A mid-IR photothermal imaging system is presented that features an integrated ultrafast erbium-doped fiber probe laser for the first time. With a mid-IR tunable quantum cascade laser (QCL) as the pump laser, vibrational molecular modes are excited and the thermally-induced changes in the refractive index are measured with a probe laser. The custom-built, all-fiber ultrafast probe laser at telec...

High performance, short coherence length light sources with broad bandwidths and high output powers are critical for high-speed, ultrahigh resolution OCT imaging. We demonstrate a new, high performance light source for ultrahigh resolution OCT. Bandwidths of 140 nm at 1300 nm center wavelength with high output powers of 330 mW are generated by an all-fiber Raman light source based on a continuo...

The orientational behavior of microtubules assembled in strong magnetic fields has been studied. It is shown that when microtubules are assembled in a magnetic field, they align with their long axis parallel to the magnetic field. The effect of several parameters known to affect the microtubule assembly are investigated with respect to their effect on the final degree of alignment. Aligned samp...

We have developed a terahertz spectrometer based on difference frequency generation of beams from an ytterbium fiber master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) system. The spectrometer has a resolution of ∼ 2 GHz. It can be tuned rapidly over several hundred GHz, and a wider frequency range can be covered (0.7 – 2.5 THz demonstrated) by swapping in alternate seed lasers and adjusting the alignmen...

We demonstrate a novel alignment-free all-fiber source for generating telecom-band polarization-entangled photon pairs. Polarization entanglement is created by injecting two relatively delayed, orthogonally polarized pump pulses into a piece of dispersion-shifted fiber, where each one independently engages in four-photon scattering, and then removing any distinguishability between the correlate...

We demonstrate an integrated microfluidic flow sensor with ultra-wide dynamic range, suitable for high throughput applications such as flow cytometry and particle sorting/counting. A fiber-tip cantilever transduces flow rates to optical signal readout, and we demonstrate a dynamic range from 0 to 1500 microL min(-1) for operation in water. Fiber-optic sensor alignment is guided by preformed mic...

Abstract This research examines the effect of fiber alignment on performance an exceptionally tough 3D-printable short carbon reinforced cementitious composite material, flexural strength which can exceed 100 N/mm 2 . The material shows pseudoductility caused by strain-hardening and microcracking. An extrusion-based manufacturing process allows accurate control over spatial fibers’ orientation,...

Ribbon plastic optical fiber (POF) linked four-channel optical transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) modules have been proposed and realized featuring an excellent alignment tolerance. The two modules share a common configuration involving an optical sub-assembly (OSA) with vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs)/photodetectors (PDs), and their driver ICs, which are integrated onto a sing...