Laser Focus World articles from February 2009

Laser Focus World archives from February 2009

Corrections.(Correction notice)
February 1, 2009... In the annual Laser Marketplace Review and Forecast 2008 (January, p. 54; www.laserfocusworld. com/articles/349353) we incorrectly said that QPC Lasers (Sylmar, CA) had closed it's doors. The company has drastically reduced operations, but is...

CMOS imager with mosaic filter detects skin disorders.(Multispectral Imaging)
February 1, 2009... A miniaturized multispectral imager uses a multiwavelength narrowband filter to replace the standard Bayer color filter on a digital camera, changing a monochrome CMOS sensor laminated with the filter into a multiwavelength sensor. The camera...

Learning how to learn with real-world problems.(Science & Technology Education)
February 1, 2009... Project PHOTON PBL, created by the New England Board of Higher Education, is designed to meet the challenge of educating a workforce prepared to adapt to the complex and rapidly changing demands of the 21st century high-tech environment. Funded...

High-power fiber-laser beams are combined incoherently.(Beam Combining)
February 1, 2009... Combining laser beams can boost power at the target far above that produced by a single laser. Incoherent beam combining achieves propagation efficiencies of greater than 90%, while avoiding spectral beam combining. Phillip Sprangle,...

Don't do this with your laser.(Videos)
February 1, 2009... David Clarke of Litron Lasers (Rugby, England) demonstrates the ruggedness of his company's lasers, but in a way that will make any laser engineer cringe. Click on the Products tab at www.laserfocuswodd.com/resourcecenter/video ...

Consider the packaging.(Blog: Working Smart in Photonics)
February 1, 2009... I'm always amazed by the poor optics packaging that I see every day at my clients' locations. For instance, that creepy brown wax paper, or scratchy wood-fiber-based lens tissue, or stiff foam in plastic boxes, or little loose bags thrown in...

Dinner in Beijing.(Blog: Inside The World Of Venture Capital)
February 1, 2009... "It's not your grandfather's China." Chinese people bring new meaning to the concept of investing for the long term. I had a wonderful dinner in Belling with two sisters who epitomize, the new/old China....

Holmium-doped glass ceramics enhance silicon solar-cell efficiency.(newsbreaks)
February 1, 2009... Solar cells fabricated from silicon can benefit from a photon up-conversion (UC) process in which two or more low-energy photons are converted to a higher-energy photon. Because silicon has a 1.1 eV energy gap centered at 1100 nm, electron-hole...

Polariton waveguide has low bending loss.(newsbreaks)
February 1, 2009... Long-range surface-plasmon polaritons (LRSPPs), which are electron disturbances at a metal surface resulting from interactions with light, may become a practical way to transmit optical information in commercial devices such as mobile phones....

Femtosecond pulses create microlenses in glass.(newsbreaks)
February 1, 2009... Direct femtosecond laser writing is emerging as an alternative technique to lithography for fabrication of microstructures inside transparent materials. Researchers at the National Research Council and the University of Ottawa (Ottawa, ON,...

Ultrafast laser creates photonic crystal in diamond.(newsbreaks)
February 1, 2009... A metamaterial consisting of periodic regions of high electrical conductivity in a 3 x 3 x 1.5 mm synthetic-diamond crystal has been fabricated by researchers at Kyoto University (Kyoto, Japan); the regions are created by focusing 230 fs pulses...

Audience interaction with 'hologram' enabled by spinning-mirror system.(newsbreaks)
February 1, 2009... The Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA) has developed a "hologram-like" 3-D videoconferencing system. To an assembled audience, the system displays a dynamic, three-dimensional...

Infrared quantum-cascade detector has broad spectral response.(newsbreaks)
February 1, 2009... Infrared quantum-cascade detectors (QCDs) with high detectivities tend to have narrow spectral linewidths, due to the means of detection (optical bound-to-bound transitions). Scientists at the University of Neuchatel (Neuchatel, Switzerland)...

MEMS obscura telescope tracks fast objects.(newsbreaks)
February 1, 2009... A novel pinhole-type camera that substitutes a microelectromechanical systems (MEUS)-based micro-mirror array for the pinhole has been developed by the Research Center of MEMS Space Telescope at Ewha Womans University (Seoul, Korea) with their...

Talbot external cavity coherently combines ten laser diodes.(newsbreaks)
February 1, 2009... A method of phase-locking an array of ten index-guided tapered laser diodes has been devised by researchers at CNRS and the Alcatel-Tales III-V Lab (both in Palaiseau, France) and the University of Nottingham (Nottingham, England). The Talbot...

Focal-modulation microscopy improves deep-tissue imaging.(newsbreaks)
February 1, 2009... Although confocal microscopy (CM) is effective for subcellular imaging to depths of tens of microns (and for imaging fluorescently tagged tissues, unlike optical-coherence tomography), attempts to image deeper molecular structures using CM are...

