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Neste trabalho desenvolvemos um novo método para análise biométrica do olho. Essa análise se compõe de medidas dos parâmetros biomecânicos, ou seja, espessura da córnea, distancia entre a córnea e o cristalino, espessura do cristalino, e distancia entre o cristalino e a retina. Este novo método funciona utilizando o princípio da interferometria com laser de baixa coerência. O conhecimento desses parâmetros e de suma importância para o fornecimento de dados necessários para o implante de lentes intra-oculares, em casos de catarata. Alem disso, eles permitem diagnosticar patologias clinicamente caracterizadas por suas alterações. O instrumento convencionalmente utilizado para essas medidas e o biômetro ultra-sônico. Embora esses biômetros sejam práticos e eficientes, a resolução por análise ultra-sônica esta limitada ao fato do tecido ocular não fornecer ecos satisfatórios em freqüências muito acima de 10 MHz. Uma limitação na resposta de freqüência determina uma subseqüente limitação na precisão de medida, já que esta será tanto maior quanta maior a freqüência. Uma variedade de técnicas diferentes tem sido experimentada nos últimos dez anos visando estabelecer um método mais preciso. Entretanto, várias das alternativas existentes têm sido rejeitadas devido à complexidade operacional e altos custos. A técnica interferométrica, entretanto, reúne alta resolução, simplicidade operacional e baixo custo. Isso pode ser constatado pelos resultados obtidos, os quais revela um enorme potencial aplicativo para futuros trabalhos de pesquisa ou mesmo de diagnose. / In this work we have developed a new method for biometric analysis of the eye. This analysis consists of measurements of biomechanical parameters, like thickness of the cornea, distance between the cornea and the crystalline lens, thickness of the crystalline lens and distance between the crystalline lens and the retina. In this new method we use the interferometric principle with a low coherence laser. The knowledge of these parameters is very important in order to supply the necessary data for the implant of intraocular lenes, in the cases of cataract. Besides of allow the diagnosis of the pathologies, which are characterized by their changes. The instrument used in the measurements is an ultrasonic biometer. However the resolution of this instrument is limited by the ocular tissue, which does not allow satisfactory echos in frequencies above 10 MHz. A variety of the techniques have been used in the last ten years in the order to establish a more accurate method. However most of the existing alternatives have been rejected due to operational complexity and high cost. The interferometric technique unites high resolution, operational simplicity and low cost. This can be concluded by the results obtained in this work, which demonstrate the great potentiality of the method for future in academic research or clinical diagnosis.

Measurement of the quality and performance of soft contact lenses is not new and is continually evolving as manufacturing methods develop and more complicated contact lenses become available. Qualification of soft contact lenses has not been a simple task since they are fundamentally difficult to measure. The shape of the lens is extremely sensitive to how the lens is supported and the material properties can change quickly with time. These lenses have been measured in several different ways, the most successful being non-contact optical methods that measure the lens while it is immersed in saline solution. All of these tests measure the lens in transmission and do not directly measure the surface structure of the lens. The reason for this is that the Fresnel reflectivity of the surface of a contact lens in saline solution is about 0.07%. Surface measurements have been performed in air, but not in saline. The lens needs to be measured in solution so that it can maintain its true shape. An interferometer is proposed, constructed, verified, and demonstrated to measure the aspheric low reflectivity surfaces of a contact lens while they are immersed in saline solution. The problem is extremely difficult and requires delicate balance between stray light mitigation, color correction, and polarization management. The resulting system implements reverse raytracing algorithms to correct for retrace errors so that highly aspheric, toric, and distorted contact lens surfaces can be measured. The interferometer is capable of measuring both surfaces from the same side of the contact lens as well as the lens thickness. These measurements along with the index of refraction of the lens material are enough build a complete 3D model of the lens. A simulated transmission test of the 3D model has been shown to match the real transmission test of the same lens to within 32nm RMS or 1/20th of a wave at the test wavelength.

