Laser Focus World articles from November 2008

Laser Focus World archives from November 2008

Toward white light.(editor's desk)
November 1, 2008... Optical fiber has undergone incredible transformation over the past decade, with modifications to the physical design, fabrication techniques, and materials all contributing to big improvements in performance and flexibility, while opening up...

GPON design gives it greater efficiency.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... In Jeff Hecht's Photonic Frontiers, "Fiber to the home takes aim at a '100-megabit nation'" (September, p. 83; www. laserfocusworld.com/articles/338741) his comparison of the GPON (Gigabit PON) and EPON formats contains some inaccuracies that...

Fibonacci-quasicrystal quantum-well structure emits more efficiently.(newsbreaks)
November 1, 2008... In a one-dimensional (1-D) periodic Bragg stack of light-emitting quantum wells (QWs), the standing-wave pattern has nodes at the QW positions, which for normal (perpendicular to the Bragg-stack planes) light output leads to inefficient...

Deep-blue PHOLEDs get very efficient.(newsbreaks)
November 1, 2008... While red- and green-emitting phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (PHOLEDs) have made progress in the ten years since their discovery, blue PHOLEDs still are not efficient enough to find use in full-color displays and lighting...

Silicon rods demonstrate supercollimation in the infrared.(newsbreaks)
November 1, 2008... Supercollimation, the propagation of light without diffraction, uses the properties of photonic crystals to transmit signals over centimeter-scale distances-ideal for integrated optical interconnects. Scientists at Massachusetts Institute of...

Free-space optical communications system transmits 10.7 Gbit/s.(newsbreaks)
November 1, 2008... Scientists at Discovery Semiconductors (Ewing, NJ), Science Applications International (Albuquerque, NM), the Air Force Research Laboratory (Kirtland AFB, NM), and Schafer (Albuquerque, NM) have created a satellite free-space optical...

Surface roughness impacts terahertz signal from explosives.(newsbreaks)
November 1, 2008... It makes sense that if the performance of a terahertz emitter is directly impacted by its surface structure (see "Black silicon emits terahertz radiation," p. 46), then the surface structure of a material could also impact the signal level of...

Tiny nanowires make sensitive photodetectors.(newsbreaks)
November 1, 2008... Silicon (Si) nanowires are attractive as photodetectors for wavelengths ranging from ultraviolet (UV) to infrared because of their ability to trap carriers at the surface with high sensitivity. But precise nanowire positioning has limited their...

Hybrid template approach achieves sub-30 nm NIL.(newsbreaks)
November 1, 2008... Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is challenging extreme-ultraviolet lithography for the 32 nm mode and beyond (see www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/334919). But the resolution of NIL is itself limited by the quartz templates used for replicating...

Asymmetric optical potential barrier becomes Maxwell's demon.(newsbreaks)
November 1, 2008... The hypothetical Maxwell's demon opens and closes a tiny trapdoor dividing two containers of gas to shuttle atoms one way without exerting effort, raising the number of atoms in one container and lowering it in the other, apparently in...

Better single-photon source couples QD to waveguide.(newsbreaks)
November 1, 2008... Single-photon sources have been successfully developed by coupling a single quantum dot (QD) to a photonic-crystal nanocavity (see www.laserfocusworld. com/articles/257230); however, these nanocavity single-photon sources operate over a narrow...

Hybrid tunable silicon laser has integrated EAM.(OPTICAL INTERCONNECTS)
November 1, 2008... The world's largest semiconductor company, Intel (Santa Clara, CA), is actively pursuing development of optical interconnects for use in and between computers. Researchers at Intel and the University of California, Santa Barbara, have developed...

Scottish company custom-collimates laser diodes.(optoelectronics world news)
November 1, 2008... Without a doubt, the high-power diode-laser industry has seen leaps and bounds in the last decade in terms of raw power output. Extracting all that power and making it useful, however, is another matter--often requiring expensive correction...

High-power swept-laser source targets OCT.(FIBER LASER SOURCES)
November 1, 2008... Fourier-domain optical-coherence tomography (OCT) is now being widely used for biomedical imaging with a resolution of several micrometers (see www.laserfocusworld.com/ articles/316650). The improved performance is attributed mainly to new...

Europe, U.S. set new efficiency records for triple-junction solar cells.(PHOTOVOLTAICS)
November 1, 2008... Scientists in the United States and Europe have independently announced records for solar-cell efficiencies, adding more mile markers on the road to low-cost solar energy (see www.laserfocusworld. com/articles/311586). Researchers at the...

