Photonics/Optics

Optics

Advanced optics technologies are essential to design engineers developing systems in manufacturing. Here are the latest technical briefs, products, and applications for design engineers working with optics technology.

Stories

INSIDER: Imaging

New Products

Bandpass Filters MidOpt® (Palatine, IL) introduced the BP450 Indigo Bandpass and the BN450 Narrow Indigo Bandpass, two new filters designed for multi-application use. The BP450 enhances the viewing of subjects illuminated by a...

INSIDER: Electronics & Computers

Combining Electronic, Photonic Chips Enables Super-Fast Quantum Light Detection

Researchers from the University of Bristol’s Quantum Engineering Technology Labs (QET Labs) and Université Côte d‘Azur have made a new miniaturized light...

Special Reports: Communications

Optics & Photonics Innovations - January 2021

An ultrafast camera that takes up to one trillion pictures per second...using light alone to levitate objects and propel spacecraft...the groundbreaking optics enabling the world's most powerful...

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Cavity-Enhanced Absorption Spectroscopy (CEAS) for Ozone Detection

This simple and inexpensive design achieves high-quality ozone measurements.

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Platform for All-Optical Computing

Computations are done solely with beams of light.

Blog: Imaging

How to Choose an Optical Filter

Optical interference filters are critical to the overall performance of machine vision applications. So how do you select the right one?

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Fine-Pointing Optical Communication System Using Laser Arrays

This technique for optical data transmission from satellites uses laser arrays to provide fine pointing capability.

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Vortex Radiometer for Wireless Communications

Any high-performance communication systems operating in RF or optical frequencies may benefit from this system.

Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition

3D X-Ray Imager for 3D Object Retrieval

Applications include characterizing additively manufactured components and baggage screening.

Briefs: RF & Microwave Electronics

Cascaded Offset Optical Modulator

This subsystem is used in free-space optical communications and fiber-optic communications.

Articles: Test & Measurement

2020 Create the Future Design Contest: Automotive/Transportation Category Winner — Low-Noise Laser for Lidar

Compact lasers now offer precise colors.

INSIDER Product: Lighting

New Products

Spectrophotometer for a Microscope CRAIC Technologies (San Dimas, CA) has introduced the 508 PV™ UV-visible-NIR spectrophotometer for your microscope. The 508 Perfect Vision™ is designed to be added to an open photoport of a...

Application Briefs: Test & Measurement

Giant Telescope Construction Viewed Through an Industrial Lens

Once installed at Las Campanas Observatory in the Chilean Andes, the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) will introduce incredible opportunities for astrophysics.

Products: Manufacturing & Prototyping

New Products

Multi-sensor imaging systems, eyesafe laser finders, machine vision algorithms, and more.

Application Briefs: Lighting

Material Advances for LED Quantum Dot Efficiency

Creating next-generation LEDs for novel efforts like COVID-19 decontamination requires LED manufacturers to reevaluate the materials that they’re using.

Articles: Photonics/Optics

Overcoming Pitfalls When Measuring Thin, Parallel Optics

A "TPSI" process makes it possible to distinguish between the front and back of optical surfaces, and to characterize the quality of both in a single measurement.

Application Briefs: Materials

Measuring Layer Thickness Using a Microscope

With Nikon's Layer Thickness software module, comprehensive information about a specimen is obtained more quickly than if an operator is making all the measurements by hand.

Briefs: Materials

Printable Light Sensors Can See Colors

Printable organic photodiodes can distinguish wavelengths and enable data transmission by light.

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Solid-State Sensor for Detection and Characterization of Electric Fields

The sensor enables detection of items for security screening, intrusion detection, forensics, and medical imaging.

Briefs: Materials

Electricity-Free Radiative Cooling System

The system is effective in urban environments where there are tall buildings on all sides.

Blog: Photonics/Optics

A Spider-Inspired Design Paves Way for Better Photodetectors

Purdue University innovators are taking cues from the spider to develop 3D photodetectors for biomedical imaging.

Question of the Week: Photonics/Optics

Will Flat Fisheye Lenses Play a Greater Role in Medical Imaging and Consumer Electronics?

A recent Tech Briefs TV video demonstrated an achievement from engineers at MIT and the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. The teams designed the first completely flat fisheye lens to produce crisp, 180-degree panoramic images. The lenses, according to...