Photonicsspectra 201211

www.photonics.
com November 2012

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4 Photonics Spectra November 2012 www.photonics.com
Content

NOVEMBER 2012 www.photonics.com VOLUME 46 ISSUE 11
16 22 66
Departments & Columns
10 EDITORIAL
Our continuing mission
16 LIGHT SPEED
Business and Markets
Detection market catches re
CVI Laser marks 40th anniversary
Dark energy camera achieves rst light
22 TECH PULSE
Research and technology headlines
of the month
Replacing consumer electronics with
consumer photonics
Record pulse provides new tool for
observing quantum mechanics
Superstable laser could power atomic
physics
66 GREENLIGHT
Signicant ecophotonics developments
Spinach power boosts silicon solar cells
71 NEW PRODUCTS
79 HAPPENINGS
81 ADVERTISER INDEX
82 LIGHTER SIDE
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THE COVER
On Mars, in space
and back on planet
Earth, lasers are
making headlines.
Design by Senior
Art Director Lisa N.
Comstock.
1112Contents.indd 4 10/24/12 4:35 PM
November 2012 Photonics Spectra 5
PHOTONICS: The technology of generating and harnessing light and other forms of radiant energy whose quantum unit is the photon.
The range of applications of photonics extends from energy generation to detection to communications and information processing.
40
46 56
Features
39
ISSUE FOCUS:
SPACE
40
LASERS FIND VARIED USES
IN SPACE APPLICATIONS
by Valerie C. Coffey, Science Writer
On the Mars rover Curiosity, in cutting-edge
telescope technology, and in guide star
adaptive optics, lasers are space pioneers.
46
TELESCOPES REQUIRE POLISHING
TO PERFECTION
by Hank Hogan, Contributing Editor
Farsighted projects such as the ESOs
gargantuan Extremely Large Telescope,
to be installed in 2022, require advances
in polishing technology.
52
STORAGE KEEPS PACE WITH DATA
FROM SPACE
by Marie Freebody, Contributing Editor
Storing the images collected by space
researchers is not especially burdensome,
but the datas subsequent transfer and
handling can present challenges.
56
IN SITU METHOD OPTIMIZES
OPTICAL COATINGS
by Allan Jaunzens, Evatec Ltd.
Automated industrial tools integrate thin-lm
coating production processes from lm design
to real-time re-optimization of the recipe.
60
SUPERPOLISHED OPTICS ENABLE
HIGH-SENSITIVITY LASER APPLICATIONS
by Trey Turner, Reo Inc.
Cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy,
ring laser gyroscopes and green HeNe lasers
all require sub-angstrom surface roughness.
SPECIAL 16-PAGE INSERT
THE COMMERCIAL LASER LINES, DETECTOR RANGES &
OPTICAL MATERIALS WALL CHART
The wall chart, inserted between pages 26 and 27, displays the major
commercial laser lines, detectors and optical materials in the ultraviolet
to the far-infrared and beyond. Additional copies can be ordered online
at www.photonics.com/wallchart.
1112Contents.indd 5 10/24/12 4:35 PM
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Contributing Editors Hank Hogan
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Marie Freebody
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1112Masthead.indd 6 10/24/12 4:36 PM
We began our rst research project on solid-state imagers in 1972. And since that
time, our image sensors have delivered unrivaled image quality, high reliability and
innovative features to customers across the globe.
Today, sensors from Truesense Imaging are used in mission-critical applications
ranging from precision manufacturing to trac monitoring, from digital radiography
to studio photography, from DNA sequencing to the exploration of the Earth and
our solar system.
And thats just the beginning. Imagine what well do together in the next 40 years!
Truesense Imaging, Inc. Rochester, NY USA 585.784.5500
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Perfecting Pixels for Nearly 40 Years.
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1112_TrueSenseImaging_Pg7.indd 7 10/25/12 10:09 AM
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1112Masthead.indd 8 10/24/12 4:36 PM
At Hamamatsu, capturing the photon is our business.
In extremely small amounts. At extraordinarily fast speeds.
Every day, our detectors and cameras are used in systems all
over the world to unlock the secrets hidden in light, whether
its the presence of a foreign object or a trace of gas, a specifc
disease or an errant microcircuit. The list of possible applications
we serve grows continuously. To push the limits of detection,
we continually adopt new technology.
Hamamatsus extensive lineup of detectors includes PMTs,
silicon and InGaAs devices for point detection or imaging,
scientifc cameras, and X-ray solutions. For more information
on over 60 categories of detector products, please visit
sales.hamamatsu.com.
We Innovate for Your Success
SALES.HAMAMATSU.COM USA 1-800 524 0504, FREEPHONE EUROPE 00 800 800 800 88
1112_Hamamatsu_Pg9.indd 9 10/25/12 10:10 AM
Watching retired space shuttle Endeavour moving through the streets of Los
Angeles on its 12-mile trip from LAX to the California Science Center, I couldnt help
but feel a bit nostalgic for the shuttle program. Launched on April 12, 1981, with a test
mission of the Shuttle Columbia, the program was brought to an end 30 years later with
the last fight of Atlantis on July 8, 2011.
The frst operational shuttle mission in 1982 delivered two commercial satellites to space
orbit. Through the years, all kinds of payloads many involving optics and photonics
have made the trip into space aboard a shuttle: cameras of all kinds including IMAX;
experiments on solar arrays; tools for atmospheric trace molecule spectroscopy; and
deployable payloads, including the Hubble Space Telescope.
Now that all of those amazing air-and spaceships have made their fnal trips into history,
can we still get excited about space? Space exploration continues, of course. As I wrote
this column in late October, a three-man international crew blasted off in a Russian
Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, destined for the Interna-
tional Space Station.
These days no discussion of space exploration is complete without at least mentioning
what is left behind literally. Several hundred thousand pieces of space debris in low-
Earth orbit are threatening the future use of this space. Even pieces as small as 1 cm can
punch a hole in the Space Station.
Photonics Media explores this issue with a webinar at 1 p.m. EST on Nov. 15. Dr. Alex-
ander Rubenchik of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will speak on The Prom-
ise of Pulsed Lasers in Removing Orbital Debris He will present research from a paper
he co-authored on a proposal for laser orbital debris removal using a focused, pulsed
ground-based laser to change the debris orbit and cause it to re-enter the atmosphere. The
webinar also will feature Joseph M. Howard, the lead optical designer of the James Webb
Space Telescope Project, an orbiting cryogenic infrared observatory and the successor to
the Hubble Space Telescope.
If you miss the live webcast, you can watch the archived version, posted shortly after-
ward, at www.photonics.com/webinars, on-demand. And visit our website often for
updates and additional webinar information.
Be sure to check out our extensive feature coverage on photonics in space, beginning on
page 39 of this issue of Photonics Spectra.
We are pleased to enclose in this issue a copy of the latest edition of the Photonics Media
chart of commercial laser lines, detector ranges and optical materials. After a compre-
hensive review the frst since 2009 undertaken with the help of experts at several
companies, the chart is ready to hang on your wall as a handy reference. Our thanks to
all who helped us bring the chart up to date and to our many sponsors. Additional wall
charts are available by calling +1 (413) 499-0514.
Enjoy the issue.
editorial
commeNt

Our Continuing Mission
editorial Advisory Board
Dr. Robert R. Alfano
City College of New York
Walter Burgess
Power Technology Inc.
Dr. Michael J. Cumbo
IDEX Optics & Photonics
Dr. Timothy Day
Daylight Solutions
Dr. Anthony J. DeMaria
Coherent-DEOS LLC
Dr. Donal Denvir
Andor Technology PLC
Patrick L. Edsell
Avanex Corp.
Dr. Stephen D. Fantone
Optikos Corp.
Randy Heyler
Ondax Inc.
Dr. Michael Houk
Bristol Instruments Inc.
Dr. Kenneth J. Kaufmann
Hamamatsu Corp.
Brian Lula
PI (Physik Instrumente) LP
Eliezer Manor
Shirat Enterprises Ltd., Israel
Shinji Niikura
Coherent Japan Inc.
Dr. Morio Onoe
professor emeritus, University of Tokyo
Dr. William Plummer
WTP Optics
Dr. Richard C. Powell
University of Arizona
Dr. Ryszard S. Romaniuk
Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
Samuel P. Sadoulet
Edmund Optics
Dr. Steve Sheng
Telesis Technologies Inc.
William H. Shiner
IPG Photonics Corp.
John M. Stack
Zygo Corp.
Dr. Albert J.P. Theuwissen
Harvest Imaging/Delft University
of Technology, Belgium
Kyle Voosen
National Instruments Corp.
karen.newman@photonics.com
1112Editorial.indd 10 10/24/12 4:38 PM
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Photonics in Space Applications
Thursday, November 15, 2012 - 1 p.m. EST/ 10 a.m. PST/ 1700 GMT/UTC
Photonics Media will host Dr. Joseph M.
Howard, lead optical designer, James Webb
Space Telescope, NASA Goddard Space
Flight Center: The Optics of the James
Webb Space Telescope, as well as Dr. Alex-
ander M. Rubenchik, Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory, Livermore, Calif.,:
The Promise of Pulsed Lasers in Removing
Orbital Debris.
For more information and to register, visit: Photonics.com/Webinars
Welcome to
Twice each month, Gary Boas, our nomadic contributing
editor, chronicles his take on the photonics industry through
his blog Different Wavelengths. Whether he takes
inspiration from pop culture, old sci-f comic books or
government policy, Gary has a knack for telling stories that
have the reader conjuring new ideas, questioning old
theories or remembering what made science so appealing in the frst place.
To explore Garys blog, visit: www.photonics.com/DifferentWavelengths.
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The online companion to Photonics Spectra
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Our collection of helpful resources for students, educators and researchers,
including the Photonics Dictionary+; Photonics Handbook; a list of societies,
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Valerie C. Coffey
Valerie C. Coffey is a freelance
science and technology writer
in Massachusetts with an MA
in astronomy. Her articles on
optics, photonics, astronomy
and physics have appeared in
various industry publications.
Page 40.
Marie Freebody
Regular contributor Marie
Freebody is a freelance
science and technology
journalist. She holds a
masters degree in physics
with a concentration in
nuclear astrophysics from
the University of Surrey in
the UK. Page 52.
Hank Hogan
Regular contributing editor
Hank Hogan holds a BS in
physics from the University of
Texas at Austin. He worked in
the semiconductor industry
and now writes about science
and technology. Page 46
Allan Jaunzens
Allan Jaunzens of Evatec Ltd.
is a materials scientist with
20 years of experience in
thin-flm technology, frst in
process development for
optical thin flms by sputter
and, more recently, in sales
and marketing. Page 56.
Trey Turner
Trey Turner of REO Inc. holds
a bachelor of science degree
in physics from Lawrence
University and a master of
science degree in physics
from the University of Texas
at Austin. Page 60.
CoNTribuTorS
Photonics Spectra...
In the December issue of
Charge-Transfer-Device imagers
Streak Cameras
CMoS Sensors
Polymer optics
Youll also fnd all the news that affects your industry,
from tech trends and market reports to the latest
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n Check out a sample of the digital
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2012 Raytheon Company. All rights reserved.
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Light Speed
The global breakdown of the fre detector market by detector type in 2011. The
multisensor and laser-based aspirating smoke detector markets are expected
to experience rapid growth through 2016.
Detection market catches fre
CVI Laser marks 40th anniversary
CVI Laser of Albuquerque, N.M., is marking 40 years of provid-
ing thin-flm-enabled optical components and subsystems to the
semiconductor, life sciences, industrial, aerospace and scientifc
markets. The company was founded in 1972 to support high-
energy laser development at Sandia and Los Alamos national
laboratories. In June 2011, CVI was acquired by Idex Corp. and
joined the new Idex Optics and Photonics platform. CVI operates
manufacturing facilities in Albuquerque; Carlsbad, Calif.; Roches-
ter, N.Y.; the Isle of Man and Leicester in the UK; Saitama, Japan;
and Seoul, South Korea.
Kentec acquires laser safety business CrossFiber completes $13M funding round Jenoptik nabs $13M medical laser order in US
I think that the biggest opportunity that the US
still has is to take its investment in basic technol-
ogy research back to the same level as a percent
of GDP as it was 30 or 40 years ago.
former Intel CEO Craig Barrett
at the Sept. 12 launch of the National Academies report
Optics and Photonics: Essential Technologies for Our Nation

Laser-based aspirating smoke
detectors (ASDs) and multi-
sensor detectors are forecast to
see the fastest global growth
in the fre detection industry
over the next few years, ac-
cording to IMS Research. The
market research company
predicts compound annual
growth rates of 9 percent for
ASDs and 7.3 percent for mul-
tisensors from 2011 to 2016.
Its an exciting time for fre
detection technology, said Adi
Pavlovic, IMS Research analyst
and report author. The current
market is seeing growth in
multiple young technologies
that are gaining traction.
The main trend is the tran-
sition toward using more
technologies within a single
detector. This multisensor
technology, which can provide
higher effciency with lower
installation costs, was worth
an estimated $239.5 million
in 2011 the second largest
of the detector markets at that
time. Optical and heat detec-
tion are the most common
technologies combined, with
gas and infrared beam detec-
tion making their way into the
units. The different combina-
tions will allow multisensors
to move ahead in almost all
applications, Pavlovic said.
more serious stance on fre
codes and standards, the mar-
ket will beneft and provide a
higher level of life safety.
He noted that the market
has been considered a slow-
moving one in terms of tech-
nology because of the amount
of testing each product is
required to pass to receive
certifcation.
We are seeing an era of
modernization in the industry.
Not only are manufacturers
looking to make fre detection
products more reliable, but
economical as well.
However, it is crucial for
manufacturers product de-
velopment to stay up to speed
with the increasing demand
for more advanced detection
technologies, he added.
The market research com-
pany, recently acquired by
IHS Inc. of Englewood, Colo.,
published the report World
Market for Fire Detection &
Suppression Products 2012
Edition in August.
Strong growth in utilities,
data centers and offshore
facilities is expected to spur
the development of advanced
detectors that can function in
harsh environments.
Laser-based ASDs have a
strong presence in the data and
telecommunications indus-
tries, but they are expected
to expand into the industrial
sector, because they can with-
stand harsh environments.
Optical fre detectors will
likely continue to dominate
the market, however. They
were estimated to account
for almost half of the worlds
fre detector market in 2011.
The effciency and low cost
of optical detectors make them
the ideal product for a simple
solution, he said.
They will remain the top
technology in terms of volume
because they are commonly
used for applications in the
residential, commercial and
government sectors, he added,
but they could lose a small
amount of the market share
to multisensors and more
complex technologies. The
growth of the fre detection
market is really driven by con-
struction activity and legisla-
tion, he said. As emerging
markets progress toward a
Pie chart above courtesy of IMS Research
(IHS Inc.).
1112_LightSpeed.indd 16 10/26/12 2:33 PM
A provider of paper for
currency, Crane & Co. of Dalton,
Mass., won a US government
contract to produce microlens-
based security threads to be
embedded in $100 bills.
Observing and characterizing
UV and blue laser action in
nanowires at the University of
California, Berkeley, constituted
a signifcant advance toward
creating electron-injected
nanowire lasers.
AT&T of Murray Hill, N.J.,
claimed the frst commercial
application of bonding diamond
flm to metal, a process that
enabled microelectronics
heat sinks as submounts for
semiconductor lasers.
The purchase of industrial-
grade digital imaging proces-
sors for military applications
seemed to be an idea whose
time had come, a Photonics
Spectra journalist wrote.
2007
2002
1992
1982
This month in history
What were you working on fve, 10,
20 or even 30 years ago? Photonics
Spectra editors perused past November
issues and unearthed the following:
IPG Photonics acquires JPSA sp3 Diamond awarded thermal management patents
Dr. Changs success in making ever-shorter light pulses
helps open a new door to a previously hidden world,
where we can watch electrons move atoms and molecules,
and follow chemical reactions as they take place.
Michael Johnson, a physicist and dean of the University of Central Florida (UCF)
College of Sciences; a UCF research team led by Professor Zenghu Chang generated
a 67-as laser pulse of extreme-UV light that could enable scientists to
watch quantum mechanics in action (story on page 22)
Dark energy camera achieves frst light
Illustration and photo courtesy of
Dark Energy Survey collaboration.
The most powerful sky-mapping machine ever created
recorded its frst images on Sept. 12. The 570-megapixel
Dark Energy Camera (DECam), the main components of which
are shown here, was constructed at Fermi National Accelera-
tor Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., and mounted on the Victor M.
Blanco telescope at the National Science Foundations Cerro
Tololo Inter-American Observatory, the southern branch of the
US National Optical Astronomy Observatory. With this device,
roughly the size of a phone booth, astronomers and physicists
will probe the mystery of dark energy, the force they believe
is causing the universe to expand faster and faster. A photo-
metric imaging camera, DECam measures the amount of light
in various colors from astronomical objects rather than details
of their spectra. It can see light from more than 100,000
galaxies up to 8 billion light-years away in each snapshot.

