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  • Volume 44, Issue 8

    • Volume 44, Issue 8

    FIGURE 1. An optical setup is used to fabricate holographic optical elements (HOEs) on a photoresist.
    Optics

    HOLOGRAPHIC OPTICAL ELEMENTS: Printing technology enables HOE volume manufacturing

    Aug. 5, 2008
    New master replicating technology that borrows concepts from the printing industry enables volume production of holographic optical elements for applications in general and backlit...
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    Research

    EIT regenerates images stored in vapor

    Aug. 1, 2008
    Optical storage of information is a tricky obstacle to overcome in the realization of quantum information processing.
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    Optics

    Deformable mirror reduces speckle

    Aug. 1, 2008
    Projection-display manufacturers are increasingly motivated to use brighter, more energy-efficient, and broader color-space laser illumination in applications ranging from digital...
    Lasers & Sources

    Solid-state blue laser offers extended tunability

    Aug. 1, 2008
    Although continuous-wave blue diode lasers are available, output power, beam quality, and tunability are limited.
    Detectors & Imaging

    Multilayer Laue lens focuses hard x-rays

    Aug. 1, 2008
    While the X-FELO, which is located at the Argonne National Laboratory, will enable new science, focusing optics for it and other hard-x-ray sources are difficult to create—...

    More content from Volume 44, Issue 8

    FIGURE 1. The magnitude of movement that can be experienced by an optical mount in a typical lab environment when subject to broadband noise is influenced greatly by the damping capabilities of the optical table on which the mount sits.
    Positioning, Support & Accessories

    Vibration Isolation: Effective vibration reduction stabilizes laser beams

    Aug. 1, 2008
    Optical tables and vibration isolation supports have become the de facto standard for providing a stable environment for complex laser systems and their applications.
    FIGURE 1. A multipixel photon counter is a photon-counting device consisting of multiple APD pixels operating in Geiger mode. Each pixel outputs a pulse signal when it detects photons, and the output of the device is the total sum of the outputs from all the pixels.
    Detectors & Imaging

    APD Arrays: Geiger-mode APD arrays detect low light

    Earl Hergert
    Aug. 1, 2008
    Geiger-mode avalanche photodiode arrays overcome limitations of a single device, and can distinguish between multiple-photon and single-photon events.
    Detectors & Imaging

    New x-ray source is magnitudes brighter than high-gain FELs

    Aug. 1, 2008
    Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne, IL) and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) are developing an x-ray free-electron laser (FEL) in an oscillator...
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    Detectors & Imaging

    Microscopy Imaging: Hyperspectral microscope benefits from InGaAs imaging array

    Aug. 1, 2008
    Near-infrared hyperspectral imaging is important to semiconductor-device research; integrating an InGaAs image sensor with hyperspectral microscopy provides data to a level of...
    FIGURE 1. Two types of microcavity lasers include one in which a Fabry-Perot microcavity confines light horizontally in a thin pillar and vertically between a pair of Bragg reflectors (left) and another in which a whispering-gallery microcavity confines light by total internal reflection in the plane of a disk or in the volume of a sphere (right).
    Research

    Photonic Frontiers: Microcavities - The strange world of microcavity optics

    Jeff Hecht
    Aug. 1, 2008
    Strong coupling of a light wave with matter in microcavities creates unusual effects, including novel lasers—microlasers and polaritons—and strong nonlinearities.
    Optics

    Optical vortex coronagraph suppresses primary star of a binary system by 97%

    Aug. 1, 2008
    Researchers from the University of Arizona (U of A; Tucson, AZ) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, CA) have coupled an optical vortex coronagraph (OVC) to an 8-in.
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    Test & Measurement

    Surface Characterization: Novel technologies go beyond color to measure surface appearance

    Aug. 1, 2008
    Imaging-sphere technology enables fast optical characterization of surfaces to produce quantitative, comprehensive evaluation that the human eye can’t.
    Research

    Calit2 unveils world’s highest resolution display system

    Aug. 1, 2008
    Scientists have no problem generating immense data sets, but visualizing the data on a large scale is a challenge that requires a display system of equally immense resolution....
    FIGURE 1. A pulse-burst Nd:YAG laser system provides tunable, high-repetition-rate ultraviolet pulses with individual pulse energy high enough to allow PLIF imaging of turbulent flows.
    Research

    High-Power UV Lasers: Tunable ultraviolet burst-mode laser system produces high-energy pulses

    Aug. 1, 2008
    While planar laser-induced-fluorescence (PLIF) imaging of aerodynamic and combustion flows has developed enormously since its inception in the early 1980s, the ability to directly...
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    Optics

    Next-generation fiber: Fluoride glass fibers enable high-power laser transmission in the mid-IR

    Aug. 1, 2008
    Power-transmission tests of IR light through fiber-optic delivery systems show the viability of commercial-grade fluoride fiber for medical and dental applications.
    (Courtesy of the University of Texas)
    FIGURE 1. Scanning electron micrographs of the two-axis MEMS scanning micromirror show the mirror surface, torsion springs, gimbal structure, and bond pads for electrical connection (left) and, in a close-in view, the electrostatic actuation mechanism (right).
    Optics

    Biomedical Imaging: MEMS scanners enable in vivo 3-D OCT

    Aug. 1, 2008
    While nonoptical medical imaging techniques such as computed tomography, magnetic-resonance imaging, and ultrasound can be very useful in guiding surgical procedures, they lack...
    (Courtesy of F. Intonti)
    The electric field of the fundamental mode of a PC-MC is rendered based on measurements made with the SNOM tip.
    Optics

    PHOTONIC CRYSTALS: SNOM tips yield tunability and insight

    D. Jason Palmer
    Aug. 1, 2008
    One promising avenue in the field of nanophotonics—confining and manipulating light on the nanometric scale—is the use of photonic crystals (PCs) in optical microcavities.
    (Courtesy Princeton University)
    A 0.76-µm-diameter microsphere confined in a Bessel-beam optical trap is used to focus laser illumination at a 355 nm wavelength onto a polyimide substrate. As the substrate is translated, a 5-μm-wide Princeton University shield logo is written on the film directly under the trapped microsphere using overlapping pulses from the laser at a fluence of approximately 3 mJ/cm2. Surface features range from -30 to +10 nm.
    Research

    NANOPHOTONICS: Direct-write nanopatterning uses optically trapped microspheres

    Gail Overton
    Aug. 1, 2008
    In an extension of nanopatterning methods that use self-assembled microspheres, researchers at Princeton University are able to perform subwavelength direct-write nanopatterning...
    Research

    Chalcogenide glass is photostable

    Aug. 1, 2008
    Chalcogenide glasses are useful for their wide transmission range, which extends through the mid-infrared.
    FIGURE 1. While synthetic-aperture-radar data can be easily and inexpensively obtained from orbiting Earth satellites, the resolution can be limited. By overlapping the data with more specific lidar data from areas within the same region, the inherent distortions found in SAR images can be adjusted for, as shown in this integrated SAR and lidar image of Denver, CO.
    Detectors & Imaging

    Optoelectronic Applications: Image Fusion - Satellite sensors zero in on resource and disaster planning

    Kathy Kincade
    Aug. 1, 2008
    Advances in high-resolution image processing are helping governments better manage urban sprawl and fallout from natural and man-made disasters.