Systems and methods for improved interferometric imaging are presented. One embodiment is a partial field frequency-domain interferometric imaging system in which a light beam is scanned in two directions across a sample and the light scattered from the object is collected using a spatially resolved detector. The light beam could illuminate a spot, a line or a two-dimensional area on the sample. Additional embodiments with applicability to partial field as well as other types of interferometric systems are also presented.

A method and system for measuring a sample property (X) by means of photonic circuit (10). The photonic circuit (10) comprises at least two photonic sensors (11, 12) configured to modulate the light according to respective output signals (S1,S2) with periodically recurring signal values (V1, V2). The photonic sensors (11, 12) comprise a low range sensor (11) with a relatively low range or high sensitivity for measuring a change (X) of the sample property (X) and a high range sensor (12) with a relatively high range or low sensitivity to measure the change (X) of the sample property (X). The sample property (X) is calculated by combining the output signals (S1, S2) of the sensors (11, 12). Particularly, the second output signal (S2) of the high range sensor (12) is used to distinguish between recurring signal values (V1) in the first output signal (S1) of the low range sensor (11).

A micro-resonator and fiber taper based sensing system, which uses mode splitting or frequency shift methods and polarization measurements for particle sensing.

A method of identifying the material and determining the physical thickness of each layer in a multilayer structure is disclosed. The method includes measuring the optical thickness of each of the layers of the multilayer object as a function of wavelength of a light source and calculating a normalized group index of refraction dispersion curve for each layer in the multilayer structure. The measured normalized group index of refraction dispersion curves for each of the layers is then compared to a reference database of known materials and the material of each layer is identified. The physical thickness of each layer is then determined from the group index of refraction dispersion curve for the material in each layer and the measured optical thickness data. A method for determining the group index of refraction dispersion curve of a known material, and an apparatus for performing the methods are also disclosed.

The present disclosure provide a gas monitoring device, a gas monitoring system, a gas monitoring method, a cabinet, and a computer readable storage medium. The gas monitoring device includes: a tubular housing, a light transmission module arranged at one end of the tubular housing, and a gas detecting module arranged at the other end of the tubular housing, in which a first end surface of the light transmission module, a second end surface of the gas detecting module and the tubular housing form a cavity, and the first end surface and the second end surface are parallel to each other; the light transmission module is configured to input incident light to the cavity, and the gas detecting module is configured to adjust a distance between the second end surface and the first end surface according to a concentration of the gas to be detected.

Devices and methods of providing a high-performance optical sensor disclose a sensor comprised of a porous material designed to have a multilayer rib-type or multilayer pillar-type waveguide geometry. The resulting porous nanomaterial multilayer-rib or multilayer-pillar waveguide design is optically capable of achieving 100% confinement factor while maintaining small mode area and single-mode character. Fabrication of the device is enabled by an inverse processing technique, wherein silicon wafers are first patterned and etched through well-established techniques, which allows porous nanomaterial synthesis (i.e., porous silicon anodization) either at the wafer-scale or at the chip-scale after wafer dicing. While 100% is an optimal target, typical devices per presently disclosed subject matter may operate with 98-99+%, while allowing for some design adjustments to be made if necessary, and still maintaining high sensitivity. i.e., >85-90% confinement suitable in some applications. In those instances, a primary benefit would still be use of the presently disclosed fabrication technology.

Systems for the monitoring of bacterial levels in samples, using spectral analysis of the light diffracted from a substrate with an ordered array of pores having diameters enabling the targets to enter them. The trapping pore array is cyclically illuminated by light of different wavelengths, and the light diffracted from the pore array is imaged by a 2-dimensional detector array, with one pixel, or a small group of pixels receiving light from each associated pore. The temporal sequence of frames provides a series of images, each from the reflection of a different wavelength. A time sequenced readout of the signal from the pixel or pixels associated with each pore region, provides a spectral plot of the reflected light from that pore region. Spectral analysis of the light intensity from this series of different wavelength enables the effective optical thickness (EOT) of each pore to be extracted.

A monitoring probe is for monitoring a fluid inside a process system. The probe has a first portion comprising a plurality of optical sensors provided along a waveguide for monitoring a plurality of measurands from the fluid, wherein each optical sensor is configured to monitor at least one measurand from the fluid. The first portion of the probe is elongate and is configured to be inserted through an aperture of the process system into a chamber of the process system such that the optical sensors are in communication with the fluid. The probe further has an attachment element for securing the probe to the process system.

The invention relates to a method for capturing and compensating the influence of ambient conditions on an imaging scale (S) in a measuring microscope. Here, a modification of the optical properties in the measuring microscope that is caused by a change in the ambient conditions is measured by use of a reference measurement system, in particular an etalon, and, at the same time, an image of a reference structure with at least one reference length (L0) that is situated on a calibration mask is produced by use of a detector of the measuring microscope and a change (L) of the reference length (L0) that is caused by the change in the ambient conditions is determined in the image of the reference structure. Subsequently, a correlation is established between the modification of the optical properties of the reference measurement system and the length change (L) in the image, produced in the detector, of the reference structure of the calibration mask. This correlation can be used to carry out a computational adaptation of the size of picture elements of the detector and thus compensate the influence of ambient conditions on the imaging scale (S) of the measuring microscope.

The invention relates to a device comprising a first optical Mach-Zehnder interferometric sensor (MZI1) with a large FSR, wherein a plasmonic waveguide (107) thin-film or hybrid slot, is incorporated as transducer element planar integrated on Si3N4 photonic waveguides and a second optical interferometric Mach-Zehnder (MZI2), both comprising thermo-optic phase shifters (104, 106) for optimally biasing said MZI sensor (MZI1) and MZI as variable optical attenuator VOA. It further comprises an overall chip (112), being remarkable in that it comprises a set of Photonic waveguides (103) with a high index silicon nitride strip (303, 603), which is sandwiched between a low index oxide substrate (Si02) and a low index oxide superstrate (LTO); Optical coupling structures (102, 109) at both ends of the sensor acting as the optical I/Os; an Optical splitter (102) and an optical combiner (109) for optical splitting at the first junction (102) of said first sensor (MZI1) and optical combining at the second junction (109) of said first MZI (MZI1); a variable optical attenuator (VOA) with said additional second MZI (MZI2), which is nested into said MZI1 (sensor)), deploying an optical splitter and an optical combiner for optical splitting at the first junction of said additional second MZI (MZI2), and optical combining at the second junction of said second MZI (MZI2); a set of Thermo-optic phase shifters (104, 106) to tune the phase of the optical signal in the reference arm (104, 106) of each said MZI (MZI1, MZI2-VOA); wherein Thermo-optic phase shifters are formed by depositing two metallic stripes parallel to each other on top of a section of the photonic waveguide and along the direction of propagation of light; and a plasmonic waveguide (107) in the upper branch (103) of said first MZI (MZI1), that confines light propagation through coupling