Optics

The laserfocusworld.com Optics channel features articles and other content that discuss precision optical components, systems, and applications.

Highlights

Optics

Injection mold optical system provides operational control

Feb. 28, 2024
In plastic product production, a new automated method can optically monitor the presence of plastic parts that haven’t been pushed out of the injection mold.
(Image credit: Endeavor Business Media)
Podcasts

NEW PODCAST! Interview with Alexis Vogt, optics professor

Feb. 20, 2024
Our debut episode of Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast features Alexis Vogt, Endowed Chair and Professor of Optics at Monroe Community College.
(Image credit: The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
Optics

Physicists discover surface signature of higher-order topological insulators

Feb. 13, 2024
Higher-order topological insulators (HOTIs) have a unique surface signature that determines how they reflect light—and it can be used to experimentally confirm the existence of...
(Image credit: Zubin Jacob research group/Purdue University)
Optics

Spinning meta-optics for spectro-polarimetric thermal imaging?

Feb. 1, 2024
Purdue University researchers merge optical engineering with cutting-edge computational imaging techniques—a spinning metasurface stack breaks thermal light down into its spectral...
(Photo credit: K. Shimada/The University of Tokyo)
Optics

‘Spectrum shuttle’ enables customizable spatiotemporal shaping of gigahertz burst pulses

Jan. 22, 2024
Researchers in Japan unveil an optical technique to generate gigahertz repetition pulses with individual colors and shapes—with potential ultrafast imaging and laser processing...
Optics

Custom LiDAR optics available with or without AR coating

Feb. 25, 2024
Custom-fabricated LiDAR optics use germanium, sapphire, silicon, UV glass, zinc selenide, and zinc sulfide substrates.
(Image credit: EPFL/Gözden Torun)
Lasers & Sources

What happens if you etch tellurite glass with a femtosecond laser?

Feb. 22, 2024
Serendipity in the form of an active photoconductive material—a semiconductor phase embedded within glass—that generates a current reliably for months when exposed ultraviolet...
Optics

Fixed-focus lens designed for CCD cameras

Feb. 21, 2024
The Model 390 5 mm non-browning S-mount lens has been specifically designed for use with ¼ in. image format radiation-resistant CCD cameras.
(Photo credit: University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies Space Flight Laboratory)
Executive Forum

Space: The growing optical frontier

Feb. 20, 2024
Laser communication scientists and engineers continue to unpack new research, consider obstacles from a solution perspective, and advance the work.