Photonics Hot List: December 5, 2025
In this episode: NLM Photonics sends its organic electro-optic photonic chips to space, SPIE announces the 2026 Startup Challenge finalists, and a fiber-optic ‘disco ball’ shows...
Credit: North Carolina State University
The new spectrometer is just a few square millimeters in size, yet sensitive enough to accurately measure a broader range of wavelengths than is currently possible with conventional technologies.
Technological advancements in silicon photonics paving the way to 400G per channel.
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International Space Station (ISS).
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Learning Resources

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A Fixed Focal Length Lens Solution for Helicopter Aerial Photography Lens
When aircraft such as helicopters or drones operate in turbulent, vibration-rich environments, capturing sharp, stable, high-resolution images becomes a true test of optical engineering...
Dec. 5, 2025
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Discover how to design and analyze sophisticated optical waveguides using COMSOL Multiphysics® in this hands-on webinar. Learn how to build complex structures, evaluate mode fields...
Jan. 29, 2026
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Ultrafast lasers enable rapid cancer diagnosis with simultaneous two- and three-photon imaging.
Oct. 15, 2025
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This paper reviews advances in precision motion control for photonics alignment and laser material processing, highlighting micro-hole drilling, new control algorithms, and hybrid...
Oct. 15, 2025

Podcast

Lasers/Sources

Credit: Exail
Exail’s Er-doped and Er:Yb-doped optical fibers enable the development of low-noise optical amplifiers and high-power optical amplifiers for flying payloads and for optical feeder links in OGSs.
Exail is providing advanced optical technologies for SOLiS—a space laser communications demonstrator launched by the French government—to demonstrate the viability of an optical...
Dec. 1, 2025
Credit: Kunyan Zhang/University of California, Berkeley
A two-layer Janus TMD converts light through second harmonic generation (SHG), in which the material emits light at twice the frequency of the incoming beam (left). The SHG beam usually forms a six-pointed flower shape, but certain wavelengths of light distort it. Upper right: Symmetrical flower pattern in gray and asymmetrical SHG signal pattern in red. Lower right: Optical image of a sample. Credit: Kunyan Zhang/University of California, Berkeley
Shining light on Janus transition metal dichalcogenides creates directional forces within the material, which show up in second harmonic generation patterns.
Nov. 25, 2025
Credit: Na Chen, Hanchao Teng, and Hai Hu
Illustration of nanolight pseudo-birefringence. Credit: Na Chen, Hanchao Teng, and Hai Hu
The quest for ultracompact light-based chips just got a much-needed momentum boost, thanks to a two-step excitation method that pushes polaritons beyond the conventional limitations...
Nov. 24, 2025
Credit: Precitec
Gwenn Pallier, product line manager at Cailabs (left), and Markus Kogel-Hollacher, head of R&D projects at Precitec (right).
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Antonio Castelo, EPIC’s technology manager for Biomedical and Lasers, gets the inside scoop from Gwenn Pallier, product line manager at Cailabs, and Markus Kogel-Hollacher, head...
Nov. 20, 2025

Optics

Credit: Mikael Nyberg
Part of the team’s reflectivity k-space setup. Credit: Mikael Nyberg
You bet—and these photodiodes provide tunability and record-level sensitivity for ultrathin devices.
Nov. 26, 2025
Credit: Miriam Serena Vitiello
In the lab with their setup (from left to right): Dr. Alejandro Justo Guerrero, Dr. Alessandra Di Gaspare, Dr. Vladimir Pusharev, Professor Miriam Serena Vitiello, Dr. Lili Shi, and Dr. Leonardo Viti. Credit: Miriam Serena Vitiello
Researchers enable second and third harmonic generation via topological insulator-based van der Waals metamaterials.
Nov. 19, 2025
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Episode 78 of Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast features Part One of our interview with Dr. Aydogan Ozcan, Chancellor's Professor at UCLA and HHMI Professor at Howard...
Nov. 18, 2025
Schematic of a birefringent metasurface creating four point spread functions (PSFs) for each polarization channel to provide eight total phase-diversity captures within a single shot.
The optical system uses a nanostructured birefringent metasurface to detect atmospheric turbulence, which poses a challenge for free-space optical comms systems.
Nov. 14, 2025

Quantum

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Episode 76 of Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast features Dr. Tara Fortier, a project leader in the Time and Frequency Division at NIST.
Nov. 4, 2025
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Here's a look back at three articles covering work involving quantum entanglement, which Albert Einstein famously viewed as “spooky action at a distance.”
Oct. 31, 2025
Credit: Michael Dobinson
Dark-field microscope image of a diode nanocavity device with a grating coupler (left) for optical excitation/collection and electrical connections to the p-i-n diode (top/bottom). Credit: Michael Dobinson
Beyond being a source of single photons, dual optical and electrical control of nanophotonic devices may enable scaling up to larger systems of quantum emitters on a single chip...
Oct. 30, 2025
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The real question is: Which combination provides balanced near-term capability, risk mitigation, and long-term strategic positioning for defense in depth? And for the photonics...
Oct. 29, 2025

Test/Measurement

Credit: Enablence Technologies
FIGURE 1. Flash (a) vs. scan (b) LiDAR.
Solid-state frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) LiDAR systems integrate scanning, modulation, and detection directly into a single device—and it’s why costs are dropping...
Nov. 28, 2025
False color picture of the watermark of a €20 bank note, showing the amplitude of the transmitted terahertz electrical field signal with varying optical parameters of the material; the highest amplitude is shown in red, and the lowest in blue. The image was recorded by Menlo Systems’ TERA K15 THz-TDS system with TERA Image imaging extension unit and ImageLab processing software.
Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy has undergone a quiet evolution and is now moving from research labs onto production lines.
Oct. 30, 2025
Credit: University of Trento
FIGURE 1. Measurement setup at Professor Lobino’s quantum lab at the University of Trento; the chip is inside an oven to control its temperature, while electric signals reach the device through the black SMA cable. Credit: University of Trento
Case study: An Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics project team relies on laser measurement technology to analyze the output mode of an integrated quantum device.
Oct. 22, 2025
Credit: Sheetak
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The QOOLSENSE compact thermal test chamber has use in photonic component and optical sensor development.
Oct. 20, 2025

Detectors/Imaging

Credit: Champalimaud Foundation
The team’s AI-assisted autofluorescence lifetime imaging setup accurately differentiates malignant from benign tissue in real time.
With its ability to accurately differentiate malignant from benign tissue in real time, an AI-assisted autofluorescence lifetime imaging technique is poised to help improve cancer...
Nov. 27, 2025
Credit: Vincenzo Pecunia
Credit: Vincenzo Pecunia
Photodetectors are evolving and diversifying so rapidly that a team of academia and industry photonics experts created “Consensus Statement” guidelines to consistently measure...
Nov. 20, 2025
Credit: Andrew Choi
The University of Sydney team from left to right: Dr. Jueming Bing, Tik Lun (Peter) Leung, Dr. Guoliang Wang, Professor Anita Ho-Baillie, Runmin Tao, and Dr. Chris Bailey. Credit: Andrew Choi
Perovskites are pushing solar cell efficiencies beyond the limits of silicon alone. By re-engineering perovskite’s chemistry and triple-junction cell design, researchers set a...
Oct. 23, 2025
Credit: e-con Systems
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The RouteCAM_CU86 4K HDR GigE camera has uses in smart surveillance, intersection monitoring, gaming analytics, and dental lighting systems.
Oct. 18, 2025

Executive Forum

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