In measuring cerebral blood flow (CBF) noninvasively using optical techniques, diffusing-wave spectroscopy is often combined with near-infrared spectroscopy to obtain a reliable blood flow index. Measuring the blood flow index at a determined depth remains the ultimate goal. In this study, we present a simple approach using dual-comb lasers where we simultaneously measure the absorption coefficient (μ_a), the reduced scattering coefficient (μ_s^′), and dynamic properties. This system can also effectively differentiate dynamics from various depths, which is crucial for analyzing multilayer dynamics. For CBF measurements, this capability is particularly valuable as it helps mitigate the influence of the scalp and skull, thereby enhancing the specificity of deep tissue.

We study how the speckle contrast depends on scatterer velocity, with the goal of further developing laser speckle imaging as a quantitative measurement technique. To that end, we perform interferometric computer simulations on a dilute plug flow. The results of our numerical experiment, that we compare with known analytical expressions to confirm their veracity, match well at low velocities with the Gaussian expression. Finally, we address the issue of how velocity depends on speckle decorrelation time, and show that the speckle size is most likely the relevant connecting length scale.

The disease atherosclerosis causes stenosis inside the patient's arteries, which often eventually turns lethal. Our goal is to detect a stenosis in a non-invasive manner, preferably in an early stage. To that end, we study whether and how laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) can be deployed. We start out by using computational fluid dynamics on a patient-specific stenosed carotid artery to reveal the flow profile in the region surrounding the stenosis, which compares well with particle image velocimetry experiments. We then use our own fully interferometric dynamic light scattering routines to simulate the process of LSCI of the carotid artery. Our approach offers an advantage over the established Monte Carlo techniques because they cannot incorporate dynamics. From the simulated speckle images, we extract a speckle contrast time series at different sites inside the artery, of which we then compute the frequency spectrum. We observe an increase in speckle boiling in sites where the flow profile is more complex, e.g., containing regions of backflow. In the region surrounding the stenosis, the measured speckle contrast is considerably lower due to the higher local velocity, and the frequency signature becomes notably different with prominent higher-order frequency modes that were absent in the other sites. Although future work is still required to make our new approach more quantitative and more applicable in practice, we have provided a first insight into how a stenosis might be detected in vivo using LSCI.

Distance measurement using frequency sweeping interferometry is an absolute distance measurement technique that allows for high accuracy over long distances. Notwithstanding, the measurement accuracy is affected by laser sweeping nonlinearity and limited sweeping range. In this work, an optimized post-processing linearization method is demonstrated to realize high-accuracy arbitrary distance measurement using a laser with small modulation range. The interference signal is sparsely resampled to eliminate the influence of the sweeping nonlinearity, and the absolute distance is obtained by analyzing the phase of the resampled signal. In the measurement system, a high-finesse Fabry-Pérot cavity placed in vacuum is used as the measurement reference, so the effect of dispersion mismatch is negligible. Moreover, the distance measurement result is determined by the linear fit of the phase of each resampled point. Therefore, the influence of target vibration and other external random noise can be partially eliminated, and the reliability of the result is high. In the experiment, the sweeping range of the laser source is only 88 GHz. Comparing with a fringe-counting interferometer, the standard deviation of the residual errors is 34 µm within a distance of 6.7 m.

The measurement of distance plays an integral part in many aspects of modern societies. In this paper an integrated mode-locked laser on a chip is used for distance measurement based on mode-resolved interferometry. The emission from the on-chip source with a repetition rate of 2.5 GHz and a spectral bandwidth of 3 nm is coupled into a Michelson interferometer. The interferometer output is recorded as a spectral interferogram, which is captured in a single camera image. The images are analyzed using Hilbert transform to extract the distance. The distance derived shows a deviation of 6 \mum from the reference, for a distance up to 25 mm. We also demonstrate interferometry with repetition frequency sweep which can also be used with the source. Performance is expected to be better in the near future with the rapid developments in the field of on-chip laser sources which are demonstrating larger spectral widths and coherence lengths.

