Towards the use of diffuse reflectance spectroscopy for real-time in vivo detection of breast cancer during surgery

Background: Breast cancer surgeons struggle with differentiating healthy tissue from cancer at the resection margin during surgery. We report on the feasibility of using diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) for real-time in vivo tissue characterization. Methods: Evaluating feasibility of the technology requires a setting in which...

Protein detection on biotin-derivatized polyallylamine by optical microring resonators

Silicon optical microring resonators (MRRs) are sensitive devices that can be used for biosensing. We present a novel biosensing platform based on the application of polyelectrolyte (PE) layers on such MRRs. The top PE layer was covalently labeled with biotin to ensure binding sites for antibodies via a streptavidin-biotin binding scheme....

Applicability of geometrical optics to in-plane liquid-crystal configurations

We study the applicability of geometrical optics to inhomogeneous dielectric nongyrotropic optically anisotropic media typically found in in-plane liquid-crystal configurations with refractive indices no=1.5 and ne=1.7. To this end, we compare the results of advanced ray- and wave-optics simulations of the propagation of an incident plane wave...

Ray-tracing simulations of liquid-crystal gradient-index lenses for three-dimensional displays

For the first time, to our knowledge, we report ray-tracing simulations of an advanced liquid-crystal gradientindex lens structure for application in switchable two-dimensional/three-dimensional (3D) autostereoscopic displays. We present ray-tracing simulations of the angular-dependent lens action. From the results we conclude that the lens...

Ray-optics analysis of inhomogeneous biaxially anisotropic media

Firm evidence of the biaxial nematic phase in liquid crystals, not induced by a magnetic or electric field, has been established only recently. The discovery of these biaxially anisotropic liquid crystals has opened up new areas of both fundamental and applied research. The advances in biaxial liquid crystal-related topics call for a good...

Ray-tracing simulations and applications of liquid crystal beam control devices

Simulations of a liquid-crystal-based electro-optical switch

We present simulations of a novel liquid-crystal-based electro-optical device that enables a switching effect owing to a backreflection phenomenon. In the simulations, we exploit the optical properties of a liquid-crystal layer with a Freédericksz alignment in an unconventional way. The resulting switching effect of the proposed optical design...

Characterization of the diffraction efficiency of polymer-liquid-crystal-polymer-slices gratings at all incidence angles

Recently, a novel holographic diffraction grating made of polymer slices alternated to homogeneous films of nematic liquid crystal (POLICRYPS) was realized. We study the optical performance of the POLICRYPS gratings by both numerical simulations and experiments. Characterization of the grating at normal and conical reading mount are performed....

General polarized ray-tracing method for inhomogeneous uniaxially anisotropic media

Uniaxial optical anisotropy in the geometrical-optics approach is a classical problem, and most of the theory has been known for at least fifty years. Although the subject appears frequently in the literature, wave propagation through inhomogeneous anisotropic media is rarely addressed. The rapid advances in liquid-crystal lenses call for a good...

Simulations of birefringent gratings as polarizing color separator in backlight for flat-panel displays

A color and polarization separating backlight can be obtained by using a surface-relief grating made of birefringent material as an outcoupling structure on top of the lightguide. A rigorous finite element diffraction model was applied to study the polarization effect of such a grating. The diffraction of plane waves by the anisotropic grating...