Optical imaging lighting device capable of effectively removing laser speckles
Technical Field
The invention belongs to the technical fields of laser illumination, image acquisition, processing and the like, and particularly relates to an optical imaging illumination device capable of effectively removing laser speckles
Background
High-speed photography is a specialized photography technique for acquiring instantaneous images of an object by exposure in a very short time, and is most commonly used for photographing scenes which cannot be recognized by human eyes or a common camera under some normal conditions. The high speed camera can complete fast, multiple samplings of high speed targets in a short time and can exhibit a recorded target course when projected at normal speed. Therefore, the high-speed photographic technology has the outstanding advantages of real-time target capture, quick image recording, instant playback, visual and clear images and the like.
The high-speed moving object is irradiated by natural light to generate reflected light, or the object itself emits light, and part of the light passes through an imaging objective lens of the high-speed imaging system and is then converted into a charge signal with an image through a series of photoelectric devices to be stored in a register. When shooting a target object moving at a high speed, a camera often needs a very fast shutter speed, and if the shutter speed is insufficient, a smear effect can be caused; but the faster the shutter speed, the less the light flux passes through the shutter within a certain period of time, i.e., the less light falls on the image sensing surface of the photo-electric imaging device, eventually resulting in darkening of the photographed image and deterioration of the imaging quality. Therefore, artificial auxiliary illumination light is adopted for light supplementing under certain conditions, so that better imaging quality is obtained.
Aiming at the light supplementing light source, an LED is usually adopted for supplementing light, and the LED light supplementing device has the advantages of low price, small volume, long service life and the like; for the shooting requirement of general scenes or figures, better light supplementing performance can be achieved. However, the power of the common LED light source is often smaller, the divergence angle is large, and the energy which can be used for effective light filling after transmission loss is reduced. Aiming at a target object moving at a high speed, the LED light supplementing method still cannot achieve a good light supplementing effect. The laser light source has the characteristics of high intensity, high brightness, high monochromaticity and high coherence, and the power of the laser light source can reach kilowatt level, so that the laser light source is adopted to perform light supplementing operation on a target object moving at a high speed, and the laser light source has more practical significance. However, laser light has a strong coherence, and random spots occur when coherent light is reflected from a rough surface or back-scattered or transmitted from inside a medium containing a scattering substance. This is due to the fact that the irregular distribution of the surface roughness and the medium can cause the reflection or scattering of coherent light to produce different optical path differences, and when the number of the surface roughness is large and the distribution is irregular, the light encounters in space to interfere, and finally a random granular speckle pattern is formed.
The current speckle suppression technology can have various modes, such as changing the structure of the laser, physically combining beams, adding an optical element or dye solution for vibration rotation in an optical path, adopting a MEMS micro-vibrating mirror, adopting a speckle suppression deformable mirror and the like, which can effectively suppress laser speckle to a certain extent, but the modes require complex mechanical design and an accurate control system, increase the manufacturing cost and complexity of the whole system, and are mostly influenced by environmental factors such as vibration, temperature and the like. If a dye solution is added in the light path, although the speckle can be effectively restrained by utilizing the principle of laser excitation fluorescent dye luminescence, the solubility of the dye can change along with the rise and fall of ambient temperature, and the change can lead to the change of the wavelength of light beams transmitted through dyes with different concentrations, thereby causing the measurement error of detection signals; secondly, the dye solution is easy to boil under the irradiation of high-power laser, so that the transmission state of the light beam in the dye is unstable, the problems of volatilization and leakage of the solution are also caused, and meanwhile, if the sealing performance of the device is poor, the risks of volatilization and leakage of the solution are also increased; in addition, the placement of the dye box can lead to a complicated light path, and the absorption of the box body and dye solvent to the light beam can obviously weaken the power of the emergent light beam, so that uncertainty is brought to the light supplementing effect of the target object. In summary, although the light supplementing power of the laser is high, the coherence of the laser can bring obvious electronic speckles to the imaging image, and the laser speckles are mixed with the information of the target object, so that measurement errors are caused and the measurement errors are not easy to distinguish; the prior art has a series of problems of complex structure, high precision requirement, low safety, easiness in being influenced by external factors, high power loss and the like, and the problems are challenging to remove laser speckles.
