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February / 2010 OLEDs: Lighting the Way Fighting Lab Fraud New Uses for Holography Prism Awards – Winners Inside! Inside this issue, starting opposite page 82 NEW
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February / 2010
Feb/1
0OLEDs • Spectrom
icroscopy • Lab Fraud
OLEDs:Lighting the Way
Fighting Lab Fraud
New Uses forHolography
Prism Awards –Winners Inside!
Inside this issue, starting opposite page 82
NEW
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February 2010
t TABLE OF CONTENTS
NEWS & ANALYSIS
16 | VIEWPOINTby Blair PatacairkOttawa Centre for Research and InnovationCement not included: 10:1 return on federal infrastructure investment in photonics?
18 | TECH NEWSNew system lets world monitor California forest firesQCL peak power record smashedCold atoms + lasers = synthetic magnetic fieldTerahertz laser tuning comes down to the wireThe ins and outs of adjustable microlensesNIR spectroscopy to predict pill qualityGraphene: the rising star in Raman spectroscopy
29 | FASTTRACKBusiness and Markets
Optical coatings: designs for growth
32 | THE PRISM AWARDS WINNERSRecognizing innovation in photonics
37 | GREENLIGHTby Anne L. Fischer, Senior EditorUS PV market watchSolar-heated bridges, roadsby Doug Malchow, Sensors UnlimitedImaging PV cells
DEPARTMENTS
10 | EDITORIAL62 | BRIGHT IDEAS79 | HAPPENINGS82 | PEREGRINATIONS
Depending on the kindness of strangers
THE COVERThis month's cover was inspired by the feature article on OLEDs forlighting applications. LumibladeGlow image courtesy of Philips. Cover design by Senior Art Director Lisa N. Comstock.
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Photonics Spectra February 20104
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PHOTONICS: The technology of generating and harnessing light and other forms of radiantenergy whose quantum unit is the photon. The range of applications of photonics extendsfrom energy generation to detection to communications and information processing.
Volume 44 Issue 2
www.photonics.com
FEATURES
42 | LIGHTING THE WAY: DEVELOPING OLEDS FOR THE GENERAL ILLUMINATION MARKETby Gary Boas, Contributing EditorOrganic LEDs have created a stir, mainly because of improvements in power efficiency.
47 | MAKING ELECTRO-OPTICAL SENSE WITH ZINC OXIDEby Lynn Savage, Features EditorBecause it is environmentally benign, ZnO is finding increased use in photonics applications.
51 | THE ART OF MICROSPECTROSCOPYby Caren B. Les, News EditorMicrospectroscopy is primarily used to acquire spectra rather than images.
54 | BEAMING THROUGH TO NOVEL USES FOR HOLOGRAPHY by Lynn Savage, Features EditorHolography has found several niches in which important work can be done.
57 | THE STRUGGLE TO KEEP RESEARCH REALby Hank Hogan, Contributing EditorThe amount of scientific misconduct that goes on is hard to pin down.
Special EuroPhotonics Supplement
E 4 | EURO NEWSWhite light supercontinuum: power struggleThe 3-D way to slice itIt’s a terascale world after allGermany: managing the downswingLet it shine the easy way: laser polishing
E 10 | PUTTING IMAGING IN THE PICTUREby Marie Freebody, Contributing EditorImages today are produced in myriad ways – using infrared, fluorescence, bioluminescence, x-ray machines, optical coherence tomography, lidar – for use in a variety of industries.
E 14 | PATENT ISSUES IN SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY RESEARCHby Jörg Schwartz, Contributing EditorThe roles patents play in this emerging biophotonics application.
E 16 | ECOPHOTONICSby Krista D. Zanolli, Contributing EditorSpectroscopy detects toxins in veggies.
E 18 | PRODUCT PREVIEW
E 23 | ADVERTISER INDEX
THE EUROPHOTONICS COVERThe intellectual property issues surrounding synthetic biology research inspired thismonth's cover. Some say granting ownership to someone who "discovers" something created by nature is equivalent to allowing someone who catches a butterfly to patentthe creature. See related article on page E14. This month’s cover was designed by EuroPhotonics Art Director Juliana T. Willey.
PHOTONICS SPECTRA (USPS 448870) IS PUBLISHEDMONTHLY BY Laurin Publishing Co. Inc., Berkshire Common,PO Box 4949, Pittsfield, MA 01202, +1 (413) 499-0514; fax:+1 (413) 442-3180; e-mail: [email protected]. ISSN-0731-1230. TITLE reg. in US Library of Congress. Copyright ®2010 by Laurin Publishing Co. Inc. All rights reserved. Copies ofPhotonics Spectra on microfilm are available from UniversityMicrofilm, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48103. Pho-tonics Spectra articles are indexed in the Engineering Index.POSTMASTER: Send form 3579 to Photonics Spectra, BerkshireCommon, PO Box 4949, Pittsfield, MA 01202. Periodicalspostage paid at Pittsfield, MA, and at additional mailing offices.CIRCULATION POLICY: Photonics Spectra is distributed with-out charge to qualified scientists, engineers, technicians, andmanagement personnel. Eligibility requests must be returnedwith your business card or organization’s letterhead. Rates forothers as follows: $122 per year, prepaid. Overseas postage:$28 surface mail, $108 airmail per year. Inquire for multiyearsubscription rates. Publisher reserves the right to refuse non-qualified subscriptions. ARTICLES FOR PUBLICATION: Sci-entists, engineers, educators, technical executives and technicalwriters are invited to contribute articles on the optical, laser,fiber optic, electro-optical, imaging, optoelectronics and relatedfields. Communications regarding the editorial content of Pho-tonics Spectra should be addressed to the managing editor.Contributed statements and opinions expressed in PhotonicsSpectra are t hose of the contributors – the publisher assumes noresponsibility for them.
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Editorial Staff
Managing Editor Laura S. MarshallSenior Editors Charles T. Troy, Anne L. Fischer,
Melinda A. RoseFeatures Editor Lynn M. Savage
News Editor Caren B. LesDepartments Editor Ashley N. Paddock
Copy Editors Judith E. Storie, Patricia A. Vincent, Margaret W. Bushee
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Photonics Spectra February 2010
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e EDITORIAL COMMENT
Finding falsification –and fighting it Allegations of fraud can take a long time to show up and can take even longer to
investigate and prove. But the process is worth it: Innovation will falter withoutintegrity.
On page 57 of this issue, editor Hank Hogan takes an in-depth look at research misconduct, from the difficulties associated with identifying it, to how scientists in our industry can educate themselves (and others) on how to fight it. The article also looks at policies and procedures currently in place that can help deter and uncover future falsification, fabrication and plagiarism in scientific research.
Remember the bubble fusion scandal? That particular case certainly took a long time todevelop. In autumn 2008, Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., stripped nuclear engineering professor Rusi P. Taleyarkhan of his named professorship after a universityappeals committee upheld findings that he had falsified research records not once buttwice in reporting his work on sonofusion.
In the March 2002 issue of Science, Taleyarkhan reported that he was the first to demonstrate sonofusion in a beaker. The technique, also known as bubble fusion, involvesusing sound waves to compress bubbles in deuterated liquids to the point of collapse, producing fusion normally only possible with enormous, expensive machinery.
Creating cheap, unlimited energy using this technique would have been a wonderful thing– if the technique had worked. But other scientists were unsuccessful in their attempts toduplicate the results he had reported, and allegations of falsification began to swirl.
The first time the university officially looked into the matter, it issued a statement in February 2007 that the evidence “does not support the allegations of research misconduct”and closed the investigation.
And then the US Congress got involved. The chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight for the House Committee on Science and Technology sent a letter to Purdue’s president in May 2007, chastising the school for failing to follow itsown rules about research misconduct investigations and for failing to review the researchin question to see whether it was indeed valid.
After another inquiry, which concluded in July 2008 with findings of misconduct, Taleyarkhan was sanctioned by the university through the removal of his title and discretionary funds.
The outcome of this case serves to underscore not only the importance of integrity in the research process but also the vital role that government can take in addressing labfraud when internal investigations into alleged misconduct are flawed.
10 Photonics Spectra February 2010
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Photonics Spectra February 2010
Photonics Media has enhanced its industry-leading site to showcase specificareas of interest, such as optics, and imaging and lasers, as well as videos,white papers and blogs.
Welcome to the New
Features
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Photonics Spectra February 2010
You can’t afford to miss this issue.
You'll also find all the news that affects your industry, from techtrends and market reports to thelatest products and media.
Stimulus Funding Follow-Up: A look at some of the work that has been funded by the AmericanRecovery and Reinvestment Act,and whether it has affected growthand helped to create new jobs inthe optics and photonics industries.
Advancing Fiber: Enablence Technologies Inc. reviews ways in which modernplanar lightwave circuit technologyis being leveraged to enable veryhigh performance in next-genera-tion 40G/100G networks.
Silicon Photonics: The future of computing needs a light touch – literally. As chips route moreand more data around, the standard electronic wiring on and betweenchips can't keep up. Enter silicon photonics, which aims to marry a photoniclayer atop the existing circuitry.
AsiaPhotonics:This new special supplement will cover all aspects of the Asian photonicsindustry. The March issue will feature reports on photonics in China,the East Asian solar technology market, machine vision, laser diodes and more.
GreenLight:Solar cells implanted in the retina may help restore vision to blind people or those with macular degeneration. A team of researchers at Stanford University is working on a system in which the patient wears a video camera, a pair of goggles, an LCD screen and solar cells.
