Neural network enabled fringe projection through scattering media.

The projection of fringes plays an essential role in many applications, such as fringe projection profilometry and structured illumination microscopy. However, these capabilities are significantly constrained in environments affected by optical scattering. Although recent developments in wavefront shaping have effectively generated high-fidelity focal points and relatively simple structured images amidst scattering, the ability to project fringes that cover half of the projection area has not yet been achieved. To address this limitation, this study presents a fringe projector enabled by a neural network, capable of projecting fringes with variable periodicities and orientation angles through scattering media. We tested this projector on two types of scattering media: ground glass diffusers and multimode fibers. For these scattering media, the average Pearson's correlation coefficients between the projected fringes and their designed configurations are 86.9% and 79.7%, respectively. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed neural network enabled fringe projector. This advancement is expected to broaden the scope of fringe-based imaging techniques, making it feasible to employ them in conditions previously hindered by scattering effects.

Single-Shot Intensity- and Phase-Sensitive Compressive Sensing-Based Coherent Modulation Ultrafast Imaging.

Ultrafast imaging can capture the dynamic scenes with a nanosecond and even femtosecond temporal resolution. Complementarily, phase imaging can provide the morphology, refractive index, or thickness information that intensity imaging cannot represent. Therefore, it is important to realize the simultaneous ultrafast intensity and phase imaging for achieving as much information as possible in the detection of ultrafast dynamic scenes. Here, we report a single-shot intensity- and phase-sensitive compressive sensing-based coherent modulation ultrafast imaging technique, shortened as CS-CMUI, which integrates coherent modulation imaging, compressive imaging, and streak imaging. We theoretically demonstrate through numerical simulations that CS-CMUI can obtain both the intensity and phase information of the dynamic scenes with ultrahigh fidelity. Furthermore, we experimentally build a CS-CMUI system and successfully measure the intensity and phase evolution of a multimode Q-switched laser pulse and the dynamical behavior of laser ablation on an indium tin oxide thin film. It is anticipated that CS-CMUI enables a profound comprehension of ultrafast phenomena and promotes the advancement of various practical applications, which will have substantial impact on fundamental and applied sciences.

Laser polarization-controlled photoreduction of samarium ions in sodium aluminoborate glass.

The valence state conversion of lanthanide ions induced by femtosecond laser fields has attracted considerable attention due to their potential applications in areas like high-density optical storage. However, the physical mechanisms involved in valence state conversions still remain unclear. Here, we report the first experimental study of controlling the reduction of trivalent samarium ions to divalent ones in sodium aluminoborate glass by varying the polarization status of the 800 nm femtosecond laser field. As the laser field is varied from linear to circular polarization, the reduction efficiency can be greatly decreased by about fifty percent. This polarization-dependent reduction behavior is found to directly correlate with the nonresonant two-photon 4f-4f absorption probability of the trivalent samarium ions in both experiment and theory. Multiphoton excited charge transfer between oxygen and samarium is considered to be responsible for the photoreduction. Our work demonstrates a controllable and effective way in tuning the valence state conversion efficiency and sheds light on the underlying mechanisms.

Flexible and accurate total variation and cascaded denoisers-based image reconstruction algorithm for hyperspectrally compressed ultrafast photography.

Hyperspectrally compressed ultrafast photography (HCUP) based on compressed sensing and time- and spectrum-to-space mappings can simultaneously realize the temporal and spectral imaging of non-repeatable or difficult-to-repeat transient events with a passive manner in single exposure. HCUP possesses an incredibly high frame rate of tens of trillions of frames per second and a sequence depth of several hundred, and therefore plays a revolutionary role in single-shot ultrafast optical imaging. However, due to ultra-high data compression ratios induced by the extremely large sequence depth, as well as limited fidelities of traditional algorithms over the image reconstruction process, HCUP suffers from a poor image reconstruction quality and fails to capture fine structures in complex transient scenes. To overcome these restrictions, we report a flexible image reconstruction algorithm based on a total variation (TV) and cascaded denoisers (CD) for HCUP, named the TV-CD algorithm. The TV-CD algorithm applies the TV denoising model cascaded with several advanced deep learning-based denoising models in the iterative plug-and-play alternating direction method of multipliers framework, which not only preserves the image smoothness with TV, but also obtains more priori with CD. Therefore, it solves the common sparsity representation problem in local similarity and motion compensation. Both the simulation and experimental results show that the proposed TV-CD algorithm can effectively improve the image reconstruction accuracy and quality of HCUP, and may further promote the practical applications of HCUP in capturing high-dimensional complex physical, chemical and biological ultrafast dynamic scenes.

A novel molecular synchrotron for cold collision and EDM experiments.

Limited by the construction demands, the state-of-the-art molecular synchrotrons consist of only 40 segments that hardly make a good circle. Imperfections in the circular structure will lead to the appearance of unstable velocity regions (i.e. stopbands), where molecules of certain forward velocity will be lost from the structure. In this paper, we propose a stopband-free molecular synchrotron. It contains 1570 ring electrodes, which nearly make a perfect circle, capable of confining both light and heavy polar molecules in the low-field-seeking states. Molecular packets can be conveniently manipulated with this synchrotron by various means, like acceleration, deceleration or even trapping. Trajectory calculations are carried out using a pulsed (88)SrF molecular beam with a forward velocity of 50 m/s. The results show that the molecular beam can make more than 500 round trips inside the synchrotron with a 1/e lifetime of 6.2 s. The synchrotron can find potential applications in low-energy collision and reaction experiments or in the field of precision measurements, such as the searches for electric dipole moment of elementary particles.

