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Pump–probe Microscopy
Pump–probe microscopy is a non-linear optical imaging modality used in femtochemistry to study chemical reactions. It generates high-contrast images from endogenous non-fluorescent targets. It has numerous applications, including materials science, medicine, and art restoration. Advantages The classic method of nonlinear absorption used by microscopists is conventional two-photon fluorescence, in which two photons from a single source interact to excite a photoelectron. The electron then emits a photon as it transitions back to its ground state. This microscopy method has been revolutionary in biological sciences because of its inherent three-dimensional optical sectioning capabilities. Two-photon absorption is inherently a nonlinear process: fluorescent output intensity is proportional to the square of the excitation light intensity. This ensures that fluorescence is only generated within the focus of a laser beam, as the intensity outside of this plane is insufficient to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nonlinear Optics
Nonlinear optics (NLO) is the branch of optics that describes the behaviour of light in ''nonlinear media'', that is, media in which the polarization density P responds non-linearly to the electric field E of the light. The non-linearity is typically observed only at very high light intensities (when the electric field of the light is >108 V/m and thus comparable to the atomic electric field of ~1011 V/m) such as those provided by lasers. Above the Schwinger limit, the vacuum itself is expected to become nonlinear. In nonlinear optics, the superposition principle no longer holds. History The first nonlinear optical effect to be predicted was two-photon absorption, by Maria Goeppert Mayer for her PhD in 1931, but it remained an unexplored theoretical curiosity until 1961 and the almost simultaneous observation of two-photon absorption at Bell Labs and the discovery of second-harmonic generation by Peter Franken ''et al.'' at University of Michigan, both shortly after the constru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kerr Effect
The Kerr effect, also called the quadratic electro-optic (QEO) effect, is a change in the refractive index of a material in response to an applied electric field. The Kerr effect is distinct from the Pockels effect in that the induced index change is directly proportional to the ''square'' of the electric field instead of varying linearly with it. All materials show a Kerr effect, but certain liquids display it more strongly than others. The Kerr effect was discovered in 1875 by Scottish physicist John Kerr. Two special cases of the Kerr effect are normally considered, these being the Kerr electro-optic effect, or DC Kerr effect, and the optical Kerr effect, or AC Kerr effect. Kerr electro-optic effect The Kerr electro-optic effect, or DC Kerr effect, is the special case in which a slowly varying external electric field is applied by, for instance, a voltage on electrodes across the sample material. Under this influence, the sample becomes birefringent, with different indices ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Principal Component Analysis
Principal component analysis (PCA) is a popular technique for analyzing large datasets containing a high number of dimensions/features per observation, increasing the interpretability of data while preserving the maximum amount of information, and enabling the visualization of multidimensional data. Formally, PCA is a statistical technique for reducing the dimensionality of a dataset. This is accomplished by linearly transforming the data into a new coordinate system where (most of) the variation in the data can be described with fewer dimensions than the initial data. Many studies use the first two principal components in order to plot the data in two dimensions and to visually identify clusters of closely related data points. Principal component analysis has applications in many fields such as population genetics, microbiome studies, and atmospheric science. The principal components of a collection of points in a real coordinate space are a sequence of p unit vectors, where th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lock-in Amplifier
A lock-in amplifier is a type of amplifier that can extract a signal with a known carrier wave from an extremely noisy environment. Depending on the dynamic reserve of the instrument, signals up to a million times smaller than noise components, potentially fairly close by in frequency, can still be reliably detected. It is essentially a homodyne detector followed by low-pass filter that is often adjustable in cut-off frequency and filter order. The device is often used to measure phase shift, even when the signals are large, have a high signal-to-noise ratio and do not need further improvement. Recovering signals at low signal-to-noise ratios requires a strong, clean reference signal with the same frequency as the received signal. This is not the case in many experiments, so the instrument can recover signals buried in the noise only in a limited set of circumstances. The lock-in amplifier is commonly believed to have been invented by Princeton University physicist Robert H. Di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Photodiode
A photodiode is a light-sensitive semiconductor diode. It produces current when it absorbs photons. The package of a photodiode allows light (or infrared or ultraviolet radiation, or X-rays) to reach the sensitive part of the device. The package may include lenses or optical filters. Devices designed for use specially as a photodiode use a PIN junction rather than a p–n junction, to increase the speed of response. Photodiodes usually have a slower response time as their surface area increases. A photodiode is designed to operate in reverse bias. A solar cell used to generate electric solar power is a large area photodiode. Photodiodes are used in scientific and industrial instruments to measure light intensity, either for its own sake or as a measure of some other property (density of smoke, for example). A photodiode can be used as the receiver of data encoded on an infrared beam, as in household remote controls. Photodiodes can be used to form an optocoupler, allowing tra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dichroic Mirror
