Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Coherence imaging”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 235 records · Page 13
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1981

Prospects for measuring phytoplankton bloom extent and patchiness using remotely sensed color images: An example

A 10 channel scanning radiometer, built as a prototype for the coastal zone color scanner on the Nimbus 7 satellite, was flown on a high altitude aircraft during a Gymnodium breve bloom along the west coast of Florida. The remotely measured ocean color imagery shows what is probably the patchy structure of a G. breve bloom extending over a 60 km by 100 km area. This conclusion is based on visual inspection of bathymetry to infer bottom reflection trends and on a single growth truth measurement of B G. breve obtained the previous day. The image shows coherent blooms which extend scales up to 60 km in length.

Mueller, J. L.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Coherent optical system of modular imaging collectors (COSMIC) - An approach for a large aperture high angular resolution telescope in space

Very high angular resolution can be achieved in UV/optical astronomy through interferometers in space. A concept analysis of COSMIC, which may be placed into orbit by the Space Shuttle in the late 1990's, is discussed. The photon-collecting area is three times larger than that of Space Telescope (ST), and exceeds its resolution by approximately an order of magnitude. Several alternative configurations are presented to scope the extent of design approaches which may be achievable within the transportation capability of the Space Shuttle.

Davis, B.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Rethinking Coherent Diffraction Instruments for High Brightness Sources

Over the past two decades, exceptional progress has been made providing coherent x-ray beams at both high-brightness synchrotron sources and x-ray free electron lasers (XFEL). The availability of these coherent x-rays has led to a surge in instruments that exploit x-ray coherence for either x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) or coherent diffraction imaging (CDI). A key to these techniques has been to resolve, or at least nearly resolve, the speckles associated with the scattering from structural disorder. Given practical limits on detector pixel size, this requires long sample-to-detector distances. This paper presents numerical simulations of an instrument that can efMiciently provide a long sample-detector distance while maintaining the ability to rapidly set momentum transfer by inserting crystals with different order in the incident beam, thus changing in incident direction instead of moving the detector.

Fuoss, Paul H↗
NASA NTRS1988

Improving cover type identification in speckled SAR images by prefiltering and sequential classification

Synthetic aperture radar utilizes coherent microwaves to produce images of the earth's surface. Due to the interference of coherent wavelets, the images appear speckled. This reduces the performance of per-pel classifiers. One way to increase the performance is to filter the image first, then classify the filtered image. For this purpose, several novel filters that have been reported in the literature are investigated. These are the geometric filter, adaptive LMMSE filter, and linear approximation filter. For comparison, conventional mean and median filters are also considered. It is found that the mean filter with seven iterations gives the best result. The overall performance increased from 65.2 to 88.9 percent. The capability of these filters to preserve edges in the original image are also assessed. It is seen that the geometric and median filters are the best in preserving edges, and that the linear approximation and adaptive LMMSE filters are the best in discriminating roads. Prefiltering the image effectively provides contextual information to the per-pel classifier. An alternate approach is to directly design a contextual classifier. A new contextual classifier based on sequential decision theory is proposed. With this classifier, it is found that the overall performance increases to 89.5 percent.

Lin, Qian↗
NASA NTRS1982

A model for radar images and its application to adaptive digital filtering of multiplicative noise

Standard image processing techniques which are used to enhance noncoherent optically produced images are not applicable to radar images due to the coherent nature of the radar imaging process. A model for the radar imaging process is derived in this paper and a method for smoothing noisy radar images is also presented. The imaging model shows that the radar image is corrupted by multiplicative noise. The model leads to the functional form of an optimum (minimum MSE) filter for smoothing radar images. By using locally estimated parameter values the filter is made adaptive so that it provides minimum MSE estimates inside homogeneous areas of an image while preserving the edge structure. It is shown that the filter can be easily implemented in the spatial domain and is computationally efficient. The performance of the adaptive filter is compared (qualitatively and quantitatively) with several standard filters using real and simulated radar images.