Two-dimensional IR method tracks proteomic fingerprints.(SPECTROSCOPY)
November 1, 2008... Biological scientists have often referred to proteomics, or the study of the proteome (a word coined in 1994 from protein and genome), as the next step after the gene sequencing of the Human Genome Project. For David Klug, who chairs the Single...

Evanescent waves highlight nanoparticle biomarkers.(BIO-OPTICS)
November 1, 2008... Nanosphere (Northbrook, IL) has developed a workstation that uses silvercoated gold nanoparticles to allow the simultaneous detection of multiple genetic targets with a single test. Comprising two core instruments--the Verigene Reader and the...

ZnO does away with green-LED problem.(LIGHT-EMITTING DIODES)
November 1, 2008... While blue and red LEDs can be made to shine brilliantly and have a long life, high-brightness green LEDs tend to die early. Now, scientists at Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) and Nanovation SARL (Orsay, France) have developed a type of...

On-chip router doesn't muddle signals.(SILICON PHOTONICS)
November 1, 2008... We should all look forward to the day when optical interconnects become an integral part of computer chips. The reason? At some point soon, it will be the only way the burgeoning number of multiple processors in our personal computers will be...

Oscillating liquid lens focuses in a hundredth of a second.(VARIFOCAL OPTICS)
November 1, 2008... Millimeter-size spheres of water driven back and forth like a harmonic oscillator can effectively capture high-quality video and images with much faster focusing than conventional methods--without moving any solid parts--say researchers at...

Devices mimic fruit-fly eyes and butterfly wings.(NANO-OPTICAL FABRICATION)
November 1, 2008... A technique for making physically robust nanoscale optical components--precisely modeled on physiological structures of insects--has enabled researchers at Pennsylvania State University (Penn State; University Park, PA) to "pull the wings...

Black silicon emits terahertz radiation.(TERAHERTZ TECHNOLOGY)
November 1, 2008... Treating silicon with repeated high-energy laser pulses or through etching in a plasma creates nanosize structures on its surface, rendering the silicon black in color and able to absorb light and heat for potential use in solar cells and...

Ray tracing illuminates custom design of LED light sources.(software & computing)
November 1, 2008... The rapid transition to light-emitting-diode (LED) light sources for applications across dozens of industries creates new challenges for optical engineers and the ray-tracing programs they use. To end users, LEDs have many advantages-low power...

Sleeping with the Dragon: the yin and yang of doing business with China.(comment)
November 1, 2008... The world is becoming "optically flat" as optical design and production continues to expand across the globe, reaching new manufacturing frontiers daily. Much of the news and attention is focused on the "Golden Dragon"--China--and its rapidly...

What are the dos and don'ts of outsourcing?(business forum)
November 1, 2008... Q: Should photonics companies outsource components or finished products? Where is a good place to outsource photonic products? And what are the top dos and don'ts? A: This topic deserves serious consideration beyond just chasing lower...

New white-light supercontinuum sources have no blue deficiency.(SUPERCONTINUUM SOURCES)
November 1, 2008... In the past decade, the invention of highly nonlinear photonic-crystal fibers (PCFs) and the development of compact, high-power ultrafast fiber lasers have enabled turnkey white-light laser sources with powers approaching 10 W and spectral...

Nitride-based UV detectors improve photodetection.(UV DETECTORS)
November 1, 2008... Ulraviolet (UV) detectors are used in scientific research, industrial, and military applications, and must be either "visible blind" or "solar blind" to detect a weak UV signal in the presence of strong ambient light. Nitride-based UV...

Approaches to aspheric metrology become more diverse.(NULL OPTICS)
November 1, 2008... In today's optics industry, aspheres are becoming more common as demand grows for smaller, lighter, and less expensive optical systems. As a rule of thumb, adding one aspheric surface can replace two spherical surfaces when designing an optical...

Diamond technology enables practical single-photon sources.(QUANTUM DEVICES)
November 1, 2008... [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Emission resulting from the excitation of a single atom or quantum dot is commonly used as a single-photon source, but these sources have presented several challenges that have limited their use largely to the laboratory...

New fiber designs extend the reach of short-range POF.(FIBER FOR CONSUMER APPLICATIONS)
November 1, 2008... Polymer optical fiber (POF) is an optical waveguide with core and cladding made of polymer materials. In comparison to silica glass fiber, this technology enables much more flexible, and typically, thicker cables. In addition to its successful...

Innovations in ellipsometry facilitate thin-film analysis.(THIN-FILM METROLOGY)
November 1, 2008... Over the last two decades, spectroscopic ellipsometry has become the leading candidate technology for the characterization of thin films. Because ellipsometry requires a data-fitting process to obtain the physical parameters of a thin film, the...

