The point spread function (PSF) for astronomical telescopes and instruments depends not only on geometric aberrations and scalar wave diffraction, but also on the apodization and wavefront errors introduced by coatings on reflecting and transmitting surfaces within the optical system. Geometrical ray tracing provides incomplete image simulations for exoplanet coronagraphs with the goal of resolving planets with a brightness less than 10<^>-9 of their star located within 3 Airy disk radii. The Polaris-M polarization analysis program calculates uncorrected coating polarization aberrations couple around 10<^>-5 light into crossed polarized diffraction patterns about twice Airy disk size. These wavefronts not corrected by the deformable optics systems. Polarization aberrations expansions have shown how image defects scale with mirror coatings, fold mirror angles, and numerical aperture.

This thesis deals with the theoretical analysis of rays passing through lenses. Emphasis on optical defects, particularly focusing on spherical aberration lenses. It also includes the preparation of a workplace and the measurement of spherical aberration and evaluate the quality of different lenses. Furthermore, a program for simulation of spherical aberration lens.

Photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM) uses photoelectrons excited from material surfaces by incident photons to probe the interaction of light with surfaces with nanometer-scale resolution. The point resolution of PEEM images is strongly limited by spherical and chromatic aberration. Image aberrations primarily originate from the acceleration of photoelectrons and imaging with the objective lens and vary strongly in magnitude with specimen emission characteristics. Spherical and chromatic aberration can be corrected with an electrostatic mirror, and here I develop a triode mirror with hyperbolic geometry that has two adjacent, field-adjustable regions. I present analytic and numerical models of the mirror and show that the optical properties agree to within a few percent. When this mirror is coupled with an electron lens, it can provide a large dynamic range of correction and the coefficients of spherical and chromatic aberration can be varied independently. I report on efforts to realize a triode mirror corrector, including design, characterization, and alignment in our microscope at Portland State University (PSU). PEEM may be used to investigate optically active nanostructures, and we show that photoelectron emission yields can be identified with diffraction, surface plasmons, and dielectric waveguiding. Furthermore, we find that photoelectron micrographs of nanostructured metal and dielectric structures correlate with electromagnetic field calculations. We conclude that photoemission is highly spatially sensitive to the electromagnetic field intensity, allowing the direct visualization of the interaction of light with material surfaces at nanometer scales and over a wide range of incident light frequencies.

Following the foundation of aberration theory for rotationally symmetric optical systems established by Seidel, Schwarzschild, Burch, Conrady, Buchdahl, and in its most useful form H.H. Hopkins, Shack, Buchroeder, Thompson, and Rogers developed a vectorial form of the wave aberration theory that enables addressing optical systems without symmetry. In this research, a vectorial theory is utilized and extended for the alignment of two- and three-mirror astronomical telescopes, including the effects of pointing changes and astigmatic figure errors. Importantly, it is demonstrated that the vectorial form of aberration theory, also referred to as nodal aberration theory, not only provides valuable insights but also facilitates a quantitative description of the aberrations in optical systems without symmetry. Specifically, nodal aberration theory has been utilized to establish key insights into the aberration field response of astronomical telescopes to misalignments. Important nodal properties have been derived and discussed and the theoretical predictions have been validated with optical design software. It has been demonstrated that the removal of on-axis coma in some of the most common astronomical telescopes in use today directly leads to a constraint for one of the nodes for astigmatism to be located at the field center, which is exactly true for Cassegrain or Gregorian telescopes, and approximately true for Ritchey-Chretien (or aplanatic Gregorian) telescopes. These observations led to important conclusions concerning the alignment of astronomical telescopes. First, the correction of these telescopes on-axis for zero coma removes all misalignment induced aberrations only on-axis. Secondly, given that the image quality at the field center remains stigmatic in the presence of misalignments, for these telescopes non-zero astigmatism measured at the field-center directly reveals astigmatic mirror figure errors. Importantly, the effects of misalignments and astigmatic figure error can be clearly distinguished if present in combination, even in the presence of significant boresight errors. Having the possibility to clearly distinguish between misalignment and astigmatic mirror figure error provides an important prerequisite for the optimal operation of active/adaptive optics systems that are becoming standard in observatory class telescopes. Subsequent work on TMA telescopes revealed that even though TMAs are limited by fifth order aberrations in their nominal alignment state, third order nodal aberration theory provides accurate image quality predictions for misalignments and astigmatic figure (third order) effects in these optical systems. It has been demonstrated for the first time that analytical expressions can be devised that describe the characteristic misalignment induced aberration fields of any TMA telescope, leading to two main image quality degrading aberrations, field-constant coma and field-linear, field-asymmetric astigmatism. These new insights can be strategically leveraged in the development of alignment strategies for TMAs. The final part of this work analyzed how third and fifth order nodal aberration fields can be utilized in the alignment of wide-angle telescopes, with the specific example of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). In cooperation with the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) an alignment strategy has been developed for the LSST (without camera) to expedite the commissioning of the telescope, providing for the first time analytical expressions for the computation of misalignment parameters in three-mirror telescopes, taking into account fabrication tolerances for the alignment of the tertiary mirror on the primary mirror substrate. Even though the discussion has been focused primarily on alignment strategies of astronomical telescopes, the methods and algorithms developed in this work can be equally applied to any imaging system.

