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A new configuration for near-field ptychography using a full-field illumination with a structured electron beam is proposed. A structured electron beam illuminating the entire field of view is scanned over the specimen, and a series of in-line holograms formed in the near-field region below the specimen are collected. The structured beam is generated by a conductive film with random openings, which ensures high stability and coherence of the beam. Observation in the near-field region reduces the beam concentration that occurs in the far-field region, which contributes to accurate recording of the beam intensity with a finite dynamic range of the detectors. The use of full-field illumination prevents the accumulation of errors caused by concatenating the local structures, which is the method used in conventional reconstruction. Since all holograms are obtained from the entire field of view, they have uniform multiplicity in terms of specimen information within the field of view. This contributes to robust and efficient reconstruction for a large field of view. The proposed method was tested using both simulated and experimental holograms. For the simulated holograms, the reconstruction of the specimen transmission function was achieved with an error less than 1/3485 of the wavelength. The method was further validated using experimental holograms obtained from MgO particles. The reconstructed phase transmission function of the specimen was consistent with the specimen structure and was equivalent to a mean inner potential of V on the MgO particle, which is in close agreement with previously reported values., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Japanese Society of Microscopy.)

For the time and frequency signals of Beidou satellites, a high-accuracy phase frequency detection technology based on phase group synchronization is proposed. Using the Beidou receiver and satellite signals as the frequency standard and the measured signals, respectively. The Beidou receiver and the satellite signals are sent to the phase coincidence detector of the different frequencies to generate a phase coincidence point pulse, which is sent to the different frequency phase detector as a control signal to generate the phase differences between the Beidou receiver and satellite signals, and then complete the high-accuracy phase synchronization between the Beidou receiver and satellite signals. Experimental results show that when the delay resolution reaches ps level, the phase synchronization accuracy of the system can reach 10 ps, which has the characteristics of small phase noise, low development cost, simple circuit structure, and high synchronization accuracy compared with the traditional phase synchronization technologies. Therefore, it would be widely used in satellite positioning, astrometry, precision navigation, aerospace, satellite launch, power transmission, communications, radar, and other high-tech fields.

Ellipsometric Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) sensors are known for their relatively simple optical configuration compared to interferometric and optical heterodyne phase interrogation techniques. However, most of the previously explored ellipsometric SPR sensors based on intensity measurements are limited by their real-time applications because phase or polarization shifts are conducted serially. Here we present an ellipsometric SPR sensor based on a Kretschmann-Raether (KR) diverging beam configuration and a pixelated microgrid polarization camera. The proposed methodology has the advantage of real-time and higher precision sensing applications. The short-term stability of the measurement using the ellipsometric parameters tanψ and cos(Δ) is found to be superior over direct SPR or intensity measurements, particularly with fluctuating sources such as laser diodes. Refractive index and dynamic change measurements in real-time are presented together with Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA)-anti-BSA antibody binding to demonstrate the potential of the developed sensor for biological sensing applications with a resolution of sub-nM and down to pM with additional optimization. The analysis shows that this approach may provide the ultimate detection limit for SPR sensors.

In this paper, we detail a phase-shift implementation in a rotated plane-parallel plate (PPP). Considering the phase-shifting digital holography application, we provide a more precise phase-shift estimation based on PPP thickness, rotation, and mutual inclination of reference and object wavefronts. We show that phase retardation uncertainty implemented by the rotated PPP in a simple configuration is less than the uncertainty of a traditionally used piezoelectric translator. Physical experiments on a phase test target verify the high quality of phase reconstruction.

A low-cost polyethylene terephthalate fluidic sensor (PET-FS) is demonstrated for the concentration variation measurement on fluidic solutions. The PET-FS consisted of a triangular fluidic container attached with a birefringent PET thin layer. The PET-FS was injected with the test liquid solution that was placed in a common path polarization interferometer by utilizing a heterodyne scheme. The measured phase variation of probe light was used to obtain the information regarding the concentration change in the fluidic liquids. The sensor was experimentally tested using different concentrations of sodium chloride solution showing a sensitivity of 3.52 ×10 4 deg./refractive index unit (RIU) and a detection resolution of 6.25 × 10 -6 RIU. The estimated sensitivity and detection resolutions were 5.62 × 10 4 (deg./RIU) and 6.94 × 10 -6 RIU, respectively, for the hydrochloric acid. The relationship between the measured phase and the concentration is linear with an R-squared value reaching above 0.995.

