Andy Extance explores optical design for vehicles, including the headlamps that you’ve been seeing in your rear view mirror
Editor's picks
A global network of gravitational wave observatories will be upgraded to almost double its sensitivity, the lead science funding agencies of the United Kingdom and United States announced today.
Ahead of chairing the AR/VR/MR industry days at SPIE Photonics West, Microsoft’s Bernard Kress considers the optimal way of designing optics for augmented and mixed reality headsets
News
A global network of gravitational wave observatories will be upgraded to almost double its sensitivity, the lead science funding agencies of the United Kingdom and United States announced today.
The 2019 Prism Awards have been won an automotive lidar system, a head-mounted display for augmented reality, a tuneable industrial fibre laser, and a cloud-based Raman spectrometer
The 9th annual SPIE Startup Challenge recognised a company aiming to shift prostate-cancer treatment from an invasive surgical procedure to a brief, office-based visit, as the winner of its top award at SPIE Photonics West
At this year's Laser World of Photonics, exhibiting companies and start-ups will be recognised for their innovative designs and technologies
Nanoelectronics research hub, Imec, has developed an on-chip solution for Raman spectroscopy, which it says could be integrated into smartphones. The technology is on display at SPIE Photonics West
Researchers have demonstrated that lasers can be used to transmit audible messages to a person without the need for receiver equipment
InPulse, a four-year project offering new-entrant companies access to state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities for photonic integrated circuits (PICs) based on indium phosphide, was launched officially on 23 January
Analysis & opinion
Professor Michalis Zervas, from the Optoelectronics Research Centre, charts the rise of high-power fibre lasers and asks what's next for the technology
Professor Anita Mahadevan-Jansen, director of the Vanderbilt Biophotonics Center at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, will be chairing the Bios Clinical Technologies and Systems track at Photonics West. Here, she discusses her work translating medical technology and encouraging inclusion in photonics
Ahead of chairing the AR/VR/MR industry days at SPIE Photonics West, Microsoft’s Bernard Kress considers the optimal way of designing optics for augmented and mixed reality headsets
Features
Shaping light wavefronts is improving many areas of microscopy – and is enabling Nobel Prize winner Eric Betzig’s most important work yet, finds Andy Extance
Keely Portway looks at some of the latest advances in light-based test and measurement techniques
Only two companies supply commercial 3D printing systems based on two-photon polymerisation, which can create structures smaller than living cells. Greg Blackman speaks to Denis Barbier from Microlight3D
Press Releases
Veeco Instruments' Spector ion beam sputtering optical coating system has been installed at Gooch & Housego's Moorpark, California facility
Modulight has entered into an agreement to develop a laser specifically designed for use with Bausch and Lomb's Visudyne photodynamic therapy
Solid State has acquired Pacer Technologies Limited and its subsidiaries, Pacer Components Limited and Pacer USA LLC
Thorlabs has entered into a definitive asset purchase agreement to acquire the fibre optic portfolio of Norland Products
EPIC and Hubei Laser Industry Association are mutually motivated in cooperative activities involving technological and commercial advancement in the area of photonics
Trexel and Teratonics have announced an exclusive distribution agreement for Teratonics’s non-destructive testing solutions dedicated to the plastic injection molding market
The Confocal Raman Imaging Symposium, which took place for the 15th time in Ulm, was like a big family reunion with both familiar and new faces
Viewpoint
Pro-Lite’s Robert Yeo throws light on the science of measuring light and light sources: radiometry and photometry
This viewpoint aims to provide a thorough insight on the sophisticated design of state-of-the-art professional illumination systems, highlighting the basic pro’s and con’s of 'old-school' gas-discharge lamps compared to LEDs, additionally highlighting accompanying requirements to be successful
Tech focus
New nanometre-accurate hexapod opens up applications in laser processing and metrology
Prism technology that’s now a major part of optical communications is finding its way into next-generation lidar systems
Advances in Raman spectroscopy could one day make invasive blood glucose tests a thing of the past
Products
The new Jenoptik Light & Optics division, whose primary focus is supplying photonics solutions, showcased its new strategy at Photonics West, USA
Synopsys has released version 2018.12 of its RSoft Photonic Component Design Suite, which introduces new features to advance the design of optics used in augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) systems
Opto Diode has launched a high-speed photodetector, the AXUV63HS1
Marktech Optoelectronics has introduced the Model MTPD1346D-xx series, a family of InGaAs/InP broadband PIN photodiodes
PureLiFi has provided its LiFi technology for a new range of LiFi-integrated lighting products
PicoQuant has unveiled the FluoTime 250, a compact, robust and fully-automated system that increases the ease of performing time-resolved luminescence spectroscopy studies
Dymax Corporation has introduced the BlueWave MX-Series Multichannel Controller, an LED controller that allows manufacturers to power up to four emitter workstations at once
Events
White papers

Optical parametric oscillators offer a competitive alternative to conventional lasers for quantum nanophotonics.

Webcasts
In this webinar, high-level representatives of the Pilot Lines will give an overview of the European scene regarding technologies, offers and capabilities for the manufacturing of new photonics-based products that will impact in market sectors such as medical, environmental and industrial.
This webinar will show how the nonstop capacity request in the transmission, routing and processing of huge amounts of communication data is faced in an effective way by photonic solutions acting on the propagation, modulation and multiplexing of optical signals
In the high power laser based manufacturing world, beam shaping has been identified as one of the past and present technology bottlenecks. This webinar will compare the unmet needs from industry with the current state of the art and market driven roadmaps