January 2007

French government contributes 30% to digital sensor project for "next generation" military/aerospace/civilian applications.

Record exhibitor, conference and show numbers set an optimistic tone for the entire industry, says event organiser SPIE.

The University of California, Santa Barbara team working on non-polar GaN materials says that its 405 nm laser diode could soon be challenging conventional devices in commercial applications.

Placings of 5.25 million new ordinary shares raises $19.5 million (£10.0 million).

The exponential thirst for bandwidth has led the broadband industry to a fork in the road. Carriers can take the simplest road and see the steady, steep incline of the past level out for good, or take the fibre road and climb further to meet growing bandwidth demands.

Group to lead the company's efforts in fiber laser and amplifier technology development.

Including news from Plextronics, Xerox, MicroEmissive Displays, Optiwave, Zemax, IMS Research, Exfo, Agilent, Discovery Semiconductors, JMAR technologies, StockerYale, IPG Photonics, Reliant technologies, AOFR, Sabeus, Quintessence, Neuroptix, Ionatron and others.

The optics.org editorial team has been working round the clock this week to spread the word about developments in San José. But given that a picture tells a thousand words, a digital camera sure can save you from writer’s cramp...

Scientists use a broadband light source to manipulate fluid flow in millimetre-sized channels, a process that could help to speed up mixing in microfluidic networks.

By 2010 every tenth broadband household will be connected with the Internet via optical cable, according to a new report from Fraunhofer ISI in Karlsruhe, Germany. "Internetisation" of telecommunications is also set to continue.

Newport's recent acquisition of Picarro's laser business could be worth up to $7 million in sales in 2007, and also fills a significant gap in its life and health sciences portfolio.

The UK's largest-ever commercially built laser system, TARANIS, was recently installed at Queen's University Belfast, UK. OLE talks with the system's designers to find out more.

Scotland, UK, is home to a thriving optoelectronics sector. Nadya Anscombe talks to scientists in academia and local firms to find out the reasons behind the region's sustained success and new technologies that are in the pipeline.

The use of fluorescence measurement techniques is expanding rapidly, particularly in the life science and biotechnology sectors.

In 10 years, ITER will be a major experimental facility studying the feasibility of fusion power.

Jenoptik Laserdiode increases the output power of diode lasers while sister company Jenoptik Unique-Mode boosts brightness of integrated laser module.

New technique developed at the University of Rochester stores and retrieves an entire digital image from a single photon pulse.

Joint projects to investigate development and applications of Microstructured Optical Fibers.

The luxury car manufacturer is introducing the first series production vehicle to feature LED-based headlamps this spring.

With news from NL Nanosemicondcutor (rebranding as "Innolume"), JDSU, Cree, Nextrom, Daetwyler, Thorlabs, OFR, Aculight, Canon, Toshiba, Aspectrics, Edmund Optics, Agilent, Novalux, Sharp, Princeton Lightwave, Evans Analytical, Novaled and others.

Researchers in the UK have made a new type of hybrid electrode from multiwalled carbon nanotubes and indium-tin oxide that could be used for solar cell applications.

In a new innovation for optics.org, our editors are gearing up to provide you with on-the-spot coverage of the latest developments announced the San Jose Convention Center.

The secret behind the brilliant white shell of a peculiar tropical beetle is an unusual, aperiodic structure, according to physicists from the UK.

A photon sieve containing pinholes that follow a fractal pattern produces high quality images. optics.org talks to Walter Furlan to find out more about fractal photon sieves.

SPI Laser reports improved revenue for 2006. On the back of booming sales of more powerful fiber lasers, 2007 could see sales reach £20 million. optics.org interviews David Parker, CEO.

The demonstration of zinc-oxide nanowires with p-type conductivity could pave the way for LEDs that are cheaper and more efficient than those based on gallium nitride.

Plasmonics, a hybrid of photonics and electronics, is set to improve performance of both photosensors and LEDs. optics.org interviews project leader Ross Stanley at CSEM, one of the world's leading plasmonics research and development centers.

Praezisionsoptik enjoys its best ever trading year with rising turnover and new investment.

Strong demand for tunable lasers used in telecommunications has prompted Sweden's Syntune to recruit the automated chip manufacturing services of CyOptics.

Amid the Las Vegas hype-a-thon that is the annual Consumer Electronics Show, Sony this week revealed the details of some next-generation televisions to be based on laser diode components.

At the end of 2006, November and December's figures for the Top 10 most-read stories on optics.org reveal that a few old favourites have staying power but once again it is mainly fresh material setting the agenda.

Including news from Exfo, Flir Systems, Bookham, Philips-Lumileds, JDSU, Casabyte, Cermet, Georgia Institute of Technology, Hoya-Pentax, Mid-Atlantic Broadband, Infinera and others.

Low threshold, room temperature, continuous wave lasing from a GaN microdisk laser is now possible say researchers.

SPIE's well-established annual Photonics West exhibition and conference takes place in late January at the San José Convention Center, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley.

EpiCrystals believes its tiny RGB laser modules are ideal for handheld "pico-projector" systems. Optics.org speaks with company CEO Tomi Jouhti to find out more.

Physicists in the US have created the first nanoscale coaxial cables for the transmission of light.

A consortium led by UK company Fianium is awarded $2.7 million (Euro 2.1 million) to develop "next generation" fiber lasers for industrial and imaging applications.

Laser cleaning could improve the commercial viability of carbon nanotubes. optics.org speaks with John Lehman of NIST to find out more.

At last, an end to the twin miseries of flat iPod battery and warm beer at the beach: a swimsuit that converts sunshine into electricity.

Roy Rubenstein investigates why some geographical regions are so far ahead when it comes to FTTH deployment.

Roy Rubenstein investigates why some geographical regions are so far ahead when it comes to FTTH deployment.

Including news from Epicrystals, Multiwave, SensL, Powerlase, Philips, Lumileds, PerkinElmer, Newport, Pacer, Melles Griot, Fi-ra, Qioptiq/Linos and others.

Plastic Logic raises a whopping $100 million to manufacture and commercialize portable, rewritable electronic media based on E Ink Imaging Film.

US researchers are exploiting a specially designed optical sensor to investigate the effect of light on our biological clock.

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Suss MicroTec have developed a nano-imprinting stepper that paves the way for improved production of technologies such as solar cells.

Schott's Beam Shaper corrals light beams into circular shape to improve laser diode applications from surgery to DVD writing.

The Japanese company says that its Sagamihara facility will be fully functional on January 15.

Japanese scientists have made highly photoconductive nanotubes that they believe could be used for photovoltaic applications.

Researchers in France have created a nanoscopic version of an infrared night-vision camera that could be used to optimize a new generation of photonic components.