Readout of a real-time hologram in bacteriorhodopsin film with high diffraction efficiency and intensity

A scheme for the readout of a hologram recorded in bacteriorhodopsin film with high diffraction efficiency and intensity is suggested and demonstrated. Two weak coherent continuous beams function as the recording beams, and a strong light pulse is used to read the real-time hologram. The width of the readout light pulse is modulated to be short compared with the erase time of the reading beam; the time space between two adjacent pulses is ensured to be longer than the time the beams take to recover the hologram, and high diffraction efficiency and intensity (similar to 11 mW/cm(2)) can be obtained. (C) 1996 Optical Society of America.

Intensity-modulating characteristics of a laser diode subjected to optical injection

We have found that the optical power of a laser diode (LD) does not change with the injected light intensity that is modulated when its injection current is at some specific values. The amplitude of optical power change of the LD varies periodically with the increase of the injection current. It is made clear through theoretical analysis that these phenomena are caused by gain compression and interband carrier absorption of the LD that depend on longitudinal mode competition, bandgap-shrinkage effects, thermal conduction, and so on. Our experimental results make it easy to eliminate optical power change of LDs. We only need to choose a proper value of the injection current. (c) 2005 Optical Society of America.

Collimation testing using axial intensity

We proposed a new method of measuring the degree of collimation of laser beam using axial intensity information near paraxial focus. Preceding methods for collimation testing are mainly either based on self-imaging or interferometric techniques. The new method is to employ the diffraction behavior of noncollimated wave in circular aperture diaphragm. The principle of the proposed method and experiment results are presented. Due to simplicity of the method and its low cost, it is a promising method for checking the collimation of laser beam. (c) 2005 Published by Elsevier GmbH.

Joint Anglo-Soviet biological surveillance exercise on River Dnieper

As one part of an on-going programme concerned with environmental protection as provided for under the terms of a UK/USSR Joint Environmental Protection Agreement signed in London, 21 May 1974, a seminar — ”The elaboration of the scientific basis for monitoring the quality of surface water by hydrobiological indices” was held at Valdai in Russia 12—14 July, 1976. As a continuation of this theme it was agreed that delegations of hydrobiologists from each side should carry out reciprocal visits to carry out comparative field tests on selected systems of biological surveillance in use in the respective countries. In May 1978 a team of British hydrobiologists visited the USSR, under the auspices of the Department of Environment, to carry out joint exercises on the River Dnieper and some tributaries. This paper reports the results of selected methods used by the British side when applied to the conditions found in the River Dnieper.

Intensity-moments characterization of general pulsed paraxial beams with the Wigner distribution function

On the basis of the space-time Wigner distribution function (STWDF), we use the matrix formalism to study the propagation laws for the intensity moments of quasi-monochromatic and polychromatic pulsed paraxial beams. The advantages of this approach are reviewed. Also, a least-squares fitting method for interpreting the physical meaning of the effective curvature matrix is described by means of the STWDF. Then the concept is extended to the higher-order situation, and what me believe is a novel technique for characterizing the beam phase is presented. (C) 1999 Optical Society of America [S0740-3232(99)001009-1].

Transverse intensity distributions of a broadband laser modulated by a hard-edged aperture

By means of the Huygens-Fresnel diffraction integral, the field representation of a laser beam modulated by a hard-edged aperture is derived. The near-field and far-field transverse intensity distributions of the beams with different bandwidths are analyzed by using the representation. The numerical calculation results indicate that the amplitudes and numbers of the intensity spikes decrease with increasing bandwidth, and beam smoothing is achieved when the bandwidth takes a certain value in the near field. In the far field, the radius of the transverse intensity distribution decreases as the bandwidth increases, and the physical explanation of this fact is also given. (c) 2005 Optical Society of America.

Influence of the chirp on the intensity distributions of an apertured pulse

Starting from the Huygens-Fresnel diffraction integral and the Fourier transform, the propagation expression of a chirped pulse passing through a hard-edged aperture is derived. Using the obtained expression, the intensity distributions of the pulse with different chirp in the near and far fields are analyzed in detail. Due to the modulation of the aperture, many intensity peaks emerge in the intensity distributions of the chirped pulse in the near field. However, the amplitudes of the intensity peaks decrease on increasing the chirp, which results in the smoothing effect in the intensity distributions. The beam smoothing brought by increasing the chirp is explained physically. Also, it is found that the radius of the intensity distribution of the chirped pulse decreases when the chirp increases in the far field. (c) 2005 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Tunable three-dimensional intensity distribution by a pure phase-shifting apodizer

The three-dimensional distribution of light intensity that is modulated by a pure phase-shifting apodizer is studied. Results show that the Strehl ratio can be altered by the proposed apodizer and by the waist width of incident Gaussian beams. By changing geometrical parameters of the proposed apodizer, we can increase the focal depth to several times that of the original system. The proposed apodizer can also be used to realize focal splitting and local minimum of intensity, which may be advantageous for constructing an optical trap. Furthermore, the local minimum of intensity number is tunable by changing the parameters of the apodizer. (c) 2005 Optical Society of America