Laser Focus World articles from January 2008

Laser Focus World archives from January 2008

Turbulence ahead?(editor's desk)
January 1, 2008... Despite softness in some photonics market segments and the economic challenges of 2007--which included record energy prices and the housing credit debacle in the U.S.--the lasers and photonics markets came through 2007 quite well. Our 2008...

Photovoltaics should be friendly to the environment.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2008... In your November 2007 issue, you report about a composite solar cell with record efficiency ("Photovoltaics reach record efficiency," p. 73; see www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/311586). I see that these cells comprise chemical elements such as...

JDSU introduces 10 W single-emitter diode laser.(newsbreaks)
January 1, 2008... JDSU (Milpitas, CA) has introduced a new single-emitter diode-laser platform that the company says is the most powerful fiber-coupled diode laser now on the market. The next-generation L4 series is designed to target the fiber-laser pump market...

Silicon modulators could enable laptop supercomputers.(newsbreaks)
January 1, 2008... Scientists at IBM Research (Yorktown Heights, NY) have developed silicon Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulators so tiny that supercomputers--consisting of thousands of individual processor "brains" connected by miles of copper wires--could one...

Tapered QC lasers reduce beam divergence.(newsbreaks)
January 1, 2008... Although mid- to far-infrared quantum-cascade (QC) lasers are ideal for gas sensing, free-space optical communications, and imaging, their high beam divergence (typically about 48[degrees] for ridge-waveguide devices) can be a limiting factor...

InGaAs quantum-well lasers provide alternative to 1.55 [micro]m GaAs-based lasers.(newsbreaks)
January 1, 2008... Gallium arsenide (GaAs) lasers at 1.3 and 1.55 [micro]m have received a lot of attention in the past several years for their potential as inexpensive, high-speed, uncooled sources for telecommunications. With careful optimization of metamorphic...

Retinal flow cytometer tracks circulating blood cells.(newsbreaks)
January 1, 2008... A retinal flow cytometer developed by researchers from the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School (Cambridge, MA) has demonstrated the potential to noninvasively monitor disease progression...

Fiber Bragg gratings switch in nanoseconds.(newsbreaks)
January 1, 2008... High-speed switching or tuning of light in fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) can be applied to Q-switching, cavity dumping, and pulse picking in a fiber laser, among other applications. Although many options have been used such as bending beams,...

Iridium (III) device emits red light efficiently.(newsbreaks)
January 1, 2008... Flexible displays have proven inefficient compared to other types of displays and, so far, expensive to fabricate. A new solution processing technique holds promise for fabricating high-efficiency vacuum-deposited small-molecule organic...

Researchers propose 'on-chip' single-photon gun.(newsbreaks)
January 1, 2008... Single-photon sources and detectors are highly desirable for quantum information systems. Building on research that has allowed scientists around the world to explore proof-of-concept single-photon sources using semiconductor quantum dots,...

Orange-red chromophores produce stable white-emitting OLEDs.(newsbreaks)
January 1, 2008... White-light organic and polymer light-emitting diodes (WOLEDs and WPLEDs) show promise for use in full-color displays, liquid-crystal-display backlights, and solid-state lighting. These types of diodes work well with a solution-based...

Terahertz waves probe phase in QC lasers.(OPTICAL PHASE MEASUREMENT)
January 1, 2008... The understanding of some of the most fundamental, and heretofore inaccessible, aspects of optical dynamics looks set to leap forward with the first-ever direct measurement of the phase in a medium with optical gain. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]...

Photonic-crystal fiber produces attosecond pulses.(optoelectronics: world news)
January 1, 2008... A team of physicists has reported using a photonic-crystal fiber to manipulate light a million times more efficiently than previously known possible. The team consisted of physicists from the University at Bath (Bath, England), the Technical...

Optical guiding slows light to speed it up.(METAMATERIALS)
January 1, 2008... The ability to route, switch, and store information in broadband telecommunications networks typically depends on electrical signals, but a new optical technique to slow down and trap light may offer a 1000% speed-up of Internet traffic. (1)...

Lasers bond metal and plastic.(MATERIALS PROCESSING)
January 1, 2008... Industry is still seeing a rise in the use of plastics as a material in integrated technologies and the superior mechanical and electrical properties of metals ensures their place in the mix. But one of the most difficult physical bonds to make...

