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Laser Focus World announces the winners of its 2025 annual Innovators Awards program.
Credit: University of Applied Sciences Biberach (https://p-inst.com/life-science)
Widefield microscope image of a DAPI-stained mouse head; sagittal plane: 4x, 0.2 NA.
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Credit: Photonic Inc.
Silicon T center structure.
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Learning Resources

Courtesy of Avantier
A Fixed Focal Length Lens Solution for Helicopter Aerial Photography Lens
When aircraft such as helicopters or drones operate in turbulent, vibration-rich environments, capturing sharp, stable, high-resolution images becomes a true test of optical engineering...
Dec. 5, 2025
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Sponsored
Discover how to design and analyze sophisticated optical waveguides using COMSOL Multiphysics® in this hands-on webinar. Learn how to build complex structures, evaluate mode fields...
Jan. 29, 2026
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Sponsored
Ultrafast lasers enable rapid cancer diagnosis with simultaneous two- and three-photon imaging.
Oct. 15, 2025
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Sponsored
This paper reviews advances in precision motion control for photonics alignment and laser material processing, highlighting micro-hole drilling, new control algorithms, and hybrid...
Oct. 15, 2025

Podcast

Lasers/Sources

Credit: Capt. Ray Jourdain, Ice Pilots, Canada
FIGURE 1. Icing accumulating on deck due to prow spray.
Work is underway to develop a standardized sea spray LiDAR system that works with artificial intelligence to deliver real-time data and early warnings to shipmasters about icing...
Dec. 11, 2025
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Episode 81 of Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast features Dirk Hauschild, a senior strategic marketing expert with Focuslight Technologies.
Dec. 9, 2025
Credit: Exail
Exail’s Er-doped and Er:Yb-doped optical fibers enable the development of low-noise optical amplifiers and high-power optical amplifiers for flying payloads and for optical feeder links in OGSs.
Exail is providing advanced optical technologies for SOLiS—a space laser communications demonstrator launched by the French government—to demonstrate the viability of an optical...
Dec. 1, 2025
Credit: Kunyan Zhang/University of California, Berkeley
A two-layer Janus TMD converts light through second harmonic generation (SHG), in which the material emits light at twice the frequency of the incoming beam (left). The SHG beam usually forms a six-pointed flower shape, but certain wavelengths of light distort it. Upper right: Symmetrical flower pattern in gray and asymmetrical SHG signal pattern in red. Lower right: Optical image of a sample. Credit: Kunyan Zhang/University of California, Berkeley
Shining light on Janus transition metal dichalcogenides creates directional forces within the material, which show up in second harmonic generation patterns.
Nov. 25, 2025

Optics

Credit: CCraft
Processing of lithium niobate wafers.
The next generation of photonic integrated circuits is moving beyond silicon, driven by an industrial-scale effort to commercialize new material platforms like thin-film lithium...
Dec. 8, 2025
Technological advancements in silicon photonics paving the way to 400G per channel.
Members Only
Yole Group market analysis of silicon photonic integrated circuits forecasts the industry will reach $2.1B in 2030, fueled by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31% from ...
Dec. 4, 2025
Credit: NASA 2018
International Space Station (ISS).
Next time you see the International Space Station zip overhead in the night sky, remember that silicon-organic hybrid photonics is poised to enable the next generation of optical...
Dec. 3, 2025
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Episode 80 of Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast features Part Two of our interview with Dr. Aydogan Ozcan, Chancellor's Professor at UCLA and HHMI Professor at Howard...
Dec. 2, 2025

Quantum

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Episode 76 of Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast features Dr. Tara Fortier, a project leader in the Time and Frequency Division at NIST.
Nov. 4, 2025
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Here's a look back at three articles covering work involving quantum entanglement, which Albert Einstein famously viewed as “spooky action at a distance.”
Oct. 31, 2025
Credit: Michael Dobinson
Dark-field microscope image of a diode nanocavity device with a grating coupler (left) for optical excitation/collection and electrical connections to the p-i-n diode (top/bottom). Credit: Michael Dobinson
Beyond being a source of single photons, dual optical and electrical control of nanophotonic devices may enable scaling up to larger systems of quantum emitters on a single chip...
Oct. 30, 2025
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The real question is: Which combination provides balanced near-term capability, risk mitigation, and long-term strategic positioning for defense in depth? And for the photonics...
Oct. 29, 2025

Test/Measurement

Credit: North Carolina State University
The new spectrometer is just a few square millimeters in size, but sensitive enough to accurately measure a broader range of wavelengths than is currently possible with conventional technologies.
A miniature spectrometer that could fit onto a smartphone shows promise for a wide range of applications—from biomedical diagnostics to manufacturing.
Dec. 5, 2025
Credit: Enablence Technologies
FIGURE 1. Flash (a) vs. scan (b) LiDAR.
Solid-state frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) LiDAR systems integrate scanning, modulation, and detection directly into a single device—and it’s why costs are dropping...
Nov. 28, 2025
False color picture of the watermark of a €20 bank note, showing the amplitude of the transmitted terahertz electrical field signal with varying optical parameters of the material; the highest amplitude is shown in red, and the lowest in blue. The image was recorded by Menlo Systems’ TERA K15 THz-TDS system with TERA Image imaging extension unit and ImageLab processing software.
Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy has undergone a quiet evolution and is now moving from research labs onto production lines.
Oct. 30, 2025
Credit: University of Trento
FIGURE 1. Measurement setup at Professor Lobino’s quantum lab at the University of Trento; the chip is inside an oven to control its temperature, while electric signals reach the device through the black SMA cable. Credit: University of Trento
Case study: An Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics project team relies on laser measurement technology to analyze the output mode of an integrated quantum device.
Oct. 22, 2025

Detectors/Imaging

Credit: Champalimaud Foundation
The team’s AI-assisted autofluorescence lifetime imaging setup accurately differentiates malignant from benign tissue in real time.
With its ability to accurately differentiate malignant from benign tissue in real time, an AI-assisted autofluorescence lifetime imaging technique is poised to help improve cancer...
Nov. 27, 2025
Credit: Mikael Nyberg
Part of the team’s reflectivity k-space setup. Credit: Mikael Nyberg
You bet—and these photodiodes provide tunability and record-level sensitivity for ultrathin devices.
Nov. 26, 2025
Credit: Vincenzo Pecunia
Credit: Vincenzo Pecunia
Photodetectors are evolving and diversifying so rapidly that a team of academia and industry photonics experts created “Consensus Statement” guidelines to consistently measure...
Nov. 20, 2025
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Episode 78 of Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast features Part One of our interview with Dr. Aydogan Ozcan, Chancellor's Professor at UCLA and HHMI Professor at Howard...
Nov. 18, 2025

Executive Forum

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