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1. Unified k-space theory of optical coherence tomography

   https://doi.org/10.1364/AOP.417102  

   Zhou, Kevin_C; Qian, Ruobing; Dhalla, Al-Hafeez; Farsiu, Sina; Izatt, Joseph_A (June 2021, Advances in Optics and Photonics)

   We present a general theory of optical coherence tomography (OCT), which synthesizes the fundamental concepts and implementations of OCT under a common 3D $k$-space framework. At the heart of this analysis is the Fourier diffraction theorem, which relates the coherent interaction between a sample and plane wave to the Ewald sphere in the 3D $k$-space representation of the sample. While only the axial dimension of OCT is typically analyzed in $k$-space, we show that embracing a fully 3D $k$-space formalism allows explanation of nearly every fundamental physical phenomenon or property of OCT, including contrast mechanism, resolution, dispersion, aberration, limited depth of focus, and speckle. The theory also unifies diffraction tomography, confocal microscopy, point-scanning OCT, line-field OCT, full-field OCT, Bessel beam OCT, transillumination OCT, interferometric synthetic aperture microscopy (ISAM), and optical coherence refraction tomography (OCRT), among others. Our unified theory not only enables clear understanding of existing techniques but also suggests new research directions to continue advancing the field of OCT. 

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2. Heterogeneous Microstructure in Laser-Processed Metastable Ti25Nb Alloy

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s40830-025-00540-1  

   Lin, Wenhao; Akinwande, Abayomi Adewale; Hoglund, Eric; Heinrich, Helge; Ma, Ji (June 2025, Shape Memory and Superelasticity)

   Abstract The high thermal gradient and solidification velocity associated with the laser powder bed fusion process spurs formation of diverse microstructures in additively manufactured materials. This study focused on the phase composition observed in the microstructure of a laser-processed metastable titanium–niobium alloy. Through transmission electron microscopy experiments, we reveal the microstructures with several metastable phase, among which is a novel orthorhombic phase found in Nb-lean regions that is fundamentally different from the expected$${\alpha }^{{\prime}{\prime}}$$ ${\alpha }^{\prime \prime }$orthorhombic phase. Second is the$${O}{\prime}$$ $O\prime$phase and the$${O}{\prime}$$ $O\prime$variant selection phenomenon in laser-processed metastable β-Ti alloys. Microstructural features were found to be highly sensitive to the processing history. We further examine the mechanisms behind these phase formations and discuss how these features can influence the properties of the alloy. 

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3. Local structure elucidation of tungsten-substituted vanadium dioxide (V$$_{1-x}$$W$$_x$$O$$_2$$)

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-18575-0  

   Wilson, Catrina E.; Gibson, Amanda E.; Cuillier, Paul M.; Li, Cheng-Han; Crosby, Patrice H. N.; Trigg, Edward B.; Najmr, Stan; Murray, Christopher B.; Jinschek, Joerg R.; Doan-Nguyen, Vicky (August 2022, Scientific Reports)

   Abstract Initially, vanadium dioxide seems to be an ideal first-order phase transition case study due to its deceptively simple structure and composition, but upon closer inspection there are nuances to the driving mechanism of the metal-insulator transition (MIT) that are still unexplained. In this study, a local structure analysis across a bulk powder tungsten-substitution series is utilized to tease out the nuances of this first-order phase transition. A comparison of the average structure to the local structure using synchrotron x-ray diffraction and total scattering pair-distribution function methods, respectively, is discussed as well as comparison to bright field transmission electron microscopy imaging through a similar temperature-series as the local structure characterization. Extended x-ray absorption fine structure fitting of thin film data across the substitution-series is also presented and compared to bulk. Machine learning technique, non-negative matrix factorization, is applied to analyze the total scattering data. The bulk MIT is probed through magnetic susceptibility as well as differential scanning calorimetry. The findings indicate the local transition temperature ($$T_c$$ $T_c$) is less than the average$$T_c$$ $T_c$supporting the Peierls-Mott MIT mechanism, and demonstrate that in bulk powder and thin-films, increasing tungsten-substitution instigates local V-oxidation through the phase pathway VO$$_2\, \rightarrow$$ ${}_2\to$V$$_6$$ ${}_6$O$$_{13} \, \rightarrow$$ ${}_{13}\to$V$$_2$$ ${}_2$O$$_5$$ ${}_5$. 

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4. Structural phase purification of bulk HfO ₂ :Y through pressure cycling

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2312571121  

   Musfeldt, J. L.; Singh, Sobhit; Fan, Shiyu; Gu, Yanhong; Xu, Xianghan; Cheong, S.-W.; Liu, Z.; Vanderbilt, David; Rabe, Karin M. (January 2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   We combine synchrotron-based infrared absorption and Raman scattering spectroscopies with diamond anvil cell techniques and first-principles calculations to explore the properties of hafnia under compression. We find that pressure drives HfO ${}_2$:7%Y from the mixed monoclinic ( $P{2}_1/c$) $+$antipolar orthorhombic ( $\mathit{Pbca}$) phase to pure antipolar orthorhombic ( $\mathit{Pbca}$) phase at approximately 6.3 GPa. This transformation is irreversible, meaning that upon release, the material is kinetically trapped in the $\mathit{Pbca}$metastable state at 300 K. Compression also drives polar orthorhombic ( $Pca{2}_1$) hafnia into the tetragonal ( $P{4}_2/nmc$) phase, although the latter is not metastable upon release. These results are unified by an analysis of the energy landscape. The fact that pressure allows us to stabilize targeted metastable structures with less Y stabilizer is important to preserving the flat phonon band physics of pure HfO ${}_2$. 

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5. Characterizing chromatin packing scaling in whole nuclei using interferometric microscopy

   https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.400231  

   Eid, Aya; Eshein, Adam; Li, Yue; Virk, Ranya; Van_Derway, David; Zhang, Di; Taflove, Allen; Backman, Vadim (August 2020, Optics Letters)

   Chromatin is the macromolecular assembly containing the cell’s genetic information, and its architectural conformation facilitates accessibility to activation sites and thus gene expression. We have developed an analytical framework to quantify chromatin structure with spectral microscopy. Chromatin structure can be described as a mass fractal, with packing scaling $D$up to specific genomic length scales. Considering various system geometries, we established a model to measure $D$with the interferometric technique partial wave spectroscopy (PWS) and validated the analysis using finite difference time domain to simulate the PWS system. Calculations of $D$were consistent with ground truth electron microscopy measurements, enabling a high-throughput, label-free approach to quantifying chromatin structure in the nanometer length scale regime. 

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