Laser Focus World articles from December 2007

Laser Focus World archives from December 2007

En route to tomorrow.(editor's desk)
December 1, 2007... As Jeff Bairstow notes in his column this month, technology predictions are easy to make, but successful new products are much more difficult to produce and sell (see page 136). A case in point is the laser-based television. I've seen at least...

There are more than just three.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2007... In Milton Chang's widely read column in the October (October, p. 71; www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/308752), he responds to the question, "Of the three universities that offer optics degrees, which one would you recommend for my Ph.D.?" Dr....

Correction.(Letters)(Correction notice)
December 1, 2007... The incorrect author name was displayed in the heading of the Comment column "Solar Electricity: its time has come," by Wim C. Sinke, (November, p. 65; www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/311597). Laser Focus World regrets the error.

Structured gel responds to multiple stimuli in colorful ways.(newsbreaks)
December 1, 2007... Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT; Cambridge, MA) have created a structured gel that can rapidly change color in response to a variety of stimuli, including temperature, pressure, salt concentration, and humidity....

Full-field OCT finds fingerprints.(newsbreaks)
December 1, 2007... The detection of latent fingerprints left at crime scenes usually requires dusting or other physical processing to render them visible. A new optical-coherence-tomography (OCT) method of finding fingerprints leaves them untouched and unaltered,...

Donut-shaped beam could trap particles.(newsbreak)
December 1, 2007... Donut-like laser beams have recently attracted much interest for use in trapping micro- and nanoscale particles. Scientists at National Cheng Kung University (Tainan City, Taiwan) and Tokai University (Kanagawa, Japan) have proposed a...

Tiny MEMS-based spectrometer offers dynamic spectral resolution.(newsbreaks)
December 1, 2007... As hyperspectral imaging systems improve and collect more data, processing the increasingly larger data sets becomes more expensive and time consuming. Meanwhile, the size and weight of the equipment are often a concern in air- and space-borne...

TMOS display aims to outperform OLED, plasma, and LCD.(newsbreak)
December 1, 2007... UniPixel Displays (The Woodlands, TX) has developed a time-multiplexed optical-shutter (TMOS) display technology that the company says can surpass organic-light-emitting-diode (OLED), plasma, and liquid-crystal (LCD) display technologies with...

Nanospikes add new functionality.(newsbreaks)
December 1, 2007... By creating "nanospikes"--nano- and microsize hills and valleys--on the surface of metals and semiconductors, researchers at the University of Virginia (Charlottes-ville, VA) expect that the increased surface-area of the materials could, for...

NIST minisensor has magnetic personality.(newsbreaks)
December 1, 2007... Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST; Boulder, CO) have demonstrated a tiny sensor that can detect magnetic field changes as small as 70 femtoteslas. The NIST prototype comprises a single lowpower infrared...

Mid-infrared spectroscopy sheds new light on hydrophobic effect.(newsbreaks)
December 1, 2007... The hydrophobic effect--the way oil and water refuse to mix or how water beads on certain surfaces, such as waxy leaves--is intricately linked to the manner in which apolar (water-fearing) compounds are solvated by water. In the 1940s, this...

Dual-wavelength fiber laser uses low-cost double-ring configuration.(newsbreaks)
December 1, 2007... Although dual-wavelength fiber lasers can be constructed using nonlinear methods or by integrating optical filters such as fiber Bragg gratings, Fabry-Perot filters, or other bandpass filters inside the gain cavity, these techniques are complex...

Attosecond electron measurement probes ultrahigh-speed electronics.(ATTOSECOND METROLOGY)(Cover story)
December 1, 2007... Understanding the motions of electrons inside solids is the basis for future technological developments in computing speed, ultrahigh-speed communications, and remote surgery, among other possibilities. Such advances depend on detection and...

Harvard engineers pioneer plasmonic QC laser nanoantennas.(optoelectronics: world news)
December 1, 2007... In a move that may open up a whole new area of optoelectronics Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) engineers have demonstrated a plasmonic quantum-cascade laser nanoantenna capable of providing nanometrio-scale chemical imaging of a wide range...

