Heterodyne displacement interferometry is a widely accepted methodology capable of measuring displacements with sub-nanometer resolution. The objective of this thesis is to demonstrate a compact, fiber-delivered displacement measuring interferometer which can be used to simultaneously calibrate the linear motion and rotational errors of a translating stage using a single measurement beam. Heter...

The sclera is the white outer shell and principal load-bearing tissue of the eye as it sustains the intraocular pressure. We have hypothesized that the mechanical properties of the posterior sclera play a significant role in and are altered by the development of glaucoma-an ocular disease manifested by structural damage to the optic nerve head. An anisotropic hyperelastic constitutive model is ...

In this work, electrospun tubes of interest for vascular tissue engineering were fabricated and evaluated for burst pressure and suture retention strength (SRS) in the same context as tensile strength providing a direct, novel comparison. Tubes could be fabricated displaying average burst pressures up to 4000 mmHg--well above the standard of 2000 mmHg--and SRS values matching those of relevant ...

We present a general mathematical theory for the mechanical interplay in tissue-equivalents (cell-populated collagen gels): Cell traction leads to compaction of the fibrillar collagen network, which for certain conditions such as a mechanical constraint or inhomogeneous cell distribution, can result in inhomogeneous compaction and consequently fibril alignment, leading to cell contact guidance,...

Fiber-to-chip light coupling using a graded-index (GRIN) fiber collimator is investigated. Our experiments with grating couplers and strip waveguides fabricated in photonic integrated circuit technology reveal that the peak efficiency of GRIN 7.8 dB lower than single-mode fiber. However, 3-dB alignment tolerance improved by factor about 5.7 giving rise to pluggable sensor solutions. This work o...

This paper presents a procedure to perform fully autonomous on orbit alignment of the interferometer on board the LISA technology package (LTP). LTP comprises two freefloating test masses as inertial sensors that additionally serve as end-mirrors of a set of interferometers. From the output signals of the interferometers, a subset has been selected to obtain alignment information of the test ma...

This paper presents a procedure to perform fully autonomous on orbit alignment of the interferometer on board the LISA technology package (LTP). LTP comprises two freefloating test masses as inertial sensors that additionally serve as end-mirrors of a set of interferometers. From the output signals of the interferometers, a subset has been selected to obtain alignment information of the test ma...

It is shown that the acoustically induced phase modulation of coherent light propagating within a multimode optical fiber may be linearly detected by an interferometer employing an unmodulated replica of the fiber beam as the reference. It is proposed that a dynamic hologram provide such a reference. This technique allows a performance comparable with that of a monomode interferometric sensor t...

We report a polarization diversity detection scheme for optical coherence tomography with a new, custom, miniaturized fiber coupler with single mode (SM) fiber inputs and polarization maintaining (PM) fiber outputs. The SM fiber inputs obviate matching the optical lengths of the X and Y OCT polarization channels prior to interference and the PM fiber outputs ensure defined X and Y axes after in...

The influence of different polarization states during the generation of periodic nanostructures on the surface of carbon fibers was investigated using a femtosecond laser with a pulse duration τ=300  fs, a wavelength λ=1025  nm, and a peak fluence F=4  J/cm². It was shown that linear polarization results in a well-aligned periodic pattern with different orders of magnitude concerning their peri...