Significance: By incorporating multiple overlapping functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) measurements, high-density diffuse optical tomography (HD-DOT) images human brain function with fidelity comparable to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Previous work has shown that frequency domain high-density diffuse optical tomography (FD-HD-DOT) may further improve image quality over more traditional continuous wave (CW) HD-DOT. Aim : The effects of modulation frequency on image quality as obtainable with FD-HD-DOT is investigated through simulations with a realistic noise model of functional activations in human head models, arising from 11 source modulation frequencies between CW and 1000 MHz. Approach : Simulations were performed using five representative head models with an HD regular grid of 158 light sources and 166 detectors and an empirically derived noise model. Functional reconstructions were quantitatively assessed with multiple image quality metrics including the localization error (LE), success rate, full width at half maximum, and full volume at half maximum (FVHM). All metrics were evaluated against CW-based models. Results : Compared to CW, localization accuracy is improved by >40% throughout brain depths of 13 to 25 mm below the surface with 300 to 500 MHz modulation frequencies. Additionally, the reliable field of view in brain tissue is enlarged by 35% to 48% within an optimal frequency of 300 MHz after considering realistic noise, depending on the dynamic range of the system. Conclusions : These results point to the tremendous opportunities in further development of high bandwidth FD-HD-DOT system hardware for applications in human brain mapping., (© 2021 The Authors.)

Ultrasonic systems driven by multi-frequency continuous waves (MFCW) have been used for range distance measurement, offering high accuracy in long and medium range distance estimation. However, the use of continuous waves in very short-distance measurements causes large errors due to multipath reflections. This paper presents a new strategy to estimate very short relative distances with high accuracy based on the use of multi-frequency pulsed waves (MFPW). The proposed strategy allows to avoid the multipath reflections that appear when continuous waves are used, and it improves the achieved accuracy compared to the original MFCW method. To validate it, an 80 µm square AlScN piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (PMUT) was chosen as a transmitter while a hydrophone was utilized as a target and receiver, immersed in fluorinert (FC-70) as a propagation medium. Three independent and consecutive tone-burst signals were transmitted successively. The selected frequencies are f1 = 2.3962 MHz, f2 = 2.327 MHz and f3 = 2.1195 MHz, giving first and second-order resolutions of 6.88 and 0.79 µm/°, respectively. Experimental results show a ±6.2 μm measured range error in a range of 3.5 mm, and therefore it represents a good candidate for ultrasound micro-profilometer applications under liquid operation.

A novel non-uniform Kramers-Kronig Transform algorithm for bioimpedance phase extraction is proposed and tested in this work. The algorithm error is studied and compared with a previously proposed phase extraction technique, also based on the Kramers-Kronig transform. Results using simulated datasets and experimental datasets confirm the excellent performance of the algorithm.

Monitoring respiratory movements is an effective way to improve radiotherapy treatments of thoracic and abdominal tumors, but the current approach is limited to measuring specific points in the chest and abdomen. In this paper, a dynamic three-dimensional (3D) measurement approach of the human chest and abdomen surface is proposed, which can infer tumor movement more accurately, so the radiotherapy damage to the human body can be reduced. Firstly, color stripe patterns in the RGB color model are projected, then after color correction, the collected stripe image sequences are separated into the three RGB primary color stripe image sequences. Secondly, a fringe projection approach is used to extract the folded phase combined 3D Fourier transform with 3D Gaussian filtering. By the relationship between adjacent fringe images in the time sequence, Gaussian filter parameters with individual characteristics are designed and optimized to improve the accuracy of wrapped phase extraction. In addition, based on the difference between the fractional parts of the folded phase error, one remainder equation can be determined, which is used for time-phase unwrapping. The simulation model and human experiments show that the proposed approach can obtain the 3D image sequences of the chest and abdomen surface in respiratory motion effectively and accurately with strong anti-interference ability., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Shearography has been widely used in non-destructive testing due to its advantages in providing full-field, high precision, real-time measurement. The study presents a pixelated carrier phase-shifting shearography using a pixelated micropolarizer array. Based on the shearography, a series of shearograms are captured and phase maps corresponding to deformation are measured dynamically and continuously. Using the proposed spatiotemporal filtering algorithm in the complex domain, the set of phase maps are simultaneously low-pass filtered in the spatial and temporal domains, resulting in better phase quality than spatial low-pass filtering. By accumulating the temporally adjacent phase, the phase corresponding to large deformation can be evaluated; thus, large deformations can be accurately measured and protected from speckle noise, allowing internal defects to be easily identified. The capability of the proposed shearography is described by theoretical discussions and experiments.

