The three-dimensional radiative transfer equation is solved for modeling the light propagation in anisotropically scattering semi-infinite media such as biological tissue, considering the effect of internal reflection at the interfaces. The two-dimensional Fourier transform and the modified spherical harmonics method are applied to derive the general solution to the associated homogeneous probl...

Optical parametric amplifiers are typically seeded with either parametric superfluorescence or broadband continuum pulses. We show both with picosecond and femtosecond pump pulses, that single longitudinal mode cw lasers with mW power can be well used to generate nearly Fourier-transform-limited output pulses. The 532 nm pumped picosecond system is seeded in the near infrared and fully tunable ...

We propose a unified approach to the multicriteria design of diffractive optics. A multicriteria version of the direct binary search that allows the user to adjust the compromise between the diffraction efficiency and the signal-to-noise ratio already exists. This technique has proved to be extremely powerful but also very time consuming. We extend this multicriteria approach to the iterative F...

We report on a calculation to show that the Fourier transform of the Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering (DVCS) amplitude with respect to the skewness variable ζ at fixed invariant momentum transfer squared t gives results that are analogous to the diffractive scattering of a wave in optics. As a specific example, we utilize the quantum fluctuations of a fermion state at one loop in QED to obtain...

A new numerical scheme for computing self-localized states--or solitons--of nonlinear waveguides is proposed. The idea behind the method is to transform the underlying equation governing the soliton, such as a nonlinear Schrödinger-type equation, into Fourier space and determine a nonlinear nonlocal integral equation coupled to an algebraic equation. The coupling prevents the numerical scheme f...

A repetitive petawatt-class Ti:sapphire laser system operating with high spatial and temporal beam quality is demonstrated. Maximum pulse energy of 30 J is obtained via five multi-pass amplification stages. Closed-loop feedback control systems in the temporal and spatial domains are used to yield Fourier-transform-limited pulse duration (33.7 fs), and diffraction-limited focal spot sizes (with ...

A new method and apparatus for measuring the group delay in optical components and laser cavities are described. Cross-correlational fringes are fully recorded with a Michelson interferometer, in one of whose arms the optics to be measured are inserted. The path difference of the interferometer is calibrated to subwavelength accuracy, and the group delay is calculated from the phase of the Four...

On the basis of white-light interferometry and statistical optics, a theoretical model for low-coherence optical tomography is presented that establishes the relation of interference modulation with path-length-resolved reflectance and that can provide analytical expressions and numerical solutions by means of a Fourier transform. The Monte Carlo technique is used to simulate the path-length-re...

We have developed a two-dimensional (2D) Fourier-transform femtosecond spectroscopy technique for the visible spectral region. Three-pulse photon echo signals are generated in a phase-matched noncollinear four-wave mixing box geometry that employs a 3-kHz repetition-rate laser system and optical parametric amplification. Nonlinear signals are fully characterized in amplitude and phase by spectr...

Scalar diffraction calculations, such as the angular spectrum method (ASM) and Fresnel diffraction, are widely used in the research fields of optics, x rays, electron beams, and ultrasonics. It is possible to accelerate the calculation using fast Fourier transform (FFT); unfortunately, acceleration of the calculation of nonuniform sampled planes is limited due to the property of the FFT that im...