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.

Stories

INSIDER: Packaging & Sterilization

Navy Researchers Evaluate Ultraviolet Sources to Combat COVID-19

U.S. Naval Research Laboratory researchers evaluated commercial ultraviolet (UV) sources for viral disinfection to combat COVID-19 on land and at sea and established a...

INSIDER: Lighting

Turning Streetwear into Solar Concentrators

Researchers at Empa and ETH Zurich succeeded in developing a material that works like a luminescent solar concentrator and can even be applied to textiles. This opens up numerous possibilities for...

Special Reports: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Additive Manufacturing - November 2020

AM/3D Printing is fundamentally changing how products are prototyped and produced in aerospace, medical, electronics, and many other fields. To help you keep pace with the latest advances, we present this...

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Recovering Data: NIST’s Neural Network Model Finds Small Objects in Dense Images

A NIST method employs a neural network to detect patterns like geometric objects in imaging data.

Application Briefs: Photonics/Optics

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.

Articles: Test & Measurement

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.

Briefs: AR/AI

“Alexa, Go to The Kitchen and Fetch Me a Snack”

MIT engineers are envisioning robots more like home helpers.

Briefs: Imaging

Ambient Light Alters Refraction in 2D Material

See how tantalum disulfide is supporting new kinds of optics, and potentially new kinds of application for VR and self-driving cars.

Application Briefs: Photonics/Optics

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: Sensors/Data Acquisition

Megapixel Photon-Counting Camera Technology

See what kinds of applications are possible when you can literally see light propagating through space.

Briefs: Communications

Continuous and Stable Lasing Achieved From Low-Cost Perovskites at Room Temperature

With low-cost materials called perovskites, stable, continuous lasing is achieved at room temperature for over an hour.

Products: Sensors/Data Acquisition

New Products

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

Briefs: Imaging

Imaging Technology Could Improve Cancer Surgery

Cancer treatment could be dramatically improved by precisely locating the edges of tumors during surgery to remove them.

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.

Briefs: Imaging

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.

Facility Focus: Test & Measurement

Facility Focus: Rochester Institute of Technology

Learn about RIT's achievements in cybersecurity, imaging science, and personalized healthcare tech.

Briefs: Materials

Electricity-Free Radiative Cooling System

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

Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control

Robotic Assembly of Photovoltaic Arrays

Adaptable automation reduces manufacturing time and costs.

Briefs: Photonics/Optics

Printable Light Sensors Can See Colors

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

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: Manufacturing & Prototyping

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...