Quantitative phase imaging (QPI) is an emerging modality, which enables the identification of abnormalities in tissue based on optical properties. QPI can be applied to any biological specimen due to its label-free imaging capability, but its use in stained tissue is unclear. Here, we study the variability of QPI with the staining dye. Several tissues such as brain, heart and lung were stained with hematoxylin and eosin, and their optical properties compared at 550 and 730 nm. Our results showed that phase and scattering coefficients varied when QPI was used at the absorption wavelength of the staining dye. We also found that the variation of optical properties was dependent on tissue morphology., (© 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

A phase-sensitive weak measurement biosensor was proposed for the detection of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), one common category of tumor markers. The total internal reflection (TIR) at the interface of the prism without precious metal coating was exploited to introduce the phase delay between horizontal and vertical polarizations, which can be determined through the central wavelength shift of output spectra for the sensing of the refractive index of the sample. In the weak measurement analysis, the specific binding reaction of tumor markers with a refractive index change on the surface of the prism can be monitored in real time through the central wavelength shift. With the specific absorption measurement, the feasibility of this weak measurement-based biosensor was experimentally demonstrated. We provide a low cost and convenient approach for tumor marker detection., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

A new coded splitting imaging technique is proposed to reconstruct the complex amplitude of a light field iteratively using a single-shot measurement. In this technique, a specially designed coded splitting plate is adopted to diffract the illuminating beam into multiple beams of different orders and code their wavefronts independently and differently. From the diffraction pattern array recorded on the detector plane, both the modulus and phase distributions of the illuminating beam can be reconstructed iteratively using known transmission functions of different orders of the coded splitting plate. The feasibility of the proposed technique is verified both numerically and experimentally., (© 2017 The Authors Journal of Microscopy © 2017 Royal Microscopical Society.)

The recently developed direct phase measuring deflectometry (DPMD) method can directly measure the three-dimensional (3D) shape of specular objects with discontinuous surfaces, but requires a calibrated distance between a reference plane and liquid crystal display screen. Because the plane and screen are different distances from the imaging device, they cannot be clearly captured given the limited depth of field (DOF) of the lens. Therefore, existing machine vision-based methods cannot be used to effectively calibrate a DPMD system. In this paper, a new distance calibration method that uses a mirror with a hollow ring matrix pattern and a mobile stage is presented. The direction of the mobile stage in the camera coordinate system is determined by the mirror's pattern at several positions in the camera's DOF so that the reference position outside of the DOF can be calculated. The screen's position can also be calibrated by displaying patterns at a known scale. Therefore, the required distance is accurately obtained in the camera coordinate system. Evaluation results show that the maximum value of the absolute error is less than 0.031 mm. The experimental results on an artificial stepped mirror and a reflected diamond distribution surface demonstrate the accuracy and practicality of the proposed method., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

We have used the Josephson arbitrary waveform synthesizer (JAWS) to provide traceability for the phase of the harmonics, relative to their fundamental frequency, of a distorted waveform. For distorted waveforms with rms values from 0.154 to 0.2 V and harmonic magnitudes from 5% to 40% of the fundamental, our system can generate odd harmonics up to the 39th with best phase uncertainties from 0.001° to 0.010° ( k = 2.0), depending on the harmonic number and harmonic magnitude. We anticipate that the ability of the JAWS to generate distorted waveforms with the lowest possible uncertainty in the magnitude, and phase spectra will make it a unique tool for low-frequency spectrum analysis.

Camera distortion is a critical factor affecting the accuracy of camera calibration. A conventional calibration approach cannot satisfy the requirement of a measurement system demanding high calibration accuracy due to the inaccurate distortion compensation. This paper presents a novel camera calibration method with an iterative distortion compensation algorithm. The initial parameters of the camera are calibrated by full-field camera pixels and the corresponding points on a phase target. An iterative algorithm is proposed to compensate for the distortion. A 2D fitting and interpolation method is also developed to enhance the accuracy of the phase target. Compared to the conventional calibration method, the proposed method does not rely on a distortion mathematical model, and is stable and effective in terms of complex distortion conditions. Both the simulation work and experimental results show that the proposed calibration method is more than 100% more accurate than the conventional calibration method., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest. The founding sponsors had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, and in the decision to publish the results.

A wide range of measuring applications rely on phase estimation on sinusoidal signals. These systems, where the estimation is mainly implemented in the digital domain, can generally benefit from the use of undersampling to reduce the digitizer and subsequent digital processing requirements. This may be crucial when the application characteristics necessarily imply a simple and inexpensive sensor. However, practical limitations related to the phase stability of the band-pass filter prior digitization establish restrictions to the reduction of noise bandwidth. Due to this, the undersampling intensity is practically defined by noise aliasing, taking into account the amount of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) reduction caused by it considering the application accuracy requirements. This work analyzes the relationship between undersampling frequency and SNR reduction, conditioned by the stability requirements of the filter that defines the noise bandwidth before digitization. The effect of undersampling is quantified in a practical situation where phase differences are measured by in-phase and quadrature (I/Q) demodulation for an infrared ranging application., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

A new method of phase-shifting digital holography is demonstrated in the hard X-ray region. An in-line-type phase-shifting holography setup was installed in a 6.80 keV hard X-ray synchrotron beamline. By placing a phase plate consisting of a hole and a band at the focusing point of a Fresnel lens, the relative phase of the reference and objective beams could be successfully shifted for use with a three-step phase-shift algorithm. The system was verified by measuring the shape of a gold test pattern and a silica sphere.

