Polarization-resolved transmission matrices of specialty optical fibers.

Transmission matrix measurements of multimode fibers are now routinely performed in numerous laboratories, enabling control of the electric field at the distal end of the fiber and paving the way for the potential application to ultrathin medical endoscopes with high resolution. The same concepts are applicable to other areas, such as space division multiplexing, targeted power delivery, fiber laser performance, and the general study of the mode coupling properties of the fiber. However, the process of building an experimental setup and developing the supporting code to measure the fiber's transmission matrix remains challenging and time consuming, with full details on experimental design, data collection, and supporting algorithms spread over multiple papers or lacking in detail.

Polarization-maintained propagation of a 2200 μm effective-area higher-order-mode in a bent optical fiber.

We report on the excitation and polarization preserved propagation of a very large effective-area (A ∼ 2240 μm) higher-order-mode in an optical fiber. A laser signal operating in the 1 μm wavelength region is transported in a Bessel-like LP mode over a 10 m long section of the polarization-maintaining higher-order-mode fiber. We observe that the light propagates through the fiber with >10 dB polarization-extinction-ratio as the fiber is coiled into circular loops of 40 cm diameter.

Reconversion of higher-order-mode (HOM) output from cladding-pumped hybrid Yb:HOM fiber amplifier.

We demonstrate operation of a cladding-pumped hybrid ytterbium-doped HOM fiber amplifier and reconversion of the HOM output to Gaussian-like beam by using an axicon based reconversion system. The amplifier was constructed by concatenating single-mode and HOM ytterbium-doped double clad fibers, and was excited by a common multimode pump source. A continuous wave (cw) input signal of 97mW was amplified to 100W at the amplifier output, which yielded a gain of more than 30dB.

Cognitive load associations when utilizing auditory display within image-guided neurosurgery.

Purpose: The combination of data visualization and auditory display (e.g., sonification) has been shown to increase accuracy, and reduce perceived difficulty, within 3D navigation tasks.

Interaction driven enhancement of depth perception in angiographic volumes.

User interaction has the potential to greatly facilitate the exploration and understanding of 3D medical images for diagnosis and treatment. However, in certain specialized environments such as in an operating room (OR), technical and physical constraints such as the need to enforce strict sterility rules, make interaction challenging. In this paper, we propose to facilitate the intraoperative exploration of angiographic volumes by leveraging the motion of a tracked surgical pointer, a tool that is already manipulated by the surgeon when using a navigation system in the OR.