Photonics/​Optics

Products: Imaging

New on the Market: June 2018

Laser Sensors

The optoNCDT 1750 laser sensors from Micro-Epsilon, Raleigh, NC, feature measuring ranges of 500 and 750 mm for fast, high-precision measurement tasks that require large measuring ranges. They are...

Articles: Photonics/Optics

Benefits of Using Encoders to Improve Step Motor System Performance

Step motors are widely used in automation due to their high resolution, precision positioning, minimal control electronics, and low cost. As an open loop system, traditional...

Articles: Lighting

How Sophisticated Wearable Sensors are Changing Healthcare

In the traditional model of healthcare, a patient would visit a doctor regularly for checkups or for evaluations when there’s an ailment. This model, however, isn’t ideal for...

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Composite Film Enables Windows that Switch from Transparent to Color

Commercial buildings in the United States account for nearly 40% of the total energy consumption. Among them, electricity is the largest energy source for buildings....

News: Photonics/Optics

Depth-Sensing Imaging System Can Peer Through Fog

An inability to handle misty driving conditions has been one of the chief obstacles to the development of autonomous vehicular navigation systems that use visible light. These systems are...

INSIDER Product: Imaging

New Products: June 2018 Photonics & Imaging Insider

Thermal Imager

Sierra-Olympic Technologies (Hood River, OR) introduced the Tenum™640, a thermal imager with a 640 x 512 array and 10-micron pixel pitch. The new camera, from the...

INSIDER: Imaging

Scientists Create First X-Ray Holographic Images of Viruses

Holography, like photography, is a way to record the world around us. Both use light to make recordings, but instead of two-dimensional photos, holograms reproduce...

INSIDER: Photonics/Optics

Depth-Sensing Imaging System Can Peer Through Fog

MIT researchers have developed a system that can produce images of objects shrouded by fog so thick that human vision can’t penetrate it. It can also gauge the objects’ distance.

INSIDER: Imaging

Tracking X-Ray Laser Pulses at Record Speeds

To catch chemistry in action, scientists at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory use the shortest possible flashes of X-ray light to create “molecular movies”...

News: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Ultra-Thin Optical Fibers Offer New Way to 3-D Print Microstructures

For the first time, researchers have shown that an optical fiber as thin as a human hair can be used to create microscopic structures with laser-based 3D printing. The...

Articles: Lighting

Products of Tomorrow: May 2018

This column presents technologies that have applications in commercial areas, possibly creating the products of tomorrow. To learn more about each technology, see the contact information provided for that...

5 Ws: Photonics/Optics

5 Ws of Invisible Glass

Who

Users of consumer electronics devices and solar cells, and high-power pulsed laser applications.

Articles: Photonics/Optics

Essential Principles for Designing and Specifying Laser Optics

Laser engineers are leveraging new materials, unusual gain mechanisms, and innovative cavity designs to push laser performance into new regimes. Pulse lengths are getting...

Application Briefs: Test & Measurement

Using Digital Microscopes as Inspection Tools

Digital microscopes are being automated and computerized to make them easier to use, display more data with more detail and precision, and expand their areas of application. With traditional...

Articles: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Novel Laser Power Sensor Technology for Process Control

The need to measure laser output characteristics, including average power, pulse energy, and pulse shape, is a common requirement across many industrial and research applications....

Articles: Imaging

High-Speed Multi-Sensor Imaging

Machine vision plays a key role in the automation of production processes. Since the advent of vision in industrial manufacturing, there have been many advances in camera and image sensor technology. Right...

Application Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Direct AC LED Engines

As the lighting industry continues to mature, vendors continue to pursue inexpensive lighting solutions that offer universal compatibility and are easy to install. For OEMs and manufacturers, LEDs have proven to be a...

Products: Photonics/Optics

New Products: May 2018 Photonics & Imaging Technology

Portable Laser Scanner

Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence (North Kingstown, RI) has announced the Leica Absolute Scanner LAS-XL, a new ultralarge scale portable laser scanner. Designed...

Articles: Test & Measurement

3D Imaging in Space

NASA is digging ever more deeply into understanding the makeup of the surfaces of Mars and our Moon. A lot can be learned by sending instruments to land on these places, but vastly more can be discovered by...

Briefs: Test & Measurement

Large-Area Structural Damage Nondestructive Evaluation

When testing composite structures, it is important to understand the response of the structure to the load. Of significance is the formation of damage and growth of that damage leading...

Briefs: Electronics & Computers

A Fast, Non-Destructive Test for Two-Dimensional Materials

Thinning a material down to a single-atom thickness can dramatically change that material’s physical properties. Graphene, the best known two-dimensional (2D) material, has...

Facility Focus: Energy

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

This year, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) marks 75 years as a research institution. Located in Oak Ridge, TN, ORNL is the largest US Department of Energy science and energy laboratory, conducting basic and...

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Freeform Channel Close-Out for High-Performance Heat Exchangers

Large-scale liquid rocket engines with regeneratively cooled nozzles will enable reliable and reduced-cost access to space. The coolant that circulates through the internal...

Briefs: Test & Measurement

Correlation Spectrometer

Correlation spectroscopy is an attractive technique for sensing and analysis applications because it combines the attributes of mechanical and optical simplicity, high selectivity, and good sensitivity. In...

Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Technique Enables 3D Printing of Microstructures

Two-photon lithography (TPL), a high-resolution 3D printing technique, is capable of producing nanoscale features smaller than 1/100 the width of a human hair. The technique could enable X-ray...

Articles: Test & Measurement

Protecting Sensitive Instruments with Piezo-Driven Active Vibration Isolation Platforms

As the need for nano precision has become increasingly important in many fields of research and manufacturing — such as microelectronics fabrication,...

Briefs: Energy

Solar-Powered Device Generates Electricity Through Ion Transport

By binding photosensitive dyes to common plastic membranes and adding water, chemists have made a new type of solar power generator. The device is similar to familiar silicon...