Time-domain OCT brings new vision to dental diagnostics.(OPTICAL-COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY)
December 1, 2007... Studies have shown that near-infrared (NIR) imaging in the 1300 nm range offers several advantages over conventional diagnostic tools used in dentistry, such as x-rays, particularly for early detection of occlusal and interproximal dental decay...

FLASH forward to another record.(FREE-ELECTRON LASERS)
December 1, 2007... The FLASH (Free Electron Laser in Hamburg) facility at the DESY research center in Germany (www.desy.de) has beaten its own record as the source of the lowest wavelength free-electron-laser (FEL) pulses, halving the previous record to just 6.5...

Thin spectacles tackle presbyopia and astigmatism.(VISION-CORRECTING OPTICS)
December 1, 2007... While post-processing algorithms can extend the depth of focus in digital-imaging applications, they cannot be implemented in real time for human ophthalmic applications. All-optical methods that extend the depth of focus include apodizing the...

Ozone sensor integrates LEDs and nanoparticle thin films.(PHOTONIC SENSORS)
December 1, 2007... Ozone is a harmful gas that can be released by past-generation photocopiers and laser printers and by some air purifiers that actually use ozone to remove airborne pollutants like odors, bacteria, and mold; in addition, ground-level ozone is...

Quasar produces dust (and jewels) in the wind.(ASTRONOMY)
December 1, 2007... The highly energetic center of a quasar seems to be the source of a lot of cosmic dust--and even some microscopic jewels. (1) The dust was found by astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space telescope to examine a far-off quasar--a superactive and...

Optimized SOA ups power in DBR tunable laser.(TUNABLE LASERS)
December 1, 2007... By optimizing the monolithically integrated semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) in a tunable distributed-Bragg-reflector (DBR) laser, researchers at Bookham (Northamptonshire, England) have achieved a record output power level of more than 20...

Endogenous chromophores alter plasma formation during microsurgery.(LASER-TISSUE INTERACTION)
December 1, 2007... Laser surgery has been around for so many years it is surprising to find there are still fundamental tissue-interaction studies that have not been performed. But researchers at Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN) recently completed a series...

Optical waveguides and microfluidics join forces in novel lab-on-a-chip design.(OPTICAL TRAPPING)
December 1, 2007... Researchers at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) have for the first time integrated planar waveguides with microfluidic channels on a miniaturized optical-trapping platform that could find application in telecom, datacom, and the life sciences....

Ambitious mid-IR telescope makes short list for Cosmic Vision.(ASTRONOMY)
December 1, 2007... An ambitious new mid- to far-infrared space telescope is in the running for a European Space Agency launch a decade from now. The 3.5 m SPICA (Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics) will observe at 5 to 200 [micro]m, filling a...

Boeing conducts successful Avenger mounted-laser tests.(LASER DEFENSE)
December 1, 2007... The Boeing Company (Huntsville, AL) demonstrated this fall that its Avenger mountedlaser system can destroy improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and unexploded ordnance (UXO) like those that threaten U.S. troops deployed in war zones. During...

Correction.(optoelectronic: world news)(Correction notice)
December 1, 2007... The top image of the figure published with the news article "High-intensity bowtie VCSEL enables near-field applications" (October, p. 50; see www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/308735) was incorrect. The corrected figure is below, with the...

Collaboration to improve thin films for OLEDs.(industry report: laser)
December 1, 2007... Novaled (Dresden, Germany), a provider of doping technology and materials for organic electronics, and Sunic System (Suwon, Korea), a producer of vacuum-deposition equipment for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), announced a joint...

nLight to buy fiber-maker Liekki.(industry report: laser)
December 1, 2007... Diode-laser manufacturer nLight (Vancouver, WA) signed a definitive agreement to acquire specialty-fiber manufacturer Liekki (Lohja, Finland). "This is a very important acquisition that integrates critical technology for the rapidly expanding...