Disclosure of Invention
In view of the above problems, the present invention aims to provide an optical imaging illumination device capable of effectively removing laser speckles by adding an optical device to change the beam parameters. The device can realize effective light filling aiming at a high-speed moving target object, and meets the requirement of high-frame-rate light filling; meanwhile, the laser speckle removing device has an obvious removing effect on existing laser speckles, and can effectively solve the problems of complex structure, high cost, low safety, easiness in being influenced by external factors and high power loss of the existing speckle removing device.
The technical scheme of the invention is as follows:
An optical imaging illumination device effective for removing laser speckle, the system comprising in order: the device comprises a laser light source, an optical fiber, a collimating lens, a focusing lens and a beam expanding lens; the laser source generates laser beams, and after the laser beams are transmitted and emitted through the optical fiber, the divergent beams are collimated into parallel beams through the collimating mirror connected to the emitting part of the optical fiber, so that the loss caused by the fact that excessive energy is emitted to the outside of the system is avoided; the collimated parallel light beams can irradiate the focusing lens with good collimation performance, the focusing lens converges the parallel light beams, the light beams can be effectively coupled into the optical fiber positioned at the focus, and the light beams are transmitted in the optical fiber; finally, a beam expander is connected to the outgoing end of the optical fiber, the size of the light beam is changed, and the size of the light beam is adjusted according to the target area, so that the light beam can complete the light supplementing illumination of the target area; structurally, the optical fiber, the collimating lens and the focusing lens are assembled and connected through the device box, and the device has a certain protection and reinforcement function.
Further, the device box includes: the device comprises a scale graduation cylinder, a connecting cylinder and an external protective shell, wherein a collimating mirror is fixed inside the scale graduation cylinder, and graduation lines are arranged on the outer wall of the scale graduation cylinder; one end of the scale tube is provided with an optical fiber interface, the other end of the scale tube is open, the open end extends into one end of the connecting tube, the other end of the connecting tube is provided with an optical fiber interface, and a focusing lens is arranged in the connecting tube; the scale mark on the outer wall of the scale mark cylinder at the position pointed by the end surface of the connecting cylinder represents the distance between the collimating mirror and the focusing mirror; the outer protective housing is inside hollow tubular structure, and both ends opening for through optic fibre.
Further, the external protection shell comprises two parts, each part is of a cylindrical cup-shaped structure with an opening at the bottom, one part is provided with internal threads respectively, the other part is provided with external threads, and the two parts are combined together through the engagement of the internal threads and the external threads to protect the scale graduation barrel and the connecting barrel inside the external protection shell.
Further, the length of the staff gauge scale drum is 3cm, the diameter of the outer drum is 1.8cm, and scale marks of 0-20mm are marked on the outer wall of the drum; the length of the connecting cylinder is 3.7cm, and the diameter of the outer cylinder is 2.5cm.
Furthermore, the optical fiber interfaces of the scale mark cylinder and the connecting cylinder are SMA905 joint optical fiber interfaces.
Furthermore, the collimating lens and the focusing lens are made of the same material and size, the material is ultraviolet fused quartz, the lens size diameter is 5mm, and the lens focal length is 10mm.
Further, the outer protective shell is made of aluminum, and has a length of 9cm and a diameter of 3.5cm.
In light of the foregoing, the present invention is directed to an optical imaging illumination device that is effective in removing laser speckle, which provides a number of significant advantages. Firstly, the LED light source has smaller power and large divergence angle, the loss is increased after the LED light source is transmitted through the optical element, the effective light supplementing energy is reduced, the higher light supplementing requirement cannot be met, the laser light source has good directivity and high power, the better light supplementing performance can be realized for a target object moving at a high speed under a certain distance, and the brightness of a shot image can be improved. And secondly, the optical imaging illumination device for removing the laser speckles has simple optical path, no other optical element is arranged between the collimating mirror and the focusing mirror, and the light beam is scattered inside the optical element after being coupled, so that the parameters of the outgoing light beam change, the coherence of the outgoing light beam is reduced, the minimum light beam loss generated in the optical path is ensured, and the larger outgoing power is realized. In addition, the device box realizes the protection of the light path, prevents the interference of external environment light on the light beam which is directly emitted, and has more credibility of the operation result; the two ends of the device box are provided with common optical fiber interfaces, so that the external element can be conveniently replaced without changing the internal parameters; the distance between the collimating mirror and the focusing mirror in the device box is adjustable, the distance value can be read through the scale marks, the requirements of light supplementing illumination under different conditions can be met, the device can effectively work under a visible light source and an infrared light source, and the applicability is stronger; the device box still can accomplish the experimental objective of effectively getting rid of laser speckle on the basis of small in size. In summary, the optical imaging lighting device provided by the invention has the advantages of small volume, simple structure, high safety performance and capability of effectively removing laser speckles, can meet the imaging requirement on a high-speed moving target object, can improve the brightness of an image through light supplementing, and can remove the electronic speckles generated by laser.
