The Highly Sensitive Refractive Index Sensing of Seawater Based on a Large Lateral Offset Mach-Zehnder Interferometer.

A novel fiber sensor for the refractive index sensing of seawater based on a Mach-Zehnder interferometer has been demonstrated. The sensor consisted of a single-mode fiber (SMF)-no-core fiber (NCF)-single-mode fiber structure (shortened to an SNS structure) with a large lateral offset spliced between the two sections of a multimode fiber (MMF). Optimization studies of the multimode fiber length, offset SNS length, and vertical axial offset distance were performed to improve the coupling efficiency of interference light and achieve the best extinction ratio. In the experiment, a large lateral offset sensor was prepared to detect the refractive index of various ratios of saltwater, which were used to simulate seawater environments. The sensor's sensitivity was up to -13,703.63 nm/RIU and -13,160 nm/RIU in the refractive index range of 1.3370 to 1.3410 based on the shift of the interference spectrum. Moreover, the sensor showed a good linear response and high stability, with an RSD of only 0.0089% for the trough of the interference in air over 1 h.

Narrow linewidth and wideband tunable continuous-wave terahertz generator based on difference frequency generation with DAST crystal.

A narrow linewidth and wideband tunable continuous-wave terahertz generator with DAST crystal has been demonstrated in this paper. Two narrow-linewidth CW fiber lasers were used as the pump sources for difference frequency generation. The terahertz wave can be continuously tunable in the range of 1.1-3 THz. The maximum output power of 2.79nW was obtained at 2.568 THz. The linewidth of the output THz wave was estimated to be 56.5 MHz by fitting transmission spectrum of CO gas at 450 Pa pressure around 80.52 cm-1 with the Vogit gas model. Furthermore, the output spectra at room temperature and pressure was in good agreement with the air absorption lines in Hitran database. Moreover, the narrower absorption characteristic spectrum of 2-Deoxy-D-Glucose sample has been obtained through the spectrum measurements. Therefore, it could promote the practical prospect of tunable CW-THz source, which will have good potential in THz high-precision spectroscopic detection and multispectral imaging.

Terahertz beam characterization by temporal-spatial mapping with a reflecting echelon.

A terahertz beam imaging method was proposed that involves scanning a reflecting echelon with temporal-spatial mapping inversion based on self-developed translation-scan and rotation-scan temporal-spatial mapping (TTSM and RTSM) algorithms. The beam characteristics of a terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (TDS) system, such as its size, shape, and energy distribution, were obtained. Besides the weak terahertz beam emitted from a TDS system, this scheme is also suitable for imaging large-size terahertz or laser beams in time-domain systems where existing beam imaging is impractical.

Sensing Method for Wet Spraying Process of Tunnel Wall Based on the Laser LiDAR in Complex Environment.

In tunnel lining construction, the traditional manual wet spraying operation is labor-intensive and can be challenging to ensure consistent quality. To address this, this study proposes a LiDAR-based method for sensing the thickness of tunnel wet spray, which aims to improve efficiency and quality. The proposed method utilizes an adaptive point cloud standardization processing algorithm to address differing point cloud postures and missing data, and the segmented Lamé curve is employed to fit the tunnel design axis using the Gauss-Newton iteration method. This establishes a mathematical model of the tunnel section and enables the analysis and perception of the thickness of the tunnel to be wet sprayed through comparison with the actual inner contour line and the design line of the tunnel. Experimental results show that the proposed method is effective in sensing the thickness of tunnel wet spray, with important implications for promoting intelligent wet spraying operations, improving wet spraying quality, and reducing labor costs in tunnel lining construction.

Alleviating sample imbalance in water quality assessment using the VAE-WGAN-GP model.

