Optics and Photonics News

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Next Generation Optical Storage Systems using Electrically Powered Semiconductor Laser Diodes

Scientists have developed electrically powered semiconductor laser diodes that operate at a shorter wavelength than any others used today. The lasers, described online this week in Nature Photonics ("A 342-nm ultraviolet AlGaN multiplequantum-well laser diode"), could be used for the next generation of optical storage systems following today's Blu-ray disks, and will have applications in biomedicine, materials processing and microchip manufacture.

28 Jul 2008

Harvard University Demonstrates Highly Directional Semiconductor Lasers

Applied scientists at Harvard University in collaboration with researchers from Hamamatsu Photonics in Hamamatsu City, Japan, have demonstrated, for the first time, highly directional semiconductor lasers with a much smaller beam divergence than conventional ones. The innovation opens the door to a wide range of applications in photonics and communications. Harvard University has also filed a broad patent on the invention.

27 Jul 2008

Pirelli Group Forms Strategic Alliance in Integrated Photonics

The Pirelli Group and CyOptics, Inc. announce the formation of a strategic alliance in integrated photonics.

25 Jul 2008

Hubble Space Telescope Providing Scientists With Largest Sample of Distant Galaxies

By using the gravitational magnification from six massive lensing galaxy clusters, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has provided scientists with the largest sample of very distant galaxies seen to date. Some of the newly found magnified objects are dimmer than the faintest ones seen in the legendary Hubble Ultra Deep Field, which is usually considered the deepest image of the Universe.

24 Jul 2008

Innovative Glasses Making it Easier for People with Impaired Vision to Drive

Glasses embedded with a telescope promise to make it easier for people with impaired vision to drive and do other activities requiring sharper distance vision. Schepens Eye Research Institute scientists describe the advantages of these innovative glasses over earlier devices in an article published in the May/June issue of Journal of Biomedical Optics, mailed in print form to subscribers this month.

24 Jul 2008

Lambda Photometrics Announces Two New Tunable OPO Laser Systems from Opotek

Lambda Photometrics are pleased to announce two new tunable OPO laser systems from Opotek, the high-repetition rate Opolette HR and the high-energy Opolette HE.

24 Jul 2008

Polarised Sunglasses Help Astronomers See Black Hole Disks

For the first time astronomers have found a way to get a clean view of the elusive disks of matter surrounding supermassive black holes. By using a polarising filter on the Science and Technology Facility Council’s UK Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii, they have been able to see through the clouds of dust which surround these black holes. This work is published on 24th July 2008 in Nature.

24 Jul 2008

Work Greatly Strengthens Explanation of Quasars

For the first time, a team of international researchers has found a way to view the accretion disks surrounding black holes and verify that their true electromagnetic spectra match what astronomers have long predicted they would be. Their work will be published in the July 24 issue of the science journal Nature.

23 Jul 2008

New Laser Diode Driver Gives Customers Greater Flexibility in SFP Module Designs

Micrel Inc., an industry leader in analog, high bandwidth communications and Ethernet IC solutions, today launched a new 4.25Gbps FP/DFB Laser Diode Driver. The SY88422L is a single 3.3V supply, small form-factor laser driver capable of delivering up to 90mA modulation current and 100mA bias current.

23 Jul 2008

Leader in Laser Vision Correction Celebrates More Than Half a Million Lives Transformed

LCA-Vision Inc., a leading provider of laser vision correction services under the LasikPlus(R) brand, today announced that one million laser vision correction procedures have been performed at its LasikPlus(R) vision centers. LCA-Vision opened its first laser vision correction center in Cincinnati, Ohio shortly after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the technology to perform procedures in October 1995.

23 Jul 2008