Neste trabalho desenvolvemos um novo método para análise biométrica do olho. Essa análise se compõe de medidas dos parâmetros biomecânicos, ou seja, espessura da córnea, distancia entre a córnea e o cristalino, espessura do cristalino, e distancia entre o cristalino e a retina. Este novo método funciona utilizando o princípio da interferometria com laser de baixa coerência. O conhecimento desses parâmetros e de suma importância para o fornecimento de dados necessários para o implante de lentes intra-oculares, em casos de catarata. Alem disso, eles permitem diagnosticar patologias clinicamente caracterizadas por suas alterações. O instrumento convencionalmente utilizado para essas medidas e o biômetro ultra-sônico. Embora esses biômetros sejam práticos e eficientes, a resolução por análise ultra-sônica esta limitada ao fato do tecido ocular não fornecer ecos satisfatórios em freqüências muito acima de 10 MHz. Uma limitação na resposta de freqüência determina uma subseqüente limitação na precisão de medida, já que esta será tanto maior quanta maior a freqüência. Uma variedade de técnicas diferentes tem sido experimentada nos últimos dez anos visando estabelecer um método mais preciso. Entretanto, várias das alternativas existentes têm sido rejeitadas devido à complexidade operacional e altos custos. A técnica interferométrica, entretanto, reúne alta resolução, simplicidade operacional e baixo custo. Isso pode ser constatado pelos resultados obtidos, os quais revela um enorme potencial aplicativo para futuros trabalhos de pesquisa ou mesmo de diagnose. / In this work we have developed a new method for biometric analysis of the eye. This analysis consists of measurements of biomechanical parameters, like thickness of the cornea, distance between the cornea and the crystalline lens, thickness of the crystalline lens and distance between the crystalline lens and the retina. In this new method we use the interferometric principle with a low coherence laser. The knowledge of these parameters is very important in order to supply the necessary data for the implant of intraocular lenes, in the cases of cataract. Besides of allow the diagnosis of the pathologies, which are characterized by their changes. The instrument used in the measurements is an ultrasonic biometer. However the resolution of this instrument is limited by the ocular tissue, which does not allow satisfactory echos in frequencies above 10 MHz. A variety of the techniques have been used in the last ten years in the order to establish a more accurate method. However most of the existing alternatives have been rejected due to operational complexity and high cost. The interferometric technique unites high resolution, operational simplicity and low cost. This can be concluded by the results obtained in this work, which demonstrate the great potentiality of the method for future in academic research or clinical diagnosis.

Accurate measurement of temperature is essential for the safe and efficient operation and control of a vast range of industrial processes. Many of these processes involve harsh environments, such as high temperature, high pressure, chemical corrosion, toxicity, strong electromagnetic interference, and high-energy radiation exposure. These extreme physical conditions often prevent conventional temperature sensors from being used or make them difficult to use. Novel sensor systems should not only provide accurate and reliable temperature measurements, but also survive the harsh environments through proper fabrication material selections and mechanical structure designs. This dissertation presents detailed research work on the design, modeling, implementation, analysis, and performance evaluation of novel optical high temperature sensors suitable for harsh environment applications. For the first time to our knowledge, an optical temperature sensor based on the broadband polarimetric differential interferometric (BPDI) technology is proposed and tested using single crystal sapphire material. With a simple mechanically structured sensing probe, in conjunction with an optical spectrum-coded interferometric signal processing technique, the proposed single crystal sapphire optical sensor can measure high temperature up to 1600 oC in the harsh environments with high accuracy, corrosion resistance, and long-term measurement stability. Based on the successfully demonstrated sensor prototype in the laboratory, we are confident of the next research step on sensor optimization and scale-up for full field implementations. The goal for this research has been to bring this temperature sensor to a level where it will become commercially viable for harsh environment applications associated with industries. / Ph. D.

A method for measuring the thickness and surface profiles of soft contact lenses while submerged in a saline solution has been implemented utilizing a low coherence Twyman-Green Interferometer. Although the original measurements demonstrated that features on the contact lens surfaces could be accurately determined, it was believed that the layout of the system also induced surface profile distortions. A new opto-mechanical layout has been implemented which eliminates many of these low frequency distortions. Improvements to the original phase unwrapping algorithms have also been developed to overcome the low visibility output inherent to the measurement allowing for a more complete analysis of the two surfaces of a contact lens.

Contact lens performance depends on a number of lens properties. Many metrology systems have been developed to measure different aspects of a contact lens, but none test the surface figure in reflection to subwavelength accuracy. Interferometric surface metrology of immersed contact lenses is complicated by the close proximity of the surfaces, low surface reflectivity, and instability of the lens. An interferometer to address these issues was developed and is described here. The accuracy of the system is verified by comparison of glass reference sample measurements against a calibrated commercial interferometer. The described interferometer can accurately reconstruct large surface departures from spherical with reverse raytracing. The system is shown to have residual errors better than 0.05% of the measured surface departure for high slope regions. Measurements made near null are accurate to lambda/20. Spherical, toric, and bifocal soft contact lenses have been measured by this system and show characteristics of contact lenses not seen in transmission testing. The measurements were used to simulate a transmission map that matches an actual transmission test of the contact lens to lambda/18. (C) 2016 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