Negative-index materials are on positive track: fabrication of three-dimensional metamaterials with negative refractive index at optical wavelengths has opened the way to dramatic new types of optics, such as "superlenses.".(PHOTONIC FRONTIERS: NEGATIVE-INDEX MATERIALS)
November 1, 2008... Materials with negative refractive indexes have become one of the decade's surprise hits in photonics. First demonstrated at radio frequencies, such metamaterials have recently produced negative refraction at visible wavelengths. Early...

Nanoparticle tracking system analyzes polydispersed samples.(NANO ANALYSIS)
November 1, 2008... The analysis of nanoparticles is increasingly important in a range of industry sectors. The performance and stability of manufactured products frequently depends on the ability to produce particle suspensions to fine tolerances without the...

Novel methods simplify alignment of complex electro-optical systems.(ELECTRO-OPTICAL DEVICES)
November 1, 2008... For basic electro-optical systems with few components, optical alignment methods are usually simple. But when systems become more complex it can be difficult to decide where to start and which methods to use (see...

Megapixel camera series.(new products)
November 1, 2008... Four new scout models, scA 1300-32, are based on Sony's ICX-445 CCD sensor. The cameras feature 32 frames per second image capture rate, resolution of 1280 x 960 pixels, and 1.2-megapixel resolution. Available in monochrome or color, they have...

Femtosecond source.(new products)
November 1, 2008... The femtoTRAIN Imaging is an all-diode pumped Ti:sapphire oscillator that produces light pulses with a duration of 100 fs at an average power of 200 mW. The pulse width is optimized for minimal broadening in multiphoton microscope systems. It...

Optical spectrum analyzer.(new products)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The AQ6370B optical spectrum analyzer features 50% greater throughput than the company's AQ6370 model and 10x greater measurement speed than the AQ6317 series. Grating based Littrow light reflections have been...

Flat-top generator.(new products)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Flat-Top Generator is a laser-beam shaping module that converts a Gaussian beam into a focused, collimated, or diverging flat-top profile. It can maintain uniformity, power and intensity over large distances. The...

Laser marker.(new products)
November 1, 2008... The LSG-10 high-speed 002 Laser Marker offers a large marking window, numerous text choices and sizes, including true type fonts. It has a marking speed of 300 characters per second and focal length of 3.62, 7.63, or 11.49 in. The air-cooled...

NIR light rings.(new products)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The OPA80 and OPA83 Series of NIR light sources are available in a variety of ring sizes and configurations. The light rings use surface-mount and through-hole LED packages with 850 to 880 nm wavelengths. An optional...

157 nm laser micromachining.(new products)
November 1, 2008... A commercial service for laser micromachining at 157 nm enables companies to fabricate microscale features with a high resolution (Ra -2 nm) finish in parts made from fluoropolymers, fused silica, quartz, sapphire, PEEK, and others. Miniature...

Epoxy adhesive.(new products)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Supreme 11AOHT is a two-component, room-temperature curing epoxy adhesive with a thermal conductivity of 10 BTU/in/ft2/hr/OF. It has a dielectric strength of more than 400 volts/mil and a shear strength of 1600...

Pump diodes.(new products)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The AM6-915B family of laser pump diodes produces 10 W of 915 nm output, through a high-brightness, 105 pm fiber with NA of 0.15 or 0.22. The single-emitter includes a thermistor for temperature monitoring and comes...

Industrial cameras.(new products)
November 1, 2008... The Pixie and Mini Pixie line of industrial digital 1.3/2/3-megapixel camer as can run at up to 30 frames/s. They use a USB 2.0 or Firewire data interface, and come with a software development kit. The USB Pixie weighs 195 g and measures 54.5 x...

CCD software.(new products)
November 1, 2008... Version 2 of EMCAL self-recalibration software for electron-multiplying CCDs allows for self-recalibration of EM-gain in the company's iXonEM+ cameras. A software routine measures EM gain and uses built-in linear gain scales to reset the...

Image analysis.(new products)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Version 3.0 of the Studio, Master, and API image-analysis programs come with test targets for ISO and 13A standards, such as the ISO12233 digital camera still resolution chart and the ISO16067-1 reflective-scanner...

CCD spectrometer.(new products)
November 1, 2008... The BRC112E-U line of CCD spectrometers is designed for UV applications and is built on a UV-enhancement-coated, 2048-element linear array. It has a built-in 16-bit digitizer with USB 2.0/1.1 interface, and a low stray-light optical bench. It...