In the March issue of
Photonics Spectra …
Check out a sample of the new digital version of Photonics Spectra magazine atwww.photonics.com/DigitalSample. It’s a whole new world of information for people in the global photonics industry.
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v VIEWPOINT
Cement not included:10:1 return on federal infrastructure investment in photonics?BY BLAIR PATACAIRK OTTAWA CENTRE OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION
Responding to the credit crisis andresulting global recession, nationalgovernments around the world are
furiously pumping cement-truck loads ofmoney into infrastructure projects. Someof these economic stimulus initiatives willwork, and some will fail; few will offer aspecific return on investment (ROI).
Roads, bridges, buildings and last-gen-eration manufacturing jobs are important –and easy to justify in a political context.Yet building a next generation of success-ful “cement not included” innovation com-panies will generate long-term jobs, ex-ports and tax bases, and ultimately pay thetab on the short-term stimulus spending.
The Canadian photonics industry, em-ploying an estimated 20,000 people in 400companies, currently offers an innovationinfrastructure ROI example that shows anearly $10 return for every dollar invested.This is based on a $52 million federal gov-ernment investment in the National Re-search Council Canadian Photonics Fabri-cation Centre (NRC-CPFC).
KMPG LLP estimates in a recently released report, Impact Analysis of theCanadian Photonics Fabrication Centre,that the NRC-CPFC, a unique resourcecreated in 2002, will generate $500 mil-lion in economic benefits over the nextfive years.
Canada’s photonics industry generatesclose to $4.5 billion annually, with ap-proximately 85 percent from exports, in-cluding 50 percent to the US. The indus-try has its roots in the telecommunicationssector, but with active diversification in
the past decade, only 20 percent oftoday’s companies now address tele-com, with the rest creating exciting
new applications in defense andsecurity, health and medical,
consumer electronics, remotesensing and measurement,
green energy and manufac-turing. (For more on pho-
tonics in Canada, see“Northern Lights” on page 80 of
the September 2009 issue of PhotonicsSpectra.)
In keeping with the government’s sus-tained commitment to building a strongereconomy through science and technology,the NRC-CPFC presents an excellent casestudy for what happens when you combinepublic and private funds to assist Canadiancompanies in commercializing their re-search and development.
NRC-CPFC is a world-leading photon-ics prototyping and training facility thatprovides commercial-grade fabricationservices dedicated to the creation of pho-tonic device prototypes. It supports thegrowth of the Canadian photonics sectorby offering clients and partners cutting-edge photonics fabrication services, andsimulation, design, fabrication, testing andprototyping services that help move inno-vative photonic devices to market.
Its role is to work with startup compa-nies across the nation and photonics indus-try clients worldwide to explore new tech-nological possibilities, and then to helpdemonstrate their technology and raisecapital. The facility, containing a 40,000-sq-ft industrial-grade semiconductorfoundry, is a commercialization partnershipbetween the federally funded National Re-search Council (NRC) Canada and theprovince of Ontario, which has contributed$10 million in additional funding. It is lo-
cated on NRC’s Ottawa campus. After working with NRC-CPFC,
OneChip Photonics, an Ottawa-basedcompany with products aimed at the inte-grated fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) trans-ceiver market, closed a second round ofventure capital financing last March, rais-ing a total of $19.5 million from Canadianand US investors.
“OneChip is well positioned to helpsystem providers and carriers deployFTTH more cost-effectively than ever be-fore, and to meet consumer and businessdemand for high-bandwidth voice, dataand video services,” said Jim Hjartarson,OneChip’s CEO, after his company an-nounced its venture capital deal earlier thisyear. “OneChip is one of only a few com-panies with new core intellectual propertyand advanced technology in the opticaltransceiver business that can sustain acompetitive advantage over other opticalcomponent providers, which rely on con-ventional technology and assemblyprocesses.”
OneChip believes that its approach andtechnology will strengthen the businesscase for broader deployment of FTTHworldwide, enabling the company to claima significant share of the FTTx (fiber-to-the-x) optical transceiver market – onethat market analyst and consulting firmOvum Ltd. of London estimates will growfrom $419 million by the end of 2009 to$456 million by the end of 2013.
Infrastructure projects such as NRC-CPFC substantially reduce startup andproduct development costs, de-risk tech-nology for entrepreneurs and encourageinvestment by the venture capital commu-nity. With more of this type of enlightenedstimulus spending, we can park a few ce-ment trucks and build more 21st-centuryjobs and companies that boost long-termprosperity.
Meet the authorBlair Patacairk is senior investment consultantfor Ottawa Centre of Research and Innovation;e-mail: [email protected].
Photonics Spectra February 201016
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New system lets world monitor California forest fires
RENO, Nev. – When wildfires forced agroup of Northern California studentsfrom their homes last year, they decided towork to keep the same thing from happen-ing to others.
Ranging in age from 10 to 13 years old,the grade-schoolers came up with the ideafor Forest Guard, an early detection sys-tem for forest fires that relies on a new360° solar-powered camera and Wi-Fitechnology. The idea won the global FirstLEGO League Climate Actions competi-tion in Copenhagen, Denmark, in May2009.
Impressed by the idea, European execu-tives from Sony offered to help the teamdevelop the system, and a prototype wasinstalled at Tahoe City, Calif., for an Inter-net debut in December 2009 from Copen-hagen during the United Nations ClimateChange Conference.
Forest Guard will use a closed-circuittelevision system to send pictures livefrom the forest to the desktops or screensavers of Internet users all over the world.Both professional firefighters and citizenfire-watchers will be able to monitor areaswhere the potential for fire is high; if theyspot a fire, the Internet users can let thepros know right where it is. The intentionis to cut down significantly on responsetime and, in so doing, to save lives andproperty by warning residents who live inthe path of a fire and by deploying re-sources more wisely. Cutting down on for-est-fire carbon emissions is another poten-tial plus for the system.
Graham Kent, director of the Universityof Nevada’s Seismological Laboratory, hasled Forest Guard’s installation, testing andmaintenance.
“We’ve been working on a similar sys-
tem for several years, forscientific research purposes,and are grateful to be able towork with Sony on this pro-totype and get a system in-stalled in the Tahoe-Renoarea,” Kent said. “The net-work is ideal for real-timedata collection and opti-mizes the use and expenseof the system.”
Kent’s team includes KenSmith of the Nevada Seis-mological Laboratory, FrankVernon of the University ofCalifornia, San Diego, andGeoff Schladow of the UCDavis Tahoe EnvironmentalResearch Center. They alsowill use the network’s real-time capacity to monitorother environmental systemssuch as climate, forest fuelmoisture, evapo-transpira-tion, seismic activity and airquality. Research and datacollection are high on theirlist as well.
“This camera has serialnumber 001,” Kent said.“We’ll be testing and debug-ging it over the winter in
Tahoe City while also doing some interest-ing science. It’s great to have been able tointegrate some design features and func-tions into the system based on our experi-ences with the 10-year-old system in SanDiego.”
A camera network has been used suc-cessfully in Southern California for manyyears to monitor forest fire areas, butwithout the social network of citizen fire-watchers. Kent pointed out that the cost ofthe system is approximately the same asthat of one or two homes that could be lost in a catastrophic fire, and that themaintenance of the system for 10 years is equal to about one lost home.
Next summer, a network of the solar-powered Wi-Fi cameras will be placed onmountaintops surrounding Lake Tahoe.
Laura S. [email protected]
18
NEWSTECH
Photonics Spectra February 2010
Nevada Seismological Laboratory director Graham Kent presents the new solar-powered Wi-Fi Forest Eye camera system to theNorthern California students who developed the novel idea for early detection of forest fires. Photo by Mike Wolterbeek; courtesyof University of Nevada, Reno.
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EVANSTON, Ill. – Only a year ago, thepeak output power of a quantum cascadelaser (QCL) was 34 W. Today, thanks toresearchers at the Center for Quantum Devices at Northwestern University, peakpower of 120 W from a single device atroom temperature has been achieved.However, this extremely high peak poweris only the first step in making such lasersready for system integration.
The research was led by ManijehRazeghi, Walter P. Murphy professor ofelectrical engineering and computer sci-ence at the university’s McCormick Schoolof Engineering and Applied Science, andthe director and founder of the center.
“The breakthrough is particularly attrac-tive for sensing chemicals at a distanceand for infrared countermeasures,”Razeghi said, “because power is a luxurythat defines range, speed and sensitivityfor targeting remote applications such asmisguiding incoming missiles.”
The same research into high peak poweralso confirmed that the QCL is resistant tofilamentation, which limits the beam qual-ity of conventional broad-area semicon-ductor lasers as they get wider.
The researchers demonstrated that theridge width of a broad-area QCL can beincreased up to 400 μm without sufferingfrom filamentation effects, as evidencedby a stable, well-defined output beam pro-file, nearly identical for all widths tested.Currently, although stable, the laser is notoperating in the highest-quality mode.
“One future direction is to improve thebeam quality,” Razeghi said. “The currentdemonstration has a broad output beam,which makes the light harder to utilizefully. Some research into spatial mode filtering is warranted to combat this problem.”
Unlike diode lasers, the QCL requiresonly electrons to operate, giving it uniqueproperties that a conventional laser lacks.
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Shown are size scales relevant to the quantum cascade laser. At the top is a packaged device. In the middle isthe waveguide cross section as imaged by a scanning electron microscope. On the lower left are some of theindividual layers of the injector region as imaged by a transmission electron microscope. Courtesy of ManijehRazeghi/McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University.