Frost, V. S.↗
NASA NTRS2003

X-Ray Diffraction and Imaging Study of Imperfections of Crystallized Lysozyme with Coherent X-Rays

Phase-sensitive x-ray diffraction imaging and high angular-resolution diffraction combined with phase contrast radiographic imaging are employed to characterize defects and perfection of a uniformly grown tetragonal lysozyme crystal in symmetric Laue case. The fill width at half-maximum (FWHM) of a 4 4 0 rocking curve measured from the original crystal is approximately 16.7 arcseconds, and defects, which include point defects, line defects, and microscopic domains, have been clearly observed in the diffraction images of the crystal. The observed line defects carry distinct dislocation features running approximately along the <110> growth front, and they have been found to originate mostly at a central growth area and occasionally at outer growth regions. Individual point defects trapped at a crystal nucleus are resolved in the images of high sensitivity to defects. Slow dehydration has led to the broadening of the 4 4 0 rocking curve by a factor of approximately 2.4. A significant change of the defect structure and configuration with drying has been revealed, which suggests the dehydration induced migration and evolution of dislocations and lattice rearrangements to reduce overall strain energy. The sufficient details of the observed defects shed light upon perfection, nucleation and growth, and properties of protein crystals.

Hu, Zheng-Wei↗
NASA NTRS2004

Diffraction and imaging study of imperfections of crystallized lysozyme with coherent X-rays

Phase-contrast X-ray diffraction imaging and high-angular-resolution diffraction combined with phase-contrast radiographic imaging were employed to characterize defects and perfection of a uniformly grown tetragonal lysozyme crystal in the symmetric Laue case. The full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of a 4 4 0 rocking curve measured from the original crystal was approximately 16.7 arcsec and imperfections including line defects, inclusions and other microdefects were observed in the diffraction images of the crystal. The observed line defects carry distinct dislocation features running approximately along the <1 1 0> growth front and have been found to originate mostly in a central growth area and occasionally in outer growth regions. Inclusions of impurities or formations of foreign particles in the central growth region are resolved in the images with high sensitivity to defects. Slow dehydration led to the broadening of a fairly symmetric 4 4 0 rocking curve by a factor of approximately 2.6, which was primarily attributed to the dehydration-induced microscopic effects that are clearly shown in X-ray diffraction images. The details of the observed defects and the significant change in the revealed microstructures with drying provide insight into the nature of imperfections, nucleation and growth, and the properties of protein crystals.

Muramidase/chemistry↗
DOE OSTI2020

Atomic Resolution Imaging of Light Elements in a Crystalline Environment using Dynamic Hollow-Cone Illumination Transmission Electron Microscopy

Multiple electron scattering and the nonintuitive nature of image formation with coherent radiation complicate the interpretation of conventional transmission electron microscopy images. Precession of the illuminating beam in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) can lead to more robust and interpretable images with some penalty to image contrast, a technique known as dynamic hollow-cone illumination TEM. Here, we demonstrate direct and robust imaging of light and heavy atoms in a crystalline environment with this technique. This method is similar to the annular bright-field technique in scanning transmission electron microscopy, via the principle of reciprocity. Dynamic hollow-cone illumination TEM is challenging in practice due to sensitivity to the misalignment of the precession axis, microscope objective aperture, and crystal zone axis.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
NASA NTRS1980

Spatial frequency response of an optical heterodyne receiver

The analysis of a passive heterodyne receiver with respect to its imaging performance (transfer function) and its heterodyne efficiency shows departures from the results which are obtained in strictly coherent or incoherent imaging systems. The cascading property of modulation transfer function analysis must be carefully applied, since the coherent transfer function of the optical receiver and that due to the local oscillator-detector combination are not separable but are related by the convolution of their products. Application of these results to a spacelab-type optical heterodyne receiver shows that resolutions of the order of 1.5 to 2.0 km are possible for worst-case type orbital scenarios. In addition to an analysis of the derogatory effects of sampling (aliasing) a comparison of obscured-type receivers (e.g., Cassegrains) with unobscured receivers shows that both resolution and efficiency are severly degraded in an obscured-type receiver and, consequently, should not be used for passive heterodyne detection schemes.

Robinson, D. M.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Synthetic-aperture-radar imaging of the ocean surface using the slightly-rough facet model and a full surface-wave spectrum

A new model of synthetic-aperture-radar (SAR) imaging of ocean waves is described. The model is based on mapping individual, slightly-rough surface facets through the SAR processor into the image and responses of the facets in the image domain are added together coherently to give the composite image. A windowing technique allows both the orbital motion and the phase velocity of the long waves to be included. It is determined that the azimuthal cut-off is due to a smearing of the response of the facets in the image induced by the random orbital motion of the intermediate large-scale waves and that the focus adjustment that gives the greatest image contrast is half the phase velocity of the dominant long wave. The optimal processing technique, however, may consist of spatially offsetting the multiple looks on the image domain to compensate the propagation of long waves during the integration time of the SAR.

