Irradiation of the mitotic spindle in living Nephrotoma suturalis (Loew) spermatocytes with an ultraviolet microbeam of controlled dose produced a localized area of reduced birefringence in the spindle fibers. The birefringence was reduced only at the site irradiated, and only on the spindle fibers irradiated. Areas of reduced birefringence, whether produced during metaphase or during anaphase,...

The meiotic spindle and the zona pellucida exhibit molecular order when imaged with polarized optics. This study aimed to investigate possible factors contributing to the zona pellucida birefringence score and meiotic spindle visualization, and to evaluate whether these structures may predict intracytoplasmic sperm injection outcomes. Oocytes were divided into groups according to zona pellucida...

Giant optical birefringence has been demonstrated in multilayer polymeric thin films (delta_n=0.3), in nanostructured silicon (delta_n=0.3) and in semiconductor nanowires (delta_n=0.8). In chip-scale waveguides at telecommunications-related wavelengths (1550 nm), giant birefringence has also been observed in the silicon-air slot waveguide (delta_n=0.7). Here, we demonstrate record giant birefri...

Presented is an analysis of the expanded uncertainty of an indirect measurement of modal birefringence of polarization maintaining fibers, based on the Sagnac interferometer and an optical spectrum analyzer. By using this method it is easy to achieve an expanded measurement uncertainty considerably lower than 1%, at a confidence level of 0.95, in measurements of fibers, whose birefringence is i...

We present a case series of cornea and anterior segment disorders investigated by an office-based polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT). Blebs of glaucoma patients treated by trabeculectomy, and corneas of keratoconus and keratoplasty patients were measured by PS-OCT. Birefringence formations in trabeculectomy bleb were measured in 1 control eye and 3 eyes of trabeculecto...

We present a full-vectorial modal analysis of a segmented cladding fiber (SCF). The analysis is based on the H-field vectorial finite element method (VFEM) employing polar mesh geometry. Using this method, we have analyzed the circular SCF and the elliptical SCF. We have found that the birefringence of the circular SCF is very small (1.0×10(-8)). Birefringence of a highly elliptical SCF can be ...

The structural anisotropy of biological tissues can be quantified using polarized light imaging in terms of birefringence; however, birefringence varies axially in anisotropic layered tissues. This may present ambiguity in result interpretation for techniques whose birefringence results are averaged over the sampling volume. To explore this issue, we extended the polarization sensitive Monte Ca...

Widely used descriptions and relationships for birefringence and polarization-dependent loss (PDL), developed primarily for ultraviolet-induced long-period fiber gratings (LPFGs) written in optical fiber, can be invalid for other types of LPFG. The understanding of PDL is expanded to include LPFGs with birefringence in the core only, in the cladding only, and in both the core and the cladding. ...

This paper discusses the importance of stress-induced contributions to the photo-induced birefringence observed in fiber Bragg gratings. Optical tomography measurements are performed in exposed and unexposed fibers to extract the stress profiles induced by UV-writing of fiber Bragg gratings for various exposure levels. A photoelastic analysis and a high-order isoparametric finite elements metho...

We present a method to accurately measure the group birefringence variation with temperature in high-birefringence polarization-maintaining (PM) fibers using a distributed polarization analyzer. By analyzing polarization cross-talk peaks purposely induced at both ends of a PM fiber, the temperature coefficient of group birefringence can be accurately obtained. We confirm the theoretical predict...