QCL peak power record smashed
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One feature is that its linewidth enhance-ment factor is close to zero, comparedwith two to five for a conventional laser.The researchers believe that this differencehas serious implications for power scalingwith broad-area devices.
“Other wavelengths also need to be de-veloped. Besides the 120 watts at shorterwavelengths, we have demonstrated up to25 watts at a wavelength of 10.3 microns,”she explained. “At present, this work isalso unfunded, but we have confidencethat similar power levels can be demon-strated throughout the three- to 12-micronwavelength range.”
Razeghi said that, once this is achieved,another direction will be to improve thespectral characteristics.
“The current laser, like most broad-arealasers, shows many emission lines which
span approximately 100 nanometersaround a wavelength of 4.4 microns. Forremote chemical sensing, a much nar-rower, single-mode emission is desired,which would require spectrally selectivefeedback. In addition, some moderate tun-ability of this wavelength would also beadvantageous,” she explained.
“A final research area is to scale aver-age power delivery. While peak power isuseful when fast detectors are available,use of these lasers for infrared counter-measures requires a more sustained powerdelivery. Thermal management makes thisa significant challenge, limited by theoverall power conversion efficiency of thelaser. As such, both are subjects of currentand future research.”
Krista D. [email protected]
20
t TECHNEWS
Photonics Spectra February 2010
Cold atoms + lasers = syntheticmagnetic fieldGAITHERSBURG, Md. – Thanks tolasers, researchers have persuaded ultra-cold, neutral atoms to do something new:respond as if they were charged particlesto a magnetic field that isn’t there. Thissynthetic magnetic field will help scien-tists create new states of matter and probetheir fundamental properties. The findingsalso could lead someday to new types ofcomputers.
Research team leader Ian B. Spielman,a physicist at the National Institute ofStandards and Technology (NIST), saidthat the experiment required new scientificconcepts and was technically challengingto pull off. However, it did not demandbreakthroughs in instrumentation or equip-ment. “We use established laser tech-niques, but with a lot of finesse.”
In the Dec. 3, 2009, issue of Nature, theteam described how it achieved syntheticmagnetism. It began by cooling a cloud ofrubidium atoms, using optical and othermethods to trap them and then chill themto 100 nK. Hovering just above absolutezero, the atoms formed a Bose-Einsteincondensate, with all of them residing inthe lowest energy quantum mechanicalstate. Such a condensate has been de-scribed as a superatom because its con-stituents behave identically.
After creating the condensate, the re-searchers applied a small, real magnetic
field across the ensemble that varied alonga single direction. At the same time, theyilluminated the atoms with two near-in-frared (801.7 nm) laser beams at right an-gles to each other. The two beams differedin frequency by about 3 MHz, or aboutone part in a billion. The beams coupled tothe internal spin-state of the atoms throughthe Raman effect.
The result of the laser beams and mag-netic field was that the neutral particlesmoved as though they were charged parti-cles traveling through a uniform real mag-netic field. The synthetic magnetic fieldcaused the atoms to spiral as they moved.The researchers created vortices in the con-densate by varying parameters. Imagingthe rubidium cloud captured these vortices.
Spielman noted that synthetic magneticfields could help reveal some of the funda-mentals of matter and its interactions withmagnetic fields. Researchers, for instance,will be able to investigate more com-pletely the energy spectrum of particles,such as electrons, in a crystal lattice whena magnetic field is applied. One possibleoutcome of this research could be novelmaterials with unusual properties.
New states of matter also could help re-solve a problem: Quantum computers cansolve some problems impossible to tacklewith current technology. However, actu-ally building these new machines involves
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practical issues, one of which is the loss ofquantum coherence.
Bosons, as with the condensate, mighttheoretically eliminate some of these prob-lems, Spielman explained. “These quasi-particles are important for a proposed
method of quantum computation, knownas topological quantum computation, thatis naturally robust against the decoherencethat plagues current implementations.”
Hank [email protected]
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Vortices, the dark spots in these images, are the result of synthetic magnetism acting on an ultracold condensate of rubidium atoms. The vortices are not present before two laser beams are switched on (–19 ms in upper left) but are there afterward (rest of images). Courtesy of Ian Spielman, NIST.
Terahertz laser tuning comes down to the wireCAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The progress ofterahertz technology continues its steadymarch with news of a tunable terahertzlaser developed by a group at MIT.
Tunable terahertz lasers are particularlyuseful for sensing and spectroscopy appli-cations because many biochemical specieshave strong spectral fingerprints at tera-hertz frequencies. Despite this, the tera-hertz range is among the most underdevel-oped in the electromagnetic spectrum.This is largely a result of the “terahertzgap” between solid-state electronic de-vices and photonic devices.
Qing Hu and colleagues have managedto overcome some of the technologicalhurdles facing terahertz research to de-velop a terahertz quantum cascade laserwith a frequency tuning of ~0.14 THz.
Conventionally, the frequency of a laseris tuned in a manner similar to a stringedmusical instrument, such as a violin. Thepitch of the instrument is varied by chang-ing the length – the longitudinal compo-nent of the wave vector – and the tension– the refractive index – of a string. How-ever, this method is difficult to implementat terahertz frequencies because of the rel-
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atively long wavelength of a semiconduc-tor laser compared with its cross section.
Instead of fighting the battle with bruteforce, the group developed an approach totuning that actually takes advantage of thelaser’s tiny cross section. The new line ofattack is based on manipulating theevanescent propagating mode of a deviceknown as a “wire laser”; i.e., any laserwith a cross section that is much smallerthan the wavelength it produces.
“In a typical wire laser, a large fractionof the mode propagates outside of thesolid core,” Hu said. “By placing a mov-able object close to the wire laser, we canmanipulate the laser’s transverse modeprofile, thereby tuning its resonant fre-quency.”
In the researchers’ experiments, whichwere described in the November 2009 issueof Nature Photonics, a movable metallic ordielectric object is placed at a distance of
~1 to 15 μm from a wire laser with a 13-μm-wide ridge. Using a gold object nextto the wire laser resulted in a blueshift infrequency, and, conversely, a silicon objectproduced a redshift.
Hu now hopes to develop broadly tunable terahertz lasers based on micro-electromechanical systems technology.
“The aim is to integrate the tunable wire lasers with power amplifiers to createhigh-power frequency-tunable sources forsensing, spectroscopy and imaging appli-cations,” he said. “Furthermore, the con-cept of tuning a wire laser by manipulat-ing the transverse mode profile applies toother frequency ranges. For wire lasers atvisible frequencies, one can envision usinga scanning probe to tune its frequency forsensing and spectroscopy at nanometerscales.”
Marie [email protected]
t TECHNEWS
Photonics Spectra February 2010
An enlarged view of the laser (right) shows the plunger (transparent blue) lying on top of guide rails, ready to be actuated by the shaft of the linear bearing (left). Courtesy of professor Qing Hu.
The ins and outs of adjustable microlensesCHANGCHUN, China – Adjustable mi-crolenses now have a new knob that canbe turned, courtesy of a research team ledby Yanchun Han of Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry. The group demon-strated two new types of variable-focusliquid microlenses, one constructed withsidewalls that curve in and the other withsidewalls that curve out.
The slope of the sidewalls is adjustableduring fabrication, while the curve of thelens can be changed during operation.Thus, any application requiring adjustableoptics could have new tools to bringthings into focus.
A variable-focus liquid microlens ex-
ploits the flexible nature of a liquid-air in-terface. As pressure changes, this bound-ary moves, bending from concave to flatto convex. Because of refractive index differences between the liquid and air, theinterface acts like an optical surface. Theresult is an adjustable lens with a variablefocus, with its optical performance deter-mined by the characteristics of the liquidand the lens housing.
The researchers’ innovation involvesthat housing. They fabricated microlenseswith curved sidewalls, using a housingmade of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a transparent rubber.
In one case, they molded the PDMS
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around a water droplet sandwiched be-tween two plates with identical wettability.Bridging the gap between the plates, thedroplet narrowed toward the center andflared at either end. The curvature of theresulting PDMS sidewall depended uponthe surface wettability of the plates.
In the second case, they molded thePDMS around a solid microsphere. Thishousing had sidewalls that curved out,with the curvature determined by the radius of the microsphere.
When they put a liquid, such as water,in the microlenses, they could flex the in-terface, or meniscus, between it and the airfrom concave to flat to convex by chang-ing the pressure. The slope of the sidewall,along with the pressure, determined thecurvature of the meniscus and the focallength of the lens.
The two kinds of microlenses, the groupreported in a Dec. 9, 2009, Langmuir on-
line paper, have opposite tuning tenden-cies. The focal length of the first type –the one with sidewalls that curve in – goesmore negative as pressure is increased. Incontrast, the focal length of the secondtype, with sidewalls that curve out, goesmore positive as pressure is increased.
The researchers showed good agree-ment between simulations and demonstra-tions for both types. They noted that thelenses can be adjusted over a wide dy-namic range, with focal lengths spanningfrom ±2 mm to ±∞ for each type in theirdemonstration microlenses.
They also noted that the lenses’ sensitiv-ity to pressure changes depends on the cur-vature of the sidewalls, which can be set asneeded, within limits, during fabrication.Thus, a lens can be made so that it coversthe required focal range for an application.