Light Speed
e2v to supply image sensors to Japans XFEL VLC Photonics to advance optical integration Laser Energetics receives initial order
PEOPLE IN THE NEWS
Electronic design automation company
Synopsys Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., has
announced the 2012 winners of the annual
Robert S. Hilbert Memorial Optical Design
Competition for students: Anthony Vis-
conti, Brett Sternfeld and Josh Walters.
Sternfeld, of the University of Rochester
in New York, received the award for his
work on a machine vision imaging system
using Synopsys Code V software; his paper
is titled 190 Degree FFOV Fisheye for
Autonomous Robots.
Nobel laureate and
laser pioneer Charles
H. Townes is among the
eight recipients of the
Golden Goose Award,
a new honor celebrat-
ing researchers whose
seemingly odd or obscure federally funded
research turned out to have a major impact
on society.
Inrad Optics Inc. of North-
vale, N.J., has selected Amy
Eskilson as its president
and CEO. She began her
tenure with the company in
2011 as vice president of
sales and marketing.
Peter Clemens has
joined Headwall Photon-
ics of Fitchburg, Mass., as
director of engineering and
development. He has years
of experience in developing
optical imaging platforms at
BAE Systems.
A 20-year semiconductor
sales and engineering vet-
eran, Victor Tu is GigOptix
Inc.s new vice president of
sales for the Asia-Pacifc re-
gion. The company, based
in San Jose, Calif., supplies
semiconductor and optical components.
Optical sensing product
maker Ocean Optics of
Dunedin, Fla., has hired
Adrian Guckian to lead
its Sensors business
unit. He has served as
chemicals and materi-
als manager and as general manager at
Dublin-based Gas Sensor Solutions.
GSI Group Inc. of Bedford, Mass., has
announced that longtime Philips executive
Matthijs Glastra has agreed to join the
company as group president, Laser Prod-
ucts, and to serve as a corporate offcer.
Redmond, Wash.-based optoelectronics
manufacturer B.E. Meyers & Co. Inc. has
named Michael Alvis as vice president of
business development. A retired US Army
colonel, Alvis has worked in executive posi-
tions at ITT Corp.
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MOVES & EXPANSIONS
Block Engineering, a Marlborough, Mass., manufacturer of
quantum cascade laser-based and Fourier transform infrared
spectrometers, has added the Griot Group as a sales representa-
tive for the Pacifc Northwest, the Rocky Mountain region, and
for Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. The latter company has
offces in California and Oregon.
Rapid customer growth in the Asia market has spurred fber
laser designer SPI Lasers of Southampton, UK, to expand its
Asia facilities with the addition of combined offce and labora-
tory space in Seoul, South Korea. The company also plans to
open a new offce in China. It named John Chinn as new general
manager for South Korea and China.
In response to its growing client base in Europe and Asia,
nanoanalytical microscopy systems maker WITec GmbH of
Ulm, Germany, has opened regional offces at the Kanagawa Sci-
ence Park in Japan, and in Barcelona, Spain, where it will serve
primarily Spanish and Portuguese customers. Both offces will
provide sales operations and technical support.
Specialty glass maker Corning Inc. has opened the Corning Technology Center
Berlin for telecommunications customers. Located in the Adlershof Science
and Technology Park, the new facility is home to Germany-based members of
Corning Cable Systems GmbH & Co. KG. Governing mayor of Berlin Klaus
Wowereit (center), Corning chairman and CEO Wendell Weeks (left) and Hardy
Schmitz, CEO of WISTA-Management GmbH spoke at the Sept. 12 opening
of the center.
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1112_ResElectroOptics_Pg19.indd 19 10/25/12 10:12 AM
Motion system device de-
veloper New Scale Tech-
nologies Inc. of Victor, N.Y.,
has received a US patent for
its reduced-voltage minia-
ture piezoelectric motor and
drive system, which can
operate directly from battery
voltage as low as 2.3 VDC.
By eliminating the need for
boost circuits, the technol-
ogy reduces system size
and component cost while
enabling integration into a
variety of battery-driven
products to move elements such as optical
lenses. The system is fve times smaller
than commercial electromagnetic linear
motor systems and uses 40 percent less
power. It employs a proprietary Squiggle
Light Speed
Kodak reorganizes,
sheds more jobs
Eastman Kodak Co. of Rochester, N.Y., will cut
another 1000 jobs by years end as the imaging
company continues to restructure under Chap-
ter 11 bankruptcy. The company has cut 2700
employees since the beginning of 2012.
Kodak is becoming a more focused and
competitively scaled company, said chairman
and CEO Antonio M. Perez. We recognize that
we must signifcantly and expeditiously reduce
our current cost structure.
Under a new management framework, Philip
J. Faraci company president and COO since
2007 and CFO Antoinette P. McCorvey are
leaving.
Kodak will have three business segments:
Digital Printing and Enterprise; Graphics,
Entertainment and Commercial Films; and a
new segment that includes two businesses
for sale: Personalized Imaging and Document
Imaging. The company also has implemented
organizational changes to refect its focus on its
Commercial, Packaging & Functional Printing
Solutions and Enterprise Services business.
Flir garners $26M Navy contract Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. ships frst Webb telescope mirrors NIH awards Vixar VCSEL contract
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New Scale awarded
linear motor system
patent
piezo motor design, replacing the original
Squiggle motors monolithic piezoelec-
tric elements with advanced multilayer
piezoelectric elements from TDK-EPC of
Munich to operate at a reduced voltage.
The reduced-voltage
Squiggle micromotor and
drive application-specifc
integrated circuit are dis-
played by Daniele Piazza.
COLLABORATIONS
Three industrial laser companies have allied to
bring new glass-cutting technology to market.
InnoLas Systems of Krailing, Germany, has
licensed process technology developed by the
Portland, Ore.-based FiLaser and will use ultra-
short-pulse lasers produced exclusively for
InnoLas by Lumera Laser of Kaiserlautern,
Germany. The system will be available exclusively
through InnoLas. FiLasers flament-cutting tech-
nology uses ultrashort laser pulses that cut brittle
materials via plasma dissociation. Filament-cut
glass is shown here.
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s
.
Optical communications suppliers Oclaro
Inc. of San Jose, Calif., and 3SP Group
of Nozay, France, have entered a multi-
source agreement that enables more
compact pump laser packaging. The new
10-pin butterfy package replaces the cur-
rent industry-standard 14-pin format.
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SUPERIOR AUTOMATION & OPTICAL SYSTEMS
1112_ESCO_Pg21.indd 21 10/25/12 10:12 AM
ORLANDO, Fla. The young feld of
attosecond science marked a signifcant
milestone recently with the generation
of the shortest laser pulse to date 67
attoseconds.
The record, achieved by Dr. Zenghu
Chang and colleagues at the University of
Central Florida, marks the most signif-
cant breakthrough in laser pulses in four
years and gives scientists a new tool for
watching quantum mechanics in action.
With the development of attosecond
light sources a decade ago, ultrafast laser
science became a viable research feld.
It began in 2001, when groups in Saclay,
France, and Vienna proved the production
of attosecond pulse trains and isolated
attosecond pulses through high-harmonic-
generation processes, respectively.
Photonics Spectra caught up with
Chang shortly after his return from The
Workshop on Super Intense Laser-Atom
Physics, held in China in late September.
People were very excited about his
groups achievement, said Chang, a pro-
fessor in the physics department at UCF
and CREOL, the College of Optics and
Photonics.
Changs team achieved the 67-as (1
attosecond is a quintillionth of a second)
pulse using extreme-ultraviolet (EUV)
light generated not by a mile-long particle
accelerator or a Superdome-size synchro-
tron, but by using a technique the group
created called double optical gating, or
DOG (techniques in the feld tend to have
animal-themed acronyms, such as FROG-
CRAB, or frequency-resolved optical
gating for complete reconstruction of
attosecond bursts).
The technique allows EUV light to
be cut off in a way that concentrates the
maximum amount of energy in the short-
est possible pulse of light. The shortest
possible light burst is a powerful tool for
freezing electron motion in atoms, mol-
ecules and condensed matter.
In their paper, which appeared in Op-
tics Letters, Chang and his team used two
algorithms, FROG-CRAB and PROOF
(phase retrieval by omega oscillation
TECH pulse

Record pulse provides new tool for observing quantum mechanics
Replacing consumer electronics with consumer photonics
PHILADELPHIA Cadmium sulfde
nanowires can be used to create an all-op-
tical photonic switch, a team at the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania said. They combined
the switch with others to create a logic gate
for on-chip information processing.
Putting switches together lets you make
logic gates, and assembling logic gates al-
lows you to do computation, said graduate
student Brian Piccione. We used these
optical switches to construct a NAND gate,
which is a fundamental building block of
modern computer processing.
In creating the frst such switch to be
made of cadmium sulfde, the team, led
by associate professor Ritesh Agarwal of
the School of Engineering and Applied
Science, built upon previous work show-
ing that such nanowires are especially
effcient at manipulating light.
The biggest challenge for photonic
structures on the nanoscale is getting the
light in, manipulating it once its there
and then getting it out, Agarwal said in
a university release. Our major innova-
tion was how we solved the frst problem,
in that it allowed us to use the nanowires
themselves for an on-chip light source.
Over the past few years, there has been
a great deal of activity in nanophotonics
to develop on-chip optical components,
largely driven by the imminent limita-
tions of electronic integrated circuits.
Currently, nanoscale photonic circuits
are bulkier and more energy-hungry than
their electronic counterparts.
To make their photonic switch, the
researchers frst precisely cut a gap into a
nanowire. Then they pumped enough en-
ergy into the frst nanowire segment that
it began to emit laser light from its end
and through the gap. Because they started
with a single nanowire, the two segment
ends were perfectly matched, allowing
the second segment to effciently absorb
and transmit the light down its length.
Once we have the light in the second
segment, we shine another light through
the structure and turn off what is being
transported through that wire. Thats
what makes it a switch, Agarwal said.
We see a future where consumer elec-
tronics become consumer photonics, and
this study shows that is possible, he said.
Postdoctoral fellows Chang-Hee
Cho and Lambert van Vugt contributed
to the study, which was published in
Nature Nanotechnology (doi:10.1038/
nnano.2012.144).
Melinda A. Rose
melinda.rose@photonics.com
An all-optical photonic nanowire switch, the frst
to be made of cadmium sulfde, could help move
the consumer electronics market into consumer
photonics to overcome the imminent limitations
of electronic integrated circuits. Here, laser light
is emitted from the end of a cadmium sulfde
nanowire. We see a future where consumer
electronics become consumer
photonics, and this study
shows that is possible.
Ritesh Agarwal,
University of Pennsylvania
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1112_TechPulse.indd 22 10/24/12 4:52 PM
Zenghu Chang and colleagues at the University of Central Florida have generated the shortest laser pulse to
date 67 attoseconds. The work gives scientists a new tool for observing quantum mechanics.
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a
fltering) to characterize the 67-as pulse
generated using DOG, and both yielded
nearly identical results. The durations of
the DOG-generated pulses were measured
with a streak camera.
The pulse beat the previous record of
80 attoseconds that was set by the Max
Planck Institute in Garching, Germany,
in 2008; this is the frst time an Ameri-
can-led team has set the record.
With not a signifcant change [to the
current setup], we think we can get to
50 attoseconds, Chang told Photonics
Spectra.
In principle, the DOG technique can
achieve 25 as, which is near the atomic
unit of time and fast enough to allow the
observation of electron-electron interac-
tions. But before that can happen, he
said, a fundamental issue that must be
addressed is chirp compensation.
Chirp compensation doesnt work well
with DOG. We need to fnd new ways to
compress the pulse, he said, once the
pulse duration is below 40 as.
Dr. Changs success in making ever-
shorter light pulses helps open a new door
to a previously hidden world, where we
can watch electrons move in atoms and
molecules, and follow chemical reactions
as they take place, said UCF physicist and
College of Sciences Dean Michael John-
son in a university release. It is astound-
ing to imagine that we may now be able to
watch quantum mechanics in process.
Well see practical applications in
fve years or so, Chang said, noting that
The Department of Defense is interested
in attosecond science, and DARPA is
interested.
DARPAs basic research program
PULSE (Program in Ultrafast Laser Sci-
ence and Engineering) aims to enhance
the capabilities of tabletop high-peak-
power pulsed-laser-driven x-ray gen-
eration techniques to produce high-fux
coherent x-rays with wavelengths from
2.3 to 4.4 m for bioimaging applications.
Next for Chang and his team are
increasing the fux of attosecond pulses
to strengthen the pulse and developing an
attosecond pump probe.
MAR
Superstable laser could power atomic physics
BOULDER, Colo. An optical
resonator made of single-
crystal silicon, a particularly
stiff and low-noise material
instead of the traditional glass
with its disordered and soft
material structure has en-
abled the creation of a laser so
stable that its frequency varies
by no more than two parts in
10,000 trillion.
Research on ultrastable la-
sers typically employs an opti-
cal cavity interferometer, com-
prising a spacer with mirrors at
each end. That design severely
restricts the range of optical
frequency that can resonate
in the cavity. By superimpos-
ing the cavity output beam on
another highly controlled ref-
erence beam, the interference
effects (periodic reinforcement
beats) can reveal stability
with exquisite sensitivity. Such
systems, however, have histori-
cally been subject to thermal
fuctuations that alter the
cavity dimensions, reducing
frequency stability.
The laser, with its silicon
resonator, was developed
and tested collaboratively by
metrology research institutes This new silicon resonator is compared with the size of a coin.
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typical reflection curve
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CVIMG_DeepUV_hph_PS.indd 1 3/30/2012 10:13:48 AM
TECH pulse

NIST/JILA in the US and PTB, the Ger-
man counterpart of NIST. The silicon
resonator stabilizes the laser so it reaches
a linewidth of less than 40 mHz.
Stable lasers such as the one reported
are already unlocking some of the myster-
ies of minute atomic interactions that are
otherwise hidden, said team member Jun
Ye of the Quantum Physics Div. of JILAs
Physical Measurement Laboratory.
The team says it will accelerate prog-
ress in developing optical clocks that
operate at frequencies more than 10,000
times higher than todays worldwide time
standard of 9.2 GHz. The work could also
beneft optical precision spectroscopy;
because it was tested at 1.5 m, the wave-
length with the lowest loss in fber optic
networks, it also could be of interest to
the communications industry.
The novel laser design, reported in
Nature Photonics (doi:10.1038/npho-
ton.2012.217), is expected to add a new
level of precision to research in gravi-
tational wave detection on Earth and in
space, and to precision tests of relativity
as well as fundamental physics research
in cavity quantum electrodynamics and
quantum optomechanics.
The scientists are working to im-
prove the design further. Among other
modifcations, they will attempt to reduce
feedback errors resulting from spurious
amplitude modulation, to suppress noise
from the cryostat, and to experiment with
various optical coatings on the silicon
mirrors. The very thin optical coatings
now remain the only signifcant contribu-
tion to the thermal noise of the cavity, and
new approaches are being investigated
jointly with a group at the University
of Vienna.
MAR
Stable lasers such as the one
reported are already unlocking
some of the mysteries of
minute atomic interactions
that are otherwise hidden.
Jun Ye, Quantum Physics Div.,
JILAs Physical Measurement
Laboratory
T
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Diagram of the ultrastable laser devices interior.
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A44_PSpectra_1-3V_2-187x10_A44.qxd 9/27/12 11:06 AM Page 1
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. A needlelike
beam of light that propagates for an
unprecedented distance of 80 m without
spreading could greatly reduce signal loss
for on-chip optical systems and might
eventually aid development of more pow-
erful microprocessors.
The cosine-Gauss plasmon beam,
caused by quasiparticles called surface
plasmons, remains very narrow and con-
trolled along an unprecedented distance,
say a Harvard University-led American
and French team. The surface plasmons
travel in tight confnement with a nano-
structured metal surface. The metallic
stripes that carry these plasmons have
the potential to replace standard copper
electrical interconnects in microproces-
sors, enabling ultrafast on-chip commu-
nications.
Applied physicists from Harvard
School of Engineering and Applied Sci-
ences (SEAS) and from Laboratoire Inter-
disciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne at the
National Center for Scientifc Research
(CNRS) in France both characterized and
created this needle beam, which travels
effciently at the interface of gold and air.
A fundamental problem that has
hindered development of such optical
interconnects is that all waves naturally
spread laterally, a phenomenon known
as diffraction, during propagation. This
reduces the portion of the signal that can
actually be detected.
We have made a major step toward
solving this problem by discovering and
experimentally confrming the existence
of a previously overlooked solution of
Maxwells equations that govern all light
TECH pulse

Plasmon wave propagates for 80 m
with no diffraction
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Researchers at Harvard SEAS have characterized and created a needle beam, or cosine-Gauss plasmon
beam, which travels effciently at the interface of gold and air. Top: simulated results; bottom:
experimental results.
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phenomena, said principal investigator
Federico Capasso, the Robert L. Wallace
Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton
Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electri-
cal Engineering at SEAS. The solution
is a highly localized surface plasmon
wave that propagates for a long dis-
tance approximately 80 microns in our
experiments in a straight line without
any diffraction.
To demonstrate, lead author Jiao Lin,
a visiting postdoctoral fellow at SEAS
from Singapore Institute of Manufac-
turing and Technology, and co-author
Patrice Genevet, a research associate in
Capassos group, sculpted two sets of
grooves into a gold flm that was plated
onto the surface of a glass sheet. These
tiny grooves intersect at an angle to form
a metallic grating. When illuminated by a
laser, the device launches two tilted, plane
surface waves, which interfere construc-
tively to create the nondiffracting beam.
Our French colleagues did a beautiful
experiment, using an ultrahigh-resolution
microscope to image the needle-shaped
beam propagating for a long distance
across the gold surface, Genevet said.
Capassos team hopes the fndings will
help develop microprocessors that are
more powerful and energy-effcient.
The fndings were published online
in Physical Review Letters (doi: 10.1103/
physrevlett.109.093904). The work was
partially supported by the Air Force
Offce of Scientifc Research.
TECH pulse

The researchers, led by Federico Capasso, have demonstrated that the needle beam propagates up to 80 m
without diffraction. The advance may help develop ultrafast, energy-effcient microprocessors.
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Surface plasmons: oscillations of
electrons bound to the surface of a
metal. Surface plasmons can be
excited by both electrons and
photons; strong interactions with
photons result in the formation of
surface plasmon polaritons.
1112_TechPulse.indd 28 10/25/12 9:58 AM
DURHAM, N.C., and LONDON
Photonic interactions have been measured
for the frst time on the scale of a single
atom. The ability to quantify the unique
properties of light gives physicists a road
map to precise control of scattering in
metal-based devices such as biosensors
and photonic integrated circuits.
The work, performed at Duke Uni-
versity and Imperial College London,
measures plasmons on an unprecedented
scale, and the researchers believe that
they have characterized the limits of such
surface plasmons on metal. The electro-
magnetic feld enhancement produced
at the nanoscale by surface plasmons
on metal is signifcantly higher than
that achievable with any other material.
Knowing the maximum limit of the feld
enhancement will give researchers an ad-
vantage when working with metal-based
devices that enhance light.
Once you know maximum feld en-
hancement, you can then fgure out the ef-
fciencies of any plasmonic system, said
System measures limits of plasmonic enhancement
An artistic representation of a new flm-nanoparticle plasmonic system that enables the science of light on
a scale of a few tenths of a nanometer. Spherical gold nanoparticles are coupled to a gold flm substrate by
means of an ultrathin layer that forbids the particles from directly touching the flm. Electromagnetic ultrahot
spots are excited in the gaps, the diameter of a typical atom.
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David R. Smith, William Bevan Professor
of Electrical and Computer Engineering
at Duke. It also allows us to tune the
plasmonic system to get exact predictable
enhancements, now that we know what
is happening at the atomic level. Control
over this phenomenon has deep ramifca-
tions for nonlinear and quantum optics.
Plasmonic devices typically involve
the interactions of electrons between two
on top of the monolayer. Essential to the
experiment was that the distance between
the spheres and the flm could be adjusted
with the precision of a single atom. This
way, they overcame the limitations of
traditional approaches and obtained a
photonic signature with atom-level
resolution.
We were able to demonstrate the
accuracy of our model by studying the
optical scattering from gold nanopar-
ticles interacting with a gold flm, said
Cristian Cirac, a postdoctoral researcher
at Dukes Pratt School of Engineering.
Our results provide a strong experimen-
tal support in setting an upper limit to the
maximum feld enhancement achievable
with plasmonic systems.
The experiments were conducted in
Smiths lab; the team worked with col-
leagues at Imperial College, specifcally
Sir John Pendry, who has long collabo-
rated with Smith.
This paper takes experiment beyond
nano and explores the science of light on
a scale of a few tenths of a nanometer, the
TECH pulse

metal particles separated by a very short
distance. For 40 years, scientists have
been trying to determine what happens
when these particles are brought closer
and closer, at subnanometer distances.
The Duke researchers began with a
thin gold flm coated with an ultrathin
monolayer of organic molecules studded
with precisely controllable carbon chains
and dispersed nanometric gold spheres
Our results provide a strong
experimental support in setting
an upper limit to the maximum
feld enhancement achievable
with plasmonic systems.
Cristian Cirac,
Pratt School of Engineering,
Duke University
diameter of a typical atom, said Pendry,
a physicist and co-director of the Centre
for Plasmonics and Metamaterials at
Imperial College. We hope to exploit
this advance to enable photons, normally
a few hundred nanometers in size, to
interact intensely with atoms, which are
a thousand times smaller.
The work, which appears in Science
(doi: 10.1126/science.1224823) was sup-
ported by the Air Force Offce of Scien-
tifc Research and by the Army Research
Offces Multidisciplinary University
Research Initiative.
1112_TechPulse.indd 30 10/25/12 9:57 AM
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and Nanofabrication
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Optoelectronics, micro/nanophotonics,
lasers, and biomedical optics
Register Today
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1112_SPIE_PhoWest_Pg31.indd 31 10/25/12 10:13 AM
EVANSTON, Ill. A new resonator design
that controls both wavelength and beam
quality enables the purest, brightest and
most powerful beams ever from a single-
mode infrared quantum cascade laser.
The work improves the accuracy of the
devices, critical for boosting the standoff
detection of gas, explosives or other haz-
ardous materials to even greater distances.
Almost all chemicals including nerve
gases and toxic industrial materials can
be identifed by infrared absorption in
the 8- to 12-m range, making the wave-
length attractive for military and indus-
trial uses. And the relative transparency
of the atmosphere at these wavelengths
is useful for standoff sensing.
Successful standoff sensing applica-
tions require a high-power, single-mode
laser source with exceptional beam qual-
ity. Incorporating all three qualities into
a single device has presented a signifcant
challenge, and many complex structures
have been proposed with limited success.
Manijeh Razeghi, the Walter P. Murphy
Professor of Electrical Engineering and
Computer Science at Northwestern Uni-
versitys McCormick School of Engineer-
ing and Applied Sciences, and colleagues
developed the resonator using a new type
of distributed feedback mechanism called
B-DFB, a simple diffractive feedback in
an angled laser cavity.
The group demonstrated >6-W peak
power with nearly diffraction-limited
beam quality at a 10.4-m wavelength
the highest-power single-mode semicon-
ductor laser demonstrated at a wavelength
>10 m. Greater output power is expected
with further refnement, particularly re-
lated to optimization of the cavity design
and the gain medium.
Our resonator is the most promising
device for creating high-power, single-
mode laser sources with good beam
quality, and it is inexpensive and can
be realized at room temperature, said
Razeghi, who also leads the Center for
Quantum Devices.
The B-DFB development is comple-
mentary to active research efforts within
the Center for Quantum Devices but is not
yet directly funded.
The fndings appeared in Applied Phys-
ics Letters (doi: 10.1063/1.4747447).
TECH pulse

