Laser Focus World articles from April 2009

Laser Focus World archives from April 2009

Photonic-bandgap fiber amplifier reaches for the stars.(Microstructured Fibers)
April 1, 2009... Record high output power generated from ytterbium-doped fiber amplifiers above 1150 nm has been achieved in a solid-core photonic-bandgap fiber. The photonic bandgap inhibits the growth of amplified spontaneous emission, which normally limits...

New tools compress and shape ultrafast pulses.(Femtosecond Pulse Manipulation)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Researchers can manipulate femtosecond laser pulses as never before, benefiting applications from biological imaging to terahertz spectroscopy and quantum reaction control. Marco Arngoni, David Armstrong, And Nigel...

Rogue waves make for better supercontinuum light sources.(Technology News Online)
April 1, 2009... Rogue waves of light--rare and explosive flare-ups that are mathematically similar to their oceanic counterparts--have recently been tamed by a group of researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, to produce brighter, more stable...

A first look at new products.(Products Online)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For the latest in new products, see Photonics Products Online on our home page and at www.laserfocusworld.com/ products/news

Camera captures hummingbird feeding.(Videos)
April 1, 2009... The figure-eight wing pattern of a hummingbird is clearly visible in footage captured at 5000 frames/s by Photron's Fastcam SA1 camera. www.laserfocusworld.com/ resourcecenter/video [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Post your video! Send file to:...

On scratches and digs.(Blog: Working smart in photonics)
April 1, 2009... There's a new standard for scratches and digs and the body politic is passionate about getting everyone to use it. Buy it, study it, and implement it at your A company, and let's once and for all, as an industry, agree to agree this is the...

What VCs should be doing in a down market.(Blog: Inside the world of venture capital)
April 1, 2009... When the market inhales, companies cut R&D projects and high-quality people get bored and become available to start or join new tech startups. VCs need to find these teams and embrace them because they create the next round of Googles and...

Material matters.(editor's desk)
April 1, 2009... Though often taken for granted because of their relative invisibility, optical coatings are an indispensible element of almost all of today's optical components. From spectacles and camera lenses in the consumer world to optical filters and...

Quantum dots double performance of current-sensing fiber.(newsbreaks)
April 1, 2009... Because rare-earth-doped glasses exhibit a large Faraday (or magneto-optical) effect, polarization and birefringence effects within these glasses can be directly correlated to magnetic-field strength, and correspondingly, used to sense electric...

Phosphor-based FEEL shines efficiently with no mercury.(newsbreaks)
April 1, 2009... By combining characteristics of fluorescent and cathodeluminescent (CL) lamps into a single emitter, researchers at the Industrial Technology Research Initiative (Chatung, Taiwan), National Chiao Tung University (Hsinchu, Taiwan), and Chung...

NSM vibration isolation critical to neuronal measurement.(newsbreaks)
April 1, 2009... When air tables, stacked air tables, and active electronic vibration-isolation systems failed to reduce vibrations to a level allowing measurement of neuronal brain activity for researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center (Washington,...

CNT thin films show high infrared transparency.(newsbreaks)
April 1, 2009... Conductive-carbon-nanotube (CNT) thin films--developed as a replacement for more-brittle indium tin oxide materials--have been studied in the visible wavelength range for applications in solar cells, solid-state lighting, and displays. Now,...

Optical steganography hides stealth signal.(newsbreaks)
April 1, 2009... Two low-latency chirped fiber Bragg gratings (CFBGs) were used by researchers at Princeton University (Princeton, NJ) to completely hide a "stealth" signal in an ordinary signal transmitted over a 1550 nm fiber-optic network. The technique...

Plasmons enhance bioluminescence.(newsbreaks)
April 1, 2009... The creation of plasmons in metal films or structures has been shown to enhance the processes of fluorescence, phosphorescence, and chemiluminescence; now, researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Beer-Sheva, Israel) and the...

Tunable membrane mold shapes polymer aspherical lenses.(newsbreaks)
April 1, 2009... A group of researchers from the University of California at San Diego and Cymer (San Diego, CA) has developed a way of fabricating aspherical polymer lenses with a tunable liquid-filled mold, enabling inexpensive one-off fabrication of...

