Exemplary apparatus can be provided which can include a laser arrangement that is configured to provide a laser radiation, and including an optical cavity. The optical cavity can include a dispersive optical waveguide first arrangement having first and second sides, and which is configured to (i) receive at least one first electro-magnetic radiation at the first side so as to provide at least one second electro-magnetic radiation, and (ii) to receive at least one third electro-magnetic radiation at the second side so as to provide at least one fourth electro-magnetic radiation. The first and second sides are different from one another, and the second and third radiations are related to one another. The optical cavity can also include an active optical modulator second arrangement which can be configured to receive and modulate the fourth radiation so as to provide the first electro-magnetic radiation to the first arrangement. The laser radiation can be associated with at least one of the first, second, third or fourth radiations.

Disclosed are systems and methods to extract information about the size and shape of an object by observing variations of the radiation pattern caused by illuminating the object with coherent radiation sources and changing the wavelengths of the source. Sensing and image-reconstruction systems and methods are described for recovering the image of an object utilizing projected and transparent reference points and radiation sources such as tunable lasers. Sensing and image-reconstruction systems and methods are also described for rapid sensing of such radiation patterns. A computational system and method is also described for sensing and reconstructing the image from its autocorrelation. This computational approach uses the fact that the autocorrelation is the weighted sum of shifted copies of an image, where the shifts are obtained by sequentially placing each individual scattering cell of the object at the origin of the autocorrelation space.

An apparatus can be provided which can include a laser arrangement which can be configured to provide a laser radiation, and can include an optical cavity. The optical cavity can include a dispersive optical first arrangement which can be configured to receive and disperse at least one first electro-magnetic radiation so as to provide at least one second electro-magnetic radiation. Such cavity can also include an active optical modulator second arrangement which can be configured to receive and modulate the at least one second radiation so as to provide at least one third electro-magnetic radiation. The optical cavity can further include a dispersive optical third arrangement which can be configured to receive and disperse at least one third electro-magnetic radiation so as to provide at least one fourth electro-magnetic radiation. For example, actions by the first, second and third arrangements can cause a spectral filtering of the fourth electro-magnetic radiation(s) relative to the first electro-magnetic radiation(s). The laser radiation can be associated with the fourth radiation(s), and a wavelength of the laser radiation can be controlled by the spectral filtering caused by the actions by the first, second and third arrangements.

A holographic interferometer, comprising: at least one imaging device capturing an interference pattern created by at least two light beams; and at least one aperture located in an optical path of at least one light beam of the at least two light beams; wherein the at least one aperture is located away from an axis of the at least one light beam, thus transmitting a subset of the at least one light beam collected at an angle range.

Provided is a device for measuring a lens three-dimensional profile based on laser wavenumber scanning, including: a semiconductor laser for emitting coherent light; a beam splitter for dividing the coherent light into two parts; an optical wedge; a CCD camera for capturing an interference image; a computer for processing image information; a laser controller for adjusting an operating temperature and an operating current of the semiconductor laser; and a bilateral telecentric lens. The coherent light is reflected by the optical wedge and then reaches the bilateral telecentric lens through the beam splitter, to form a first reflected light path. The coherent light is reflected by the measured lens, and then reaches the bilateral telecentric lens through the beam splitter, to form a second reflected light path. The first reflected light path and the second reflected light path form an interference image after passing through the bilateral telecentric lens.

An apparatus can be provided which can include a laser arrangement which can be configured to provide a laser radiation, and can include an optical cavity. The optical cavity can include a dispersive optical first arrangement which can be configured to receive and disperse at least one first electro-magnetic radiation so as to provide at least one second electro-magnetic radiation. Such cavity can also include an active optical modulator second arrangement which can be configured to receive and modulate the at least one second radiation so as to provide at least one third electro-magnetic radiation. The optical cavity can further include a dispersive optical third arrangement which can be configured to receive and disperse at least one third electro-magnetic radiation so as to provide at least one fourth electro-magnetic radiation. For example, actions by the first, second and third arrangements can cause a spectral filtering of the fourth electro-magnetic radiation(s) relative to the first electro-magnetic radiation(s). The laser radiation can be associated with the fourth radiation(s), and a wavelength of the laser radiation can be controlled by the spectral filtering caused by the actions by the first, second and third arrangements.

Disclosed are systems and methods to extract information about the size and shape of an object by observing variations of the radiation pattern caused by illuminating the object with coherent radiation sources and changing the wavelengths of the source. Sensing and image-reconstruction systems and methods are described for recovering the image of an object utilizing projected and transparent reference points and radiation sources such as tunable lasers. Sensing and image-reconstruction systems and methods are also described for rapid sensing of such radiation patterns. A computational system and method is also described for sensing and reconstructing the image from its autocorrelation. This computational approach uses the fact that the autocorrelation is the weighted sum of shifted copies of an image, where the shifts are obtained by sequentially placing each individual scattering cell of the object at the origin of the autocorrelation space.

A method including: scanning a sample over a period of time using an electro-magnetic radiation source, the period of time including a first time period and a second time period, a sample portion of the electro-magnetic radiation source being directed to the sample in a sample arm of an optical interferometric system, and a reference portion of the electro-magnetic radiation source being directed to a reference arm of the optical interferometric system; applying, using a phase modulator, a phase shift comprising a first phase shift and a second phase shift to at least one of the reference portion or the sample portion of the electro-magnetic radiation source, the first phase shift being applied during the first time period and the second phase shift being applied during the second time period, the second phase shift having a difference of 90 degrees from the first phase shift.

Exemplary apparatus can be provided which can include a laser arrangement that is configured to provide a laser radiation, and including an optical cavity. The optical cavity can include a dispersive optical waveguide first arrangement having first and second sides, and which is configured to (i) receive at least one first electro-magnetic radiation at the first side so as to provide at least one second electro-magnetic radiation, and (ii) to receive at least one third electro-magnetic radiation at the second side so as to provide at least one fourth electro-magnetic radiation. The first and second sides are different from one another, and the second and third radiations are related to one another. The optical cavity can also include an active optical modulator second arrangement which can be configured to receive and modulate the fourth radiation so as to provide the first electro-magnetic radiation to the first arrangement. The laser radiation can be associated with at least one of the first, second, third or fourth radiations.

A method of rapid coherent synthetic wavelength interferometric absolute distance measurement includes receiving, from an optical system, an image from an object scene of at least two distinct wavelengths of light, each wavelength's light source having a coherence length greater than a desired ambiguity length of the absolute distance measurement, and whose synthetic wavelength in combination provides the desired ambiguity length of the absolute distance measurement. A phase-based approach, a magnitude-based approach, or an envelope of the magnitude-based approach can be taken to determine an interference between light returning from the object scene and light traversing a separate reference arm path of the optical system and calculate an optical distance to an object in the object scene.