Water resources are essential for sustaining human life and promoting sustainable development. However, rapid urbanization and industrialization have resulted in a decline in freshwater availability. Effective prevention and control of water pollution are essential for ecological balance and human well-being. Water quality assessment is crucial for monitoring and managing water resources. Existing machine learning-based assessment methods tend to classify the results into the majority class, leading to inaccuracies in the outcomes due to the prevalent issue of imbalanced class sample distribution in practical scenarios. To tackle the issue, we propose a novel approach that utilizes the VAE-WGAN-GP model. The VAE-WGAN-GP model combines the encoding and decoding mechanisms of VAE with the adversarial learning of GAN. It generates synthetic samples that closely resemble real samples, effectively compensating data of the scarcity category in water quality evaluation. Our contributions include (1) introducing a deep generative model to alleviate the issue of imbalanced category samples in water quality assessment, (2) demonstrating the faster convergence speed and improved potential distribution learning ability of the proposed VAE-WGAN-GP model, (3) introducing the compensation degree concept and conducting comprehensive compensation experiments, resulting in a 9.7% increase in the accuracy of water quality assessment for multi-classification imbalance samples.

Tunable narrow-linewidth high-peak-power sub-nanosecond optical parametric generator by injection seeding.

We present an efficient tunable optical parametric generator (OPG) with its linewidth close to the Fourier transform limit by injection seeding a tunable diode laser. Benefitting from high-peak-power sub-nanosecond (426 ps) laser pumping and a high-gain MgO:PPLN (PPMgLN) crystal, the OPG produced signal peak power up to 0.343 MW at 1638 nm and the total conversion efficiency reached 47.9% at 1-kHz pulse repetition rate. Considering the linewidth limit of short signal pulses (∼ 350 ps), a tunable seeder with the linewidth at hundred-MHz level was applicable. The achieved OPG signal tuning range was 1510-1638 nm with linewidth at GHz level, which is two orders of magnitude narrower than the unseeded OPG. Injection seeding a non-resonant OPG device does not introduce extra cavity feedback electronics that are essential for an optical parametric oscillator (OPO), greatly improving robustness and reducing cost. It is believed such a compact, tunable and costless PPMgLN OPG with high peak power, high repetition rate and relatively narrow linewidth has great significance in lidar, spectroscopy, etc.

Graphene-enhanced hybrid terahertz metasurface sensor for ultrasensitive nortriptyline sensing and detection.

Graphene is a two-dimensional material with unique physical and chemical properties, whose excellent biocompatibility has also attracted widespread attention in the field of biosensing and medical detection. Graphene provides a novel solution for dramatically improving the sensitivity of terahertz metasurface sensors, since the electrical conductivity can be modified by contact with biomolecules. In this paper, a metal-graphene hybrid metasurface is proposed and demonstrated for high-sensitive nortriptyline sensing based on the plasmon-induced transparency (PIT) resonances. The π-π stacks between nortriptyline and graphene lead to an increase in the Fermi level of graphene and a decrease in the conductivity, thus enhancing the PIT resonance. Experimental results show that the peak-to-peak amplitude magnitude of the PIT window is enhanced up to 3.4-fold with 1 ng nortriptyline analyte, and the minimum detection limit is extended down to 0.1 ng. But no significant change is observed from the samples without graphene as a comparative experiment, which demonstrates that the presence of graphene greatly enhances the bonding to the drug molecules and improves the sensing sensitivity. This metasurface sensor has the advantages of high sensitivity, fast detection speed, label-free and steady properties, which has potential applications in the fields of trace molecular sensing and disease diagnosis.

Highly sensitive multi-stage terahertz parametric upconversion detection based on a KTiOPO4 crystal.

