Volume Bragg grating (VBG) with refractive index modulation (RIM) apodized with sinusoidal semiperiod profile is studied theoretically and experimentally. An apodized VBG of this type was fabricated with a sequential recording of two VBGs with slightly different resonant Bragg wavelengths in the same glass wafer. As a result, a moire pattern was produced with a constant average refractive index and a slow sinusoidal envelope of RIM. Modeling showed that an apodized VBG with a sinusoidal semiperiod has provided a suppression of the sidelobes in the reflection spectrum. The experimental measurements are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions. This type of VBG is suitable for high-resolution spectroscopy applications due to a significant reduction of sidelobes. (C) 2018 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

Recent concerns about subjectivity in forensic firearm identification have motivated the development of algorithms to compare firearm tool marks that are imparted on ammunition and to generate quantitative measures of similarity. In this paper, we describe an algorithm that identifies impressed tool marks on a cartridge case that are both consistent between firings and contribute strongly to a surface similarity metric. The result is a representation of the tool mark topography that emphasizes both significant and persistent features across firings. This characteristic surface map is useful for understanding the variability and persistence of the tool marks created by a firearm and can provide improved discrimination between the comparison scores of samples fired from the same firearm and the scores of samples fired from different firearms. The algorithm also provides a convenient method for visualizing areas of similarity that may be useful in providing quantitative support for visual comparisons by trained examiners.

In order for a crime laboratory to assess a firearms examiner's training, skills, experience, and aptitude, it is necessary for the examiner to participate in proficiency testing. As computer algorithms for comparisons of pattern evidence become more prevalent, it is of interest to test algorithm performance as well, using these same proficiency examinations. This article demonstrates the use of the Congruent Matching Cell (CMC) algorithm to compare 3D topography measurements of breech face impressions and firing pin impressions from a previously distributed firearms proficiency test. In addition, the algorithm is used to analyze the distribution of many comparisons from a collection of cartridge cases used to construct another recent set of proficiency tests. These results are provided along with visualizations that help to relate the features used in optical comparisons by examiners to the features used by computer comparison algorithms.

Estimating error rates for firearm evidence identification is a fundamental challenge in forensic science. This paper describes the recently developed congruent matching cells (CMC) method for image comparisons, its application to firearm evidence identification, and its usage and initial tests for error rate estimation. The CMC method divides compared topography images into correlation cells. Four identification parameters are defined for quantifying both the topography similarity of the correlated cell pairs and the pattern congruency of the registered cell locations. A declared match requires a significant number of CMCs, i.e., cell pairs that meet all similarity and congruency requirements. Initial testing on breech face impressions of a set of 40 cartridge cases fired with consecutively manufactured pistol slides showed wide separation between the distributions of CMC numbers observed for known matching and known non-matching image pairs. Another test on 95 cartridge cases from a different set of slides manufactured by the same process also yielded widely separated distributions. The test results were used to develop two statistical models for the probability mass function of CMC correlation scores. The models were applied to develop a framework for estimating cumulative false positive and false negative error rates and individual error rates of declared matches and non-matches for this population of breech face impressions. The prospect for applying the models to large populations and realistic case work is also discussed. The CMC method can provide a statistical foundation for estimating error rates in firearm evidence identifications, thus emulating methods used for forensic identification of DNA evidence.

The design of Q-switched lasers capable of producing pulse widths of 100' s of picoseconds necessitates the cavity length be shorter than a few centimeters. Increasing the amount of energy extracted per pulse requires increasing the mode area of the resonator that for the same cavity length causes exciting higher order transverse modes and decreasing the brightness of the output radiation. To suppress the higher order modes of these multimode resonators while maintaining the compact cavity requires the use of intra-cavity angular filters.A novel Q-switched laser design is presented using transmitting Bragg gratings (TBGs) as angular filters to suppress the higher order transverse modes. The laser consists of a 5 mm thick slab of Nd: YAG, a 3 mm thick slab of Cr: YAG with a 20% transmission, one TBG aligned to suppress the higher order modes along the x-axis, and a 40% output coupler. The gratings are recorded in photo-thermo-refractive (PTR) glass, which has a high damage threshold that can withstand both the high peak powers and high average powers present within the resonator. Using a 4.1 mrad TBG in a 10.8 mm long resonator with an 800 mu m x 400 mu m pump beam, a nearly diffraction limited beam quality of M-2 = 1.3 is obtained in a 0.76 mJ pulse with a pulse width of 614 ps.

