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© 2011 Elsevier Science B. V., We demonstrate a method to easily and quickly extend the dynamic range imaging capabilities of the camera in a typical interferometric approach. The camera dynamic range is usually low and limited to 256 gray levels. Also, it is well known that one may have over or under-exposed regions in the interferogram (due to non-uniform illumination) which makes these image regions not reliable. In our proposed method it is not necessary to obtain or use the non-linear camera response curve in order to extend the camera dynamic range. We obtain a sequence of differently exposed interferograms, typically five or six; after that, we compute the corresponding normalized fringe patterns and modulation maps using a typical normalization method. These normalized patterns are combined through a temporal weighted average using as weights the corresponding modulation maps. We show a set of experimental results that prove the effectiveness of the proposed method., Depto. de Óptica, Fac. de Ciencias Físicas, TRUE, pub

The field of autonomous motile micro/nanomotors that can propel in the liquid environment strongly benefits from the use of magnetic materials, winning in the long-time deterministic locomotion and controllability of such microscopic objects. This chapter reviews the applications of curved magnetic micro/nanostructures to be employed for biomedical and environmental applications. In this respect, after introducing the basic principle and examples of the self-propelled micro-objects, we further focus here on the locomotion of the magnetically decorated microscopic objects and the influence of their shape on the character and pattern of the motion. Namely, we consider the properties of magnetically capped spherical Janus particles, rod-like, tubular, and other asymmetric objects, e.g., microhelices, with magnetic functionalization. Finally, we describe the applications of such magnetic objects in environmental remediation, biosensing and drug delivery, etc.

We demonstrate a method to easily and quickly extend the dynamic range imaging capabilities of the camera in a typical interferometric approach. The camera dynamic range is usually low and limited to 256 gray levels. Also, it is well known that one may have over or under-exposed regions in the interferogram (due to non-uniform illumination) which makes these image regions not reliable. In our proposed method it is not necessary to obtain or use the non-linear camera response curve in order to extend the camera dynamic range. We obtain a sequence of differently exposed interferograms, typically five or six; after that, we compute the corresponding normalized fringe patterns and modulation maps using a typical normalization method. These normalized patterns are combined through a temporal weighted average using as weights the corresponding modulation maps. We show a set of experimental results that prove the effectiveness of the proposed method. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

This article depicts an integrated system capable of generating virtual stereo scenes, reconstructing a three-dimensional map of distances, and calculating the accuracy of the results obtained. This tool is particularly useful for verifying the validity of distance reconstruction techniques, and is robust enough to use in a wide variety of scenarios since it avoids the need for an image-capture system in laboratory simulations. The importance of the distance reconstruction problem lies in the range of its applications: industrial inspection and quality control, surveillance and security, autonomous vehicles, robotic systems, medical image analysis, image databases, virtual reality, telepresence, and telerobotics. The system is based on the VRML standard for three-dimensional geometric scene representation, on OpenGL for rendering virtual scenes, and on the TRW algorithm for the problem of three-dimensional reconstruction. © 2006 IEEE.

Using both high dynamic range (HDR) and normalization methodologies, we show a method to improve the fringe pattern contrast in interferometric measurements normally used for phase recovering. In a simulated interferogram that mimics the main effects that can be found in an interferometric process (stray-light, photon noise, electronic noise, scattering phenomena, etc.) it was possible to improve the contrast of the fringes and to decrease the root mean square error by more than 35%. The method proposed is applied to experimental interferograms to measure wavefront error and retardance changes on liquid crystal (LC) devices. It is done by using a Mach-Zehnder set-up in which we used different polarization areas. The proposed method increases the quality of the phase recovered and decreases the root mean square error by 50%. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We present a robust, dense, and accurate Shack-Hartmann spot dislocation map determination method based on a regularized optical flow algorithm that does not require obtaining the spot centroids. The method is capable to measure in presence of strong noise, background illumination and spot modulating signals, which are typical limiting factors of traditional centroid detection algorithms. Moreover, the proposed approach is able to face cases where some of the reference beam spots have not a corresponding one in the distorted Hartmann diagram, and it can expand the dynamic range of the Shack-Hartmann sensor unwrapping the obtained dense dislocation maps. We have tested the algorithm with both simulations and experimental data obtaining satisfactory results. A complete MATLAB package that can reproduce all the results can be downloaded from [http://goo.gl/XbZVOr]. © 2014 Optical Society of America.

