Linear propagation of two pulses through methanol solution of aluminum phthalocyanine chloride is investigated using a modified white-light Michelson interferometer. The observed coherence time of the white light is 6 fs, and the separation between the two-excitation pulses is set to about 10 fs. The excitation is dependent on the phase-relation between the two pulses. We have observed an enhancement of the excitation when the two pulses are in-phase and strong suppression of the excitation when the two pulses are out of phase by π.

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We developed a simple method of continuous wavelength sweep using a commercial laser diode (LD) without antireflection (AR) coating. A 630 nm AlGaInP LD was installed in a Littrow-type external cavity. In this cavity, the LD has the same effect as an etalon, and its free spectral range can be controlled easily by the LD drive current. By scanning the grating angle of the external cavity and LD drive current simultaneously, we obtained single-mode oscillation and continuous wavelength sweep of over 22 GHz without mode hopping. This technique is simple and inexpensive because it does not need AR coating on its output facet, and does not use a servo system which requires apparatuses such as a lock-in amplifier and local oscillator.

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Phase retrieval, and thereby retrieval of optical constants, from magnetoreflectance data is performed using the maximum entropy model for spectra analysis. The applicability of the analysis is tested by using the Lorentz model for the permittivity of a nonmagnetic insulator in a case of Faraday configuration.

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SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) images can visualize physiological functions directly and are diagnostically useful. The reconstruction methods based on the Continuous-Discrete (C-D) mapping model have an immediate effect on SPECT imaging because they employ photon detection kernels describing the photon transport from the body to the detector. However, in a spatially varying focal length geometry, the concentration of the sensitivity around the center of rotation of the detector causes a change in the response from the original image to the reconstructed image. As a result, a false hot spot often appears around the center of rotation. This paper presents a convenient method to repress the change by correcting the resolving kernels. Numerical simulations show that the method can reduce the false hot spots.

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The stability enhancement of laser output power for the change of external cavity position in semiconductor lasers with optical feedback is observed by experiment. The relaxation oscillation frequency which plays an important role in the dynamics of the nonlinear system is also investigated as a function of the external cavity length. The period of the stability enhancement along the position of the external cavity is exactly coincident with the length corresponding to the relaxation oscillation frequency of the solitary laser. The experimental results are compared with theoretical and excellent coincidence between the two is found.

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A new concept for improving the laser intensity distribution on an inertial confinement fusion target using a phase-controlled multi lens array has been proposed. Circular and hexagonal element lens apertures have been examined, and the circular aperture which eliminated azimuthally asymmetric intensity distribution was chosen. The diffraction fringe of the elementary lens was mitigated in a one-dimensional lens array using edge-shaped plates of a super-Gaussian phase profile. Uniform beam profiles were obtained using a one-dimensional array with 7 spherical lenses and a two-dimensional array with 37 lenses. An approximately flat-top intensity distribution was realized with the lens array with 37 lenses.

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In blazed diffractive optics produced by the diamond turning process, the finite size of the tool causes a decrease in diffraction efficiency. To analyze the influence of the tool, we evaluate first-order diffraction efficiency of periodic gratings based on the electromagnetic theory. The design indices of the diffractive optics for higher efficiency are shown. Even with the same power of diffractive optics, the efficiency differs with the front or back side of the surface. The efficiency of a diffractive-refractive hybrid lens depends on the curvature of the refractive surface.

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We have developed an analytic treatment of light emission properties of electric and magnetic multipoles near a planar dielectric surface, using angular spectrum representation of vector spherical waves. The results are described in terms of spatial rotation matrix elements, so that the angular distribution of light emission for higher order multipoles is easily obtained, which enables us to evaluate basic optical near-field problems such as electric dipole radiation with arbitrary orientation with respect both to surface and observation direction. The numerical results are in good agreement with our previous experimental results and the numerical results reported by Lukosz.

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The shear force between a glass probe and a mica surface has been investigated as a function of the relative humidity, H, and the lateral spring constant of the probe, K. It was found that the interaction length D₀ decreases with increasing H and exhibits a sharp drop around H= 40%. With increase in K from 5 to 40 N/m, D₀ gradually increases, although this feature was absent when a probe with a softer tip-end was used. The latter result indicates that the shear force in an atmospheric condition is not a remote force but results from some contact between the tip and the surface. Our results that D₀ is independent of the oscillating amplitude and that the resonance curve of the probe is almost symmetric except in close vicinity to the surface are not in accord with the force model proposed recently, i.e., the knocking mechanism. It is proposed that the probe can vibrate even if the probe touches the surface, and that the resonance frequency increases steeply as the contact tightens. Theoretical estimation of the contribution of noncontact forces is also described.

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We propose a new detection method for a pseudo-random frequency modulation continuous wave (RM-CW) coherent lidar. The feature of this method is modulation of local beam with a time delayed pseudo-random sequence. Heterodyne detection and correlation detection between the received beam and the local beam are simultaneously carried out in an optical field. In the RM-CW coherent lidar using the optical field correlation detection method, the received equipment is greatly simplified. We carried out preliminary experiments and demonstrated that the new method is effective for detection of a CW coherent lidar.

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According to the concept of the recognized visual space of illumination (RVSI) the lightness of an object surface is perceived in relation to its conceptualized size. To prove this proposition the lightness of gray test patches was judged when they were located at various positions inside an illuminated space composed of two rooms in the depth direction from a subject. No retinal image arrangement was changed in the test patch and its immediate surroundings, but the front room had walls, floors and furniture lower in lightness by the amount of N1.5 than the back room to make the RVSI of the former smaller despite the illuminance in the entire space being the same. The results showed that the apparent lightness of the patches was perceived higher by amount of about 13 in L^* units for the N4 test patch and about 20 for N6 when the patches were located in the front room, in accordance with the prediction. It was stressed that the experiment of lightness judgment should be conducted in a three dimensional space rather than two dimensional plane as done by several investigators.

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Colorimetric calibration of color imaging devices is important to realize device independent color reproductions. However the calibration for digital or video cameras is difficult because a color image is acquired for unknown objects under various unknown illuminants. An experiment was carried out based on two computational color constancy models, the finite-dimensional linear model and the spectral sharpening model, to estimate colorimetric values using image data of a color chart captured by video camera. We estimated the colorimetric values by using a single reference reflectance with known spectral reflectance in a color chart under an unknown illuminant. The accuracy was evaluated by color differences in CIELAB color space and was compared on three different color charts under three different illuminants including a fluorescent lamp. It was confirmed that the two computational models do not require prior knowledge of illuminants and surfaces. The finite-dimensional linear model gave more accurate results than the spectral sharpening model in the simulations and experiments.

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