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  • Volume 44, Issue 9

    • Volume 44, Issue 9

    Th 0808lfwphotonics Ind
    Test & Measurement

    New Products

    Sept. 1, 2008
    The PS Series picosecond laser converts up to 120 W of 1064 nm output to up to 80 W of 532 nm output, 30 W of 355 nm output, or 10 W of 266 nm output, while maintaining TEM00 ...
    Peter Baker
    Software

    The bottom line: laser safety standards protect profits

    Sept. 1, 2008
    Let’s face it—we have all benefited greatly from the explosive growth of laser applications.
    Research

    Chinese science and the 'Needham Question'

    Jeffrey Bairstow
    Sept. 1, 2008
    Don’t worry if you have never heard of The Needham Question. Neither had I, until I read Simon Winchester’s fascinating new book, The Man Who Loved China: the Fantastic Story ...
    Optics

    Challenges of change

    Stephen G. Anderson
    Sept. 1, 2008
    Not so long ago, when purchasing a television set, most consumers took little interest in the technology behind the TV display itself because the cathode ray tube was ubiquitous...
    Optics

    LASER INDUSTRY REPORT

    Sept. 1, 2008
    Provider of precision motion products and lasers for medical, electronics, industrial, and semiconductor applications, GSI Group (Rugby, England) agreed to acquire Excel Technology...

    More content from Volume 44, Issue 9

    Research

    IMAGING & DETECTOR INDUSTRY REPORT

    Sept. 1, 2008
    Imaging systems company Goodrich (Charlotte, NC) signed an agreement with Bourns (Riverside, CA) to acquire the Chicago Aerial Industries and Pacific Optical Division assets of...
    Research

    FIBER OPTICS INDUSTRY REPORT

    Sept. 1, 2008
    Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and optical communications components and subsystems provider Enablence Technologies (Ottawa, ON, Canada) signed a definitive Asset Purchase Agreement...
    Optics

    OPTICS INDUSTRY REPORT

    Sept. 1, 2008
    Varioptic (Lyon, France), the liquid-lens company, and Shenzhen Akkord Electronics (Shenzhen, China), an OEM for leading electronics brand names in Europe, launched the first ...
    (Courtesy of the University of New South Wales)
    A normal single-mode fiber and a photonic-crystal fiber (cross section, lower right) are spliced together, forming a spherical microcavity at their junction that functions as a strain sensor (the photonic-crystal fiber collapses and becomes solid).
    Research

    FIBER SENSORS: In-fiber microcavity acts as strain sensor

    Paul Grad
    Sept. 1, 2008
    Researchers Gang-Ding Peng from the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia) and Enbang Lin and Xin Ding from Tianjin University (Tianjin, China) have developed a fiber...
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    Detectors & Imaging

    Detectors: Diamond dynodes create a new breed of photon detectors

    Sept. 1, 2008
    The attractive properties of diamond films—used as dynode materials requiring few gain stages—enable the development of micromachined, large-area, low-noise photon-counting detector...
    (Courtesy of Case Western Reserve University)
    An all-polymer distributed-Bragg-reflector (DBR) laser is fabricated from melt-processed layers in an extrusion process that is amenable to future roll-to-roll manufacturing methods (top). The assembled low-threshold, high-efficiency DBR lasers (bottom) have well-defined spatial and temporal modes.
    Optics

    ORGANIC LASERS: Polymer DBR lasers move toward roll-to-roll production

    Gail Overton
    Sept. 1, 2008
    Polymer lasers are attracting attention for their potential processing advantages and the ability to broadly tailor wavelength output based on simple dopant and material modifications...
    Optics

    Science and Technology Education: Pollicove scholarship supports precision optics manufacturing

    Sept. 1, 2008
    A new annual grant program endowed by the H.M. Pollicove Memorial fund and matched by the OSA Foundation provides support to students who are pursuing a degree in precision optics...
    An eye-safe quantum-cascade laser sends pulses of IR light onto a remote target. A collecting mirror focuses the reflected light onto a quartz tuning-fork sensor. The amplitude of the photoacoustic vibrations on the tuning fork is recorded as a function of illumination wavelength.
    Research