The Multi Element Telescope for Imaging and Spectroscopy (METIS) is one of the remote sensing instruments to be onboard the future NASA/ESA Solar Orbiter mission. The science nominal mission orbit will take the spacecraft from 0.28 to 0.95 astronomical units from the Sun, setting challenging and variable thermal conditions to its payload. METIS is an inverted-occultation coronagraph that will image the solar corona in the visible and UV wavelength range. In the visible light path a Polarization Modulation Package (PMP) performs a polarimetric analysis of the incoming solar light. This PMP is based on liquid crystal variable retarders (LCVR) and works under a temporal modulation scheme. The LCVRs behavior has a dependence on temperature and, as a consequence, it is critical to guarantee the PMP performance in the mission thermal environment. Key system specifications are the optical quality and the optical retardance homogeneity. Moreover, the thermally induced elastic deformations of the mechanical mounts and the LCVRs shall not produce any performance degradation. A suitable thermal control is hence required to maintain the system within its allowed limits at any time. The PMP shall also be able to reach specific set-points with the power budget allocated. Consequently, and in order to verify the PMP thermal design, we have experimentally reproduced the expected thermal flight environment. Specifically, a thermal vacuum cycle test campaign is run at the different mission operational conditions. The purpose is both to check the stability of the thermal conditions and to study the optical quality evolution/degradation. Within this test transmitted wavefront measurements and functional verification tests have been carried out. To do that we adapted an optical interrogation scheme, based on a phase shifting interferometric technique, that allows for inspection of the PMP optical aperture. Finally, measurements obtained at nonoperational temperature conditions are also

Reliable inspection of large surfaces with low depth recovery error is needed in a wide variety of industrial applications, for example in deformation measurement or defect inspection of extended surfaces as communication antennas. Active triangulation measurement systems present a compromise between the depth recovery error and the measured area. For an optimized active three-dimensional measuring system the expected ratio between the depth resolution and the inspected area is in the rage of 10-4. Therefore, if we want to scan a large object with a high level of detail we need multiresolution techniques. In this work we demonstrate the application of an active triangulation multiresolution method for the inspection of communication antennas. The technique is based on a standard camera-projector system. The result is a global measurement formed by a set of superposed local measurement with high depth resolution. © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

We present a modification of numerical optimization coherent phase diversity in order to detect and correct undesired effects of non-linear and incomplete phase modulation of transmissive spatial light modulators for on-axis optical vortices. © OSA 2016.

We present a technique to determine the wavefront error and polarization changes introduced by a loaded optical material based on its optical, thermal and mechanical properties through an integrated optomechanical simulation process. © OSA 2016.

This paper explains two iterative phase recovery methods where the goal of each one is different. The Phase Diversity method is used to recover the wavefront aberrations in optical incoherent imaging systems when an extended object is illuminated. The purpose of the Multi-plane Phase Retrieval method is recovering the object complex field seen from the image plane, therefore the object has to be illuminated with coherent light. Both methods are simultaneously used to pick out the aberrations and free aberrations object phase. The use of both methods is proposed as a methodology for the integration of optical instruments.

We present an implementation based on polarization images acquisition for different focus planes in a microscope, allowing the volumetric segmentation of structured biological samples like onion cellular walls. © 2018 The Author (s)

High resolution spatial light modulators (SLM) have been used in many different ways during the last years. Regarding speckle interferometry, different applications can be realized by integrating SLMs in interferometric setup. In this work the influence of a liquid crystal based phase-only SLM on the measurement quality concerning deformation and shape measurement using two wavelengths is discussed. © 2012 Copyright SPIE.

A strong knowledge of the fatigue state of highly advanced carbon fiber reinforced polymer composite (CFRP) structures is essential to predict the residual life and optimize intervals of structural inspection, repairs, and/or replacements. Current techniques are based mostly on measurement of structural loads throughout the service life by electric strain gauge sensors. These sensors are affected by extreme environmental conditions and by fatigue loads in such a way that the sensors and their systems require exhaustive maintenance throughout system life. This work is focused on providing a new technique to evaluate the fatigue state of CFRP structures by means of evaluating the surface roughness variation due to fatigue damage. The surface roughness is a property that can be measured in the field by optical techniques such as speckle and could be a useful tool for structural health monitoring. The relation between surface roughness and fatigue life has been assessed on CFRP test specimens. A tensile fatigue load with an R=0.1 (T-T) and a maximum load of 60% of the material ultimate strength has been applied. The surface roughness of the specimens has been determined from the surface topography measured by a high precision confocal microscope. Results show that the surface roughness of the specimens increases with the accumulation of fatigue cycles in such a way that the roughness could be taken into account as a fatigue damage metrics for CFRP. © (2013) Trans Tech Publications.