Aculight receives grant for cochlear implant.(industry report: laser)
December 1, 2007... A Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant was awarded to Aculight (Bothell, WA) to develop an optical cochlear implant (OCI). The $750,000 Phase II award from the National Institutes of Health is funding a joint effort with Northwestern...

Army contract seeks brighter pump diodes.(industry report: laser)
December 1, 2007... Alfalight (Madison, WI), manufacturer of high-power diode lasers, received a $1.2 million, 12-month contract from the Army Research Laboratory (Adelphi, MD) for high-brightness diode sources to create laser-diode modules with higher brightness...

QPC award also seeks better pump diodes.(industry report: laser)
December 1, 2007... A U.S. defense customer awarded a $750,000 contract to QPC Lasers (Sylmar, CA) to deliver high-power fiber laser pump engines for airborne directed-energy weapons applications. The latest award brings the total value of contracts with this...

Fianium's.(Also in the news ...)
December 1, 2007... The first application of optical supercontinuum lasers in flow cytometry was reported q a recent Nature publication by researchers at the National Cancer Institute; experiments were conducted using Fianium's (Southampton England) SC450...

Laser Design.(Also in the news ...)
December 1, 2007... Laser Design (Minneapolis, MN). a supplier of three-dimensional laser scanners for more than 20 years, sold an SLP-250 laser scanner to York Technical College/Rock Hilt. SC) for quality inspection and rapid manufacturing applications....

Strategies Unlimited.(Also in the news ...)
December 1, 2007... A new report from optoelectronics market research firm Strategies Unlimited (Mountain View. CAt says that fiber-laser sales are on track to pass $240 million this year--a growth of 39% over 2006--with robust growth continuing through 2011 at a...

GSI Group Laser Division.(Also in the news ...)
December 1, 2007... GSI Group Laser Division (Rugoy, England) has begun to manufacture its flagship range of JK pulsed industrial Nd: YAG lasers at its Suzhou Industrial Park facility in the People's Republic of China.

Powerlase.(Also in the news ...)
December 1, 2007... Diodepumped solid-state (DPSS) laser manufacturer Powerlase (Crawley, England) announced a strong collaborative research partnership with Osaka University (Osaka, Japan) in the field of thin-film patterning for flat-panel display...

Cobolt.(Also in the news ...)
December 1, 2007... Swedish DPSS laser manufacturer Cobolt is expanding into a new facility in Stockholm that will triple production capacity....

Applied Harmonics.(Also in the news ...)
December 1, 2007... Applied Harmonics (AHC; Fremont, CA), developer of DPSS taser systems for treating enlarged prostate, closed its first institutional venture-capital financing led by (Shanghai, China).

Light Blue Optics receives $26 million.(industry report: optics)
December 1, 2007... Light Blue Optics (LBO; Cambridge, England), developer of holographic laser projection technology, closed a $26 million Series A funding round. News of this funding round follows LBO's release of engineering samples to key customers and...

Scientist honored for using adaptive optics.(industry report: optics)
December 1, 2007... David R. Williams, William G. Allyn Professor of Medical Optics and director of the University of Rochester's Center for Visual Science (Rochester, NY), won the 2007 Alfred W. Bressler Prize in Vision Science, awarded each year by the Jewish...

Schott optics help NASA explore asteroids.(industry report: optics)
December 1, 2007... Cameras onboard the Dawn Space Probe include optics made from Schott (Mainz, Germany) synthetic quartz glass, boron crown glass, and heavy flint glass to prevent radiation darken ing. The cameras, including one from the Max Planck Institute of...

BRO innovates in optical-design education.(industry report: optics)
December 1, 2007... Breault Reseach Organization (BRO; Tucson, AZ) has launched the BRO Multimedia Gallery (www.breault.com/movies) with more than 55 videos totaling more than six hours of rich-media content that helps users of opticaldesign software get to know...

LightPath to expand molding technologies.(industry report: optics)
December 1, 2007... LightPath Technologies (Orlando, FL) was awarded a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the Naval Air Warfare Center to develop molding technologies for infrared (IR) optical components that will provide lower costs for...

