Researchers at University College London (UCL) have developed a new photoacoustic scanner based on a Fabry-Perot polymer film ultrasound sensor with a unique image reconstruction algorithm that can noninvasively image tumors at depths up to 10 mm.

A micro-optical retroreflector array is at the heart of a device developed by researchers at the Max-Born-Institut für Nichtlineare Optik und Kurzzeitspektroskopie and the Fern Universität Hagen that temporally shapes femtosecond laser pulses.

Modifications to a “massively parallel spectroscopy” technique have led researchers to a new means of measuring absolute distance with extraordinary precision.

Scientists at the University of Göttingen have demonstrated that in the so-called strong-field regime—the interaction of extremely high-intensity laser light with atoms and surfaces—classical dynamics may indeed prevail in photoemission from metal nanostructures.

Experimental work led by physicists at Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY) in collaboration with City College of CUNY combined with theoretical work from Purdue University and the University of Alberta has uncovered a new method to manipulate light by borrowing an idea from the field of mathematical topology.

Researchers at CREOL—The College of Optics & Photonics at the University of Central Florida—and NEC Laboratories America have developed a method for controlling modal gain in a few-mode erbium-doped fiber amplifier (FM-EDFA) to expand the viability of mode-division-multiplexed optical communications networks.

As the number of applications for ultrahigh-vacuum (UHV) environments increases, motion systems must be modified to manipulate optics, particle beams, and measurement devices inside UHV chambers.

The 2012 CLEO/Laser Focus World Innovation Awards program is designed to honor the most timely, groundbreaking products in the field of photonics and laser science. The awards are sponsored by Laser Focus World and the Conference on Lasers and Electro Optics (CLEO).

One of the most exciting commercial applications for light detection and ranging (lidar) technology is to estimate wind speed and direction in order to optimize the performance of modern-day wind turbines.

By incorporating nanoantenna structures into a photomixer, terahertz emission power can be enhanced more than two orders of magnitude compared to a photomixer using typical interdigitated structures.

The remarkable electronic and photonic properties of graphene have been used for demonstrations ranging from transparent conductive coatings to saturable absorbers and plasmonic devices. The next challenge is to make these devices practical.

Avalanche-photodiode (APD)-based photon counters have many benefits compared to other photon-counting technologies. Operated in Geiger mode for single-photon detection, they can be optimized for specific tasks.

Long-wavelength pumped, periodically poled lithium niobate waveguides upconvert single photons, allowing efficient, low-noise silicon avalanche photodiodes to detect the signal.

In an arXiv preprint, researchers at Towson University and the University of Maryland describe their fabrication of large arrays of small 2D broadband invisibility cloaks that operate in the visible spectral region; the array could find application in sensing and communications.

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland have used a 4WM scheme in a rubidium-vapor cell to generate both a superluminal seed pulse as well as a superluminal conjugate pulse in a different spatial mode (and a different frequency) traveling in a different direction.

Researchers at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik have proposed an accurate peak-intensity measurement technique that relies on the interaction of the laser pulse with a beam of ultrarelativistic electrons.

Flat-panel solar photovoltaic (PV) designs benefit tremendously from tracking hardware; however, such hardware increases installation costs and cost per watt—especially for residential installations.

A group at Corning Incorporated has demonstrated ultralong-haul fiber-optic transmission spanning more than 10,000 km in two different experiments—both of which involve 112 Gbit/s non-return-to-zero polarization-multiplexed quadrature phase-shift keying (NRZ-PM-QPSK) signals; 40 channels; all-Raman amplification; and ultralow-loss, large-effective-area optical fibers.