A dichroic filter, thin-film filter, or interference filter is a color filter used to selectively pass light of a small range of colors while reflecting other colors. By comparison, dichroic mirrors and dichroic reflectors tend to be characterized by the colors of light that they reflect, rather than the colors they pass. Dichroic filters can filter light from a white light source to produce light that is perceived by humans to be highly saturated in color. Such filters are popular in architectural and theatrical applications. Dichroic reflectors known as cold mirrors are commonly used behind a light source to reflect visible light forward while allowing the invisible infrared light to pass out of the rear of the fixture. Such an arrangement allows intense illumination with less heating of the illuminated object. Many quartz-halogen lamps have an integrated dichroic reflector for this purpose, being originally designed for use in slide projectors to avoid melting the slide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dichroic Prism
A dichroic prism is a prism that splits light into two beams of differing wavelength (colour). A trichroic prism assembly combines two dichroic prisms to split an image into 3 colours, typically as red, green and blue of the RGB colour model. They are usually constructed of one or more glass prisms with dichroic optical coatings that selectively reflect or transmit light depending on the light's wavelength. That is, certain surfaces within the prism act as dichroic filters. These are used as beam splitters in many optical instruments. (See: Dichroism, for the etymology of the term.) Applications in camcorders or digital cameras One common application of dichroic prisms is in some camcorders and high-quality digital cameras. A ''trichroic prism assembly'' is a combination of two dichroic prisms which are used to split an image into red, green, and blue components, which can be separately detected on three CCD arrays. A possible layout for the device is shown in the diagram. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electro-optic Modulator
An electro-optic modulator (EOM) is an optical device in which a signal-controlled element exhibiting an electro-optic effect is used to modulate a beam of light. The modulation may be imposed on the phase, frequency, amplitude, or polarization of the beam. Modulation bandwidths extending into the gigahertz range are possible with the use of laser-controlled modulators. The electro-optic effect is the change in the refractive index of a material resulting from the application of a DC or low-frequency electric field. This is caused by forces that distort the position, orientation, or shape of the molecules constituting the material. Generally, a nonlinear optical material (organic polymers have the fastest response rates, and thus are best for this application) with an incident static or low frequency optical field will see a modulation of its refractive index. The simplest kind of EOM consists of a crystal, such as lithium niobate (LiNbO3), whose refractive index is a function ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acousto-optic Modulator
An acousto-optic modulator (AOM), also called a Bragg cell or an acousto-optic deflector (AOD), uses the acousto-optic effect to diffract and shift the frequency of light using sound waves (usually at radio-frequency). They are used in lasers for Q-switching, telecommunications for signal modulation, and in spectroscopy for frequency control. A piezoelectric transducer is attached to a material such as glass. An oscillating electric signal drives the transducer to vibrate, which creates sound waves in the material. These can be thought of as moving periodic planes of expansion and compression that change the index of refraction. Incoming light scatters (see Brillouin scattering) off the resulting periodic index modulation and interference occurs similar to Bragg diffraction. The interaction can be thought of as a three-wave mixing process resulting in Sum-frequency generation or Difference-frequency generation between phonons and photons. Principles of operation A typical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Optical Parametric Oscillator
An optical parametric oscillator (OPO) is a parametric oscillator that oscillates at optical frequencies. It converts an input laser wave (called "pump") with frequency \omega_p into two output waves of lower frequency (\omega_s, \omega_i) by means of second- order nonlinear optical interaction. The sum of the output waves' frequencies is equal to the input wave frequency: \omega_s + \omega_i=\omega_p. For historical reasons, the two output waves are called "signal" and "idler", where the output wave with higher frequency is the "signal". A special case is the degenerate OPO, when the output frequency is one-half the pump frequency, \omega_s=\omega_i=\omega_p/2, which can result in half-harmonic generation when signal and idler have the same polarization. The first optical parametric oscillator was demonstrated by Joseph A. Giordmaine and Robert C. Miller in 1965, five years after the invention of the laser, at Bell Labs. Optical parametric oscillators are used as coherent light s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Femtosecond
A femtosecond is a unit of time in the International System of Units (SI) equal to 10 or of a second; that is, one quadrillionth, or one millionth of one billionth, of a second. For context, a femtosecond is to a second as a second is to about 31.71 million years; a ray of light travels approximately 0.3 μm (micrometers) in 1 femtosecond, a distance comparable to the diameter of a virus.Compared with overview in: Page 3 The word ''femtosecond'' is formed by the SI prefix ''femto'' and the SI unit ''second''. Its symbol is fs. A femtosecond is equal to 1000 attoseconds, or 1/1000 picosecond. Because the next higher SI unit is 1000 times larger, times of 10−14 and 10−13 seconds are typically expressed as tens or hundreds of femtoseconds. * Typical time steps for molecular dynamics simulations are on the order of 1 fs. * The periods of the waves of visible light have a duration of about 2 femtoseconds. = = 2.0 \times 10^~ The precise duration depends on the ener ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