Laser speckle imaging (LSI) can be used to study dynamic processes in turbid media, such as blood flow. However, it is presently still challenging to obtain meaningful quantitative information from speckle, mainly because speckle is the interferometric summation of multiply scattered light. Consequently, speckle represents a convolution of the local dynamics of the medium. In this paper, we present a computational model for simulating the LSI process, which we aim to use for improving our understanding of the underlying physics. Thereby reliable methods for extracting meaningful information from speckle can be developed. To validate our code, we apply it to a case study resembling blood flow: a cylindrical fluid flow geometry seeded with small spherical particles and modulated with a heartbeat signal. From the simulated speckle pattern, we successfully retrieve the main frequency modes of the original heartbeat signal. By comparing Poiseuille flow to plug flow, we show that speckle boiling causes a small amount of uniform spectral noise. Our results indicate that our computational model is capable of simulating LSI and will therefore be useful in future studies for further developing LSI as a quantitative imaging tool.

In this paper a generic monolithic photonic integration technology platform and tunable laser devices for gas sensing applications at 2 μm will be presented. The basic set of long wavelength optical functions which is fundamental for a generic photonic integration approach is realized using planar, but-joint, active-passive integration on indium phosphide substrate with active components based on strained InGaAs quantum wells. Using this limited set of basic building blocks a novel geometry, widely tunable laser source was designed and fabricated within the first long wavelength multiproject wafer run. The fabricated laser operates around 2027 nm, covers a record tuning range of 31 nm and is successfully employed in absorption measurements of carbon dioxide. These results demonstrate a fully functional long wavelength photonic integrated circuit that operates at these wavelengths. Moreover, the process steps and material system used for the long wavelength technology are almost identical to the ones which are used in the technology process at 1.5μm which makes it straightforward and hassle-free to transfer to the photonic foundries with existing fabrication lines. The changes from the 1550 nm technology and the trade-offs made in the building block design and layer stack will be discussed.

In this work we present a design of an external optical cavity based on Fabry-Perot etalons applied to a 100 MHz Er-doped fiber optical frequency comb working at 1560 nm to increase its repetition frequency. A Fabry-Perot cavity is constructed based on a transportable cage system with two silver mirrors in plano-concave geometry including the mode-matching lenses, fiber coupled collimation package and detection unit. The system enables full 3D angle mirror tilting and x-y off axis movement as well as distance between the mirrors. We demonstrate the increase of repetition frequency by direct measurement of the beat frequency and spectrally by using the virtually imaged phased array images.

The scattering of coherent light from a system with underlying flow can be used to yield essential information about dynamics of the process. In the case of pulsatile flow, there is a rapid change in the properties of the speckle images. This can be studied using the standard laser speckle contrast and also the fractality of images. In this paper, we report the results of experiments performed to study pulsatile flow with speckle images, under different experimental configurations to verify the robustness of the techniques for applications. In order to study flow under various levels of complexity, the measurements were done for three in-vitro phantoms and two in-vivo situations. The pumping mechanisms were varied ranging from mechanical pumps to the human heart for the in vivo case. The speckle images were analyzed using the techniques of fractal dimension and speckle contrast analysis. The results of these techniques for the various experimental scenarios were compared. The fractal dimension is a more sensitive measure to capture the complexity of the signal though it was observed that it is also extremely sensitive to the properties of the scattering medium and cannot recover the signal for thicker diffusers in comparison to speckle contrast.