Drawings
FIG. 1 is a schematic view of the optical path principle of an optical imaging illumination device capable of effectively removing laser speckle according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a device box assembly of the optical imaging illumination device for protecting the collimating mirror and the focusing mirror;
FIG. 3 is an image of an empty stationary object without and with an optical imaging illuminator, respectively;
FIG. 4 is an image of a dynamic rotating speckle pattern at a linear velocity of 5m/s without and with an optical imaging illuminator, respectively.
Fig. 5 is an image of an aluminum alloy sample piece without and with an optical imaging illuminator, respectively.
In the figure: 1. a laser light source; 2. an optical fiber; 3. a device box; 4. a collimator lens; 5 focusing mirror; 6. a beam expander; 7. a test sample; 8. an aluminum outer protective shell right side assembly; an sma905 splice fiber interface; 10. a connecting cylinder; 11. a screw hole; 12. a staff gauge scale drum; 13. left side subassembly of aluminium system outside protective housing.
Detailed Description
As shown in FIG. 1, the optical imaging lighting device capable of effectively removing laser speckles is a schematic diagram of the optical path principle of the optical imaging lighting device, and comprises a laser light source 1, an optical fiber 2, a collimating mirror 4, a focusing mirror 5, a beam expander 6 and a test sample 7. Firstly, the laser light source 1 generates a light beam output, the light beam is transmitted to the collimating mirror through the optical fiber 2, the emergent end of the optical fiber is positioned at the focal point of the mirror group, and the divergent light beam is collimated into a parallel light beam to be emergent through the collimating mirror 4, so that the loss caused by the fact that excessive energy is emergent to the outside of the system is avoided. Then, the collimated light beam is beaten on the focusing mirror 5 through an air gap, and a second optical fiber is placed at the focus of the focusing mirror 5 so as to ensure that the focusing mirror can converge the light beam into the optical fiber, thereby realizing effective coupling; wherein the device box 3 is used for protecting the collimation and focusing assembly. Finally, a beam expander 6 is connected to the outgoing end of the optical fiber, the beam is expanded through the beam expander, and the size of the beam is adjusted according to the area and the distance of the target object, so that the beam can complete the light supplementing illumination of the test sample 7.
Fig. 2 (a) is a schematic diagram showing the internal structure of a device box 3 assembly for protecting a collimator lens 4 and a focusing lens 5 in an optical imaging illumination device capable of effectively removing laser speckles according to the present invention, wherein the device box 3 assembly comprises: an aluminum outer protective shell right side component 8, an SMA905 joint optical fiber interface 9, a connecting cylinder 10, a screw hole 11, a scale drum 12 and an aluminum outer protective shell left side component 13. Fig. 2 (b) is an overall external view of the above-described components after assembly.
