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Historical Archive (January 2003 - June 2010)
The historic archive provides access to articles published prior to SPIE's acquisition of optics.org in July 2010.

August 2007

Supercontinuum sources head for medical market 31 Aug 07

Many biomedical applications are now benefiting from the unique optical properties of supercontinuum fibre lasers. John Clowes of Fianium tracks recent developments.

Intense and ESA to develop high power diode arrays 30 Aug 07

Intense's QWI technology will be used to boost efficiency at 808 nm to record levels for applications in space.

Lasers offer unique view of pine needles 29 Aug 07

The first study of laser backscattering from single pine needles has been carried out by Finnish researchers.

Optical inspection spots defective ball bearings 29 Aug 07

Illumination by ring light could be the best way to see potentially dangerous flaws in ball bearings.

Pulsed hybrid laser looks good for fiber-optics 29 Aug 07

A mode-locked silicon evanescent laser could lead to high-speed data transmission

Femtosecond fiber lasers get magnitude boost 29 Aug 07

The performance of femtosecond fiber lasers now matches bulk oscillators. Optics.org speaks to the team about its result.

EU permit lights the way for first all-LED headlamp 28 Aug 07

Audi is to bring full LED headlamp units, featuring Lumileds’ Luxeon LEDs, to the road in its “brand icon” R8.

Optical active cable exploits CMOS photonics 28 Aug 07

A new 40 Gbit/s cable is paving the way for CMOS photonics to be used in consumer products.

CMOS sensors see in the dark 28 Aug 07

OmniVision Technologies has released two CMOS sensors that are sensitive to near-infrared light.

Business briefs 24 Aug 07

Featuring news from DARPA, Carl Zeiss, Oerlikon Optics, JDSU, Jenoptik and more.

Laser pulses turn water into ice 23 Aug 07

Firing laser pulses into supercooled water creates ice crystals at specific locations in the liquid.

Jena's optics industry thrives on strong links 23 Aug 07

Education, research and industry are the three backbones that underpin the optical activities in Jena, Germany. Jacqueline Hewett speaks to key players in the region to get a flavour of how these factors have been exploited to create today's thriving optical hub.

Sharp doubles up with joint solar-LCD site 22 Aug 07

An LCD panel and solar cell plant are to be located on a single site as Sharp invests in its top performing technologies.

Exciton understanding aids semiconductor devices 22 Aug 07

Semiconductor optoelectronic devices could benefit from a better understanding of exciton behavior.

Interferometry images living cells in 3D 21 Aug 07

Biological samples can be seen in their native state

LED sales for large backlight units to hit $1bn by 2012 21 Aug 07

As the market for LEDs used in handset backlights hits saturation point, larger-scale applications will represent a billion dollar market by 2012, predicts IMS Research.

Silicon photonics goes organic 21 Aug 07

A combination of organic semiconductors and silicon photonics results in a hybrid red surface-emitting laser.

Atoms store 2D images for record time 20 Aug 07

2D images can be momentarily stored in an atomic gas using a laser beam.

Business briefs 20 Aug 07

Featuring news from Universal Display, Zygo, Ocean Optics, Kopin, Labsphere and more.

Cambridge Display Technology prepares for a bright future 17 Aug 07

The acquisition by Sumitomo signals the increasing attractiveness of OLED displays to Japanese producers.

Sofradir aims to reduce the cost of IR imagers 17 Aug 07

For decades infrared detector development has drawn on many different types of material. Philippe Tribolet explains why Sofradir has selected HgCdTe for its future plans. These include building a new $12 m fab to cut chip manufacturing costs, which should ultimately lower detector prices and drive up sales of these high-specification imagers.

Preparation of photonic crystals made of air pores in anodic alumina 16 Aug 07

Researchers from China describe the fabrication of large-area photonic crystals with strong photonic bandgaps in the visible region.

JDSU diode laser produces twice the power 15 Aug 07

New chip technology is said to provide the highest available 808 nm brightness among single-emitter fiber-coupled diode sources.

Opaque materials let light through 15 Aug 07

How do you focus coherent light through daisy petals and other opaque scattering materials? optics.org speaks to researchers in the Netherlands who have an answer.

Holograms test for astigmatism 15 Aug 07

Optometrists could soon be asking their patients to look through a hologram to help diagnose astigmatism.

Epson Imaging Devices employs cheaper, greener stripping solution 14 Aug 07

The company claims to be the first LCD manufacturer to eliminate the use of 2-aminoethanol from all its sites in Japan.