Exhaled breath analysis is a potential non-invasive tool for diagnosing and monitoring airway diseases. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and electrochemical sensor arrays are the main techniques to detect volatile organic compounds (VOC) in exhaled breath. We developed a broadband quantum cascade laser spectroscopy technique for VOC detection and identification. The objective of this study was to assess the repeatability of exhaled breath profiling with broadband quantum cascade laser-based spectroscopy and to explore the clinical applicability by comparing exhaled breath samples from healthy children with those from children with asthma or cystic fibrosis (CF). Healthy children and children with stable asthma or stable CF, aged 6-18 years, were included. Two to four exhaled breath samples were collected in Tedlar bags and analyzed by quantum cascade laser spectroscopy to detect VOCs with an absorption profile in the wavenumber region between 832 and 1262.55 cm^-1. We included 35 healthy children, 39 children with asthma and 15 with CF. Exhaled breath VOC profiles showed poor repeatability (Spearman's rho = 0.36 to 0.46) and agreement of the complete profiles. However, we were able to discriminate healthy children from children with stable asthma or stable CF and identified VOCs that were responsible for this discrimination. Broadband quantum cascade laser-based spectroscopy detected differences in VOC profiles in exhaled breath samples between healthy children and children with asthma or CF. The combination of a relatively easy and fast method and the possibility of molecule identification makes broadband quantum cascade laser-based spectroscopy attractive to investigate the diagnostic and prognostic potential of volatiles in exhaled breath.

We present a widely tunable extended cavity ring laser operating at 2 μm that is monolithically integrated on an indium phosphide substrate. The photonic integrated circuit is designed and fabricated within a multiproject wafer run using a generic integration technology platform. The laser features an intracavity tuning mechanism based on nested asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometers with voltage controlled electro-refractive modulators. The laser operates in a single-mode regime and is tunable over the recorded wavelength range of 31 nm, spanning from 2011 to 2042 nm. Its capability for high-resolution scanning is demonstrated in a single-line spectroscopy experiment using a carbon dioxide reference cell.

Monolithic integration of four widely tunable extended cavity lasers suitable for gas detection is presented. Each laser features a precise, grid-less tuning mechanism with a low-linewidth, single-mode output over a wide wavelength range of 74nm.

Optical interferometry enables highly accurate non-contact displacement measurement. The optical phase ambiguity needs to be resolved for absolute distance ranging. In controlled laboratory conditions and for short distances it is possible to track a non-interrupted displacement from a reference position to a remote target. With large distances covered in field applications this may not be feasible, e.g. in structure monitoring, large scale industrial manufacturing or aerospace navigation and attitude control. We use an optical frequency comb source to explore absolute distance measurement by means of a combined spectral and multi-wavelength homodyne interferometry. This relaxes the absolute distance ambiguity to a few tens of centimeters, covered by simpler electronic distance meters, while maintaining highly accurate optical phase measuring capability. A virtually imaged phased array spectrometer records a spatially dispersed interferogram in a single exposure and allows for resolving the modes of our near infrared comb source with 1 GHz mode separation. This enables measurements with direct traceability of the atomic clock referenced comb source. We observed agreement within 500 nm in comparison with a commercial displacement interferometer for target distances up to 50 m. Furthermore, we report on current work toward applicability in less controlled conditions. A filter cavity decimates the comb source to an increased mode separation larger than 20 GHz. A simple grating spectrometer then allows to record mode-resolved interferograms.

Progress on the development of a long wavelength (∼2 μm) generic monolithic photonic integration technology on indium phosphide substrate and a novel concept of a tunable laser realized as a photonic integrated circuit using such technology are presented. Insights into the development of active and passive waveguide structures which are used to define a limited set of on-chip functionalities in the form of building blocks will be given. A novel tunable laser was proposed and designed using such predefined set of basic building blocks. The laser geometry features an intra-cavity wavelength tuning mechanism based on asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometers in a nested configuration. The photonic integrated circuit chip was fabricated within the first long wavelength multi-project wafer run. The experimental evaluations of the fabricated device show a record tuning range of 31 nm around 2027 nm and successful measurements of a 0.86 GHz wide absorption line of carbon dioxide. These results provide a demonstration of a fully functional photonic integrated circuit operating at wavelengths that are much longer than those in the typical telecommunication windows as well as the use of indium phosphide based generic photonic integration technologies for gas sensing applications.