Background: In vitro maturation (IVM) is a promising treatment option for certain infertile women. Nowadays, with the aid of the Polscope, it has become possible to evaluate zona pellucida (ZP) and spindle as parameters of oocyte quality. The goal was to investigate the relationship between the presence of the meiotic spindle and ZP birefringence with morphology of the in vivo and in vitro matu...

Equations are derived which predict the form birefringence of lamellar systems containing three or more components. These equations may be found useful in interpreting the birefringence of biological specimens and in testing certain theories about the structure of natural membranes.

The effective index change and form birefringence are calculated in UV-exposed fibers using a high-order vectorial finite element method. The birefringence is compared in optical fibers with and without photosensitive inner cladding.

We report on a simple method of locking a laser to a birefringent cavity using polarization spectroscopy. The birefringence of the resonator permits the simple extraction of an error signal by using one polarization state as a phase reference for another state. No modulation of the light or the resonator is required, reducing the complexity of the laser locking setup. This method of producing a...

In this Letter, we reported on an ultrahigh birefringence photonic crystal fiber (PCF) with a germanium-doped elliptical core, which is fabricated in our lab using the stack-and-draw method. An ultrahigh birefringence of 1.1×10(-2) is obtained experimentally, which is close to the theoretical value of 1.4×10(-2) at the wavelength of 1550 nm. To our knowledge, this is the highest birefringence r...

Since lead titanate was ®rst grown in single-crystal form in the 1930s, several independent reports of its linear birefringence have been published. Whilst there is overall qualitative agreement on its behaviour with temperature, the absolute values show some degree of variation. At 298 K they range from ÿ0.009 to ÿ0.013, a relative spread of 40%, whilst at 673 K the discrepancy is even greater...

Recently, thermal treatment has been used for collagen tightening and tissue contour enhancement. It is important to monitor the condition of collagenous tissue during and immediately after thermal treatment. When collagen is denatured, birefringence is reduced and a change in polarization state occurs. In this study, Monte Carlo simulation for polarized light was used to calculate the degree o...

In this work the effects of heat generation on the modes of Yb:Glass double clad fiber laser were investigated. The thermal dispersion and thermally-induced birefringence were considered when the gain medium becomes an anisotropic medium. The results showed considerable modifications of laser modes profiles, in particular for transfer magnetic (TM) and transfer electric (TE) modes which their p...

Corneal polarimetry measurement has been the object of several papers. The results of techniques like polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT), scanning laser polarimetry, or polarization microscopy are contradictory. Some studies propose a biaxial-like birefringence pattern, while others postulate that birefringence grows at corneal periphery. Several theoretical approaches...