Speedy imaging technique moves into human trials.(DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING)
January 1, 2008... A research team at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH; Boston, MA) has developed a laser-based technique that, because it can visualize deposits of plaque, macrophages, and other dangerous components inside coronary arteries quickly,...

Microlens arrays improve the extraction efficiency of nitride LEDs.(LIGHT-EMITTING DIODES)
January 1, 2008... The light-extraction efficiency of quantum-well (QW) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is one of the keys to the quantum efficiency of these devices. In III-nitride devices, the large refractive-index difference between the gallium nitride and air...

Sensor uses open slots on holey fibers.(MICROSTRUCTURED OPTICAL FIBERS)
January 1, 2008... Microstructured optical fibers typically consist of a solid core surrounded by a structure of holes in the cladding that run along the length of the fiber. Although fiber sensors can be developed by removing some of the cladding or tapering the...

Germanium lasers may help photonic integration with silicon.(GERMANIUM-ON-SILICON LASERS)
January 1, 2008... Germanium could be the key ingredient needed to integrate high-speed optical interconnects with silicon integrated-circuit chips and two independent groups have taken important steps toward germanium-on-silicon structures. Researchers at the...

3-D movie shows femtosecond pulse propagation.(ULTRAFAST TECHNOLOGY)
January 1, 2008... For the first time, three-dimensional (3-D) images of femtosecond light-pulse propagation have been observed and recorded by researchers at the Kyoto Institute of Technology (Kyoto, Japan). (1) The continuously moving pictures are produced...

Micro-Raman spectra explore carbon nanotube geometry.(RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY)
January 1, 2008... Raman spectroscopy enables chemical identification of many substances through the vibrational energies of molecules, but the scattering cross section of most molecules is extremely small, limiting its use. A technique called surface-enhanced...

Silicon-based QC lasers close out the terahertz gap.(QUANTUM-CASCADE LASERS)
January 1, 2008... The quest for practical terahertz sources and detectors has been driven by the tremendous potential of these devices in medical diagnostics, security screening, and manufacturing quality control (see www.laserfocusworld.com/ articles/289404 and...

Double-slit experiment succeeds in a single hydrogen molecule.(QUANTUM MECHANICS)
January 1, 2008... A team of researchers has performed the smallest and simplest double-slit experiment to date. First recorded more than 200 years ago, the double-slit experiment has become "one of the most powerful ways to explore the quantum world," according...

NIST tests automobile crash-warning system.(COLLISION AVOIDANCE)
January 1, 2008... Engineers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST; Boulder, CO) have developed and tested a laser-based ranging system to assess the performance of automobile collision-warning systems. Researchers in industry and at the...

European team characterizes photonic-feedback structures for mini organic lasers.(ORGANIC OPTOELECTRONICS)
January 1, 2008... A team of researchers from AMO (Aachen, Germany), IBM Research (Ruschlikon, Switzerland), and the University of Wuppertal (Wuppertal, Germany) recently investigated the combination of mixed-order two-dimensional (2-D) photonic-crystal-laser...

Nanoscale microcavity detects single particles.(OPTICAL SENSORS)
January 1, 2008... One-dimensional photonic crystals and photonic-crystal microcavities have already been used for the detection of DNA, proteins, and even bacteria. Photonic-crystal platforms are excellent for biosensing as the sample does not require staining...

Report identifies $200m OCT market.(optoelectronic: world news)
January 1, 2008... According to "Optical Coherence Tomography--Technology, Markets, and Applications: 2008-2012," a market-research report from PennWell, publishers of Laser Focus World and BioOptics World, the global market for OCT systems is around $200...

IMRA and Toptica agree on ultrafast.(industry report: laser)
January 1, 2008... Ultrafast-fiber-laser manufacturer IMRA America (Ann Arbor, MI) and Toptica Photonics (Munich, Germany), manufacturer of diode lasers and femto-fiber technology for industrial and scientific markets, signed a license agreement for IMRA...

LDTD partnership speeds sample analysis.(industry report: laser)
January 1, 2008... Thermo Fisher Scientific (San Jose, CA) announced a strategic partnership with Phytrouix Technologies (Quebec, QC, Canada) for the use of laser-diode thermal desorption (LDTD) technology for applications in sample analysis for both quantitative...

LEDs poised to drive new lighting revolution.(industry report: laser)
January 1, 2008... After two years of moderate single-digit revenue growth in 2005 and 2006, the solid-state-lighting industry is poised to propel light-emitting-diode (LED) revenue to a double-digit expansion rate in 2007. iSuppli (El Segundo, CA) forecasts...

