System and method for monitoring of performance of a mirror array of a digital scanner with a use of light, illuminating the mirror array at grazing (off-axis) incidence, and an optical imaging system that includes a lateral shearing interferometer (operated in either static or a phase-shifting condition) during and without interrupting the process of exposure of the workpiece with the digital scanner, to either simply identify problematic pixels for further troubleshooting or measure the exact magnitude of the deformation of a mirror element of the mirror array.

The present application provides a spectral phase interference device and system for addressing the problem of low stability and compactness with prior art spectral phase interference devices. In the device or system provided in the present application, the optical element for generating the pulse pair to be measured consists of only a birefringent crystal and the adjustment of two-step phase shift is also completed by only a broadband quarter-wave plate. Therefore, wide application of optical elements such as pulse stretchers, retarders, optical splitters and mirrors as in prior art devices is avoided, thereby significantly simplifying the overall device's structure and resulting in enhanced stability and compactness at the same time.

Optical polarization-based devices and techniques are provided to enable low cost construction and easy signal processing to measure the light frequency via measurements of signals associated with a delay between the two orthogonal polarizations after passing through a DGD element and the retardation value of the DGD element without directly measuring the optical frequency. The optical detection may be designed in various configurations. In particular, for example, the optical detection may split the optical output of the DGD into two optical beams with two different optical detectors so that the final frequency information can be deducted into a pair of sine and cosine functions, such as a pair of sine and cosine functions of measured optical signal levels and the retardation value of the DGD element.

Quantitative phase gradient microscopes (QPGM) using metasurface layers including birefringent lenses are disclosed. The birefringent lenses are manufactured by patterning nanoposts on two different transparent substrates or on opposite sides of the same transparent substrate. Methods to generate phase gradient images (PGI) of objects using the described devices are also disclosed.

A system comprises an electromagnetic radiation source, a polarizing element, a mode converter, an optical fiber, and a measurement device. The polarizing element receives electromagnetic radiation produced by the electromagnetic radiation source and outputs linearly-polarized electromagnetic radiation having a linear polarization angle .sub.1. The mode converter converts the linearly-polarized electromagnetic radiation to an orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode of linearly-polarized electromagnetic radiation with topological charge L.sub.i. The OAM mode of linearly-polarized electromagnetic radiation is a superposition of first and second OAM modes with topological charges L.sub.i and opposite circular polarizations. The optical fiber supports propagation of the first and second OAM modes with an absolute effective index difference n.sub.eff greater than or equal to 510.sup.3, such that linearly-polarized electromagnetic radiation with linear polarization angle .sub.2 is emitted by the optical fiber. The measurement device is configured to determine a property of the electromagnetic radiation based on the polarization angle .sub.2.

A system comprises an electromagnetic radiation source, a polarizing element, a mode converter, an optical fiber, and a measurement device. The polarizing element receives electromagnetic radiation produced by the electromagnetic radiation source and outputs linearly-polarized electromagnetic radiation having a linear polarization angle .sub.1. The mode converter converts the linearly-polarized electromagnetic radiation to an orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode of linearly-polarized electromagnetic radiation with topological charge L.sub.i. The OAM mode of linearly-polarized electromagnetic radiation is a superposition of first and second OAM modes with topological charges L.sub.i and opposite circular polarizations. The optical fiber supports propagation of the first and second OAM modes with an absolute effective index difference n.sub.eff greater than or equal to 510.sup.5, such that linearly-polarized electromagnetic radiation with linear polarization angle .sub.2 is emitted by the optical fiber. The measurement device is configured to determine a property of the electromagnetic radiation based on the polarization angle .sub.2.

A method for fabricating a light receiving device includes: preparing a first substrate product which includes a semiconductor region having a common semiconductor layer, a first semiconductor laminate for a photodiode, a second semiconductor laminate for a waveguide, and a butt-joint between the first semiconductor laminate and the second semiconductor laminate, the first laminate and the second semiconductor laminate being disposed on the common semiconductor layer; etching the first substrate product with a first mask to form a second substrate product having a photodiode mesa structure produced from the first semiconductor laminate and a preliminary mesa structure produced from the second semiconductor laminate; etching the second substrate product with the first mask and a second mask, formed on the photodiode mesa structure; to produce a waveguide mesa structure from the preliminary mesa structure, and the waveguide mesa structure having a height larger than that of the preliminary mesa structure.

The present application provides a spectral phase interference device and system for addressing the problem of low stability and compactness with prior art spectral phase interference devices. In the device or system provided in the present application, the optical element for generating the pulse pair to be measured consists of only a birefringent crystal and the adjustment of two-step phase shift is also completed by only a broadband quarter-wave plate. Therefore, wide application of optical elements such as pulse stretchers, retarders, optical splitters and mirrors as in prior art devices is avoided, thereby significantly simplifying the overall device's structure and resulting in enhanced stability and compactness at the same time.

Differential Holography technology measures the amplitude and/or phase of, e.g., an incident linearly polarized spatially coherent quasi-monochromatic optical field by optically computing the first derivative of the field and linearly mapping it to an irradiance signal detectable by an image sensor. This information recorded on the image sensor is then recovered by a simple algorithm. In some embodiments, an input field is split into two or more beams to independently compute the horizontal and vertical derivatives (using amplitude gradient filters in orthogonal orientations) for detection on one image sensor in separate regions of interest (ROIs) or on multiple image sensors. A third unfiltered beam recorded in a third ROI directly measures amplitude variations in the input field to numerically remove its contribution as noise before recovering the original wavefront using a numerical in algorithm. When combined, the measured amplitude and phase constitute a holographic recording of the incident optical field.

System and method for monitoring of performance of a mirror array of a digital scanner with a use of light, illuminating the mirror array at grazing (off-axis) incidence, and an optical imaging system that includes a lateral shearing interferometer (operated in either static or a phase-shifting condition) during and without interrupting the process of exposure of the workpiece with the digital scanner, to either simply identify problematic pixels for further troubleshooting or measure the exact magnitude of the deformation of a mirror element of the mirror array.