Lasers improved for standoff sensing
A new distributed feedback mechanism called B-DFB has helped in the creation of a new resonator to im-
prove laser-based standoff sensing. (a) Schematic of a B-DFB. (b) Scanning electron microscope image of the
fabricated device. (c) Spectrum. (d) Far feld.
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BERKELEY, Calif. Mixing x-ray and
optical lightwaves enables observations
of how light interacts with matter on the
atomic scale. The capability can reveal
certain properties of matter, and may
enable the observation of changes during
chemical reactions, such as the making
and breaking of chemical bonds.
Vision, photosynthesis and solar cells
are a few examples of the ways light
changes matter, but how light makes
those changes hasnt been measured on
the atomic scale until now. Mixing x-rays
and optical waves was frst proposed as an
atomic-scale probe of optical interactions
nearly 50 years ago, but has been diffcult
to achieve due to a lack of suffciently
strong x-ray sources.
An international team led by scien-
tists at Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory used the Linac Coherent
Light Source (LCLS) at SLAC National
Accelerator Laboratory to mix a pulse
of superbright x-rays with a pulse of
lower-frequency optical light from an
ordinary laser. By aiming the combined
pulses at a diamond sample, the team was
able to measure the optical manipulation
of chemical bonds in the crystal directly,
on the scale of individual atoms.
X-ray and optical wave mixing is an
x-ray diffraction technique similar to
that long used in solving the structures
of proteins and other biological molecules
in crystalline form. But in contrast to
conventional diffraction, wave mixing
selectively probes how light reshapes
the distribution of charge in a material.
It does this by imposing a distinction
between x-rays scattered from optically
perturbed charge and x-rays scattered
from unperturbed charge.
You can think of the electrons orbit-
ing atoms in a material as belonging to
one of two groups, said lead scientist
Thornton Glover of Berkeley Lab. The
active electrons are the outer, loosely
bound valence electrons that participate
in chemical reactions and form chemical
bonds. The spectator electrons are the
ones tightly wrapped around the nucleus
at the atoms core.
In a typical scattering experiment, all
electrons scatter with comparable strength,
making the core electrons indistinguish-
able from the valence electrons, he said.
So x-rays can tell you where atoms
are, but they usually cant reveal how
the chemically important valence charge
is distributed, Glover said. However,
when light is also present with the x-rays,
it wiggles some portion of the chemically
relevant valence charge. X-rays scatter
from this optically driven charge, and
in doing so, the x-ray photon energy is
changed.
The modifed x-rays have a frequency
(or energy) equal to the sum of the
frequencies of both the original x-ray
pulse and the overlapping optical pulse.
The change to a slightly higher energy
provides a distinct signature that distin-
guishes wave mixing from conventional
x-ray diffraction.
Conventional diffraction does not
provide direct information on how the
valence electrons respond to light, nor on
the electric felds that arise in a material
because of this response, Glover said.
But with x-ray and optical wave mixing,
the energy-modifed x-rays selectively
probe a materials optically responsive
valence charge.
Mixing x-ray and optical lightwaves
creates a new beam that shows up as a
slightly higher-energy peak on a graph of
x-ray diffraction, a process called sum
frequency generation. That process re-
quires an intense x-ray source that was
unavailable until free-electron lasers
such as the LCLS came online. The LCLS
produces ultrashort pulses of high-energy
hard x-rays millions of times brighter
than synchrotron light sources.
Glovers team chose diamond to
demonstrate x-ray and optical wave
mixing because diamonds structure and
electronic properties are already well-
known. With this test bed, wave mixing
has proved its ability to study light-matter
interactions on the atomic scale and has
opened new opportunities for research.
The easiest kinds of diffraction exper-
iments are with crystals, and theres lots
to learn, Glover said. For example, light
can be used to alter the magnetic order in
advanced materials, yet its often unclear
just what the light does, on the micro-
scopic scale, to initiate these changes.
The work was published in Nature (doi:
10.1038/nature11340).
X-ray, optical wave mix probes light at atomic scale
BRISTOL, UK A new silicon-based ap-
proach to quantum computing could make
the technology easier to mass-produce.
Scientists at the University of Bristols
Centre for Quantum Photonics, leading
an international collaboration, made the
leap from glass-based circuits to silicon
by developing quantum chips from the
workhorse semiconductor material used
to build electrical processors in all com-
puters and smartphones.
Using silicon to manipulate light, we
have made circuits over 1000 times smaller
than current glass-based technologies,
said Mark Thompson, deputy director of
the Centre for Quantum Photonics. It will
be possible to mass-produce this kind of
chip using standard microelectronic tech-
niques, and the much smaller size means
it can be incorporated into technology and
devices that would not previously have
been compatible with glass chips.
Unlike conventional silicon chips that
work by controlling electrical current,
however, these circuits manipulate single
particles of light to perform calculations.
They exploit strange quantum mechanical
effects such as superposition (the ability
for a particle to be in two places at once)
and entanglement (strong correlations
between particles separated by even vast
distances).
This is very much the start of a new
feld of quantum engineering, where
state-of-the-art microchip manufactur-
ing techniques are used to develop new
quantum technologies and will eventually
realize quantum computers that will help
us understand the most complex scientifc
problems, Thompson said.
The team announced its results at
the 2012 British Science Festival in
September.
TECH pulse

Doctoral student Erman Engin measures the
performance of a silicon quantum chip developed
at the University of Bristols Centre for Quantum
Photonics to replace glass-based circuits.
An example of the silicon quantum chip next to a 20-pence coin.
Silicon could enable mass production
of quantum computing

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1112_OSA_OFC_Pg35.indd 35 10/25/12 10:13 AM
COVENTRY, UK LED-based wireless
optical networks in vehicles could sig-
nifcantly cut the weight of wiring under
the hood, not only saving on fuel, but also
allowing passengers to tap into visible
or infrared spectrum bands in overhead
lighting to watch movies or play music.
Radio-frequency (RF) signals are used
for smartphones, for hands-free headsets
for the driver and passengers, and for
multimedia-related applications such as
tablet PCs, but RF communication suffers
from a congested bandwidth. In contrast,
wireless systems beneft from an unlim-
ited and unregulated spectrum.
Although optical wireless has been
explored for some time in aviation,
scientists in the University of Warwicks
engineering department are exploring its
use in private vehicles. It can be used to
communicate between parts inside a cars
engine compartment, such as between
temperature sensors and the engine man-
agement system, or between the brake and
speed-control systems.
TECH pulse

Optical wireless can simply use a basic
LED, such as those used in fashlights, to
send data. In situations where it is best for
the beam to be invisible, infrared light can
be used instead. It can be installed in the
overhead lights for in-car entertainment.
The major advantage of optical wire-
less is the weight of wiring it can remove
from cars, translating into signifcant fuel
savings over the lifetime of a vehicle, the
researchers say. But it also reduces manu-
facturing costs, as LED and infrared light
sources are not expensive to make, and it
cuts back on the expense of maintaining
and repairing wires.
Combined, all these factors spell
signifcant advantages over the current
systems for in-car data, which, in the
engine, are generally copper wire-based
or carbon fber.
Optical wireless is relatively unknown
at the moment. But its not hard to imag-
ine a day when passengers can watch TV
streamed through a beam coming from
their overhead light, or when parts of the
engine can talk to each other without
wires, said UW professor Roger Green.
We believe that this technology is poised
to come into its own.
Other benefts include its lack of elec-
tromagnetic interference, he said.
The engineers presented their work at
the International Conference on Transpar-
ent Optical Networks this summer at the
university.
The University of Warwicks Roger Green is working
to create LED-based optical wireless networks.
Wireless optical networks could make vehicles lighter

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Expert Briefngs
In-depth presentations and interactive
Q&A featuring top industry experts.
Coming November 15
Photonics in Space Applications
1 p.m. EST/ 10 a.m. PST/ 1700 GMT/UTC
Hosted by Photonics Media

Dr. Joseph M. Howard, lead optical designer,
James Webb Space Telescope, NASA Goddard
Space Flight Center: The Optics of the James Webb
Space Telescope.
Dr. Alexander M. Rubenchik, Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory, Livermore, Calif.: The Promise of Pulsed
Lasers in Removing Orbital Debris.
2 0 1 2 W E b I N A R S E R I E S
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JANUARy: Nanobiophotonics Update
FEbRUARy: Industry Trends Analysis;
Lasers in Optical Communications
MARCH: Trends in biophotonic Imaging
SpaceWebinarAd_PG38.indd 38 10/26/12 10:51 AM
Space
If its to be our next home, optics
and photonics will have been there
long before our fights get in.
There are those who believe that our future lies somewhere beyond
planet Earth.
Stephen Hawking said in 2001, I dont think the

human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread
into space.
So, is that what its all about all the telescopes and
rovers, shuttles and space stations, cameras and images fnding
a new home for our species?
If so, we still have a lot of work

to do.
For starters, maybe we should aim a laser at some of the

space junk thats accumulated between Earth and its moon tidy
up a bit before we go.
Space-based laser weapons are, it seems,

an idea whose time never came, but lasers instead form guide stars
for tracking objects in orbit.
NASAs Curiosity rover with its

rock-zapping laser and many cameras looks for evidence of life on
Mars.
Many more cameras deployed throughout the solar system

employ advanced imaging technology to send home mind-blowing
images and staggering amounts of data.
The big challenge now is

transferring and handling it all. And for sure, between life on Earth
and life among the stars, well have a lot of glass to polish.
Lasers Find Varied Uses
in Space Applications
Telescopes Require Polishing
to Perfection
Storage Keeps Pace
with Data from Space
In Situ Method Optimizes
Optical Coatings
Superpolished Optics
Enable High-Sensitivity
Laser Applications
this months FEATURES

1112FeaturesIntro.indd 39 10/24/12 4:54 PM
Lasers Find Varied Uses
in Space Applications
From the frst laser fred on another planet to observatory guide
stars and space collision avoidance systems, lasers in space
are making news with numerous advances and universal frsts
(as far as we know).
BY VALERIE C. COFFEY
FREELANCE SCIENCE WRITER
W
ith the beginning of the Laser
Lunar Ranging experiment in
the 1960s, the use of lasers in
space moved out of the realm of science
fction into reality. While lasers-as-
lightsabers are still only Star Wars fction,
the numerous ways we use lasers in space
applications are pretty cool, even to non-
nerdy folks.
NASAs Mars rover Curiosity has been
front and center in the news since its land-
ing on the distant big red rock on Aug.
6 of this year.
1
Part of its mission is to
search for markers of biological habitabil-
ity as well as to study geology, climate
and the role of water on the planet. In a
functional target practice test on Aug.
19, Curiositys powerful megawatt laser
became our frst to be fred on another
planet (see Figure 1). In that frst self-
test of the instrument after landing, it
fred 30 5-ns-long pulses, each with more
than 1 million W of power, over a 10-s
period at a fst-size rock dubbed
Coronation.
A powerful mast-mounted infrared
Figure 1. NASAs Mars Curiosity rover uses its mast-mounted, megawatt infrared laser (an invisible ray illustrated here in visible red light) to vaporize a bit of rock. The
resulting light is captured by a telescope and a camera, routed via fber optics to three spectrographs in the instrument, and analyzed to identify its components.
NASAs Mars Curiosity rover image courtsey of NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Feat Space.indd 40 10/24/12 4:55 PM
diode laser, supplied by France-based 3S
Photonics, is part of the nuclear-powered
rovers Chemistry and Camera instru-
ment, or ChemCam. The laser, which uses
a Nd:KGW crystal to produce 1.067-m
light, works by heating up a hole in the
rock 2 to 4 mm wide from up to 9 m away
until its atoms are vaporized to form an
ionized, glowing plasma.
2
Then Chem-
Cams 4.3-in.-aperture telescope detects
the light and directs it through an optical
fber to three spectrographs within the
rover.
The spectrographs divide the spectrum
from the glow and record the resulting
wavelengths from ultraviolet to infra-
red, which scientists can use to identify
the precise elemental composition of
Coronation and the other targets it zaps
(see Figure 2). Use of this laser-induced
breakdown spectroscopy technique
isnt new, but the laser involved here
(although pulsed) is in the same class as
the powerful Boeing YAL-1 Airborne
Laser weapons system designed by the US
Department of Defenses Missile Defense
Agency to destroy ballistic missiles and
other threats from an airborne platform.
Although for decades lasers were a key
focus in a variety of space-based defense
R&D programs, the US Air Forces
Airborne Laser program ended in 2011,
deemed unworkable and too expensive.
Likewise, the Missile Defense Agency
currently has no active programs or
plans to deploy directed energy weapons
in space, according to Richard Lehner,
spokesman for the agency.
Besides being less cost-effective than
land- and sea-based missile defense tech-
nologies, Lehner said, there is no threat
that currently justifes the development
and testing of lasers in space for defensive
purposes. The development and test effort
would be extensive, cost several billion
dollars and have no guarantee of success.
Laser guide stars
The US military isnt developing Star
Wars-style laser-defense systems in
space, but one branch of the military is
indeed shining lasers into space. Part of
the mission of the Air Force Research
Laboratorys Directed Energy Directorate
is to develop real-time tracking, imaging
and identifcation of space objects. To
accomplish this, the AFRL leads in the
development of cutting-edge laser-guide-
star adaptive optics capable of tracking
objects in space.
Adaptive optics technology helps
overcome the atmospheric turbulence that
distorts ground-based telescope images
by using a laser, typically a narrowband
sodium laser with a few watts of power,
projected on the mesosphere to create an
artifcial star (see Figure 3). Atmo-
spheric conditions cause this guide star
to waver and twinkle in the same manner
Laser-fast wit
After the Mars Curiosity Rovers frst laser
test, the rovers offcial Twitter account,
@MarsCuriosity, tweeted: Yes, Ive got
a laser beam attached to my head. Im
not ill tempered; I zapped a rock for
science: http://1.usa.gov/P7IXF1 #MSL
#PewPew, helping to cement Curiositys
place in pop culture.
Figure 2. The ChemCam instrument has three spectrographs to analyze the laser-vaporized rock emission.
The shortest-wavelength spectrograph starts in the UV at 240 nm and can detect emission peaks of iron,
magnesium, silicon, zirconium and several other elements. ChemCam was designed and built by a US-French
team led by Los Alamos (N.M.) National Laboratory; NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.;
the Centre National dtudes Spatiales (the French Space Agency); and the Centre dtude Spatiale des
Rayonnements at the Observatoire Midi-Pyrnes in Toulouse, France.

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Figure 3. Yepun observatory, the fourth 8.2-m Unit
Telescope of ESOs Very Large Telescope (VLT) facil-
ity, launches a sodium-band laser guide star into
the sky in June 2012 as part of its adaptive optics
system, to be upgraded in 2013. The Large and
Small Magellanic Clouds glow in the night sky.
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n Lasers in Space
as target objects near it. Tracking of the
twinkling guide star enables a deformable
telescope mirror with actuators to instan-
taneously correct wavefront distortions
hundreds of times per second. The sodium
wavelengths of the laser easily can be
fltered out of observations.
In June 2012, The Boeing Co. in Chi-
cago announced completion of a two-year
modernization to the Maui Space Surveil-
lance System at the Air Force Maui Opti-
cal and Supercomputing Site on Mount
Haleakala in Hawaii.
3
The site houses a
3.67-m-diameter adaptive-optics telescope
called the Advanced Electro-Optical Sys-
tem (AEOS), which can track near-Earth
and deep-space objects (see Figure 4). The
telescope sits in a retractable cylindrical
enclosure that enables open-air operation
at an elevation of 10,000 ft.
At the heart of the AEOS telescope is
a deformable mirror with 941 actuators
that change the mirrors shape to remove
atmospheric distortion. The upgrade of
sensors, software and computer systems
brought AEOS to full operational capabil-
ity with the ability to image and track
objects in orbit.
In July, MPB Communications of Mon-
treal and photonics manufacturer Toptica
of Munich unveiled a novel adaptive
optics system at the SPIE Astronomical
Telescopes + Instrumentation conference
in Amsterdam.
4
The SodiumStar 20/2
laser system was developed to withstand
the harsh environmental conditions at the
European Southern Observatory (ESO) in
Cerro Paranal, Chile. The system is based
on narrowband Raman fber amplifer
technology pioneered by ESO, which
works by amplifying the tunable diode
laser at 1178 nm to 35 W of optical power.
Frequency conversion to the sodium
resonance at 589 nm results in more than
20 W of output power with a linewidth of
approximately 5 MHz.
The SodiumStar 20/2 technology is
portable and can be installed directly on
the telescope because the bulky pumping
unit can be separated up to 30 m from the
laser head (see Figure 5). Four Sodium-
Star 20/2 lasers are scheduled for installa-
tion in 2013 as part of the adaptive optics
system on each of the four unit telescopes
of the ESOs Very Large Telescope (VLT)
group.
Lasers on R&D satellites
Although laser-guide-star adaptive
optics technology has been in use for
Figure 4. The Air Force Research Laboratorys 3.6-m, 75-ton Advanced Electro-Optical System (AEOS)
telescope is located at the Directed Energy Directorates Air Force Maui Optical and Surveillance Site on
Mount Haleakala in Hawaii. The green laser illumination of the telescope is a refection from laser
propagation experiments between Mauna Loa on the island of Hawaii and Mount Haleakala on Maui.
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n Lasers in Space
nearly two decades, lasers are involved in
several novel space research proposals,
too. A NASA proposal to study carbon di-
oxide in the Earths atmosphere will use a
new laser-based system, the CO
2
Sounder,
to globally measure CO
2
from space.
5