Plasmonic lens increases photodetection capability.(newsbreaks)
April 1, 2009... Researchers at Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA) and the Naval Research Laboratory (Washington, D.C.) have increased the photocurrent reaching a metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodiode by applying corrugations to the metal contacts of the...

GaAs-based upconverter is efficient for near-IR light.(newsbreaks)
April 1, 2009... One way to image I R radiation in the 1.2 to 1.6 [micro]m region with silicon CCD cameras, which are normally not sensitive to this wavelength range, is to upconvert the light to wavelengths below 1 [micro]m, where silicon is sensitive....

OPTOmism to emphasize 'green' growth.(CONFERENCE PREVIEW)
April 1, 2009... The organizers of the inaugural OPTOmism conference (www.optomism.com) weren't kidding when they developed its tagline: "Powering the green revolution through photonics." We all know that photonics is playing an important role in driving the...

Fluorescence-based interferometer halves fringe spacing.(INTERFEROMETRY)
April 1, 2009... Two scientists at the Universite Joseph Fourier (Saint Martin d'Heres, France) have developed an extraordinary interferometer. Based on the effects of polarized laser light on a hot vapor of sodium atoms, the interferometer creates a fringe for...

SRS microscopy maps distribution of lipids, drugs.(LABEL-FREE LIVE CELL IMAGING)
April 1, 2009... Just a month after the journal Science published a demonstration of label-free imaging in living cells and tissues using stimulated Raman scattering (SRS), (1) several groups reported work using the technique during BiOS/Photonics West. "I'm...

CLEO/IQEC 2009: a hub of knowledge, activity.(CONFERENCE PREVIEW)
April 1, 2009... Because of its diversity and leading-edge technological nature, photonics as a profession has shown itself to have a built-in resilience. This is in evidence particularly at photonics trade shows, which remain founts of both technical and...

STED microscopy continues to push the bounds of resolution.(NONLINEAR MICROSCOPY)
April 1, 2009... A group of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (Gottingen, Germany) has beaten the diffraction limit by a factor of 40 in a world-record demonstration of the power of stimulated-emission-depletion (STED)...

Laser diodes are getting the green light.(SEMICONDUCTOR LASERS)
April 1, 2009... Laser diodes excel at emitting blue or red light; it's in the green that they falter. While miniature diode-pumped solid-state lasers can be combined with nonlinear crystals to form, for example, green laser pointers, such emitters are larger...

Optical fibers detect tunnel-digging.(FIBER-OPTIC SENSING)
April 1, 2009... Beneath the nine-mile border between Gaza and Egypt lie an estimated 300 makeshift tunnels, according to a Jan. 12 article in Asia Times. And Israel insists that without them, Hamas would not be able to stockpile rockets and mortars. Thus,...

Curved grating creates high-brightness surface-emitting DFB laser.(SEMICONDUCTOR LASERS)
April 1, 2009... A curved-grating resonator in a semiconductor quantum-well laser design is the basis for a high-brightness surface-emitting distributed-feedback (SE-DFB) laser developed by Alfalight (Madison, WI). (1) Operating at 976 nm, the laser delivers...

What will make telecom turn around?(Business Forum)
April 1, 2009... Q I work for a telecom company and am concerned because I see big losses year after year. What is going to happen and what do you think will make this business turn around? A I can see why you would be concerned. The bankruptcy of the once...

Advances in sputtering benefit coating costs: magnetron sputtering systems for production of high-precision optical coatings promise benefits in capability over traditional evaporation techniques, as well as potential cost savings compared to alternative sputter technologies.(OPTICAL FABRICATION)(Cover story)
April 1, 2009... As the number of optical applications in the life sciences, military, and laser optic industries continues to grow, the demands on optical coatings extend to designs of increasing complexity with tighter tolerances. In concert with these...

Fast laser pulses probe cell biology by selective destruction: focused to a subwavelength spot, laser pulses selectively destroy structures inside living cells to probe their biological function. Femtosecond pulses are now pushing the research frontier.(PHOTONIC FRONTIERS: LASER CELL SURGERY)
April 1, 2009... Laser cell surgery has become an invaluable tool in biomedical laboratories. The idea is deceptively simple. Just focus a laser pulse to a diffraction-limited spot to destroy or disrupt a structure within the cell and see how the cell functions...