Air Force supports laser-guided missile.(industry report: laser)
January 1, 2008... The U.S. Air Force fired Raytheon's (Tucson, AZ) laser-guided Maverick missile in combat operations for the first lime in June. Until now, only the Navy and Marine Corps have used the laser-guided version of the Maverick missile. To meet its...

Zecotek Medical Systems (Vancouver. BC, Canada) sold a continuous-wave single-frequency ring--dye-laser system to Korea's Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST).(Also in the news ...)
January 1, 2008... Zecotek Medical Systems (Vancouver. BC, Canada) sold a continuous-wave single-frequency ring--dye-laser system to Korea's Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) for high-precision laser spectroscopy in its Advanced Photonics...

The Colorado Photonics Industry Association (Denver, CO) named the company formerly known as Picolight.(Also in the news ...)
January 1, 2008... The Colorado Photonics Industry Association (Denver, CO) named the company formerly known as Picolight (acquired by JDSU in May 2007) as the 2007 Colorado Photonics Company of the Year.

nLIGHT (Vancouver, WA), a manufacturer of high-power semiconductor lasers.(Also in the news ...)
January 1, 2008... nLIGHT (Vancouver, WA), a manufacturer of high-power semiconductor lasers, announced the closure of the definitive agreement to acquire leading specialty-fiber manufacturer Liekki (Lohja, Finland).

Bookham.(Also in the news ...)
January 1, 2008... Bookham (San Jose, CA) announced the pricing of a public offering of 16 million shares of common stock at a price of $2.75 per share.

Cymer.(Also in the news ...)
January 1, 2008... Cymer (San Diego, CA), supplier of excimer-laser light sources used in semiconductor manufacturing, reached its goal of demonstrating 100 W of extreme--ultraviolet burst power.

Laser Institute of America's.(Also in the news ...)
January 1, 2008... Laser Institute of America's 26th International Congress on Applications of Lasers & Electro-Optics (ICALEO) 2007 set an all time record for attendance with 566 total participants, the most in its 25-year history.

Within hours of Tropical Storm Noel blowing over Florida's southern Atlantic coast in November.(Also in the news ...)
January 1, 2008... Within hours of Tropical Storm Noel blowing over Florida's southern Atlantic coast in November, GlobalMind, a land survey and mapping provider, used Leica Geosystems' (Norcross, GA) ScanStation high-definition 3-D laser scanner to detail some...

Nufern.(Also in the news ...)
January 1, 2008... Nufern achieved ISO 9001:2000 certification at its headquarters and optical-fiber and fiber-laser manufacturing facility in East Granby, CT.

DILAS.(Also in the news ...)
January 1, 2008... Diode-laser maker DILAS unveiled its new web site at www.DILAS.com that provides customers the ability to search products by wavelength and power.

Secure transponder will serve military.(industry report: optics)
January 1, 2008... Boston Micromachines (Watertown, MA), a provider of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-based deformable-mirror products for adaptive-optics systems, has been selected by the U.S. Army for a Phase II Small Business Technology Transfer Program...

STED-microscope grant awarded to UCLA.(industry report: optics)
January 1, 2008... The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $1.1 million Major Research Instrumentation grant for the Advanced Light Microscopy core laboratory at the California NanoSystems Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA)....

Awards showcase holography technology.(industry report: optics)(Conference notes)
January 1, 2008... Sponsored by industry newsletter Holography News (www.holographynews.info), this year's 15th International Hologram Manufacturers Association's (IHMA; www.ihma.org) Excellence in Holography Awards 2007 were presented at the annual holography...

Grant will fund silicon photonics research.(industry report: optics)
January 1, 2008... The U.K.'s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) awarded a grant valued at about $10 million for silicon research to a consortium led by the University of Surrey (Surrey, England). The consortium, headed by Graham Reed and...

Edmund Optics (EO; Barrington, NJ), provider of optical components and tools.(Also in the news ...)
January 1, 2008... Edmund Optics (EO; Barrington, NJ), provider of optical components and tools, received art Energy Saver Plant award from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for reducing its energy use and shrinking its carbon foot-print, placing it among the...