Experimental demonstration of a controllable electrostatic molecular beam splitter.

We experimentally demonstrate a controllable electrostatic beam splitter for guided ND3 molecules with a single Y-shaped charged wire and a homogeneous bias field generated by a charged metallic parallel-plate capacitor. We study the dependences of the splitting ratio R of the guided ND3 beam and its relative guiding efficiency η on the voltage difference between two output arms of the splitter. The influences of the molecular velocity v and the cutting position L on the splitting ratio R are investigated as well, and the guiding and splitting dynamic processes of cold molecules are simulated. Our study shows that the splitting ratio R of our splitter can be conveniently adjusted from 10% to 90% by changing ΔU from -6 kV to +6 kV, and the simulated results are consistent with our experimental ones.

Experimental generation of a cw cold CH(3)CN molecular beam by a low-pass energy filtering.

We generate a continuous-wave (cw) cold methyl cyanide (CH(3)CN) beam by using an L-shaped bent quadrupole electrostatic guide (i.e., by a low-pass energy or velocity filtering), and use a photo-ionized time-of-flight mass-spectrometer method to experimentally measure and study the dependences of the longitudinal and transverse temperatures of the guided CH(3)CN beam and its guiding efficiency on the guiding voltage. We find a new scaling law: the longitudinal and transverse temperatures (T(z),T(rho)) of the guided CH(3)CN beam are proportional to the guiding voltage (T(z),T(rho) proportional to V(guide)), and further verify another scaling law: the molecular guiding efficiency eta is proportional to the square of the guiding voltage (eta proportional to V2(guide)). We also obtain some simulated results consistent with our experimental ones. We also measure the divergent angle of the output molecular beam and study its dependence on the guiding voltage. Our study shows that when the guiding voltage is V(guide) = +/-1 kV, a cw cold CH(3)CN beam with a longitudinal temperature of approximately 500 mK and a transverse one of approximately 40 mK can be generated by our L-shaped electrostatic guide. The divergent angle of the output CH(3)CN beam is about 16.4 degrees as V(guide) = +/-4 kV. It is clear that such a resulting cold molecular beam has some important applications in the fields of cold molecular physics, physical chemistry and chemical physics, etc.

Multistage optical Stark decelerator for a pulsed supersonic beam with a quasi-cw optical lattice.

We propose a new scheme to realize a multistage optical Stark deceleration for a supersonic molecular beam using a time-varying red-detuned quasi-cw optical lattice with a length of up to 10 mm. We analyze the motion of the slowed molecules inside the optical decelerator, and study the dependences of the velocity of the slowed molecular packet on the synchronous phase angle and the number of the deceleration stages (i.e., the number of the optical-lattice cells) by using Monte-Carlo method. Our study shows that the proposed optical Stark decelerator cannot only efficiently slow a pulsed supersonic beam from 230 m/s to zero (standstill), but also obtain an ultracold molecular packet with a temperature of sub-mK due to bunching effect in the multistage optical Stark decelerator, which can be trapped in the optical lattice by rapidly turning off the modulation signal of the lattice. Also, we compare the decelerated results of our multistage optical Stark decelerator with a single-stage optical one, and find that our scheme cannot only obtain a colder molecular packet under the same molecular-beam parameters and deceleration conditions, but also be directly used to trap the slowed cold molecules after the deceleration, while don't need to use another molecular trap.

Electrostatic surface guiding for cold polar molecules: experimental demonstration.

We demonstrate an electrostatic surface guiding for cold polar molecules over a long distance of 44.5 cm, 0.85 mm above a dielectric substrate, and measure the transverse distribution of the guided supersonic D2O/CH3Br beam and its longitudinal velocity one. Also, we study the dependence of the relative guiding efficiency and the transverse temperature of the guided molecular beam on the guiding voltage, and show that the absolute guiding efficiencies from the Monte Carlo simulation and theoretical calculation multiplied by 3 are about equal to the measured relative one.

Quadrupolelike electrostatic guiding for cold polar molecules.

We demonstrate electrostatic guiding of cold heavy water (D(2)O) molecules over a distance of 44.5 cm by using a quadrupolelike electrostatic field, which is generated by the combination of two parallel charged poles and two grounded metal plates. We measure the transverse spatial distribution of the guided D(2)O molecular beam and study the dependence of the relative guiding efficiency and the transverse temperature of the guided molecular beam on the guiding voltage. Our study shows that the maximum guiding efficiency of approximately 50% can be obtained, and our experimental results are in good agreement with ones of theoretical calculation and Monte Carlo simulations, and this guiding scheme has some potential applications in molecule optics, such as molecular-beam splitter, integrated molecular optics, etc.

Beam splitter for guided polar molecules with a Y-shaped charged wire.

We propose a beam splitter for cold polar molecules in weak-field-seeking states that uses a Y-shaped charged wire half embedded in a substrate and sandwiched by a charged metallic parallel-plate capacitor. We demonstrate our molecular-beam splitter and study its dynamic beam-splitting process for the guided cold molecules by using Monte Carlo simulation. Our study shows that cold polar molecules from a supersonic beam source with a mean velocity of a few hundred meters per second can be split with a fixed 0.5/0.5 splitting ratio, and an adjustable splitting ratio of about 0.03-0.97 can be realized by introducing a small alteration to the scheme.