Aiming at the realization of optical CT (computed tomography), the extraction of quasi-straightforward-propagating photons from optical pulses transmitting through a standard scattering medium of Intralipid-10% aqueous solution has been demonstrated by an up-conversion method (second harmonic generation). We have found that this operates as a coherent light detection method rather than a time-gate one and extends the dynamic range where the Lambert-Beer's law holds to ~86 dB. We have also proposed improvements to obtain the largest possible dynamic range by such an up-conversion technique.

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A walk-off compensation arrangement of two β-BaB₂O₄ (BBO) crystals is used to generate 266-nm (4ω) light from 532-nm (2ω) light that is produced by an intracavity frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser. While this arrangement is effective in terms of conversion efficiency, back conversion from 4ω to 2ω can easily occur in the second BBO when the phase difference between the 2ω and 4ω in the air gap between the two crystals shifts to π. Performance characteristics are discussed here with particular reference to the angular bandwidth of the second BBO.

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A fringe locking phenomenon in a two beam interferometer using a semiconductor laser subject to optical feedback was, whose injection current is modulated. When a path difference of the interferometer is sufficient, fringes taken by a charge coupled device camera are seen to be stationary and the rms fluctuations of fringe phase is reduced to as low as 0.2π radians from more than 8π radians without the optical feedback. The rms phase fluctuation is independent of frequency and amplitude of the current modulation. The fringe locking has also been observed in the presence of both injection current modulation and piezoelectric transducer mirror vibration.

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The properties of light transmission and interference phenomena in high dense media are investigated by means of numerical simulations in terms of nonlinear optical effect. Large intensity fluctuations are observed for nonlinear absorbing media, and do not agree with the fact that a decrease in absorption efficiency results in smaller intensity fluctuations for linear absorption media. From a variation in the speckle contrast it is found that the high-order path-crossing contributes to such intensity fluctuations. Moreover, the probability density of the total transmission changes from Gaussian statistics to log-normal ones for the small total transmission and to negative exponential ones for the large transmission, both of which appear in the strong localization regime. This indicates that the localization of optical waves might be controlled by the nonlinearity of the media.

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Parallel architectures and algorithms may offer a solution to the system bottleneck arising from the need to encrypt a very large amount of data without compromising security. In this respect the use of cellular automata with their parallel, simple, regular and modular structure is very promising. We extend the block-cipher algorithm, based on the iterations of so called “toggle” cellular automata rules to two dimensions. The advantages are higher complexity of the crypt-analytical attacks and substantial increase in the speed of the algorithm. Due to its massive parallelism and interconnectivity, the algorithm is very suitable for opto-electronic implementation.

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The rainbow hologram is very practical to display 3-D images because it can be reconstructed with white light. We propose a simplified model to calculate the computer generated rainbow hologram quickly. In the proposed method, we can simply generate the final hologram from intermediate data, whose total number of samples can be less than one tenth of the final hologram. This intermediate format makes fast computation and effective storage/transmission possible. Only multiple and additional operation need be used to convert the intermediate data to final data. Therefore, it is possible that hardware can be added to an electro-holographic display or printer. In this paper, we discuss both theory of the simplified model and experimental results of white light reconstructed images. Full color holograms are also discussed.

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The Fresnel lens is one of the most extensively studied components in both classical and integrated optics. This structure is free from axial spherical aberration, but is heavily affected by both off-axis and chromatic aberrations. The latter can be compensated by introducing a refractive component, whose chromatic behavior is the opposite of that of the diffractive lens. This hybrid refractive-diffractive structure, however, is not able to deal effectively with off-axis aberrations, namely, with coma. In this work, a novel methodology for the design of corrected hybrid lenses is proposed which allows for correction of both chromatism and coma. The design method is based on a ray-optics variational approach which provides a range of possible achromatic solutions. An optimization procedure is performed by means of a series of beam propagation method numerical calculations which make it possible to simulate the lens operation and thus to find the best solution.

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This paper describes a method of analyzing spectral behavior that allows transmission echelon grating filters to be designed for use in constructing photonic networks. These networks include dense wavelength division multiplexing systems and other such applications. First, the configuration and principle of this filter are described. Then, the transmittance spectrum of the transmission echelon grating filter is considered for incident lights with rectangular, Gaussian, and sinc electric field distributions. Next, a more realistic spectral response is considered by taking reasonable fabrication errors into account. Finally, the group delay and the transmittance of linearly chirped echelon grating filters are analyzed to access their potential for use as a wavelength dispersion equalizer. These analytical results make it possible to design practical echelon grating filters.

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The aberration properties of liquid crystal (LC) microlenses with various diameters, thicknesses and shapes (circles or ellipses) are evaluated by analyzing fringe patterns generated by interference between ordinary and extraordinary rays. It is found that the astigmatism and the spherical aberration can be minimized by adjusting the ellipticity of the hole pattern and the applied voltage, respectively. Based on the experimental results, we propose a design scheme for minimizing the spherical aberration and astigmatism. It is confirmed that the LC microlens obtained by the proposed design scheme shows a good focusing spot whose value of full width half maximum is close to that of the diffraction limit.

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A new method to investigate fast frequency modulation of a laser diode by applying optical pulse irradiation is presented. The self-delayed heterodyne technique and an autocorrelation method are used to detect beat in the heterodyne signal due to frequency shift by the irradiation. Autocorrelation of the beat signal is suggested to be calculated via its spectrum.

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Assembly of a sub-10-fs Ti:sapphire oscillator using only optical components commercially available in catalogues is reported. It was demonstrated that stable sub-10-fs optical pulses near 800 nm can be generated from a Kerr-lens mode locked oscillator equipped with a pair of prisms to compensate group delay dispersions (GDD) in the cavity. For the GDD control in a 10fs-pulse oscillator it was concluded that chirped mirrors are not always necessary, and a pair of prisms is still available.

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Cascaded optical rectification and the consequent linear electro-optic effect have been investigated theoretically. Nonlinear phase shift of the fundamental beam caused by the cascading process was found to be proportional to the input intensity and the propagation length as in the Kerr effect. It is notable that the depletion of the fundamental optical pulse energy is negligible even for large nonlinear phase shifts.

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Laser-induced fluorescence imaging lidar was developed for in vivo plant/vegetation monitoring. Fluorescences of poplar tree leaves growing naturally at a distance of 60 m from the lidar were successfully detected as two spectral images at wavelengths of 685 nm and 740 nm. By comparing chlorophyll concentration quantified with high performance liquid chromatography, it was confirmed that the intensity ratio of the two wavelengths was converted into the chlorophyll concentration inside the leaves. The intensity ratio of the images reflected the status of the poplar tree in the process of senescence so well that it was possible to assess the living status of the tree as a numerical value. The performance characteristics and the potential of the laser-induced fluorescence imaging lidar for monitoring the physiological activities of plants and vegetation are described.

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The nonlinear of the frequency modulation in linear frequency modulation (LFM) lidar seriously affects the accuracy of range and velocity. We describe the influence of nonlinear of the frequency modulation on the accuracy. The frequency-domain analysis of heterodyne signal is used to deduce the linearity requirement for LFM lidar.

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