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  • Volume 47, Issue 12

    • Volume 47, Issue 12

    FIGURE 1. When designing an imaging system with multiple refractive elements, the selection of starting component types uses a partial glass map similar to this example of a map for visible wavelength plastics.
    Detectors & Imaging

    OPTICS: Hybrid optical components deliver benefits for system design

    Dec. 1, 2011
    Hybrid optical components can replace a multielement system design and offer advantages to standard optical components; they are ideal for a variety of imaging, broadband illumination...
    (Courtesy of Carnegie Mellon University)
    FIGURE 1. A wearable camera harness allows a person’s motions—even rapid ones, like running—to be captured outside, even as the person traverses great distances.
    Software

    TECHNOLOGY REVIEW 2011: Photonics reaches from science to the consumer world

    John Wallace
    Dec. 1, 2011
    Some of this year’s ‘transformative’ technologies show the fun side of photonics in entertainment, while others get down to the business of advancing science and research.
    FIGURE 1. A quasi-CW high-pulse-energy fiber laser supports high-pulse-energy, low-duty-cycle laser processing.
    Lasers & Sources

    FIBER LASERS: Fiber-laser technology grows more diverse

    Tony Hoult, Ph.D.
    Dec. 1, 2011
    Fiber lasers offer benefits such as long lifetimes, low complexity, reduced running costs, and low maintenance, which can now be found in a variety of fiber-based products with...
    FIGURE 1. Three variations on OCT. a) In time-domain OCT, output of a low-coherence source is split between two arms, one of which scans the sample, while the other provides an adjustable time delay. The two arms are phase-matched so the returned light interferes constructively only for light backscattered from a particular depth. b) Frequency-domain OCT splits light from a broadband source between the sample and the reference arms, then recombines the beams through a spectrometer onto a detector array. c) Swept-spectrum OCT splits light from a high-speed wavelength-swept laser source between the sample and reference arms, then recombines the light at a detector array. In all cases, output goes to a computer for processing and image generation.
    Detectors & Imaging

    PHOTONIC FRONTIERS: OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY: Complementary techniques enhance the power of OCT

    Jeff Hecht
    Dec. 1, 2011
    In the last 20 years, optical coherence tomography (OCT) has emerged as a valuable noninvasive imaging technology for medical applications without the hazards of radiation. New...
    Conard Holton2
    Fiber Optics

    Looking in two directions

    Conard Holton
    Dec. 1, 2011
    As 2011 ends, this issue finds us studying the past year for innovations and changes, and hoping to anticipate important technology developments in 2012. These developments will...

    More content from Volume 47, Issue 12

    (All figures courtesy of Oclaro and NEL America)
    FIGURE 1. In a hybrid Raman/EDFA system, the high-power 14xx nm Raman pump diodes are combined and launched into the fiber span counter-propagating with respect to the signal. Distributed Raman preamplification provides low noise, and the EDFA section provides high gain and high output-signal power. Flat gain spectra over a wide range of gains are provided by the combination of the four-pump-wavelength Raman pump configuration and the two-stage EDFA with variable optical attenuator and gain-flattening filter between the two stages.
    Fiber Optics

    PHOTONICS APPLIED: COMMUNICATIONS: Optical amplifiers increase communications network reach

    Dec. 1, 2011
    C- and L-band erbium-doped fiber amplifiers, hybrid Raman/EDFA systems, new gain-medium materials, and semiconductor optical amplifiers continue to extend the reach of wavelength...
    FIGURE 1. Light emitted by an LDLS arises from the interaction of a focused laser beam with xenon or a mixture of inert gases.
    Research

    SPECTROSCOPY: LDLS sheds light on analytical-sciences applications

    Dec. 1, 2011
    An ultrawideband laser-driven light source has the long life and high spatial and spectral stability needed to fulfill demanding requirements in the sciences.