The refractive index (RI) distribution can serve as a natural label for undyed cell imaging. However, the majority of images obtained through quantitative phase microscopy is integrated along the illumination angle and cannot reflect additional information about the refractive map on a certain plane. Herein, a light-field reconstruction method to image the RI map within a depth of 0.2 μm is proposed. It records quantitative phase-delay images using a four-step phase shifting method in different directions and then reconstructs a similar scattered light field for the refractive sample on the focus plane. It can image the RI of samples, transparent cell samples in particular, in a manner similar to the observation of scattering characteristics. The light-field reconstruction method is therefore a powerful tool for use in cytobiology studies., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

We report a functional optical coherence tomography cross-sectional scanner to detect neural activity using unmyelinated nerves dissected from squid. The nerves, unstained or stained with a voltage-sensitive dye, were imaged in a nerve chamber. Transient phase changes from backscattered light were detected during action potential propagation. The results show that the scanner can provide high spatiotemporal resolution cross-sectional images of neural activity ([Formula: see text]; [Formula: see text]; [Formula: see text] in [Formula: see text]). The advantage of this method compared to monitoring a single depth profile [Formula: see text] is a dramatic increase in the number of available sites that can be measured in two spatial dimensions [Formula: see text] with lateral scanning; therefore, the study demonstrates that two-dimensional monitoring of small-scale functional activity would also be feasible.

A medium frequency (MF) communication system operating in an underground coal mine couples its signals to a long conductor, which acts as an MF transmission line (TL) in a tunnel to permit communications among transceivers along the line. The TL is generally the longest signal path for the system, and its propagation characteristics will have a major impact on the performance of the MF communication system. In this study, the propagation characteristics of three types of MF TLs in two layouts-on the roof and on the floor of a coal mine tunnel-were obtained in an effort to understand the propagation characteristics of different TLs in different locations. The study confirmed a low MF signal loss on all of these TLs. The study also found that the TLs in different layouts had substantially different propagation characteristics. The propagation characteristics of these different TLs in different layouts are presented in the paper.

A cyclic interferometer, appropriately combined with a long working distance microscope objective, is adapted for quantitative phase microscopy. In such an arrangement, the sample information, in terms of the diffracted orders emerging from the sample, is carried by both the counter propagating beams within the cyclic interferometer. However, positioning the sample close to the input/output cube beam splitter and use of a suitably converging laser beam of light as the input to the interferometer ensure that only one of the counter propagating beams carries the object information to the objective while the other beam, which serves as the reference, allows only the undiffracted component to contribute to the process of image formation. Use of suitable polarization optics renders the interferometer its polarization phase shifting property. Using the proposed arrangement, the experimental results showing the quantitative 3D phase rendering of polystyrene microspheres and micro-wells etched in glass are presented., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The measurement of small displacements on the nanometric scale demands metrological systems of high accuracy and precision. In this context, interferometer-based displacement measurements have become the main tools used for traceable dimensional metrology. The different industrial applications in which small displacement measurements are employed requires the use of online measurements, high speed processes, open architecture control systems, as well as good adaptability to specific process conditions. The main contribution of this work is the development of a smart sensor for large displacement measurement based on phase measurement which achieves high accuracy and resolution, designed to be used with a commercial heterodyne interferometer. The system is based on a low-cost Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) allowing the integration of several functions in a single portable device. This system is optimal for high speed applications where online measurement is needed and the reconfigurability feature allows the addition of different modules for error compensation, as might be required by a specific application.

The aim of this work was to position a Mobile Robot in an Intelligent Space, and this paper presents a sensorial system for measuring differential phase-shifts in a sinusoidally modulated infrared signal transmitted from the robot. Differential distances were obtained from these phase-shifts, and the position of the robot was estimated by hyperbolic trilateration. Due to the extremely severe trade-off between SNR, angle (coverage) and real-time response, a very accurate design and device selection was required to achieve good precision with wide coverage and acceptable robot speed. An I/Q demodulator was used to measure phases with one-stage synchronous demodulation to DC. A complete set of results from real measurements, both for distance and position estimations, is provided to demonstrate the validity of the system proposed, comparing it with other similar indoor positioning systems.