Color gamut characteristics of diffractive-light guides of near-eye augmented reality glasses.

We delve into the distinctive color gamut characteristics resulting from color dispersion of surface relief grating (SRG) and wavelength degeneracy of volume holographic optical element (VHOE) in a diffractive light guide. While a laser-like spectrum achieves an impressive 194% sRGB color gamut for both cases, it proves unsuitable for VHOE light guides due to limitations in breaking the field of view (FOV) of the display. Conversely, a broad-band light source, such as LEDs, offers continuous FOV but reduces the common color gamut to 50% sRGB. We then present a newly designed VHOE light guide capable of achieving the common color gamut of 130% sRGB using two multiplexed holograms of each color, closely matching the 133% sRGB achieved by an SRG light guide. This article presents the first theoretical methodology to elucidate color performance of diffractive light guides utilizing VHOEs with holographic multiplexing, affirming their suitability for crafting high-quality near-eye display.

Hyperspectral screen-image-synthesis meter with scattering-noise suppression.

The screen image synthesis (SIS) meter was originally proposed as a high-speed measurement tool, which fused the measured data from multiple sample-rotational angles to produce a whole-field measurement result. However, it suffered from stray light noise and lacked the capability of spectrum measurement. In this study, we propose an SIS system embedded with a snapshot hyperspectral technology, which was based on a dispersion image of the sparse sampling screen (SSS). When a photo was captured, it was transformed and calibrated to hyperspectral data at a specific sample-rotational angle. After the hyperspectral data in all sample-rotational angles were captured, an SIS image-fusion process was then applied to get the whole field hyperspectral data. By applying SSS to the SIS meter, we not only create a screen image synthesis hyperspectral meter but also effectively address the issue of stray-light noise. In the experiment, we analyze its correctness by comparing the hyperspectral value with a one-dimensional spectrum goniometer (ODSG). We also show the 2D color temperature coefficient distribution and compare it with the ODSG. Experimental results also demonstrate the feasibility in terms of both spectrum distribution meter and color coefficient temperature distribution meter.

Passive anti-leakage of blue light for phosphor-converted white LEDs with crystal nanocellulose materials.

A phenomenon known as "blue-light leakage" caused by overheating pcW-LEDs has recently been identified, and it poses a risk to users. This study focuses on investigating and optimizing a solution to address this issue. To tackle the problem of overheating and blue light leakage, we explored the application of a specific thermochromic material called crystal nano cellulose (CNC). We introduced CNC inside the epoxy lens of white LEDs. Importantly, under standard conditions, CNC has a negligible impact on the optical properties of the output white light. However, when overheating conditions arise, leading to blue light leakage, the temperature increase triggers a darkening effect in CNC. This thermochromic behavior of CNC allows it to strongly absorb the blue light, resulting in a significant suppression of the output luminous flux. As a result, the lamp dims, which not only prevents the user's eyes from being exposed to harmful bluish light but also serves as an indicator of aging in the pcW-LED. By implementing CNC as a responsive material in the design of white LEDs, this study offers a practical and effective solution to mitigate the negative effects of blue-light leakage caused by overheating. This improvement enhances the safety and comfort of users while also providing an early warning system for the aging of pcW-LEDs.

Hybrid high-concentration photovoltaic system designed for different weather conditions.

In this study, we propose a novel high-concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) cell by considering both the light leakage characteristics of the Fresnel-lens-based solar cell modules and the performance issues arising from cloud shading in practical use. We use our self-constructed systems to conduct field measurements for up to half a year under various environmental conditions. According to the acquired results, it was surprising to know that in the area other than the focusing area, the so-called light leakage region, there always bears illuminance of about 20,000-40,000 lx whether it is a sunny day or a cloudy day with different cloud conditions. Such an interesting result is caused by the light scattering of the clouds and the inherent leakage characteristic of a Fresnel lens. To prove this important finding, we simulated the illuminance of the Fresnel lens structure used in the measurement with apertures of different sizes to determine the detected area. In the laboratory, the diffuse plates were used to mimic the situation of varying cloud layer thicknesses. The trend of calculated and measured results fitted well with the field measurements. Also, the experimental and simulation results show that the round angle and draft facet of the Fresnel lens were responsible for light leakage. This finding prompted us to propose a hybrid high-concentration solar module in which more cost-effective polycrystalline silicon solar cells are placed around the high-efficiency wafer of HCPV to capture the dissipated light leakage and convert it into usable electricity.

Study of banana preservation extension by UVC radiation in precise monitoring LED irradiation cavity.