Naked Optics.(Also in the news ...)
December 1, 2007... Naked Optics (Warren, NJ), a supplier of glass and IR materials, signed an exclusive distribution agreement with specialty glass manufacturer Hubei New Huaguang Information Materials(NHG; Xiangfan, China).

The Colorado Photonics Industry Assoc.(Also in the news ...)
December 1, 2007... The Colorado Photonics Industry Assoc. (Denver, CO) has appointed its first executive director, Barbara Ihde; the association is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Photonic Cleaning Technologies.(Also in the news ...)
December 1, 2007... Photonic Cleaning Technologies (Platteville, WI) announced distribution agreements with (Tel Aviv and Misgav, Israel) and Harika (Tokyo, Japan); its product cleans to the nanoparticle level and is safe for use on coated optics, crystals,...

Edmund Optics.(Also in the news ...)
December 1, 2007... Edmund Optics (Barrington, NJ) expanded its relationship with Schneider Optics (Bad Kreuznach, Germany) by offering seven lines of Schneider's imaging lenses in Edmunds' catalog and Web site.

Photo Engineering.(Also in the news ...)
December 1, 2007... Photo Engineering (Tucson; AZ) released version 6.100 of FRED, a three-dimensional CAD optical engineering software program capable of simulating the propagation of light through complex optical/illumination systems.

Photon.(Also in the news ...)
December 1, 2007... Photon (San Jose, CA), manufacturer of beam-profiling instrumentation, entered into a distribution agreement in India with Infred Optics.

Technologies combine to improve surveillance.(industry report: imaging & detector)
December 1, 2007... The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency awarded Lockheed Martin (Cherry Hill, NJ) a $4.9 million, 18-month program to use brain-inspired technologies to develop a system that will...

NASA selects Headwall hyperspectral solution.(industry report: imaging & detector)
December 1, 2007... Headwall Photonics (Fitchburg, MA), supplier of integrated spectrometer systems for spectral imaging and chemical sensing solutions, announced that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) selected Headwall's Hyperspec imaging...

Compound Photonics picks up LCoS operations.(industry report: imaging & detector)
December 1, 2007... Syntax-Brillian (Tempe, AZ) signed an agreement in principle to sell its operations in Tempe dedicated to the manufacture of liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCoS) microdisplays and light engines. Under the terms of the agreement, the company will...

Imperx expands high-end imaging team.(industry report: imaging & detector)
December 1, 2007... Digital-camera maker Imperx (Boca Raton, FL), announced a significant enhancement to its R&D team with the hiring of five skilled machine-vision imaging-system developers. Collectively, the new team members bring more than 40 man-years of...

ART orders increase for breast-imaging system.(industry report: imaging & detector)
December 1, 2007... Advanced Research Technologies (ART; Montreal, QC, Canada), provider of optical molecular imaging products for the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, announced that Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (Toronto, ON, Canada) signed a letter...

Flir Systems.(Also in the news ...)
December 1, 2007... Flir Systems (Portland. OR) received a $9.3 million fixed-price contract from the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, for Maritime Forward-Looking Infrared systems to provide ground vehicles with day/night thermal imaging capability.

MAZet.(Also in the news ...)
December 1, 2007... MAZet (Jena, Germany), system house for industrial electronics and JencoIor color sensors, launched its new Color and Spectral Sensoring business unit. While mobile handsets continue to be the dominant application for small- and medium-size...

Simpleware (Exeter, England) and Comsol (Burlington, MA).(Also in the news ...)
December 1, 2007... Simpleware (Exeter, England) and Comsol (Burlington, MA) have partnered to provide an export interface from Simplewares three-dimensional (3-D) image-based meshing software to Comsol's multiphysics simulation environment that will allow...

Pirelli acquires 12.4% of Avanex.(industry report: fiber optics)
December 1, 2007... The Pirelli Group (Milan, Italy) has signed an agreement with Alcatel-Lucent to acquire the 12.4% stake held by Alcatel-Lucent in Avanex at a market price of approximately $48.2 million. With this agreement Pirelli becomes the main industrial...

