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  • Volume 40, Issue 4
  • Volume 40, Issue 4

    More content from Volume 40, Issue 4

    Th 146519
    Using technology based on a continuous-wave near-IR imager first demonstrated in 1996 by Britton Chance, emeritus faculty at University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA), and...
    April 1, 2004
    Nanotechnologist Ralph E. Merkle (see www.merkle.com) has described current manufacturing methods as being akin to building a castle out of Lego blocks while wearing boxing gloves...
    April 1, 2004
    A patient is about to deposit a sputum/aerosol sample into a disposable collection device. The sample collector is then inserted into an optical reader to check for pathogens such as tuberculosis bacteria (inset).
    A laser-based breathalyzer system may make painful, under-the-skin testing for tuberculosis (TB) a relic of the past.
    April 1, 2004
    Th 146470
    Solitons are among the most fascinating objects in nonlinear optics.
    April 1, 2004
    Th 146531
    The reliance of modern society on science and technology has created a serious and growing need for a large high-technology workforce and a technically literate population.
    April 1, 2004
    Th 146467
    When a planet with an atmosphere passes in front of a star (an event known as an occultation), earthbound scientists can glean information about the planet's atmosphere by examining...
    April 1, 2004
    BU partners with French optics consortium; Adaptive optics locate larger stars; Melles opens coating technology center; MORE...
    April 1, 2004
    the original research goes even farther back—to 1977 when the airlines were looking to get rid of carbon copies for their tickets.
    April 1, 2004
    Th 146478
    In a development that may one day help in the fabrication of nanometer-scale optical devices, engineers at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT: Tokyo, Japan) have created...
    April 1, 2004
    FIGURE 1. In a silicon-waveguide phase shifter, n-doped silicon is deposited atop an insulator. Optical confinement is provided by the oxide layers surrounding the p-doped polysilicon rib. The polysilicon is bordered on the sides by thick oxide layers, on the bottom by a thin oxide gate layer about 12 nm thick, and by an oxide layer (not shown) on top. When voltage is applied, positive charge carriers move to the gate, changing the refractive index of the waveguide and causing a phase shift. The phase shifter can be used in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (inset), which converts the phase shift to intensity modulation.
    A fast modulator made of silicon (Si) may make researchers take another look at the material, which has been largely forsaken by the optoelectronics industry in favor of other...
    April 1, 2004
    1304qa Chang New
    I am frustrated working for a government contractor because of the waste and dishonesty.
    April 1, 2004
    Th 146439
    Terahertz radiation carries information; QD and QW lasers face off; Attosecond pulses probe atoms' inner dynamics; MORE...
    April 1, 2004
    Two groups of researchers have advanced the use of electrowetting droplets for displays, with one demonstrating a new way of exploiting the optical geometry of the liquid used...
    April 1, 2004
    Th 146559
    Active-photonic-lattice distributed-feedback lasers emit a diffraction-limited surface-normal beam. These lasers can be coherently combined into arrays that could potentially ...
    April 1, 2004
    Th 146466
    Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech; Atlanta, GA) are working with a local bakery to develop a machine-vision system to automatically inspect freshly...
    April 1, 2004
    Th 146457
    Shuji Nakamura's seemingly single-handed invention of practical gallium nitride–based blue and UV lasers and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) during his stint at Nichia (Kaminaka,...
    April 1, 2004
    Th 146473
    Biophysicists from Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) have joined forces with a chemist from Université de Rennes (Rennes, France) to tackle one of the biggest optical-imaging challenges...
    April 1, 2004
    FIGURE 1. Researchers at the University of Jena will be among the many presenters at this year's CLEO technical sessions. A chirped-pulse amplifier they have developed starts with 250-fs 1040-nm pulses from a modelocked Yb:KGW laser. A 1.9-m-long step-index single-mode fiber prestretches the pulse. Next, it is amplified in a 2.1-m-long air-clad microstructured ytterbium-doped large-mode-area fiber (pumped by a 976-nm laser diode). Finally, the amplified pulses are recompressed into positively chirped pulses in 2 m of air-guiding photonic-bandgap fiber.
    Technical sessions will reveal what is ahead in the areas of semiconductor emitters, displays, nonlinear and ultrafast optics, sensing, and biological applications.
    April 1, 2004
    Arasor acquires Lightbit and IOA; BU opens optics lab; Bookham partners on MEMS design; MORE...
    April 1, 2004
    Th 146474
    In a Rydberg atom (or molecule), an outer electron is excited to a high quantum state without being ionized, resulting in an atom with a very large electron cloud.
    April 1, 2004
    In a small market, solid-state lighting matches up well with solid-state sensors.
    April 1, 2004
    Kodak to divest remote-sensing business; Omron picks up KOA backlight business; Camera looks for damage on Space Shuttle; MORE...
    April 1, 2004
    Th 146546
    Communication is the key to effectively carrying out optical design projects while shortening design cycles and reducing manufacturing costs because it enables the customer and...
    April 1, 2004
    FIGURE 1. A lab on a chip consists of a disposable slide containing microfluidic channels (top two layers), light-emitting diodes backed by reflectors to prevent crosstalk (central layers), and a silicon detector filtered using a film of cadmium sulfide (CdS; bottom three layers).
    A team at the University of California–Berkeley has devised a system that can perform light-induced fluorescence spectroscopy, has an area less than 1 cm2, and is less than 1....
    April 1, 2004
    Th 146628
    Detectors having performance similar to those made on rigid silicon substrates have been successfully fabricated, packaged, and tested.
    April 1, 2004
    Th 147228
    High-speed CCD; Attenuator; Display measurement system; MORE...
    April 1, 2004
    Th 147219
    Regional phone companies in the United States have left fiber rollout to others, but as bandwidth demands increase, fiber to the home is gradually gaining momentum.
    April 1, 2004
    Rofin-Sinar acquires Swedish fiberoptics firm; IDS expands portfolio with patent on medical imaging system; Report optimistic on future of long-wavelength lasers; MORE...
    April 1, 2004
    Th 146458
    "Immersion" was the word at the SPIE Microlithography 2004 meeting (Santa Clara, CA; Feb. 22–27) as chipmakers put off the tough climb to 157-nm optical lithography and opted ...
    April 1, 2004