In this Letter, we demonstrate a highly sensitive multi-stage terahertz (THz) wave parametric upconversion detector based on a KTiOPO4 (KTP) crystal pumped by a 1064-nm pulsed-laser (10 ns, 10 Hz). The THz wave was upconverted to near-infrared light in a trapezoidal KTP crystal based on stimulated polariton scattering. The upconversion signal was amplified in two KTP crystals based on non-collinear and collinear phase matching, respectively, to improve detection sensitivity. A rapid-response detection in the THz frequency ranges of 4.26-4.50 THz and 4.80-4.92 THz was achieved. Moreover, a dual-color THz wave generated from THz parametric oscillator using KTP crystal was detected simultaneously based on dual-wavelength upconversion. The minimum detectable energy of 2.35 fJ was realized with a dynamic range of 84 dB at 4.85 THz, which gives a noise equivalent power (NEP) of the order of 21.3 pW/Hz1/2. By changing the phase-matching angle or the wavelength of the pump laser, it is suggested that the detection of the THz frequency band of interest in a wide range from approximately 1 to 14 THz is possible.

Low-Frequency Vibrational Spectroscopy Characteristic of Pharmaceutical Carbamazepine Co-Crystals with Nicotinamide and Saccharin.

The pharmaceutical co-crystal has attracted increasing interest due to the improvement of physicochemical properties of active pharmaceutical ingredients. The characterization of pharmaceutical co-crystal is an integral part of the pharmaceutical field. In this paper, the low-frequency vibrational properties for carbamazepine co-crystals with nicotinamide and saccharin (CBZ-NIC and CBZ-SAC) have been characterized by combining the THz spectroscopy with low-wavenumber Raman spectroscopy. The experiment results show that, compared with the individual constituents, CBZ-NIC and CBZ-SAC co-crystals not only have different characteristic absorption peaks in the 0.3-2.5 THz region, but also have significant low-wavenumber Raman characteristic peaks in 0-100 cm-1. Density functional theory was performed to simulate the terahertz and low-wavenumber Raman spectra of the two co-crystals, where the calculation agreed well with the measured vibrational peak positions. The vibrational modes of CBZ-NIC and CBZ-SAC co-crystals were assigned through comparing theoretical results with the experimental spectra. Meanwhile, the low-frequency infrared and/or Raman active of characteristic peaks for such co-crystals were discussed. The results indicate the combination of THz spectroscopy and low-wavenumber Raman spectroscopy can provide more comprehensive low-frequency vibrational information for pharmaceutical co-crystals, such as collective vibration and skeleton vibration, which could play an important role in pharmaceutical science.

Continuous-wave long-distributed-cavity laser using cat-eye retroreflectors.

Here we demonstrate an efficient, long-distributed-cavity laser which uses a cat-eye retroreflector configuration to facilitate cavity alignment. The cavity parameters were optimized to meet the small stability region of the cavity, given the long working distance. We also found that intracavity spherical aberration seriously impacts laser efficiency, and an aspheric lens is used to correct the aberration when long working distance and receivers with compact dimensions are desired. The end-pumped Nd:YVO4 laser delivered 5.91 W continuous-wave output power at a long working distance of 5 m, under 16.6 W incident diode pump. Significantly, the fluctuation in output power over the whole working distance range of 1-5 m was less than 10%, this being achieved without any other cavity parameters being adjusted.

Interference elimination based on the inversion method for continuous-wave terahertz reflection imaging.

We propose a novel approach based on the inversion method to eliminate interference in the continuous-wave (CW) terahertz (THz) reflection imaging. Through the study on the imaging window of the CW-THz reflection imaging with the interference mechanism, inverse processing is introduced to realize the interference elimination. Based on the theoretical calculation, high resistivity float-zone silicon (HRFZ-Si) with high refractive index is selected as the imaging window to improve the dynamic range of the THz image. The interference elimination method is verified experimentally by a CW-THz reflection imaging system based on a THz quantum cascade laser (QCL) lasing at 4.3THz. The reflectivities of liquid samples of water and ethanol are restored by the interference elimination method, which corresponds well with the theoretical calculation. Moreover, the interference elimination method is performed on THz images of fresh biological tissues. The image contrast of tissue can be greatly enhanced with the accurate reflective information.

High-energy, tunable, long-wave mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator based on BaGa4Se7 crystal.

