Ontario, NY--This year, Optimax is presenting university research grants to winning applicants from The Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester (Rochester, NY), CREOL at the University of Central Florida (Orlando, FL), and The College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ). The candidate projects are evaluated for innovation, optical component requirements, and the preparation of the proposal. Optimax has presented two of the awards already (to CREOL and to the College of Optical Sciences), and the topics are quite interesting.
Quantum optics
Ayman Abouraddy is the recipient of the grant to CREOL. He is working in the area of quantum information processing -- an area in which the photon is quite useful, due to its ease of handling and its long-range properties. Mach-Zehnder interferometers are often at the center of photon-based quantum systems, because an interferometer allows a single photon to have two possible paths and then to interfere with itself. Abouraddy's experiment includes three prisms designed to invert an image in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, with one prism will be used at a 410 nm wavelength and two used at 820 nm. Optimax awarded the $10,000 grant when visiting CREOL in early February of this year.
NA of 2.0 -- wow
Tom Milster has been awarded the grant presented to the University of Arizona's College of Optical Sciences. Tom and his colleagues are working on solid-immersion lithography to develop a microscope objective with a numerical aperture (NA) of 2.0. The objective would have has uses not just in lithography, but in imaging for biomedical instruments, testing of semiconductor wafers and masks, and use in Blu-Ray disc systems. The $10,000 University Research Grant was awarded to Tom this month.
The grant for the University of Rochester, which will also be for $10,000, has not yet been awarded. Many interesting projects have been reviewed thus far and the decision on the winning proposal will be made in the near future, says Optimax.
Optimax is a precision-optics manufacturer that provides optics in production as well as small volumes. Its strongest markets for OEM production optics are in the semiconductor, military, and medical-instrumentation areas.
John Wallace | Senior Technical Editor (1998-2022)
John Wallace was with Laser Focus World for nearly 25 years, retiring in late June 2022. He obtained a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and physics at Rutgers University and a master's in optical engineering at the University of Rochester. Before becoming an editor, John worked as an engineer at RCA, Exxon, Eastman Kodak, and GCA Corporation.