Ultraviolet C (UVC) radiation has been considered a possible option to alleviate the seriousness of black spots on bananas during preservation which help increase economic efficiency. In this study, using 275 nm UVC light-emitting diodes (LEDs), a preliminary cavity with dimensions of 30 × 30 × 30 cm was designed and fabricated to aid in reducing black spots on bananas with the aim of application in the factory conveyor belts. The UVC irradiance distribution was thoroughly monitored for many sections at different box heights in both simulation and measurement, with a dominant range of 6-9 W/m2 in the middle. Afterward, trials were conducted in vitro and in vivo at different selected UVC doses. The results in vitro revealed that a dose of over 0.36 kJ/m2 has an excellent effect on inhibiting the colonial germination of fungal Colletotrichum musae, a common species of fungi causing black spot disease on bananas. In vivo conditions, with a short exposure time of around 5 s, the black spots on UVC-irradiated banana peel significantly reduced with minimal sensory damage compared to a control banana via observation after seven days from treatment. Finally, the optimal UVC dose is proposed from 0.030 to 0.045 kJ/m2 for the one-time treatment when considering the upper surface of the banana. With flexibility advantage and short exposure time, the fabricated cavity (box) promises to bring a lot of application potential to aid banana preservation in factories and households.

Improving light output by micro-TiO2 scatters in pc-WLED encapsulants.

Phosphor-converted white light emitting diodes (pc-WLEDs) are used worldwide for an extensive amount of applications. The device is a complex combination of various components that introduce various technical issues: materials, electrical, chemical, thermal, and so on. All of these combined to obtain a targeted optical characteristic. While most of the pc-WLEDs are sufficient for basic illumination performance, there are still many issues to improve the pc-WLED performance. In this work, we deal with the incorporation of micron size particles of titanium oxide (TiO2) in silicone encapsulant that contains yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) phosphor in remote phosphor pc-WLED. Based on the light output and the scattering spatial distribution measurements of the phosphor plates, we have found that several essential performance indices, like the color uniformity, the efficiency, and the amount of phosphor for the pc-WLEDs, can be adjusted by tuning the amount of TiO2 particles and thus be optimized. With a comprehensive model using a Monte-Carlo ray tracing process combined with the Mie scattering theory, two TiO2 loading conditions are revealed. The first one is the sparse condition that the TiO2 particles act as the scattering particles such as to increase the output flux to improve the efficiency of YAG. The second one is the dense condition that the TiO2 particles act more as barrier particles such so to decrease the output flux.

Active thermal-fuse for stopping blue light leakage of white light-emitting diodes driven by constant current.

In this study, we proposed and demonstrated a circuit design for solving problems related to blue light leakage (e.g., eye damage) when phosphor-converted white light-emitting diodes (pcW-LEDs) overheat. This circuit only needs a positive thermal coefficient thermistor, resistor, and diodes in series and parallel; thus, it can easily be integrated into components. Simulations and corresponding experimental results show that this method can accurately suppress the overheating component's injection current and allow for LEDs to work normally after returning to the operating temperature. It thus allows the user's eyes to be actively protected, e.g., to avoid exposure to the bluish light when overheating occurs. In addition, the quenching of luminous flux is a signal to remind the user to replace the LED. The proposed method is low-cost, effective, simple, and useful for increasing the quality of LED lighting and biological safety.

Double-frequency grating shearing interferometer with built-in phase-shifting function for robust multi-level phase retrieval.

In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a novel interferometer and signal process to retrieve two-dimensional signals with multilevel phases. The interferometer is based on a shearing interferometry with double-frequency grating, and phase-shifting interferometry is derived as a built-in function of the lateral displacement of the grating. The interferometer not only retrieves the multilevel phase signals but also eliminates slow-varying phase errors wherever they occur. Owing to the common path algorithm, the new interferometer is more robust in dynamic circumstances for optical testing and data processing. We propose a pre-integral signal process for two-dimensional (2D) data processing to prevent post-phase-integral due to shearing interferometry. The simulation and experiment showed that the proposed interferometer with a pre-integral process has various advantages in signal processing for multilevel phase retrieval, and will be useful for higher data rates in optical data storage and free-space communication.

GaN-based mini-LED matrix applied to multi-functional forward lighting.

In this paper, we propose and demonstrate to use of a single reflector with 68 segments to project vehicle low beam and high beam with the use of a GaN-based mini-LED matrix, which is a 5 × 6 LED die array. The design of the reflector is based on light field technology in considering etendue from the light source across the segments. The group of the segments with smaller etendue from the LED dies in the bottom 2 rows are used to project low beams. When the other LED dies are turned on, the reflector will project light upward and form the high beam. The selection of the turn-on LED dies in the mini-LED matrix can adjust the width of the illumination pattern so that an adaptive low/high beam can be performed. Besides, to extend the functionality of the headlamp module, we propose to dispense IR phosphor on LED dies in the high-beam zone of the GaN-based mini-LED matrix. Thus the vehicle can emit IR high beam, which can be imaged through a camera and can be incorporated with machine vision for an autonomous vehicle without using a complicated adaptive headlight to avoid glare. The proposed multi-function in spatial and spectral domains will be helpful to various applications with use of a mini-LED matrix.

