Influence of birefringence dispersion on distributed measurement of polarization coupling in birefringent fibers

A white light interferometer is developed to measure the distributed polarization coupling in high-birefringence polarization-maintaining fibers (PMFs). Usually the birefringence dispersion between two orthogonal eigenmodes of PMFs is neglected in such systems. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the birefringence dispersion becomes a nonnegligible factor in a long-fiber test. Significant broadening of interferograms and loss of longitudinal coherence are observed. The spatial resolution and measurement sensitivity of the system decrease correspondingly. Optimum spectrum width selection is presented for better spatial resolution and measurement range. c 2007 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Efficient two-step digit-set-restricted modified signed-digit algorithm based on optoelectronic shared content-addressable memory

A two-step digit-set-restricted modified signed-digit (MSD) adder based on symbolic substitution is presented. In the proposed addition algorithm, carry propagation is avoided by using reference digits to restrict the intermediate MSD carry and sum digits into {(1) over bar ,0} and {0, 1}, respectively. The algorithm requires only 12 minterms to generate the final results, and no complementarity operations for nonzero outputs are involved, which simplifies the system complexity significantly. An optoelectronic shared content-addressable memory based on an incoherent correlator is used for experimental demonstration. (c) 2005 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Novel method to construct a quality map for phase unwrapping based on modulation and the phase gradient

A novel method to construct a quality map, called modulation-phase-gradient variance (MPGV), is proposed, based on modulation and the phase gradient. The MPGV map is successfully applied to two phase-unwrapping algorithms - the improved weighted least square and the quality-guided unwrapping algorithm. Both simulated and experimental data testify to the validity of our proposed quality map. Moreover, the unwrapped-phase results show that the new quality map can have higher reliability than the conventional phase-derivative variance quality map in helping to unwrap noisy, low-modulation, and/or discontinuous phase maps. (c) 2006 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

An investigation of a method of underwater propulsion by direct gas injection

This report presents the results of an investigation of a method of underwater propulsion. The propelling system utilizes the energy of a small mass of expanding gas to accelerate the flow of a large mass of water through an open ended duct of proper shape and dimensions to obtain a resultant thrust. The investigation was limited to making a large number of runs on a hydroduct of arbitrary design, varying between wide limits the water flow and gas flow through the device, and measuring the net thrust caused by the introduction and expansion of the gas.

In comparison with the effective exhaust velocity of about 6,000 feet per second observed in rocket motors, this hydroduct model attained a maximum effective exhaust velocity of more than 27,000 feet per second, using nitrogen gas. Using hydrogen gas, effective exhaust velocities of 146,000 feet per second were obtained. Further investigation should prove this method of propulsion not only to be practical but very efficient.

This investigation was conducted at Project No. 1, Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California.

Record of a colloquium organised by IUBS on the methodology of radiation measurement under water. [Translation from: Mem. Inst. Ital. Idrobiol. 17, 57-79, 1964]

These minutes report on colloquium on the methodology of radiation measurement under water. The meeting was held on 3-5 January 1957, at the Biological Station, Lunz, Austria. The participants of the colloquium discussed various methodologies of radiation measurements, basic methods such as Secchi Disc and underwater photometer as well as specialist equipment like the absolute radiation apparatus.

Phase unwrapping based on branch cut placing and reliability ordering

A new 2-D quality-guided phase-unwrapping algorithm, based on the placement of the branch cuts, is presented. Its framework consists of branch cut placing guided by an original quality map and reliability ordering performed on a final quality map. To improve the noise immunity of the new algorithm, a new quality map, which is used as the original quality map to guide the placement of the branch cuts, is proposed. After a complete description of the algorithm and the quality map, several wrapped images are used to examine the effectiveness of the algorithm. Computer simulation and experimental results make it clear that the proposed algorithm works effectively even when a wrapped phase map contains error sources, such as phase discontinuities, noise, and undersampling. (c) 2005 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Influence of birefringence dispersion on distributed measurement of polarization coupling in birefringent fibers

A white light interferometer is developed to measure the distributed polarization coupling in high-birefringence polarization-maintaining fibers (PMFs). Usually the birefringence dispersion between two orthogonal eigenmodes of PMFs is neglected in such systems. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the birefringence dispersion becomes a nonnegligible factor in a long-fiber test. Significant broadening of interferograms and loss of longitudinal coherence are observed. The spatial resolution and measurement sensitivity of the system decrease correspondingly. Optimum spectrum width selection is presented for better spatial resolution and measurement range. c 2007 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Multi-channel 2-D pattern transfer model based on imaging optics for submarine laser uplink communication

An optical communication scheme of 2-D pattern transfer based on imaging optics for submarine laser uplink communication (SLUC) is suggested. Unlike the methods aiming at avoiding neighboring crosstalk used in traditional multi-channel optical beam transferring, we make full use of the overlapping of each spreading beam other than controlling divergence effect of each beam to avoid interference noise. The apparent parameters have been introduced to simplify theoretical analysis of optical pattern transfer problem involving underwater condition, with the help of which the complex beam propagation inside two kinds of mediums can be easily reduced to brief beam transfer only inside air medium. In this paper, optical transmission path and receiver terminal optics geometry have been described in detail. The link range equation and system uplink performance analysis have also been given. At last, results of a proof-of-concept experiment indicate good feasibility of the proposed SLUC model. © 2007 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Simultaneous phase-shifting ellipsometry based on grating beamsplitter