Thulium-doped fiber forms kilowatt-class laser: high-power fiber lasers emitting at the "eye-safe" wavelength of 2 [micro]m are fabricated from thulium-doped silica fiber and pumped with 790 nm light.(FIBER LASERS)
April 1, 2009... Fiber lasers have matured from a niche-market technology into a mainstream laser platform with annual sales surpassing $100 million in 2006. Until recently, the only high-power fiber-laser technology was based on ytterbium (Yb)-doped fibers...

Concentric photodiode array enables spatial-domain multiplexing: a novel CMOS-based photodetector uses concentric octagonal structures to detect and demultiplex spatially separated communications signals emitted from an optical fiber.(CMOS DETECTORS)
April 1, 2009... Research efforts to convert light into electrical signal have produced a wide variety of commercially available photo-detectors. In the past, much of this work has been driven by the telecommunications industry, for which investment of capital...

Threat identification demands new imaging technologies: recognizing that the potential for national-security breaches along our borders and in our waterways is significant, imaging companies and research organizations are stretching existing technologies to better identify the people and things that could constitute a significant threat.(PHOTONICS APPLIED: HOMELAND SECURITY)
April 1, 2009... To combat the ever-present threat to homeland security, photonic companies and research institutions are constantly developing new imaging technologies aimed not just at target identification, but also at maintaining constant and enduring...

Optical-table basics: from breadboards to active vibration-control systems: setting up an optical laboratory begins with specifying the optical table--a task more complex than it sounds. Understand your requirements before you place an order.(product focus: OPTICAL TABLES)
April 1, 2009... A fundamental component of any optical experiment is a table system upon which to build it. A table system is a big-ticket item that can quickly spiral into a budget-busting headache if you don't carefully weigh the options and specifications...

Full-field OCT approaches clinical application: newly developed Cell OCT, an approach to full-field optical coherence tomography, has enabled researchers to image breast-cancer tissue with histology-like results.(OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY)
April 1, 2009... Full-field OCT is an en face (transverse), broadband interferometric approach to optical coherence tomography (OCT) that's been in use for life-science research for more than a decade. (1-3) The technique offers many advantages, including fast...

Fiber lasers present new safety challenges: in the last few years, integration of fiber lasers into process machines has proved challenging when trying to comply with laser-safety regulatory agencies. Recent developments in active-guard technology may prove helpful.(LASER SAFETY EQUIPMENT)
April 1, 2009... Integration of fiber lasers into material-processing systems has presented new challenges to engineers trying to comply with the requirements of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) or other...

Pockels cell driver.(New products)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The 10 and 3 kV Pockels cell drivers provide fast, high-voltage switching to drive the latest Pockels cells in high-power laser applications. Two cells of total load up to 12 pF can be connected and driven with a...

Raman spectrometer.(New products)
April 1, 2009... The BTC661E compact spectrometer for Raman spectroscopy has a narrow pixel width that supports high spectral resolution. It has a folded dual-pass optical system for high photon throughput. Four models are available for use with excitation...

Patterned coatings.(New products)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Patterned coatings for OEM applications include multifunctional, low-defect AR coatings; infrared blocking filters; and index-matched ITO coatings, all combined with chrome apertures, solderable frames or B-stage...

Benchtop tunable laser.(New products)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Phoenix 1400 benchtop tunable laser is a miniaturized, tunable external-cavity laser driven by a circuit designed for low noise and highly linear swept performance for a variety of fiber-optic test, measurement,...

All-silica fiber.(New products)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] CP1500Y is a proprietary, erbium-ytterbium codoped, dual-clad (cladding-pump) fiber. Now offered on the open market, it has both a shaped, multi-lobed pump-guide and all-silica construction. The fiber has been used...

Crystal rods.(New products)
April 1, 2009... Thin laser crystal rods with a unique geometry are designed for Nd:YAG or Yb:YAG lasers. The rods are available in diameters from 0.3 to 2 mm and lengths up to 500 mm. Other crystals in similar dimensions are also available. Fibercryst,...

Diffractive splitter.(New products)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] An 8 x 8 diffractive splitter exhibits uniformity of [+ or -]5%. Features include transmission efficiency of 95%, diffraction efficiency of 75%, and insensitivity to x-y misalignment and beam wandering. Suited for...