A high-energy, tunable, long-wave mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on the BaGa4Se7 crystal was demonstrated in this Letter with 1064 nm laser pumping. The mid-infrared OPO was designed as a double-pass single resonant oscillator (DP-SRO) to reduce the threshold and improve the outputs. Further optimization on the cavity length was theoretically and experimentally studied. With a short cavity length of 30 mm, the output energy of over 1 mJ/pulse at 11 µm was obtained with the pump energy of 39.5 mJ/pulse. In addition, a wide tuning range of 8-14 µm was experimentally achieved by rotating the BaGa4Se7 crystal.

Widely tunable eye-safe optical parametric oscillator with noncollinear phase-matching in a ring cavity.

An effective method for wavelength tuning in an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) was proposed using noncollinear phase-matching (PM) in a ring cavity. This method was particularly useful for noncritically phase-matched (NCPM) KTP/KTA OPOs where changing the crystal orientation or working temperature is ineffective. A wide tuning range in the eye-safe band from 1572.9 nm to 1684.2 nm was realized pumped by an Nd:YAG laser at 1.06 µm in an NCPM KTP OPO while the internal noncollinear angle was tuned from 0 to 3.1° or the external angle from 0° to 5.8°, with slight variation of the deflection angle of one cavity mirror. The good beam quality and high spectrum intensity of the narrow-linewidth Nd:YAG laser resulted in 33.3% conversion efficiency for the collinear case and above 11% throughout the tuning range. Such OPOs have many potential applications where tunable eye-safe lasers are required, and the proposed wavelength tuning method can be extended to all kinds of OPOs.

Injection pulse-seeded terahertz-wave parametric generator with gain enhancement in wide frequency range.

An injection pulse-seeded terahertz-wave parametric generator (ips-TPG) has been demonstrated with gain enhancement in wide tuning range. Theoretical analysis denotes that the compensation of initial Stokes energy is favorable to the THz gain enhancement in wide frequency range, which is attributed to the improvement on interaction of stimulated polariton scattering (SPS) and difference frequency generation (DFG) processes. In the experiment, the THz frequency tuning range from 1.04 THz to 5.15 THz was achieved based on near-stoichiometric LiNbO3 (SLN) crystal. Compared with the traditional terahertz parametric oscillator (TPO) under the same experimental conditions, a significant enhancement of THz output energy was occurred in high frequency range. As the THz frequency increased from 1.9 THz to 3.6 THz, the enhancement ratios from 1.6 times to 34.7 times were obtained. Besides, the 3dB bandwidth of ips-TPG was measured to be 2.1 THz, which was about 2.6 times that of SLN-TPO. This THz parametric source with a relative flat gain in wide frequency range is suitable to a variety of practical applications.

Multi-direction bending sensor based on supermodes of multicore PCF laser.

A multi-direction bending sensor based on the 18-core photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is demonstrated in this paper. The design of the sensor is discussed theoretically and experimentally. The PCF serves as the laser gain medium and the sensing medium simultaneously in the fiber laser sensor. The operating wavelength of the proposed PCF laser sensor is about 1032.32 nm. A CMOS image capture system is used to acquire the distribution of supermodes in the PCF laser. Based on the normalized intensity distribution of supermodes, six directions can be measured. The sensor also shows the ability to measure bending radius within 0.11 m. Then, the thermal effects of the bending sensor have been analyzed and the sensing system shows a low temperature crosstalk.

All-fiber seawater salinity sensor based on fiber laser intracavity loss modulation with low detection limit.

An all-fiber seawater salinity sensor based on intracavity loss-modulated sensing in a fiber ring laser is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. An optical fiber multimode interferometer, which is based on single-mode-no-core-single-mode fiber structure, is cascaded with a fiber reflector and used as a reflected sensing head to enhance loss-modulated depth. It is inserted in a fiber ring laser and the intracavity loss-modulated salinity sensing is induced for the fiber laser's output intensity. The salinity sensitivity is measured to be 0.1 W/‰ with a high signal-to-noise ratio more than 49 dB and narrow full width at half maximum less than 40 pm. The temperature cross-sensitivity characteristic and stability are also analyzed. Considering the errors from cross-sensitivity, stability and resolution of the photodetector, the detection limit of the sensor system is 0.0023 ‰ (0.0002 S/m), which is comparable to the most advanced commercial electronic salinity sensor.