The Active Sensing of CO
2
Emissions of
Nights, Days, and Seasons (ASCENDS)
mission, currently due to be launched in
2022, proposes monitoring the amount of
atmospheric carbon dioxide that trees and
foliage are absorbing and emitting in the
processes of photosynthesis and respira-
tion. Lasers mounted on a low-Earth-orbit
satellite would bounce light through the
atmosphere, off Earth and back through
the atmosphere to a telescope/detector, to
measure one of two CO
2
absorption bands
at 2 m and 1.6 m, and a third band
from molecular oxygen at 0.78 m (see
Figure 6).
This method would improve upon cur-
rent satellite-based concepts that use sun-
Figure 5. A 20-W portable guide-star laser prototype designed for ESOs VLT facility sees frst light during
feld tests June 21, 2011, at the Allgu Public Observatory in Ottobeuren, Germany.
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light as a source and, thus, are limited to
measuring in daylight. A smaller footprint
on the surface means that the observa-
tional path will not be affected by cloud
contamination, which inhibits observa-
tions at the surface where CO
2
exchange
and mixing processes occur. Because the
project is still in the very early stages of
planning and budgeting, said Ken Jucks,
program scientist for ASCENDS, the type
of lasers to be used is still under consid-
eration but may include continuous-wave,
pulsed or fber-amplifed ones of a few
watts of power.
In another novel use of lasers in space,
James Mason and colleagues at NASA
Ames Research Center in Palo Alto,
Calif., have proposed lasers as a way to
clear the plethora of space debris in orbit
around the Earth.
6
Earth-based lasers
with 5 to 10 kW of power could col-
lectively provide just enough photons
to slightly nudge an object in low-Earth
orbit away from a collision course with a
satellite, or nudge it toward de-orbit and
Fermionics
4555 Runway St. Simi Valley, CA 93063
Tel (805) 582-0155 Fax (805) 582-1623
w w w . f e r m i o n i c s . c o m
Opto-Technology
Analog bandwidth to 8 GHz.
FC, SC, and ST receptacles.
Active diameter from 50 m to 5 mm.
Standard and custom ceramic
submounts.
TO-style packages available with flat
AR-coated windows, ball lens and
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Standard axial pigtail packages and
miniature ceramic pigtail packages,
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Communications
Instrumention
Medical
Imaging / Sensing
Fermionics 1/3 Column:Layout 1 9/12/10 2:10 AM Page 1
cause it to burn up upon re-entry into the
atmosphere. Such a laser would not have
enough intensity to accidentally dam-
age a satellite or to raise concern from
other space-faring nations and could be
marketed as a commercial venture that
could be shared by many countries, the
researchers say.
Space-based communications
The conventional radio-frequency
communications used in space cant keep
up with the demand for moving vast
quantities of data generated by increas-
ing numbers of sensors, telescopes and
sophisticated command-and-control mis-
sions. This data is transmitted around the
Earth and the solar system using existing
ground-to-satellite infrastructure, which
is outdated and slow.
To address this problem, researchers
at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center
and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and
at MIT Lincoln Laboratory are work-
ing on the Laser Communications Relay
Demonstration (LCRD or LaserCom), a
long-duration NASA optical communica-
tion mission. It will use lasers to encode
and transmit data at rates 10 to 100 times
faster than NASAs current communica-
tions capabilities.
7
The space station and Hubble Space
Telescope had continuous video sent to
Earth that only worked from low-Earth
orbit to geosynchronous orbit, said
David Israel, principal investigator for
LaserCom. This system will have relays
demonstrating how we can take advantage
of optical links. The project is analogous
to network service providers on Earth
upgrading to fber in telecom.
The demonstration tests, scheduled for
2017, will involve two-way data transmis-
sion from ground stations in White Sands,
N.M., and JPL to satellites in orbit. In
the ensuing years, NASA hopes that its
demonstration system will be replaced by
more advanced hardware in orbit.
stellaredit@gmail.com
References
1. Mars Rovers Laser Zaps First Target,
Photonics.com (Aug. 22, 2012): http://www.
photonics.com/Article.aspx?AID=51678.
2. http://www.msl-chemcam.com.
3. http://www.boeing.com/bds/news/ (Jun. 20,
2012).
4. http://www.toptica.com/fleadmin/user_
upload/Brochures/toptica_BR_Sodium
Star20-2.pdf.
5. NASA: Space Laser to measure CO
2
on
Earth (video): http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=1_p2ae7RoM4 (Aug. 31, 2012)
6. J. Mason et al, Orbital Debris-Debris
Collision Avoidance (Jul. 19, 2012), Ad-
vances in Space Research: http://arxiv.org/
pdf/1103.1690.pdf.
7. http://esc.gsfc.nasa.gov/267/LCRD.html.
Figure 6. The NASA ASCENDS mission would use lasers on space-based platforms to measure CO
2
and O
2

absorption in the Earths atmosphere. The light-detection-and-ranging-based approach will enable
observations day and night.
N
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Telescopes Require
Polishing to Perfection
As astronomy projects look deeper into space,
polishing the optics becomes more and more critical.
BY HANK HOGAN
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
T
his past summer, there was a
go-ahead to go big. The European
Southern Observatory member
states declared support for the billion-
plus-euro ($1.3 billion or more) European
Extremely Large Telescope. The project
will put a 39.3-m-diameter main mirror
atop a mountain in Chile for visible and
near-infrared observation. It is expected
to be operational around 2022.
Key to fabricating this and other large
new telescopes are advances in manufac-
turing, including polishing. A measure of
the challenge can be seen in how much
glass will be processed.
ELT [Extremely Large Telescope]
segments will represent more optical area
than that of all optical astronomy tele-
scopes built so far on Earth, said Roland
Geyl, vice president of sales for Sagem-
Reosc. A member of the Safran group, the
Paris-based Sagems Reosc department
is among those vying to produce those
segments.
Another indication of the magnitude
of the task is that the surfaces must
The ESOs Extremely Large Telescope, under construction,
is projected to start observations from the ultraviolet at 320 nm
to the mid-infrared at 25,000 nm beginning around 2022.
Advances in optics manufacturing, such as improved polishing, are vital for fabrication of new large-scale telescopes.
Here, polished to within nanometers of its specifed shape, the frst Extremely Large Telescope prototype segment is installed on its support at Sagem-Reosc.
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follow the desired shape to fractions
of a wavelength. Whats more, those
shapes are more aspherical than in the
past, presenting problems for metrology
and manufacturing. A fnal issue is that
the segment edges must adhere to tight
specifcations because they will be in the
viewing aperture.
In all, it will be necessary to grind,
polish and smooth more than 800 separate
1.45-m hexagonal segments before they
can be assembled to form the Extremely
Large Telescope. The goal is to have all
those segments produced in three years,
requiring a tenfold increase in throughput
with respect to what was done a decade
ago, Geyl said.
The process is iterative, cycling
between material removal and measure-
ment. The latter provides the error map
that guides the former, which involves
robotic polishing techniques. After cut-
ting the glass into hexagonal segments, an
ion beam mills it into the fnal shape.
The key is therefore to reduce the
number of iterations from several tens,
Geyl said of plans to speed up the process,
to just a few for these segmented optics.
Thats the real challenge. The manufac-
turing process must be adapted.
Sagem-Reosc has so far produced seven
segments and evaluated three different
glass materials from as many manufac-
turers. It is ready to begin producing
segments at the required rate of one a day,
Geyl said.
Other companies also seek to supply
segments. One such is the St. Asaph,
UK-based OpTIC Glyndr, a spinoff of
Glyndr University. Tony Fox-Leonard,
managing director, noted that the small
company has taken an approach that
eliminates ion beam milling, the last and
slowest step in the traditional process.
Were attempting to and were pretty
close to demonstrating that we can pol-
ish hexagonals, he said.
The allowable surface error is 7.5 nm
root mean square, and OpTIC Glyndr
has shown that it can get within a factor
of three or so of that number. Further
advances should allow the process to hit
the spec, and the result will be a segment
popping out of a production cell every
four days, Fox-Leonard said. Running
several of these in parallel will yield the
necessary segment-a-day output.
Better tools and techniques make it
possible to polish fnished formed hex-
agonal segments out to the edge without
degradation, said Richard Freeman, man-
aging director of Zeeko Ltd. in Coalville,
UK. The company makes intelligent
robotic polishers, with a seven-axis ver-
sion being used in the Extremely Large
Telescope work.
The head of the machine moves across
the glass, polishing a small spot; a longer
dwell time at a location leads to more
material being removed. The head lifts as
it approaches the edge.
A key advance is that the polishing
A segment of the highly polished Giant Magellan Telescope mirror.
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head can be moved out of the way, allow-
ing full-aperture metrology of the surface,
Freeman said. The part is placed on the
machine, polished and measured without
having to be moved.
This avoids the diffculty of registering
the generated error map to the coordinates
of the polisher, which would be neces-
sary if the part had to be moved between
stations. When coupled with process
development and sophisticated control
algorithms, the result is the ability to
rapidly converge on the specifed surface
geometry, Freeman said.
Edges present a particular polishing
challenge, said Michael Tuell, optical
research engineer at the Steward Obser-
vatory Mirror Lab at The University of
Arizona in Tucson. Steward is fabricating
the primary mirror for the Giant Magellan
Telescope, which consists of six off-axis
nearly paraboloid mirrors, each measur-
ing 8.4 m in diameter. There also will be
a seventh, on-axis, segment of the same
size.
Together, the seven will form a single
optical surface with a collecting area of
24.5 m. The telescope will be located in
Chile and is projected to start observa-
Highly aspheric surfaces demand that tools maintain
their local ideal shape despite distorting forces.
A robotic polisher removes material from a glass segment (bottom center) using a moving head that dwells
for a specifed time in a small spot, converging on a desired shape as seen in the graph opposite. The tower
above is used for metrology and testing.
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Meanwhile,
on the fnal frontier
Besides new instruments on Earth, there
is also the James Webb Space Telescope,
slated to fy around 2018. It will observe
from about 600 to 28,000 nm. Because
of what it is attempting to see, it will
operate below 50 K, which means that its
primary mirror about 6.5 m in diameter
must be made of beryllium.
The mirror is made up of 1.5-m
asphere segments, totaling 21, counting
spares. Each has a surface roughness
,4 nm and periodic variations ,20 nm.
The project also has a secondary mirror
and a spare, a tertiary mirror and a steer-
ing mirror.
All have been delivered and are ready
for assembly. Manufacturing was done
with computer-controlled optical surfac-
ing machines developed over the past
four decades by L-3 Integrated Optical
Systems. Nine machines were used at the
companys Richmond, Calif., facility for
fabrication of more than 30 m
2
of beryl-
lium mirrors, said Clay Sylvester, general
manager.
The technology allows exceptional
control of aspheres and off-axis optical
designs, including departures measured
in millimeters on optics as small as only a
few inches, he added. Some of the appli-
cations being developed by the company
include metallic mirrors of visual quality.
CCOS [computer-controlled optical
surfacing] is agnostic to the material be-
ing processed and can be applied to virtu-
ally all manner of refractive and refective
materials, and virtually any shape which
can be measured, Sylvester said.
Scientifcally complementing the new
space telescope will be the Thirty Meter
Telescope. Located at Mauna Kea in Ha-
waii, it will observe light at 310 to 28,000
nm when completed around 2020.
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tions from the ultraviolet at 320 nm to
the mid-infrared at 25,000 nm beginning
sometime around 2021. Leveling of the
mountaintop for site construction began
in 2012.
An edge presents a problem because
any material removal tool with weight
or force behind it will tend to droop as
it moves out over open space. If uncon-
trolled, the result will be a surface that
can vary quite a bit from what is desired.
A related issue involves highly aspheric
surfaces, which demand that tools
maintain their local ideal shape despite
distorting forces. This is an increas-
ingly important requirement, given the
specifcation of larger and larger aspheric
departures. Greater aspheric deviations
lead to lower f-stops and larger viewing
apertures relative to focal length. The
Giant Magellan Telescope, for instance,
will have a 14 mm deviation per off-axis
segment from the best ft sphere and an
overall f-stop of 0.7. By way of contrast,
f-stops of traditional telescopes might be
2.5 or more, and if they were aspheric at
all, it was to the tune of a few hundred
microns.
At Steward, the solution to these pol-
ishing challenges is to use both passive
and active systems. In contrast to the
former, the latter tend to maintain shape
over a polishing orbit. As with another
non-Newtonian fuid, Silly Putty, the
resistance of the backing to deformation
is dependent upon the shear rate or shear
rate history, and that yields the desired
performance.
During the period of an orbit, the silly
putty maintains its shape, Tuell said.
Its a rigid system. But over the long
timescales of moving around the mirror
and the different radial zones, it changes
shape appropriately.
Going forward, such locally stiff but
globally compliant materials and methods
will play an ever more important role,
he added. In general, the tricky part is
getting the fnal smoothing right without
adversely affecting the overall shape.
Manufacturing an asphere requires
careful control of the polishing process
because two surfaces rubbing together
have no natural tendency to create such a
contour, noted Hubert Buddy Martin,
Steward project scientist for mirror pol-
ishing. In making the mirror for the Giant
Magellan Telescope, the team at Steward
The desired shape of a glass segment is determined via computer, and a robotic polisher (opposite) removes
excess material (PVq 5 peak-to-valley error parameter).
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found that computer-controlled polishing,
in conjunction with stressed-lap polish-
ing, worked well.
Coming up with the process involved
some trial and error, but the technique is
in place now, and the frst off-axis seg-
ment for the telescope has been produced.
At the same time, scientists developed
several independent measurement meth-
ods, which required building a 28-m-tall
tower. The effort was necessary for the
metrology required to guide the polishing
and smoothing process to completion.
Multiple tests serve as checks against
potential errors that might otherwise go
undiscovered until the telescope sees
frst light. Devising the tests and carry-
ing them out with certainty wasnt easy
because the individual mirrors resemble
saddle-shaped potato chips. Testing them
required the creation of a wavefront with
the same unusual shape, Martin said.
We now have a better appreciation for
the challenge of making large off-axis
aspheres, and we have all the tools and
techniques in place, he said of the suc-
cessful fabrication effort.
hank.hogan@photonics.com
Top photo: Rigid-conformal lap polishing of the frst of six off-axis segments of the Giant Magellan Telescope.
Polishing is done using an orbital motion and dwell-time control for preferential removal of high regions.
Above: Beryllium mirrors created by a large computer-controlled optical surfacing operation, as is seen here,
will fy aboard the James Webb Space Telescope.
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Read
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Photonics news from your industry
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Industry'sLEADINGmagazine_PG51.indd 51 10/25/12 10:06 AM
Storage Keeps Pace
with Data from Space
As imaging technology improves, space researchers
are accumulating incredible amounts of image data
all of which must be transmitted and stored for analysis.
BY MARIE FREEBODY
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
T
here are few felds in which the
challenge of image storage and anal-
ysis is more keenly felt than in space
research. From ground-based telescopes
to instruments in the outer reaches of the
solar system, the infux of image data that
is continually being generated is stag-
gering. And this volume is set to grow as
technologies for space exploration become
more sophisticated.
As NASAs Mars Curiosity rover busies
itself with its task at hand, it joins the
thousands of other instruments that are
gathering images and beaming them back
to control centers for storage and analysis.
Meanwhile, scientists on the ground are
feverishly working on new ways to cope
with this growing infux of image data
being generated for space research.
Over the past decade, instrumenta-
tion fown on planetary robotic explo-
ration missions has produced massive
amounts of data. The Planetary Data
System [PDS], NASAs offcial archive of
scientifc results from US planetary mis-
sions, has seen an approximate fftyfold
increase in the amount of data to nearly
half a petabyte, said Daniel J. Crichton,
principal computer scientist and manager
at the PDS Engineering Node at NASAs
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The
most signifcant part of this volume is
imaging data.
But the true problem lies not in the
storage of this data but in its transfer and
subsequent handling. This is a particular
challenge for scientists who do not have
access to the computational power housed
in astronomical facilities. A re-exami-
nation of how to scale the computation is
required, as are better tools for browsing,
accessing, visualizing and analyzing mas-
sive amounts of data.
The exponential growth of hard disk
sizes by far outpaces the growth of the
detectors, effectively making storage
cheaper than it was 20 years ago, said Dr.
Jeremy R. Walsh, archive scientist at the
worlds largest ground-based observa-
The frst released VST image shows the spectacular star-forming region Messier 17, also known as the
Omega Nebula or the Swan Nebula, as it has never been seen before. The data were processed using the
Astro-WISE software system developed by E.A. Valentijn and collaborators at Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and elsewhere.
For even more striking space images we couldnt ft them
all in print visit Photonics.com.
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tory, the European Southern Observatory
(ESO). It is probably more of an issue for
the individual astronomer or group to fnd
room and work with the TB [terabytes] of
data in their project.
The latest addition to ESOs Very Large
Telescope (VLT) is its Survey Telescope
(VST), which uses a mosaic camera con-
taining 32 4096 3 2048 CCD detectors
for which large-scale reduction of data
is needed. This mammoth task is carried
out by dedicated facilities around Europe
with suffcient computer power and disk
storage.
In the coming years, new instruments
will impose even greater demands on
computer capability. Data cubes larger
than 2 GB will be produced from the
forthcoming MUSE (Multi Unit Spec-
troscopic Explorer) instrument on the
VLT, and such a large volume of data
cannot be easily processed on current
standard desktop or laptop computers.
To exploit this data, users will demand
more powerful machines; however,
affordable computer hardware typically
lags one or two years behind the delivery
of these data sets.
Image data archives
But its not just sophisticated future
missions that pose a problem for todays
space scientists. Decades of space re-
search have generated immense archives
of image data that must be accessed in a
meaningful way. Astronomers conven-
tionally tag imaging data using a set of
standards for annotation that helps to cat-
alog the image according to key features
and attributes. Known as metadata or
data about the data, it helps astronomers
retrieve the correct images they want for
analysis and use.
Sometimes, these metadata account
for huge amounts of information that
have to be stored and accessed through
the database, said Dr. Pedro Osuna, head
of the Science Archives and Virtual Ob-
servatory team at ESAs European Space
Astronomy Centre [ESAC]. Current
database systems allow for big amounts
of metadata storage, but are not enough
to cope with the expected amounts that
missions like Gaia or Euclid will deliver.
Therefore, we are currently researching
in areas of parallel database comput-
ing, Software as a Service technologies,
NoSQL access to data (Hadoop, Map-
Reduce), etcetera.
Gaia, which is set for launch in 2013, is
an ambitious mission to chart a 3-D map
of the Milky Way, while Euclid is a mis-
sion to map the dark universe and is due
for launch in 2020.
Commercial and noncommercial data-
base software companies are spending a
lot of effort in designing systems that can
cope with huge amounts of metadata in
databases, Osuna said.
Most of todays astronomical archives
use a hard disk to store data, often with
multiple copies and tape backup systems
as tertiary safe storage. Data reduction
(the removal of the instrument signa-
ture and conversion to physical units)
is done in two ways: Observatories run
pipelines that automatically process data
and deliver partly reduced products to
astronomers; alternatively, and addition-
ally, reduction is done on the astronomers
desktop, typically with scripts and legacy
code.
Examples of such systems include the
Image Reduction and Analysis Facility,
which is a large and widely used astro-
nomical reduction and analysis package
in optical astronomy. But as ESOs Walsh
VST image of the largest globular cluster in the sky, Omega Centauri. The very wide feld of view of VST and
its powerful camera OmegaCAM can encompass even the faint outer regions of this spectacular object.
The data were processed using the VST-Tube system developed by A. Grado and collaborators at the
INAF-Capodimonte Observatory.
Astronomers are typically
very eclectic and will use
whatever piece of code is
best for their particular use,
be it from a large package
or a dedicated task freely
available.
Dr. Jeremy R. Walsh,
ESO archive scientist
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Metadata is data about the data that helps astronomers
retrieve the images they want for analysis.
n Data Storage
points out, the software is more than 30
years old.
The ESO-MIDAS [Munich Image
Data Analysis System] ..., developed by
ESO but no longer fully supported, is of
comparable vintage, he said. IDL is also
popular and has a large library of astro-
nomical applications. Full replacements
of these systems are not contemplated on
account of their large size (many millions
of lines of code). Python is widely used
both for scripting and for the development
of systems from scratch.
Astronomers are typically very eclec-
tic and will use whatever piece of code is
best for their particular use, be it from a
large package or a dedicated task freely
available. For astrophysical analysis of
reduced data, most astronomers write
their own codes (e.g., [using] C, Python,
Fortran, etcetera).
Cloud computing
Although ESAs Osuna is facing big
data space missions such as Gaia and
Euclid, he believes that the solution does
not lie only in developing new hardware.
In the case of Euclid, the data download
rate is going to be about 100 GB per day,
totaling about 100 PB every three years.
The storage and processing of the data
are posing big technological challenges,
not only from the point of view of hard-
ware, but also from a system architectural
angle, where new distributed systems will
have to be implemented to cope with such
amounts of data storage and processing,
Osuna said.
This new portrait of the nearby spiral galaxy
NGC 253 demonstrates that the VST, the newest
telescope at ESOs Paranal Observatory,
provides broad views of the sky while also
offering impressive image quality. The data
were processed using the VST-Tube system devel-
oped by A. Grado and collaborators at
the INAF-Capodimonte Observatory.
This montage shows six cutouts from the new VST image of the star-forming region Messier 17,
also known as the Omega Nebula or Swan Nebula.
The left eye of the Mast Camera on NASAs Mars rover Curiosity took this image of the camera on the rovers
arm. The mechanism on the right in this image is Curiositys dust-removal tool, a motorized wire brush.
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The data download rate for the Euclid mission will be around
100 GB per day, or around 100 PB every three years.
For NASAs Crichton and colleague
Lisa Gaddis, manager of the PDS Imaging
Node, the crux of the matter is to develop
a system that supports scalability at all
levels, from safe and effcient storage of
data to automation of mechanisms to ac-
cess, visualize, download and analyze it.
One of the major trends [at NASA] has
been the push to make services available
online, Crichton said. Over the next
decade, we anticipate the need to continue
to improve mechanisms to bring data
from multiple instruments and missions
together. This will build on our efforts to
re-architect the PDS so that it supports
capabilities such as on-the-fy image pro-
cessing, correlation of data from multiple
instruments and missions, and navigation
through a wide variety of visualization
and analysis tools.
A simple way of coping with the grow-
ing infux of image data is through loss-
less compression (like gzip). This often
is used by archives to save space, but the
data must be unpacked before it can be
worked with; tile compression allows ac-
cess to the data in compressed form and is
gaining popularity.
Lossy compression of data with very
high compression ratios is being dis-
cussed, but acceptance from the commu-
nity would be necessary before employing
such techniques, said Jonas Haase, ar-
chive specialist at ESO. Network speeds
have not followed the same growth trends
as hard disks and CPUs [central process-
ing units], which will make it somewhat
harder to offer convenient data access to
the astronomers in the future.
Current data rates are still in the realm
where all necessary data processing in
an archive setting can be performed in
clusters of machines or small grids. Some
projects are pooling their resources in
larger grid projects to save in the long run
and to be able to scale up in the future.
CANFAR [Canadian Advanced Net-
work for Astronomical Research]/Canarie
Inc. is an example of that. ESA/ESAC has
two grids, one of which can be used by
the community, ESOs Walsh said.
Although some initiatives use grid
computing, large-scale use of cloud
computing has not yet made a mark on
astronomy. But as data volume grows, the
need for more automated methods for data
extraction increases. Along with increas-
ing data volume, cloud computing might
ing and visualizing scientifc results,
NASAs Crichton said. Computation can
help improve the ability to visualize and
browse through massive data by paral-
lelizing much of the work required to
properly subset and tile imaging data.
marie.freebody@photonics.com
be an option if it can be leveraged to pro-
vide mechanisms for scalable storage and
for computation.
Data that are properly formatted and
cartographically registered for various
planetary bodies for example, Mars
will help signifcantly in mining, extract-
Artists impression of the Gaia satellite, which will be the most accurate optical astronomy satellite
ever built. Due for launch in 2013, it will continuously scan the sky for at least fve years.
An artists impression of Euclid, which will map the dark universe and which is expected to launch in 2020.
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Tech Feature
From the simplest broadband an-
tirefection coatings used on eyeglasses
and camera lenses to the complex coatings
used in civilian and military lasers, optical
fber devices and high-brightness LEDs,
optical thin flms are to be found every-
where. Although we may not be aware of
their presence, thin-flm coatings enable
commercialization and effcient operation
of optical devices that simply would not be
possible otherwise.
Mass-production techniques including
plasma ion-assisted evaporation and sput-
ter already enable manufacture of high-
quality optical layers. The thin-flm engi-
neer can select from a number of existing
control techniques according to the optical
application and the hardware installed on
the manufacturing equipment, but these
all have limitations. For some complex
coatings in new emerging applications,
even very small variations in deposition
conditions may drastically reduce pro-
duction yields. The time has come to add
a new weapon to the arsenal of thin-flm
control techniques.
Industrial production tools that think for
themselves have fnally arrived. Such tools
will integrate all the necessary steps from
the frst theoretical flm design to creating
and manufacturing a recipe with real-time
automated re-optimization. The shorter
development times, the increase in yields
and the ultimate reduction of thin-flm
production costs could open up new cost-
effective applications for optical coatings.
Conventional monitoring techniques
Quartz monitoring (Figure 1) is the sim-
plest and most established technique for
controlling thin-flm layers. It relies on
measuring the change in oscillation fre-
quency of a quartz crystal as it is coated
alongside the optical substrates. This
change in frequency can be calibrated
according to the type of material being
coated and the equivalent flm thickness
calculated as deposition continues until
the layer is terminated at the target value.
Although indirect in that it doesnt
measure optical properties directly, the
technique is easy to implement with sim-
ple operation and low hardware costs. Re-
cent improvements using 6-MHz crystals
and higher sampling rates have improved
performance when depositing thin lay-
ers in particular, and quartz monitoring
therefore remains a valuable measurement
technique when overall stack designs are
relatively simple and production toler-
ances fairly wide.
Optical monitoring
In its simplest form, optical monitoring
involves measuring the intensity of light
refected from or transmitted through a
test glass sitting alongside the substrate
as it gets coated (Figure 2). The measure-
ment is made for a specifed wavelength
by integrating a monochromator into the
setup. Each layer is terminated as the mea-
sured intensity gets as close as possible to
target maxima/minima precalculated for
each layer using thin-flm design software
before the process starts. A new test glass
can be selected for each layer of the coat-
ing, and the glass itself may be heated to
simulate coating conditions seen by the
substrates in hot processes.
Real-time technology helps manufacturers produce better thin flms
with less downtime, higher yields and lower costs.
BY ALLAN JAUNZENS
EVATEC LTD.
In Situ Method Optimizes
Optical Coatings
Figure 1. Quartz monitoring may be indirect because it doesnt measure optical properties themselves,
but it is easy to implement with simple operation and low hardware costs. Here, a quartz and optical
monitoring head.
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Quartz monitoring relies on measuring the change in oscillation frequency
of a quartz crystal as it is coated alongside the optical substrates.
Feat Evatec.indd 56 10/24/12 5:07 PM
Relative to crystal monitoring, this
technique offers the advantages of direct
measurement of the optical performance
and excellent signal-to-noise ratios, and
the test glasses can be retained easily for
future reference. However, hardware costs
are an order of magnitude (or more) higher,
and the user know-how required to get the
best performance is much higher.
Broadband optical monitoring
Enjoying widespread use in the past
decade particularly, broadband monitor-
ing allows not just one wavelength but
the whole spectrum to be checked. The
receiver used in standard monitoring
is replaced by a spectrophotometer with
a temperature-stabilized CCD array. In
some cases, it is possible to measure the
actual substrate rather than a test glass to
give the most direct feedback on the coat-
ing as it is deposited.
In typical comparisons with quartz
monitoring using just single dielectric lay-
ers, the user could expect termination ac-
curacies two times better using broadband
optical monitoring. Although it is the most
complex technique used in production to
date, the enhanced accuracy translates into
edge accuracies and repeatabilities of less
than 0.2 percent, even for complex multi-
layer coatings and nonconsecutive produc-
tion runs.
However, with ever-tighter tolerances
demanded by new consumer and military
applications, even these small variations
in deposition conditions can have sig-
nifcant effects on production yield. Both
standard and broadband optical monitor-
ing approaches involve making a theo-
1. Layer
Deposition
2.
Check
Spectrum
3. Recalculate Remaining
Layers or Continue
Without Changes
The
Re-optimization
Loop
Process
Start
Process
End
PS Nov 12
FEAT Evatec
Figure 3
Lisa
Figure 2. Optical monitoring offers direct measurement of optical performance,
and test glasses can be retained easily for future reference. Here, an optical
monitoring setup in a typical evaporation system.
Figure 3. In online or in situ re-optimization, the frst layer of the coating is
deposited using broadband optical monitoring for termination. Then the actual
measured refection spectrum is compared with the precalculated target spectrum
before real-time process changes are made downstream, if necessary. Here, a
diagram of a re-optimization loop.
Figure 4. In three case studies, thin flms were coated using DC or mid-frequency AC sputtering. The system
included plasma emission monitoring for control of reactive gas to enable high coating rates with low
absorption and an optical broadband monitoring system for in situ direct measurement of the substrates.
Here, a diagram of the experimental setup.
Traditional optical monitoring involves measuring the intensity
of light refected from or transmitted through
a test glass sitting alongside the substrate as it is coated.
452 West 1260 North / Orem, UT 84057 USA/ Toll Free: 1.800.758.3110 / www.moxtek.com ISO 9001:2008
Imaging
Pixelation
IR Imaging
Night Vision
Display
Projection Systems
Head-up Displays
Head Mounted Displays
Industrial
UV Exposure and Curing
Aerospace/ Defense
Machine Vision
Instrumentation
Medical
Spectroscopy
Security Systems
DOING JUSTICE TO A
WORLD OF COLOR
Luc Viatour / www.Lucnix.be
Moxtek Applications include:
Moxtek
ProFlux wire-grid polarizers includes products for the ultraviolet, visible, and infrared. Performance options include
refective, absorptive, high contrast, and high transmission. Volume manuIacturing capability and an extensive patent portIolio make
Moxtek
your best source for nano-wire applications.

