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  • Volume 45, Issue 1

    • Volume 45, Issue 1

    (Courtesy of Queen's University, Belfast, United Kingdom)
    FIGURE 1. Traditional pulse compressors based on gratings are relatively large, particularly when designed for high-energy amplified pulses. Here a custom compressor is used with an ultrafast system that produces pulse energies up to 20 joules.
    Test & Measurement

    FEMTOSECOND PULSE MANIPULATION: New tools compress and shape ultrafast pulses

    Marco Arrigoni
    Jan. 7, 2009
    Researchers can manipulate femtosecond laser pulses as never before, benefiting applications from biological imaging to terahertz spectroscopy and quantum reaction control.
    Pennwell web 200 150
    Software

    New Products

    Jan. 1, 2009
    The blue/green enhanced, 6 mm2 photodiode-preamplifier ODA-6WB-500M is designed for fluorescence detection and low-light-level medical diagnostic applications.
    1304qa Chang New
    Research

    Will the economic downturn affect start-up funding?

    Milton Chang
    Jan. 1, 2009
    How do you expect the current financial turmoil to impact start-up funding?
    Th Enhanced 01
    Software

    Enhanced optimization techniques benefit illumination design

    Jan. 1, 2009
    In optical-analysis programs, an optimization process systematically varies system design parameters to reach specified performance metrics.
    Research

    Why LCD televisions run the gamut

    Jeffrey Bairstow
    Jan. 1, 2009
    It’s not a word that I would use in everyday speech but if I wanted to impress you with my fancy vocabulary, I might say, “English cuisine runs the gamut from awful to appalling...

    More content from Volume 45, Issue 1

    Test & Measurement

    Bumpy ride ahead

    Stephen G. Anderson
    Jan. 1, 2009
    In this column last January I made an understatement of “economic-bailout” proportions.
    Lasers & Sources

    Ralph Jacobs, LLNL laser scientist

    Gail Overton
    Jan. 1, 2009
    Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL; Livermore, CA) laser scientist Ralph Jacobs died on Aug. 29 at age 65, just one week after retiring from LLNL.
    Th 305877
    Detectors & Imaging

    Manufactorers' Product Showcase

    Jan. 1, 2009
    Sydor Instruments has introduced a new, compact x-ray digital camera capable of operating completely in vacuum.
    (Courtesy of the Swinburne University of Technology)
    An optical-disc-recording setup allows recording in three spatial dimensions, as well as two polarizations and multiple wavelengths (top). Experimental results with three wavelengths show that 18 pixelated images can be written in the same disc area.
    Positioning, Support & Accessories

    OPTICAL-SPECTRUM ANALYSIS: Polarimetry improves spectral measurement of swept-wavelength sources

    Gail Overton
    Jan. 1, 2009
    Although optical-spectrum analysis and polarization measurement methods are not generally related, a collaborative effort by scientists at Tianjin University (Tianjin, China),...
    (Courtesy of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)
    FIGURE 1. A seven-layer, graded-index antireflection coating increases absorption of solar energy across a broad spectrum from 400 to 1600 nm at wide angles of incidence.
    Optics

    SOLAR CELLS: ‘Near perfect’ antireflection coating boosts solar-cell efficiency

    Valerie Coffey-Rosich
    Jan. 1, 2009
    Silicon solar cells hold promise for clean, renewable energy–and would be much more common as an alternative source of electricity if their cost was not so high.
    (Courtesy of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)
    A laboratory prototype of a long-range absolute DMI includes a TOF and SWI unit (lower left and an SRI unit (top and top left). Although the prototype was tested out in the open, an enclosed, thermally controlled version made of the proper materials could approach an accuracy of 7 nm while measuring large distances.
    Test & Measurement

    INTERFEROMETRY: Combined interferometer measures absolute distances precisely

    John Wallace
    Jan. 1, 2009
    Under the right environmental conditions, optical interferometers can measure macroscopic distances to nanometer accuracies.
    (Courtesy of Rochester Institute of Technology)
    To efficiently squeeze light into a subwavelength nanoscale-size spot, researchers at RIT coupled a standard dielectric waveguide to a metal-dielectric-metal plasmonic waveguide taper (top). Surface plasmons are funneled into the taper tip (bottom left), and the input 1550 nm light is efficiently coupled into a 21 × 24 nm spot (bottom right).
    Research

