Development of a high sensitivity rapid sandwich ELISA procedure and its comparison with the conventional approach.

A highly sensitive and rapid sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) procedure was developed for the detection of human fetuin A/AHSG (alpha2-HS-glycoprotein), a specific biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma and atherosclerosis. Anti-human fetuin A antibody was immobilized on aminopropyltriethoxysilane-mediated amine-functionalized microtiter plates using 1-ethyl-3-[3-dimethylaminopropyl]carbodiimide hydrochloride and N-hydroxysulfosuccinimide-based heterobifunctional cross-linking. The analytical sensitivity of the developed assay was 39 pg/mL, compared to 625 pg/mL for the conventional assay. The generic nature of the developed procedure was demonstrated by performing human fetuin A assays on different polymeric matrixes, i.e., polystyrene, poly(methyl methacrylate), and polycyclo-olefin (Zeonex), in a modified microtiter plate format. Thus, the newly developed procedure has considerable advantages over the existing method.

Speckle photography: mixed domain fractional Fourier motion detection.

A reflection-based optical implementation of two simultaneous scale-invariant fractional Fourier transforms (FRTs) is used to develop a novel compact speckle photographic system. The system allows the independent determination of both surface tilting and in-plane translational motion from two sequential mixed domain images captured using a single camera.

Generalized Yamaguchi correlation factor for coherent quadratic phase speckle metrology systems with an aperture.

In speckle-based metrology systems, a finite range of possible motion or deformation can be measured. When coherent imaging systems with a single limiting aperture are used in speckle metrology, the observed decorrelation effects that ultimately define this range are described by the well-known Yamaguchi correlation factor. We extend this result to all coherent quadratic phase paraxial optical systems with a single aperture and provide experimental results to support our theoretical conclusions.

Paraxial speckle-based metrology systems with an aperture.

Digital speckle photography can be used in the analysis of surface motion in combination with an optical linear canonical transform (LCT). Previously [D. P. Kelly et al. Appl. Opt.44, 2720 (2005)] it has been shown that optical fractional Fourier transforms (OFRTs) can be used to vary the range and sensitivity of speckle-based metrology systems, allowing the measurement of both the magnitude and direction of tilting (rotation) and translation motion simultaneously, provided that the motion is captured in two separate OFRT domains. This requires two bulk optical systems. We extend the OFRT analysis to more general LCT systems with a single limiting aperture. The effect of a limiting aperture in LCT systems is examined in more detail by deriving a generalized Yamaguchi correlation factor. We demonstrate the benefits of using an LCT approach to metrology design. Using this technique, we show that by varying the curvature of the illuminating field, we can effectively change the output domain. From a practical perspective this means that estimation of the motion of a target can be achieved by using one bulk optical system and different illuminating conditions. Experimental results are provided to support our theoretical analysis.

Nonlocal polymerization-driven diffusion-model-based examination of the scaling law for holographic data storage.

For the first time to our knowledge, a detailed theoretical basis is provided for the well-known inverse-square scaling law of holographic diffraction, which states that replay diffraction efficiency eta = gamma/M2, where M is the number of gratings stored and gamma is a constant system parameter. This law is shown to hold for photopolymer recording media governed by the predictions of the nonlocal polymerization-driven diffusion model. On the basis of the analysis, we (i) propose a media inverse scaling law, (ii) relate gamma to photopolymer material parameters and the hologram geometry and replay conditions, and (iii) comment on the form and validity of the diffraction efficiency inverse-square scaling law for higher-diffraction-efficiency gratings.

Recording beam modulation during grating formation.

Holography has been of increasing interest in recent years, with developments in many areas such as data storage and metrology. Photopolymer materials provide potentially good materials for holographic recording, as they are inexpensive and self-processing. Many experiments have been reported in the literature that describe the diffraction efficiency and angular selectivity of such materials. The majority of these reports discuss the performance of the holographic optical element after the recording stage. It has been observed, however, that sometimes, during exposure, the transmitted recording beam intensities vary with time. A simple phenomenological model is proposed to explain the beam modulation, which incorporates the growth of the phase grating, time-varying absorption effects, the mechanical motion of the plate, the growth of a lossy absorption grating during the recording process, and the effects of nonideal beam ratios.

Comparison of holographic photopolymer materials by use of analytic nonlocal diffusion models.

The one-dimensional diffusion equation governing holographic grating formation in photopolymers, which includes both nonlocal material response and generalized dependence of the rate of polymerization on the illuminating intensity, has been previously solved under the two-harmonic expansion assumption. The resulting analytic expressions for the monomer and polymer concentrations have been derived and their ranges of validity tested in comparison with the more accurate numerical four-harmonic case. We used these analytic expressions to carry out a study of experimental results presented in the literature over a 30-year period. Automatic fitting of the data with these formulas allows material parameters, including the nonlocal chain-length variance sigma, to be estimated. In this way, (i) a quantitative comparison of different materials can be made, and (ii) a standard form of experimental result presentation is proposed to facilitate such a procedure.