suitable for all three LF-PIV configurations is hereby proposed. With such a criterion, the pros and cons of the three configurations, as well as the effects of key optical parameters, can then be quantitatively illustrated and compared, thus providing useful guidance on the configuration and optical parameter selections in practical implementations of LF-PIV.

Switchable Induced-Transmission Filters Enabled by Vanadium Dioxide.

An induced-transmission filter (ITF) uses an ultrathin metallic layer positioned at an electric-field node within a dielectric thin-film bandpass filter to select one transmission band while suppressing other bands that would have been present without the metal layer. We introduce a switchable mid-infrared ITF where the metal can be "switched on and off", enabling the modulation of the filter response from a single band to multiband. The switching is enabled by the reversible insulator-to-metal phase transition of a subwavelength film of vanadium dioxide (VO2). Our work generalizes the ITF─a niche type of bandpass filter─into a new class of tunable devices. Furthermore, our fabrication process─which begins with thin-film VO2 on a suspended membrane─enables the integration of VO2 into any thin-film assembly that is compatible with physical vapor deposition processes and is thus a new platform for realizing tunable thin-film filters.

Correcting thermal-emission-induced detector saturation in infrared spectroscopy.

We found that temperature-dependent infrared spectroscopy measurements (i.e., reflectance or transmittance) using a Fourier-transform spectrometer can have substantial errors, especially for elevated sample temperatures and collection using an objective lens. These errors can arise as a result of partial detector saturation due to thermal emission from the measured sample reaching the detector, resulting in nonphysical apparent reduction of reflectance or transmittance with increasing sample temperature. Here, we demonstrate that these temperature-dependent errors can be corrected by implementing several levels of optical attenuation that enable convergence testing of the measured reflectance or transmittance as the thermal-emission signal is reduced, or by applying correction factors that can be inferred by looking at the spectral regions where the sample is not expected to have a substantial temperature dependence.

Compact silicon three-mode multiplexer by refractive-index manipulation on a multi-mode interferometer.

Mode-division multiplexing can scale the capacity of optical communications and optical interconnects. We demonstrate an ultra-compact and fabrication-error tolerant silicon three-mode multiplexer by shallowly etching rectangular trenches on a multi-mode interferometer. Depending on the selected input port, the TE0 mode is converted to the eigenmodes of the bus waveguide. These modes are coupled to each other owing to the refractive-index perturbation induced by the shallow trenches and finally converted to a selected spatial mode at the output. A three-mode multiplexing device is experimentally demonstrated with a footprint of 2.00 × 17.05 µm2. The bandwidths for the three channels are >70 nm with crosstalk values below -10 dB.

I/O-efficient iterative matrix inversion with photonic integrated circuits.

Photonic integrated circuits have been extensively explored for optical processing with the aim of breaking the speed and energy efficiency bottlenecks of digital electronics. However, the input/output (IO) bottleneck remains one of the key barriers. Here we report a photonic iterative processor (PIP) for matrix-inversion-intensive applications. The direct reuse of inputted data in the optical domain unlocks the potential to break the IO bottleneck. We demonstrate notable IO advantages with a lossless PIP for real-valued matrix inversion and integral-differential equation solving, as well as a coherent PIP with optical loops integrated on-chip, enabling complex-valued computation and a net inversion time of 1.2 ns. Furthermore, we estimate at least an order of magnitude enhancement in IO efficiency of a PIP over photonic single-pass processors and the state-of-the-art electronic processors for reservoir training tasks and multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) precoding tasks, indicating the huge potential of PIP technology in practical applications.

Benchmarking Reconstructive Spectrometer with Multiresonant Cavities.

Recent years have seen the rapid development of miniaturized reconstructive spectrometers (RSs), yet they still confront a range of technical challenges, such as bandwidth/resolution ratio, sensing speed, and/or power efficiency. Reported RS designs often suffer from insufficient decorrelation between sampling channels, which, in essence, is due to inadequate engineering of sampling responses. This in turn results in poor spectral-pixel-to-channel ratios (SPCRs), typically restricted at single digits. So far, there lacks a general guideline for manipulating RS sampling responses for the effectiveness of spectral information acquisition. In this study, we shed light on a fundamental parameter from the compressive sensing (CS) theory-the average mutual correlation coefficient ν-and provide insight into how it serves as a critical benchmark in RS design. To this end, we propose a novel RS design with multiresonant cavities, consisting of a series of partial reflective interfaces. Such multicavity configuration allows the superlative optimization of sampling matrices to achieve minimized ν. Experimentally, we implement a single-shot, dual-band RS on a SiN platform, realizing an overall operation bandwidth of 270 nm and a <0.5 nm resolution with only 15 sampling channels per band. This leads to a record high SPCR of 18.0. Moreover, the proposed multicavity design can be readily adapted to various photonic platforms, ranging from optical fibers to free-space optics. For instance, we showcase that by employing multilayer coatings, an ultrabroadband RS can be optimized to exhibit a 700 nm bandwidth with an SPCR of over 100.