Business briefs 13 Aug 07

Featuring news from Linos, IPG Photonics, Leister Process Technologies, Intune Networks, Ionatron, Blonder Tongue and others.

Taiwan's optics industry looks set for further growth 13 Aug 07

Applications in camera modules, digital still cameras and optical engines will boost Taiwan's share of the global optics market.

Schott believes glass beats plastic 13 Aug 07

Modern optical systems could benefit from a new method that allows diffractive optical elements to be made from glass instead of plastic.

Laser flips magnetic bit without any help 13 Aug 07

Exploiting an ultrashort pulse of laser light to flip the value of a magnetic memory bit could lead to cheap and fast all-optical hard disk drives.

Tunable bounce helps Bookham think positive 13 Aug 07

Bookham offers more optimistic outlook; with orders from key customer Nortel returning, sales of tunable lasers growing fast, and cost-cuts having the desired effect.

Added noise reduces chaos 10 Aug 07

European researchers have discovered that introducing small amounts of noise into a laser system can make chaotic behaviour more controllable.

Fluidic lenses move from laboratory to factory 10 Aug 07

A licensing agreement heralds the introduction of fluidic and liquid crystal-based adaptive lenses in camera phones and other applications.

Near-field plate overcomes diffraction limits 10 Aug 07

Modulated plates that focus light beyond its diffraction limit could herald benefits for near-field applications.

Flexible SLM technology finds many applications 10 Aug 07

Could your application benefit from a spatial light modulator? Andreas Hermerschmidt of German SLM specialist Holoeye Photonics describes what options you will find on the market today, how these can be exploited and what performance levels you can expect.

Unique UV laser system nanostructures metals 10 Aug 07

Researchers in Germany are using a modified excimer discharge tube to produce ultrafast pulses with energies up to 50 mJ. Peter Simon and Juergen Kolenda describe how they are using these pulses to machine nanostructures directly into the surface of common metals.

Arasor acquires Alfalight and AOFR 10 Aug 07

The deal brings optical chip, laser chip and optical coupler elements into Arasor's portfolio of networking and optoelectronics components.

Powerful 170 as XUV pulses generated with few-cycle laser pulses and broadband multilayer optics 10 Aug 07

Researchers from Germany and South Korea have demonstrated a reliable method for generating single, powerful extreme ultraviolet (XUV) pulses with a pulse length of just 170 attoseconds.

Sumitomo acquires Cambridge Display Technology 09 Aug 07

The Japanese group aims to position P-OLEDs as the next mainstream display technology.

OCT aids doctors in theatre 08 Aug 07

Optical coherence tomography can aid surgeons who have to decide where the boundary between cancerous and non-cancerous tissue lies.

Multimode fiber acts as a sensitive strain sensor 06 Aug 07

Interference of higher order modes produces a strain sensitivity almost twice that of sensors based on fiber Bragg gratings.

Business briefs 06 Aug 07

Featuring news from Bookham, Rofin-Sinar, Newport, Flir, Quantel, Powerlase and others.

LED production benefits from 266nm laser scribing 06 Aug 07

A high-speed laser scribing method based on a 266nm source can cut 20% more LEDs per wafer, says JPSA.

LEDs shine brighter, but cost concerns remain 03 Aug 07

As high-power LEDs start to deliver enough light output to challenge traditional light sources, Susan Curtis finds that device manufacturers are working on strategies to make LEDs more cost-competitive with other lighting solutions.

Osram to cease production of OLED displays 02 Aug 07

The German company will close its production line in Penang, Malaysia, by the end of 2007, as the firm focuses on developing OLED lighting products.

Alliance for GaN LEDs nets £1.7 million UK grant 02 Aug 07

A nine-way collaboration named NoveLELs will bring universities together with companies developing new LED-based technologies for aircraft and general lighting applications.

Corning exploits nanotechnology to launch ultrabendable fiber 02 Aug 07

The US fiber manufacturer claims that its new optical fiber is '100 times more bendable' than standard fiber.

Fiber laser boosts nanoparticle production 01 Aug 07

A new method of laser ablation in liquid is producing nanoparticles at a faster rate than ever before.

Special issue focuses on optical micromanipulation 01 Aug 07

Journal of Optics A: Pure and Applied Optics presents a special issue dedicated to the exciting topic of optical micromanipulation.

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