We present a novel tomographic non-local-means based despeckling technique, TNode, for optical coherence tomography. TNode is built upon a weighting similarity criterion derived for speckle in a three-dimensional similarity window. We present an implementation using a two-dimensional search window, enabling the despeckling of volumes in the presence of motion artifacts, and an implementation using a three-dimensional window with improved performance in motion-free volumes. We show that our technique provides effective speckle reduction, comparable with B-scan compounding or out-of-plane averaging, while preserving isotropic resolution, even to the level of speckle-sized structures. We demonstrate its superior despeckling performance in a phantom data set, and in an ophthalmic data set we show that small, speckle-sized retinal vessels are clearly preserved in intensity images en-face and in two orthogonal, cross-sectional views. TNode does not rely on dictionaries or segmentation and therefore can readily be applied to arbitrary optical coherence tomography volumes. We show that despeckled esophageal volumes exhibit improved image quality and detail, even in the presence of significant motion artifacts. © 2018 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement.

Espectrógrafo Multi-objecto InfraRojo (EMIR), currently entering into its fabrication and AIV phase, will be one of the first common user instruments for the GTC, the 10 m telescope under construction by GRANTECAN at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (Canary Islands, Spain). EMIR is being built by a Consortium of Spanish and French institutes led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). EMIR is designed to realize one of the central goals of 10 m class telescopes, allowing observers to obtain spectra for large numbers of faint sources in an time-efficient manner. EMIR is primarily designed to be operated as a MOS in the K band, but offers a wide range of observing modes, including imaging and spectroscopy, both long slit and multiobject, in the wavelength range 0.9-2.5 µm. It is equipped with two innovative subsystems: a robotic reconfigurable multislits mask and dispersive elements formed by the combination of high quality diffraction grating and conventional prisms, both at the heart of the instrument. The present status of development, expected performances, schedule, and plans for scientific exploitation are described and discussed. The development and fabrication of EMIR is funded by GRANTECAN and the Plan Nacional de Astronomía y Astrofísica (National Plan for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Spain). © 2007 Springer.

Liquid-crystal variable retarders (LCVRs) are an emergent technology for space-based polarimeters, following its success as polarization modulators in ground-based polarimeters and ellipsometers. Wide-field double nematic LCVRs address the high angular sensitivity of nematic LCVRs at some voltage regimes. We present a work in which wide-field LCVRs were designed and built, which are suitable for wide-field-of-view instruments such as polarimetric coronagraphs. A detailed model of their angular acceptance was made, and we validated this technology for space environmental conditions, including a campaign studying the effects of gamma, proton irradiation, vibration and shock, thermo-vacuum and ultraviolet radiation. © 2011 Copyright Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).

EMIR, currently entering into its fabrication and AIV phase, will be one of the first common user instruments for the GTC, the 10 meter telescope under construction by GRANTECAN at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (Canary Islands, Spain). EMIR is being built by a Consortium of Spanish and French institutes led by the Institute de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC). EMIR is designed to realize one of the central goals of 10m class telescopes, allowing observers to obtain spectra for large numbers of faint sources in an time-efficient manner. EMIR is primarily designed to be operated as a MOS in the K band, but offers a wide range of observing modes, including imaging and spectroscopy, both long slit and multiobject, in the wavelength range 0.9 to 2. 5 µm. It is equipped with two innovative subsystems: a robotic reconfigurable multislit mask and disperssive elements formed by the combination of high quality difracction grating and conventional prisms, both at the heart of the instrument. The present status of development, expected performances, schedule and plans for scientific exploitation are described and discussed. The development and fabrication of EMIR is funded by GRANTECAN and the Plan Nacional de Astronomia y Astrofisica (National Plan for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Spain).

EMIR is the NIR multi-object imager and spectrograph for the GTC (Gran Telescopic Canarias). The instrument ADR (Advanced Design Review) was held successfully in March 2006. During the AD phase, a number of mechanical concepts were tested on development prototypes to ensure the feasibility of the PDR proposed designs. This presentation contains an overview of the current mechanical status of the instrument, as well as the prototypes development. It contains the prototype tests results of the collimator first lens barrel, the support trusses, the grisms wheel and the demonstration programme for the cryogenic reconfigurable slit mechanism.