retical calculation about the optical per-
formance of a particular thin-flm stack
design, working out a real process recipe,
deciding what coating materials and layer
thicknesses to use, making it and then test-
ing the end result once the coating process
is fnished. At that point, it is too late to
correct any small errors that might have
occurred along the way, leading to losses
in yield or even scrapped production in the
case of unforeseen plant stoppage.
In situ re-optimization
In the case of online or in situ re-opti-
mization (Figure 3), the frst layer of the
coating is deposited using broadband opti-
cal monitoring for termination in the nor-
mal way. But then a comparison is made
between the actual measured refection
spectrum and the precalculated target
spectrum. In the case of any deviations,
the layer thicknesses and target spectra for
the remaining layers are recalculated, and
the process recipe for remaining layers is
adjusted within a few seconds, avoiding
any increase in production time. The next
layer is deposited, and the re-optimization
process is repeated until all layers have
been deposited, ensuring that the fnal ac-
tual spectrum matches the target as closely
as possible.
This opens up new possibilities for im-
provement of spectral performance to new
levels of accuracy, recovery after abnor-
mal midprocess production errors to avoid
lost batches, and commercialization of
new complex processes where production
yields otherwise would be too low.
Case studies
Three case studies for optical flms
deposited using both conventional broad-
band optical monitoring and the new in
situ re-optimization method illustrate how
production costs can be cut and output in-
creased.
In the studies (Figure 4), all flms were
coated using DC or mid-frequency AC
sputtering in a 1-m-diameter industrial
production batch system with drum ge-
ometry. The system was equipped with
plasma emission monitoring for control of
reactive gas to enable high coating rates
with low absorption, and optical broad-
band monitoring for in situ direct mea-
surement of the substrates.
Case 1 Recovery of unexpected produc-
tion error: To simulate an abnormal pro-
duction error, a 10 percent layer thickness
in layer 13 was introduced artifcially (Fig-
ure 5). Without online re-optimization,
the fnal flter shows reduced transmit-
tance and shifted edges. The flter does not
achieve its production specifcations, so
the batch would have to be scrapped. If the
same error is introduced and online re-op-
timization is activated, the coating system
automatically calculates new thicknesses,
and target spectra for the remaining layers
and the fnal flter performance are well
within specifcation.
Case 2 Improvement in spectral ac-
Thin-Film Control Tech Feature
Figure 5. In the frst test case, a 10 percent layer thickness in layer 13 was introduced artifcially.
Without online re-optimization, the fnal flter shows reduced transmittance and shifted edges.
Figure 6. In the second test case, the production flter shows only a very small shift of 1 nm to shorter
wavelengths and a small dip in transmission at 535 nm. However, with online re-optimization, even these
very small deviations are corrected.
In online or in situ re-optimization, the actual measured refection spectrum
is compared to the precalculated target spectrum in real time, and immediate
adjustments are made to the remainder of the process, if necessary.
452 West 1260 North / Orem, UT 84057 USA/ Toll Free: 1.800.758.3110 / www.moxtek.com ISO 9001:2008
Imaging
Pixelation
IR Imaging
Night Vision
Display
Projection Systems
Head-up Displays
Head Mounted Displays
Industrial
UV Exposure and Curing
Aerospace/ Defense
Machine Vision
Instrumentation
Medical
Spectroscopy
Security Systems
DOING JUSTICE TO A
WORLD OF COLOR
Luc Viatour / www.Lucnix.be
Moxtek Applications include:
Moxtek
ProFlux wire-grid polarizers includes products for the ultraviolet, visible, and infrared. Performance options include
refective, absorptive, high contrast, and high transmission. Volume manuIacturing capability and an extensive patent portIolio make
Moxtek
your best source for nano-wire applications.

curacy: Standard optical monitoring
achieves very good production results
with good agreement between the original
design and the actual measured spectrum
of the end flter (Figure 6). The production
flter shows only a very small shift of 1 nm
to shorter wavelengths and a small dip in
transmission at 535 nm. However, with
online re-optimization, even these very
small deviations are corrected.
Case 3 Reduction in development times
manufacturing costs: The high transmis-
sion in the blue, green and red required for
this flter design are not easily achieved
using standard broadband optical monitor-
ing without time-consuming refnement of
the monitoring strategy required for each
layer termination. However, with online
re-optimization, the coating system was
able to produce production-quality flters
immediately (Figure 7).
Meet the author
Allan Jaunzens is marketing manager at Evatec
Ltd. in Flums, Switzerland; email: allan.
jaunzens@evatecnet.com.
Figure 7. In the third test case, the high transmission in the blue, green and red required for this flter design
are diffcult to achieve with standard broadband optical monitoring. But online re-optimization enabled the
coating system to make production-quality flters immediately.
Superpolished Optics Enable
High-Sensitivity Laser Applications
A review of superpolished surfaces, including fabrication
and measurement, as well as some of the leading applications
that depend on these optics.
BY TREY TURNER
REO INC.
S
uperpolished optics that is, com-
ponents with subangstrom surface
roughness represent a critical
enabling technology in some of the most
sensitive and high-precision lasers and
laser-based systems.
They are some of the most demanding
components to make, coat and measure,
pushing optical fabrication and metrology
technology to their very limits. However,
the extraordinary performance delivered
by these optics enables some of the most
cutting-edge and exciting applications for
lasers today.
Precision optics virtually always
carry a specifcation for surface shape,
or maximum wavefront distortion on
transmission. Typically, shape is specifed
as power and irregularity. This is the ac-
ceptable departure from the desired radius
of curvature (power) and fat or spherical
shape (irregularity).
These specifcations allow the sys-
tem designer to calculate the amount of
incident light energy that can be concen-
trated into a focused spot or propagated in
a given beam diameter over a particular
distance. But they do not address one
important practical characteristic of all
real-world optical surfaces: scatter. Scat-
ter is dependent upon small-scale surface
microroughness and causes light to be
defected out of the desired direction of
propagation, reducing system effciency
or signal-to-noise ratio.
Superpolishing is an optical fabrica-
tion technique developed specifcally
to achieve minimal defects and micro-
roughness values. Whereas traditionally
polished glass components might have a
surface roughness of about 3 , superpol-
ished optics are characterized by rough-
ness values below 1 , which can reduce
scattered light below the 1-ppm level. One
of the most common techniques used for
superpolishing is submerged polishing.
In traditional polishing, optics are
mounted on a spindle, which is rotated
while a lap a metal-grinding tool
moves back and forth over the component
surfaces to polish them. A slurry, consist-
ing of small abrasive particles in a fuid,
fows over the optical surfaces. The sizes
of the abrasive particles are reduced over
time to achieve fner degrees of polishing.
Most superpolishing techniques modify
this method by submerging the entire
spindle/lap assembly in the polishing
fuid. This provides two main benefts:
First, the surface tension of the top
(exposed) surface forms a barrier that
helps protect the lap and workpieces from
outside contaminants that would scratch
the optical surface. Second, submersion
increases thermal conductivity, which
Figure 1. An optical proflometer is a microscope-based instrument that can measure surface height to the
subangstrom level. Suitable for production environments, optical proflometers are a sensitive, accurate way
of quantifying surface roughness.
Traditionally polished glass components can have a surface roughness of about 3 ;
roughness values for superpolished optics can be below 1 .
1112REOfeature.indd 60 10/26/12 2:38 PM
causes the lap and substrate to be at virtu-
ally the same temperature. This results in
improved shape consistency of the tool
and workpiece, which is also a factor in
achieving a smoother polished surface.
Every manufacturer has variants on
this basic method as well as proprietary
techniques to achieve specifc goals. For
example, at REO, we pay close attention
to the particle size distribution in the
slurry throughout the polishing process;
also, we monitor the actual chemistry of
the slurry.
This is because polishing particles
tend to have functional groups on their
outsides that can hold a positive or nega-
tive charge which, depending upon the
pH of the overall slurry, can cause them
to stick to each other or to the glass. Thus,
by controlling slurry pH, we can control
where polishing particles tend to migrate,
avoiding agglomeration. As a result, we
can consistently achieve microroughness
levels lower than 0.5 on materials such
as fused silica, optical glass (for example,
BK 7) and Zerodur.
Surface metrology
Making superpolished optics requires
the ability to quantify surface roughness
or its consequences, and this requires a
different set of tools than is traditionally
used for optical surface metrology. One
common technique for examining un-
coated superpolished substrates is optical
proflometry.
An optical proflometer looks similar to
a conventional optical microscope with a
halogen light source. Internally, it uses in-
terference between the surface under test
and an extremely fat internal reference
surface to create fringes that are a direct
indicator of the profle of the test surface.
Commercially available optical pro-
flometers can routinely achieve a vertical
resolution (measuring the height of
features) of less than 0.1 nm, and can even
achieve 0.01-nm resolution under certain
circumstances. Thus, they are an accurate
and sensitive way of quantifying surface
roughness and are suitable for production
environments.
However, it is important to understand
that optical proflometers are limited in
terms of the range of spatial frequen-
cies in the X-Y plane over which they
can measure surface undulations. For
example, variations that occur over either
very large (tens of millimeters) or small
(atomic scale) distances usually cannot
be measured.
The differential interference contrast
or Nomarski microscope is another
method frequently used for evaluating the
surface roughness of uncoated surfaces.
This technique again uses interference;
however, instead of comparing the surface
under test to a fat internal reference,
the Nomarski microscope compares two
views of the surface under test that are
slightly shifted relative to one another, in
a manner similar to shearography. Thus,
small local changes in surface slope are
converted into contrast differences in the
Images courtesy of REO Inc.
Superpolishing was
developed specifcally
to achieve minimal defects
and low microroughness
values.
Figure 2. Cavity ringdown spectroscopy
is a form of cavity-enhanced absorp-
tion spectroscopy. A laser beam is sent
through an optical cavity containing the
gas mixture to be measured; then the
laser is shut off, and the amount of time
it takes for the laser intensity to decay
to 0 (called the ringdown time) indicates
the concentration of a given species in
the cavity.
n Superpolished Optics
image, making this a particularly good
technique for identifying small defects.
But this method generally is not as quan-
titative as optical proflometry.
For coated optical surfaces, it is
generally more useful to measure the net
effects of both surface roughness and
coating imperfections than to attempt to
quantify the precise surface profle. The
most direct method for accomplishing this
is to expose the surface under test to laser
illumination and then look at scattered
light at one or more off-axis positions.
Another very sensitive technique for
gauging the total loss for an optic (includ-
ing absorption and scatter) is to place it in
a cavity and measure the ringdown time.
CEAS: Trace gas measurement
Superpolished mirrors are vital to
several important applications that
depend on the ultralow scatter (<5 ppm)
and extremely high refectivity (>99.999
percent) that these optics can uniquely
provide. Instruments based on cavity-en-
hanced absorption spectroscopy (CEAS)
are standout examples. In particular,
CEAS is being used in a new generation
of instruments for monitoring greenhouse
gases and other atmospheric pollutants,
industrial process monitoring, leak detec-
tion in natural gas pipelines, agricultural
monitoring and surveying, and water
cycle and rainfall studies.
CEAS is a form of absorption spectros-
copy. Every small molecule has a unique
absorption spectrum consisting of a well-
known pattern of sharp absorption lines.
So, in principle, this absorption spectrum
can be used to make real-time composi-
tion measurements on any gas mixture. In
practice, however, the absorption signal
from trace gases is usually orders of mag-
nitude less than the instrument shot noise
and cannot be observed.
In CEAS instruments, a sample of the
gas under test fows into an optical cavity
with superpolished end mirrors. Laser
light is introduced into this cavity, where
the high refectivity and low scatter allow
the beam to make many back-and-forth
trips before leaking out through one of the
mirrors.
This yields an effective path length
more than 10,000 times longer than the
cell itself, resulting in a highly improved
signal-to-noise ratio. This precision
enables CEAS instruments to routinely
detect trace gases with parts-per-billion
sensitivity; even parts-per-trillion perfor-
mance is possible. Furthermore, the tech-
nique is accurate enough to distinguish
between molecules of a given species that
have different isotopic constituents.
Common CEAS techniques include
various types of cavity ringdown spec-
troscopy using pulsed or CW lasers, and
off-axis integrated cavity absorption spec-
troscopy. More exotic variants include
mode-locked CEAS, based on broadband
femtosecond lasers and high-resolution
grating monochromators. Mirrors for
the latter are some of the most demand-
ing optics we produce at REO because
they must offer high refectivity and low
scatter over a wide (>75 nm) bandwidth
while avoiding stretching the femtosec-
ond pulses with unwanted group delay
dispersion.
Ring laser gyroscopes
The ring laser gyroscope (RLG) is a
commonly used component in naviga-
tional systems for spacecraft, and com-
mercial and military aircraft. Specifcally,
the RLG is used to sense rotation in a
single axis, and it delivers several advan-
tages over traditional mechanical gyro-
scopes. For example, it does not suffer
from wear because it has no moving parts,
and the lack of internal friction eliminates
the drift inherent to mechanical gyros.
Also, RLGs are typically smaller, lighter
and more rugged than mechanical gyros,
which is particularly advantageous in
airborne and spaceborne systems.
Most RLGs are based on helium-neon
(HeNe) laser cavities. However, the cavity
is constructed with three or more mirrors,
rather than just the usual two, so that it
has a ring shape. It is confgured so that
only two counterpropagating longitudi-
nal modes are supported (clockwise and
counterclockwise). One cavity mirror is
constructed to allow a slight amount of
incident light to be transmitted. The two
transmitted beams are recombined and
sent to a photodetector.
Figure 3. A ring laser gyroscope is a HeNe laser cavity confgured as a ring. Rotation in the ring plane causes a shift in the interference pattern between the two
counterpropagating cavity modes; this shift is sensed by a detector.
From the publisher of
Photonics Spectra magazine.
The latest in photonics for researchers,
engineers, product developers, clinicians
and others in medicine, biotechnology
and other life sciences.
Subscribe at www.Photonics.com/Subscribe
Microscopy
Spectroscopy
Imaging
Optics
Lasers
BIO_HouseAD_PG63.indd 63 10/25/12 10:07 AM
n Superpolished Optics
When the system is at rest, the frequen-
cies of the two longitudinal modes are
the same, and the interference pattern
created by the superposition of the two
beams remains fxed. However, rotation
of the system in the axis perpendicular to
the beam plane creates an apparent path
length difference for the modes. Namely,
in the inertial frame of reference, the
beam going in the direction of the rotation
appears to have farther to travel to reach
its starting point, while the opposite is
true for the beam going in the other direc-
tion. In the RLG frame of reference, this
manifests itself as a slight frequency dif-
ference, causing the interference pattern
of the two modes to move from its origi-
nal position. Both the rate and direction of
movement of the interference pattern are
sensed by the photodetector and used to
accurately measure gyro motion.
RLGs require superpolished mirrors
so as to prevent any light from being
scattered from one mode into the other.
Any modal crosstalk reduces the contrast
of the interference fringes upon which
the measurement technique critically
depends.
Green HeNe lasers
A more standard type of HeNe laser
also requires superpolished mirrors.
Specifcally, these are HeNe lasers
that output in the green (543 nm),
rather than in the more commonly
available red line (633 nm).
Probably the most important applica-
tions for these green HeNe lasers are in
various bioimaging techniques, such as
confocal microscopy and fow cytometry.
The latter is a technique widely used
to count and/or sort specifc cell types
from a large population of living cells.
It is used extensively in research and
clinical diagnostics; e.g., for diagnosing
blood cancers and for measuring various
genetic- and protein-related cell charac-
teristics.
Flow cytometry is most commonly per-
formed on a whole blood sample that has
been mixed with one or more fuorescent
antibodies that bind to specifc cell types.
The prepared cells are then forced to fow
in single fle through one or more tightly
focused laser beams. Detector arrays col-
lect fuorescence excited by the laser and
may also sense scattered light (which pro-
vides information about cell size, shape
and structure). Current instruments can
count several thousand cells per second.
The larger the number of different
excitation wavelengths used, the greater
the range of fuorescent probes that can be
employed. This, in turn, enables a higher
number of distinct cell parameters to be
measured. Several popular fuorescent
probes can be excited by 543-nm light,
and the green HeNe is a compact, reliable
and economical source.
The challenge in making green HeNe
lasers is that the medium has low gain
at the 543-nm transition. Thus, mirror
refectivity must be maximized and cavity
losses minimized to successfully extract
any signifcant power at this wavelength.
Scatter is particularly problematic be-
cause it increases rapidly with decreasing
wavelength. Thus, ultralow-scatter, super-
polished mirrors are key to the successful
production of green HeNe lasers.
Meet the author
Trey Turner is chief technology offcer at
REO Inc. in Boulder, Colo.; email: treyt@
reoinc.com.
Figure 4. In fow cytometry, fuorescence-tagged cells are forced to fow in single fle through one or more
tightly focused laser beams; a detector array collects fuorescence excited by the laser as well as any scat-
tered light. The green HeNe is a compact, reliable and economical source for this process.
Conferences & Courses
29 April to 3 May 2013
Exhibition
30 April to 2 May 2013
Location
Baltimore Convention Center
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Technologies and
applications for:
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www.spie.org/dss1
Register Today
62 Scientic conferences on optics,
imaging, and sensing
Defense
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Sensing
2013
1112_SPIE_DSS_Pg65.indd 65 10/25/12 10:15 AM
green
light