Simultaneous phase-shifting ellipsometry based on a grating beamsplitter is presented. In the corresponding setup, an orthogonal grating and analyzer array are used. The latter is composed of four separate analyzers arranged in a 2x2 grid, the polarization axes of which are set to 0, 45, 90, and 135 deg. A mask allows only four diffracted beams of the fist order, having the same optical intensities, to pass. Each beam is incident on one of the analyzers of the array. The intensities of the four beams are simultaneously detected by a quadrant detector. The ellipsometric parameters are obtained using the four intensity signals. The feasibility of simultaneous phase shifting ellipsometry is thus demonstrated. (C) 2008 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Influence of the second cladding on the properties of four-layer large flattened mode fibers

A theoretical method to analyze four-layer large flattened mode (LFM) fibers is presented. The influence of the second cladding on the properties of four-layer LFM fiber, including the fundamental and higher-order modal fields, effective area, bending loss, and dispersion, are studied by comparison. At the same time, the reasons for the different characteristics are considered. The obtained results indicate that the effective area of the four-layer LFM fiber is about 1.6 times larger than that of the conventional standard step-index fiber and the fibers have better bend-induced filtering ability than three-layer LFM fibers. (C) 2007 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Detection of Brillouin scattering temperature signal in Brillouin optical time-domain reflectometer sensing system based on instantaneous frequency measurement technology

We present a simple and practical method for the single-ended distributed fiber temperature measurements using microwave (11-GHz) coherent detection and the instantaneous frequency measurement (IFM) technique to detect spontaneous Brillouin backscattered signal in which a specially designed rf bandpass filter at 11 GHz is used as a frequency discriminator to transform frequency shift to intensity fluctuation. A Brillouin temperature signal can be obtained at 11 GHz over a sensing length of 10 km. The power sensitivity dependence on temperature induced by frequency shift is measured as 2.66%/K. (c) 2007 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Influence of the second cladding on the properties of four-layer large flattened mode fibers

A theoretical method to analyze four-layer large flattened mode (LFM) fibers is presented. The influence of the second cladding on the properties of four-layer LFM fiber, including the fundamental and higher-order modal fields, effective area, bending loss, and dispersion, are studied by comparison. At the same time, the reasons for the different characteristics are considered. The obtained results indicate that the effective area of the four-layer LFM fiber is about 1.6 times larger than that of the conventional standard step-index fiber and the fibers have better bend-induced filtering ability than three-layer LFM fibers. (C) 2007 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Detection of Brillouin scattering temperature signal in Brillouin optical time-domain reflectometer sensing system based on instantaneous frequency measurement technology

abstract {We present a simple and practical method for the single-ended distributed fiber temperature measurements using microwave (11-GHz) coherent detection and the instantaneous frequency measurement (IFM) technique to detect spontaneous Brillouin backscattered signal in which a specially designed rf bandpass filter at 11 GHz is used as a frequency discriminator to transform frequency shift to intensity fluctuation. A Brillouin temperature signal can be obtained at 11 GHz over a sensing length of 10 km. The power sensitivity dependence on temperature induced by frequency shift is measured as 2.66%/K. © 2007 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.}

Effect of elliptical manufacture error of an axicon on the diffraction-free beam patterns

Based on the generalized Huygens-Fresnel diffraction integral theory and the stationary-phase method, we analyze the influence on diffraction-free beam patterns of an elliptical manufacture error in an axicon. The numerical simulation is compared with the beam patterns photographed by using a CCD camera. Theoretical simulation and experimental results indicate that the intensity of the central spot decreases with increasing elliptical manufacture defect and propagation distance. Meanwhile, the bright rings around the central spot are gradually split into four or more symmetrical bright spots. The experimental results fit the theoretical simulation very well. (C) 2008 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Estimating the underwater shape of tuna longlines with micro-bathythermographs

An estimation method for the three-dimensional underwater shape of tuna longlines is developed, using measurements of depth obtained from micro-bathythermographs (BTs) attached to the main line at equally spaced intervals. The shape of the main line is approximated by a model which consists of a chain of unit length lines (folding-rule model), where the junction points are placed at the observed depths. Among the infinite number of possible shapes, the most likely shape is considered to be the smoothest one that can be obtained with a numerical optimization algorithm. To validate the method, a series of experimental longline operations were conducted in the equatorial region of the eastern Pacific Ocean, using 13 or 14 micro-BTs per basket of main line. Concurrent observations of oceanographic conditions (currents and temperature structure) were obtained. The shape of the main line can be calculated at arbitrary times during operations. Shapes were consistent with the current structure. On the equator, the line was elevated significantly by the Equatorial Undercurrent. It is shown that the shape of main line depends primarily upon the vertical shear and direction of the current relative to the gear. Time sequences of calculated shapes reveals that observed periodic (1-2 hours) oscillations in depth of the gear was caused by swinging movements of the main line. The shortening rate of the main line is an important parameter for formulating the shape of the longline, and its precise measurement is desirable.