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Abstract We present results for a new type of fiber-coupled stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscope which uses a single fiber to transport STED and excitation light, as well as collect the fluorescence signal. Our method utilizes two higher-order eigenmodes of polarization maintaining (PM) fiber to generate the doughnut-shaped STED beam. The modes are excited with separate beams that share no temporal coherence, yielding output that is independent of fiber bending. We measured the resolution using 45 nm fluorescent beads and found a median bead image size of 116 nm. This resolution does not change as function of fiber bending radius, demonstrating robust operation. We report, for the first time, STED images of fixed biological samples collected in the epi-direction through fiber. Our microscope design shows promise for future use in super-resolution micro-endoscopes and
in vivo neural imaging in awake and freely-behaving animals. -
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We investigate numerically and experimentally an all-fiber, bandwidth tunable spectral filter comprising birefringent fibers. The spectral bandwidth tunability of the filter is based on the compensation of birefringence in polarization maintaining fibers. This unique filter allows mode-locked operation of a fiber oscillator with the ability to generate distinct laser modes with different output spectral shapes and pulse evolutions.
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The residual fiber length in a molded part is one of the most important microstructural properties of discontinuous fiber‐reinforced composites. While there have been several research studies characterizing the process‐induced fiber length reduction, the measurement procedures vary substantially, calling into question the comparability of reported results. This article introduces a newly developed measurement procedure that aims to provide accurate, repeatable, robust, and time efficient fiber length analyses. A comprehensive study of measurement techniques was performed comparing commercially available systems and the conventional approach of measuring the fiber length manually. The results emphasize the need for a standardized procedure to characterize the fiber length distribution and the risk of generating inadequate results through improper sample preparation. The developed measurement technique was tested and compared for an experimental study of fiber breakage in injection molding. For a simple plaque geometry, the residual fiber length along the flow path was obtained for a long glass fiber‐reinforced polypropylene at 30 and 40%wt for varying process conditions. The new measurement technique showed accurate and repeatable results. The results of the injection molding study showed that screw speed and back pressure are important factors that drive fiber breakage. An increase in back pressure from 13 to 50 bar and screw speed from 27 to 35 rpm reduces the weight‐average fiber length by 37.5%.more » « less