The device can fix the positions of the collimating lens group and the focusing lens group according to the requirements, and the protective shell is covered outside to be integrally used as a device box component. The external protective shell has the functions of fixing and protecting the internal optical element, and meanwhile, the interference of the change of external environment light on the optical imaging lighting device can be avoided. The two ends of the collimating mirror and the focusing mirror are provided with optical fiber interfaces with common specifications, and when the light source, the optical fiber and other optical elements are replaced, the parameters and the positions of the coupling elements in the middle shell can not be changed, so that the operation is more convenient and quicker. No other optical element exists between the collimating mirror and the condensing mirror, so that the system can be prevented from generating extra power loss. After a light beam emitted by a laser light source is connected into an optical fiber, the direction of a laser beam is changed through coupling of a collimating mirror, so that part of light at a certain angle is scattered, and energy is not uniform; the light beam is scattered inside the optical element, so that the parameters of the outgoing light beam are changed, and the coherence of the outgoing light beam is reduced. No other optical element exists between the collimating mirror and the condensing mirror, so that the system can be prevented from generating extra power loss. Compared with the laser source used for directly supplementing light to the target area, the system can remove laser speckles under the condition of smaller light power loss, and imaging with better quality is realized. The device box comprises three parts, namely a scale graduation barrel, a connecting barrel and an external protective shell. The collimating lens can be fixed in the staff gauge scale drum and is connected with the optical fiber; the outer cylinder wall is provided with scale marks of 0-20mm for being combined with the connecting cylinder, and the distance between the collimating lens and the condensing lens can be adjusted and checked. One side of the inside of the connecting cylinder is fixedly provided with a focusing lens, the other side of the inside of the connecting cylinder can embed the scale drum, and the distance between the two groups of lenses can be adjusted by fixing an external screw. The two end surfaces of the outer protective shell are provided with through holes for passing through the optical fibers; the protection shell is divided into a left part and a right part, the left part and the right part of the shell are connected through screw threads, the scale drum and the connecting drum are together arranged in the shell for protection, the external force is prevented from interfering the core part of the device, and the structure is more stable. The appearance of the device box is cylindrical, the length of the outer dimension is not more than 9cm, the diameter is not more than 3.5cm, and the device box has the characteristics of small volume, portability, simple structure, stable performance, quick assembly and disassembly and the like. The device can change the coupling distance between the collimating lens group and the focusing lens group by adjusting the depth of the staff gauge scale drum embedded in the connecting drum and read the distance value on the drum wall so as to realize the speckle removing requirements of different degrees.
The length of the scale drum 12 is 3cm, and the diameter of the outer drum is 1.8cm; the collimating lens 4 is arranged in the cylinder, and scale marks of 0-20mm are marked on the outer wall of the cylinder. The length of the connecting cylinder 10 is 3.7cm, and the diameter of the outer cylinder is 2.5cm; the focusing mirror 5 is arranged on one side of the connecting cylinder, which is close to the SMA905 joint optical fiber interface 9, and a space allowance with the length of 3cm is reserved at the opening of the other side of the connecting cylinder, so that the scale drum 12 is completely embedded. Meanwhile, the length of the scale graduation barrel 12 embedded into the connecting barrel 10 can be changed according to the requirements, so that the relative distance between the collimating mirror 4 and the focusing mirror 5 is controlled, and the reading is carried out through graduations; different relative distances can lead to different scattering degrees of the light beam in the air gap, and meanwhile, the scattering state of the light beam during transmission inside the optical element is changed, so that the light supplementing effect of the emergent light beam is finally different. After the distance between the scale drum 12 and the connecting drum 10 is determined, screws are installed into four uniformly distributed screw holes 11 on the side wall to fix, so that the relative positions of the collimating mirror 4 and the focusing mirror 5 are kept unchanged, and the stability of light beam coupling is ensured. The length of the outer protective housing is 9cm, the diameter is 3.5cm, the outer protective housing is divided into a left component and a right component, and the right component 8 of the aluminum outer protective housing and the left component 13 of the aluminum outer protective housing are assembled and fixed through screw threads. The two sides of the outer protective shell are provided with through holes reserved for the SMA905 connector optical fiber interfaces 9, and the through holes are used for penetrating through the optical fibers 2 and fixing the assembly scale drum 12 and the connecting drum 10 in the protective shell. The collimating lens 4 and the focusing lens 5 are made of the same material and have the same size, the material is ultraviolet fused quartz, the lens has the size diameter of 5mm, and the focal length of the lens is 10mm; one side of the inner lens is fixed through a step on the inner wall of the lens barrel, and the other side is pressed through a pressing ring. The relative distance between the collimating mirror 4 and the focusing mirror 5, i.e. the length of the scale drum 12 embedded in the connecting drum 10, can be adjusted according to the power of the laser light source and the required light supplementing power of the target object to be measured. The connecting cylinder 10, the aluminum outer protection shell right side component 8 and the aluminum outer protection shell left side component 13 all avoid light beam coupling in the external environment, protect the internal optical element, avoid the interference of the change of the surrounding environment light on the optical imaging lighting device, and ensure the stability of the light path and the reliability of the experimental result. When the device is placed for a long time, the right side component 8 of the aluminum outer protection shell and the left side component 13 of the aluminum outer protection shell can also ensure that the inside of the device is not polluted by external conditions, and keep the optical elements clean. In addition, the connecting cylinder 10 and one end of the scale drum 12 are both provided with an SMA905 connector optical fiber interface 9, so that parameters and positions of optical elements in the middle box can not be changed when the light source, the optical fiber and other external optical elements are replaced, and the operation is more convenient and rapid and the repeatability is high.