Spline filters and their corresponding robust filters are commonly used filters recommended in ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) standards for surface evaluation. Generally, these linear and non-linear spline filters, composed of symmetric, positive-definite matrices, are solved in an iterative fashion based on a Cholesky decomposition. They have been demonstrated to be relatively efficient, but complicated and inconvenient to implement. A new spline-filter algorithm is proposed by means of the discrete cosine transform or the discrete Fourier transform. The algorithm is conceptually simple and very convenient to implement.

Phase masks are important optical elements that have been utilized for several decades in a large variety of applications. Recently, we demonstrated a new type of phase masks fabricated by encoding phase profiles into volume Bragg gratings, allowing these holographic elements to be used as phase masks at any wavelength capable of satisfying the Bragg condition of the hologram. Here, we present a new method of true achromatization of this type of phase masks that removes the need for angle tuning and is implemented by combining this holographic phase masks approach with a pair of surface diffraction gratings.

Novel types of volume Bragg gratings with enhanced parameters were recorded in PTR glass. They were used for efficient spectral beam combination of high power multimode semiconductor lasers with high spectral density of 1 nm/channel.

The spline filter is a standard linear profile filter recommended by ISO/TS 16610-22 (2006). The main advantage of the spline filter is that no end-effects occur as a result of the filter. The ISO standard also provides the tension parameter beta = 0.625 24 to make the transmission characteristic of the spline filter approximately similar to the Gaussian filter. However, when the tension parameter beta is not zero, end-effects appear. To resolve this problem, we analyze 14 different combinations of boundary conditions of the spline filter and propose a set of new boundary conditions in this paper. The new boundary conditions can provide satisfactory end portions of the output form without end-effects for the spline filter while still maintaining the value of beta = 0.625 24.

Increasing the dimensions of a waveguide provides the simplest means of reducing detrimental nonlinear effects, but such systems are inherently multi-mode, reducing the brightness of the system. Furthermore, using rectangular dimensions allows for improved heat extraction, as well as uniform temperature profile within the core. We propose a method of using the angular acceptance of a transmitting Bragg grating (TBG) to filter the fundamental mode of a fiber laser resonator, and as a means to increase the brightness of multi-mode fiber laser. Numerical modeling is used to calculate the diffraction losses needed to suppress the higher order modes in a laser system with saturable gain. The model is tested by constructing an external cavity resonator using an ytterbium doped ribbon fiber with core dimensions of 107.8μm by 8.3μm as the active medium. We show that the TBG increases the beam quality of the system from M2 = 11.3 to M2 = 1.45, while reducing the slope efficiency from 76% to 53%, overall increasing the brightness by 5.1 times.

This paper proposes a general use isotropic areal spline filter. This new areal spline filter can achieve isotropy by approximating the transmission characteristic of the Gaussian filter. It can also eliminate the effect of void areas using a weighting factor, and resolve end-effect issues by applying new boundary conditions, which replace the first order finite difference in the traditional spline formulation. These improvements make the spline filter widely applicable to 3D surfaces and extend the applications of the spline filter in areal filtration.

With the goal to extend applications of highly photosensitive photo-thermo-refractive (PTR) glass from bulk glass components to the fiber optic platform, we have successfully fabricated single material fibers and step index fibers from PTR type glasses. The fibers were drawn from rod-in-tube preforms which have been prepared using specialty diamond tools for shaping and polishing of the glass materials. We measured attenuations of less than 0.1 dB/cm in our PTR glass fibers. Strong fiber Bragg gratings were inscribed into the novel fibers demonstrating the fibers photosensitivity. High grating strength of up to 20 dB were reached and maintained even at 12 hour exposure to temperatures above 400 degrees C. Our results open exciting new avenues for the development of holographic PTR glass fiber optic components which may be applied in fiber optic devices that require high temperature stability and high optical power levels.

High-contrast filtering via multiple reflections between matched volume Bragg gratings (VBGs) is demonstrated. The use of multiple reflections serves to increase the suppression ratio of the out-of-band spectral content such that contributions of grating sidelobes can be mitigated. The result is a device that retains spectral and angular selectivity and diffracts light into a single order with high efficiency but reshapes the spectral/angular response to achieve higher signal-to-noise ratios. We demonstrate that multipass spectral filters can be recorded with extremely high suppression ratios using reflecting Bragg gratings (RBGs) in three different configurations. These filters demonstrate roll-offs of over 150 dB/nm. Similarly, we demonstrate angular filtering by multipass transmitting gratings.

