Confocal microscopy rejects out of focus light from the object by scanning a pinhole through the object and constructing the image point by point. Volume holographic imaging (VHI) systems with bright-field illumination have been proposed as an alternative to conventional confocal type microscopes. VHI systems are an imaging modality that does not require scanning of a pinhole or a slit and thus provides video rate imaging of 3-dimensional objects. However, due to the wavelength-position degeneracy of the hologram, these systems produce less than optimal optical sectioning because the high selectivity of the volume hologram is not utilized. In this dissertation a generalized method for the design of VHI systems applied to microscopy is developed. Discussion includes the inter-relationships between the dispersive, degenerate, and depth axes of the system. Novel designs to remove the wavelength-position degeneracy and improve optical sectioning in these systems are also considered. Optimization of a fluorescence imaging system and of dual-grating confocal-rainbow designs are investigated. A ray-trace simulation that integrates the hologram diffraction efficiency and imaging results is constructed and an experimental system evaluated to demonstrate the optimization method. This results in an empirical relation between depth resolution and design tolerances. The dispersion and construction tolerances of a confocal-rainbow volume holographic imaging system are defined by the Bragg selectivity of the holograms. It is found that a broad diffraction efficiency profile of the illumination hologram with a narrow imaging hologram profile is an optimal balance between field of view, construction alignment, and depth resolution. The approach in this research is directly applicable towards imaging ovarian cells for the detection of cancer. Modeling methods, illumination design, eliminating the wavelength degeneracy of the hologram, and incorporating florescence imaging capability are emphasized in this dissertation. Results from this research may be used not only for biomedical imaging, but also for the design of volume holographic systems for both imaging and sensor applications in other fields including manufacturing (e.g. pharmaceutical), aerospace (e.g. LIDAR), and the physical sciences (e.g. climate change).

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Breast microwave imaging (BMI) is a novel modality that complements current breast screening tools. Microwave radar imaging creates a radar cross-section (reflection) map of the breast. The difference in permittivity between healthy and malignant tissue is between 10-50%. This contrast is significantly higher than that obtained with x-rays and supports the use of microwave imaging for breast cancer diagnosis. Prior to widespread clinical use, some areas require further study. Firstly, the performance of three different antennas was carried out, to assess their suitability for a BMI system. Secondly, the sampling constraint of a circular scan geometry was studied and tested using experimental phantoms and these antennas. For accurate breast BMI reconstruction, the transmission speed of the radio waves inside the breast must be determined. The tissue composition of each patient is different, making this task challenging. This work presents an algorithm for wave speed estimation in different mediums. / February 2017

Volume Holographic Data Storage Systems (HDSS) has been of interest for almost seven decades, and are now considered as a viable option for Write Once Read Many (WORM) cold data storage applications. Thanks to the Bragg selectivity of thick volume holograms, HDSS stores several hundreds of holograms on top of each other, called multiplexed data pages, by which data recording density can be substantially increased compared to surface recordings. On the other hand, signal intensity upon reconstruction of such multiplexed data pages inversely scales with number of multiplexing squared. Therefore, longer detection time and/or a high power laser along with a large dynamic range material is needed to make HDSS a truly viable "fast and high density" option for WORM applications. Historically, the trade-off between data density and data rate is well recognized. The challenge has been partially solved by continuous efforts such as improvement of materials, optical architectures, opto-mechanical systems and signal processing [1,2]. In this dissertation, we provide an additional pathway for HDSS to further increase both data density and transfer rates which is Cavities Enhancement Techniques for HDSS, to overcome the fundamental tradeoff. Key ideas are: recycling light with cavity to enhance data rate, and increasing number of multiplexing by combining cavity-eigenmode multiplexing, a subset of orthogonal phasecode multiplexing, with angular multiplexing. Based on this idea, we design and demonstrate Cavity-enhanced HDSS in such a way that we increase data rate and/or data density by at least factor of 2 while taking advantage of previous improvements as they are, or only with the minimum amount of modifications. In Section 1, we review history of HDSS and summarize the latest research results of HDSS and requirements on modern optical data storage systems as they relate to our solutions. In Section 2, theory of volume holography is reviewed by emphasizing understanding of angular and orthogonal phase code multiplexing. In Section 3 the theory of cavity enhanced reference arms is presented. We discuss how cavities provide a coherent boost to the beam power, which can be used in recording to alleviate source power requirements and/or increase the data recording rate and demonstrate the enhancement experimentally. Beyond basic enhancement, cavities also enable orthogonal phase code multiplexing via cavity eigenmodes. In Section 4, we experimentally demonstrate angular and orthogonal phase code hybrid multiplexing to overcome the limitation of the maximum number of multiplexing imposed by the geometrical constraints of angular multiplexing. In Section 5, novel aspects of the research are discussed in conjunction with the application of the technology for commercial use. Conclusions and future research direction are addressed in Section 6.