Enablence raises $59.7 million for FTTH.(industry report: fiber optics)
December 1, 2007... A public offering was successfully completed by Enablence Technologies (Ottawa, ON, Canada), a developer of planar lightwave circuit (PLC)-based transceivers for fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), aerospace, and defense applications. Enablence issued an...

40 Gbit/s transmission demonstrated over POF.(industry report: fiber optics)
December 1, 2007... Discovery Semiconductors (Ewing, NJ) has provided a multimode coupled 40 Gbit/s photodiode to the University of Kid in Germany for its research on high-speed optical communications over plastic optical fiber (POF) and multimode fiber (MMF)....

Partnership targets 40 Gbit/s solution.(industry report: fiber optics)
December 1, 2007... JDSU (Milpitas, CA) formed a strategic partnership with optical transport systems company Mintera (Acton, MA) to provide a complete 40 Gbit/s solution set to the telecom industry. The partnership will combine Mintera's...

Agilent partners in Fibre Channel training.(industry report: fiber optics)
December 1, 2007... Solution Technology (Ben Lomond, CA), a technical training provider and book publishing company, and Agilent Technologies (Santa Clara, CA), announced an agreement to provide train ing classes for developers, integrators, and managers for Fibre...

360networks.(Also in the news ...)
December 1, 2007... 360networks (Seattle, WA) has selected Infinera (Sunnyvale. CA) for its regional network in the western United States....The particle physics group at University College London (UCL) chose a Polatis (Cambridge, England, and Bilterica. MA)...

Optoelectronics Industry Development Association.(Also in the news ...)
December 1, 2007... The Optoelectronics Industry Development Association (OIDA; Washington, DC) has redesigned its Web site www.oida,org) with enhanced access to QIDA and industry information and resources with a clearer structure, simplified navigation, and...

AMS Technologies.(Also in the news ...)
December 1, 2007... AMS Technologies (Martinsried, Germany), distributor for optoelectronics, fiber optics, high-voltage electronics, and thermal management photonic components and systems, celebrates its 25th anniversary in October 2007.

Sterlite Optical Technologies.(Also in the news ...)
December 1, 2007... Sterlite Optical Technologies (Pune, India) is changing its name to Sterlite Technologies to reflect its expansion from optical fiber to telecom and energy products.

Ray-tracing method optimizes design of nonimaging systems.(software & computing)
December 1, 2007... Computer-based design programs are now the standard design tool for optimization of imaging systems such as camera lenses and telescopes. Depending on the program, the typical procedure begins with the design of a basic optical system and its...

The distributed eye: surveillance system captures events in real time in an integrated, georeferenced 3-D model.(inside imaging)
December 1, 2007... Surveillance systems based on distributed camera networks are emerging as demand for enhanced safety has increased, including monitoring of power plants, shopping malls, hotels, museums, borders, airports, railroad stations, and parking...

Mobile projection technologies proliferate.(MOBILE DISPLAYS)
December 1, 2007... With mobile-display sales surpassing one billion units in 2006 (see Optoelectronics Report, Oct. 15, 2007; www.laser focusworld.com/articles/309264), it isn't surprising that innovations such as mobile projection will continue to attract...

Molded glass aspheric optics hit the target for precision and cost.(MOLDED OPTICS)
December 1, 2007... Until the advent of precision glass molding (PGM) nearly two decades ago, the use of aspheric lenses was a seldom used and expensive optical solution for imaging-optics applications, especially where plastic aspheric lenses lacked the precision...

Quantum-dot: IR photodetectors get 'hotter'.(QUANTUM-DOT DETECTORS)
December 1, 2007... [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Most current infrared focal-plane arrays (FPAs) are based on quantum-well infrared (IR) photo detectors (QWIPs) or mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) intrinsic photodetectors, and both types of detectors suffer from...

