Band 21, Heft 2

Night vision based on technology of image intensifier tubes is the oldest electro-optical surveillance technology. However, it receives much less attention from international scientific community than thermal imagers or visible/NIR imagers due to series of reasons. This paper presents a review of a modern night vision technology and can help readers to understand sophisticated situation on the international night vision market.

In this paper, we present an effective block-based digital fragile watermarking scheme for image tamper detection and recovery. The proposed scheme embeds watermarks consisting of the authentication data and the recovery data into image blocks. It adopts parity check and the intensity-relation check to thwart various malicious attacks. In the tamper detection process, instead of independently testing the embedded authentication data of each block, we take the block-neighbourhood into account and utilize a hierarchical structure to determine the legitimacy of image blocks. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme can effectively resist collage attack, vector quantization (VQ) attack and constant-average attack, while sustaining superior accuracy of tamper localization. Furthermore, the results reveal that the tampered images can be successfully self-recovered with acceptable visual quality.

Different methods used to reduce temperature increase within the active region of vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VECSELs) are described and compared with the aid of the self-consistent thermal finite-element method. Simulations have been carried out for the GaInNAs/GaAs multiple-quantum-well (MQW) VECSEL operating at room temperature at 1.31 μm. Main results are presented in form of ‘thermal maps’ which can be simply used to determine maximal temperature of different structures at specified pumping conditions. It has been found that these maps are also appropriate for some other GaAs-based VECSELs and can be very helpful especially during structure designing. Moreover, convective and thermal radiation heat transfer from laser walls has been investigated.

This paper presents the concept and experimental verification of a simple method of wavelength pre-selection of a single frequency, second-harmonic generation SHG solid state laser Nd:YAG/KTP with the Lyot filter. Apart from well-known configuration of single-frequency operation, the Lyot filter to stabilization of the wavelength was used. The idea presented is based on a measurement of the losses introduced by the Lyot filter inside the laser cavity, or the maximums of laser output power as a measure of the assessment of the Lyot filter tuning to a required laser longitudinal mode, not requiring any external frequency standards. This method allows for the synthesization and stabilization of a selected wavelength from the spectrum range of the gain curve of the laser with the period determined by the “Lyot comb”. In the developed system 15 values of wavelength spaced at about 32 pm (∼ 7.9 GHz) for the infrared radiation were obtained.

Deformations of homeotropically aligned flexoelectric nematic layers induced by dc electric fields were simulated numerically. Two different anchoring strengths on the limiting surfaces were assumed. Nematic material was characterised by negative dielectric anisotropy. Both signs of the sum of flexoelectric coefficients were taken into account. The electric properties of the layer were described in terms of a weak electrolyte model. Mobility of cations was assumed to be one order of magnitude lower than that of anions. Quasi-blocking electrode contacts were assumed. The threshold voltages for deformations were determined by means of calculations of the phase difference Φ between ordinary and extraordinary light rays passing through a layer placed between crossed polarisers. The threshold values depended on the polarity of the bias voltage U. When the threshold value was exceeded, the phase difference increased with the voltage. Two different Φ(U/Uthreshold) dependencies for the two polarities of the voltage were found for each layer if the nematic possessed the flexoelectric properties. The possibility of using this effect to detect the flexoelectricity in the nematic was explored by simulated experiments. The effectiveness of the proposed method is discussed.

Detection of explosives is an important challenge for contemporary science and technology of security systems. We present an application of NOx sensors equipped with concentrator in searching of explosives. The sensors using CRDS with blue — violet diode lasers (410 nm) as well as with QCL lasers (5.26 μm and 4.53 μm) are described. The detection method is based either on reaction of the sensors to the nitrogen oxides emitted by explosives or to NOx produced during thermal decomposition of explosive vapours. For TNT, PETN, RDX, and HMX the detection limit better than 1 ng has been achieved.

Electrical properties of HgCdTe films grown by metal-organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) on GaAs substrates and doped with the As acceptor during the growth were studied. Discrete mobility spectrum analysis was used to extract the parameters of the as-grown films and films after ion milling and during prolonged relaxation of milling-induced defects. The measurements revealed significant compensation of the as-grown MOCVD HgCdTe with As on Te sites being the main defect, residual donor concentration of the order of (2–5)×1015 cm−3, and the presence of some unidentified defects.

We report optical and luminescence properties of 3-N, N-diacetylaminobenzanthrone thin films deposited on glass substrate by thermal evaporation. The structural and optical properties of organic thin films were studied by means of the confocal microscope with an input of femtosecond laser radiation, X-ray diffractometer, and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Intense luminescence with the maximum at 530 nm was observed when excited by laser radiation with the wavelengths 458, 476, 488, 496, 514 nm. In addition, the luminescence caused by two-photon absorption of femtosecond (fs) laser radiation has been investigated. Semi empirical calculations by AM1 and ZINDO/S methods and ab initio calculations using Gaussian software were carried out to estimate the electron system of structure. The calculations show planar configurations for the aromatic core and diacetylamino fragment of this compound. The study of the structure of benzanthrone derivative thin films with X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods, indicates the distance between molecular layers and ordered molecular fragments.

In this paper designing, preparation and characterization of multifunctional coatings based on TiO2/SiO2 has been described. TiO2 was used as a high index material, whereas SiO2 was used as a low index material. Multilayers were deposited on microscope slide substrates by microwave assisted reactive magnetron sputtering process. Multilayer design was optimized for residual reflection of about 3% in visible spectrum (450–800 nm). As a top layer, TiO2 with a fixed thickness of 10 nm as a protective film was deposited. Based on transmittance and reflectance spectra, refractive indexes of TiO2 and SiO2 single layers were calculated. Ultra high vacuum atomic force microscope was used to characterize the surface properties of TiO2/SiO2 multilayer. Surface morphology revealed densely packed structure with grains of about 30 nm in size. Prepared samples were also investigated by nanoindentation to evaluate their protective performance against external hazards. Therefore, the hardness of the thin films was measured and it was equal to 9.34 GPa. Additionally, contact angle of prepared coatings has been measured to assess the wetting properties of the multilayer surface.

At present, uncooled thermal detector focal plane arrays are successfully used in staring thermal imagers. However, the performance of thermal detectors is modest, they suffer from slow response and they are not very useful in applications requiring multispectral detection. Infrared (IR) photon detectors are typically operated at cryogenic temperatures to decrease the noise of the detector arising from various mechanisms associated with the narrow band gap. There are considerable efforts to decrease system cost, size, weight, and power consumption to increase the operating temperature in so-called high-operating-temperature (HOT) detectors. Initial efforts were concentrated on photoconductors and photoelectromagnetic detectors. Next, several ways to achieve HOT detector operation have been elaborated including non-equilibrium detector design with Auger suppression and optical immersion. Recently, a new strategies used to achieve HOT detectors include barrier structures such as nBn, material improvement to lower generation-recombination leakage mechanisms, alternate materials such as superlattices and cascade infrared devices. Another method to reduce detector’s dark current is reducing volume of detector material via a concept of photon trapping detector. In this paper, a number of concepts to improve performance of photon detectors operating at near room temperature are presented. Mostly three types of detector materials are considered — HgCdTe and InAsSb ternary alloys, and type-II InAs/GaSb superlattice. Recently, advanced heterojunction photovoltaic detectors have been developed. Novel HOT detector designs, so called interband cascade infrared detectors, have emerged as competitors of HgCdTe photodetectors.