Photonics & Imaging

Photonics/​Optics

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.

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Products: Photonics/Optics
Polatis (Andover, MA) has introduced its Series 6000 Optical Matrix Switch — a non-blocking, all-optical single-mode fiber cross-connect for up to 192x192 fiber ports. The switch features less than 1dB typical optical...
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Products: Photonics/Optics
The In-Sight® 7000 smart camera from Cognex Corp. (Natick, MA) features a vision tool library; In-Sight measurement, location, and inspection vision tools; and the EasyBuilder® setup and deployment environment. The smart camera...
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Products: Photonics/Optics
New Focus™ (Santa Clara, CA) a Newport Corporation Brand, has introduced the Vortex™ Plus Blue TLB-6802 precision series, single-mode, finely-tunable laser. This is the world’s first precision tunable blue laser that...
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Application Briefs: Energy
Tracking systems are included in more than one-third of new photovoltaic developments in Europe, but less than 10% in the US. If properly controlled, they can capture more energy from each panel than fixed...
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Articles: Photonics/Optics
Traditionally, the recording of ordnance proofing data has been split into two main areas: instrumentation and high speed photography. Instrumentation was more focused on the collection of...
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
ASIC Readout Circuit Architecture for Large Geiger Photodiode Arrays
The objective of this work was to develop a new class of readout integrated circuit (ROIC) arrays to be operated with Geiger avalanche photodiode (GPD) arrays, by integrating multiple functions at the pixel level (smart-pixel or active pixel technology) in 250-nm CMOS...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
General MACOS Interface for Modeling and Analysis for Controlled Optical Systems
The General MACOS Interface (GMI) for Modeling and Analysis for Controlled Optical Systems (MACOS) enables the use of MATLAB as a front-end for JPL’s critical optical modeling package, MACOS. MACOS is JPL’s in-house optical modeling software, which has proven to be...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Glass Solder Approach for Robust, Low-Loss, Fiber-to- Waveguide Coupling
The key advantages of this approach include the fact that the index of interface glass (such as Pb glass n = 1.66) greatly reduces Fresnel losses at the fiber-to-waveguide interface, resulting in lower optical losses. A contiguous structure cannot be misaligned and readily...
Briefs: Unmanned Systems
Water bodies are challenging terrain hazards for terrestrial unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) for several reasons. Traversing through deep water bodies could cause costly damage to the electronics of...
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INSIDER Product: Photonics/Optics
Semrock, Inc. (Rochester, NY) recently released the first two products in its soon-to-be expanded line of PulseLine(TM) femtosecond laser optics. These 45° turning mirrors are IBS-coated for maximum durability and...
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INSIDER Product: Photonics/Optics
Coherent, Inc. (Santa Clara, CA) has expanded their family of industrial ultrafast lasers with the Talisker 500, which delivers over 10 Watts of ultraviolet output at 355nm, 15 Watts of green output at 532nm or 25 Watts of...
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INSIDER Product: Photonics/Optics
Laird Technologies, Inc. (St. Louis, MO) has released its eTEC(TM) Series Thermoelectric Module (TEM) product line. The eTEC Series of TEMs enable high-powered optoelectronics to maintain peak performance by stabilizing...
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INSIDER Product: Photonics/Optics
FSI Technologies Inc. (Lombard, IL) has introduced a line of industrial machine vision lenses, the CLH Series lenses. These lenses provide versatility to work well with most common machine vision applications, and are...
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INSIDER: Photonics/Optics
In a leap forward for laser technology, a team at University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) has developed the first violet nonpolar vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) based on...
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INSIDER: Photonics/Optics
Fifteen years of work by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF) team paid off recently with a historic record-breaking laser shot. The NIF...
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News: Physical Sciences
Kinetic Inductance Shows Promise for Metamaterial Miniaturization
Researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), collaborating with the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, have now demonstrated a drastically new way of achieving negative refraction in a metamaterial.The primary advantages of the new technology...
Application Briefs: Semiconductors & ICs
Redfern Integrated Optics was awarded a Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract for further development of its single-frequency, narrow- linewidth semiconductor laser...
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Application Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
The NASA-sponsored space exploration project, PICTURE (Planet Imaging Concept Testbed Using a Rocket Experiment), seeks to obtain a direct image of an extra-solar giant...
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Aerosol and Surface Parameter Retrievals for a Multi-Angle, Multiband Spectrometer
This software retrieves the surface and atmosphere parameters of multi-angle, multiband spectra. The synthetic spectra are generated by applying the modified Rahman-Pinty-Verstraete Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) model, and a single-scattering...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
GaAs-based, sub-harmonically pumped Schottky diode mixers offer a number of advantages for array implementation in a heterodyne receiver system. Since the radio...
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Application Briefs: Photonics/Optics
NASA’s latest mission to Mars in November 2011 sent the Mars Science Laboratory rover “Curiosity” to assess whether Mars ever had, or still has, an environment able...
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Application Briefs: Photonics/Optics
NASA is developing the next generation of X-ray optics that could be used in an orbiting X-Ray Observatory. The “lens” consists of thousands of mirrors positioned to reflect X-rays at a...
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Products: Photonics/Optics
Renesas Electronics (Tokyo, Japan) and California Eastern Laboratories (Santa Clara, CA) are now sampling the 405-nm Blue-Violet Laser Diode, the NV4V31MF. The NV4V31MF provides precise laser emission supporting particle...
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Products: Photonics/Optics
American Polarizers (Reading, PA) has introduced glass 3D circular polarizing filters for use with dual projection systems. API filters feature a range of sizes up to 14" x 20". Tight control of transmission...
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Products: Photonics/Optics
Optical Sensor
Maxim Integrated Products (Sunnyvale, CA) offers the MAX44000, a digital ambient-light and infrared proximity sensor that detects light like a human eye. Designed using the company’s proprietary BiCMOS technology, the IC integrates three optical sensors, two ADCs, and digital functionality into a 2mm x 2mm x 0.6mm package.
Products: Photonics/Optics
Spiricon (North Logan, UT) has introduced BeamMic™, a new laser beam analyzer that combines the essentials for beam analysis in a low-cost, entry-level system. BeamMic includes easy-to-use software that measures a...
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Products: Photonics/Optics
Edmund Optics® (Barrington, NJ) has introduced new Power over Ethernet (PoE) cameras. Each device includes software that allows the user to set area of interest (AOI), gain, exposure, white balance, frame rate, trigger delay, and...
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Products: Photonics/Optics
Carl Zeiss Microscopy (Peabody, MA) has launched the AURIGA® Laser, a new system that combines the AURIGA® CrossBeam (FIB-SEM) workstation with a pulsed micro-focus laser for fast ablation of material. The AURIGA® Laser examines...
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Products: Photonics/Optics
e-con Systems Inc. (St. Louis, MO) has introduced the world’s first stereo vision camera reference design based on Texas Instruments’ OMAP/DM37x family of processors and Gumstix® Overo®...
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