Asymmetric colliding-pulse mode-locking was successfully demonstrated in an InGaAsP laser. This laser had a single saturable absorber section located partway along the cavity length, and showed mode-locking operation at harmonics of the cavity roundtrip frequency. The method verified that optical pulse repetition up to subterahertz rates can be generated with nearly 1-mm-long mode-locked InGaAsP lasers.

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First reports of absorptive all-optical bistabilities in reflectance and luminescence of a Fabry-Perot cavity consisting of thin (0.70 μm) ZnSe film are presented. We demonstrate that the observation of bistability in the reflected beam does not require necessarily the appearance of bistability in the transmitted beam. Luminescence bistabilities, however, are observed both in the light captured from the incident side of the film and in the light emitted from the transmission side. The bistabilities in reflection and luminescence are explained quite satisfactorily by the principle of increasing absorption due to photo-irradiation and the dependence of the luminescence intensity on a photo-thermally induced temperature change, respectively. All experiments were carried out at room temperature with the 488 nm line of an argon laser.

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This paper concerns the theoretical improvement of the discrete dipole approximation (DDA) to provide scattering properties of clusters of spherical monomers. The first scattering coefficient (a1-term) in Mie theory is introduced to determine the dipole polarizability used in the DDA. In the a1-term method, a spherical monomer in the cluster is replaced by a single dipole. The accuracy of this method is tested to calculate extinction and scattering cross sections by a single sphere, two-touching spheres and three collinear touching spheres. It is found that when each monomer is replaced by a dipole the a1-term method is superior to the different types of DDA, e.g., the Lattice Dispersion Relation (LDR), at least for the target with the volume equivalent size parameter X, 0.2≤X≤2. This method also allows treatment of a relatively large sub-volume element which is replaced by a dipole, i.e. the size parameter of the monomer X_m~1.5. Furthermore, a great reduction in memory requirement and computing time are achieved, e.g. for two touching spheres the a1-term method requires only 6% of the total memory requirement and 0.008% of the total computing time for N=8448 with the LDR.

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Enhanced backscatterings from the disordered dense media are investigated by means of the Monte Carlo simulation. On the basis of the Rayleigh-Debye scattering theory, numerical simulations demonstrate the dependences of the peak, width and spatial anisotropy of enhanced intensity distributions on the size of scattering particles. Discussions are made by decomposing the backscattering intensity to the contributions with different scattering orders. As a result, it is shown that the particle-size dependence of the peak and width is described by the probability density function of the scattering order and the mean free pathlength. It is also shown that the spatial anisotropy of the intensity peak is described by the depolarization at each scattering event and the extinction in propagation within the random media.

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A model for fast calculation of path radiance of finite clouds is presented. The calculations are simplified by using the reciprocity principle and the homogenousness property of the incident light. Comparisons with reasonably accurate calculations for spherical cloud and two-dimensional infinite layer were made.

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We developed a system to measure disk noise as a function of both radial and angular position. In order to obtain an accurate disk noise measurement, crosstalk and intersymbol interference were avoided by recording regularly repeating pit patterns and the influence of electronic and laser noise was removed by averaging techniques. We found the system's mapping ability and its high sensitivity to be very useful in investigating disk noise phenomena in the mastering process. We used the system to assess the accuracy and reproducibility of the photopolymerization replication and Al vapor deposition processes. Also, we investigated the choice of photoresist and found that photoresists with the combination of the narrowest molecular weight distribution and the highest photo-active compound content resulted in the lowest disk noise levels. Our system can, in principle, be adapted to evaluate magneto-optical and phase change disks.

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Two thousand images of resolution 51212 pixels as a regular matrix pattern of 100 elements are stored, where each element is angularly multiplexed 20 times in a 25 μm thickness of dichromated gelatin emulsion without cross-talk effect. The surface area of the matrix is 1 cm². We show good concordance of the angular selectivity between the experimental result and theory. The diffraction efficiency of each 20 multiplexed images is measured and has nearly the same value. Examples of reconstructed images for multiple applications are given, for example, storage of 160,000 images on a 3"1/2 floppy disc format, which is about 100 min of black and white film. Application can be made to automobile cartography and storage of X-ray images as well as weather forecast images. Colored diffractive images are also possible and are illustrated.

