A system comprising: a high index dielectric configured to: a) create a bi-periodic interference pattern of two standing sinusoidal waves on illumination by two pairs of counter-propagating sinusoidal light beams at different incident angles, wherein the incident angles are selected in accordance with the index of refraction of the high index dielectric to i) to 5 determine the spatial frequency of each counter-propagating light beam pair, and ii) cause total internal reflection, and b) generate, from the bi-periodic interference pattern, an evanescent bi-periodic standing sinusoidal wave; a light source configured to illuminate the high index dielectric with the two pairs of counter-propagating sinusoidal light beams at the different incident angles and thereby illuminate a fluorescing object positioned at the surface of the high index dielectric with the generated evanescent bi-periodic standing sinusoidal wave; and one or more delay lines configured to independently modify the initial phase of each counter-propagating light beam pair.

Systems and methods are disclosed relating to composite photonic materials used to design structures and detecting material deformation for the purpose of monitoring structural health of physical structures. According to one aspect, a composite structure is provided that includes a base material, an optical diffraction grating and one or more fluorophore materials constructed such that localized perturbations create a measureable change in the structure's diffraction pattern. An inspection device is also provided that is configured to detect perturbations in the composite structure. The inspection device is configured to emit an inspecting radiation into the structure and capture the refracted radiation and measure the change in the diffraction pattern and quantify the perturbation based on the wavelength and the angular information for the diffracted radiation.

The invention relates to the optical assembly for the illumination and hyperspectral evaluation of an object, having a light source or an optical element (1) at which a light source radiates, wherein the light source or the optical element is designed to divide pairs of unambiguously assignable photons into a first light beam (2) and a second light beam (5) in such a way that the first light beam hits a first detector system (4) and the second light beam is directed at an object (7) and light radiation coming from the object is directed at an optical element (8) which spectrally decomposes said light radiation and, from the optical element spectrally decomposing said light radiation is directed at a second detector system (9). The first light beam can also be directed at a spectrally decomposing optical element and from there, at a first detector system, and the light radiation coming from the object can be directed directly at the second detector system. The first detector system is designed to perform a spatially resolved sensing of the first light beam, and the first detector system or the second detector system is designed to perform a spectrally resolved sensing of the second light beam. The detector system are connected to an electronic evaluation unit (10), by means of which the measurement signals captured with spatial and spectral resolution are associated. The first and second light beams are spectrally, spatially and temporally correlated.

A characterization apparatus including pattern generation. The characterization apparatus is configured to characterize a specimen and/or a specimen container in some embodiments. The characterization apparatus includes an imaging location configured to receive a specimen container containing a specimen, one or more image capture devices located at one or more viewpoints adjacent to the imaging location, and one or more light panel assemblies including pattern generation capability located adjacent to the imaging location and configured to provide back lighting. Methods of imaging a specimen and/or specimen container using the pattern generation are described herein, as are other aspects.

According to an embodiment, an optical device includes a light selection unit, an imaging element, and a deriving unit. The light selection unit splits an irradiated light beam into a plurality of spectral beams of different wavelength regions. The imaging element captures a subject irradiated with the spectral beams including beams of at least two different wavelengths to acquire a spectral image. The deriving unit derives a surface property or shape information of the subject from a specified result obtained by specifying, by the deriving unit, an irradiation region irradiated with each of the spectral beams on the subject based on a mixing ratio of the spectral beams and received light intensity of each of the spectral beams included in the spectral image.

A spectroscopic analysis device includes: a light source configured to emit light for irradiating a specimen; a prism stuck to the specimen and configured to totally reflect the light emitted from the light source; a polarizing separation element configured to separate the light totally reflected by the prism into a first and second polarized light components that are orthogonal to each other; a wavelength dispersing element configured to disperse respective wavelength components of the first and second polarized light components that are separated by the polarizing separation element; an image capturing element configured to capture respective images of the first and second polarized light components that are dispersed by the wavelength dispersing element; and a processing unit configured to perform component analysis on the specimen by obtaining an absorbency at each wavelength by using an imaging signal output from the image capturing element.

A spectroscopic analysis device includes: a light source configured to emit light for irradiating a specimen; a prism stuck to the specimen and configured to totally reflect the light emitted from the light source; a polarizing separation element configured to separate the light totally reflected by the prism into a first and second polarized light components that are orthogonal to each other; a wavelength dispersing element configured to disperse respective wavelength components of the first and second polarized light components that are separated by the polarizing separation element; an image capturing element configured to capture respective images of the first and second polarized light components that are dispersed by the wavelength dispersing element; and a processing unit configured to perform component analysis on the specimen by obtaining an absorbency at each wavelength by using an imaging signal output from the image capturing element.

Disclosed is an optical system for interrogating a sample, an optical system for measuring the spectrum of a beam of light, an optical system for measuring the spectrum of two beams of light, a compact imaging-based sensor or sensors, and combinations thereof.

According to the present disclosure, provided is an optical densitometer for measuring a density of a gas or liquid of interest, the optical densitometer comprising: a light source capable of introducing light into a core layer; a detector capable of receiving the light that has propagated through the core layer; and an optical waveguide, the optical waveguide comprising: a substrate; and the core layer comprising a light propagation portion capable of propagating the light in an extending direction of the light propagation portion, and a diffraction grating portion, the diffraction grating portion comprising a diffraction grating region and an extension region connected to the diffraction grating region, and a first optical coupling region included in the extension region and a second optical coupling region included in the light propagation portion being optically coupled with respect to the light propagating through the core layer.

An optical component for illuminating a sample region with a periodic light pattern comprises: a first waveguide, a further waveguide and an optical splitter. The optical splitter has an input for receiving light, a first output and a second output. The first waveguide is optically coupled to the first output, to direct the first input light into the sample region in a first direction. The second output is optically coupled to the sample region to direct second input light into the sample region in a second direction. The further waveguide is arranged to receive third input light which is directed into the sample region in a third direction. The first direction, second direction and third direction are different from one another. The first and second input light interferes to form a periodic pattern in the sample region. The optical component may be used for structured illumination microscopy.