Photonics/​Optics

Technology Leaders: Photonics/Optics

Light Field Imaging Technology

Learn about light-field candidates like camera arrays, plenoptic cameras, active cameras with depth sensor, and the newly developed focal-stack camera.

Technology Leaders: Imaging

Micro-Cameras Bring New Video Applications into Focus

Powerful, tiny cameras provide unique streaming-video solutions for NASA robots and defense applications.

Briefs: Imaging

Researchers Acquire 3D Images with LED Room Lighting and a Smartphone

Researchers are tapping into dynamically controlled LEDs to create a simple illumination system for 3D imaging.

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

High-Brightness Source of Coherent Light Spanning From the UV to THz

A novel technique for a high-brightness coherent and few-cycle duration source spans seven optical octaves.

Articles: Electronics & Computers

Cost-Effective Day & Night Marking Using Lasers

The marking provides easy-to-see legends on plastic buttons under widely varying illumination conditions.

Application Briefs: Imaging

Hyperspectral Cameras and Data Quality

Any hyperspectral system needs to maintain a stable and accurate radiometric and spectral calibration.

Application Briefs: RF & Microwave Electronics

Add LiDAR to ADAS for Pedestrian Safety

While ADAS has improved freeway and high-speed driving, the basic need for collision mitigation with pedestrians and bicyclists has mostly remained unaddressed.

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

INRS Researchers Design the World’s Fastest UV Camera

Imagine being able to snap a picture of extremely fast events on the order of a picosecond.

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Optimal Information About the Invisible

Researcher are finding ways to estimate a target location when light gets deflected by a disordered structure.

Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping

3D-Printed Smart Gel Changes Shape When Exposed to Light

The invention can become color-changing “artificial muscle.”

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

Laser Printing Technology for Waterproof E-Textiles

The next generation of waterproof smart fabrics can be laser-printed and made in minutes.

Articles: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Perseverance on Mars: The Journey Begins

Perseverance is the first leg of a round trip to Mars.

INSIDER: Materials

High-Speed Infrared Reveals Safer Hypergolic Propellant

When SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule splashed down off the Florida coast in August following its first crewed mission, the two astronauts inside could not exit the capsule...

INSIDER: Test & Measurement

New Fiber Optic Temperature Sensing Approach Could Keep Fusion Power Plants Running

The pursuit of fusion as a safe, carbon-free, always-on energy source has intensified in recent years, with a number of organizations pursuing aggressive...

INSIDER: Imaging

New Products: March 2021 Photonics & Imaging Insider

IR and UV Optics

Edmund Optics (EO) (Barrington, NJ) has released Zinc Selenide (ZnSe) Wedged Windows, which are ideal for infrared (IR) applications, and TECHSPEC® Calcium...

INSIDER: Data Acquisition

SoloHI Imager Captures Rare Shot of Venus, Earth, Mars, and Uranus

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) and NASA’s Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI) recently recorded an image showing three of the four inner rocky planets. The...

Blog: Test & Measurement

Answering Your Questions: Laser Radar...Or a CMM with a Laser Scanner?

Should you replace your big coordinate measurement machine with laser radar? Or should you just add a laser scanner with a CMM? A reader asks our expert.

INSIDER: Semiconductors & ICs

This LED Can Be Integrated Directly Into Computer Chips

Light-emitting diodes — LEDs — are important in many more applications than just illumination. These light sources are useful in microelectronics too. Smartphones, for example,...

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Compact Infrared Spectrometer

This device fits on a computer chip but can analyze infrared light in the same way as a conventional spectrometer.

Briefs: RF & Microwave Electronics

New Materials Boost Efficiency and Stability of Optical Rectennas

The improved rectennas could operate low-power devices such as temperature sensors.

Briefs: Imaging

Manufacturing Ultra-Thin Camera Lenses

Ultra-thin and flexible metalenses could replace traditional camera lenses.

Briefs: Test & Measurement

Kodiak 3D LiDAR

This system provides low-cost, reliable 3D LiDAR images in nearly any lighting condition.

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Photoreceptor System for Melatonin Regulation and Phototherapy

This system treats light-responsive disorders or deficits such as eating disorders, sleep problems, hormone-sensitive cancers, and cardiovascular disorders.

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Sensitive Optical Receivers for Space

This concept could help break through the present-day data-return bottleneck in deep space missions.

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Low-Energy Nanolaser Shines in all Directions

Compared to a LED, the omnidirectional laser light is much brighter and better defined.

Briefs: Lighting

Compound for Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLEDs)

The material could enable cheaper and more environmentally friendly displays and large-area lighting.