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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.
    Lasers & Sources

    Ceramic microchannel coolers beat copper

    Jan. 1, 2009
    Northrop Grumman Cutting Edge Optronics (St. Charles, MO) has developed a new type of ceramic-based microchannel cooler for high-power laser-diode arrays that works better than...
    Research

    Phase-only SLM steers beam more accurately with global phase offsets

    Jan. 1, 2009
    A digitally controlled 1-D phase-only spatial light modulator (SLM) is a very fast, nonmechanical way to steer a laser beam, but the digitized pixel-phase settings that are calculated...
    Lasers & Sources

    Crystal stores light pulses and routes them all-optically

    Jan. 1, 2009
    Researchers at Jilin University (Changchun, China) and the Chinese Ministry of Education (Beijing, China) are not only using electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) to ...
    Optics

    Suspended-core fibers show high nonlinearity

    Jan. 1, 2009
    Photonic-crystal fibers (PCFs) with high numerical aperture (NA) and small mode-field diameter are used in many nonlinear applications such as supercontinuum generation.

    More content from Volume 45, Issue 1

    BiOptix’s detector measures the phase change of p-polarized light reflected from the biochip surface. The phase change depends on the amount of captured biological or chemical material.
    Test & Measurement

    PITTCON 2009: Spectroscopy and more

    Barbara Gefvert
    Jan. 1, 2009
    The annual Pittcon conference schedules a full menu of coverage of advances in analytical chemistry and applied spectroscopy.
    (Courtesy of University of South Florida)
    Twenty miniature organic solar cells are connected in series to create a 2.2 cm2 solar array that is close to creating enough voltage to power a tiny microelectromechanical system (MEMS) device. The overall device is one square inch in size, and each of the solar cells has an active area of 1 mm2.
    Research

    PHOTOVOLTAICS: Tiny solar cells power tiny MEMS machines

    Gail Overton
    Jan. 1, 2009
    To perform its intended function, a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) needs its own power source.
    FIGURE 1. Basic geometries for QC-based lasers include FP-QCL (top), DFB-QCL (middle), and ECqcL (bottom). The gain medium is shown in gray, wavelength-selection mechanism in blue, facet coatings in orange, and output in red.
    Research

    QUANTUM-CASCADE LASERS: Applications multiplyfor external-cavity QCLs

    Jan. 1, 2009
    Combining quantum-cascade media with external-cavity laser geometries produces mid-IR quantum-cascade lasers with narrowband output, ultrabroadband single-mode tuning abilities...
    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.
    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...
    FIGURE 1. In conventional microscopy (top), a feature larger than the wavelength of light used to illuminate it will image with well-defined edges (left), while a feature smaller than the light wavelength produces a signature–and an image without clear edge definition (right). This is true when imaging both single features and arrays of features. Historically, we would dismiss the latter result as having insufficient resolution, but we now know that the signature actually contains helpful information. The optical configuration (bottom) includes access to a conjugate back focal plane that enables illumination engineering.
    Test & Measurement

    NANOSCALE METROLOGY: Scatterfield optical imaging enables sub-10 nm dimensional metrology

    Jan. 1, 2009
    Advances in optical microscopy have enabled unprecedented achievement in metrology and imaging.
    FIGURE 1. Manufacturing and stacking of a high number of lenses at the wafer level is the future of cost-effective camera manufacturing.
    Optics

    HIGH-VOLUME OPTICS FABRICATION: New technologies enable precise and cost-effective wafer-level optics

    Jan. 1, 2009
    A combination of ultraprecision diamond-turned hard tools and microlithography, as well as advances in metrology, pave the way for high-volume production of wafer-level stacks...
    Th Does 01
    Lasers & Sources

    DOEs improve laser metal deposition

    Jan. 1, 2009
    Laser metal deposition (also called laser additive welding or laser cladding) is becoming more common for such industrial applications as repair of damaged or worn turbine blades...
    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...
    (Courtesy of United States Air Force)
    FIGURE 1. The MQ-1 Predator, which has seen combat over Bosnia/Serbia and the Middle East, can carry a dual-missile payload (top). Visual information including video is transmitted to a ground station for analysis (bottom). Here, U.S. Air Force Captain Richard Koll, left, and Airman First Class Mike Eulo, right, perform function checks at Balad Air Base, Iraq, after Predator launch. Koll and Eulo control the Predator in a radius of approximately 25 miles around the base before handing it off to controllers stationed in the U.S. to continue its flight.
    Detectors & Imaging

    PHOTONICS APPLIED: UAV VISION: Rigors of unmanned aerial vehicles challenge vision technology

    Gail Overton
    Jan. 1, 2009
    Vision for an unmanned aerial vehicle is critical to that vehicle performing its intended task, which is sometimes a covert imaging operation in a hostile setting that is unsuitable...
    The resonant wavelength of a photonic crystal depends on size of the holes, so layers with different size holes reflect different wavelengths. This increases transmission bandwidth of a photonic-crystal fiber and decreases its dispersion, although attenuation also increases.
    Optics

    PHOTONIC FRONTIERS: PHOTONIC CRYSTALS: Photonic crystals foster a burst of innovation

    Jeff Hecht
    Jan. 1, 2009
    By creating photonic bandgaps analogous to the electronic bandgaps that underlie modern semiconductor electronics, photonic crystals have created new types of optical devices,...
    (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 ...
    Th Absorber 01
    Fiber Optics

    Absorber-free process welds transparent thermoplastics

    Jan. 1, 2009
    While laser welding of polymers is used in many industrial applications, an infrared (IR) absorber material is typically required to laser-weld transparent thermoplastics.
    Th Hybrid 01
    Research

    Hybrid silicon MZM-based switch operates at 10 Gbit/s

    Jan. 1, 2009
    Integrated silicon (Si)-based optical-communication networks don’t just need light sources, amplifiers, and detectors; they need switches, too.
    (Courtesy of UDC)
    FIGURE 1. In the roadmap for the development of flexible OLED displays, ruggedness is achieved first, followed by bendability, then by true flexibility (rollability).
    Detectors & Imaging

    FLEXIBLE DISPLAYS: Metal-foil-backed OLED displays will soon be rollable

    Jan. 1, 2009
    Phosphorescent OLED displays built on metal-foil substrates offer new attributes: flexibility, ruggedness, and extreme thinness, in addition to low power consumption.