Fig. 3 (a) is an image of a blank stationary object without using the optical imaging illumination device of the present invention. In the experiment, a laser light source uses an Nd-YAG solid laser with the wavelength of 532nm, and a light beam output by the light source is output through an optical fiber and a collimator, and the collimated light beam irradiates a target area. As can be seen from fig. 3 (a), when the high-speed camera is used for shooting and imaging experiments, the illuminated area has a significant effect of improving brightness compared with the surrounding edge area when the laser light source is used for light supplementing, which indicates that the laser light source has a good light supplementing effect; however, it can be observed that the imaging pattern photographed by the high-speed camera has obvious electronic speckles, and the speckles are irregularly distributed, so that measurement errors are caused and effective information is not easy to distinguish. Fig. 3 (b) is an image of a blank stationary object using the optical imaging illumination device of the present invention. Although the coupled light source power is lost and the brightness is slightly reduced in the figure, most of obvious speckles in the figure are removed, and the brightness can still realize the light supplementing effect on the target area. The results effectively prove that the device can realize good illumination effect and simultaneously has the capability of removing laser speckles.
Fig. 4 (a) is an image of a dynamically rotating speckle pattern without the use of an optical imaging illumination device. In the experiment, a laser light source is also an Nd-YAG solid laser with the wavelength of 532nm and the exposure time of a high-speed camera of 1/40000s; the imaging field of view of the probe is 20mm by 20mm; the target object adopts a sample piece with a speckle pattern, the radius of the sample piece is 0.1m, the rotating speed is 500 revolutions per minute, and the linear speed is 5m/s. The laser light source directly irradiates the speckle sample, the detail is captured and observed by using a high-speed camera, and the imaging diagram has irregularly distributed obvious laser speckles. At this time, the power of the emitted light beam was 1.616W. Fig. 4 (b) is an image of a dynamic rotating speckle pattern using the optical imaging illumination device, wherein the power of the emitted beam is 0.416W, the effective coupling ratio of the device is 25.74W, and the transmission loss of the beam power is minimized after the processing of the device. According to an imaging diagram, the brightness of the emergent light beam after the laser light source is coupled is enough, the requirement of light filling imaging is met, and no obvious laser speckle exists on a speckle sample.
Fig. 5 (a) is an image of an aluminum alloy sample with speckles without using an optical imaging illuminator. In the experiment, an infrared laser light source with the parameters of 700-808 nm is used, the highest power is 650mw, the repetition frequency is 10khz, and the pulse width is 10-20 ns; the light source optical fiber is directly emitted to the surface of the aluminum alloy sample piece without passing through the lighting device, and marks are painted on the surface of the sample piece so as to prevent the imaging position from being greatly deviated. As can be seen from fig. 5 (a), in the imaging pattern shot by the high-speed camera, white irregular laser speckles are obviously observed at the mark center of the surface of the sample, and the laser speckles block the surface of the aluminum alloy sample, so that the image quality is affected; in an imaging pattern shot by a camera, although laser light supplementing can improve imaging brightness, the problem of uneven distribution is obvious, the brightness at the center of the image is far higher than that at the light supplementing edge, and the gray gradient value is overlarge; the uneven light filling can also cause overexposure phenomenon when serious, thereby affecting the subsequent processing of data. Fig. 5 (b) is an image of an aluminum alloy sample with speckles using the optical imaging illuminator described above. The imaging diagram shows that the device supplements light to the aluminum alloy sample more uniformly, and the overexposure phenomenon does not occur; on the surface of the aluminum alloy sample, irregular laser speckle was significantly reduced as compared with fig. 5 (a). As can be seen from comparison of FIG. 5 (a) and FIG. 5 (b), the device can also effectively remove laser speckles on the aluminum alloy sample under the infrared light source, and realize uniform light filling.
As can be seen from comparison of the experimental results of fig. 3 (a) (b), fig. 4 (a) (b) and fig. 5 (a) (b), an optical imaging illumination device capable of effectively removing laser speckles can work under two different wave bands of a visible light source and an infrared light source, and has obvious comparison effects when applied to samples of different types of materials; the device has better universality, and can effectively remove laser speckles and realize uniform light filling.
Any modification, equivalent replacement, variation, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.