Metananocircuits can operate at optical frequencies: thinking of nanoscale devices as circuit elements that process optical frequencies offers a new paradigm that could transform development of integrated photonics.(PHOTONIC FRONTIERS: INTEGRATED OPTICS)
December 1, 2007... The idea of integrated optics was born as a logical extension of integrated electronics. As the concept was originally described by Stewart Miller of Bell Labs in 1969, integrated optics were intended to combine discrete optical elements on a...

Single-mode fibers deliver beneficial illumination.(SOURCES FOR ILLUMINATION)
December 1, 2007... The beauty of a fiber-optic laser delivery system is the flexibility it offers the instrument designer when routing the laser beam. It allows the laser source to be separated from the instrument front end and removes the need for traditionally...

Deep-UV Raman spectroscopy directly probes a fibrillation nucleus.(BIOSPECTROSCOPY)
December 1, 2007... Amyloid fibrils--insoluble protein chains that aggregate in biological tissues--are implicated in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and many other devastating diseases. Understanding the biochemical mechanism of amyloid fibrillation is one of the most...

Light it up and they will come ... to Photonics West.(CONFERENCE PREVIEW: PHOTONICS WEST 2008)
December 1, 2007... Sometimes it's all about the money. But in Silicon Valley at the end of each January, it's all about the light. North America's largest photonics event, SPIE's Photonics West 2008 takes place Jan. 19-24 in San Jose, CA, and is again expected to...

Photonic solutions find no lack of real-world problems: That most of the major players in the conventional laser industry announced fiber-laser programs and products this year is likely to be remembered as a big deal.
December 1, 2007... The first working laser, almost 50 years ago, was described jokingly as a solution looking for a problem. Attempts by significant portions of the laser industry to redefine it as a "telecom" industry less than a decade ago, indicates that the...

Polymicro Technologies: a subsidiary of molex.(CORPORATE CAPABILITIES)(Company overview)
December 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Company Description Since 1984, Polymicro Technologies, A subsidiary of Molex Incorporated has provided CREATIVE... INNOVATIVE... SOLUTIONS for the analytical, medical, aerospace, military, manufacturing,...

Diode-laser stacks.(new products)
December 1, 2007... High-Power vertical diode-laser stack arrays are available in wavelengths from 630 to 1900 nm with output power up to 100 W CW per bar. The watercooled stack is available with up to 70 stacked bars, with collimation for fast-axis and fast- and...

Regenerative amplifier.(new products)
December 1, 2007... The femtoREGEN UC all-in-one femto-second regenerative amplifier delivers 2 W at 200 kHz with 350 fs pulse duration, based on Yb-doped materials. The 34 x 78 cm system is robust for industrial use and can be customized to an OEM integrators...

IR transmitters.(new products)
December 1, 2007... Infrared transmitters with operating parameters chosen by customers for their applications are available in moderate production quantities. Specifiable parameters include emitted wavelength from 750 to 2200 nm, power output level, and package...

Beam stabilization.(new products)
December 1, 2007... The Dynamic-2 laser-beam stabilization system can be equipped with piezo-driven x-y actuators and reaches bandwidths of more than 1 kHz. The actuators have a tilting range of [+ or -] 4 mrad. The system can be used for alignment tasks such as...

Low-power detector.(new products)
December 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The XLP12 thermopile-based eXtreme low-power detector is designed for low-power measurements in both the [micro]W and mW regimes with low thermal drift. The detector has a broadband flat response and a...

LEDs.(new products)
December 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The new Golden Dragon high-power LEDs are available with a 20 [degrees] or 40 [degrees] beam characteristic, depending on the lens, in red, yellow, blue, and green. Suited for accent lighting, spotlights, or desktop...

QVGA daylight-readable module.(new products)
December 1, 2007... A 2.0 in., 0.95-mm-thick, QVGA daylight-readable module utilizes LTPS technology and a proprietary gate driver circuit to remove the gate driver capacitors from the glass and place them directly on the flexible printed-circuit board. The module...

Flatbed laser machine.(new products)
December 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The TruLaser 5030 flatbed laser machine uses a newly designed beamguide and cutting-head interface, allowing all sheet thicknesses to be processed using a single cutting head. The machine automatically changes the...