Hank [email protected]
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Photonics Spectra February 2010
Researchers in China have developed two new types of variable-focus liquid microlenses. The first (a-c) hassidewalls that curve in, while the second (d-f) has sidewalls that curve out. Changes in pressure move themeniscus from concave (a, f) to convex (c, d), changing the focal length. Reprinted with permission from Langmuir.
NIR spectroscopy to predict pill qualityBALTIMORE – The quality-testingprocess for pharmaceuticals raises drugcosts, according to pharmacy professorStephen Hoag, but he says that evaluationwith near-infrared spectroscopy could helplower those costs.
“The drug industry used to test a pill fordissolution, then send a sample for analy-sis to a wet lab,” said Hoag, who works atthe University of Maryland School of
Pharmacy. “Now – with near-infraredhigh-speed computers and software – youcan get information in real time. So in-stead of evaluating each step and waitingthree days for samples to come back, [testing] is instant.
“It impacts inventory, materials andspace for storage, and shortens the manu-facturing time – all things that have finan-cial implications. And you know industry
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is under a lot of pressure to cut costs inhealth care.”
Hoag and his team found in 2008 thatthe technology worked for testing ofcoated tablets, and now they have demon-strated the use of NIR to predict the disso-lution rate of a pill – specifically, a matrix-type controlled-release tablet that releasesmedication from the inside. With this kindof tablet, the process is controlled byphysical polymers that slow it down. Thenew study was published in the Interna-tional Journal of Pharmaceutics in December 2009.
Hoag reported that the technology pre-dicted accurately the dissolution rate ofthe drug thiophylline in matrix pill formand added that this gives an indication ofhow quickly it would dissolve in thehuman body.
“This may be a very narrow topic, but Ithink it will someday have huge implica-tions for pharmacy, as [NIR] can also doID testing,” he said. “That is, it would re-lieve pharmacists of the need to routinelyinspect every prescription.”
NIR is already commonly used in qual-ity measurements in crop production, forage, fruits, food processing baking products, timber, meats and nonfood agriculture. The pharmaceutical industrybegan to use it in the 1990s because it responds to both chemical and physicalproperties of a given substance.
Drug regulators also could use the NIR technique to
determine the ingredients in pills. “Foridentification testing,” Hoag said, “any-time you bring in a material in the drug-making process, the FDA wants real dataproving that the material really is that material.”
He added that the new technology pos-sibly could avert disasters with consumerdrugs, such as the 2006 tainting of coughmedications that killed more than 40 peo-ple in Panama and 80 children in Haiti.
Hoag believes that the cost savings associated with NIR testing could trickledown to the patient, as a slightly reducedproduction expense could be increasinglysignificant for companies as they producemore complex biology-based therapies.
The “fundamental change” Hoag ex-pects the technique to afford the pharma-ceutical industry may not come tomorrow,he said. “We still have a long way to gobefore you have this complete systemwhere [pills] flow in one side and infor-mation flows out the other side.” But heemphasized that his team’s experimentscould lead to lower expenditures for drugmakers and more consistency in the quality of pills.
Laura S. [email protected]
tTECHNEWS
Photonics Spectra February 2010
Graphene: The rising star inRaman spectroscopyBEIJING – With its numerous appealingqualities, including biocompatibility,chemical inertness and abundance,graphene has long been a popular metalamong chemists and physicists alike.Thanks to these properties, it has found itsway into new applications ranging fromchemical sensors to transistors. Until now,however, its potential as a substrate forRaman enhancement had not been investi-gated.
The challenge was taken up by ZhangJin and colleagues at Beijing NationalLaboratory for Molecular Sciences. Theyfound that graphene-based probes did in-deed enhance the Raman signal comparedwith conventional noble metal-basedprobes. The discovery could expand theapplication of graphene to microanalysisand help to better explain the basic properties of both graphene and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS).
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Raman spectroscopy is animportant and powerful toolused for characterizing thestructure of materials. How-ever, the weak intensity ofRaman signals results in lowsensitivity and prompts manyscientists to seek out alterna-tives. Although SERS pro-vides better results, thanks to surface plasmon-related enhancements that boost theRaman signal, it is not with-out its difficulties.
For SERS, the key to strongenhancement is the substrate,traditionally a rough surface ofa noble metal such as silver,gold or copper. However, fab-ricating a rough metal surface is not easy,and the biological incompatibility of themetals makes them difficult to work with.
Graphene, on the other hand, posesnone of these issues and is cheap and easyto obtain and can be used directly. In theBeijing team’s experiments, detailed on-line in the December 2009 issue of Nano
Letters, some common molecules used forRaman probes were deposited equally ongraphene and on a conventional silicondioxide/silicon substrate. The Raman sig-nals of the molecule on graphene and thesilicon dioxide/silicon substrate were thencompared.
“We found the Raman enhancement
effect exists on graphene andis, in fact, much stronger thanon the silicon dioxide/siliconsubstrate,” Jin said. “Whilethe precise origin of this enhancement is not clear, webelieve this discovery will expand the application ofgraphene and will also help us to understand the chargetransfer of graphene as wellas chemical enhancementmechanisms.”
More research is needed todetermine the origin of theenhancement and to preparethe path toward usinggraphene-based Ramanprobes in real applications.
“The most important thing is to investi-gate the phenomenon and optimize it,” hesaid. “We then plan to adjust the enhance-ment efficiency using various methods,such as combining our system with theclassical SERS system.”
Marie [email protected]
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This illustration of the experimental flow and typical result shows stronger Raman signals from phthalocyanine on graphene than on the silicon dioxide/silicon substrate. Courtesy of Zhang Jin.
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Optical coatings: Designs for growthWELLESLEY, Mass. – Innovation is critical for revenue growth in the opticalcoatings industry, according to the marketanalysis firm BCC Research. New appli-cations, where coatings have a new advan-tage, represent the fastest growth marketsfor the industry, according to the company,which published the report Optical Coat-ings: Technologies and Global Markets inOctober 2009. The total global market foroptical coatings is estimated to rise from4.6 billion in 2010 to 5.7 billion in 2015,with a compound annual growth rate of4.3 percent, according to the report.
Electronics, the largest market segmentfor the coatings, is projected to increasefrom 2.6 billion in 2010 to 2.8 billion in2015, with a compound annual growthrate of 2.1 percent. Defense/security andarchitecture, the second- and third-largestsegments, are expected to have compoundannual growth rates of 3 and 4.5 percent,respectively.
In descending order, the smaller solar,medical, telecommunications, transporta-tion and “other” segments are projected tohave compound annual growth rates of 10,12, 7, 12.8 and 4.3 percent, respectively,during the five-year period, according tothe company.
“Lighting technology is on the verge of a significant technological transition as in-candescent lighting is replaced,” said LoriWeisenbach, author of the report. “Opticalcoatings and filters will play a role in pro-ducing new lighting options. Flat screens ontelevisions, cell phones, computers andother displays are becoming ubiquitous, andoptical coating technology can extend theirusefulness in various lighting settings.”
She noted a trend in patents and patentapplications for coating designs that enhance the light efficiency of flat paneldisplays.
“Coatings are usually deployed to im-prove a device; thus, cost is a limiting factor,” she said. “Most common are an-tireflection coatings, which are typicallylow-margin high-volume-produced forlenses and other optical components.These standard coatings are manufacturedmostly in Asia because of price. The num-ber of coating manufacturers in China is
growing rapidly. This trend will continue.”The higher-margin coatings are filtersfor high-end cameras and flatscreens.
Consolidation is still a fac-tor in the industry, shenoted. The tough economicconditions have made itdifficult for smaller coat-ing houses to survive.“New uses for opticalcoatings favor coatinghouses with strong de-sign teams that can inno-vate,” she said.
Optical systems, includ-ing coatings, will continueto be important in the mili-tary, which now emphasizes re-mote sensing and observation inwarfare tactics. The higher price for optical technology, relative to electronicalternatives, is less of an obstacle in thedefense segment, which also supports in-novation in optics to meet stringent re-quirements, Weisenbach said.
“In terms of architecture, most coatingsare applied to windows. As the economyand construction industry recover, rev-enues will rise. Growth in ‘green’ windowcoating is expected to increase. Solar en-ergy is another green revenue opportunityfor coatings. We believe that growth in thesolar sector – really still in its infancy –will be robust in the long term. Opticalcoatings can help slow the deterioration of solar panels as they age,” she said.
Anthony Pirera, president of SpectrumThin Films Inc. of Hauppauge, N.Y., saidthat, although offshore competition andthe economic downturn have negativelyaffected many optical coatings businesses,the worst may be over, and there is a like-lihood of gradual growth. “Optical coat-ings businesses need to understand andwork with the global business trends andopportunities that have resulted from theInternet – and to work on improving theirtechnology and increasing their qualitycontrol.”
To stay competitive in the world mar-ket, Pirera suggests that businesses shouldcontinue to upgrade their equipment; for
example, there is a need for optical moni-toring systems that have logic and that can measure rate and automate the coatingprocess. “Ion beam sources are advancing,but density, profile and current levels need improvement. Developing a focusedhigher-current ion source with a denserbeam would greatly improve coating tech-nology. Ion beam sputtering is our future,as it can manufacture the most complex ofcoatings.”
A relatively small company, SpectrumThin Films manufactures optics as well assimple-to-complex coatings ranging fromthe UV 193 nm to the far-infrared 20 μmusing the electron-beam and ion-assistedtechnologies. It has developed an ultravio-let silver coating that reflects 98 percentfrom 310 nm to 2.5 μm, making it highlysuitable for applications in astronomy.