Popeyes muscles get energy-
boosting powers extracted from spinach
and now so do solar panels.
Combining the vegetables photosyn-
thetic protein with silicon produces signif-
icantly higher current levels than can be
achieved by other such biohybrid cells
composed of the plant protein and metal.
This combination produces current
levels almost 1000 times higher than we
were able to achieve by depositing the
protein on various types of metals. It also
produces a modest increase in voltage,
said David E. Cliffel, a Vanderbilt Uni-
versity associate professor of chemistry
who collaborated on the project with G.
Kane Jennings, a professor of chemical
and biomolecular engineering. If we
can continue on our current trajectory
of increasing voltage and current levels,
we could reach the range of mature solar
conversion technologies in three years.
Scientists have known for more than 40
years that a protein key to photosynthesis,
called Photosystem 1 (PS1), continues to
function after it is extracted from plants
such as spinach. They have determined
that PS1 converts sunlight into electrical
energy with nearly 100 percent effciency,
compared with conversion effciencies
of less than 40 percent achieved by
man-made devices. This has prompted
researchers around the world to use PS1
to create more effcient solar cells.
The Vanderbilt team pursued silicon
because it is cheap and readily available.
They made their device by extracting PS1
from spinach into a water-based solution,
then pouring it onto the surface of a p-
doped silicon wafer. Putting the wafer
in a vacuum chamber evaporated the
water, leaving a flm of protein on the
silicon. They found that the optimum
thickness was about 1 m, or about 100
PS1 molecules thick.
The random orientation of the indi-
vidual proteins on the metal layer was
a major problem in previous modeling
work, they say, because the electrons
produce both positive and negative cur-
rents that cancel each other out and leave
a very small net current fow. In a leaf,
all the PS1 proteins are aligned, leading
to a uniform, positive charge. Using
p-doped silicon eliminates the problem
in the man-made material.
This isnt as good as protein align-
ment, but it is much better than what we
had before, Jennings said.
The team reports that its PS1-silicon
combination produces nearly a milliamp
(850 A) of current per square centimeter
at 0.3 V. That is nearly 2
1
2 times more
current than the best level reported previ-
ously from a biohybrid cell. Vanderbilt
has applied for a patent on the protein-
silicon combination.
Since the initial discovery, progress
has been slow but steady. However, the
amount of power that these biohybrid
cells can produce per square inch has
been substantially below that of commer-
cial photovoltaic cells. Another problem
has been longevity: The performance of
some early test cells deteriorated after
only a few weeks.
In 2010, however, the Vanderbilt team
kept a PS1 cell working for nine months
with no deterioration in performance.
Nature knows how to do this extreme-
ly well. In evergreen trees, for example,
PS1 lasts for years, Cliffel said. We just
have to fgure out how to do it ourselves.
The teams next step is to build a func-
tioning PS1-silicon solar cell using this
new design. A group of undergraduate
engineering students will build the proto-
type using an Environmental Protection
Agency award that Jennings received.
With the new design, Jennings esti-
mates that a 2-ft panel could put out at
least 100 mA at 1 V enough to power
various types of small electrical devices.
Most plants use the same photosyn-
thetic proteins as spinach; Jennings also
is working on a method for extracting
PS1 from kudzu. Graduate students
Gabriel LeBlanc, Gongping Chen and
Evan A. Gizzie contributed to the study.
The research was reported online
in Advanced Materials (doi: 10.1002/
adma.201202794).
green
light
Spinach power boosts
silicon solar cells
We could reach the range
of mature solar conversion
technologies in three years.
David E. Cliffel
Associate Professor of Chemistry
at Vanderbilt University
A new biohybrid solar cell uses spinachs photosynthetic protein to boost power production.
A
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r
u
t
u
r

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n
i
l
k
u
m
a
r
,

V
a
n
d
e
r
b
i
l
t

U
n
i
v
e
r
s
i
t
y
1112GreenLight.indd 66 10/24/12 5:12 PM
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BuyersGuide.com_PG67.indd 67 10/25/12 10:06 AM
Lasers, Laser Accessories & Light Sources
Top-Hat Laser Beam Shaper
Osela Inc.s Top-Hat Beam Shaper converts a Gaussian laser beam to a
top profle with high uniformity and high effciency within a compact and
fexible housing with dimensions as small as 19 mm in diameter by 30 mm
in length. Its all-glass design is achromatic and offers smooth, slow
intensity variations with no high-frequency noise.
(514) 426-2262
info@oselainc.com
www.oselainc.com
Phase-Locked Loop Optical Chopper
The C-995 phase-locked loop optical chopper provides crystal-controlled
chopping rates of 4 Hz to 5 KHz using only one blade. The use of direct
digital synthesis permits the rate to be set to a precision of 0.001 Hz
and provides quartz crystal stability. Frequency settings may be made
via front panel controls or its bidirectional RS-232 port, additionally
it may be phase-locked to a user-supplied external clock. Both enclosed
and open style chopper heads are available.
315-736-3624
sales@terahertz
technologies.com
www.terahertz
technologies.com
Ultrabright, Longest-Life UV/VIS/NIR Light Source
Energetiqs EQ-99FC Laser-Driven Light Source (LDLS
) delivers
ultrahigh-brightness broadband light from 170 nm to 2100 nm, with a
lifetime of more than 10 times that of traditional xenon and deuterium
lamps. Its high-effciency ellipsoidal collector delivers light into a
standard SMA fber connector. The EQ-99FC is ideal for use in advanced
spectroscopic, imaging, monitoring and analytical applications.
(781) 939-0763
info@energetiq.com
www.energetiq.com
Laser Wavelength Chart
Exciton is dedicated to providing its customers with the highest-quality
laser dyes on the market today. To assist its customers in choosing laser
dyes, Exciton offers a free four-color laser wavelength chart, an essential
reference for your laboratory or offce wall.
(937) 252-2989
info@exciton.com
www.exciton.com
Vacuum Precision Positioning Systems
PIs new line of PI miCos motorized precision positioners is available
for high-vacuum and UHV as well as for cryogenic applications.
LinearStages
RotationStages
LinearActuators
Custom-EngineeredSystemsforSynchrotrons
Six-AxisParallelKinematicSystems
Download the PI miCos Vacuum Positioning Systems Catalog
at our website.
(508) 832-3456
info@pi-usa.us
www.pi-usa.us
1112_Spotlight.indd 68 10/24/12 5:17 PM
High-Accuracy Laser Wavelength Meters
The model 621 from Bristol Instruments measures absolute
wavelength of CW lasers to an accuracy as high as 0.0001 nm. It
is for scientists and engineers who need the reliable accuracy that
is ensured by continuous calibration with a built-in wavelength
standard. The result is the most meaningful experimental data.
Operation is available from 375 nm to 12 m.
(585) 924-2620
info@bristol-inst.com
www.bristol-inst.com
High-Stability Optical Spectrometers
Mightexs HRS series compact optical spectrometers offer superb
temperature and long-term stability, and they have a standard SMA fber
connector with an interchangeable entrance slit. With a 100-mm focal
length, the spectrometers feature subnanometer resolution and high
throughput. Powered by USB2.0, the spectrometers also come with
external triggering, GPIO ports and a full-featured SDK for OEM
applications.
(925) 218-1885
sales@mightex.com
www.mightex.com
Recirculating Coolers
JULABOs F250 and F500 recirculating coolers provide cooling
capacities of 250 and 500 W. The units feature easy operation
and high-quality components for years of trouble-free operation.
Contact JULABO today to choose the unit for your laser, detector
and photonics applications.
(800) 458-5226
info@julabo.com
www.julabo.com
Mid-IR Optical Isolators
For Quantum Cascade Lasers
ModelFIO-5-4.5[Tunable(4.4to4.8)m]
ModelFIO-5-8.0[Tunable(7.7to8.3)m]
Transmittance>80%
Isolation25dBto30dB
5mmaperture
(973) 857-8380
info@innpho.com
www.innpho.com
SP30 Structured Lighting
Unlike most other structured lighting, the SP30 is capable of doing the
things you have in mind, including: 3-D profling, alignment, stereo vision
and targeting.
Any custom pattern achievable Built-in constant current driver Available
in most wavelengths Also is available in Strobe only OverDrive ODSP30.
If the structured lights youve been looking at are more about limitations
than versatile solutions, then Smart Vision Lights would like to suggest
our SP30. The SP30 is capable of projecting any light pattern for your
application.
(231) 722-1199
sales@smartvisionlights.com
www.smartvisionlights.com
1112_Spotlight.indd 69 10/24/12 5:17 PM
Laser Safety Enclosures
Beamstopr has been manufacturing laser safety barriers since 1991.
All Beamstopr products are compliant with ANSI regulations to confne
stray laser plume for Class 3B and 4 lasers. Beamstopr standard
products include:
laserbarriercurtains
laserbarrierscreens
laserbarrierwindowcovers
custom-designedproducts
Contact us for pricing based on your specifcations.
(216)831-8287
beamstopr@aol.com
www.beamstopr.com
New sCMOS Camera
The new Zyla 5.5 megapixel scientifc CMOS (sCMOS) camera is ideal for
research and OEM usage. Zyla sCMOS offers a 100 fps rate, rolling and
snapshot(global)shuttermodesandultra-lownoiseperformanceinalight,
compactandcost-effectivedesign.Zylaachievesdownto1.2electronrms
read noise and can read out the 5.5 megapixel sensor at a sustained 100 fps
througha10-tapCameraLinkinterface.Ahighlycost-effective3-tap
versionisalsoavailable,offeringupto30fps.
(800)296-1579
info@andor.com
Andor.com/zyla
Vacuum Valves Manufacturing
VATistheworldwideleaderinvacuumvalvesmanufacturingandtechnology.
VATproductsinclude:anglevalves,gatevalves,transfervalves,control
valves,throttlevalves,isolationvalves,pendulumvalvesandvalves
designed for custom applications. More than 1000 standard products are
listed in our catalog.
Vatvalveapplicationsinclude:SemiconductorManufacturing,PV,Thin-Film
Technology,Synchrotrons,High-EnergyPhysics,FusionResearch,Metal-
lurgy and many more.
(781)935-1446
us@vatvalve.com
www.vatvalve.com
Earth Observation with SWIR Line-Scan Cameras
XenicsXlin-1.7-3000detector,coveringtheSWIRrange,isperfectly
suitedforEarthobservation:
Low-noiseperformance
Selectableframeratesupto10kHz
331024pixelsforhigh-resolutionimaging
Fullenvironmentalandradiationqualifcation
In-fightselectableintegrationtimeandgain
selection to adapt to illumination conditions
+32 16 38 99 00
sales@xenics.com
www.xenics.com
USB3.0 Industrial Cameras
MightexsUSB3.0camerasaredesignedforapplicationsthatrequire
high-speedimagingand/ormultiplecameras.Thesecamerashave
a data transfer rate of 400 MB/second, which is 10 times the USB2.0,
3.5timestheGigEand6timestheFirewire-800speed.Thecameras
alsohavetrigger-in,strobe-out,andfourGPIOpins.Furthermore,
afull-featuredSDKisprovidedforOEMapplications.
(925)218-1885
sales@mightex.com
www.mightex.com
1112_Spotlight.indd 70 10/25/12 10:02 AM
1 2 3
4 5 6
Single-Longitudinal-Mode Lasers
Two new Verdi G lasers from Coherent Inc.
offer single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) output. The
Verdi G SLM series lasers deliver a linewidth of ,5
MHz, which corresponds to a coherence length of
tens of meters. They are offered with a choice of
2 and 5 W of output power at 532 nm. They are
based on optically pumped semiconductor laser
(OPSL) technology, which is characterized by low
noise, high electrical effciency, a small platform,
high stability and reliability. Single-frequency
OPSLs deliver mode-hop-free output over hours of
continuous operation. The lasers are targeted at
applications where narrow linewidth and/or long
coherence length are critical, such as interferome-
try and holography. They also are suitable for atom
cooling and trapping.
tech.sales@coherent.com
UV Multispectral Camera
The SpectroCam-UV camera from Ocean
Thin Films provides sensitive detection from
the UV across the visible spectrum and into the
near-IR. Suitable for high-level research, the
confgurable video-speed camera has eight inter-
changeable customer-defned flters. Users can test
many flter options in combination with the image
processing software. The sensor can be paired
with flters available throughout the UVA, UVB and
UVC wavelengths. With a full range of standard
flter wavelengths and custom optical flters, the
camera supports biomedical, forensic, agricultural,
industrial and surveillance applications.
info@oceanthinflms.com
Laser Diode Modules
Two laser diodes for heavy-duty industrial
applications have been announced by BEA Lasers
Inc. The MIL-300RH 650-nm red and MIL-300-GH
532-nm green laser diodes are used in metal-form-
ing, alignment, punch presses, welding, position-
ing, drilling and targeting. They include a 12-mm
connector ftted to a black zinc-coated, stainless-
steel laser diode housing; a choice of optics that
includes standard round, line or cross, or a target;
a black polyvinyl chloride-coated 2-m-long cable
with the choice of a straight or 90 connector;
and a 3.3-VDC switching power supply. The rugged
industrial lasers are liquid-resistant and built to
withstand vibration, chemicals, impact and dust as
well as most other harsh environmental conditions.
info@bealasers.com
Blazed Concave Grating
Spectrum Scientifc Inc. has expanded
its concave gratings line. A new blaze wavelength
of 250 nm for the 1200-g/mm concave grating is
designed for use in UV/VIS spectrophotometers
and fat-feld imaging spectrographs. The propri-
etary blazing technique maximizes the energy over
the required spectral range, while reducing stray
light. Effciencies .80% can be achieved at the
blaze wavelength without the need for ion etching.
Compared with plane-blazed holographic gratings,
concave gratings can serve as a primary dispersive
and focusing element, while reducing the number
of optical elements and increasing throughput and
instrument effciency.
sales@ssioptics.com
Negative GDD Mirrors
Negative group delay dispersion (GDD)
mirrors for industrial ultrafast lasers with output in
the VIS or NIR have been introduced by REO Inc.
They produce GDD values of 25000 fs
2
with ac-
curacy of 610%. They are suitable for balancing out
self-phase modulation and correcting for residual
net dispersion caused by other components in the
laser cavity. Proprietary superpolishing techniques
achieve microroughness levels below 0.5 , result-
ing in a scattering loss of ,5 ppm. The substrates
are coated using ion beam sputtering with a pro-
prietary deposition monitoring technology to yield
layer precision and low absorption. The mirrors are
supplied on fused silica substrates.
markd@reoinc.com
Digital IR Video Thermometer
The OS-VIR50 digital infrared video ther-
mometer launched by Omega Engineering Inc.
features dual lasers that indicate the ideal measur-
ing distance where the two laser points converge
to a 25.4-mm target spot. It offers a color LED bar
graph for viewing trends, a type-K thermocouple
input and a trigger lock function for continuous
readings. Adjustable emissivity increases mea-
surement accuracy, and adjustable high/low set
points have audible alarm alerts. The thermometer
measures air temperature and relative humidity,
and features a USB interface and auto power-off.
It makes noncontact (infrared) and contact (ther-
mocouple) measurements. The built-in camera
offers still-image and video capture.
sales@omega.com
new
PRODUCTS