No description available.

No description available.

The eye is our window to the world. Human vision has therefore been extensively studied over the years. However, in-depth studies are often either limited to our central visual field, or, when extended to the periphery, only correct optical errors related to a narrow spectrum of light. This thesis extends the current knowledge by considering the full visible spectrum over a wide visual field. A broad spectrum means that the wavelength dependence of light propagation inside the eye has to be considered; the optics of the eye will therefore not form a retinal image in the same location for all wavelengths, a phenomenon called chromatic aberration. We present here a new methodology to objectively measure the magnitude of transverse chromatic aberration (TCA) across the visual field of the human eye, and show that the ocular TCA increases linearly with off-axis angle (about 0.21 arcmin per degree for the spectral range from 543 nm to 842 nm). Moreover, we have implemented adaptive psychophysical methods to quantify the impact of TCA on central and peripheral vision. We have found that inducing additional TCA degrades peripheral grating detection acuity more than foveal resolution acuity (more than 0.05 logMAR per arcmin of induced TCA peripherally compared to 0.03 logMAR/arcmin foveally). As stimuli to evaluate peripheral vision, we recommend gratings that are obliquely-oriented relative to the visual field meridian. The results of this thesis have clinical relevance for improving peripheral vision and are equally important for retinal imaging techniques. To limit the negative impacts of TCA on vision, inducing additional TCA should be avoided when the peripheral refractive errors are to be corrected, such as for people suffering from macular degeneration and central visual field loss. In retinal imaging applications, TCA leads to lateral offsets when imaging is performed in more than one wavelength. Consequently, the measurement of TCA together with careful pupil alignment and subsequent compensation can improve the functionality of these instruments. / Ögat är vårt fönster mot världen, och syn har mätts och studerats i stor utsträckning över åren. Trots detta är forskningen om mänsklig syn oftast begränsad till det centrala synfältet, och i studier av det perifera synfältet korrigeras optiska fel endast över ett smalt våglängdsområde. Denna avhandling vidgar forskningen om vår syn till att inkludera hela det synliga spektrumet över ett stort synfält. Ett brett spektrum innebär att vi måste ta hänsyn till våglängdsberoendet i ljusets brytning i ögat; ögats optik kan därför inte avbilda ett objekt till samma bildläge på näthinnan för alla våglängder, ett fenomen som kallas kromatisk aberration. Vi presenterar här en ny metod för att mäta mängden transversell kromatisk aberration (TCA) över ögats synfält och visar att ögats TCA ökar linjärt med vinkeln ut i synfältet (ungefär 0,21 bågminuter per grad från 543 nm till 842 nm). Dessutom har vi implementerat adaptiva psykofysiska mätmetoder för att kvantifiera effekten av TCA på central och perifer syn. Våra resultat visar att extra inducerad TCA påverkar den perifera förmågan att upptäcka sinusformade randmönster mer än den centrala förmågan att upplösa motsvarande ränder (mer än 0,05 logMAR per bågminut inducerad TCA i periferin jämfört med 0,03 logMAR/bågminut centralt). Vid utvärdering av perifer syn rekommenderar vi att använda sinusformade randmönster med en sned riktning jämfört med synfältsmeridianen. Resultaten som presenteras i avhandlingen har klinisk betydelse för att förbättra den perifera synen och är även viktiga för tekniker som avbildar ögats näthinna. För att begränsa den negativa effekt TCA har på synen ska man undvika att inducera extra TCA, t.e.x. när ögats perifera refraktiva fel korrigeras med glasögon för människor med makula degeneration och centralt synfältsbortfall. Vid avbildning av näthinnan ger ögats TCA förskjutningar mellan bilder i olika våglängder. Därför kan mätningar av TCA, tillsammans med välkontrollerad linjering av pupillens position och efterföljande kompensation, förbättra funktionen hos dessa instrument. / <p>QC 20160511</p>

