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Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast
Credit: F. Kamphues, ESO/M. Kornmesse
Satellites crossing the night sky above the northern Atacama Desert in Chile during an hour. It’s a stack of a time-lapse video taken on October 15, 2025, about two hours after sunset. Some streaks are caused by planes, easily identified by blinking-colored lights, but most trails are from satellites. In the foreground is the dome of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope, the world’s largest optical/infrared telescope, currently under construction atop Cerro Armazones. Behind it are the lasers of ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Paranal Observatory, 22 km away.
Photonics Hot List: July 3, 2026
FIGURE 1. Top: An OFC generated by a modelocked laser. Bottom: A periodic pulse train in the time domain corresponds to a series of discrete frequencies in the frequency domain. The frequency comb is shifted in frequency space by a carrier-envelope offset frequency fceo, which arises from the carrier envelope phase slip Δφ between successive pulses. Apart from this offset, the comb consists of equally spaced spectral lines separated by the repetition rate frep.
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Learning Resources

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Sponsored
This presentation explores how metasurfaces and metalenses are transforming optical systems by replacing bulky lenses with ultrathin, multifunctional surfaces, enabling new capabilities...
July 29, 2026
Courtesy of PI Americas (Physik Instrumente)
White paper
How PI's FMPA Photonic Alignment Technology Enabled an Industry - and Will Benefit Yours
June 9, 2026
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Sponsored
This paper reviews advances in precision motion control for photonics alignment and laser material processing, highlighting micro-hole drilling, new control algorithms, and hybrid...
June 4, 2026
spectroscopy
Sponsored
Explore how ultrafast imaging tools can track lattice dynamics and carrier behavior during critical material changes. Register now.
July 15, 2026

Podcast

Lasers/Sources

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Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast
This episode of Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast features Dr. Talya Vaknin, head of research at LightSolver.
June 30, 2026
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Takeaways from the 2026 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) include the event's focus on quantum research.
June 17, 2026
Credit: Zheru Qiu/EPFL
Zheru Qiu and colleague Xuan Yang in the lab with the team’s on-chip ultrafast laser.
Yes—finally! Generation of intense ultrafast pulses directly on chip brings a new capability to photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and enables integration of more functionalities...
June 12, 2026
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Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast
This episode of Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast features Félicie Albert, director of the Jupiter Laser Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
June 2, 2026

Optics

Credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA
Rubin’s 1.7-gigapixel image of a field of stars within the constellation Lupus gives us an unprecedented view of the Universe. Faint, glowing clouds spread across this image are galactic cirrus—clouds of interstellar gas and dust found in the foreground of the Milky Way.
Rubin’s 10-Year Legacy Survey of Space and Time will scan the night skies to create a time-lapse record of the Universe.
June 30, 2026
Working principle of the Fourier-optics-based angle-resolved imaging spectrometer.
A deep neural network that learns from large-scale experimental optical data—rather than repeated electromagnetic simulations—can rapidly predict device performance, explore large...
June 25, 2026
Credit: Cirrus Logic
Bringing signal conversion closer to the sensor unlocks new performance gains.
As systems continue to scale in speed, density, and level of integration, future gains in imaging performance will be a result of architectural decisions as much as advances in...
June 25, 2026
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Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast
This episode of Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast features Dominique Noguet, coordinator of the FAMES Pilot Line, the leading initiative under the European Chips Act....
June 23, 2026

Quantum

FIGURE 1. a) Schematics of Wheeler’s words. b) The Pryce-Ward γ-ray quantum entanglement experiment using a positron-electron annihilation source.
Beyond its enormous practical usefulness, quantum mechanics expands the horizons of our reality.
June 29, 2026
Credit: Caroline Perron
Pierre Luc Thériault, a Ph.D. student in engineering physics, aligns the team’s experimental setup.
A new type of organic thin film manipulates light in ways not currently possible on today’s silicon photonic chips—and placing it directly onto silicon opens the door to optical...
June 2, 2026
FIGURE 1. AI-generated image depicts the advantage of the stable, telecom-ready CN center defect complex in silicon (right) over the more fragile T center.
Newly discovered CN complex provides a more durable quantum defect that may accelerate advanced quantum technologies based on silicon.
May 26, 2026
FIGURE 1. A superconducting quantum processor is not only a chip. It is a cold signal system that must move control, readout, timing, and diagnostic information through a tight refrigerator without adding too much heat or clutter.
Superconducting quantum computers are often shown as chips inside deep refrigerators, but scale will depend on the cold signal network around the chip. Control, readout, timing...
May 7, 2026

Test/Measurement

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Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast
This episode of Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast features Part Two of our interview with Giacomo Vacca, founder, president, and CEO of Kinetic River.
June 16, 2026
Credit: Wolf/TU Graz
Birgitta Bernhardt in the lab with the retroreflector counterpart to her mobile UV dual-comb spectrometer.
In an advance for spectroscopy, a mobile ultraviolet (UV) dual-comb spectrometer is so precise it helped correct rotational constants of formaldehyde—which has been incorrect ...
June 11, 2026
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Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast
This episode of Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast features Part One of our interview with Giacomo Vacca, founder, president, and CEO of Kinetic River.
June 10, 2026
Credit: Isaac Nape
Light Mkhumbuza, a graduate student at Wits University’s School of Physics, who ran the team’s experiments.
Scientists discover light’s chirality and spin during propagation can be controlled by simply tweaking its topology—sans mirrors, lenses, or special materials.
June 1, 2026

Detectors/Imaging

Yu-Jie Lin (left) holds the metalens the group developed, and Professor Zhiwen Liu is on his right.
A metalens confocal imaging approach goes beyond miniaturizing an existing confocal microscope by using the spectrum of light as its depth scanner—rather than mechanically shifting...
June 17, 2026
Credit: WhaleSpotter
The AI-aided detection system captures clear images of humpback whales even in challenging conditions.
A long-range marine mammal detection system helps keep ocean giants safer, thanks to AI-aided thermal infrared detection.
June 10, 2026
Credit: Phlux Technology
FIGURE 1. Time-of-flight physics.
Infrared time-of-flight (ToF) moves from specialist metrology into mainstream applications, thanks to avalanche photodiode advances and system architecture options.
May 28, 2026
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Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast
This episode of Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast features Sebastian Bauer, CEO and cofounder of Ubicept, which specializes in single-photon imaging and perception.
May 26, 2026