I present the construction of a low-velocity intense source (LVIS) of laser-cooled neutral strontium using permanent ring magnets. The LVIS consists of a magneto-optical trap from which cold strontium is extracted in a well-collimated beam. I also present the development and implementation of a full suite of low-noise, high-bandwidth laser control electronics including a microcontroller unit. This microcontroller remotely controls and monitors the current driver, temperature controller, and PID lock circuit for each diode laser simultaneously. The current driver output is accurate to within 2 micro-amps and repeatable to with a few nano-amps. The noise spectral density of the current driver hits a floor of 10^(-10) amps per root Hz at ~50 Hz and has a modulation bandwidth of ~50 MHz. The PID lock-circuit includes a scan-balancing option that we have used to scan an AR coated laser diode ~30 GHz mode-hop free. I describe the construction of an 80 mW frequency doubled 461 nm laser system using PPKTP for cooling and trapping neutral strontium in the LVIS. The LVIS, the electronics systems, and the 461 nm laser system represent major milestones on the way to producing a matter-wave interferometer using Sr-87 ions. The interferometer is based on an optical Raman transition between the hyperfine ground states of the Sr-87 ion. The ions will be produced by exciting the strontium LVIS beam to an auto-ionizing state in the continuum. In the interferometer two half-pi pulses of light and one pi pulse will be delivered to the ions to split and recombine their wave functions. I present calculations of the predicted sensitivity and a discussion of the possible applications. I present a method for locking a 407.8 nm laser to the 5s doublet S J=1/2 to 5p doublet P J=3/2 strontium ion transition in a neutral vapor. I present calculations for the necessary vacuum levels for the experiment and describe the preparation and assembly of the vacuum apparatus. The major vacuum system consists of two connected elastomer sealed chambers: one at 10^(-7) Torr and the other at 10^(-10) Torr separated by a region of low conductance. I present a Sr vapor cell constructed from standard CF fittings that allows the strontium to be heated to ~730 C, which can also be run as a thermal beam. I present a method for protecting the viewports on small-form alkali-earth vapor cells using lead or indium foil during the evaporation of oxide layers. Finally, I report on the current status of the experiment as well as detail future work on the apparatus.

Optical coherence imaging, including tomography (OCT) and microscopy (OCM), has been a growing research field in biomedical optical imaging in the last decade. In this imaging modality, a broadband light source, thus of short temporal coherence length, is used to perform imaging via interferometry. A challenge in optical coherence imaging, as in any imaging system towards biomedical diagnosis, is the quantification of image quality and optimization of the system components, both a primary focus of this research. We concentrated our efforts on the optimization of the imaging system from two main standpoints: axial point spread function (PSF) and practical steps towards compact low-cost solutions. Up to recently, the criteria for the quality of a system was based on speed of imaging, sensitivity, and particularly axial resolution estimated solely from the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the axial PSF with the common practice of assuming a Gaussian source power spectrum. As part of our work to quantify axial resolution we first brought forth two more metrics unlike FWHM, which accounted for side lobes in the axial PSF caused by irregularities in the shape of the source power spectrum, such as spectral dips. Subsequently, we presented a method where the axial PSF was significantly optimized by suppressing the side lobes occurring because of the irregular shape of the source power spectrum. The optimization was performed through optically shaping the source power spectrum via a programmable spectral shaper, which consequentially led to suppression of spurious structures in the images of a layered specimen. The superiority of the demonstrated approach was in performing reshaping before imaging, thus eliminating the need for post-data acquisition digital signal processing. Importantly, towards the optimization and objective image quality assessment in optical coherence imaging, the impact of source spectral shaping was further analyzed in a task-based assessment method based on statistical decision theory. Two classification tasks, a signal-detection task and a resolution task, were investigated. Results showed that reshaping the source power spectrum was a benefit essentially to the resolution task, as opposed to both the detection and resolution tasks, and the importance of the specimen local variations in index of refraction on the resolution task was demonstrated. Finally, towards the optimization of OCT and OCM for use in clinical settings, we analyzed the detection electronics stage, which is a crucial component of the system that is designed to capture extremely weak interferometric signals in biomedical and biological imaging applications. We designed and tested detection electronics to achieve a compact and low-cost solution for portable imaging units and demonstrated that the design provided an equivalent performance to the commercial lock-in amplifier considering the system sensitivity obtained with both detection schemes.