L'objectif de cette thèse était d'explorer le potentiel de l’imagerie du cerveau humain par ultrasons. L'anatomie, le flux sanguin et la rigidité des tissus mous ont déjà été étudiés avec l'imagerie ultrasonore ultrarapide chez l'homme et validés sur plusieurs organes, tels que le sein et le foie, mais pas encore sur le cerveau adulte. La principale limitation de l'imagerie échographique transcrânienne est aujourd'hui le très fort artefact d'aberration induit par le crâne. En effet, l’os, de par sa composition ne permet pas la propagation des ultrasons comme ailleurs dans le corps humain. Dans cette thèse, nous avons utilisé l'imagerie ultrasonore ultrarapide pour l'évaluation de la rigidité des tissus mous et l'imagerie neurofonctionnelle dans le cerveau humain adulte, lors de chirurgies du cerveau afin de contourner dans un premier temps le problème des aberrations induites par le crâne. La dernière partie de cette thèse était axée sur la correction d’aberration pour l’échographie quantitative et l’imagerie ultrasonore transcrânienne. Nous avons tout d’abord fourni plusieurs preuves de l'intérêt d'utiliser l’élastographie par onde de cisaillement pendant la chirurgie du cerveau. Nous avons également présenté notre nouvelle technique d’élastographie par onde de cisaillement en 3D à l'aide d'une sonde matricielle dans le but de pouvoir dépasser les limitations du 2D et notamment être moins dépendant de l’opérateur.Dans un second volet, nous avons démontré la capacité des ultrasons ultrarapides à identifier, cartographier et différencier en profondeur les régions d'activation corticales en réponse à un stimulus, à la fois chez les patients éveillés et chez les patients anesthésiés. Nous avons démontré que l'imagerie neurofonctionnelle par ultrasons a le potentiel de devenir une modalité complète de neuroimagerie avec des avantages majeurs pour une utilisation peropératoire.Dans un troisième volet, nous avons utilisé une technique en trois étapes pour calculer précisément la vitesse du son (SSE) dans un milieu. Cette technique a été testée dans des fantômes ultrasonores et in vivo dans les foies de patients. Dans les deux cas, notre méthode a été capable de trouver la vitesse du son correspondant au milieu. Nous avons démontré que la SSE était liée à la fraction de graisse. Cette analyse a permis de conclure que la SSE était en mesure de distinguer un foie sain et d’un foie malade aussi bien avec la biopsie qu’avec l’IRM comme méthode de référence. Combiné à l'utilisation de la formule de Wood, nous avons même pu avoir accès à une fraction de graisse mesurée par ultrasons de manière non invasive. Puis nous avons combiné la correction d’aberration de phase, d'amplitude et de vitesse du son pour faire de l’imagerie transcrânienne en simulation numérique. Nous avons atteint notre objectif en obtenant des images représentant fidèlement le milieu (position latérale et profondeur) et caractérisées par une résolution et un contraste similaires à ceux obtenus avec une source ponctuelle dans le milieu / The objective of this thesis was to explore the potential of human brain ultrasound imaging. Anatomy, blood flow and soft tissue stiffness have already been studied with ultrafast ultrasound imaging in humans and validated in several organs, such as, the breast and liver but not yet on the adult brain. The main limitation of transcranial ultrasound imaging is today the very strong skull-induced aberration artefact. Indeed, the bone, due to its composition, does not allow for ultrasound propagation as elsewhere in the human body. Therefore, this thesis was focused on the development of ultrafast ultrasound imaging for the evaluation of soft tissue stiffness and neurofunctional imaging in the adult human brain, during brain surgery to bypass the problem of skull aberration, and on an aberration correction technique for transcranial ultrasound imaging.We first provided several evidence of the benefit of using shear wave elastography during brain surgery. We also presented our new technique for 3D shear wave elastography using a matrix array in order to be able to overcome the limitations of 2D imaging and in particular to reduce the operator dependence.In a second phase, we demonstrated the capability of ultrasound to identify, map and differentiate in depth cortical regions of activation in response to a stimulus, both in awake patients and in anaesthetized patients. We have demonstrated that ultrasound neurofunctional imaging has the potential to become a comprehensive modality of neuroimaging with major benefits for intraoperative use. In a third part, we developed a new sound speed estimation (SSE) technique, based on a three-step technique that estimates the sound speed accurately corresponding to the illuminated medium. This technique was tested in ultrasound phantoms and in vivo in patient’s liver. In both cases, our method was able to find the sound speed corresponding to the medium. We demonstrated that SSE was related to the fat fraction. This analysis led to the conclusion that SSE was able to distinguish a healthy liver from a diseased liver with both biopsy and MRI as gold standard. Combined with the use of the Wood’s formula, we were even able to access a fat fraction measured by non-invasive ultrasound. Finally, by combining the phase, the amplitude and the sound speed estimation, we have developed a new aberration correction algorithm to perform transcranial ultrasound imaging. By performing numerical simulations, we obtained images that faithfully represented the medium (lateral position and depth) and characterized by one resolution and one contrast similar to those obtained with a punctual source in the medium

published_or_final_version / abstract / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

This thesis concerns the experimental application of the technique of optical sectioning in the aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM). Another aim was to perform optical sectioning experiments on the still relatively new scanning confocal electron microscope (SCEM). To test the feasibility of this technique, experiments were performed on a variety of samples to measure the achievable depth response. Deconvolution methods were explored in an attempt to further improve the depth response. Finally, some of the first optical sectioning experiments were performed in the SCEM using both elastic and inelastically scattered electrons. The results showed a clear need to investigate confocal electron microscopy due to the missing cone problem for incoherent imaging in the STEM. This is particularly evident when imaging objects of greater width than the STEM probe. Confocal electron microscopy using inelastic electrons appeared to be a promising imaging mode for the future with this thesis consisting of early work in the field.