Lasers & Sources

Get ready for Photonics West 2027!

Before we start speeding through the holidays, we caught up with Bob Hainsey, senior director of SPIE’s Science, Technology, and Industry Programs, for a quick chat about what...

Nov. 10, 2026

Test & Measurement

Ultrafast photoacoustics enables optical diagnostics of opaque materials

Nov. 9, 2026

PODCAST: Meet Michael Kalin of nLight and Pavel Terekhov of NIST

Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast

Nov. 4, 2026

A slice of Northrop Grumman’s Yb:YLF boule measures 127 mm at its widest point.

Optics

Crystal advances will help power next-gen fusion laser systems

Nov. 3, 2026

Inside of an older Spectra-Physics laser, a Triton, which has a doubling crystal, the source of the green light. It also has a tripling crystal for UV light.

After 40 years of the ‘green problem,’ the quiet laser explains itself

Oct. 26, 2026

FIGURE 1. Transmitted power at the target as a function of depth in tissue for a 780-nm CW diode laser (250 mW), measured in vivo through human skin and muscle for four treated-zone diameters (Ø 40, 20, 10, and 2 mm), illustrating the near-exponential attenuation of laser energy with penetration depth (unpublished data).

Bio&Life Sciences

780-nm photobiomodulation advances peripheral nerve repair toward a device-ready clinical platform

Oct. 22, 2026

Veeco’s GEN2000 molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) system.

Quantum dot lasers may unlock next era of AI optical interconnects

Oct. 21, 2026

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Choosing the right gain fiber for your laser or amplifier

Oct. 15, 2026

Building a beam profiler in-house with hardware and basic software can produce usable results under controlled conditions, but delivering accurate, repeatable, and traceable measurements over time requires far more.