    BEAM SHAPING: Plasmonics squeeze IR light into nanospot

    Gail Overton
    Jan. 1, 2009
    Coupling light into a nanoscale spot is extremely important to applications in high-density optical interconnection, sensitive modulators, optical data storage, nanostructure ...
    (Courtesy of CUNY)
    Except for the QDs in the cavity, the layers of a flexible microcavity vertical-emitting laser are all polymer (left). Spin-coated on a glass substrate, the laser can be peeled off (upper right) and conforms to curved surfaces (lower right).
    Research

    VERTICAL-CAVITY LASERS: Microcavity flexible QD laser has no biohazard

    John Wallace
    Jan. 1, 2009
    In communications, as in many things, low cost means plastic; for example, the price of short-haul fiber-optic communications systems is lower because of the increasingly widespread...
    (Courtesy of CEA-Leti)
    Without gain, the noise from readout electronics dominates a low-flux IR image (left). A gain of seven makes the image significantly clearer (right).
    Detectors & Imaging

    IR IMAGING: MCT to see an avalanche of applications

    D. Jason Palmer
    Jan. 1, 2009
    Mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) has long been one of the materials of choice for detection of infrared radiation, and recent years have seen focal-plane arrays (FPAs) based on...
    (Courtesy of University of Cambridge)
    A liquid-crystal laser consists of a single-wavelength pump source illuminating a lenslet array that directs illumination toward a liquid-crystal cell containing specific chiral bandgap formulations that produce the desired output color. When the source illuminates a gradient cell containing multiple mixtures of liquid-crystal dye formulations, multiple colors are seen at the output.
    Lasers & Sources

    LASER DISPLAYS: Liquid-crystal laser promises low-fabrication-cost display

    Gail Overton
    Jan. 1, 2009
    Laser televisions and projection displays have focused on the development of low-cost, high-power red, green, and blue (RGB) laser sources.
    Lasers & Sources

    MEDICAL IMAGING: FLARE illuminates cancer tumors

    Barbara Gefvert
    Jan. 1, 2009
    A key criterion of successful cancer surgery is the ability to remove all vestiges of the tumor and thereby greatly reduce the chances that the cancer will recur.
    (Courtesy of the ICFO)
    Using a microscope, children examine several samples on a turntable that have been laser microprocessed: a stent, a tooth, porous plastic foil, gummi bears, and a microscopic statue of Venus.
    Optics

    PHOTONICS EDUCATION: Europe lights the way in photonics public outreach

    D. Jason Palmer
    Jan. 1, 2009
    At the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO; Barcelona, Spain), a unique outreach project just finished.
    (Courtesy of Harvey Mudd College and Los Alamos National Laboratory)
    An optical refrigerator depends on removal of high-energy photons to cool a special laser-pumped material. In the simplest implementation, this is accomplished by directly attaching a thermal link that is then butt-coupled to a heat load (top). To improve refrigeration efficiency, several versions of optical-waveguide tapers and lens elements can be used as thermal links to remove absorptive photons (bottom).
    Research

    SOLID-STATE LASERS: CVD growth methods enable diamond Raman laser

    Hassaun A. Jones-Bey
    Jan. 1, 2009
    The lure of compact solid-state diamond lasers operating in desirable spectral regions and power regimes, along with numerous other optoelectronic applications, is helping to ...
    FIGURE 1. The double substrate SERS probe involves a multimode fiber sensor (enlarged at right) with a coating of silver nanoparticles on its tip that react with the target solution. The excitation source is directed through the fiber, while the Raman signal is directed back up through the fiber for detection.
    Test & Measurement

    FIBER-BASED SENSORS: Surface-enhanced Raman sensors improve detection of dangerous agents

    Jan. 1, 2009
    The combination of SERS and optical fiber enables sensors for biological and chemical agents with the molecular fingerprinting ability of Raman scattering, the enhancement factor...
    Th Photonics Enters 01
    Research

    LASER MARKETPLACE 2009: Photonics enters a period of high anxiety

    Gail Overton
    Jan. 1, 2009
    The laser business is already feeling the pinch of the global economic recession. The questions are: how long and how severe will the impact be, what laser segments (if any) will...