Tomographic electron holography combines tomography, the reconstruction of three-dimensionally resolved data from multiple measurements with different specimen orientations, with electron holography, an interferometrical method for measuring the complex wave function inside a transmission electron microscope (TEM). Due to multiple scattering and free wave propagation conventional, ray projection based, tomography does perform badly when approaching atomic resolution. This is remedied by incorporating propagation effects into the projection while maintaining linearity in the object potential. Using the Rytov approach an approximation is derived, where the logarithm of the complex wave is linear in the potential. The ray projection becomes a convolution with a Fresnel propagation kernel, which is considerably more computationally expensive. A framework for such calculations has been implemented in Python. So has a multislice electron scattering algorithm, optimised for large fields of view and high numbers of atoms for simulations of scattering at nanoparticles. The Rytov approximation gives a remarkable increase in resolution and signal quality over the conventional approach in the tested system of a tungsten disulfide nanotube. The response to noise seems to be similar as in conventional tomography, so rather benign. This comes at the downside of much longer calculation time per iteration. / Tomographische Elektronenholographie kombiniert Tomographie, die Rekonstruktion dreidimensional aufgelößter Daten aus einem Satz von mehreren Messungen bei verschiedenen Objektorientierungen, mit Elektronenholographie, eine interferrometrische Messung der komplexen Elektronenwelle im Transmissionselektronenmikroskop (TEM). Wegen Mehrfachstreuung und Propagationseffekten erzeugt konventionelle, auf einer Strahlprojektion basierende, Tomography ernste Probleme bei Hochauflösung hin zu atomarer Auflösung. Diese sollen durch ein Modell, welches Fresnel-Propagation beinhaltet, aber weiterhin linear im Potential des Objektes ist, vermindert werden. Mit dem Rytov-Ansatz wird eine Näherung abgeleitet, wobei der Logarithmus der komplexen Welle linear im Potential ist. Die Strahlen-Projektion ist dann eine Faltung mit dem Fresnel-Propagations-Faltungskernel welche rechentechnisch wesentlich aufwendiger ist. Ein Programm-Paket für solche Rechnungen wurde in Python implementiert. Weiterhin wurde ein Multislice Algorithmus für große Gesichtsfelder und Objekte mit vielen Atomen wie Nanopartikel optimiert. Die Rytov-Näherung verbessert sowohl die Auflösung als auch die Signalqualität immens gegenüber konventioneller Tomographie, zumindest in dem getesteten System eines Wolframdisulfid-Nanoröhrchens. Das Rauschverhalten scheint ähnlich der konventionallen Tomographie zu sein, also eher gutmütig. Im Gegenzug braucht die Tomographie basierend auf der Rytov-Näherung wesentlich mehr Rechenzeit pro Iteration.

This thesis deals with the topic of 3D image processing for digital holographic microscopy - numerical refocusing. This method allows to perform mathematically accurate defocus correction on image of a sample captured away from the sample plane and it was applicable only for images that were made made using coherent illumination source. It has been generalized to a form in which it is also applicable to devices that use incoherent (non-monochromatic or extended) illumination sources. Another presented achievement concerns hologram processing. The advanced hologram processing method enables obtaining more data mainly concerning precision of quantities from one hologram — normally, one would have to capture multiple holograms to get those. Both methods have been verified experimentally.

In this work a spectrum splitting micro-scale concentrating PV system is evaluated to increase the conversion efficiency of flat panel PV systems. In this approach, the dispersed spectrum splitting concentration systems is scaled down to a small size and structured in an array. The spectrum splitting configuration allows the use of separate single bandgap PV cells that increase spectral overlap with the incident solar spectrum. This results in an overall increase in the spectral conversion efficiency of the resulting system. In addition other benefits of the micro-scale PV system are retained such reduced PV cell material requirements, more versatile interconnect configurations, and lower heat rejection requirements that can lead to a lower cost system. The system proposed in this work consists of two cascaded off-axis holograms in combination with a micro lens array, and three types of PV cells. An aspherical lens design is made to minimize the dispersion so that higher concentration ratios can be achieved for a three-junction system. An analysis methodology is also developed to determine the optical efficiency of the resulting system, the characteristics of the dispersed spectrum, and the overall system conversion efficiency for a combination of three types of PV cells.

Previously, we proposed and experimentally demonstrated that optical cavities can be employed in recording and readout of plane wave holograms to improve data rates in Holographic Data Storage Systems (HDSS). However, there were some concerns about whether these techniques would be applicable to page based HDSS where signal beams are image bearing and have multiple wave vectors. We have consequently demonstrated cavity enhanced writing of image bearing holograms in Fe: LiNbO3 with a 532 nm wavelength, CW, single mode, DPSS, Nd: YAG, laser with a cavity on the reference arm. The diffraction efficiency was monitored by pseudo-phase-conjugate readout during the recording process. Additionally, standing wave cavity recording was described as inappropriate to HDSS due to introducing additionally gratings to the recording process. The balancing of these grating strengths is analyzed relative to a trade-off in dynamic range consumption vs. data rates and the elimination of the extra gratings via quarter wave plates and isotropic recording media is proposed.

We measured the diffraction efficiency response of two photorefractive polymer devices according to the duration of the single laser pulse used to record the hologram. The pulse duration was varied from 6 nanoseconds to 1 second, while the pulse energy density was maintained constant at 30 mJ/cm(2). This changed the peak power from 5 x 10(9) mW to 30 mW. We observed a strong reciprocity failure of the efficiency according to the pulse duration, with a reduction as large as a factor 35 between 1 second and 30 mu s pulse duration. At even lower pulse duration (< 30 mu s), the efficiency leveled out and remained constant down to the nanosecond exposure time. The same behavior was observed for samples composed of the same material but with and without buffer layers deposited on the electrodes, and different voltages applied during the holographic recording. We explained these experimental results based on the charge transport mechanism involved in the photorefractive process. The plateau is attributed to the single excitation of the charge carriers by short pulses (T-p < 30 mu s). The increase of efficiency for longer pulse duration (T-p > 30 mu s) is explained by multiple excitations of the charge carriers that allows longer distance to be traveled from the excitation sites. This longer separation distance between the carriers increases the amplitude of the space-charge field, and improves the index modulation. The understanding of the response of the diffraction efficiency according to the pulse duration is particularly important for the optimization of photorefractive materials to be used at high refresh rate such as in videorate 3D display.