Pirera said that optical coatings are a key component in lasers, adding that, as lasers evolve, very complex coatingswill be in greater demand. Because much funding is going into next-generation telescopes, advances in optics and coat-ings likely will be needed in these efforts,he noted.
Caren B. [email protected]
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ESA Offers Contract The European SpaceAgency has offered Midaz Lasers Ltd. €150,000for the development of an engineered versionof the diode-pumped Alexandrite laser. The per-formance benefits of the Alexandrite laser in-clude higher wall-plug efficiency and the possi-bility of tuning the system in the ultravioletrange. Midaz, a spin-out company of ImperialCollege London, says that the new technologycould supersede the conventional Nd:YAG forspace-based lidar, which measures a variety ofatmospheric parameters.
New Location Mobius Photonics, a producer ofshort-pulsed fiber laser sources, has moved itscorporate headquarters to a facility in MountainView, Calif., that is larger than its former SantaClara location. The move is a result of the com-pany’s plans to enhance its production capabili-ties and grow its operation. The 10,000-sq-ftbuilding has both office and manufacturingspace, and it includes a 3200-sq-ft cleanroom.Mobius will produce fiber lasers for semiconduc-tor and microelectronics processing, and stimu-lated emission depletion microscopy.
$10M Venture Funding QD Vision Inc. of Wa-tertown, Mass., has received $10 million in ven-ture funding from North Bridge Venture Part-ners, Highland Capital Partners and the CIA’sinvestment arm, In-Q-Tel. The company will usethe funds to bring its nanotechnology-basedLED products to market as solid-state lightingand displays. QD Vision is the developer of theproprietary Quantum Light, which uses quan-tum dots to produce high-output LEDs.
New US Subsidiary Gera, Germany-basedPräzisionsoptik Gera GmbH has formed a USsubsidiary, Precision Optics Gera Corp., withsales offices in Florida and Colorado. The cus-tom and standard microstructures manufacturerprovides complete in-house processing, includ-ing design, photolithography, coating and as-sembly for serial production and small batchquantities. The company also produces customoptical systems and components for the ultra -violet to infrared spectral range for machine vision, semiconductor, aerospace and defenseapplications.
LED Installation LED lighting company CreeInc. of Durham, N.C., has announced that LR24recessed LED luminaires have been installed inthe Smithsonian Institution’s National Air andSpace Museum in Washington. Designed for themuseum’s “Moving Beyond Earth” exhibit, thelights replace high-intensity-discharge worklights and provide the high lumen output andefficacy required to work in the gallery. Theyalso weigh less than other fixtures, helping toreduce strain on the ceiling.
Distributor Appointed Diode laser companyDilas of Mainz, Germany, has entered into anexclusive distribution agreement with LxRay Co.Ltd. of Saitama, Japan, to serve the Japanesemarket. The latter, a technical oriented tradingcompany specializing in laser, optics and opto-electronic products, has offices in Tokyo andOsaka and will provide customers with diodelaser services.
NSF Research Grant Vixar of Plymouth, Minn.,has received a Phase II Small Business Innova-tion Research grant from the National ScienceFoundation for the development of integratedwafer-scale vertical-cavity surface-emittinglasers with heterogeneous lensing. The projectis expected to broaden the range of applicationsfor the technology within the industrial, medical,consumer and office product areas.
$11M Grants The Australian Solar Institute(ASI) will provide $11 million to help fund fiveresearch and development projects that willsupport and accelerate the growth of Australia’ssolar technology sector. ASI is part of the gov-ernment’s $4.5 billion Clean Energy Initiative,which includes the Solar Flagships initiative. Theinstitutions receiving funds are the University ofNew South Wales, the University of Newcastle,the Australian National University and the University of Queensland.
Unified Subsidiaries Mems Optical Inc. ofHuntsville, Ala., and Jenoptik Polymer SystemsInc. of Rochester, N.Y., have merged withJenoptik Optical Systems Inc. of Jupiter, Fla., to
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create a single corporation for the US-basedmanufacturing operations of Jenoptik | OpticalSystems Div. Each location now will benefit fromthe efficiencies of a larger organization, simpli-fying marketing efforts, increasing brand recog-nition and continuing technical development.
Exclusive Distribution Lake Oswego, Ore.-based Spectrum Detector Inc., a manufacturerof standard and custom detectors, is now theexclusive marketing, sales and distributionagent in the US and Canada for Laserpoint srlof Milan, Italy. The latter is a manufacturer oflaser diagnostic sensors and instruments. Withmore than five decades of combined experiencedesigning and building laser sensors, the part-nership will provide technical and applicationsupport to its clients.
Subsidiary Acquisition Optical and optoelec-tronic components manufacturer 3S Photonics of Nozay, France, has entered into a share pur-chase agreement to acquire Avensys Groupsubsidiaries Avensys Inc. and ITF LaboratoriesInc. for a total of 76.5 million. The holdingcompany, Avensys Corp., owns Avensys Inc. andholds a 42% interest in ITF Laboratories, whosemajority shareholder is the Canadian state. Theassets of Avensys’ two divisions, Avensys Tech-nologies and Avensys Solutions, as well as thoseof ITF Laboratories, have merged with those of3S Photonics.
Andor Acquires Bitplane Andor Technologyplc of Belfast, UK, a digital camera manufac-turer, has acquired microscopy image analysissoftware company Bitplane of Zurich, Switzer-land, for £7.46 million in cash and 283,851shares. An additional consideration in the formof cash and Andor shares of a maximum aggre-gate value of £0.51 million may be payableunder an earn-out provision if the latter com-pany exceeds an agreed-upon “earnings beforeinterest, taxes, depreciation and amortization”target. Guernsey-based Endeavour LP was themajority owner of Bitplane.
Patent Acquisition Optics for Hire (OFH) of Ar-lington, Mass., an optical product developmentcompany, has completed its acquisition of thepatent portfolio and other assets developed andowned by Actuality Systems Inc., a 3-D displaytechnology provider. OFH purchased 19 USpatents and multiple patent applications, includ-ing foreign counterparts. Most notably, it ac-quired Actuality’s Perspecta spatial 3-D displaytechnologies, multiple free-eye 3-D image pro-jection patents, and a suite of software andhardware technologies for cancer treatment.
Photonics Company Established Key Photon-ics Ltd. of Cambridge, UK, has been formed toservice the optics and photonics requirements of UK industrial and research companies. Thecompany, specializing in the design and supplyof optics, photonic components, optical systemsand design software, also will assist UK productmanufacturers to export products overseas. KeyPhotonics is an agent for Fisba Optik AG of St.Gallen, Switzerland, and the main supplier andlocal technical support for Littleton, Mass.-basedLambda Research Corp.’s TracePro and OSLOproducts.
LED Plant Opens Osram Opto Semiconductorsof Sunnyvale, Calif., has completed constructionand process-testing of its LED chip productionplant in Penang, Malaysia. The facility will makeInGaN semiconductor chips based on 4-in.wafers for the blue, green and white LEDs usedin architectural and general lighting, displaybacklighting and mobile terminal devices. Ac-cording to the company, it is the first LED man-ufacturer with high-volume chip production fa-cilities in both Asia and Europe. Its main plant isin Regensburg, Germany.
License Agreement Varioptic of Lyon, France,a liquid lens provider, and Cognex Corp. ofNatick, Mass., a machine vision sensors andsystems manufacturer, have announced a partnership and licensing agreement for theuse of the former’s liquid lens solutions.Cognex will use the solutions to add autofocuscapabilities to its line of identification codereaders. The lenses are designed to match the requirements of low-footprint systems for1⁄4- and 1⁄3-in. formats. They are suitable forcamera applications.
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32 Photonics Spectra February 2010
RECOGNIZING INNOVATION IN PHOTONICSSAN FRANCISCO – The photonics industry last month took an evening off from the bustle of the showfloor to celebrate innovation at the Photonics West 2010 trade show and conference. Ten companies receivedprestigious Prism Awards for 2009 on Jan. 27 at a gala presentation ceremony attended by industry leaders.
“Photonics technologies affect nearly every aspect of life – energy production and distribution, communi-cations, consumer electronics, medicine, biotechnology, manufacturing, analysis of climate change and security, to mention a few,” said Eugene Arthurs, CEO of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. “The Prism Awards program is one way we are helping to accelerate innovation and move tech-nology to market. We are pleased to honor and promote the technological creativity and vision representedby these entries.”
The awards recognize innovation in photonics technology and are sponsored by Laurin Publishing, whichpublishes Photonics Spectra, and by SPIE.
“These awards are important, as they motivate and encourage excellence and serve to promote the industryand its image,” said Thomas Laurin, president of Laurin Publishing. “For the past half-century, photonicstechnology has progressed from a twinkle in a researcher’s eye to real-life applications that touch every aspect of our lives. We congratulate the winners, the finalists and all who submitted applications.”
Judges from SPIE and the Photonics Spectra advisory board reviewed and ranked applications from morethan 100 companies, looking for shining examples of innovation in the field. The judges selected the winnersfrom 29 finalists; there was a tie in the “Analytical, Test and Measurement” category. For more informationon the finalists and to view photos from the ceremony, visit www.photonics.com.