High-Frame-Rate Oil Film Interferometry Jonathan Charles White This thesis presents the design and implementation of a high-frame-rate oil film interferometry technique (HOFI) used to directly measure skin friction in time dependent flows. Experiments were performed to determine the ability of a high-speed camera to capture oil film interferometry images. HOFI was found to be able to capture these interferometry images at frequencies up to 105 Hz. Steady laminar and turbulent flows were tested. Transient flows tested consisted of a wind tunnel ramping up in velocity and a laminar boundary layer which was intermittently tripped to turbulence by puffing air out of a pressure tap. Flow speeds ranged from 0 to 108 ft/sec and 10 and 50 cSt Dow Corning 200 dimethylpolysiloxane silicone oil was used. The skin friction was determined from the rate of change of the height of the oil film using lubrication theory. The height of the oil film was determined from the high speed camera interferogram images using a MATLAB script which determined fringe spacing by fitting a four-parameter sine wave to the intensity levels in each image. The MATLAB script was able to determine the height of the oil film for thousands of interferogram images in only a few minutes with sub-pixel error in fringe spacing. The skin friction was calculated using the oil film height history allowing for the direct measurement of skin friction in time dependent flows.

One of two project reports. Part A can be found at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/17932 / Time-averaged holographic interferometry is applied to the study of the resonance mode structures of an electromagnetic and a piezoelectric high frequency loud-speaker. Vibrational amplitude measurements were made using the simple concept of the holo-diagram. The vibrational amplitude sensitivity range was from 0.1 µm to 0.9 µm, which is an ideal range since the speaker vibrational amplitudes were always below 0.8 µm. Application of the technique to non-destructive speaker quality testing and optimum speaker design is also discussed in the report. / Thesis / Master of Engineering (ME)

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Dams are man-made structures that in order to keep functioning and to be considered structurally healthy need constant monitoring. Assessing the deformation of dams can be time consuming and economically costly. Recently, the technique of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) has proved its potential to measure ground and structural deformation. This geodetic method represents a cost-effective way to monitor millimetre-level displacements and can be used as supplemental analysis to detect movements in the structure and its surroundings. The objective of this work is to assess the practicality of the method through the analysis of the surface deformation of the Ajaure dam located in northern Sweden, in the period 2014-2017, using the freely available Sentinel-1A images. The scenes, 51 in ascending and 47 in descending mode, were processed exploiting the Persistent Scatterer (PS) technique and deformation trends, and time series were produced. Built in the 60’s, the Ajaure embankment dam is considered as high consequence, meaning that a failure would cause socio-economic damages to the communities involved and, for this reason, the dam needs constant attention. So far, a program of automatic measurements in situ has been collecting data, which have been used partly to compare with InSAR results. Results of the multi temporal analysis of the limited PS points on/around the dam show that the dam has been subsiding more intensely toward the centre, where maximum values are of approximately 5 ± 1.25 mm/year (descending) and 2 ± 1.27 mm/year (ascending) at different locations (separated of approximately 70 m). Outermost points instead show values within -0.7 and 0.9 mm/year, describing a stable behaviour. The decomposition of the rate has furthermore revealed that the crest in the observation period has laterally moved toward the reservoir. It has been observed that the operation of loading and unloading the reservoir influence the dam behaviour. The movements recorded by the PS points on the dam also correlate with the air temperature (i.e. seasonal cycle). The research revealed that the snow cover and the vegetation could have interfered with the signal, that resulted in a relative low correlation. Therefore, the number of PS points on and around the dam is limited, and comparison with the geodetic data is only based on a few points. The comparison shows general agreement, showing the capacities of the InSAR method. The study constitutes a starting point for further improvements, for example observation in longer period when more Sentinel1 images of the study area are collected. Installation of corner reflectors at the dam site and/or by use of high resolution SAR data is also suggested.

Of the wide variety of existing optical techniques for non-contact 3D surface mapping, Fourier Transform Interferometry (FTI) is the method that most elegantly combines simplicity with high speed and high resolution. FTI generates continuous-phase surface maps from a projected optical interference pattern, which is generated with a simple double-pinhole source and collected in a single snapshot using conventional digital camera technology. For enhanced stability and reduced system size, the fringe source can be made from a fiber optic coupler. Unfortunately, many applications require mapping of surfaces that contain challenging features not ideally suited for reconstruction using FTI. Rough and discontinuous surfaces, commonly seen in applications requiring imaging of rock particles, present a unique set of obstacles that cannot be overcome using existing FTI techniques. This work is based on an original analysis of the limitations of FTI and the means in which errors are generated by the particular features encountered in the aggregate mapping application. Several innovative solutions have been developed to enable the use of FTI on rough and discontinuous surfaces. Through filter optimization and development of a novel phase unwrapping and referencing technique, the Method of Multiple References (MoMR), this work has enabled surface error correction and simultaneous imaging of multiple particles using FTI. A complete aggregate profilometry system has been constructed, including a MoMR-FTI software package and graphical user interface, to implement these concepts. The system achieves better than 22µm z-axis resolution, and comprehensive testing has proven it capable to handle a wide variety of particle surfaces. A range of additional features have been developed, such as error correction, particle boundary mapping, and automatic data quality windowing, to enhance the usefulness of the system in its intended application. Because of its high accuracy, high speed and ability to map varied particles, the developed system is ideally suited for large-scale aggregate characterization in highway research laboratories. Additionally, the techniques developed in this work are potentially useful in a large number of applications in which surface roughness or discontinuities pose a challenge. / Ph. D.