Mid-infrared fiber.(New products)
April 1, 2009... II-V mid-IR optical fiber offers a spectral transmission from 0.4 to 5.5 [micro]m with low attenuation and no spectral absorption peak. Suited for defense and aerospace applications, the bend-insensitive fiber has a core diameter of 100 to 200...

Mobile recoating service.(New products)
April 1, 2009... Proprietary Spectraflect and Duraflect highly diffuse reflectance materials can be applied at customer facilities for routine integrating-sphere maintenance. With this on-site recoating service, large-area spheres (as large as 76 in. diameter)...

Rapidform plug-in for direct-scan software.(New products)
April 1, 2009... The Rapidform liveScan plug-in is available for the company's line of Faro portable 3-D laser scanners. It allows users to scan directly into the software package, providing enhanced graphical feedback of the scanning process as data is...

Premounted engraver lenses.(New products)
April 1, 2009... A line of direct OEM replacement lenses and mirrors that are mounted and ready to install into popular C[O.sub.2] laser engraving systems are designed to reduce downtime. The lenses and mirrors measure 3/4 in. O.D. They are available in 1 1/2,...

Safety eyewear frame.(New products)
April 1, 2009... Developed for people with a smaller face, the 134-mm-wide F08 frame ensures a firm fit against the face. The 153 mm temple is designed to fit comfortably over the ears with little hangover or pressure. The lightweight, black, rubberized frame...

Optical-design software.(New products)
April 1, 2009... VirtualLab 4 software unifies modeling techniques ranging from geometrical optics to electromagnetic approaches on one single platform. Modeling techniques are applicable to problems in laser optics, diffractive and micro optics, high-NA...

Picosecond laser.(New products)
April 1, 2009... The HYPER RAPID picosecond laser offers 50 W average power at pulse repetition rates of up to 1 MHz. More then 20 [mm.sup.3]/min of material can be ablated, without thermal side effects like burr, recast, and microcracks. The laser will process...

Medical laser.(New products)
April 1, 2009... The Med-Laser is a medical laser with wavelengths of 808 and 980 nm and a maximum output power of 10 W at the fiber end. The epoxy-free design utilizes single-emitter diode-laser technology with a lifetime of MTTF more than 40,000 h. It is...

LED light tubes.(New products)
April 1, 2009... T5 LED Light Tubes have an 80 CRI (color-rendering index), operate at 24 Vdc and are available in a low-power, narrow-angle 60[degrees] and a high-power, wide-angle 120[degrees] version. They are available in 3300, 4200, and 6500 K color...

Two-part epoxy.(New products)
April 1, 2009... Master Bond EP29LP is a multipurpose two-part optical epoxy for large casting and potting applications. It has a viscosity of 700 to 800 cps and a low exotherm to a peak of 120[degrees]F. With a temperature range of 60[degrees]F to...

X-ray EUV spectrometer.(New products)
April 1, 2009... The 251MX x-ray and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectrometer is designed for wavelength dispersive spectral measurements from 0.6 to 20 nm (60 to 2000 eV.) It provides corrected flat-field spectra with its selection of specially designed...

Odd-size sapphire parts.(New products)
April 1, 2009... An overrun parts list includes odd-size sapphire windows and substrates with different crystallographic orientations. The 2009 Stock Parts List includes first-quality overrun optics including hard-to-find items made of sapphire, Ba[F.sub.2],...

Compact fiber laser.(New products)
April 1, 2009... The T-Light 780 is a compact fiber laser at 780 nm with bandwidths of more than 12 nm and pulse durations shorter than 100 fs. Further compression to sub-70 fs is achieved with the T-Femtoscale, a pulse compressor based on chirped-mirror...

Halogen-lamp light sources.(New products)
April 1, 2009... The MH range of halogen-lamp light sources provides power illumination of 400 to 750 nm through a flexible light guide. Available in a choice of 50, 100, and 150 W units, the units use a proprietary operating cycle to provide a stable output...

Visible fiber laser.(New products)
April 1, 2009... The red 628 nm visible fiber laser was developed as a source for exciting allophycocyanin (APC), Cy5, and Alexa Fluor 647. Designed as a replacement for a red HeNe laser, this air-cooled laser is available at 20 to 200 mW adjustable output...