Beam profiler.(new products)
November 1, 2008... The II-VI-C[O.sub.2]-58 industrial-laser beam analyzer is a profiling system for high-power carbon dioxide laser beams. The portable system can correct issues related to beam stability, alignment, tuning, and optimization. The 58 mm clear...

Machine-vision software.(new products)
November 1, 2008... The iNspect Color software package for machine vision allows images to be segmented by color so that all standard measurement tools can be applied to the inspection take, including verification, sorting, and inspection of parts and assemblies....

Diode arrays.(new products)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Diode-laser arrays operate at 1940 nm with wall-plug efficiencies better than 10%. The conduction-cooled, fiber-coupled modules generate output of 6, 12, and 18 W, with a standard 600 [micro]m fiber bundle with NA of...

Optics.(new products)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The spring catalogue adds eight new commercial-grade product lines: large PCX condenser lenses, achromats, elliptical beamsplitters, cube beamsplitters, concave spherical mirrors, corner cubes, wedge prisms, and...

White LED.(new products)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The SPNovaLED-1 Watt, single-chip LED with an operating current of 350 mA provides up to 100 Im/W, with 90 Im/W typical, in cool white, a color temperature of 4500 K to 10,000 K. The device is designed for wide-angle...

Spot-curing system.(new products)
November 1, 2008... The BlueWave LED visible light spot-curing system uses an array of surface-mount LEDs to produce light in a narrow wavelength band centered at 410 nm. Maximum output intensity is more than 2500 mW/[cm.sup.2] from an 8-mm-diameter light guide,...

Narrow-linewidth diode.(new products)
November 1, 2008... The EP1550-NLW-B narrow-line-width series lasers have emission line-widths specified at 400 kHz and below, even at low emitted power and bias current. With highly linear light current characteristics and high side-mode suppression ratio, the...

Ultrafast mirrors.(new products)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Mirrors for ultrafast Ti:sapphire lasers keep laser pulses together with fiat group velocity dispersion curves over the 700 to 900 nm range and centered around 800 nm. They come in diameters of 12.7 and 25.4 mm, 6.35...

High-power fiber laser.(new products)
November 1, 2008... The Mistral laser, made in conjunction with CryLas, comes in a 1064 nm version with 5 W average power, M2 less than 1.4, and pulse width of 1.6 ns. A 532 nm version has 2.2 W average power, and 355 nm produces 1.2 W. The air-cooled laser is...

Optical tweezers.(new products)
November 1, 2008... The E3300 single-spot optical-tweezers system can trap and manipulate micron-size particles. The optical module contains a laser, beam-steering optics, and a microscope interface. The module attaches to the microscope either through an...

Hybrid instrument.(new products)
November 1, 2008... Halcyone is a hybrid instrument that includes a fluorescence upconversion spectrometer and a time-correlated single-photon-counting unit. In the upconversion mode it resolves fluorescence decay kinetics with femtosecond time resolution within a...

Quartz glass.(new products)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Suprasil standard commercial grade synthetic quartz glass is designed for standard UV optics. The highly pure material is free of striation and almost free of bubbles and inclusions. The quartz ingots, manufactured...

Spatial light modulators.(new products)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Pluto phase-only spatial light modulators are based on reflective LCOS microdisplays with 1920 x 1080 resolution. The phase panels provide a pure phase shift of 2 Pi up to 1550 nm. They come in a housing...

Lidar camera.(new products)
November 1, 2008... The RCD105 39-megapixel digital aerial camera system is designed for plug-and-play connection to the company's lidar systems. The camera is designed in full compliance with all airborne environmental specifications, including temperature,...

Raman converter.(new products)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A large-aperture Raman convertor provides wavelength-shift capability for most pulsed laser systems. It makes possible a wide variety of Raman shifts from the UV into the IR. It provides high-efficiency wavelength...

VUV light source.(new products)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Ultraviolet Photon Excitation system provides vacuum-ultraviolet light for material analysis, spectral calibration, and photoexcitation spectroscopy. The system interface uses standard vacuum seal flanges. A...

Sapphire protective optics.(new products)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Sapphire protective optics for cameras, telescopes, sensors, and detectors used in harsh aerospace or underwater environments can be custom-made in piano-convex, piano-concave, meniscus, and dome configurations. They...

Thermal imager.(new products)
November 1, 2008... The Heat Spy thermal-imaging camera model HSl1200 is designed for self-contained use, providing a real-time thermal image for quick fault detection. It measures the temperature of all 256 pixels displayed on the camera. It weighs 1.54 lb for...