Panoramic imager captures an unoccluded 260[degrees].(WIDE-ANGLE OPTICS)(Cover story)
February 1, 2009... Using only two optical components, researchers from Bielefeld University (Bielefeld, Germany), the Australian National University (Canberra, Australia), and the University of Queensland (St. Lucia, Australia), have created a panoramic imager...

Optical confinement enables CMOS-sensor scaling.(CMOS SENSORS)
February 1, 2009... As the demand for higher-resolution complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors continues to increase for cell-phone and digital-camera applications, shrinking CMOS pixel sizes present new challenges for sensor designers. As...

Optical modeling determines luminescent solar-concentrator efficiency.(PHOTOVOLTAICS)
February 1, 2009... A multi-institutional team of researchers, working through the FULLSPECTRUM project of the European Commission, has published encouraging research results from a five-year investigation of emerging luminescent solar-concentrator (LSC) materials...

Pitted LEDs emit broad spectra.(WHITE-LIGHT LEDs)
February 1, 2009... Two types of phosphor-free white-emitting LEDs have been developed that appear, at first glance, to rely on the same concept for white-light emission; however, when examined in detail, they are different. The relaxed version ...

Plasmonic LED approaches 10 GHz modulation speed.(OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS)
February 1, 2009... Commercial light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are only capable of 1 GHz maximum modulation speeds because of slow carrier recombination, limiting them to applications in short-haul optical communication links. Because the carrier radiative...

Real-time 3-D microscopy enables viewing of specimen dynamics.(CCDS AND MICROSCOPY)
February 1, 2009... Because a standard confocal microscope efficiently images only regions of a specimen that lie close to the focal plane, producing a 3-D depiction requires that the microscope refocus and image a series of closely spaced planes. Summing the...

Software controls CCD integration.(world news)
February 1, 2009... Custom-created software, written in Lab-view (National Instruments; Austin, TX), was used to control CCD integration while sweeping M1 through focus. A movie clip of the sweeping view makes it possible to determine without ambiguity which parts...

Silver halide modal filter to help find exoplanets.(MID-IR OPTICAL FIBERS)
February 1, 2009... An improved form of an optical component called a modal filter has been developed by researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL; Pasadena, CA) and Tel Aviv University (TAU; Tel Aviv, Israel); the filter, which takes the form of a...

Digital holography combines optical-fiber beams coherently.(BEAM COMBINING)
February 1, 2009... Tremendous strides have been made in increasing the output power of single-mode fiber lasers. Power increases can also be obtained by combining the output beams from several fiber lasers. To date, this has been achieved through wavelength beam...

Surface plasmons switched at terahertz rates.(PLASMONICS)
February 1, 2009... The field of so-called active plasmonics has seen an unprecedented leap in switching times, thanks to the favorable properties of aluminum and the efforts of a number of researchers at the University of Southampton (Southampton, England) in...

Nanowire on a film makes efficient SERS platform.(RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY)
February 1, 2009... Researchers from KAIST (Daejeon, Korea), Korea University, and Soongsil University (both in Seoul, Korea), have developed an efficient and highly reproducible surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) platform for scattering-based sensors in...

Should I start looking for another job?(Business Forum)
February 1, 2009... Q I am a mechanical engineer working in operations for an early-stage medical diagnostic company. The company is encountering delays in getting the next round of financing and I am unable to work collaboratively with the key technologists. I...

New photonic devices boost environmental monitoring capabilities.(PHOTONICS APPLIED: ATMOSPHERIC MONITORING)
February 1, 2009... In our increasingly "green" world, the need for portable and accurate atmospheric monitoring equipment, in which photonics plays a significant role, has expanded as society weighs the environmental effects of toxic chemicals and greenhouse...

Optical cavity boosts broadband FTS sensitivity.(FTIR SPECTROSCOPY)
February 1, 2009... High-resolution Fourier-transform cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy in the near-IR gains wide spectral coverage from an incoherent broadband light source. Fourier-transform spectroscopy (FTS) is a well-established spectroscopic...

New materials expand capabilities of solid-state lasers.(PHOTONIC FRONTIERS: MATERIALS FOR SOLID-STATE LASERS)
February 1, 2009... Ceramic hosts, transition-metal doping of II-VI hosts, and optically pumped semiconductor lasers are expanding the range of solid-state laser capabilities to new wavelengths and higher powers. Although pump sources and cavity designs have...

Fluorescent microspheres enable adaptive-optics microscopy.(ADAPTIVE OPTICS)
February 1, 2009... Adaptive optics has tantalized researchers looking for ways to image through thick biological tissue--but the approach is not straightforward. Now a group of researchers in California has developed a technique for directly measuring the...

