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  • Volume 47, Issue 8

    • Volume 47, Issue 8

    (Courtesy of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
    A 3D negative-index metamaterial several centimeters on a side was printed with a silicon stamp onto a flexible substrate.
    Optics

    METAMATERIALS: Large-area printed 3D negative-index metamaterial is flexible

    John Wallace
    Aug. 1, 2011
    Three-dimensional negative-index metamaterials (NIMs) have unusual properties that can make possible some very strange optics indeed, including those that produce an inverse Doppler...
    (Courtesy of Chalmers University of Technology)
    The experimental setup is shown for a fiber-based copier-PSA link, which is compatible with multichannel and complex-modulated signals.
    Fiber Optics

    OPTICAL AMPLIFIERS: Phase-sensitive fiber-optic amplifier has record-low 1.1 dB noise

    Gail Overton
    Aug. 1, 2011
    Commercial optical fiber amplifiers such as erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) are phase-insensitive with a well-known 3 dB quantum-limited noise figure.
    A living cell doped with a fluorescent protein emits laser light at 516 nm and has a pump-energy threshold of approximately 1 nJ.
    Research

    ORGANIC LASERS: Living fluorescent-protein-doped cell lases

    Jeff Hecht
    Aug. 1, 2011
    It's alive, and it lases! Single living cells genetically engineered to produce a fluorescent protein have operated as tiny living lasers when placed in a resonant cavity with...
    1304qa Chang New
    Executive Forum

    Business Forum: Considering the 'cool' factor

    Milton Chang
    Aug. 1, 2011
    None of the recent Internet IPO companies—Pandora and LinkedIn, and soon Facebook—is profitable. Maybe in the photonics market we should focus on creating something that's cool...
    (Courtesy of Lytro)
    Because the Lytro light-field camera captures additional spatial information from an image scene, the focus can be adjusted electronically after the image is taken.
    Detectors & Imaging

    DIGITAL CAMERAS: Lytro camera lets you focus after a picture is taken

    Gail Overton
    Aug. 1, 2011
    Nearly all professional and backyard photographers have experienced the frustration of taking what they thought was the perfect shot, only to see later that the object of interest...

    More content from Volume 47, Issue 8

    16650
    Optics

    Compact singlemode laser is wavelength-switchable at a 0.66 kHz rate

    Aug. 1, 2011
    A compact tunable singlemode laser with a 0.66-kHz-rate wavelength-switching speed was created by researchers at Ondax and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne.
    1108breaks Fig1
    Research

    Nanoparticle conductive ink for flexible photonics is easy to apply

    Aug. 1, 2011
    Researchers at the University of Illinois have created a silver-nanoparticle-based ink that can be used in a rollerball pen to draw electrical connections for flexible LED displays...
    FIGURE 1. Ranges of penetration depth and resolution are compared for four methods of analyzing depth structures.
    Optics

    OPTICAL COHERENCE TOMOGRAPHY: OCT supports industrial nondestructive depth analysis

    Aug. 1, 2011
    Well known as a valuable tool in the medical and biophotonics fields, optical coherence tomography is also becoming important for industrial uses such as process control.
    FIGURE 1. A high-brightness 9XX nm fiber-coupled pump (top) produces 100 W from a 105-µm-core-diameter, 0.15 NA fiber. A 10 W single emitter (bottom) is shown for size comparison.
    Fiber Optics

    LASER BEAM COMBINING: Beam-combining improvements optimize laser-diode pump sources

    Aug. 1, 2011
    Groups of single-emitter laser diodes in a mutual package, combined with innovative beam-combining technologies, provide an interesting new lower-cost approach to direct-diode...
    (Courtesy of Prof. A. Saito, Osaka University)
    FIGURE 1. Nanotechnology can reproduce nature’s highly reflective structures [3]; that is, the wing structure of a Morpho blue butterfly (Morpho didius) shows an omnidirectional color, unlike a reflection from a grating structure.
    Research

    PHOTONIC CRYSTALS: Photonic crystals approach visible-light functionality

    Aug. 1, 2011
    A new photonic-crystal fabrication method creates high-aspect-ratio three-dimensional (3D) structures by removal of dielectric host material in an arbitrary fashion—a major step...
    (Courtesy of Netherlands Infrared Consulting and Modelling)
    FIGURE 1. The infrared signature of a typical commercial airliner in the 3–5 µm band shows strong thermal emission from the engines—an easy target for heat-seeking missiles.
    Lasers & Sources

    PHOTONICS APPLIED: DEFENSE: IR countermeasures aim for safer flights

    Gail Overton
    Aug. 1, 2011
    Infrared countermeasures (IRCM)—designed to prevent missiles from reaching their target—are standard equipment for military aircraft. Progress is also being made on deploying ...
    (Photo and graphic courtesy of Boston Micromachines Corp.)
    FIGURE 1. An adaptive optics deformable mirror corrects the aberrations of incident starlight through deflections of its reflective top surface (a). MEMS technology has been used to fabricate devices with thousands of simple electrostatically driven actuators per device (b).
    Optics

    ASTRONOMICAL IMAGING: New adaptive optics system at Lick Observatory uses MEMS

    Aug. 1, 2011
    Adaptive optics systems with MEMS deformable mirrors enable large ground-based telescopes to achieve diffraction-limited images by correcting for the light-distorting effects ...
    (Courtesy of E. Goulielmakis)
    FIGURE 1. A team at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics generated a 3.8 fs pulse containing about 1.5 cycles (measured FWHM).
    Research

    PHOTONIC FRONTIERS: SINGLE-CYCLE PULSES: Spectral broadening advances quest for single-cycle pulses

    Jeff Hecht
    Aug. 1, 2011
    Techniques for extending the spectral width of an optical pulse across an octave make it possible to compress pulse lengths to a single cycle of light. So far, erbium-doped fiber...
    FIGURE 1. A microspectrophotometer integrates a microscope and a spectrophotometer for broad coverage in the ultraviolet-visible-infrared region.
    Test & Measurement

    SPECTROMETERS: Microspectrophotometers take a closer look

    Paul Martin
    Aug. 1, 2011
    By combining the magnification capabilities of a microscope with the spectral analysis capabilities of a spectrophotometer, microspectrophotometers acquire transmission and reflectance...
    (Courtesy of J. Wierer, Jr.)
    A four-color laser illuminator produces white light with a quality as high as that of conventional white-light sources.
    Lasers & Sources

    SOLID-STATE ILLUMINATION: Four-color laser source produces high-quality white light

    John Wallace
    Aug. 1, 2011
    An enormous amount of effort is being expended worldwide in efforts to create more efficient white-light sources for general illumination.
    (Courtesy of the University of Fribourg)
    Atomic-force-microscopy images show a damaged film of the new self-healing material before healing (a), after partially healing (b), and after complete healing (c), by exposure to ultraviolet radiation.
    Optics

    POLYMER/PLASTIC OPTICS: Optical polymers heal themselves with light

    Gail Overton
    Aug. 1, 2011
    Researchers at Case Western Reserve University, the US Army Research Laboratory, and the University of Fribourg have developed a class of optically active metallosupramolecular...