Superresolved multiphoton microscopy with spatial frequency-modulated imaging.

Superresolved far-field microscopy has emerged as a powerful tool for investigating the structure of objects with resolution well below the diffraction limit of light. Nearly all superresolution imaging techniques reported to date rely on real energy states of fluorescent molecules to circumvent the diffraction limit, preventing superresolved imaging with contrast mechanisms that occur via virtual energy states, including harmonic generation (HG). We report a superresolution technique based on spatial frequency-modulated imaging (SPIFI) that permits superresolved nonlinear microscopy with any contrast mechanism and with single-pixel detection. We show multimodal superresolved images with two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) and second-harmonic generation (SHG) from biological and inorganic media. Multiphoton SPIFI (MP-SPIFI) provides spatial resolution up to 2η below the diffraction limit, where η is the highest power of the nonlinear intensity response. MP-SPIFI can be used to provide enhanced resolution in optically thin media and may provide a solution for superresolved imaging deep in scattering media.

Spectral optical properties of Cu2ZnSnS4 thin film between 0.73 and 6.5 eV.

A polycrystalline Cu2ZnSnS4 thin film was deposited on fused quartz by co-evaporation. The selected thickness was ~100 nm to avoid artifacts in its optical properties caused by thicker as-grown films. The composition and phase of the film were checked with x-ray fluorescence, Raman shift spectroscopy, scanning transmission electron microscopy, and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy. An improved spectroscopic ellipsometry methodology with two-side measurement geometries was applied to extract the complex dielectric function ε = ε1 + iε2 of the Cu2ZnSnS4 thin film between 0.73 and 6.5 eV. Five critical points were observed, at 1.32 (fundamental band gap), 2.92, 3.92, 4.96, and 5.62 eV, respectively. The ε spectra are in reasonable agreement with those from theoretical calculations.

Measuring temperature-dependent activation energy in thermally activated processes: a 2D Arrhenius plot method.

Thermally activated processes are characterized by two key quantities, activation energy (E(a)) and pre-exponential factor (nu(0)), which may be temperature dependent. The accurate measurement of E(a), nu(0), and their temperature dependence is critical for understanding the thermal activation mechanisms of non-Arrhenius processes. However, the classic 1D Arrhenius plot-based methods cannot unambiguously measure E(a), nu(0), and their temperature dependence due to the mathematical impossibility of resolving two unknown 1D arrays from one 1D experimental data array. Here, we propose a 2D Arrhenius plot method to solve this fundamental problem. Our approach measures E(a) at any temperature from matching the first and second moments of the data calculated with respect to temperature and rate in the 2D temperature-rate plane, and therefore is able to unambiguously solve E(a), nu(0), and their temperature dependence. The case study of deep level emission in a Cu(In,Ga)Se(2) solar cell using the 2D Arrhenius plot method reveals clear temperature dependent behavior of E(a) and nu(0), which has not been observable by its 1D predecessors.