Using the electronic speckle pattern interferometry (ESPI) technique in the in-plane arrangement, the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of a composite material that will be used in a passive focusing mechanism of an aerospace mission was measured. This measurement with ESPI was compared with another interferometric method (Differential Interferometer), whose principal characteristic is its high accuracy, but the measurement is only local. As a final step, the results have been used to provide feedback with the finite element analysis (FEA). Before the composite material measurements, a quality assessment of the technique was carried out measuring the CTE of Aluminum 6061-T6. Both techniques were compared with the datasheet delivered by the supplier. A review of the basic concepts was done, especially with regards to ESPI, and the considerations to predict the quality in the fringes formation were explained. Also, a review of the basic concepts for the mechanical calculation in composite materials was done. The CTE of the composite material found was 4.69X10-6 ± 3X10-6K-1. The most important advantage between ESPI and differential interferometry is that ESPI provides more information due to its intrinsic extended area, surface deformation reconstruction, in comparison with the strictly local measurement of differential interferometry. © 2010 Copyright SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering.

We describe the optical design of a linear in wavenumber spectrometer that combines a grating and a prism. OpticStudio software was used to validate the performance of the design. High lineartiy in k-space was achived. © 2018 The Author (s)

The use of Liquid Crystal Variable Retarders (LCVRs) as polarization modulators are envisaged as a promising novel technique for space instrumentation due to the inherent advantage of eliminating the need for conventional rotary polarizing optics hence the need of mechanisms. LCVRs is a mature technology for ground applications; they are wellknow, already used in polarimeters, and during the last ten years have undergone an important development, driven by the fast expansion of commercial Liquid Crystal Displays. In this work a brief review of the state of the art of imaging polarimeters based on LCVRs is presented. All of them are ground instruments, except the solar magnetograph IMaX which flew in 2009 onboard of a stratospheric balloon as part of the SUNRISE mission payload, since we have no knowledge about other spaceborne polarimeters using liquid crystal up to now. Also the main results of the activity, which was recently completed, with the objective to validate the LCVRs technology for the Solar Orbiter space mission are described. In the aforementioned mission, LCVRs will be utilized in the polarisation modulation package of the instruments SO/PHI (Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager for Solar Orbiter) and METIS/COR (Multi Element Telescope for Imaging and Spectroscopy, Coronagraph). © 2011 Copyright Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).

We present a Shack-Hartmann (SH) centroid detection algorithm capable to measure in presence of strong noise, background illumination and spot modulating signals, which are typical limiting factors of traditional centroid detection algorithms. The proposed method is based on performing a normalization of the SH pattern using the spiral phase transform method and Fourier filtering. The spot centroids are then obtained using global thresholding and weighted average methods. We have tested the algorithm with simulations and experimental data obtaining satisfactory results. A complete MATLAB package that can reproduce all the results can be downloaded from [http://goo.gl/o2JhD]. © 2012 Optical Society of America.

We present a mathematical model for the generation of vortex-beams by using a square profile amplitude fork diffraction grating with arbitrary topological charge. The mathematical framework of aberrations in the forked-shape diffraction grating is analysed, and the resulting diffracted pattern is simulated. Three cases of desired distortions (aberrations) in the diffraction grating are considered, obtaining phase modulation from the amplitude grating. Experimental optical vortices are generated by using a transmission spatial light modulator, which is used as a dynamic diffraction grating, allowing us to aberrate it. We show the effect of aberrations in the experimental diffracted vortex-beams and compare it with the numerical simulation. © 2016 SPIE.

We propose a phase-retrieval method based on the numerical optimization of a new objective function using coherent phase-diversity images as inputs for the characterization of aberrations in coherent imaging systems. By employing a spatial light modulator to generate multiple-order spiral phase masks as diversities, we obtain an increase in the accuracy of the retrieved phase compared with similar state-of-the-art phase-retrieval techniques that use the same number of input images. We present simulations that show a consistent advantage of our technique, and experimental validation where our implementation is used to characterize a highly aberrated 4F optical system. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America

EMIR is a NIR multiobject spectrograph with imaging capabilities to be used at the GTC. The first collimator lens in EMIR, made of Fused Silica, has an outer diameter of 490 mm, and a weight of 265 N, which make it one of the largest Fused Silica lenses ever mounted to work under cryogenic conditions. The results of the various tests being done at the IAC (with two different lens dummies) in order to validate a mounting design concept for this lens, are presented here. The radial support concept tested consists of three contact areas around the lens, one of which is a PTFE block, preloaded by coil springs and the other two are fixed supports made of Aluminum and PTFE, dimensioned in order to keep lens centered both at room temperature and under operation conditions.