Image Upconversion from the Visible to the UV Domain: Application to Dynamic UV Microstereolithography

Theory for upconversion of incoherent images

Upconversion of images is a generic method for shifting the spectral content of entire images. A comprehensive theory for upconversion of incoherent light images is presented and compared against experiments. In particular we consider the important case for upconversion of infinity corrected light. We show that the spatial resolution for upconversion of incoherent light images is better than for the corresponding coherent image upconversion case. The fundamental differences between upconversion of coherent and incoherent images are investigated theoretically and experimentally. The theory includes the general case of upconversion using TEM(nm) modes.

Optical-parametric-amplification imaging of complex objects

We used ultrafast Fourier-plane optical-parametric-amplification (OPA) imaging to simultaneously image, wavelength-shift, and amplify complex two-dimensional objects with spatial features from 1.1 to 10.1 line pairs/millimeter (lp/mm) in the vertical dimension and from 2.0 to 16.0 lp/mm in the horizontal dimension, corresponding to a two-dimensional space-bandwidth product (SBP) of ~46,000. This represents an increase in image complexity over previous analogous OPA imaging systems by over three orders of magnitude. We observe both wavelength-shifting the image from 930 nm to a wavelength of 700 nm and image amplification by two orders of magnitude. Our wavelength-shifted image has a SBP of ~30,000.

Enhanced 2D-image upconversion using solid-state lasers

Based on enhanced upconversion, we demonstrate a highly efficient method for converting a full image from one part of the electromagnetic spectrum into a new desired wavelength region. By illuminating a metal transmission mask with a 765 nm Gaussian beam to create an image and subsequently focusing the image inside a nonlinear PPKTP crystal located in the high intra-cavity field of a 1342 nm solid-state Nd:YVO(4) laser, an upconverted image at 488 nm is generated. We have experimentally achieved an upconversion efficiency of 40% under CW conditions. The proposed technique can be further adapted for high efficiency mid-infrared image upconversion where direct and fast detection is difficult or impossible to perform with existing detector technologies.