Photonics & Imaging

Photonics/​Optics

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Explore the latest technical briefs and product breakthroughs in photonics and optics. Resources include breakthroughs in lasers, laser systems, fiber optics, optical components, and photonics.

Latest Briefs & News

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On-Demand Webinars: Photonics/Optics
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Advancements in silicon photonic and micro-optic technologies are driving the need to perform precision alignments down to sub-micrometer levels. As cutting-edge optical and...
Briefs: RF & Microwave Electronics
Residents of the Manu’a Islands in American Samoa were feeling the earth shake, raising concerns of an imminent volcanic eruption or tsunami. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey used machine learning and a technique called template matching on shaking data recorded from a single seismic sensor located 250 kilometers away to locate the source of the shaking. Read on to learn more.
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Products: Photonics/Optics
See the new products, including TRIOPTICS' ImageMaster® PRO AR Reflection waveguide testing solution; TOP-TICA’s Clock Laser System; Aerotech Inc.'s HexGen® HEX150-125HL Miniature Hexapod, a six degree-of-freedom precision positioning system; Teledyne e2v's Optimom™ 5D turnkey imaging module; Coherent Corp.'s set of pluggable optical transceivers optimized for use in data centers that incorporate optical circuit switches; and more.
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Articles: Photonics/Optics
AI-driven computing is at a turning point. The old paradigm — squeezing ever-smaller transistors onto silicon chips — is becoming infeasible. Just increasing the chip size and with it the power consumption is unsustainable. The future lies in photonic processors that operate without electrical resistance, minimize heat dissipation, and deliver unmatched computational speed and efficiency. Read on to learn more.
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Researchers have developed a photonic chip-based traveling wave parametric amplifier that achieves ultra-broadband signal amplification in an unprecedentedly compact form. Read on to learn more about it.
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Briefs: AR/AI
Augmented reality has become a hot topic in the entertainment, fashion, and makeup industries. Though a few different technologies exist in these fields, dynamic facial projection mapping is among the most sophisticated and visually stunning ones. Read on to learn more about it.
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Briefs: Software
Artificial intelligence systems promise transformative advancements, yet their growth has been limited by energy inefficiencies and bottlenecks in data transfer. Researchers at Columbia Engineering have unveiled a groundbreaking solution: a 3D photonic-electronic platform that achieves unprecedented energy efficiency and bandwidth density, paving the way for next-generation AI hardware. Read on to learn more.
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Metabolic imaging is a noninvasive method that enables clinicians and scientists to study living cells using laser light, which can help them assess disease progression and treatment responses. But light scatters when it shines into biological tissue, limiting how deeply it can penetrate and hampering the resolution of captured images. Now, MIT researchers have developed a new technique that more than doubles the usual depth limit of metabolic imaging. Read on to learn more.
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Application Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Machining metal has its challenges as many shops will attest, but machining glass is another matter – one that Dan Bukaty Jr., President of Precision Glass & Optics (PG&O) is well schooled in. Mr. Bukaty and his 35-person shop manufacture high-end precision glass optics for customers such as IMAX, Intuitive Surgical, Boeing and NASA, to name a few. Read on to learn about PG&O's use of a vision system.
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Application Briefs: Lighting
Exploiting the “spatial” degree of freedom of light can mean many things. Read on to learn what they are and what the process can lead to.
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INSIDER: Photonics/Optics
Physicists in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have created a compact laser that emits extremely bright, short pulses of light in a useful but...
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INSIDER: Imaging
In the field of technical imaging, the term “trigger” is often used synonymously with the term frame-synchronization (or f-sync) signal. In the...
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INSIDER: Photonics/Optics
A beam of light doesn’t sound like a material that can create a knot. Until now.
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White Papers: Photonics/Optics
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Destroy the Target, Not Everything Else: Beam Management in High-Power Directed Energy Laser Projects
Using high power lasers to neutralize threats is a significant advance in weapons systems. Lasers are not affected by gravity, travel without...

Blog: Physical Sciences
The work addresses the outfielder problem, which refers to the baseball player who stands in the outfield to catch the ball after it is hit. It is a classic challenge in physics and the neuroscience of movement, used to explore how humans and animals predict movements in a dynamic environment and how automated systems can be designed to mimic them.
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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
New research unlocks the power of exceptional points (EPs) for advanced optical sensing. In a study published in Science Advances , a team showed that these unique EPs — specific conditions in systems where extraordinary optical phenomena can occur — can be deployed on conventional sensors to achieve a striking sensitivity to environmental perturbations. Read on to learn more.
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Briefs: AR/AI
Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have developed a compact, single-shot polarization imaging system that can provide a complete picture of polarization. Read on to learn more about it.
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Special Reports: Test & Measurement
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Test & Measurement - March 2025
Testing the “eyes” of NASA's next space telescope…mass‐manufacturing photonic sensors at the quantum limit…driving zero defects in today's intelligent vehicles. Read about these and other applications...

Special Reports: Robotics, Automation & Control
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Medical Manufacturing & Outsourcing - March 2025
Researchers achieve near‐void‐free 3D printing…how new laser joining technology is improving implantable device reliability…tips and techniques for adhesive bonding of plastics. Read...

Articles: Photonics/Optics
See the products of tomorrow, including paper-thin optical lenses simple enough to mass produce like microchips; a compact cooling technology that can pump away heat continuously using layers of flexing thin films; and a multilayered chip design that doesn’t require any silicon wafer substrates and works at temperatures low enough to preserve the underlying layer’s circuitry.
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Products: Electronics & Computers
See what's new on the market, including electronic control products from NORD DRIVESYSTEMS; the new F-141 photonics alignment system from PI; InnoPhase IoT's expansion of its Talaria platform; Aerotech, Inc.'s HexGen® HEX150-125HL Miniature Hexapod; and more.
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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
A Bristol-led team of physicists has found a way to operate mass manufacturable photonic sensors at the quantum limit. This breakthrough paves the way for practical applications such as monitoring greenhouse gases and cancer detection. Read on to learn more.
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Researchers have created visible lasers of very pure colors from near-ultraviolet to near-infrared that fit on a fingertip. The colors of the lasers can be precisely tuned and extremely fast — up to 267 petahertz per second, which is critical for applications such as quantum optics. Read on to learn more.
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Briefs: Physical Sciences
Researchers have designed a way to levitate and propel objects using only light by creating specific nanoscale patterning on the objects' surfaces. The work could be a step toward developing a spacecraft that could reach the nearest planet outside of our solar system in 20 years, powered and accelerated only by light. Read on to learn more.
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Purdue researchers have created technology aimed at replacing Morse code with colored “digital characters” to modernize optical storage. They are confident the advancement will help with the explosion of remote data storage during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Read on to learn more.
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Researchers in the emerging field of spatial computing have developed a prototype augmented reality headset that uses holographic imaging to overlay full-color, 3D moving images on the lenses of what would appear to be an ordinary pair of glasses. Read on to learn more about it.
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Special Reports: Defense
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Space Technology - January 2025
Engineering NASA's next great space telescope…how to build a better rocket…the groundbreaking material that could propel future space travel. Read about these and other exciting advances in this compendium of...

Articles: Imaging
Watch this video to learn more about three new robotic technologies: A soft robot developed at NC State University; a pair of wearable robotic limbs developed by MIT engineers; and a camera inspired by the human eye developed at the University of Maryland.
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INSIDER: Photonics/Optics
Seven early-stage startup companies have been selected to compete for a top prize of $10,000 at the 15th annual SPIE Startup Challenge at Photonics West Tuesday, January 28.
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