Harmonic optical element simplifies Blu-ray optics.(DIFFRACTIVE OPTICS)
February 1, 2009... A harmonic optical element added behind the objective lens of a Blu-ray pickup allows it to handle Blu-ray, DVD, and CD wavelengths with a single optical system. Blu-ray is a relatively new format for optical storage that provides higher...

Laser-diode power-supply basics: performance depends on specification.(product focus: POWER SUPPLIES)
February 1, 2009... Bench-top laser-diode drivers and controllers have a wide variety of features, from voltage and temperature control to safety features and surge protection. Know the most important specifications to consider for your system. Diode lasers...

Collimators.(New products)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Off-axis beam collimators have a surface accuracy better than [lambda]/10 p-v, producing no central obscuration and obtaining efficient transmission. The lens assemblies can be used to replicate a target at infinity...

Beam-delivery mirrors.(New products)
February 1, 2009... The B-Max series mirrors support Ti:sapphire systems with pulse widths of 10 fs or less, providing better than 99.8% reflectivity from 735 to 880 nm. The E-Max high reflectors operate over the 770 to 840 nm range for systems in which high pulse...

Pulse shaping and measurement.(New products)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The DazScope is an 800 nm pulse-optimization sytem used in CPA lasers to automatically minimize and stabilize the amplified pulse duration. The Phazzler is a full-pulse measurement system, with autocorrelation, FROG,...

UV laser.(New products)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Q304-HD ultraviolet laser is based on the company's Q series UV platform and provides more than 11 W of power at 355 nm. It has beam quality [M.sup.2] better than 1.2, with near instantaneous power control. It is...

Temperature-stabilized laser.(New products)
February 1, 2009... The ColdRay laser is a temperature-stabilized device, available in wavelengths from 375 to 830 nm. The high-output laser can project either a violet or red beam, suited for bio instrumentation applications. The unit's thermoelectrical system...

Optical polishing system.(New products)
February 1, 2009... The Q22-2000F is designed to automate the final steps of optical polishing and figuring for large monolithic or light-weighted optics up to two meters in size. The system can polish a wide range of geometries including pianos, spheres,...

NIR lens spectrograph.(New products)
February 1, 2009... Designed for Raman and fluorescence applications that require high throughput, the LS 785 NIR lens spectrograph features include gold-coated gratings and a tunable center wavelength for laser excitations at 785, 805 or 830 nm. A proprietary...

High-power laser diodes.(New products)
February 1, 2009... The LDX family of multimode laser diodes adds devices at 1120, 1460 and 1550 nm. The high-power, single-emitter devices produce output powers of 3 W and 6 W from a 95 [micro]m emitter at 1460 and 1550 nm. Output powers of 1.2 W 2.5 W and 4.0 W...

100 kHz digital joulemeter.(New products)
February 1, 2009... The Mach 5 digital joulemeter is designed to measure laser pulse energy at more than 100,000 pps with 12-bit accuracy. It can capture and store up to 4 million pulses. The model M5-SJ and MS-PJ joulemeter probes interface to the system, which...

Fiber laser.(New products)
February 1, 2009... The R4 fiber laser offers optical output powers of up to 200 W air-cooled or 400 W water-cooled. The laser's average output power can be reduced down to more than 1% of the maximum rated power. Other features include pulse shape equalization, a...

Large interferometer.(New products)
February 1, 2009... The FizCam 2000 is a Fizeau interferometer with a 300 mm aperture for measurement of large-diameter, flat optics. The device uses dynamic interferometry to acquire all measurement data in less than 1 ms, making measurements insensitive to...

Pump diode.(New products)
February 1, 2009... The AM6-976E series of 976 nm, 10 W, uncooled pump laser diodes are designed for industrial fiber laser applications, including pulsed lasers and fiber amplification systems. The diode includes a thermistor for temperature monitoring, comes in...

Security frame grabber.(New products)
February 1, 2009... The PC_EYE/JPG is a 16-channel PCI express frame grabber for security applications that use low-cost color cameras. It includes on-board JPEG compression hardware for 16 channels, an on-board scaling device, and a fast PCI express bus interface...

Wavefront sensor.(New products)
February 1, 2009... The Smart Sensor is a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor with a dedicated processor to execute the intensive computations needed to measure a rapidly changing wavefront, generate control signals for an adaptive optics element, or record wavefront...

Raman spectrometer.(New products)
February 1, 2009... A 1064 nm Raman spectrometer is designed for the biomedical market. The wavelength reduces biofluorescence while the Raman signal remains high. The system uses a fiber laser with up to 400 mW of output power, with built-in bandpass and blocking...