Dominar (Santa Clara, CA), a designer and manufacturer of optical coatings.(Also in the news ...)
January 1, 2008... Dominar (Santa Clara, CA), a designer and manufacturer of optical coatings, has completed acquisition of glass-maker Ellis Optical Technologies

BCC Research.(Also in the news ...)
January 1, 2008... A new technical market research report from BCC Research (Wellesley, MA), Photonic Crystals: Technology and Global Markets, estimates mates that the global market for photonic crystals will be worth $13.9 million in 2007.

Rubicon Technology.(Also in the news ...)
January 1, 2008... Rubicon Technology (Franklin Park, IL), an electronic materials provider that develops, manufactures, and sells mortocrystalline sapphire and other crystalline products, announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 6,7 million shares...

S.E.T., (former SUSS MicroTec Device Bonder Division; Saint-Jeoire, France), a supplier of semiconductor wafer bonding and nanoimprint lithography solutions.(Also in the news ...)
January 1, 2008... S.E.T., (former SUSS MicroTec Device Bonder Division; Saint-Jeoire, France), a supplier of semiconductor wafer bonding and nanoimprint lithography solutions, announced that the partnership between S.E.T. and CEA Leti (a laboratory of Minatec...

Avantes.(Also in the news ...)
January 1, 2008... Avantes (Eerbeek, The Netherlands)is now offering three preconfigured spectrometer instruments as stock items.

Solar expo to be North America's largest.(industry report: imaging & detector)
January 1, 2008... SEMI (San Jose, CA), the global industry association for the manufacture of semiconductors, displays, photovoltaic cells, and related products, and Freiburg Wirtschaft Touristik und Messe, together with Solar Promotion, organizers of...

BAE to lead DARPA imaging program.(industry report: imaging & detector)
January 1, 2008... BAE Systems received an $18.5 million, 30-month contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a new class of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) systems and capabilities. BAE Systems will lead...

Partnership targets 1064 nm single-photon counting.(industry report: imaging & detector)
January 1, 2008... Princeton Lightwave (Cranbury, NJ) and id Quantique (Geneva, Switzerland) initiated development of the world's first single-photon-counting module optimized for 1064 nm by combining an optimized avalanche photodiode with integrated biasing and...

Army chooses Kopin 'Instant-On' display.(industry report: imaging & detector)
January 1, 2008... Kopin (Taunton, MA), manufacturer of microdisplays for mobile consumer and military applications, announced the adoption of its new CyberDisplay 640M LVR for use in the U.S. Army's new thermal-weapon-sight program, the TWS Bridge, which has...

Dental imaging contracts placed with e2v.(industry report: imaging & detector)
January 1, 2008... e2v technologies (Essex, England) signed orders with three existing key dental imaging customers worth a total of $28.9 million dollars for its x-ray-sensitive CCDs. These systems offer high-performance image capture, instantly viewable on a PC...

PennWell (Tulsa, OK), parent company of Laser Focus World magazine (Nashua, NH), acquired a 51% interest in iCommerce & Marketing, which operates RenewableEnergyAccess.com.(Also in the news ...)
January 1, 2008... PennWell (Tulsa, OK), parent company of Laser Focus World magazine (Nashua, NH), acquired a 51% interest in iCommerce & Marketing, which operates RenewableEnergyAccess.com, an online-only publication and business-to-business community for...

Andor.(Also in the news ...)
January 1, 2008... As part of its existing Environment. Health, and Safety (EHS) policy, imaging company Andor (Belfast, Northern Ireland) has put in place projects and initiatives to recycle waste and reduce energy use and has achieved the ISO 14001:2004...

Uni-Pixel (The Woodlands, TX), developer of flat-panel color-display technology called time-multiplexed optical shutter (TMOS).(Also in the news ...)
January 1, 2008... Uni-Pixel (The Woodlands, TX), developer of flat-panel color-display technology called time-multiplexed optical shutter (TMOS), announced it has reached an agreement with the MiPlaza Facility at the High Tech Campus (Eindhoven, The Netherlands)...

Qualcomm MEMs Technologies (QMT), a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm, and Chinese manufacturer Hisense Communication.(Also in the news ...)
January 1, 2008... Qualcomm MEMs Technologies (QMT), a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm, and Chinese manufacturer Hisense Communication announced the industry's first collaboration slated to bring to market mobile phones with Qualcomm micro-electromechanical...