Sensing interrogator.(new products)
November 1, 2008... The sm130 optical-sensing interrogator has a scanning range of more than 160 nm, allowing up to 640 sensors on four fibers. It has a maximum continuous sampling rate of 2 kHz, for characterization of high-frequency vibrations in complex...

PM fibers.(new products)
November 1, 2008... A line of small-form-factor, polarization-maintaining fiber has cladding diameters reduced from 165 to 145 pm, allowing users to build more-compact gyroscope and sensor systems. The fibers have high birefringence and bend insensitivity. ...

Hyperspectral sensor.(new products)
November 1, 2008... HyperScan is a push-broom hyperspectral sensor for stationary or airborne applications. It combines an imaging spectrometer, thermoelectrically cooled CCD camera, and intelligent control software to give 1.3 nm of spectral resolution in the 400...

Spectrometer.(new products)
November 1, 2008... The Optical Transmittance Spectrometer is a compact system to measure tint color, photopic transmittance, and UV cutoff of ophthalmic lenses, optical coatings, windows, and filters. It can also characterize photochromic, electrochromic, and sun...

Optics material.(new products)
November 1, 2008... Nontoxic optoSiC+ is a highly consistent adamantine material for use in scanning mirrors and laser optics, with a surface roughness guaranteed to Ra less than 2 nm that negates the need for CVD coatings. It has flexure strength of 510 Mpa, a...

Temperature sensor.(new products)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The FluoTemp-HT series of fiberoptic temperature sensors can accurately measure temperatures up to 450[degrees]C. It features an entirely non-metallic design for EMI immunity and RF compatibility. It is designed for...

Green laser.(new products)
November 1, 2008... The WTO-GDL Series of mini green diode laser has output up to 200 mW and a working temperature range of 40[degrees]C. It is designed for outdoor applications in industrial markets with rigid environmental requirements. It operates without...

Picosecond diode.(new products)
November 1, 2008... A picosecond pulsed diode-laser head has a center wavelength of 485 nm+ 10 nm, with a typical spectral width of 7 nm (FWHM), repetition rate from single shot to 40 MHz. The pulse width is less than 80 ps (fwhm) at average power of 0.5 mW at 40...

Industrial lasers.(new products)
November 1, 2008... The Starlase 100G and 200G nanosecond Q-switched, diode-pumped, solid-state lasers are designed for solar cell processing and the manufacture of OLED flat-panel displays. They have average powers of 100 and 200 W at a wavelength of 532 nm. The...

Diffuser.(new products)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A high-performance diffuser is aimed at UV, visible, and IR laser and light applications that require maximum power tolerance, thermal stability, high transmission, long life cycle, thermal shock resistance, and very...

Asphere metrology.(new products)
November 1, 2008... The SSA-A metrology tool allows measurement of aspheres, spheres, and flat surfaces. It includes full aperture measurement of aspheres with more than 120 [micro]m of departure from best-fit sphere without the use of null lenses. It has an...

Raman imaging.(new products)
November 1, 2008... The StreamLine Plus Raman imaging system has optimized software and a new MS10 high-speed microscope stage, resulting in ten times faster speeds than its predecessor. It can collect spatially resolved chemical information from samples as large...

Jaz multi-channel is here.(MANUFACTURERS' PRODUCT SHOWCASE)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Jaz, the world's coolest modular measuring suite, is now available for multipoint sampling. With up to 8 channels available, Jaz is the spectroscopy solution that makes light work out of process flow and quality...

New software control interface.(MANUFACTURERS' PRODUCT SHOWCASE)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The PhotoFluor II light source from Chroma Technology Corp. features motorized filter control, motorized shuttering, and power standby. The new software interface can control light source functions with a mouse...

New mach 5 100 kHz digital joulemeter.(MANUFACTURERS' PRODUCT SHOWCASE)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Our new mach 5 was designed to help you test and analyze the performance of your high rep rate, ultrafast laser in real time. Measure the energy of every pulse at up to 100 kHz. Capture and store up to 4 million...

YAG focus spot analyzer.(MANUFACTURERS' PRODUCT SHOWCASE)
November 1, 2008... [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...

New single frequency fiber laser system.(MANUFACTURERS' PRODUCT SHOWCASE)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The FLSIO fiber laser linecard system has been designed as a building block for densely spaced DWDM fiber sensing applications. A single shelf of a standard 19" rack can hold a maximum of 80 ultra-low-noise single...

The iPhone: a computer that also makes calls.(in my view)
November 1, 2008... I am not an early adopter of advanced technology for my own use despite my many years of writing about new developments in personal computing and communications. Thus, when the Apple iPhone was first introduced with much hype and fanfare, I did...