Charlie Troy, [email protected]
The Prism
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33Photonics Spectra February 2010
O P T I C SA pulse compressor for shortening ultrashort pulses. The BOA
(Bother-free Optimized Arrangement) uses only one prism, a roof
mirror and a precisely manufactured corner cube to reflect the beam
back to the prism precisely parallel with the beam entering it. This
automatically aligned arrangement avoids all of the problematic
beam distortions of two- and four-prism designs (including angular
dispersion, spatial chirp and pulse-front tilt).
L A S E R SA compact, athermal, multiwatt green laser (532 nm) with
near-diffraction-limited beam quality based on on-chip wavelength
stabilization of high-brightness laser diodes. Designed for medical
applications, the BrightLock® Ultra-G™ MEDICA package features
a compact, user-friendly and cost-effective fiber-coupled source
delivering >3 W CW at 532 nm in a narrow-core detachable deliv-
ery fiber combined with smart medical features such as a low-power
aiming beam, a fiber detector and a removable blast shield for
applications in dermatology and ophthalmology.
O T H E R L I G H T S O U R C E SA microfocus x-ray source (MFX) with 0.25-μm resolution for x-ray non -
destructive inspection and computed tomography. Microfocus x-ray sources were
specifically developed for x-ray nondestructive
inspection. A small focal point prevents blurring of
x-ray images and delivers a sharp, enlarged image.
An RS-232C interface is provided as standard
for external control. These microfocus x-ray sources yield clear, sharp, en -
larged x-ray images even during three-dimensional observation.
Swamp Optics
BOA Pulse Compressor
Laser Operations LLC – QPC Lasers
BrightLock Ultra-G
Hamamatsu Corp.
160-kV Open-Type Microfocus X-Ray Source
L I F E S C I E N C E SThe C7-XR frequency-domain system employs advanced photonic tech-
nologies to provide cardiologists with an interior view of coronary
arteries. Its ultrafast imaging speed, micron-scale resolution and 3-D
visualization capabilities streamline the clinician’s work flow and re -
define the possibilities of interventional cardiology imaging.
LightLab Imaging Inc.
C7-XR Optical Coherence Tomography System (FD-OCT)
PrismAwardsFeat3_2010.qxd:Layout 1 2/8/10 4:07 PM Page 33
34 Photonics Spectra February 2010
D E T E C T O R S , S E N S I N G A N D I M A G I N G S Y S T E M SThis device targets mid-wave-infrared gas analyzer and
spectroscopic applications to identify substances by de-
tecting their unique absorption signatures. It is based on
a bulk micromachined spectrally tunable Fabry-Perot in-
terferometer with an electrostatically tuned air cavity
integrated into an infrared detector.
A N A LY T I C A L , T E S T A N D M E A S U R E M E N TThe scanning microwave microscopy mode from Agilent
Technologies is an atomic force microscopy method de-
signed to enable quantitative electromagnetic materials
characterization at high resolution.
P H O T O N I C S Y S T E M SThis thermal spot curing system provides localized heat via
high-intensity infrared radiation in a portable unit that can
be integrated into a production line.
This instrument measures electron mobility, sheet resistance, carrier
concentration and density in a noncontact, nondestructive manner, elimi-
nating destruction of expensive wafers for measurement. The 1605 can
map the mobility of 2- to 6-in. wafers in minutes and can measure samples
smaller than wafer size.
InfraTec Infrared LLC
MEMS Tunable Fabry-Perot Interferometer Microspectrometer for Infrared AbsorptionSpectroscopy
OPTICS PHOTONIC SYSTEMS LASERS OTHER LIGHT SOURCES DETECTORS, SENSING AND IMAGING SYSTEMS
Agilent Technologies
Scanning Microwave Microscopy
Lehighton Electronics Inc.
1605 Mobility Mapping Unit
IRphotonics
iCure Thermal Spot Curing System
— T I E —
PrismAwardsFeat3_2010.qxd:Layout 1 2/8/10 4:07 PM Page 34
35Photonics Spectra February 2010
P H O T O N I C P R O C E S S E SLinden’s patented strong tether fiber optic cable (STFOC)
uses extruded liquid crystal polymer on commercial-grade
optical fibers such as SMF28 and Allwave. STFOC has
moisture barrier properties and eliminates the need for
metallized fiber in hermetic packaging of optoelec-
tronic components.
LIFE SCIENCES ANALYTICAL, TEST AND MEASUREMENT PHOTONIC PROCESSES SUSTAINABLE/GREEN TECHNOLOGY
S U S TA I N A B L E / G R E E N T E C H N O L O G YThe optimizer provides an electronic solution to long-standing challenges
with solar arrays, enabling systems to realize their full power-producing
potential. Using advanced algorithms and mixed-signal technology,
SolarMagic minimizes the negative effects of panel mismatch caused by
real-world conditions such as system aging, varied tilts and orientations,
and debris or shade.
Linden Photonics
Strong Tether Fiber Optic Cable
National Semiconductor
SolarMagic Power Optimizer
Could you be the next Prism Awards winner?
Choose one of the nine contest categories and complete the three-part entry form.
• Optics • Detectors, Sensing & Imaging Systems • Photonic Processes• Lasers • Analytical, Test & Measurement • Sustainable/Green Technology• Other Light Sources • Photonic Systems • Life Sciences
The deadline will be here before you know it.
The Prism Awards for Photonics Innovation is an international competition that recognizes photonics companies that manufacture products that break conventional ideas, solve problems, improve life with photonics – and make money.
Your new product could win the industry’s highest honor – the 2010 Prism Awards for Photonics Innovation – at Photonics West next January.
Just go to www.photonicsprismaward.com to enter online.
PrismAwardsFeat3_2010.qxd:Layout 1 2/8/10 4:07 PM Page 35
CLEO/QELS: 2010 Program FeaturesWorld Renowned, Peer reviewed Technical Program
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210_OSA_Cleo_Pg36.qxd:Layout 1 2/3/10 11:01 AM Page 36
GreenLightUS PV market watch
The US financial world was anythingbut rosy in 2009, with the possibleexception of the solar sector.
According to a December 2009 marketreport by GTM Research of Cambridge,Mass., grid-connected photovoltaics (PVs)grew from 320 MW in 2008 to 440 MWin 2009 – and could go as high as 545MW by the end of this year. Titled TheUnited States PV Market through 2013, italso states that, from 2000 to 2008, grid-connected capacity in the US grew at anaverage of 71 percent per year, from 4 to290 MW, putting the US third in globaldemand behind Germany and Spain.
Looking a bit farther out, report authorsShayle Kann and Daniel Englander findthat the US will experience the most rapidgrowth of any global PV market over the next four years and will take Spain’splace as the second in the world behindGermany. Kann noted that, depending onwhat happens with Germany’s feed-in tariff policy, the US will either remain behind Germany until 2013-2014 or couldsurpass it as early as 2011.
In the US, electricity is regulated at thelocal, state and federal levels, with statepublic utility commissions setting pricesand governing renewable energy pro-grams. Therefore, the US market has to belooked at on a state-by-state basis, whichis both a blessing and a curse, accordingto Kann. In countries like Germany andSpain, where one incentive creates themarket for the entire country, “it makesthings simpler and largely guarantees agood rate of return.” However, he said,“The downside is that if one policy istaken away or reduced, it can send shockwaves throughout the industry.”
He pointed to what happened in Spainlast year after the country cut and cappedits tariff program, sending the global PVindustry into a downward spiral. In theUS, on the other hand, not having a singleplan means that changes in incentive fromstate to state won’t have a huge effect onthe global market. Individual state incen-tives, however, can boost that individual
market. California is a case in point, as itcurrently accounts for more than 50 per-cent of the national PV demand, followedby New Jersey, Colorado and Arizona. By2012, New Mexico, New York, Nevadaand Massachusetts will join what Kanncalls “second-tier markets,” and, alongwith Arizona and New Jersey, will reach376 MW of installed PV.
The holy gridThe report analyzes what GTM Re-
search calls “price convergence” – alsoknown as grid parity – the price differ-ences between PV power and electricityfrom the grid in residential, commercialand utility-scale markets. In locations withhigh demand, such as New Jersey andCalifornia, price convergence has beenachieved in some markets, due in largepart to strong state incentives. Kann expects that, of the 16 leading solar-producing states in the US, 11 will achieveconvergence in the commercial sector by2012, and 10 will do so in residential. The
growth in utility-scale PV will be drivenby renewable portfolio standards, alongwith numerous economic and operationalbenefits of utility-owned PV. ResidentialPV installations have been slower becauseof upfront costs and the time it takes forpayback, but new solar financing pro-grams through leases or power purchaseagreements will spur this sector.
Kann sees the US as the only countrythat will be able to sustain a long-term mar-ket because the demand for electricity ishigh, and there is vast open land for devel-opment. The strong market will ripplethrough the entire supply chain, with demand increasing for everything from silicon to panels. Kann noted that Chinesecompany Suntech, the largest modulemaker in the world, recently announced amanufacturing facility in Phoenix – initiallybringing more than 75 jobs to the US. Heindicated that, although US-based PV man-ufacturing won’t dominate the global mar-ket, there will be a strong base in the US.�
37
BY ANNE L. FISCHERSENIOR EDITOR
Photonics Spectra February 2010
“From 2000 to 2008, grid-connected capacity in the US grew at anaverage of 71 percent per year, from 4 to 290 MW, putting the USthird in global demand behind Germany and Spain.”
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In January, we reported on the SolarRoadways project (“Pushing the enve-lope: Trends in green research and
technology,” p. 45), which is working toward using road surfaces as giant electricity generators. But here is anothersolar-on-the-road project that uses solar to warm roads while sending electricityback to the grid.