High energy and tunable mid-infrared source based on BaGa4Se7 crystal by single-pass difference-frequency generation.

A high-energy and tunable mid-infrared source based on BaGa4Se7 crystal was demonstrated by single-pass difference-frequency generation (DFG). Orthogonally polarized wave at 1064 nm (λ1) and tunable idler wave (λ2) generated by KTP-OPO, which could be tuned in the wavelength range of 1360-1600 nm, were used as the DFG dual-wavelength pump. The pump parameters including total pump energy and energy ratio were studied. Maximum pulse energy of 5.72 mJ at 3.58 µm was obtained at the dual-wavelength pump energy of 58.4 mJ/pulse. The wavelength tuning range was 3.36-4.27 µm with a flat tunability. Moreover, a saturation phenomenon of DFG output was observed and experimentally inferred to be related to the input energy of λ2 in the BaGa4Se7 crystal.

Dual-wavelength intracavity Raman laser driven by a coaxially pumped dual-crystal fundamental laser.

An actively Q-switched dual-wavelength intracavity Raman laser based on a coaxially pumped dual-crystal (Nd:YAG and b-cut Nd:YAP) fundamental configuration was theoretically and experimentally investigated. Stable dual-wavelength Stokes output at 1176 nm and 1195 nm was subsequently obtained by the Raman conversion from an a-cut YVO4 crystal. A total average power of 1.8 W was produced at 10 kHz pulse repetition frequency under an incident diode pump power of 15.8 W, in which the power levels at the two Stokes wavelengths were nearly equivalent. The power proportion and the interval between the dual-wavelength Stokes pulses could be manipulated actively by changing the pump focal position or pump wavelength.

Tunable dual-color terahertz wave parametric oscillator based on KTP crystal.

A tunable dual-color KTP terahertz (THz) wave parametric oscillator (TPO) pumped by a dual-wavelength laser was proposed in this Letter. Theoretical analysis denotes that the emission of a tunable dual-color THz wave can be achieved by the simultaneous stimulated polariton scattering processes from multiple A1-symmetry phonon modes of the KTP crystal. The tunable dual-color THz wave emitted from KTP TPO was demonstrated in our experiment, where the THz frequencies simultaneously tuned from 3.15 THz to 11.63 THz and from 1.47 THz to 6.03 THz with some gaps. The maximum dual-color THz output energy of 1.31 µJ was obtained under the THz frequencies of 5.94 THz and 4.42 THz. Moreover, at a certain phase-matching angle, the THz output energies for the two frequencies were independent, which means that the dual-color THz wave emission with any energy ratio can be achieved by adjusting the pump energy ratio between a dual-wavelength laser.

Baseline correction method based on doubly reweighted penalized least squares.

The spectrum acquired on the optical instrument usually contains the pure spectrum and undesirable components such as baseline and random noise. However, the intensity of the baseline, which seriously submerges the spectrum, is the primary limitation of spectral applications. Thus, baseline correction has become one of the most significant challenges for spectral applications. In this paper, we propose a doubly reweighted penalized least squares method to estimate the baseline. This method utilizes the first-order derivative of the original spectrum and established spectrum as a constraint of similarity. Meanwhile, the doubly reweighted strategy achieves a better effort. Considering the drawbacks of the weighting rules for the adaptive iteratively reweighted penalized least squares method, we adapt a boosted weighting rule based on the softsign function, which performs well when the spectrum contains high noise. The simulated results confirm that the proposed method yields better outcomes. The proposed method can be applied to Raman and near-infrared spectra as well, and the result shows that it can estimate various kinds of baselines effectively.