Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userMeasurement of probe displacement to the thermal resolution limit in photonic force microscopy using a miniature quadrant photodetector
168
0
0.0
(
0
)
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
A photonic force microscope comprises of an optically trapped micro-probe and a position detection system to track the motion of the probe. Signal collection for motion detection is often carried out using the backscattered light off the probe - however, this mode has problems of low S/N due to the small back-scattering cross-sections of the micro-probes typically used. The position sensors often used in these cases are quadrant photodetectors. To ensure maximum sensitivity of such detectors, it would help if the detector size matched with the detection beam radius after the condenser lens (which for backscattered detection would be the trapping objective itself). To suit this condition, we have used a miniature displacement sensor whose dimensions makes it ideal to work with 1:1 images of micron-sized trapped probes in the back-scattering detection mode. The detector is based on the quadrant photo-IC in the optical pick-up head of a compact disc player. Using this detector, we measured absolute displacements of an optically trapped 1.1 um probe with a resolution of ~10 nm for a bandwidth of 10 Hz at 95% significance without any sample or laser stabilization. We characterized our optical trap for different sized probes by measuring the power spectrum for each probe to 1% accuracy, and found that for 1.1 um diameter probes, the noise in our position measurement matched the thermal resolution limit for averaging times up to 10 ms. We also achieved a linear response range of around 385 nm with crosstalk between axes ~4% for 1.1 um diameter probes. The detector has extremely high bandwidth (few MHz) and low optical power threshold - other factors that can lead to its widespread use in photonic force microscopy.
rate research
Read More
Optical tweezers are an invaluable tool for non-contact trapping and micro-manipulation, but their ability to facilitate high-throughput volumetric microrheology of biological samples for mechanobiology research is limited by the precise alignment associated with the excitation and detection of individual bead oscillations. In contrast, radiation pressure from a low numerical aperture optical beam can apply transversely localized force over an extended depth range. We propose photonic force optical coherence elastography (PF-OCE), leveraging phase-sensitive interferometric detection to track sub-nanometre oscillations of beads, embedded in viscoelastic hydrogels, induced by modulated radiation pressure. Since the displacements caused by ultra-low radiation-pressure force are typically obscured by absorption-mediated thermal effects, mechanical responses of the beads were isolated after independent measurement and decoupling of the photothermal response of the hydrogels. Volumetric imaging of bead mechanical responses in hydrogels with different agarose concentrations by PF-OCE was consistent with bulk mechanical characterization of the hydrogels by shear rheometry.
The measurement of extremely small displacements is of utmost importance, both for fundamental studies [1-4], and practical applications [5-7]. One way to estimate a small displacement is to measure the Doppler shift generated in light reflected off an object moving with a known periodic frequency. This remote sensing technique converts a displacement measurement into a frequency measurement, and has been considerably successful [8-14]. The displacement sensitivity of this technique is limited by the Doppler frequency noise floor and by the velocity of the moving object. Other primary limitations are hours of integration time [12,13] and optimal operation only in a narrow Doppler frequency range. Here we show a sensitive device capable of measuring $mu$Hz/$sqrt{text{Hz}}$ Doppler frequency shifts corresponding to tens of fm displacements for a mirror oscillating at 2 Hz. While the Doppler shift measured is comparable to other techniques [12.13], the position sensitivity is orders of magnitude better, and operates over several orders of magnitude of Doppler frequency range. In addition, unlike other techniques which often rely on interferometric methods, our device is phase insensitive, making it unusually robust to noise.
Optical cavities provide high sensitivity to dispersion since their resonance frequencies depend on the index of refraction. We present a direct, broadband, and accurate measurement of the modes of a high finesse cavity using an optical frequency comb and a mechanical Fourier transform spectrometer with a kHz-level resolution. We characterize 16000 cavity modes spanning 16 THz of bandwidth in terms of center frequency, linewidth, and amplitude. We retrieve the group delay dispersion of the cavity mirror coatings and pure N${_2}$ with 0.1 fs${^2}$ precision and 1 fs${^2}$ accuracy, as well as the refractivity of the 3{ u}1+{ u}3 absorption band of CO${_2}$ with 5 x 10${^{-12}}$ precision. This opens up for broadband refractive index metrology and calibration-free spectroscopy of entire molecular bands.
We present a method for 3D sub-nanometer displacement measurement using a set of differential optical shadow sensor. It is based on using pairs of collimated beams on opposite sides of an object that are partially blocked by it. Applied to a sphere, our 3-axis sensor module consists of 8 parallel beam-detector sets for redundancy. The sphere blocks half of each beam power in the nominal centered position, and any displacement can be measured by the differential optical power changes amongst the pairs of detectors. We have experimentally demonstrated a displacement sensitivity of 0.87 nm/rtHz at 1 Hz and 0.39 nm/rtHz at 10 Hz. We describe the application of the module to the inertial sensors of a drag-free satellite, which can potentially be used for navigation, geodesy and fundamental science experiments as well as ground based applications.
Photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) is a promising imaging modality because it is able to reveal optical absorption contrast in high resolution on the order of a micrometer. It can be applied in an endoscopic approach by implementing PAM into a miniature probe, termed as photoacoustic endoscopy (PAE). Here we develop a miniature focus-adjustable PAE (FA-PAE) probe characterized by both high resolution (in micrometers) and large depth of focus (DOF) via a novel optomechanical design for focus adjustment. To realize high resolution and large DOF in a miniature probe, a 2-mm plano-convex lens is specially adopted, and the mechanical translation of a single-mode fiber is meticulously designed to allow the use of multi-focus image fusion (MIF) for extended DOF. Compared with existing PAE probes, our FA-PAE probe achieves high resolution of 3-5 {mu}m within unprecedentedly large DOF of >3.2 mm, more than 27 times the DOF of the probe without performing focus adjustment for MIF. The superior performance is demonstrated by imaging both phantoms and animals including mice and zebrafishes in vivo. Our work opens new perspectives for PAE biomedical applications.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