Developed by Corey McDonald,founder, president and CEO of PaveGuard Technologies Inc. in Lee’s Summit,Mo., the system uses traditional siliconphotovoltaic (PV) cells to warm the sur-faces of bridges, thus preventing icing. It works much like radiant heating in afloor but uses the sun to heat a glycoseliquid and to power a pump that pushesthe liquid through pipes embedded underthe road. Sensors activate the system whenthe temperature drops to 40 °F. The rest of the time, the solar arrays are busily generating electricity and sending it backto the grid.
In testing, McDonald calculated theamount of space to be heated and the energy that would be used, then deter-mined what the payback would be. “Youonly need to thaw roads for maybe five or
six weeks out of the year,” he said, “whichallows payback during the other months.”
The Missouri Department of Trans-portation plans to install the system thisyear on two bridges in need of upgradingand to repair or replace more than 800bridges by the winter of 2013. So, if thesystem holds up to the initial test, it couldbecome more widespread.
McDonald said other advantages to the PV system include lighting, remotemonitoring and preventive maintenance.The PV panels have great potential forpowering LED lighting on bridges andhighways, he noted, adding that manyLED highway lighting projects are work-ing very well with solar.
And because the PV system includesmonitoring sensors, the transportation department can skip the step of pretreatingroad surfaces and can monitor conditionsremotely.
In terms of preventive maintenance,keeping road surfaces from freezing ex-tends the life of the pavement. Ultimately,however, the greatest advantage is safety,which has the potential for unlimited payback. �
38
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Photonics Spectra February 2010
A system developed by Pave Guard Technologies Inc. warms the road with a liquid pumped beneath the sur-face and heated by the sun.
Solar-heated bridges, roads
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210_StanfRes_SR830_Pg39.qxd:Layout 1 2/3/10 11:01 AM Page 39
BY DOUG MALCHOWSENSORS UNLIMITED
Researchers and manufacturers ofconcentrated photovoltaic (CPV)cells have recently achieved record
solar cell conversion efficiencies of 41percent by overlaying three semiconductorlayers. Careful selection of both the mate-rials and the chemical structures usedwithin the cell will result in matching theabsorbance of each layer to the sun’s spec-trum. When this occurs, each layer con-tributes equal amounts of electrical currentto the cell’s output.
Because the layers are photodiode junc-tions connected in series, the maximum
current output of the cell is limited by theoutput of the lowest-performing layer. It’simportant to ensure that all three layerswork efficiently; otherwise, the currentfrom the strong layers will dissipate powerinto a weak layer. The multijunction cellsare usually assembled at the focal point oflight concentrators, which are designed tofocus the equivalent of 500 suns onto anarea measuring 1 cm2. This then generatesamps of current.
It is vital for cell fabricators, solar con-centrator integrators and solar farm in-stallers to inspect individual cells beforeincurring the expense of final assemblyinto large concentrator structures. Fortu-nately, multispectral electroluminescenceimaging can be used to separately inspecteach layer’s junction uniformity and rela-tive output.
Typical multijunction CPV cells, as in-dicated above, are small, yet they generatea lot of current, so the collection lines andbus bars must be robust but not so large asto block the sunlight from the cell surface.As shown in Figures 1-3, the collectionlines are only 10 μm wide on 100-μm centers.
Dust particles or defects in the variouslayers also can seriously affect energy col-lection. Consequently, high-resolution in-spection is a requirement for quality con-trol. Current technology for short-waveinfrared area cameras provides videographics array resolution of 640 columns
by 512 rows, while short-wave infraredline-scan cameras permit imaging of 1024pixels.
Thus, the highest-resolution imagingcan be obtained by scanning the wider lin-ear array over the small CPV cell. Theline-scan camera is mounted on micro-scope optics, and the line acquisition issynchronized with the motorized stagemovement. This permits ultrahigh-resolu-tion imaging by taking several passes,each offset to the side to image a differentportion of the cell.
Figures 1-3 show how imaging electro-luminescence with several filters is used to find nonuniformities, cracks and defectsin the cell layers. These images are of onetype of multijunction cell, composed ofgallium indium phosphide (GaInP) andgallium indium arsenide (GaInAs) layerson a germanium substrate. ImageXpert ofNashua, N.H., acquired the photos in asingle pass using its wafer inspection sys-tem with a Goodrich high-speed, indiumgallium arsenide (InGaAs) digital line-scan camera.
The black-and-white image (Figure 1)was acquired without a wavelength filterother than the camera’s natural responsefrom 700 to 1680 nm. The other threeelectroluminescence images (Figure 2)were acquired through filters that isolatethe emissions of each layer. The top layer(Figure 2a), emitting around 700 nm,shows a number of dark spots that are not
40
GreenLight
Photonics Spectra February 2010
Figure 1. This electroluminescence image of a multi-junction cell was acquired with an InGaAs 1024-pixel line-scan camera array without filtering. Theimage was cropped to 880 columns � 773 rows.The horizontal line pattern consists of 10-µm lineson 100-µm centers.
Figure 2. (a) An electroluminescence image of the same cell as in Figure 1 was taken with an 800-nm short-pass filter in front of the lens to capture only the 700-nm emission from the top GaInP layer. Note the number of dark spots apparent. The image is displayed with a warm-scale false color plot generated by theGoodrich Sensors Unlimited Image Analysis program to bring out details within the dynamic range of the image. This helps make the dark spots visible. (b) This electroluminescence image was taken with a combination of 800-nm long-pass and 1250-nm short-pass filters to isolate the electroluminescence emission at 920 nm from the middle layer of the GaInAs film. (c) The same cell is shown in this electroluminescence image taken with a 1250-nm long-pass filter to capture the emissions from the germanium substrate, which are mostly at wavelengths longer than 1550 nm. All electroluminescence images (Figures 1, 2a, 2b and 2c) are courtesy of, and were acquired by, ImageXpert.
Imaging PV cells
210GreenLight.qxd:Layout 1 2/8/10 10:54 AM Page 40
visible in the other images, indicating thatthe defects causing them are relativelytransparent to the longer wavelengths.However, some of the dark spots are noticeable in all of the images. These arelikely caused by dust or digs on the topsurface, which will block all wavelengthsfrom reaching the camera.
As demonstrated, new inspection toolsusing electroluminescence – and short-wave infrared – imaging systems are help-ing to meet the increasing demands for efficient and affordable multijunction CPVcell inspection. To replace fossil fuels withsolar cells, manufacturers must deliverhigh quality and optimal output power,and imperfections such as nonuniformitymust be detected early in the productionprocess so that costs can be curtailed andthe goal of efficient, renewable energyproduction can be achieved.
Meet the authorDoug Malchow is business development man-ager of industrial products at Sensors Unlimited(part of Goodrich ISR Systems) in Princeton,N.J.; e-mail: [email protected].
41
GreenLight
Photonics Spectra February 2010
Figure 3. Shown is a color photo of a multijunction CPV device that is glowing red because the forward bias is driving the top layer to emit at 700 nm. This particular cell has physical damage to the fine collector lines inits lower part, but it is otherwise the same type as imaged in Figures 1 and 2.
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Lightingthe WayDeveloping OLEDs for the general illuminationmarket
42 Photonics Spectra February 2010
BY GARY BOAS, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
This luminaire reacts to movement inthe surrounding space. Glowing in response to a presence, it transformsfrom ambient OLED illumination toprovide direct up-and-down LED lightas movement increases around it.Courtesy of Philips.
210OLEDs.qxd:Layout 1 2/8/10 5:34 PM Page 42
43Photonics Spectra February 2010
The lighting industry is in transition.The formerly ubiquitous incandes-cent bulb has already been banned
in Europe and will be phased out in theUS beginning in 2012, all part of an effortto reduce greenhouse gas emissions bypromoting energy efficiency. That leaves asignificant portion of the $100 billionglobal lighting market – more than $20billion of which is represented by lamps –up for grabs.
Compact fluorescent lamps are oftenconsidered the obvious successor to incan-descent bulbs, since they use as much as80 percent less energy and last consider-ably longer, but they have drawbacks aswell. They are more expensive individu-ally and give off a harsher light, dramati-
cally changing the aesthetics of an interior.At the same time, consumer advocateshave noted that many people – those whosuffer from epilepsy and anxiety, for ex-ample – are especially sensitive to thislight.
Among the other alternatives, organicLEDs (OLEDs) have lately created a stir,in large part because of improvements inpower efficiency. “In the past couple ofyears, we have seen tremendous advancesin OLEDs,” said Janice Mahon, vice presi-dent of technology commercialization withEwing, N.J.-based Universal Display. The company licenses technology andsells phosphorescent materials for use inOLED displays and lighting. “These ad-vances have made it clear that, technically,
the industry can get to the kinds of per-formance numbers it needs to makeOLEDs a viable lighting source.”
Changing the character of lightThe fundamental mechanisms of
OLEDs are similar to those of LEDs: Applying electricity to a device leads to arecombination of electrons and holes inthe conductive layer, resulting in a releaseof energy in the form of photons – but theemissive materials are organic moleculesas opposed to semiconductor diodes. Thisleads to compelling differences betweenthe two light sources – indeed, betweenOLEDs and most other forms of lighting.Most significantly, perhaps, OLED panelscan be less than 2.5 cm thick.
For general illumination applications, OLEDs offer a viable alternative to conventional sources. Theyare relatively energy efficient and provide a uniform diffuse light that can even be tunable. OLED lightingpanels are also thin, measuring as little as 2.5 cm.Courtesy of Janice Mahon, vice president, tech-nology commercialization, Universal Display.