Volume Bragg gratings serve an important role in laser development as devices that are able to manipulate both the wavelength and angular spectrum of light. A common method for producing gratings is holographic recording of a two collimated beam interference pattern in a photosensitive material. This process requires stability of the recording system at a level of a fraction of the recording wavelength. A new method for measuring and stabilizing the phase of the recording beams is presented that is extremely flexible and simple to integrate into an existing holographic recording setup and independent of the type of recording media. It is shown that the presented method increases visibility of an interference pattern and for photo-thermo-refractive glass enables enhancement of the spatial refractive index modulation. The use of this technique allows for longer recording times that can lead to the use of expanded recording beams for large aperture gratings.

Selection of the fundamental mode of an active large mode area "ribbon" fiber laser with core dimensions of 107.8 μm by 8.3 μm was produced by a transmitting Bragg grating (TBG) in a free-space resonator. The multimode performance of the original laser was characterized to have an M2 of 11.3 with an absorbed power slope efficiency of 76%. With the TBG aligned to provide maximum diffraction efficiency for the fundamental mode, the M2 improved to 1.45 at an absorbed power slope efficiency of 54% and enhanced the brightness by 5.1 times.

The properties of multiple reflections from narrow bandwidth reflection Bragg gratings are presented. The use of multiple reflections serves to increase the suppression ratio of the out-of-band spectral content such that contributions of grating sidelobes can be mitigated. The result is a device which retains spectral and angular selectivity in a single high efficiency diffraction order but reshapes spectral/angular response to achieve higher signal to noise ratios (SNR). The material for recording these high suppression devices is photo-thermo-refractive (PTR) glass. PTR is a highly homogeneous photosensitive glass with features such as low losses and high laser damage threshold. It has recently been used with good success to record permanent volume Bragg gratings with high efficiency and narrow band selectivity for use in laser cavities. Multiple reflections from the grating surface are achieved using several different arrangements. The multiple pass grating reflections are demonstrated and compared to the performance of a single reflection from a volume Bragg grating.

Power scaling of high power laser resonators is limited due to several nonlinear effects. Scaling to larger mode areas can offset these effects at the cost of decreased beam quality, limiting the brightness that can be achieved from the multi-mode system. In order to improve the brightness from such multi-mode systems, we present a method of transverse mode selection utilizing volume Bragg gratings (VBGs) as an angular filter, allowing for high beam quality from large mode area laser resonators. An overview of transverse mode selection using VBGs is given, with theoretical models showing the effect of the angular selectivity of transmitting VBGs on the resonator modes. Applications of this ideology to the design of laser resonators, with cavity designs and experimental results presented for three types of multimode solid state lasers: a Nd:YVO4 laser with 1 cm cavity length and 0.8 mm diameter beam with an M2 of 1.1, a multimode diode with diffraction limited far field divergence in the slow axis, and a ribbon fiber laser with 13 cores showing M2 improved from 11.3 to 1.5.

Volume Bragg gratings (VBG) recorded in photo-thermo refractive glass (PTR) have high stability, and high damage threshold, allowing for many applications to the design of high power lasers. Gratings recorded in the transmitting geometry (TBG) have narrow angular selectivity, and can be used as a spatial filter in a resonator. Such gratings have previously been useful for improving the brightness of high power diodes, and increasing the beam quality in rod geometry solid state lasers. As the gratings have narrow angular selectivity, losses for higher order modes in the resonator no longer depend on the cavity length, allowing for the construction of short cavities with large mode areas. In this paper, we explore the design of short 1cm cavities using two TBGs as a spatial filter and no aperture in the cavity. The M-2 parameter as a function of pump size and angular selectivity of the TBG are explored, using pump diameters ranging from 800um to 2mm and angular selectivity ranging from 11mrad to 1.8mrad. An M-2 parameter of 1.05 is reported for an 800 mu m pump diameter, a 6.2mrad TBG, and a 1cm long cavity.

We propose a monolithic large-aperture narrowband optical filter based on a moiré volume Bragg grating formed by two sequentially recorded gratings with slightly different resonant wavelengths. Such recording creates a spatial modulation of refractive index with a slowly varying sinusoidal envelope. By cutting a specimen at a small angle, to a thickness of one-period of this envelope, the longitudinal envelope profile will shift from a sine profile to a cosine profile across the face of the device. The transmission peak of the filter has a tunable bandwidth while remaining at a fixed resonant wavelength by a transversal shift of incidence position. Analytical expressions for the tunable bandwidth of such a filter are calculated and experimental data from a filter operating at 1064 nm with bandwidth range 30-90 pm is demonstrated.