    OPTICAL SENSING: Laser-acoustic device detects explosives residue from a safe distance

    Valerie Coffey-Rosich
    Sept. 1, 2008
    The ability to detect explosives remotely may soon be possible using “standoff” photoacoustic spectroscopy, say scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL; Oak Ridge, TN...
    (Courtesy of ANU)
    The quantity of remaining atoms in the laser mode (red) of an atom-laser BEC (yellow) varies depending on whether or not the system is being pumped. The initial quantity (a) increases with pumping and no outcoupling (b), stays the same with pumping and outcoupling (c), and decreases with outcoupling but no pumping (d). Independence of pumping and outcoupling mechanisms indicates that atom replenishment is functioning properly. The curves are calculated from a rate-equation model, and error bars (red) represent the standard deviation of the mean calculated from repeated independent measurements.
    Research

    ATOM LASERS: Atom source for condensate is quantum leap for atom optics

    Hassaun A. Jones-Bey
    Sept. 1, 2008
    Recently reported research results from Australian National University (ANU; Canberra, Australia) appear to pave the way for development of continuous-wave (CW) free-space atom...
    A multilayer high-dispersion mirror for use around 800 nm has a group delay that varies with wavelength, resulting in a large group-delay dispersion of about ~1300 fs2 in the 785 to 815 nm spectral range.
    Optics

    ULTRAFAST-LASER OPTICS: Femtosecond-laser mirrors have high dispersion

    John Wallace
    Sept. 1, 2008
    An improved chirped-mirror design developed by scientists in the Krausz group at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität-München and the Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik (both in Garching...
    Very slightly steering one of two ultrafast pump beams impinging on a nonlinear optical device greatly steers the resulting terahertz beam.
    Research

    OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS: Difference-frequency generation steers terahertz beams quickly

    John Wallace
    Sept. 1, 2008
    Two researchers at RIKEN (Sendai, Japan) have come up with a way of quickly and easily steering a beam of terahertz radiation over a wide angular range (potentially ±90°).
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    Research

    PHOTONIC-CRYSTAL FIBERS: Hollow-core PCFs enable high nonlinearity at low light levels

    Sept. 1, 2008
    The development of nonlinear and quantum optics applications based on gas-phase materials has been impeded by the lack of a suitable technology for creating devices that guide...
    (Courtesy of Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
    A grating is fabricated using four 200-nm-period grating levels in a unique interference-lithography process (left). The fourth exposure produces a 50-nm-period grating with feature sizes as small as 25 nm (right).
    Optics

    LITHOGRAPHY: Interference lithography creates 50-nm-period gratings

    Gail Overton
    Sept. 1, 2008
    Although still not capable of producing the complex, nonperiodic structures necessary for most integrated-circuit (IC) designs, interference lithography has been used to successfully...
    (Courtesy of Harvard University and Hamamatsu Photonics)
    The grooves on the face of a metal-coated quantum-cascade laser (top) act effectively as an antenna to concentrate light exiting a slit into a small solid angle. The two-dimensional far-field intensity distribution was measured from above the QCL facet (bottom). The slight curvature of the output is an edge effect.
    Lasers & Sources

    PLASMONICS: Surface-plasmon collimation narrows the beam of semiconductor lasers

    Valerie Coffey-Rosich
    Sept. 1, 2008
    Unlike gas and solid-state lasers that emit in a characteristically narrow beam, edge-emitting semiconductor lasers have a wide beam divergence, requiring bulky optics and meticulous...
    (Courtesy of University of Hertfordshire)
    The scattering pattern of individual ice crystals (left) can be used to accurately identify the size and shape of a micron-size column and hexagonal platelet of ice (right). Such microscopic data, which was previously unattainable, can aid in understanding how clouds affect Earth’s climate.
    Research

    ATMOSPHERIC STUDIES: Ice crystal shapes are assessed in the Earth’s atmosphere

    Valerie Coffey-Rosich
    Sept. 1, 2008
    Atmospheric scientists have created an optical-scattering instrument designed to capture high-resolution spatial light-scattering patterns of ice crystals like those found in ...