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We investigate experimentally and numerically a novel method of modifying photorefractive waveguides in a lithium niobate crystal by a guided beam. The guided beam with a strong optical power can change the refractive index of the photorefractive waveguide because of the photorefractive effect. The modification of waveguide structure can be utilized for optical dynamic interconnection. Changes of optical characteristics of a probe beam caused by a modification beam are investigated. Experimental results show that the transmitted power or the peak intensity of the probe beam decreases exponentially as a function of total exposure energy of the modification beam. We also numerically analyze the refractive index change caused by the modification beam in the photorefractive waveguide. The numerical results show good agreement with the experimental results.

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A new threshold selection algorithm for objects and background separation using a histogram of the number of foreground regions was proposed. This method used a human separation method for objects and background, examined the changes in the number of foreground regions in the image with varying threshold and determined a proper threshold value. The proposed technique was applied to several images and was compared with other histogram-based segmentation methods. The possibility of extension to multi-level thresholding was also examined.

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The evolution of relevant beam parameters of a light beam propagating through an iterated sequence of spherical lenses and Gaussian apertures immersed in an active medium is investigated. This structure is a classical model for an optical resonator. The effective size of the field distribution, the beam quality factor and the radius of wave front curvature are calculated as functions of the number of transits. Steady-state values of these parameters are also determined and the dependence of the results on the gain of the medium, the aperture width and the focal length is illustrated. A comparison with the case without active medium is also discussed.

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We have developed highly reliable etched-mirror laser diodes using a dry etching method. The lasers without facet-coating have been operating stably over 2500 h under automatic-power control (APC) at a power of 3 mW/facet at 50°C. The gain-guided laser diodes with a cylindrical-mirror cavity (CMC) have coaxial mirrors and a fan-shaped stripe structure. By decreasing the curvature radius of the inner facet or increasing the stripe width of the inner facet, the beam waist parallel to the junction plane can be moved outside of the laser diode, while the beam waist perpendicular to the junction plane stops at the mirror facet. A particular CMC laser has a low astigmatism of 4.1 μm and a low relative intensity of noise (RIN) less than -134 dB/Hz at 4 mW under 0-1% optical feedback without high frequency current superposition.

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Efficient optical phase-conjugate (PC) signals in four kinds of novel polyester films containing cyanoazobenzene units in the side chain are reported. One of them can efficiently generate only the photoinduced anisotropy (PA) component of PC signal, while the other three films can simultaneously generate two types of PC signals, PA and holographic components. These polymers have good potential not only as a phase conjugator but also as a polarization-sensitive hologram-recording material.

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The technique of using the ‘escape function’ for global optimization in lens design is described. This includes how to identify two solutions as independent; the threshold value for this criterion can be chosen to determine how to explore local solutions-rough or fine. Choice of appropriate values for two parameters in the escape function is most important, since this will affect the efficiency of the automatic global optimization process. There are two problems, i.e. giving default values at the beginning of the design, and determining a default rule to change them when the escape is unsuccessful. The latter was solved by assuming a ‘saddle path’ as the best route to escape. An exact solution for the former was not found, but a hint for finding a second best solution is shown based on the statistical study of local minima.

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A new method is proposed for reconstructing wavefront from discretely sampled interferogram data obtained by a digital lateral shearing interferometer. Assumptions applied in the conventional methods are not used and reconstruction error caused by the difference between the amount of shear and the sampling interval can be removed. System error and the influence of the discrete sampling, which limit accuracy of the tested results of the lateral shearing interferometer, are analyzed.

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There were two purposes in the present study. The first was to find quantitative relationships in chromatic inductions between the inducing colors and the chromatic shifts produced in a test field based on the responses of photoreceptors and opponent color channels. The second was to investigate the spatial integration of chromatic inductions. Using a nulling method with a haploscopic view, magnitudes of chromatic inductions were measured with multicolored surrounding fields. The effects of chromatic inductions on achromatic locus could then be represented by power functions of opponent chromatic responses of the surrounding colors. In regard to spatial integration, we concluded that when a white test field was surrounded by a multicolored field, the apparent color shifts in the test field could be explained by the sum of the induction effects produced individually by the surrounding colors.

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