Wiring systems maker acquires FiberTech.(industry report: fiber optics)
January 1, 2008... Leoni (Nuremberg, Germany), a wire, cable, and wiring systems specialist, is further expanding its activity in the high-growth market for fiber optics by acquiring 90.2% of the shares in FiberTech (Berlin, Germany). FiberTech is a provider of...

Court finds in favor of JDSU executives.(industry report: fiber optics)
January 1, 2008... A jury ruled in favor of JDSU (Milpitas, CA) on all claims in a securities class-action lawsuit filed by Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds against the company in the United States District Court for the Northern District of...

Sterlite to double fiber manufacturing capacity.(industry report: fiber optics)
January 1, 2008... India's only global provider and integrated manufacturer of optical fiber--Sterlite Technologies (Pune, India)--will double its optical-fiber annual manufacturing capacity to 12 million km from its current capacity of 6 million km. This...

Oplink acquires remainder of OCP.(industry report: fiber optics)
January 1, 2008... Oplink Communications (Fremont, CA), provider of photonic components, modules, and subsystems, completed the acquisition of the remaining 42% of outstanding common stock of Optical Communication Products (OCP; Woodland Hills, CA) that it did...

Photop builds vertical telecom-component line.(industry report: fiber optics)
January 1, 2008... Photop Technologies (Fujian, China), a component supplier and leading manufacturer of fiber-optics communications, projection and display, and photonics products, entered into an agreement to acquire Optimal Coatech (OPDM). OPDM is a...

Verizon.(Also in the news ...)
January 1, 2008... Verizon (New York, NY) successfully concluded the industry's first field test of 100 Gbit/s optical transmission, ors a five, in-service 10 Gbit/s. 312-mile (504 km) network route between Tampa, FL, and Miami, FL.

Tyco Electronics (Harrisburg, PA) reached agreement with Huber+Suhner.(Also in the news ...)
January 1, 2008... Tyco Electronics (Harrisburg, PA) reached agreement with Huber+Suhner (Pfaffikon, Switzerland) to become an alternative source for outdoor connector fiber-optic connector cable assemblies used in WiMax Base Station remote radios and...

IPtronics.(Also in the news ...)
January 1, 2008... IPtronics (Roskitde, Denmark), a fabfess semiconductor manufacturer concentrating on parallel optical interconnects, opened new offices in Pato Alto, CA, to capitalize on new interconnect opportunities in the U.S. market.

OpVista.(Also in the news ...)
January 1, 2008... OpVista (Milpitas, CA), provider of high-capacity metro and regional optical networks for service providers worldwide, was named a "Rising Star" in Deloitte's 2007 Technology Fast 50 Program for Silicon Valley.

Machine-vision software masters corner detection.(software & computing)
January 1, 2008... In machine vision, edge-detection algorithms locate intensity transitions within an image that correspond to physical edges. Machine-vision systems use edges to locate, identify, and gauge parts. Corner-detection algorithms find junctions...

Women in STEM fields still need support.(comment)
January 1, 2008... Snell, Fraunhofer, Fresnel, Fizeau, and Raman: a few of the numerous men after whom optical principles are named. Male dominance of optics and science in general has a long history. Since 1901 only 2% of Nobel Prize winners in the sciences have...

Does government funding yield enough photonics licenses?(business forum)(Interview)
January 1, 2008... Q: My impression is very few photonics technologies that came out of government-sponsored research, even when they are useful product ideas, are ever licensed. Why is that? A: Licensing does take place; I have sat on both sides of the table...

Heart of the matter: machine vision inspects the surfaces of medical stents.(inside imaging)
January 1, 2008... Balloon angioplasty provides cardiologists with a means to treat blockages of the arteries caused by coronary heart disease. To perform the procedure, cardiologists insert a long, thin tube with a balloon-tipped catheter into the artery. After...

Innovation opens the door for next wave of success: the laser industry feels the effects of larger economic issues in 2007.(Cover story)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Last September at the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association's (OIDA; Washington, D.C.) "Perspectives on the Optoelectronics Industry" forum in San Jose, CA, keynote speaker Henry Kressel of Warburg Pincus...

DPSS lasers rival: fiber lasers for marking applications.(LASERS FOR MARKING)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Fiber-laser technology has moved from a "niche play" in 2002 to a mainstream laser technology today--but what about diode-pumped solid-state laser sources? While in the past five years diode-pumped solid state (DPSS)...