Idustrial diode modules.(New products)
February 1, 2009... Ruggedized, heavy-duty laser-diode modules are designed to withstand demanding conditions for use in metal-forming equipment, punch presses, and heavy-duty saws. Each has output power of 5 mW, at 650 nm for Model ML301HD and 532 nm for Model...

Image-analysis software.(New products)
February 1, 2009... Version 4.7 of AxioVision image-analysis software contains an enhanced topology module that improves surface roughness and height measurements. The roughness values from unfiltered primary profiles, highpass-filtered roughness profiles, and...

Vision sensors.(New products)
February 1, 2009... The Checker 252 vision sensor includes software sensors that verify height, width, and diameter, and deliver pass/ fail results on high-speed production lines. A one-click set-up feature automatically sets maximum and minimum thresholds and...

Mircospectrometers.(New products)
February 1, 2009... Microspectrometers are available for the development and analysis of surface-plasmon resonance sensors. The instruments can measure the spectral characteristics of plasmons that are excited by ultraviolet, visible, or near-infrared light, and...

Optical calculators.(New products)
February 1, 2009... Two optical calculators are available for the iPhone. OpticsCalc performs common optical calculations such as paraxial thick lens, ray deviations due to prism refraction, and Snell's law. Crossed Cylinders computes the spherical and cylindrical...

White LED.(New products)
February 1, 2009... The DomiLED DDW-NJG high-intensity white LED has an operating current of 20 mA and can deliver output of 1000 mcd. It measures 3.2 x 2.8 x 18 mm in a silicone encapsulation that provides long life and low thermal resistance. It is designed for...

Interference filters.(New products)
February 1, 2009... Narrow-laser-line interference filters offer a bandwidth of 1 nm, for systems needing an extremely narrow band-pass. They provide transmission of more than 50% and OD better than 4. They are available for wavelengths of 488,514.5, 532,632.8,...

Fizeau interferometer.(New products)
February 1, 2009... The Z100 Fizeau interferometer with 4 in. aperture is available in a choice of wavelengths, including 405, 542, 632.8, 1053, 1064, 1313, and 1550 nm. Reference optics for all wavelengths are available. The device can be configured for static or...

Supercontinuum source.(New products)
February 1, 2009... The SC500-FC quasi-continuous-wave supercontinuum fiber-laser source provides more than 0.25 W average power through a single-mode fiber that can be spliced or connected to any system under test. It offers a repetition rate up to 20 MHz and...

Radiometer/photometer.(New products)
February 1, 2009... The P-9802 Optometer can handle up to 36 light detectors for radiometric or photometric applications. The device provides fully automated data processing and remote-control operation via a PC through its R#232 interface. Included software will...

Industrial lasers.(New products)
February 1, 2009... The picoREGEN and femtoREGEN UC-Industrial regenerative amplifiers are designed to have a maintenance interval of 12 months and a lifetime of 5 years. The first has power of 30 W and pulse duration of 12 ps, while the second has power of 8 W...

LED encapsulant.(New products)
February 1, 2009... A range of silicone elastomers from ACC Silicones includes optically clear encapsulants, and a range of gels and rubbers with different curing cycles and physical properties. They offer refractive indexes from 1.40 to 1.49 and 1.53 for LED...

10 kW laser cutter.(New products)
February 1, 2009... The Titan Series 10 kW fiber-laser cutting system is designed to cut thicker metals at higher rates than previous systems. The turnkey device requires no optical-system alignment and no laser replacement parts and uses almost no consumables. It...

Access control kit.(New products)
February 1, 2009... The LSS-2386 defeatable access-control kit with electronic mortise latch provides control to interlocked Class 4 laser areas and eliminates the need for magnetic locks. It provides audible and visual indication of room interlock and defeat...

Nanopositioning piezo products.(Manufacturers' Product Showcase)
February 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...

Wireless Laser Power/Energy Meter.(Manufacturers' Product Showcase)
February 1, 2009... Ophir-Spiricon, the world's leading provider of laser measuring equipment introduces Quasar, the first Wireless Bluetooth Interface for Laser Power/Energy Meters. Plug any Ophir smart head into the battery operated Quasar and it will broadcast...

High power fiber optic products.(Manufacturers' Product Showcase)
February 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] OZ Optics uses the latest in fiber and component manufacturing techniques to produce fiber products for high power lasers. Products with multiWatt capabilities are manufactured from both standard fibers and specialty...

Cargille Laboratories.(Manufacturers' Product Showcase)
February 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,...

Are scientists and technologists really going to be heard?(IN MY VIEW)
February 1, 2009... In my periodic and, often, somewhat random forays into the awkwardly named "blogosphere," I occasionally come across important news items that I missed the first time around. I thought that the news of the president-elect's science and...