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Nanoantennas have been fabricated by scaling down traditional antenna designs using nanolithographic techniques and testing them at different optical wavelengths, these particular nanoantennas have shown responses in a broad range of frequencies going from visible wavelengths to the range of the terahertz. Some self-assembled nanostructures exist that exhibit similar shapes and properties to those of traditional antenna structures. In this work the emission and absorption properties of self-assembled nanostructures made of zinc oxide nanorods on silver nanowires, which resemble traditional dipole antennas, were measured and simulated in order to test their antenna performance. These structures show resonant properties in the 10-120 THz range, with the main resonance at 60 THz. The radiation pattern of these nanostructures was also obtained by numerical simulations, and it is shown that it can be tailored to increase or decrease its directivity as a function of the location of the energy source of excitation. Experimental measurements were performed by Raman spectroscopy and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) in order to show existing vibrational frequencies at the resonant frequencies of the nanostructures, measurements were made from ~9 to 103 THz and the results were in agreement with the simulations. These characteristics make these metal-semiconductor Ag/ZnO nanostructures useful as self-assembled nanoantennas in applications such as terahertz spectroscopy and sensing at terahertz frequencies.

An out-of-plane digital holographic interferometry system is used to detect and measure insect's wing micro deformations. The in-vivo phenomenon of the flapping is registered using a high power cw laser and a high speed camera. A series of digital holograms with the deformation encoded are obtained. Full field deformation maps are presented for an eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly (Pterourus multicaudata). Results show no uniform or symmetrical deformations between wings. These deformations are in the order of hundreds of nanometers over the entire surface. Out-of-plane deformation maps are presented using the unwrapped phase maps.

The combination of a high-speed TV holography system and a 3D Fourier-transform data processing is proposed for the analysis of multimode vibrations in plates. The out-of-plane displacement of the object under generic vibrational excitation is resolved in time by the fast acquisition rate of a high-speed camera, and recorded in a sequence of interferograms with spatial carrier. A full-field temporal history of the multimode vibration is thus obtained. The optical phase of the interferograms is extracted and subtracted from the phase of a reference state to yield a sequence of optical phase-change maps. Each map represents the change undergone by the object between any given state and the reference state. The sequence of maps is a 3D array of data (two spatial dimensions plus time) that is processed with a 3D Fourier-transform algorithm. The individual vibration modes are separated in the 3D frequency space due to their different vibration frequencies and, to a lesser extent, to the different spatial frequencies of the mode shapes. The contribution of each individual mode (or indeed the superposition of several modes) to the dynamic behaviour of the object can then be separated by means of a bandpass filter (or filters). The final output is a sequence of complex-valued maps that contain the full-field temporal history of the selected mode (or modes) in terms of its mechanical amplitude and phase. The proof-of-principle of the technique is demonstrated with a rectangular, fully clamped, thin metal plate vibrating simultaneously in several of its natural resonant frequencies under white-noise excitation.

It is reported for the first time the use of a very high speed camera in digital holographic interferometry with an out of plane sensitivity setup. The image plane holograms of a spherical latex balloon illuminated by a cw laser were acquired at a rate of 4000 frames per second, representing a time spacing between holograms of 250 microseconds, for 512 x 512 pixels at 8 bits resolution. Two types of tests were accomplished for a proof of principle of the technique, one with no constrains on the object which meant random movements due to non controlled environmental air currents, and the other with specific controlled conditions on the object. Results presented correspond to a random sample of sequential digital holograms, chosen from a 1 second exposure, individually Fourier processed in order to perform the usual comparison by subtraction between consecutive pairs thus obtaining the phase map of the object out of plane displacement, shown as a movie.

A rigid endoscope and three different object illumination source positions are used in pulsed digital holography to measure the three orthogonal displacement components from hidden areas of a harmonically vibrating metallic cylinder. In order to obtain simultaneous 3D information from the optical set up, it is necessary to match the optical paths of each of the reference object beam pairs, but to incoherently mismatch the three reference object beam pairs, such that three pulsed digital holograms are incoherently recorded within a single frame of the CCD sensor. The phase difference is obtained using the Fourier method and by subtracting two digital holograms captured for two different object positions.

An out of plane optical sensitive configuration for pulsed digital holography was used to detect biological tissue inside solid organic materials like gels. A loud speaker and a shaker were employed to produce a mechanical wave that propagates through the gel in such a way that it generates vibrational resonant modes and transient events on the gel surface. Gel surface micro displacements were observed between the firing of two laser pulses, both for a steady resonant mode and for different times during the transient event. The biological tissue sample inserted approximately 2 cm inside the gel diffracts the original mechanical wave and changes the resonant mode pattern or the transient wave on the gel surface. This fact is used to quantitatively measure the gel surface micro displacement. Comparison of phase unwrapped patterns, with and without tissue inside the gel, allows the rapid identification of the existence of tissue inside the gel. The results for the resonant and transient conditions show that the method may be reliably used to study, compare and distinguish data from inside homogeneous and in-homogeneous solid organic materials.

The Ronchi test with a LCD amplitude sinusoidal grating is used for testing nominally flat surfaces. We prove that it is possible to measure flat surfaces without using a reference element by modifying the common optical Ronchi set up. The Ronchi rulings are computer generated and displayed on the LCD. By displaying various phase-shifted rulings and capturing the corresponding images, the phase is obtained with the conventional phase-shifting algorithms. Theoretical and experimental results are shown.