Detection of traces of explosive or poisonous gases like methane, hydrogen cyanide, ammonia, or acetylene is sometimes desired in places that are inaccessible or dangerous to ...

Novel deployment methods and new ways of combining and processing data from multiple devices will make optical sensing even more ubiquitous than it is today.

InGaN-based surface-emitting laser has a horizontal cavity; Terahertz QWIP responds at 42 µm; Odd-looking photonic-crystal-waveguide corner has low transmission loss; MORE...

The Pentagon's first effort to build a usable high-energy laser weapon is running far behind schedule and well over budget.

Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) devices are similar to ordinary photovoltaic devices in concept and form, except that TPV devices produce electricity from IR as well as visible light...

Scientists at the Central Laser Facility (CLF) of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (Didcot, England) have developed novel adaptive-optic mirrors to steer and improve the beam...

In the past, when the German Armed Forces Research Establishment (Greding, Germany) wanted to test IR aircraft-tracking technology, it had to fly one or more military jets overhead...

A research team based at the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia) has designed, fabricated, and tested laser mirrors made entirely from porous silicon (PSi).

Hoping to raise $20,000 for cancer research, "Team Photon" will participate in the Pan-Mass Challenge, Aug. 7–8. The 200-mile bike trek from Sturbridge, MA, to Provincetown, MA...

Scientists from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center are keen to see how the compact laser altimeter they have put together for the MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, ...

The theoretical 25% efficiency limit for light production from organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on pi-conjugated polymers has been challenged by new calculations based...

Tube-mounted beam collimators; Piezo-driven steering mirrors; Automotive/security lenses; MORE...

At the 2004 Society for Information Display meeting (May 23–28, 2004; Seattle, WA), Microvision Inc. (Bothell, WA) unveiled a prototype of a new head-up display (HUD) for use ...

Large-flat-panel-display (FPD) televisions are the looming "killer application" driving a strongly optimistic flat-panel-display market with liquid-crystal-display (LCD) and plasma...

Ever since the discovery that the resolution of optical instruments is limited by the diffraction of light, engineers have tried to push that limit.

At the California Institute of Technology (Caltech; Pasadena, CA), researchers have demonstrated a new two-dimensional waveguide that transports energy in the form of surface ...

A micromachined endoscopic scanner that combines a 2-D scanning mirror with optical-coherence tomography (OCT) can scan living tissue and provide real-time 3-D images.

Adaptive optics (AO) has reached a critical turning point in its commercial evolution.

I am planning to start an optical-equipment company geared toward the consumer industry. What do you think of my business plan, which follows the bootstrap start-up model you ...

One of the distinct advantages of the FDTD method is that metals can be added to the material system via the Lorentz-Drude models.