1
2
3
4
5
6
1112NewProdLeads.indd 71 10/24/12 5:13 PM
Infrared and Broadband Optics
Meller Optics Inc. offers custom-fabricated
infrared and broadband optics that match the
material and surface characteristics required for
specifc applications, based upon wavelength and
environmental factors, including /4 and /10 wave
surfaces and 10-5 scratch-dig fnishes. In plano-
convex, concave and meniscus confgurations,
sizes can range from - to 6-in. outer diameter or
diagonal, with tolerances to 0.005 in. and thick-
ness to 0.002 in. Conforming to MIL-PRF-13830,
the optics can be made from sapphire and spinel
for demanding environments; germanium for
detector and sensor applications; zinc selenide
and sulfde for lasers, medical instruments and
forward-looking infrared; calcium and magnesium
fuoride for nonhygroscopic front-surface applica-
tions; and from silicon for mirrors and refectors.
Antirefection, partial and total refective coatings
are available.
steve@melleroptics.com
Scientifc ICCD Cameras
Launched by Princeton Instruments, the PI-MAX4
intensifed CCD (ICCD) fber optically coupled
cameras for time-resolved scientifc imaging and
spectroscopy are controlled via proprietary 64-bit
LightField software. Available in 1024 3 1024-pixel
and 1024 3 256-pixel formats, they use ultrafast
electronics to achieve <500-ps gating. Both include
a precision timing generator with 10-ps resolution
and use a high-bandwidth GigE data interface.
Programmable trigger inputs and outputs eliminate
the need for an external timing generator. The
1024i model achieves 27 fps at 1k 3 1k resolution
and has a double image feature to capture two full-
resolution images for applications such as particle
imaging velocimetry. Applications include fuores-
cence lifetime imaging microscopy, time-resolved
imaging and spectroscopy, plasma diagnostics and
planar laser-induced fuorescence.
info@princetoninstruments.com
UV Starter Kit
The Hyperspec UV starter kit from Headwall Pho-
tonics Inc. provides everything needed to evaluate
and categorize the spectral composition of materi-
als and samples in the UV region. The hyperspec-
tral imaging system is designed for laboratory
researchers in forensics, document and currency
verifcation, and in biotechnology analysis. It is sup-
plied with a Hyperspec UV imaging spectrometer
optimized for the 250- to 600-nm UV-VIS range. A
gantry assembly, calibrated power-stabilized light-
ing, a linear stage and controller, and a processor
engine loaded with the companys Hyperspec soft-
ware complete the system. A proprietary Hyperspec
data processing unit manages incoming data, while
an optional enclosure eliminates the effect of stray
light. Both are available as accessories. Other ap-
plications include chemical analysis, and food and
pharmaceutical inspection.
information@headwallphotonics.com
Benchtop Fluorometer
The benchtop Dual-FL manufactured by Horiba Sci-
entifc combines a CCD-based spectrofuorometer
and a spectrophotometer for simultaneous rapid
collection of fuorescence and absorbance data.
It addresses the need for speed when collecting
spectral data and complete excitation-emission
matrices. It features spectral rates of 80,000
nm/s. With a sensitive cooled back-illuminated
CCD detector for rapid collection of emission spec-
tra, and an excitation double monochromator for
good stray light rejection, the device offers a signal-
to-noise ratio >20,000:1 rms. The simultaneous
absorbance data can be used to correct inner-flter
effects in measurement of high-concentration
samples, eliminating the need for time-consuming
dilutions.
joanne.lowy@horiba.com
Cutting/Scribing on Thin Flat Glass
Precision Glass & Optics offers glass cutting and
scribing on thin fat glass substrates measuring up
to 600 3 600 mm using the Gen-3 Phoenix-600
machine from TLC International. The machine
provides close-tolerance singulation of 0.075- to
3-mm fat technical glass substrates, with repeat-
able accuracies of 0.0508 mm for rectilinear (X-Y)
and 0.0762 mm for circular and free-form-shaped
parts single sheet or laminate using carbide
and diamond wheels. Laminated glass parts also
can be processed for avionics, aerospace, automo-
tive, digital x-ray, entertainment lighting, consumer
electronics display and satellite applications. In
tasks that require thinner, lighter and stronger fat
glass, such as touch screens, cover glass and elec-
trochromic mirrors, the company provides scribing
on coated fat glass surfaces.
info@pgo.com
Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy
For its atomic force microscopes (AFMs), Bruker
Corp. has released the PeakForce Kelvin Probe
Force Microscopy (KPFM) mode. It uses frequency-
modulation detection to provide high-spatial-res-
olution Kelvin probe data. It builds on proprietary
PeakForce Tapping technology to provide directly
correlated quantitative nanomechanical data,
which improves sensitivity and eliminates artifacts.
PeakForce KPFM provides automated parameter
setup with ScanAsyst. Available for the Dimen-
sion Icon and MultiMode 8 AFMs, it includes the
complete set of KPFM detection mechanisms
(amplitude and frequency modulation) and the
ability to perform KPFM measurements over an
extended voltage range. PeakForce KPFM mode
enables more sensitive potential detection with
optimized probes.
steve.hopkins@bruker-nano.com
new products
1112_New Prods.indd 72 10/24/12 5:18 PM

Blackbody Calibration Device
The two-piece model BBS1050 Compact blackbody
calibration source from Process Sensors Corp.
is for verifcation and calibration of noncontact
infrared thermometers, thermal imaging detectors/
cameras, focal plane array detectors and heat fux
meters. It is suitable for use with collimators and
at automated calibration test stations. Operat-
ing in the 50 to 1050 C range, the portable and
lightweight device delivers a fast slew rate and high
uniformity. It includes a selection of eight standard
apertures, produces emissivity of >0.99 and
features a digital self-tuning proportional integral
derivative controller module. Contained in separate
housings, the calibration source and digital control-
ler allow fexibility in positioning the instrument
within an installation.
irtemp@processsensors.com
Fiber Laser Cutting System
Sigma, a fve-axis fber laser cutting system
unveiled by Miyachi Unitek Corp., enables 3-D cut
paths. High-speed, high-precision position-based
fring laser power control and cutting features
make it suitable for cutting thin metals, especially
those used in precision medical tools. The fexible
system confguration of a two-axis rotary assembly,
mounted to an X-Y stage, maximizes laser on-part
accessibility and tooling path effciency. It accom-
modates thin metals with unique cut paths, non-
symmetrical features, beveled edges, off-axis
cutting, compound angles and internal cut radii of
<50 m. Linear motors and high-torque direct-
drive rotary axes have been confgured to provide
the best performance for speed and quality, while
maintaining dimensional accuracy.
info@muc.miyachi.com
Silicon Drift Detector/Sample Viewport
Detector and sample viewport options released
by Edax Inc. are for its Orbis micro-XRF (x-ray
fuorescence) elemental analyzer system. The
thermoelectrically cooled 50-mm
2
silicon drift
detector performs high-resolution spectral acquisi-
tion at high count rates. It is useful for customers
who make measurements on small fragments; on
coatings and deposits on thin substrates, such
as ink on paper; and on biological samples; and
for trace-element analysis using heavier flters to
improve sensitivity. The company also has released
a sample viewport mounted into the chamber door
of the Orbis analyzer. The large, x-ray-safe window
allows an analyst to verify general sample targeting
among many small samples or among multiple
sample trays.
info.edax@ametek.com
Snapshot SWIR Cameras
The next-generation Sensors Unlimited short-
wavelength infrared (SWIR) digital video cameras
from UTC Aerospace Systems feature a 30-Hz
full frame rate and snapshot mode capability. The
GA1280JS includes a global shutter function with
1.3-megapixel resolution at 1280 3 1024 pixels
and a 12.5-m pitch. The cameras weigh <120 g
without the lens and measure <74 cm
3
, facilitating
integration into aerial, mobile and handheld imag-
ing systems. They provide real-time daylight-to-low-
light imaging with sensitivity from 0.9 to 1.7 m.
The InGaAs-SWIR sensor images through smoke,
fog and haze. The cameras require no cooling and
feature onboard automatic gain control and real-
time nonuniformity correction. The 12-bit digital
base with Camera Link output provides plug-and-
play functionality.
sui_info@goodrich.com
Inspection System
for Thin Glass Fabrics
Elbit Vision Systems Ltd. has unveiled a system
for thin, lightweight glass fabric inspection during
production. The glass fabric industry, which sup-
plies the key component for printed circuit boards
used in electronics, is shifting toward lighter-weight
materials for smartphones, tablets and televisions.
The system provides a defect map of the glass fab-
ric, with images, and creates a detailed report that
includes instructions for precise, effcient cutting,
maximizing the yield of the material. Glass fabric
is the primary insulating backbone upon which
the vast majority of rigid printed circuit boards are
produced. A thin layer of copper foil is laminated to
one or both sides of a woven glass fabric panel.
info@evs.co.il
1112_New Prods.indd 73 10/24/12 5:18 PM
Call for Papers
Submit your abstract by 27 August 2013
www.spie.org/ss1
Research and applications for adaptive structures and
mechanisms + nondestructive evaluation and health monitoring
Conferences
1014 March 2013
Exhibition
1213 March 2013
Location
Town & Country Resort
and Convention Center
San Diego, California, USA
Co-Fired Piezo Bimorph Actuators
The co-fred multilayer piezo bimorph actuators
from PI (Physik Instrumente L.P.) achieve a
mechanical amplifcation effect via various layers
expanding at different rates. They are monolithic
and achieve long travel ranges with motion to 2
mm and nanometer resolution. Response times
are in the millisecond range. The devices provide
low operating voltage, good mechanical stability
and operation at 150 C. Applications include fast
optical switches, beam defection, micropositioning
acceleration sensors, medical device engineering,
semiconductor manufacturing, aerospace, bio-
nanotechnology and automotive. The actuators can
be factory-equipped with position feedback sen-
sors for closed-loop operation. They are supplied
in standard and custom shapes, from rectangular
stripes to triangles to circular disks with an optional
aperture. Compact versions of a few millimeters
can be produced.
info@pi-usa.us
Polarization Measurement System
A new version of General Photonics Corp.s Pola-
Wise polarization measurement system character-
izes properties of light sources and optical materi-
als, including state and degree of polarization,
polarization mode dispersion (PMD), polarization-
dependent loss (PDL) and polarization extinction
ratio. It covers the 1280- to 1340-nm range.
Based on proprietary and patented magneto-optic
polarization generation and analysis technology,
the PSGA-101-A performs multiple functions in
fber optic applications, including polarization state
generation. It features a fip-top graphic LCD that
yields a large viewing area on a compact, portable
enclosure. A 2 3 20 character front-panel LCD
is included for applications that do not require a
graphic display. The internal tunable laser enables
PDL and PMD measurement up to 10 ps.
info@generalphotonics.com
Achromatic Quartz-MgF
2
Wave Plates
Large-diameter achromatic zero-order quartz-
MgF
2
wave plates have been announced by
Newport Corp. The large-aperture optics have
two birefringent crystals crystalline quartz and
new products
1112_New Prods.indd 74 10/24/12 5:18 PM

magnesium fuoride (MgF
2
) each with an effcient
broadband antirefection coating, in an air-space
design. The construction ensures good transmitted
wavefront quality while minimizing beam deviation
and surface refection losses. The assembly is
mounted in a black anodized aluminum housing,
with the retarder fast axis reference marked for
alignment. The wave plates feature 23-mm clear
apertures and operate from 610 to 850 nm or from
700 to 1000 nm. There are four new models, each
available with /2 or /4 retardance. They maintain
retardation from /50 to /100 over the entire
bandwidth.
anna.wang@newport.com
WDXRF Spectrometer
The Supermini200 wavelength-dispersive x-ray
fuorescence (WDXRF) spectrometer has been
released by Rigaku Americas Corp. Wavelength-
dispersive x-ray fuorescence is a nondestructive
technique for elemental analysis. Its advantages
include light element sensitivity, good elemental
resolving power and low limits of detection. No
chemical preparation step is required, facilitating
sample preparation and cleanup. The spectrom-
eter incorporates newly designed and simplifed
software and an improved footprint as compared
with its predecessor. A new software feature, EZ
Analysis, simplifes everyday routine operation. A
single interface contains information about the
status of samples, data measurement and analysis
parameters as well as a running output of results.
The EZ Scan software module enables analysis of
unknown samples with no prior setup.
info@rigaku.com
SEM Software
For surface imaging and metrology compatible with
scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) and multi-
spectral Raman instruments, Digital Surf has an-
nounced a new generation of Mountains 7 software
for reconstructing 3-D surfaces from pairs or qua-
druplets of SEM images. The multispectral Raman
software visualizes and analyzes Raman spectra
and hyperspectral cubes. It is used for correlating
images and topography in mixed microscopy envi-
ronments and for colocalizing images obtained by
scanning electron or fuorescence microscopy with
topography data obtained by confocal, scanning
tunneling or atomic force microscopy. It operates
under Windows 8, Windows 7, and 32- and 64-bit
Windows Vista. Mountains 7 will be released in
the frst quarter of 2013.
contact@digitalsurf.fr
Spectral Surface Mapping
Spectral Surface Mapping (S2M) capabilities have
1112_New Prods.indd 75 10/24/12 5:18 PM
been added to Craic Technologies Perfect Vision
microspectrophotometer. S2M allows users to
map the spectral variation of sample surfaces with
microscopic spatial resolution. Surface profles can
be created using UV-VIS-NIR transmission, absor-
bance, emission, and fuorescence and polarization
microspectral data. S2M can create maps from Ra-
man microspectral data from the proprietary Apollo
Raman microspectrometer. Users can automati-
cally survey and characterize the entire surface
of samples by their spectral characteristics. The
device enables them to collect spectral data from
thousands of points with a user-defned mapping
pattern.
sales@microspectra.com
Thin-Film Analysis Systems
NanoCalc systems use spectroscopic refectom-
etry to determine optical thin-flm thicknesses for
consumer, semiconductor, medical and industrial
applications. Ocean Optics customer-designed
and application-ready preconfgured NanoCalc
models make it easy to select the optimum system
for deep-UV to near-IR wavelength measurement.
Systems are available for a range of wavelength,
sampling method and optical layer thickness
requirements from 1 nm to 250 m. Users can
select among four standard models between 200
and 1700 nm and combine them with software,
refection probes, optical fbers and accessories.
Systems are available with an extensive range
of add-on software, optical fbers and metrology
accessories such as mapping stages, and adapters
for microscopes and microspot focusing objectives.
info@oceanoptics.com
Optical Time-Domain Refectometer
An enhanced NOYES OFL280 FlexTester optical
time-domain refectometer (OTDR) from AFL
improves fber event analysis, saves optical power
meter results for integration into the TRM (Test Re-
sults Manager) reporting application and expands
language support. The updated TRM software is
now compatible with OFL280 .SOR trace fles and
.ATD power meter fles. It enables event analysis
and end-to-end loss test results to be combined
into a single report. The handheld, rugged OTDRs
include four models tailored for different point-to-
point and FTTx passive optical network installation
and/or troubleshooting applications. All models
deliver 0.8-m event and 3.5-m attenuation dead
zones and include an integrated optical light
source, an optical power meter and a visual fault
locator.
sales@afglobal.com
Molding Technology
Docter Optics GmbH provides vendors of con-
centrated photovoltaic (CPV) systems with optical
components produced with its DOCFast molding
technology. CPV designs are based on the use of
light pipes to concentrate the suns rays so they are
uniformly distributed over the surface of the semi-
conductors that produce electricity (solar cells).
Because of the stringent mechanical and optical
requirements that such concentrators must meet,
CPV producers insist upon the use of glass for
the components. The company offers automated
new products
1112_New Prods.indd 76 10/24/12 5:18 PM

industrial-scale lens production. It developed the
DOCFast technology so that components can be
molded directly from liquid optical glass. The type
of molten glass used can be chosen to meet the ap-
plication requirements. Processes can be designed
for production of components with customer-specif-
ic shapes and forms in large quantities.
info@docteroptics.com
CO
2
Laser Beam Delivery Optics
CO
2
laser beam delivery optics for high- and low-
power lasers are available from Laser Research
Optics. They include beam combiners, beamsplit-
ters, ZnSe output couplers and front mirrors, silicon
and molybdenum turning mirrors, silicon and cop-
per phase retardation refectors, and germanium
zero phase and end refectors. They are suitable
for 25- to 200-W marking, engraving and scribing
lasers. Optimized for 10.6 m, the optics are of-
fered in 0.6- to 3-in.-diameter sizes with refectivity
up to 99%. The output couplers provide refectivity
tolerances to 1%, and the phase retarders and
refectors are offered in a variety of thicknesses
with different coatings to achieve the desired
phase shift.
scott@laserresearch.net
AR Coating of GRIN Lenses
The coating of temperature-sensitive optics at pro-
cess temperatures below 100 C is now promising,
despite the long times required for such complex
structures. Most coatings are applied in high
vacuum at temperatures well above 100 C, which
on some materials has a negative effect, including
discoloration or malfunction. Laser Components
GmbH has succeeded in applying a broadband anti-
refection (AR) coating on such critical optics using
ion beam sputtering. After coating, gradient-index
(GRIN) optics achieve average refection of <1.5%
in the range from 400 to 1000 nm, enabling a large
wavelength bandwidth and large differences in the
angle of incidence to be compensated.
info@lasercomponents.com
Fiber Optic Simulator
A fber optic simulator for physical network simula-
tion and equipment certifcation is being introduced
by M2 Optics Inc. The 19-in. rack-mountable Fiber
Lab Flex optical fber testing platform accepts up to
10 removable modules, and each can be flled with
up to 10 km of any fber type or brand and supplied
with any standard connector, enabling mixing of dif-
ferent lengths. Featuring modules that can be used
in the Fiber Lab Flex testing platform or separately
on a desktop, a fully loaded module with 10 km of
fber weighs 4.75 lb and measures 9.5 3 1.5 3 11
in. Applications include physical network simulation
with multiple fbers in the laboratory, equipment
certifcation using a mix of fber types, product
development, quality control and latency testing.
sales@m2optics.com
Laser Line Polarizers
TechSpec high-energy laser line polarizers from Ed-
mund Optics effciently polarize high-power lasers
1112_New Prods.indd 77 10/24/12 5:18 PM
NASA Low Outgassing
Approved Epoxy
Hackensack, NJ 07601 USA
+1.201.343.8983 mainmasterbond.com
www.masterbond.com
EP29LPSP Two Part
Adhesive/Sealant
Optically clear
Chemically resistant
Cryogenically serviceable
2016AS_2.1875x4.9375.indd 1 9/11/12 9:42 AM
with greater than 98% transmission of p-polarized
light. They combine high laser damage thresholds
(2 J/cm
2
, 10 ns at 532 nm) with extinction ratios
of 10,000:1 for optimal performance in laser ap-
plications. The polarizers are designed with a 45
angle of incidence and provide >98% p-polarization
transmission effciency. They are fabricated with a
UV-grade fused-silica substrate, and a hard anti-
refection coating provides durability and enables
easy cleaning and simplifed alignment. The polar-
izers are available for common laser wavelengths,
including 355, 532, 633 and 1064 nm.
sales@edmundoptics.com
C-Mount Spectrometer Adapters
Adapters manufactured by McPherson simplify in-
tegration of C-mount CMOS and CCD cameras with
the companys spectrometers. Easy and secure C-
mount adapters are suitable for cryogenic, thermo-
electrically cooled, deep-depletion, near-infrared
InGaAs and sensitive silicon visible-range cameras.
They fasten via a 1-in. 32-pitch screw thread with
17.526-mm back distance to the focal plane. The
adapters have a nested design to accommodate
the threaded rotating C-mount. They enable mount-
ing C-mount detectors frmly, precisely and in the
correct rotational orientation on spectrometers to
intercept well-focused spectra at the focal plane. A
micrometer inside the spectrometer allows precise
and reproducible focus trimming. The adapters are
available as optional accessories for all new and
legacy McPherson instruments.
mcp@mcphersoninc.com
new products
Spread the word