Integrated reconstructive spectrometer with programmable photonic circuits.

Optical spectroscopic sensors are a powerful tool to reveal light-matter interactions in many fields. Miniaturizing the currently bulky spectrometers has become imperative for the wide range of applications that demand in situ or even in vitro characterization systems, a field that is growing rapidly. In this paper, we propose a novel integrated reconstructive spectrometer with programmable photonic circuits by simply using a few engineered MZI elements. This design effectively creates an exponentially scalable number of uncorrelated sampling channels over an ultra-broad bandwidth without incurring additional hardware costs, enabling ultra-high resolution down to single-digit picometers. Experimentally, we implement an on-chip spectrometer with a 6-stage cascaded MZI structure and demonstrate <10 pm resolution with >200 nm bandwidth using only 729 sampling channels. This achieves a bandwidth-to-resolution ratio of over 20,000, which is, to our best knowledge, about one order of magnitude greater than any reported miniaturized spectrometers to date.

Broadband picometer-scale resolution on-chip spectrometer with reconfigurable photonics.

Miniaturization of optical spectrometers is important to enable spectroscopic analysis to play a role in in situ, or even in vitro and in vivo characterization systems. However, scaled-down spectrometers generally exhibit a strong trade-off between spectral resolution and operating bandwidth, and are often engineered to identify signature spectral peaks only for specific applications. In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a novel global sampling strategy with distributed filters for generating ultra-broadband pseudo-random spectral responses. The geometry of all-pass ring filters is tailored to ensure small self- and cross-correlation for effective information acquisition across the whole spectrum, which dramatically reduces the requirement on sampling channels. We employ the power of reconfigurable photonics in spectrum shaping by embedding the engineered distributed filters. Using a moderate mesh of MZIs, we create 256 diverse spectral responses on a single chip and demonstrate a resolution of 20 pm for single spectral lines and 30 pm for dual spectral lines over a broad bandwidth of 115 nm, to the best of our knowledge achieving a new record of bandwidth-to-resolution ratio. Rigorous simulations reveal that this design will readily be able to achieve single-picometer-scale resolution. We further show that the reconfigurable photonics provides an extra degree of programmability, enabling user-defined features on resolution, computation complexity, and relative error. The use of SiN integration platform enables the spectrometer to exhibit excellent thermal stability of ±2.0 °C, effectively tackling the challenge of temperature variations at picometer-scale resolutions.

Advances in cost-effective integrated spectrometers.

The proliferation of Internet-of-Things has promoted a wide variety of emerging applications that require compact, lightweight, and low-cost optical spectrometers. While substantial progresses have been made in the miniaturization of spectrometers, most of them are with a major focus on the technical side but tend to feature a lower technology readiness level for manufacturability. More importantly, in spite of the advancement in miniaturized spectrometers, their performance and the metrics of real-life applications have seldomly been connected but are highly important. This review paper shows the market trend for chip-scale spectrometers and analyzes the key metrics that are required to adopt miniaturized spectrometers in real-life applications. Recent progress addressing the challenges of miniaturization of spectrometers is summarized, paying a special attention to the CMOS-compatible fabrication platform that shows a clear pathway to massive production. Insights for ways forward are also presented.

[Health risk assessment of heavy metals in atmospheric dust of Qingdao City].

Based on the 89 atmospheric dust samples and soil samples that were collected around Qingdao, we tested and analyzed the contents of Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Zn. Based on these analysis results, the risk of heavy metals in atmospheric dusts to human health were assessed by using the US EPA Health Risk Assessment Model. Analysis showed that the average contents of Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Pb, Zn in the atmospheric dust of Shinan, Shibei and Laoshan districts were the highest. Therefore, the air pollution of these districts was more serious than the districts of Licang, Chengyang and Huangdao. Comparing the average contents of heavy metals in atmospheric dust with those in soil, we found that only the content of Hg in atmospheric dust collected from the districts of Shinan, Shibei and Laoshan was lower than that in the corresponding soil. All the contents of other heavy metals in atmospheric dust were higher than those in corresponding soil. As a whole, the heavy metals in atmospheric dust of Qingdao City showed slight difference and were less harmful to human health. However, it was harmful in some samples to human health if the contents of Cr and Pb in atmospheric dusts of Shinan, Laoshan and Chengyang districts were always kept at such high densities. Besides, the accumulation of heavy metals in atmospheric dust through various approaches and categories may obviously increase the risk of damaging human health.