Dual polarization with liquid crystal tunable filters
First Claim
1. An optical filter unit comprising:
- a first polarization assembly configured to;
(i) receive a first optical signal comprising optical components in a plurality of polarization alignments,(ii) separate the first optical signal into a first optical component and a second optical component, and(iii) transmit the first optical component with a first polarization alignment and the second optical component with a second polarization alignment;
a first optical filter configured to receive the first optical component and transmit at least a portion of the first optical component having a first wavelength;
a second optical filter configured to receive the second optical component and transmit at least a portion of the second optical component having a second wavelength; and
at least one detector configured to detect the first optical component and the second optical component.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A high passband transmission ratio is obtained by splitting a light beam from an objective lens into two orthogonally-polarized components processed along distinct paths through two independently controllable liquid crystal tunable filters (LCTFs). The filtered portions may be combined at an imaging plane or may be separately processed without recombining. Using two LCTFs, the arrangements discussed herein may ideally achieve 100% transmission in a single passband when two orthogonal components of a single wavelength are tuned, or 50% transmission at two distinct passbands when two orthogonal components from two different wavelengths (one component from each wavelength) are tuned. The dual polarization configuration described herein may be used to improve contrast or detected signal intensity in various microscopy and spectroscopic/chemical imaging applications and to increase the speed of detection.
22 Citations
28 Claims
-
1. An optical filter unit comprising:
-
a first polarization assembly configured to; (i) receive a first optical signal comprising optical components in a plurality of polarization alignments, (ii) separate the first optical signal into a first optical component and a second optical component, and (iii) transmit the first optical component with a first polarization alignment and the second optical component with a second polarization alignment; a first optical filter configured to receive the first optical component and transmit at least a portion of the first optical component having a first wavelength; a second optical filter configured to receive the second optical component and transmit at least a portion of the second optical component having a second wavelength; and at least one detector configured to detect the first optical component and the second optical component. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. An optical filter unit comprising:
-
a first polarization assembly configured to; (i) receive a first optical signal comprising optical components in a plurality of polarization alignments, (ii) separate the first optical signal into a first optical component and a second optical component, and (iii) transmit the first optical component with a first polarization alignment and the second optical component with a second polarization alignment; a first optical filter configured to receive the first optical component and transmit at least a portion of the first optical component having a first wavelength; a second optical filter configured to receive the second optical component and transmit at least a portion of the second optical component having a second wavelength, wherein the second wavelength is different from the first wavelength; at least one detector configured to detect the first optical component and the second optical component, wherein the first optical component and the second optical component are detected simultaneously; and a display configured to display the first optical component and the second optical component in a non-overlaid configuration.
-
-
18. A method comprising:
-
illuminating a sample to generate interacted photons; collecting the interacted photons to generate an optical signal; separating the optical signal into a first optical component and a second optical component; transmitting the first optical component to a first optical filter and the second optical component to a second optical filter; spectrally filtering the first optical component and the second optical component in at least one passband as a function of a polarization alignment to generate a corresponding filtered component; and detecting the filtered components to generate at least one wavelength-specific spectral image of the sample. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
-
Specification