Tuning of surface plasmons leads to new optoelectronic devices: a novel technique enables dynamic tuning of surface-plasmon resonances in metallic gratings on semiconductor substrates--and subsequently--novel electro-optical devices.(ACTIVE SURFACE PLASMONS)
January 1, 2008... Surface plasmons can be thought of as light waves trapped and traveling along the interface between a metal and a dielectric material. However, the surface plasmon (SP) is not merely a guided light wave but, in fact, a hybrid excitation...

Segmented tunable filters advance multispectral imaging: etched liquid-crystal Fabry-Perot tunable optical filters can provide high-enough spectral resolution for background discrimination and rapid tuning in atmospheric sensing.(MULTISPECTRAL IMAGING)
January 1, 2008... [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] The study of transient atmospheric and environmental events has been gaining in importance since the discovery of sprites in 1989 and as observation platforms increasingly transition from ground to space. A sprite is an...

Near-IR lasers may close the terahertz gap: two laser-based approaches to terahertz generation--one using near-IR distributed-feedback diodes and the other using femtosecond lasers-may open up the terahertz region to more widespread use in imaging, spectroscopy, and communications.(TERAHERTZ GENERATION)
January 1, 2008... In seafarers' maps of Renaissance times, the term terra incognita was used to denote un known land--areas beyond the known frontiers that were yet to be documented. In modern science, the terahertz region represents the last frontier of the...

The geospatial imagery revolution ... it's everywhere: advances in remote imaging have pushed geospatial imagery into the mainstream, enabling it to play a critical role in management and mitigation of natural disasters such as the October 2007 California wildfires.(REMOTE SENSING)
January 1, 2008... While remote sensing has long been a useful mapping or surveillance tool for governments and the military, as well as for a plethora of other users such as the energy industry, meteorologists, and scientific researchers studying changes in the...

Designer organic molecules create a new class of nonlinear materials: careful tailoring of organic molecules can produce strong optical nonlinearities, creating a new class of organic nonlinear optical materials that are finding applications from high-speed modulation to 3-D microfabrication.(PHOTONIC FRONTIERS: NONLINEAR ORGANIC MATERIALS)
January 1, 2008... Research on organic nonlinear materials dates back a couple of decades, but those efforts have only recently started paying practical dividends. Lumera (Bothell, WA) has introduced a family of high-speed electro-optic modulators based on...

Spectroradiometer improves accuracy of photovoltaic measurement: while it is impossible to reproduce the brightness level of the Sun, it is possible to simulate a photovoltaic detector's response with improved accuracy by integrating a white-bias source into a scanning monochromator-based spectroradiometer.(PHOTOVOLTAICS)
January 1, 2008... [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Since the discovery of the photoelectric effect in 1939 by Alexandre Edmond Becquerel, the performance of photovoltaic (PV) detectors has gradually improved from scientific novelty to a potentially viable alternative...

Plasmon grating-gate devices have potential as tunable terahertz detectors: plasmon-based grating-gate detectors based on hot-electron bolometer mixers are being explored as tunable detectors of terahertz radiation--the next big thing in security applications.(NEXT-GENERATION DETECTORS)
January 1, 2008... The field-effect transistor (FET) is the cornerstone of modern technological advances such as computer processors and cellular phones. This semiconductor device consists of a "gate" that controls a current flowing through a "channel" using an...

Microfluidic chemical deposition moves optical fiber to the nanoscale: the use of a novel chemical-vapor-deposition process to integrate metals and semiconductor films in microstructured optical fibers may soon enable nanometer-scale waveguides and endoscopic cameras.(ENDOSCOPIC FIBER)
January 1, 2008... [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Optical fibers are fundamental to the information age and are now used not only for long-distance telecommunications but also for chemical sensing, fiber lasers, laser power delivery, and imaging, among many other...

Wavefront sensing goes off-axis: a new generation of diagnostic instruments based on the Shack-Hartmann method can be used to measure the optical quality of single or complex lenses, measuring on-axis as well as off-axis.(TEST & MEASUREMENT)
January 1, 2008... Optical design of lenses and lens systems are being driven by the increasing size of sensors and shrinking size of pixels. Chip sizes as large as 36.7 x 49.0 mm (39 megapixels, each 6.8 gm in size) are now available for use with large-format...

Megapixel lenses.(new products)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Fourteen new megapixel fixed-focal-length lenses have been added to the Low Mag Video Lens line. Designed for machine-vision applications, the 1 in. megapixel lenses have focal lengths from 8 to 75 mm and the 2/3 in....