West, James C.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Diffraction and Imaging Study of Imperfections of Protein Crystals with Coherent X-rays

High angular-resolution x-ray diffraction and phase contrast x-ray imaging were combined to study defects and perfection of protein crystals. Imperfections including line defects, inclusions and other microdefects were observed in the diffraction images of a uniformly grown lysozyme crystal. The observed line defects carry distinct dislocation features running approximately along the <110> growth front and have been found to originate mostly in a central growth area and occasionally in outer growth regions. Slow dehydration led to the broadening of a fairly symmetric 4 4 0 rocking curve by a factor of approximately 2.6, which was primarily attributed to the dehydration-induced microscopic effects that are clearly shown in diffraction images. X-ray imaging and diffraction characterization of the quality of apoferritin crystals will also be discussed in the presentation.

Hu, Z. W.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Optical Amplifier for Space Applications

We describe an optical amplifier designed to amplify a spatially sampled component of an optical wavefront to kilowatt average power. The goal is means for implementing a strategy of spatially segmenting a large aperture wavefront, amplifying the individual segments, maintaining the phase coherence of the segments by active means, and imaging the resultant amplified coherent field. Applications of interest are the transmission of space solar power over multi-megameter distances, as to distant spacecraft, or to remote sites with no preexisting power grid.

Fork, Richard L.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Nanoscale X-ray Imaging and Dynamics of Electronic and Magnetic Materials

This project supported cutting-edge nanoscale characterization developments including X-ray Imaging by utilizing the power of Coherent X-ray Diffractive Imaging (CXDI). This research pioneered new directions in studies of nanoscale dynamics using X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (XPCS) and Ultrafast X-ray Scattering (UXS), extending our understanding of science and technology at the limits of ultrasmall (atomic/nanoscale) and ultrafast (from seconds to femtosecond dynamics). The research funded by this award spans a wide range of condensed matter and materials physics systems, from correlated oxides and nanomaterials to energy-related materials, and quantum materials for neuromorphic computing.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering with squeezed light: CARS for quantum-enhanced spectroscopy and imaging

We theoretically investigate quantum-enhanced coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) using squeezed light to amplify vibrational transition rates at low photon flux. Quantum sensing approaches are needed for nondestructive nanometrology such as in bioimaging where reduced photodamage is desired while retaining resolution and sensitivity. We analyze both single-mode squeezing applied to the pump field and two-mode squeezing between the pump and Stokes fields. We also show that the ordering of displacement and squeezing operations—whether displacement precedes squeezing or squeezing precedes displacement—has an impact on the resulting CARS transition amplitudes due to a difference in the photon number and the quantum-enhancement coefficients, with the latter offering a stronger enhancement in the case of two modes squeezing of the pump and Stokes under experimentally accessible conditions. Furthermore, our calculations capture these quantum enhancements through the intrinsic photon-number correlations of squeezed light, eliminating the need for interferometric detection or higher pump powers that are otherwise required to reach comparable sensitivities in classical CARS. Finally, we outline a quantum plasmonic extension of our model in which local field enhancements caused by surface plasmon excitation in metallic nanoparticles can be incorporated via mode-selective field amplification factors, offering a pathway toward combining squeezed-light quantum optics with surface-enhanced nanoscale spectroscopy and imaging.

Atomic & molecular structure↗
DOE OSTI2026

Projective imaging of high-energy nuclei via coherent exclusive vector meson production in electron-nucleus collisions

One of the major goals of modern nuclear experiments is to study the distributions of gluons inside nuclei at high energy. A key measurement is the coherent exclusive vector meson (VM) production in diffractive electron-nucleus collisions, where the gluon spatial distribution inside the nucleus can be obtained through a Fourier transform of the squared nuclear momentum transfer (|t|) distribution. This research aims to overcome the two main obstacles of the |t| measurement: limited precision in measuring |t| arising from the momentum resolution of the outgoing electron and the overwhelming incoherent background. We demonstrate that by measuring the projected |t| distribution along the direction perpendicular to the electron scattering plane, the effect of the outgoing electron’s momentum resolution can be effectively mitigated, and the diffractive pattern is largely restored. Furthermore, we propose to measure the angular distribution of the VM’s decay daughters to statistically remove the incoherent background.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