Single reflector design for integrated low/high beam meeting multiple regulations with light field management.

This paper proposed an effective multi-objective design procedure, called light field management, for a single multi-segment reflector that can simultaneously project low beams and high beams for bicycle and e-bike applications. Furthermore, two different regulations can be met, including the K-mark and the ECE Class B regulations. Through light field management, the etendue and flux density of each segment can be effectively managed, so that the design successfully meets the multiple regulations. In the experimental verification, two mockup samples including a plastic reflector with aluminum coating and an aluminum reflector were fabricated to verify the validity of the design. The experiment showed that the contrast across the cutoff line reached 100 and above, where the brightest point for low beams reached 200 lux and the whole pattern reached 250 lux. The supreme behavior of the head lamp shows that the proposed design procedure is valuable and helpful to an optical designer.

Reduction of phase error on phase-only volume-holographic disc rotation with pre-processing by phase integral.

In this paper, we present a study of observation of phase error of a volume holographic storage disc during the reading process when the disc is rotated or displaced in the theoretical calculation and the corresponding experiment. This additional phase error will dramatically decrease the bit error rate of a phase-only signal, even applying double-frequency shearing interferometry to retrieve the stored phase signal. Then we propose a novel approach to solve the problem. The stored signal is pre-processed by phase integral along the shearing direction so that applying the integral process to decode the phase signal is not necessary in the readout process. The proposed approach effectively reduces the error in phase retrieval and will be useful when applying double-frequency shearing interferometry in the readout process for volume holographic storage.

An edge-lit volume holographic optical element for an objective turret in a lensless digital holographic microscope.

In this paper, we propose and demonstrate the use of an edge-lit volume holographic optical element (EL-VHOE) as a reference waveguide to reduce the volume of a lensless digital holographic microscope. Additionally, a hybrid lensless Fourier transform digital holography is applied to make the EL-VHOE function as an objective turret. It used a spherical wave in the object beam of the EL-VHOE, which served as the reference beam of the microscope. Another sheared spherical wave was used to illuminate the sample. The longitudinal position of the spherical reference beam is changeable. It was shown that the tradeoff between resolution and field of view can be adjusted by changing the longitudinal position of the spherical reference beam. The corresponding experimental results matched the simulational and theoretical predictions. A resolution of approximately 3.11 µm was achieved when the object distance was 6 mm and the longitudinal distance of the spherical reference was 10 mm.

Adjustable panoramic inspection system for submillimeter fasteners.

Fasteners are critical and indispensable locking components in mechanical assembly. Submillimeter fasteners are massively and widely used in electronic devices. This study proposed an adjustable panoramic inspection system for M2 to M0.8 submillimeter fasteners. The system mainly consists of a panoramic imaging module, a back-light module, and an image grabbing and computing module. The panoramic imaging module would form four equal optical path lengths to keep the same imaging amplification between the different directions of the field of view. The back-light module was designed to provide uniform illumination and enhance the contrast of the pitch edge between the fasteners and the background. The image grabbing and computing module with a high-speed camera was designed to be adjustable for different sizes of submillimeter fasteners. The realized system can offer the function of four images in one shot to make a panoramic scene, independent illumination for recognizing, inspect screws from M0.8 to M2.0 screws, and short time consumption of image processing, such as 3.284 ms for M0.8 screws and 2.384 ms for M2.0 screws, to achieve examination of 6000 pieces in 1 min.

Optical servo with high design freedom using spherical-wave Bragg degeneracy in a volume holographic optical element.

A novel optical sensor is proposed and demonstrated with the use of spherical-wave Bragg degeneracy of a volume holographic optical element. Bragg degeneracy can be performed perfectly for a volume hologram written by two plane waves or spherical waves. But only spherical reference light is useful to perform severe shifting selectivity in one direction and Bragg degeneracy in another direction. The experiment corresponding to theoretical simulation was demonstrated in a volume holographic optical element, which was an optical servo for a collinear volume holographic disc. Through clever design, the displacement response of the tracking beam was observed for a magnification magnitude of 980% to the displacement of the probe beam so that the resolution requirement of the photosensor can be reduced. Besides, a high linearity of the displacement response was observed. To discover the design freedom, a theoretical study of the displacement response was done for the servo by two spherical waves. The linearity, the magnification magnitude, and the diffraction efficiency were examined and the property of the Bragg degeneracy was figured out.