<p>The redistribution of incident light into scattered fields ultimately limits the ability to image into biological media. However, these scattered fields also contain information about the structure and distribution of protein complexes, organelles, cells and whole tissues that can be used to assess the health of tissue or to enhance imaging contrast by excluding confounding signals. The interpretation of scattered fields depends on a detailed understanding of the scattering process as well as sophisticated measurement systems. In this work, the development of new instruments based on low coherence interferometry (LCI) is presented in order to perform precise, depth-resolved measurements of scattered fields. Combined with LCI, the application of new light scattering models based on both analytic and numerical methods is presented in order to interpret scattered field measurements in terms of scatterer geometry and tissue health. </p><p>The first portion of this work discusses the application of a new light scattering model to the measurement recorded with an existing technique, Angle Resolved Low Coherence Interferometry (a/LCI). In the a/LCI technique, biological samples are interrogated with collimated light and the energy per scattering angle at each depth in the volume is recorded interferometrically. A light scattering model is then used to invert the scattering measurements and measure the geometry of cell nuclei. A new light scattering model is presented that can recover information about the size, refractive index, and for the first time, shape of cell nuclei. This model is validated and then applied to the study of cell biology in a series of experiments measuring cell swelling, cell deformation, and finally detecting the onset of apoptosis.</p><p>The second portion of this work introduces an improved version of a/LCI based on two dimension angle resolved measurement (2D a/LCI) and Fourier domain low coherence interferometry (FD-LCI). Several systems are presenting for high speed and polarization-resolved measurements of scattered fields. An improved light scattering model based on fully polarization and solid angle resolved measurements is presented, and then efficiently implemented using distributed computing techniques. The combined system is validated with phantoms and is shown to be able to uniquely determine the size and shape of scattering particles using a single measurement.</p><p>The third portion of this work develops the use of angle-resolved interferometry for imaging through highly scattering media by exploiting the tendency of scatterers to forward scatter light. A new interferometers is developed that can image through very large numbers of scattering events with acceptable resolution. A computational model capable of reproducing experimental measurements is developed and used to understand the performance of the technique.</p><p>The final portion of the work develops a method for processing 2D angle resolved measurements using optical autocorrelation. In this method, measurements over a range of angles are fused into a single depth scan that incorporates the component of scattered light only from certain spatial scales. The utility of the technique is demonstrated using a gene knockout model of retinal degeneration in mice. Optical autocorrelation is shown to be a potentially useful biomarker of tissue disease.</p> / Dissertation

<p>Cancer is a disease that affects millions of people each year. While methods for the prevention and treatment of the disease continue to advance, the early detection of precancerous development remains a key factor in reducing mortality and morbidity among patients. The current gold standard for cancer detection is the systematic biopsy. While this method has been used for decades, it is not without limitations. Fortunately, optical detection of cancer techniques are particularly well suited to overcome these limitations. This dissertation chronicles the development of one such technique called Fourier domain low coherence interferometry (fLCI). </p><p>The presented work first describes a detailed analysis of temporal and spatial coherence. The study shows that temporal coherence information in time frequency distributions contains valuable structural information about experimental samples. Additionally, the study of spatial coherence demonstrates the necessity of spatial resolution in white light interferometry systems. The coherence analysis also leads to the development of a new data processing technique that generates depth resolved spectroscopic information with simultaneously high depth and spectral resolution. </p><p>The development of two new fLCI optical systems is also presented. These systems are used to complete a series of controlled experiments validating the theoretical basis and functionality of the fLCI system and processing methods. First, the imaging capabilities of the fLCI system are validated through scattering standard experiments and animal tissue imaging. Next, the new processing method is validated by a series of absorption phantom experiments. Additionally, the nuclear sizing capabilities of the fLCI technique are validated by a study measuring the nuclear morphology of in vitro cell monolayers.</p><p>The validation experiments set the stage for two animal studies: an initial, pilot study and a complete animal trial. The results of these animal studies show that fLCI can distinguish between normal and dyplastic epithelial tissue with high sensitivity and specificity. The results of the work presented in this dissertation show that fLCI has great potential to develop into an effective method for early cancer detection.</p> / Dissertation

<p>Even though women make up over half the population in the United States, medical advancements in areas of women's health have typically lagged behind the rest of the medical field. Specifically, two major threats to women's reproductive health include human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and cervical cancer with accompanying human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. This dissertation presents the development and application of two novel optical imaging technologies aimed at improving these aspects of women's reproductive health.</p><p>The presented work details the instrumentation development of a probe-based, dual-modality optical imaging instrument, which uses simultaneous imaging of fluorimetry and multiplexed low coherence interferometry (mLCI) to measure in vivo microbicide gel thickness distributions. The study explores the optical performance of the device and provides proof of concept measurements on a calibration socket, tissue phantom, and in vivo human data. Once the instrument is fully characterized, it is applied in a clinical trial in which in vivo human vaginal gel thickness distributions. The gel distribution data obtained by the modalities are compared in order to assess the ability of mLCI making accurate in vivo measurements. Differences between the fluorimetry and mLCI modalities are then exploited in order to show a methodology for calculating the extent of microbicide gel dilution with the dual-modality instrument data.</p><p>Limitations in cervical cancer screening are then addressed as angle-resolved low coherence interferometry (a/LCI) is used in an ex vivo pilot study to assess the feasibility of a/LCI in identifying dysplasia in cervical tissues. The study found that the average nuclear diameter found by a/LCI in the basal layer of ectocervical epithelium showed a statistically significant increase in size in dysplastic tissue. These results indicate that a/LCI is capable of identifying cervical dysplasia in ectocervical epithelium. The results of the work presented in this dissertation show that dual-modality optical imaging with fluorimetry and mLCI, and the a/LCI technique show promise in advancing technologies that are used in the field of women's reproductive health.</p> / Dissertation