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

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INSIDER: Photonics/Optics
The James Webb Space Telescope will be the most powerful space telescope ever built. With a 21-foot diameter, the telescope’s primary mirror is six times larger than the one used...
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INSIDER: Photonics/Optics
Looking for new cameras, lasers, or optics? Our 2017 OEM Photonics & Imaging Directory, featured in the September issue of Tech Briefs, reviews essential vendors.
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Q&A: Photonics/Optics
Dr. Munechika — along with Alexander Kosh­elev and Giuseppe Calafiore at aBeam Technologies, and Stefano Cabrini at the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley...
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INSIDER: Electronics & Computers
Physicists from Washington State University (WSU) have used lasers to draw conductive circuits into a crystal. The achievement demonstrates a new kind of transparent,...
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Sound-Off: Photonics/Optics
Mechanical engineers require a variety of tools to ensure the proper design of optical products like cell phones and autonomous vehicle sensor systems. In a presentation titled "Trends...
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INSIDER Product: Imaging
Asphere Measurement System The AspheroCheck UP from TRIOPTICS (Weden, Germany) is designed with a completely automated measurement process that requires no manual interaction to accurately measure aspheres. Lenses with aspherical...
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INSIDER: Imaging
A new proof-of-concept design retires one of the most familiar parts of a traditional camera: the lens. By swapping out the glass lens with a tiny array of light receivers, a California Institute of...
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Briefs: Test & Measurement
The Micro-ring resonator detector can determine the speed of blood flow and the oxygen metabolic rate at the back of the eye. This information could help diagnose such common and debilitating...
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NASA Spinoff: Photonics/Optics
Spinoff is NASA’s annual publication featuring successfully commercialized NASA technology. This commercialization has contributed to the development of products and services in the fields...
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INSIDER: Photonics/Optics
An optical probe that detects cancerous brain cells in real time is impressive enough. Scientists in Montreal say they’ve developed one that is “infallible.”
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Articles: Sensors/Data Acquisition
ANAHEIM, CA. During this year’s SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing 2017 conference, panelists from industry, academia, and government demonstrated how miniaturized sensing platforms, and the unmanned aerial...
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INSIDER: Photonics/Optics
The ephemeral electron movements in a transient state of a reaction important in biochemical and optoelectronic processes have been captured and, for the first time, directly...
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INSIDER: Imaging
A team of Columbia Engineering researchers, led by Applied Physics Assistant Professor Nanfang Yu, has invented a method to control light propagating in confined pathways,...
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INSIDER: Photonics/Optics
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists and academic collaborators from the University of Minnesota and Oklahoma State University have demonstrated the synthesis of transparent glass through 3D printing, a...
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Briefs: Manned Systems
Characterizing Richness of Previously Unmapped Terrain and Estimating its Impact on Navigation Performance using 3D Range Sensors in Flight
Landers to large planetary bodies such as Mars typically use a secondary reconnaissance spacecraft to generate high-fidelity 3D terrain maps that are subsequently used for landing site selection and creating...
Question of the Week: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Will UAVs improve how we monitor the environment?
This week's Question: Last week's TechBriefs.com story from the SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing 2017 conference in Anaheim revealed new ways of detecting leaks in natural gas pipelines. Panelists from industry, academia, and government demonstrated how miniaturized sensing platforms, and the...
INSIDER: Communications
A chip-scale optical device, developed by a team from the University of Sydney’s Australian Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, achieves radio frequency signal control at...
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INSIDER: Photonics/Optics
Materials scientists at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering used a new framework to grow...
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Application Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Polymicro Technologies™ optical fiberMolexLisle, IL1-800-78MOLEXwww.molex.com
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INSIDER Product: Photonics/Optics
Lambda Research Corporation (Littleton, MA) has released OSLO 7, which contains significant updates and enhancements. OSLO 7 includes Windows 10 support, improved Zemax and CodeV import, and STEP export that supports all...
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INSIDER: Lighting
Researchers working at the Ultrafast Laser Lab at the University of Kansas successfully created a new bilayer material, with each layer measuring less than one nanometer in...
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INSIDER: Photonics/Optics
Limitations of the piezoelectric array technologies conventionally used for ultrasonics inspired a group of University College London researchers to explore an alternative mechanism for...
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Articles: Sensors/Data Acquisition
By integrating an optical Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems, or MEMS, chip into an iPhone camera, researchers at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland have developed a new, cost-effective...
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Briefs: Imaging
Systems and Methods for Mirror Mounting with Minimized Distortion
The use of larger, lighter, and more precise space optics requires not only a means of manufacture, but also a means of spacecraft integration and performance verification. Engineers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) have demonstrated a process capable of producing a...
INSIDER: Photonics/Optics
A Florida State University research team has discovered a new crystal structure of organic-inorganic hybrid materials that could open the door to new applications for...
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Articles: Photonics/Optics
Imagine if every police car, bus, and garbage truck gathered important infrastructure data as they made their usual routes through the city. In different field tests around the world, re...
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Articles: Medical
A fairly new biomedical imaging modality, optoacoustic imaging is based on the use of laser-generated ultrasound. According to the National Center for Biotechnology...
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Application Briefs: Test & Measurement
There are many ways to manufacture an optic depending on the complexity of the component and the application. From choosing the best substrate, to detailing the numerous operations...
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Briefs: Imaging
CUDA Framework for Linear Time-Invariant Control of Adaptive Optics Systems
Current science objectives, such as high-contrast imaging of exoplanets, have led to the development of high-order adaptive optics (AO) systems possessing several thousand deformable mirror (DM) actuators. These systems typically rely on integrator-based control...

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