Noncontact and instant detection of phosphor temperature in phosphor-converted white LEDs.

Phosphor-converted white light-emitting diodes (pc-WLEDs) have become a major light source in general lighting. To stabilize the photometric characteristics of pc-WLEDs, much effort has been made to manage the heat dissipation of the LED dies. The thermal problems of the phosphor parts, a critical reliability concern for pc-WLEDs, have recently attracted academic interest. This study proposed a practical approach for measuring phosphor temperature in an operating pc-WLED using a noncontact, instant detection method to remotely monitor the emission spectrum. Conventionally, an infrared camera or thermocouples have been used to measure temperature. An IR camera requires good calibration on the emissivity and is usually blocked by the lens or other components covered on the phosphors. Moreover, a thermocouple requires time to reach the thermal equivalence between the detector and the sample under testing, and this approach is destructive when used for inner detection. Our approach has advantages over the conventional methods because it is noninvasive, noncontact, and instant, and inner detection. The approach is also independent of the peak wavelength of pumping lights, the concentration and thickness of phosphor, and correlated color temperatures.

Analysis of a lens-array modulated coaxial holographic data storage system with considering recording dynamics of material.

In the first time, a simulation model with considering the recording dynamics of material is built and is used to simulate evolution of the grating strength of the recorded hologram in a coaxial volume holographic memory system. In addition, phase modulation by lens array in the reference is introduced and observed to perform better diffracted signal quality and higher shifting selectivity, in both simulation and experiment. The use of lens array is found to provide multiple advantages in volume holographic memory system. The new simulation model potentially can be used to precisely design the system to obtain higher diffracted signal quality, higher shifting selectivity, and reduction of M# consumption and increase of storage capacity.

One-shot and aberration-tolerable homodyne detection for holographic storage readout through double-frequency grating-based lateral shearing interferometry.

A simple method to decode the stored phase signal of volume holographic data storage with adequate wave aberration tolerance is highly demanded. We proposed and demonstrated a one-shot scheme to decode a binary-phase encoding signal through double-frequency-grating based shearing interferometry (DFGSI). The lateral shearing amount is dependent on the focal length of the collimated lens and the frequency difference between the gratings. Diffracted waves with phase encoding were successfully decoded through experimentation. An optical model for the DFGSI was built to analyze phase-error induction and phase-difference control by shifting the double-frequency grating longitudinally and laterally, respectively. The optical model was demonstrated experimentally. Finally, a high aberration tolerance of the DFGSI was demonstrated using the optical model.

Inverse focusing inside turbid media by creating an opposite virtual objective.

Limited by the penetration depth, imaging of thick bio-tissues can be achieved only by epi-detection geometry. Applications based on forward-emitted signals or bidirectional illumination are restricted by lack of an opposite objective. A method for creating an opposite virtual objective inside thick media through phase conjugation was first proposed. Under forward illumination, the backward scattering light from the media was collected to generate a phase conjugate wave, which was sent back to the media and formed an inverse focusing light. Samples combined with a diffuser or a mouse skin were used as specimens. Inverse focusing was successfully demonstrated by applying holography-based optical phase conjugation with a BaTiO3. This result indicates the capability to create an opposite virtual objective inside live tissues. The proposed method is compatible with current coherent imaging and super-resolution imaging technologies. It creates a possible way for forward-emitted signals collection and bidirectional illumination in thick specimens.

Optical design of dental light with high performance and low power based on white LEDs.

This paper presents an optical design of a dental light that meets the regulation of ISO 9680. The designed light pattern on the target is an elliptical shape with uniform illumination. Moreover, the real module contains four optical modules, and is operated at 9 W and performs a maximum illuminance of 42,010 lx. In order to reduce the correlated color temperature (CCT) variation, we replace the original white light-emitting diode with a new one, which has an extremely low angular CCT derivation. Accordingly, the CCT variation is reduced to 232 K from 1323 K of the original module.

Novel optical lens design with a light scattering freeform inner surface for LED down light illumination.

Using the precise mid field angular distribution model of the LED light source and the optical scattering surface property of the Harvey BSDF scattering model, we perform optical simulation to develop and design a novel solid plastic optical lens with freeform inner surface to achieve the optical performance of 89.89% light energy transmission optics for the sake of energy saving reason. The 70 degrees angular light distribution pattern defined at full width half maximum (FWHM) light energy level is performed and the optical utilization factor (OUF) of 51.8% is obtained within -45 degrees and 45 degrees range in the areas of interest with glare reduced for the down light illumination.