Advertise your new product in Photonics
Showcase or in the Spotlight section of
Photonics Spectra.
Reach all of our readers in these low-cost,
lead-generating features.
Call Kristina Laurin at (413) 499-0514, or
email advertising@photonics.com.
STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP
MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION
of
PHOTONICS SPECTRA
September 30, 2012
(This statement is published in compliance
with
the Act of October 23, 1962)
Published monthly.
Publisher: Karen A. Newman
Managing Editor: Laura S. Marshall
Editor: Melinda A. Rose
The owners are Thomas F. Laurin and Ralph Cianfone,
Berk shire Common, PO Box 4949, Pittsfeld, MA 01202-
4949.
Known bondholders, mortgagees and other security
holders owning or holding 1 percent or more of total
amount of bonds, mortgages or other securities: None.
The average number of copies of the publication during
the 12 months preceding the date shown above are:
Printed 79,847; paid and/or requested subscription by
mail 55,271; total paid and/or requested circulation
55,271; free distribution by mail, carrier or other means,
samples, complimentary and other free copies 22,870;
total nonrequested distribution 23,318; offce use,
left over, unaccounted, spoiled after printing 1,258;
total above 79,847. Actual number of copies of single
issue published nearest to fling date: Printed 71,578;
paid and/or requested subscription by mail 46,365;
total paid and/or requested circulation 46,365; free
distribution by mail, carrier or other means, samples,
complimentary and other free copies 23,093; total
nonrequested distribution 23,328; offce use, left
over, unaccounted, spoiled after printing 1,885; total
above 71,578.
I certify that the above statements made by me are cor-
rect and complete.
Thomas F. Laurin
President
1112_New Prods.indd 78 10/24/12 5:18 PM
l
Indicates shows Photonics Media will be attending.
Complete listings at: www.photonics.com/calendar. November 2012 Photonics Spectra 79
Happenings
DECEMBER
DICTA 2012: Digital Image Computing:
Techniques and Applications (Dec. 3-5)
Fremantle, Western Australia. Contact dicta2012@
csse.uwa.edu.au; dicta2012.csse.uwa.edu.au.
ICARCV 2012: 12th International Conference
on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision
(Dec. 5-7) Guangzhou, China. Contact icarcv2012
@wpc-sg.com; www.icarcv.org.
International Conference on Fiber Optics
and Photonics (Photonics 2012) (Dec. 9-12)
Chennai, India. Contact The Optical Society,
+1 (202) 223-8130; info@osa.org; www.photonics
2012.in.
HONET-ICT 2012: Ninth International
Conference on High-Capacity Optical Networks
& Emerging/Enabling Technologies
Information and Communication Technologies
(Dec. 12-14) Istanbul. Contact M. Yasin Akhtar
Raja, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, +1
(704) 687-8156; raja@uncc.edu; honet.uncc.edu.
Conference on Optoelectronic and
Microelectronic Materials and Devices
(COMMAD 2012) (Dec. 12-14) Melbourne,
Australia. Contact Jeffrey McCallum, University of
Melbourne, +61 3 8344 8072; jeffreym@unimelb.
edu.au; commad2012.physics.unimelb.edu.au.
Photonics Global Conference (PGC 2012)
(Dec. 13-16) Singapore. Contact Director,
Optimus-Photonics Centre of Excellence, Nanyang
Technological University, +65 6790 4685;
d-optimus@ntu.edu.sg; www.photonicsglobal.org.
2012 International Conference on Machine
Vision and Image Processing (MVIP)
(Dec. 14-15) Coimbatore, India. Contact T.K.
Vijaya, PSG College of Technology, +91 422 434
4777; tkv@ice.psgtech.ac.in; www.ieee.org/
conferences.
l
2012 American Society for Cell Biology
Annual Meeting (Dec. 15-19) San Francisco.
Contact ASCB, +1 (301) 347-9300; www.ascb.org/
meetings.
Topical Research Meetings on Physics,
Quantum Technologies: Taking Concepts
Through to Implementations (Dec. 17-18)
London. Contact Institute of Physics, conferences
@iop.org; qtech.iopconfs.org.
Sixth International Conference on Sensing
Technology (ICST 2012) (Dec. 18-21) Kolkata,
India. Contact Subhas Mukhopadhyay, Massey
University, +64 635 057 99; s.c.mukhopadhyay
@massey.ac.nz; seat.massey.ac.nz/conferences/
icst2012.
Cairo International Biomedical Engineering
Conference (CIBEC 2012) (Dec. 20-22) Giza,
Egypt. Contact Dina S. Elkholy, Cairo University,
+201 222 608 698; cibec@k-space.org; www.
cibec2012.org.
JANUARY
Nanometa 2013: Fourth International Topical
Meeting on Nanophotonics and Metamaterials
(Jan. 3-6) Tirol, Austria. Contact European
Physical Society, +33 3 89 32 94 42; conferences
@eps.org; www.nanometa.org.
Advanced Photonics Techniques in Soft
Matter and Biology (Jan. 14) London. Contact
Jenny Bremner, Institute of Physics, jenny.bremner
@iop.org; www.iop.org.
2013 IEEE 26th International Conference
on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems
(MEMS) (Jan. 20-24) Taipei, Taiwan. Contact
June Echizen, +81 3 3346 8007; je@inter.net;
www.mems2012.org.
l
Automate 2013 (Jan. 21-24) Chicago.
Contact Association for Advancing Automation
(A3), +1 (734) 994-6088; info@automate2013.
com; automate2013.com.
OnSite Annual Meeting for Homeland Security,
Forensics and Environmental Remediation
(Jan. 23-25) Baltimore. Contact OnSite, +1 (847)
543-6800; infoscience@ais.net; www.ifpac.com/
onsite.
2013 NAALT Conference (Jan. 31-Feb. 2)
Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Contact Jennifer
Anderson, North American Association for Laser
Therapy, jennifer@naalt.org; www.naalt.org/2013
Conference.
FEBRUARY
l
Biophysical Society 57th Annual Meeting
(Feb. 2-6) Philadelphia. Contact Biophysical
Society, +1 (240) 290-5600; society@biophysics.
org; www.biophysics.org.
l
Photonics West (Feb. 2-7) San Francisco.
Includes the conferences BiOS, LASE, OPTO,
MOEMS-MEMS and Green Photonics. Contact
SPIE, +1 (360) 676-3290; customerservice
@spie.org; spie.org.
IS&T/SPIE Electronic Imaging (Feb. 3-7)
Burlingame, Calif. Contact SPIE, +1 (360) 676-
3290; customerservice@spie.org; spie.org.
Annual International Conference on
Optoelectronics, Photonics & Applied
Physics (OPAP) (Feb. 4-5) Singapore.
Contact OPAP Conference Secretariat,
+65 6327 0166; info@physics-conf.org;
www.physics-conf.org.
SPIE Medical Imaging (Feb. 9-14) Lake Buena
Vista, Fla. Contact SPIE, +1 (360) 676-3290; cus-
tomerservice@spie.org; spie.org.
BioMed 2013: The Tenth IASTED International
Conference on Biomedical Engineering
PAPERS
Optics in the Life Sciences (April 14-18) Waikoloa Beach, Hawaii
Deadline: submissions, December 10, noon EST (17:00 GMT)
The Optical Society invites papers for its Optics and Photonics Congress: Optics in the Life
Sciences. The event will include the meetings Optical Trapping Applications (OTA); Novel
Techniques in Microscopy (NTM); Bio-Optics: Design and Application (BODA); and Optical
Molecular Probes, Imaging and Drug Delivery (OMP). Contact The Optical Society, +1 (202)
223-8130; info@osa.org; www.osa.org.
SPIE Optical Metrology (May 13-16) Munich
Deadline: abstracts, December 17
Organizers of SPIE Optical Metrology are accepting papers for oral and poster presentation
at the following meetings: Optical Measurement Systems for Industrial Inspection; Modeling
Aspects in Optical Metrology; Automated Visual Inspection; Optics for Arts, Architecture and
Archaeology; Optical Methods for Inspection, Characterization and Imaging of Biomaterials;
and Videometrics, Range Imaging and Applications. A workshop will be held on industry and
academia. The conference will be collocated with Laser World of Photonics 2013. Contact
SPIE, +1 (360) 676-3290; customerservice@spie.org; spie.org.
SeTBio 2013 (April 23-26) Yokohama, Japan
Deadline: abstracts, December 20
Researchers are encouraged to submit papers for SeTBio 2013: Sensing Technologies for
Biomaterial, Food and Agriculture. Among the areas to be addressed are light and plant
factories, including LEDs, fuorescent materials and laser applications; light and precision
agriculture, including remote sensing, machine vision and sensing in open felds; and light
and biosensing, including optical devices, spectroscopic systems, and inspection for food
safety and quality. The conference is held as part of Optics & Photonics International Congress
2013. Contact SPIE, +1 (360) 676-3290; customerservice@spie.org; spie.org.
1112Happenings.indd 79 10/24/12 5:13 PM
(Feb. 13-15) Innsbruck, Austria. An event of
the International Association of Science and
Technology for Development. Contact IASTED
Secretariat, +1 (403) 288-1195; calgary@iasted.
org; www.iasted.org.
EALA: European Automotive Laser Applications
2013 (Feb. 19-20) Bad Nauheim, Germany. Con-
tact Annika Beutner, Automotive Circle Internation-
al, +49 511 9910 377; annika.beutner@vincentz.
net; www.automotive-circle.com.
2013 IEEE Sensors Applications Symposium
(SAS) (Feb. 19-21) Galveston, Texas. Contact
Lauren Pasquarelli, +1 (352) 872-5544; laurenp@
conferencecatalysts.com; www.sensorapps.org.
Photoptics 2013: International Conference
on Photonics, Optics and Laser Technology
(Feb. 20-21) Barcelona, Spain. Contact Photoptics
Secretariat, +351 265 520 185; photoptics.
secretariat@insticc.org; www.photoptics.org.
NextMed/MMVR20 (Medicine Meets
Virtual Reality) (Feb. 20-23) San Diego.
Contact AMA Inc., +1 (805) 534-0300; info@
amainc.com; www.nextmed.com.
VISIGRAPP 2013: Eighth International
Joint Conference on Computer Vision,
Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory
and Applications (Feb. 21-24) Barcelona, Spain.
Contact VISIGRAPP Secretariat, +351 265 520
184; visigrapp.secretariat@insticc.org; www.
visigrapp.org.
SPIE Advanced Lithography (Feb. 24-28)
San Jose, Calif. Contact SPIE, +1 (360) 676-3290;
customerservice@spie.org; spie.org.
2013 IEEE Pacifc Visualization Symposium
(PacifcVis) (Feb. 27-March 1) Sydney.
Contact Karsten Klein, University of Sydney,
+61 2 9036 9754; kklein@it.usyd.edu.au;
sydney.edu.au/engineering/it/~pvis2013.
MARCH
SPIE Smart Structures/NDE (March 10-14)
San Diego. Contact SPIE, +1 (360) 676-3290;
customerservice@spie.org; spie.org.
l
OFC/NFOEC (March 17-21) Anaheim, Calif.
The combined meeting of the Conference on
Optical Fiber Communication and the National
Fiber Optic Engineers Conference. Contact OFC/
NFOEC, +1 (202) 416-1907; info@ofcconference.
org; www.ofcnfoec.org.
l
PITTCON 2013: Laboratory Science
Equipment Conference and Exposition
(March 17-21) Philadelphia. Contact Pittcon,
+1 (412) 825-3220; info@pittcon.org;
pittcon.org.
Third EOS Topical Meeting on Blue
Photonics Optics in the Sea (March 18-20)
Texel, Netherlands. An event of the European
Optical Society. Contact Julia Dalichow, EOS -
Events & Services GmbH, +49 511 277 2673;
bluephotonics3@myeos.org; www.myeos.org.
ILSC: International Laser Safety Conference
(March 18-21) Orlando, Fla. Contact Laser
Institute of America, +1 (407) 380-1553; ilsc@lia.
org; www.lia.org/ilsc.
l
LaserWorld of Photonics China 2013
(March 19-21) Shanghai. Contact Sabine Kallup,
Munich International Trade Fairs, +1 (646)
437-1012; skallup@munich-tradefairs.com;
www.world-of-photonics.net/en/laser-china/start.
ULIS 2013: 14th International Conference
on Ultimate Integration on Silicon
(March 19-21) Coventry, UK. Contact David
Leadley, University of Warwick, +44 2476 524 114;
d.r.leadley@warwick.ac.uk; www.ulisconference.
org.
APRIL
33rd ASLMS Annual Conference (April 3-7)
Boston. Contact American Society for Laser
Medicine and Surgery, +1 (715) 845-9283;
information@aslms.org; www.aslms.org.
ISBI 2013: International Symposium on
Biomedical Imaging: From Nano to Macro
(April 7-11) San Francisco. Contact IEEE, isbi2013-
info@ieee.org; www.biomedicalimaging.org.
Happenings
l
Indicates shows Photonics Media will be attending.
Complete listings at: www.photonics.com/calendar.
Contact your sales representative at
(413) 499-0514 or at sales@photonics.com
Advertise in Photonics Spectra
Year after year, Photonics Spectra maintains the industrys
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Ad close: November 29, 2012
February Features: FTTH, Free-Space Communication,
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1112Happenings.indd 80 10/24/12 5:13 PM
Advertiser Index
Photonics Media Advertising Contacts
Please visit our website
Photonics.com/mediakit for all
our marketing opportunities.
Ken Tyburski
Director of Sales
Voice: +1 (413) 499-0514, Ext. 101
Fax: +1 (413) 443-0472
ken.tyburski@photonics.com
New England, Southeastern US, FL,
Midwest, Rocky Mountains, AZ & NM
Rebecca L. Pontier
Associate Director
Voice: +1 (413) 499-0514, Ext. 112
Fax: +1 (413) 443-0472
becky.pontier@photonics.com
NY, NJ & PA
Timothy A. Dupree
Regional Manager
Voice: +1 (413) 499-0514, Ext. 111
Fax: +1 (413) 443-0472
tim.dupree@photonics.com
Northern CA, AK, NV, Pacifc Northwest,
Yukon & British Columbia
Joanne C. Mirke
Regional Manager
Voice: +1 (413) 499-0514, Ext. 226
Fax: +1 (413) 443-0472
joanne.mirke@photonics.com
Central CA, Southern CA & HI
Tracy L. Reynolds
Regional Manager
Voice: +1 (413) 499-0514, Ext. 104
Fax: +1 (413) 443-0472
tracy.reynolds@photonics.com
Eastern Canada
Maureen Riley Moriarty
Regional Manager
Voice: +1 (413) 499-0514, Ext. 229
Fax: +1 (413) 443-0472
riley.moriarty@photonics.com
Europe, Israel & South Central US
Owen Broch
Regional Manager
Voice: +1 (413) 499-0514, Ext. 108
Fax: +1 (413) 443-0472
owen.broch@photonics.com
Austria, Germany & Liechtenstein
Olaf Kortenhoff
Voice: +49 2241 1684777
Fax: +49 2241 1684776
olaf.kortenhoff@photonics.com
Asia (except Japan)
Hans Zhong
Voice: +86 755 2872 6973
Fax: +86 755 8474 4362
hans.zhong@yahoo.com.cn
Japan
Scott Shibasaki
Voice: +81 3 5225 6614
Fax: +81 3 5229 7253
s_shiba@optronics.co.jp
Reprint Services
Voice: +1 (413) 499-0514
Fax: +1 (413) 443-0472
editorial@photonics.com
Mailing addresses:
Send all contracts, insertion orders
and advertising copy to:
Laurin Publishing
PO Box 4949
Street address:
Laurin Publishing
Berkshire Common, 2 South St.
Pittsfeld, MA 01201
Voice: +1 (413) 499-0514
Fax: +1 (413) 443-0472
advertising@photonics.com
4D Technology Corporation ..... 36
www.4dtechnology.com
Aero Research
Associates Inc. ....................... 73
www.aerorese.com
Andor Technology plc ............... 70
www.andor.com
APOMA ...................................... 80
www.apoma.org
Applied Scientifc
Instrumentation Inc. .............. 28
www.asiimaging.com
Automated Imaging
Association ............................ 37
www.automate2013.com
BEAMSTOPR Inc. ..................... 70
www.beamstopr.com
Bristol Instruments Inc. .... 44, 69
www.bristol-inst.com
Cargille Laboratories ................ 75
www.cargille.com
Castech Inc. .............................. 76
www.castech.com
CVI Melles Griot ........................ 24
www.cvimellesgriot.com
DataRay Inc. ............................. 34
www.dataray.com
Directed Energy Inc. ................... 8
www.ixyscolorado.com
Edmund Optics ......................... 30
www.edmundoptics.com
Electro-Optical
Products Corp. ....................... 42
www.eopc.com
Electro-Optics
Technology Inc. ...................... 75
www.eotech.com
EMD Millipore Corporation ...... 49
www.emd4photonics.com
Energetiq Technology Inc. ........ 68
www.energetiq.com
Esco Products Inc. .................... 21
www.escoproducts.com
Exciton Inc. ............................... 68
www.exciton.com
Fermionics Opto-Technology .... 45
www.fermionics.com
First Sensor Inc. ....................... 12
www.frst-sensor.com
Hamamatsu ................................ 9
www.sales.hamamatsu.com
HORIBA Scientifc ..................... 33
www.picocomponents.com
Image Science Ltd. ................... 78
www.image-science.co.uk
Innovation Photonics ............... 69
www.innpho.com
Julabo USA Inc. ......................... 69
www.julabo.com
L-3 Communications
Tinsley .................................... 11
www.asphere.com
Master Bond Inc. ...................... 78
www.masterbond.com
Mightex Systems ............... 69, 70
www.mightexsystems.com
MOXTEK Inc. ............................. 59
www.moxtek.com
Newport
Corporation ..........................CV4
www.newport.com
Novotech Inc. ............................ 32
www.novotech.net
Nufern ....................................... 25
www.nufern.com
The Optical Society
of America ....................... 35, 43
www.osa.org
Osela Inc. .................................. 68
www.oselainc.com
PCO-TECH Inc. .........................CV3
www.pco-tech.com
Photonics
Media ....27, 38, 51, 63, 67, 80
www.photonics.com
PHOTONIS USA Inc. .................. 29
www.photonis.com
PI
(Physik Instrumente) L.P. ...... 68
www.pi.ws
Pico Electronics Inc. ................. 26
www.picoelectronics.com
Power Technology Inc. .............. 13
www.powertechnology.com
Prior Scientifc Inc. ................... 20
www.prior.com
Raytheon Company .................. 15
www.raytheon.com
Research
Electro-Optics Inc. ................. 19
www.reoinc.com
Seoul Precision
Optics Co. ............................... 28
www.optical-coating.com
Siskiyou Corporation ................ 77
www.siskiyou.com
Smart Vision Lights .................. 69
www.smartvisionlights.com
Spectra-Physics,
A Newport
Corporation Brand ................... 6
www.newport.com
SPIE International
Society for Optical
Engineering ............... 31, 65, 74
www.spie.org
Stanford Research
Systems Inc. ............................ 3
www.thinksrs.com
Terahertz
Technologies Inc. ................... 68
www.terahertztechnologies.com
Tohkai
Sangyo Co. Ltd. ...................... 74
www.peak.co.jp
Truesense
Imaging Inc. ............................. 7
www.truesenseimaging.com
VAT Inc. ...................................... 70
www.vatvalve.com
Veeco Instruments Inc. ............ 14
www.veeco.com
Xenics ........................................ 70
www.xenics.com
Zygo Corp. ...............................CV2
www.zygo.com
Wall Chart
Avantes BV .............................WC2
www.avantes.com
Esco Products Inc. .................WC5
www.escoproducts.com
Hamamatsu ...........................WC9
www.sales.hamamatsu.com
IDEX Optics & Photonics .......WC3
www.idexcorp.com
Inrad Optics Inc. ....................WC8
www.inradoptics.com
NKT Photonics A/S ................WC7
www.nktphotonics.com
Optical Building
Blocks Corp. ........................WC4
www.obbcorp.com
Thorlabs Inc. .........................WC6
www.thorlabs.com
1112AdIndex_4digital.indd 81 11/2/12 1:27 PM
lighter
SIDE
Bright city lights help us get
around more easily at night, but they also
can affect nocturnal wildlife, the environ-
ment, sleep patterns and more.
I became interested in light pollution
because we know so little about it, said
Helga Kchly of the Leibniz Institute of
Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries.
Many negative effects of artifcial light
at night on the environment are still un-
known, and basic information about light
emission sources [is] missing.
To illuminate the impact of Berlins
artifcial lighting on the environment,
Kchly and colleagues have produced
a very high resolution aerial nighttime
photo of the metropolis for the Verlust
der Nacht (Loss of the Night) project in
Berlin, which includes Free University
Berlin.
The 878-megapixel mosaic image at
one pixel per square meter is the high-
est-resolution image ever published of a
city at night, according to Free University
Berlin, where the map was produced. It is
a composite of 2647 photographs taken in
a series of 14 tracks at 3 km (about 9800
ft) above the city in September 2010.
The researchers are working to
understand what the sources of upward-
directed light are and to identify patterns
in the distribution of the lights. Aerial ob-
servation of light pollution can fll a gap
between ground-based surveys and night-
time satellite data, they noted. Ground
surveys are labor-intensive and usually
limited to a smaller area, and satellite
data has lower resolution, they said.
Using the photo, they measured how
much light comes from different types
of land-use areas, including streets and
parks, comparing the light emitted from
each point to Berlin land-use information.
More than one-third of the upward-
directed light came from streetlights,
auto headlights and advertisements; half
of the citys total light came from only
one-quarter of its area, the map revealed.
City parks are part of the reason that
Berlin still contains large unlit areas,
and they are important dark resources for
nocturnal animals. The researchers found
that natural areas accounted for almost
one-third of the study area but emitted
only 6 percent of the total light.
The fndings were published in the
journal Remote Sensing of Environment
(dx.doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.785492).
Caren B. Les
caren.les@photonics.com

878-MP nightscape image
reveals light pollution
lighter
SIDE
This very high resolution mosaic image of Berlin at night is made up of thousands of individual aerial photographs. It was produced as a tool for light pollution.
The Tiergarten park is the dark spot in the middle, and the bright Berlin Tegel Airport is in the upper left corner.

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com November 2012

1112_TechPulse.indd 29 10/24/12 4:52 PM

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