Pulsed fiber lasers.(New products)
April 1, 2009... The MOPA-M-1-[micro]m-20 is a next-generation pulsed fiber laser based on MOPA (master-oscillator power amplifier) architecture, using multiwave subsystems. With pulse widths from 10 to 200 ns, the lasers provide average power of up to 20 W....

Machine-vision catalog.(New products)
April 1, 2009... The 2009 product catalog features optical solutions for machine vision, automation, assembly, imaging, measuring, inspection, and biomedical sciences. It has more than 400 products with new SWIR fixed-focal-lengths imaging lenses, expanded...

Micro thermal-imaging system.(New products)
April 1, 2009... The latest version of the micro thermal-imaging system for semiconductor failure analysis includes a new thermal-imaging camera with 320 x 240 element uncooled detector and 0.05[degrees]C sensitivity, 20 [micro]m microscopic lens, wide-angle...

Low frequency noise fiber laser for sensor interrogation.(Manufacturers' Product Showcase)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] KOHERAS BASIK[TM] Module is a single frequency DFB fiber laser with passive vibration isolation. It is designed for advanced sensor interrogation systems for oil, submarine and perimeter detection, provided as single...

Compact CW DPSS laser at 594 nm--now up to 50 mW.(Manufacturers' Product Showcase)
April 1, 2009... The Cobolt Mambo[TM] is perfectly suited for demanding fluorescence applications, in particular for excitation of Alex Fluor 594, Texas Red and the new popular fluorescent proteins mCherry & mKate. The Cobolt Mambo[TM] is a continuous-wave...

SuperK[TM] white light laser product range.(Manufacturers' Product Showcase)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] KOHERAS will demonstrate the SuperK[TM] supercontinuum product range with the new complementary SpectraK accessories range at SPIE Defense & Security, booth #1129. All SuperK[TM] products are ultra-broadband...

30W fiber to fiber isolators.(Manufacturers' Product Showcase)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] EOT has introduced 30W fiber to fiber isolators for 1 [micro]m Yb:Fiber lasers, enabling the use of high power amplifiers, with both PI and PM versions being available. These isolators provide protection from high...

New sub femto ampere current amplifier--DDPCA-300.(Manufacturers' Product Showcase)
April 1, 2009... The new transimpedance amplifier DDPCA-300 offers a gain range from [10.sup.4] up to [10.sup.13] V/A which can be set either manually or by a remote interface. Thus, the amplifier can be used over a 240 dB dynamic range for current measurements...

Cargille Laboratories.(Manufacturers' Product Showcase)
April 1, 2009... CARGILLE LABORATORIES 55 COMMERCE ROAD CEDAR GROVE, NJ 07009 USA PH: 973-239-6633 FAX: 973-239-6096 EMAIL: CargilleLabs@aol.com www.Cargille.com [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Cargille Labs, started in 1924,...

Affordable quality optics.(Manufacturers' Product Showcase)
April 1, 2009... Anchor Optics is announcing low pricing on its top products: Commercial-Grade PCX Lenses and Right-Angle Prisms. The catalog features commercial-grade optics with top-of-the-line quality, making them ideal for industrial, research and education...

YAG focus spot analyzer.(Manufacturers' Product Showcase)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Ophir-Spiricon, the world's leading provider of laser measuring equipment, introduces the FSA for measuring focus spot characteristics of relatively high power lasers, in particular a YAG. The average power can be...

Nanopositioning piezo products.(Manufacturers' Product Showcase)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Nanopositioning piezo-based stages and actuators deliver nanometer resolution, fast response and are robust. Standard versions include X to XYZ stages, microscope objective focus, micrometer adapter, fast-steering...

ESP301 motion controller and driver.(Manufacturers' Product Showcase)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A much improved version of the ESP300, the ESP301 features a simpler front panel, fast USB communication and an updated utility. The same intuitive command language, Newport's exclusive ESP plug and play technology,...

These 'lunatics' weren't wild and crazy.(IN MY VIEW)
April 1, 2009... I have to admit to at least one lifelong obsession--I love lending libraries. Big or small, rational or idiosyncratic, popular or academic, I have loved libraries ever since I began to read and, almost simultaneously, discovered an unheated,...