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  • Volume 55, Issue 02
  • Volume 55, Issue 02

    Lasertel focuses on custom high-power laser diode configurations, which can have short turnaround requirements.
    Lasers & Sources

    Business Forum: High-power laser diodes, niche by nature - an interview with Mark McElhinney

    Feb. 1, 2019
    An interview with the president of Lasertel shows how a flexible, custom manufacturing approach to laser sources can drive growth
    FIGURE 1. Shown is a schematic of a typical cantilevered horizontal-motion flexure that permits a low isolator height and low horizontal natural frequencies; bearing a weight load W on its end, the flexure has x and y displacement capability.
    Positioning, Support & Accessories

    Vibration Control: Low-frequency negative-stiffness isolation is compact for microscopy

    Feb. 1, 2019
    Fitting high-performance vibration isolation into a small microscope platform can be done using negative-stiffness mechanical isolators.
    FIGURE 1. Femtosecond CPA laser building blocks are shown in graphical form.
    Lasers & Sources

    Ultrafast Lasers: Chromatic-dispersion tuning enables efficient manufacturing of CPA femtosecond lasers

    Feb. 1, 2019
    Dynamic adjustment of pulse-stretching parameters improves ultrafast lasers’ design-cycle time and manufacturing efficiency.
    FIGURE 1. The anode (P+ contact) and cathode (N+ contact) voltages (Vanode, Vcathode) applied to a dynamic photodiode (DPD) and the output current (I) are plotted. Voltages are switched, bringing the DPD from reverse bias (reset) to forward bias (sensing). The strong forward current starts after a light-dependent delay T (triggering time).
    Detectors & Imaging

    Photodiodes: Dynamic photodiodes reach single-photon sensitivity at low voltages, with minimal noise

    Feb. 1, 2019
    With no need for amplification, dynamic photodiodes (DPDs) convert light intensity into time by operating in switched bias mode, generating large forward currents for low-noise...
    FIGURE 1. Flow cytometry passes a stream of labeled cells in front of laser beams and an objective lens collects light emitted by the cells. In conventional systems, the laser wavelengths are matched to excite the cells’ labels, and the light collected by the objective passes through dichroic mirrors and filters to PMTs. In spectral systems, light from each of the lasers illuminates all of the labels, and the earliest of these systems featured dispersive optics that distributed fluorescence emission onto linear detector arrays. (Adapted from http://nolanlab.com/spectral-fc.html [4])
    Test & Measurement

    Cytometry/Spectroscopy: Optics and photonics advance spectral flow cytometry

    Feb. 1, 2019
    An emerging generation of high-capability spectral flow cytometers is empowering new applications and expanding reach through lower cost.

    More content from Volume 55, Issue 02

    (Image credit: 2019 Consumer Biometrics report, Yole Développement)
    FIGURE 1. The biometric hardware market has steadily evolved and gained market value.
    Test & Measurement

    Photonics Applied: Biometric Security: The second wave of consumer biometrics is reshaping the VCSEL industry

    Feb. 1, 2019
    Fingerprint identification technology still dominates the biometric market, but big changes have come with 3D facial recognition and other photonics-based security applications...
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    Research

    Never stop learning

    Feb. 1, 2019
    Editor in chief John Lewis discusses SPIE Photonics West and invites you to enjoy Laser Focus World’s February 2019 issue which includes trends in photonics technologies, applications...
    (Courtesy of COMSOL)
    FIGURE 1. A Petzval lens, shown here in a ray diagram, includes (from left to right) a first focusing lens, the aperture stop, a second focusing lens, a field-flattening lens, and the image plane.
    Optics & Design

    Ray-tracing Software: Structural-thermal-optical performance analysis: The quintessential multiphysics model

    Feb. 1, 2019
    Optical ray tracing software reveals temperature effects by performing a coupled analysis of a lens system’s structural, thermal, and optical performance.
    Shown is the experimental setup for an optomechanical time-domain reflectometry measurement of the characteristics of a medium placed outside the cladding of a standard single-mode optical fiber, thanks to optical-to-acoustic mixing of waves in a forward stimulated Brillouin scattering (F-SBS) mixing process.
    Test & Measurement

    Fiber-optic Sensing: Light and sound interactions take fiber-optic sensing beyond the core

    Feb. 1, 2019
    The interplay between light waves and ultrasound signals now enables fiber-optic sensing of materials outside the optical fiber that do not interact with its core.
    (Adapted from A.H. Fikouras et al. [1])
    Once internalized into a cell, a nanodisk laser is optically pumped by a microscope objective (blue). The same objective collects laser emission (red). The inset shows the calculated profile of the lowest radial order transverse electric (TE) mode for a 750-nm-diameter disk made of a GaInP/AlGaInP quantum-well structure.
    Research

    Illumination/Microscopy: Submicron intracellular lasers promise new biological insight

    Feb. 1, 2019
    The smallest known lasers to date promise to help scientists better understand the mechanisms of disease, according to the researchers who developed them.
    (Image credit: University of Twente)
    An all-silicon intrachip optocoupler, made with standard CMOS techniques, is shown in this concept drawing. The round structure is the SPAD photodetector; the light source, an AMLED, has the shape of a horseshoe.
    Research

    Silicon Photonics: On-chip optical link is created on electronic chip for the first time

    Feb. 1, 2019
    Combining a silicon avalanche-mode LED with a single-photon avalanche diode allows an intrachip photonic optocoupler to be made with standard CMOS technology.
    (Image credit: University of Heidelberg)
    Ultrafine silica particles are trapped in bowtie nanoapertures, enhancing phonon resonances that improve detection and analysis using surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) spectroscopy.
    Spectroscopy

    Spectroscopy: Bowtie nanoapertures aid SEIRA spectroscopy of ultrafine particles

    Feb. 1, 2019
    Small silica particles can be easily confined at the center of optimized bowtie apertures, enhancing vibrational signals and improving chemical identification when using surface...
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    Test & Measurement

    Sapphire optical fiber reduces background noise in Raman imaging probe

    Feb. 1, 2019
    Unlike standard silica fibers with strong background noise that can obscure weak Raman signals, sapphire fibers are a better option for Raman imaging probes.
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    Research

    Gas-filled hollow-core photonic-crystal fiber laser emits at 4.6 µm

    Feb. 1, 2019
    A silica Kagome-lattice hollow-core photonic-crystal fiber filled with nitrogen oxide emitting at 4.6 µm in the mid-IR could be useful for remote sensing and free-space communications...
    Research

    Ceramic phosphors for laser-diode-based solid-state lighting are optimized

    Feb. 1, 2019
    Optimizing the composition of ceramic phosphors for laser-diode-based solid-state lighting improves efficiency and heat-handling ability.
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    Research

    3D-printed nanophotonic lens improves directivity of nanowire’s light emission

    Feb. 1, 2019
    A nanophotonic lens with a complex structure, placed over a light-emitting nanowire, greatly reduces the divergence angle of the light output.
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    Spectroscopy

    Laser levitation and an optical trap enables nuclear recoil spectroscopy

    Feb. 1, 2019
    As particles containing nuclear material decay, the physical recoil motion can be quantified and related to kinetic energy, which uniquely identifies the type of material present...