Optical microscopy is one of the most widely used diagnostic methods in scientific, industrial, and biomedical applications. However, while useful for detailed examination of a small number (< 10,000) of microscopic entities, conventional optical microscopy is incapable of statistically relevant screening of large populations (> 100,000,000) with high precision due to its low throughput and limited digital memory size. We present an automated flow-through single-particle optical microscope that overcomes this limitation by performing sensitive blur-free image acquisition and nonstop real-time image-recording and classification of microparticles during high-speed flow. This is made possible by integrating ultrafast optical imaging technology, self-focusing microfluidic technology, optoelectronic communication technology, and information technology. To show the system’s utility, we demonstrate high-throughput image-based screening of budding yeast and rare breast cancer cells in blood with an unprecedented throughput of 100,000 particles/s and a record false positive rate of one in a million.

An approach to generating and distributing ultrawideband (UWB) pulses based on optical spectral shaping and frequency-to-time conversion using all-fiber components is proposed and demonstrated. In the system, the spectrum of an ultrashort pulse from a mode-locked fiber laser is spectrally shaped by an all-fiber spectrum shaper, to produce a monocycle- or a doublet-shaped power spectrum. Thanks to the frequency-to-time conversion in a dispersive fiber, time-domain optical pulses exhibiting the user-defined shape of the optical power spectrum are obtained. Experiments based on the proposed approach are carried out. UWB monocycle or doublet pulses are generated

In this paper, we propose and demonstrate an approach to optically generating chirped microwave pulses with tunable chirp profile based on optical spectral shaping using a Sagnac loop filter incorporating a chirped fiber Bragg grating (CFBG) and linear wavelength-to-time mapping in a dispersive element. In the proposed approach, the optical power spectrum of an ultrashort optical pulse is shaped by a CFBG-incorporated Sagnac loop mirror that has a reflection spectral response with a linearly increasing or decreasing free spectral range. The spectrum-shaped optical pulse is then sent to a dispersive element to perform the linear wavelength-to-time mapping. A chirped microwave pulse with the pulse shape identical to that of the shaped spectrum is obtained at the output of a high-speed photodector. The central frequency and the chirp profile of the generated chirped microwave pulse can be controlled by simply tuning the time delay in the Sagnac loop mirror. A simple mathematical model to describe the chirped microwave pulse generation is developed. Numerical simulations and a proof-of-principle experiment are implemented to verify the proposed approach.

A novel approach to optically generating chirped millimeter-wave pulses with tunable chirp rate based on spectral shaping and nonlinear frequency-to-time mapping is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In the proposed approach, the optical power spectrum of an ultrashort pulse from a femtosecond pulsed laser is shaped by a two-tap Sagnac loop filter that has a sinusoidal frequency response. The spectrum-shaped optical pulse is then sent to a nonlinearly chirped fiber Bragg grating (NL-CFBG) with a tunable nonlinear group delay to serve as a high-order dispersive device to perform the nonlinear frequency-to-time mapping. A chirped electrical pulse with a high central frequency and large chirp rate is then generated at the output of a high-speed photodetector. The NL-CFBG used in the proposed system is produced from a regular linearly chirped fiber Bragg grating based on strain-gradient beam tuning. A detailed theoretical analysis on the chirped pulse generation is developed, which is verified by numerical simulations and experiments. Millimeter-wave pulses with a central frequency of around 35 GHz and instantaneous frequency chirp rates of 0.053 and 0.074 GHz/ps are experimentally generated.

A novel approach to generating linearly chirped microwave pulses in the optical domain based on spectral shaping and linear frequency-to-time mapping is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In the proposed system, the spectrum of a femtosecond pulse generated by a mode-locked fiber laser is spectrum-shaped by an optical filter that consists of two superimposed chirped fiber Bragg gratings (SI-CFBGs) with different chirp rates. The SI-CFBGs form a Fabry-Perot cavity with a cavity length linearly dependent on the resonance wavelength, thus a spectral response with an increased or decreased free spectral range is generated. A chirped microwave pulse with the pulse shape identical to the shaped spectrum is obtained at the output of a high-speed photodetector thanks to the frequency-to-time mapping in a dispersive device. The proposed technique is experimentally demonstrated, a linearly chirped microwave pulse with a central frequency of 15 GHz and a chirp rate of 0.0217 GHz/ps is experimentally generated.

We propose and experimentally demonstrate an approach to generating large time-bandwidth product (TBWP) microwave arbitrary waveforms based on optical pulse shaping using a single spatially discrete chirped fiber Bragg grating (SD-CFBG). The SD-CFBG functions to perform simultaneously spectral slicing, frequency-to-time mapping, and temporal shifting of the input optical pulse, which leads to the generation of an optical pulse burst with the individual pulses in the burst temporally spaced by the time delays determined by the SD-CFBG. With the help of a bandwidth-limited photodetector (PD), a smooth microwave waveform is obtained. The SD-CFBG is fabricated using a linearly chirped phase mask by axially shifting the photosensitive fiber to introduce a spatial spacing between two adjacent sub-gratings during the fabrication process. By properly designing the fiber shifting function, a large TBWP microwave arbitrary waveform with the desired frequency chirping or phase coding can be generated. An equation that relates the fiber shifting function and the microwave waveform frequency chirping is derived. The photonic generation of large TBWP microwave waveforms with a linear, nonlinear and stepped frequency chirping is experimentally demonstrated.