This white OLED panel from Novaled can be usedfor lighting applications. Courtesy of Novaled.
OLEDs can be made in various colors, including warm and cold whites, with a very high color renderingindex. Courtesy of the OLLA Project.
OLEDs
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But also, whereas LEDs and other moreconventional sources present distinctpoints of light, OLEDs offer uniform, dif-fuse light spread across the sheets of mate-rial. This changes the character of the lightand allows for a degree of transparency inthe panel when the source is switched off.With further development, the sheetscould even be made flexible.
OLEDs recommend themselves for anumber of specialty or niche applications,including emergency signage, automotiveapplications – for interior and dashboarduses, for example – and architectural lighting features. With the latter, Mahonsaid, they offer “all kinds of opportunitiesto create special lighting effects.” A singledevice could offer either cool or warmlight, and even allow tunability so userscan design lighting specific to the occa-sion, be it a business meeting or a dinnerparty.
The flexibility and transparency ofOLED sheets, and the availability of light-ing as ultrathin panels, open the door to aworld of additional possibilities. Lightingdesigners are already chattering aboutmaking decorative wall dividers withOLED panels, incorporating the panelsCourtesy of Philips.
210OLEDs.qxd:Layout 1 2/8/10 1:07 PM Page 44
into ceiling tiles and venetian blinds, evenwrapping them around columns.
Ultimately, though, whether OLEDs cancompete in the general lighting marketwill depend on both efficiency and cost.For example, using its phosphorescentOLED technology, Universal Display hasproduced OLEDs with an efficiency of102 lumens per watt in a small area. (Astandard 60-W tungsten incandescent bulboffers efficiency of about 15 lumens perwatt; fluorescent bulbs, typically in therange of 50 to 75.) “Now we need todemonstrate the same efficiency on a 6 ×6-in. panel,” Mahon said, adding that costswill begin to drop once production isscaled up.
At the same time, Universal Displayand others continue to work toward theUS Department of Energy’s 2015 targetfor general illumination: 150 lumens perwatt. To this end, the company is evaluat-ing new materials and device structuresand seeking to reduce some of the lossesthat occur over area in larger-area lightingpanels, by using better conductors andscalable outcoupling techniques, for instance.
Organic light-emitting diodes, shown here at bottom in three different colors, offer alternatives toother lighting technologies, such as, from left, compact fluorescent bulbs, traditional incandescent lightbulbs and fluorescent tubes. Courtesy of Philips.
OLEDs
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47Photonics Spectra February 2010
BY LYNN SAVAGE, FEATURES EDITOR
ZnO has many properties that make itattractive for optoelectronic applica-
tions. It has a bandgap of 3.37 eV – thesame as gallium nitride (GaN) – and an excitation binding energy of about 60 meV. It is transparent under visiblewavelengths of light yet opaque underultraviolet, making it a great UV sensormaterial. And it offers both piezoelectricand pyroelectric characteristics.
However, what is really attractiveabout ZnO compared with GaN andother semiconductors, such as cadmiumselenide, is that it is environmentally benign. Semiconductor manufacturersare feeling increased pressure to includenontoxic materials in their products.
PHOTONIC APPLICATIONS USING
THE II-VI SEMICONDUCTOR ZINC
OXIDE (ZnO) ARE BECOMING
INCREASINGLY PREVALENT, AND
RESEARCH INTO EVEN MORE USES
IS EXPLODING, WITH HUNDREDS
OF LABS LOOKING INTO THE
MATERIAL’S UNIQUE PROPERTIES.
ZnO_Feat.qxd:Layout 1 2/8/10 11:30 AM Page 47
Such materials are easier to recycle, and outright biocompatibilityof ZnO makes it a promising candidate for optoelectrical medicaldevices that can be inserted into the body.
Another intriguing aspect of ZnO crystals is that they readilyform specific shapes, depending on the method used to createthem. Each shape results in a slightly different set of photonic,piezoelectric and mechanical characteristics.
“ZnO with various shapes, including nanowires, nanorings,nanorods, nanobelts, nanotubules, nanohelixes and so on, have beensynthesized by various methods and studied in the past decade,” saidWei Zhong of the Nanjing National Laboratory of Microstructures inChina. “As a result, the properties of ZnO were found to depend onthe shape and corresponding synthesis method.”
Thus far, however, bandgap tunability seems to depend more onchanging the size of the crystal than on changing its shape.
Crystal formationTypically, ZnO crystals are fabricated through thermal evapo-
ration, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), metallorganic CVD,pulsed-laser deposition or template-based growth techniques. Unfortunately, all of these methods are used at a steep cost intime and money. High temperatures or vacuum typically are required, along with complicated processing steps and, often,noxious chemical compounds.
“In other words,” Zhong said, “the methods aren’t suitable forlarge-scale production [at] low cost.”
Zhong’s group currently is testing novel and less toxic fabrica-tion methods that would produce doped ZnO microcrystals moresimply and cheaply. The team’s focus is on using transition metals
48 Photonics Spectra February 2010
Zinc oxide can be used to addfeatures to a variety of nano -meter-scale structures. Shown is a germanium-core nanowirecoated with a shell composed of erbium-doped ZnO. Courtesy of Jeffery L. Coffer,Texas Christian University.
A scanning electron micrograph shows zinc oxide crystals grown on a thin film of polypyrrole. Courtesy of Eric Prouzet, University of Waterloo.
ZnO_Feat.qxd:Layout 1 2/8/10 11:30 AM Page 48
such as manganese, cobalt and iron to dope ZnO nanorods for usein nanoscale magnetic data storage media.
But Zhong and his colleagues aren’t the only ones intrigued bythe possibilities of ZnO.
“ZnO demonstrates an extremely diverse range of tunablegeometries, from dots to rods to wires to tri- and tetrapod motifs,”said Jeffery L. Coffer, chemistry professor at Texas Christian Uni-versity in Fort Worth. He and his colleagues recently publishedwork on the latter form – four-pointed objects with shapes like
children’s jacks – which emit two distinct wavelengths after beingcoated with erbium ions and irradiated. They also found thatadding a layer of germanium prior to erbium doping enhanced thetetrapod’s photoluminescence. Their report appeared in the Jan. 6,2010 issue of Crystal Growth & Design.
“We are currently attempting to construct core/shell platformsthat combine the properties of reactive nanoscale semiconductorssuch as germanium that can be packaged and passivated with thestable ZnO shell, both with and without additional dopant species,”Coffer said. “It is a rich field with plenty of things to explore.”
Along with changes in morphology, doping adds character toZnO crystals. Doped with erbium, for example, ZnO emits at
1.54 μm and is particularly useful in LEDs, laser diodes and optical amplifiers. Upconversion permits emission in the visiblerange. Other common dopants include aluminum and indium.
Laying them downAnother key to effective use of ZnO in optoelectrical or opto-
mechanical devices is finding the best substrate upon which togrow or deposit the crystals. According to Eric Prouzet and hiscolleague Kam Tong Leung, both from the University of Water-loo in Ontario, Canada, there remain challenges in devising in-expensive conductive substrates. They also note that developingnovel ways to create specific micro- or nanoscale patterns ofZnO on a substrate is of high importance.
“The challenge is to achieve large-scale preparation on cheapsupports like plastic films as well as integration [into] specific devices,” Prouzet said.
Prouzet, Leung and their colleagues reported in the Jan. 12, 2010issue of the journal Chemistry of Materials on one such candidatesubstrate, polypyrrole. A fairly well-known conducting polymer, it can be formed into wide swaths of thin film that are conductiveenough to permit growth of ZnO nanocrystals via electrodeposition.
Because it is transparent to visible light yet darkens when ex-posed to ultraviolet wavelengths, ZnO also can be used as the basisof UV sensors. Rohm Semiconductors USA LLC, based in SanDiego, recently announced what it calls a high-precision UV sen-sor that comprises a ZnO thin film. The device is sensitive enoughto distinguish between the UVA (320 to 400 nm) and UVB (280 to320 nm) bands without the use of an optical filter.
49Photonics Spectra February 2010
SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURERS AREFEELING INCREASED PRESSURE TO INCLUDE
NONTOXIC MATERIALS IN THEIR PRODUCTS.
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Canada has a long tradition of ground-breaking excellence in the field of photonics thanks to the exten-sive research carried out by its universities, government laboratories and the industry.
The goal of Photonics North is to bring together people, industries and organizations from around the world and create vertical business opportunities. The Canadian Photonics Consortium is proud organizer and host of the prestigious Photonics North 2010 event in Niagara Falls, at the Fallsview Casino Resort and would like to invite everyone to participate.
In an effort to sustain the business success of our global community, we welcome all opportunities to establish international relationships that could further contribute to the rapid growth of worldwide development.
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The
artof
martin noted that both spectra and high-resolution digital images can be acquiredwith the company’s microspectrophotometers, also known as microspectrome-ters (including its QDI 2010 model), which are designed to measure the UV-
VIS-NIR spectra of microscopic samples or microscopic areas of larger objects. Of thetwo types of instruments available, the fully integrated microspectrometer has been builtfor microspectroscopy, while the microscope spectrophotometer unit has been designed toattach to an open photoport of an optical microscope. Depending upon the configuration,microspectrophotometers can nondestructively measure the spectra of samples, even at thesubmicron level, by transmission, reflectance, fluorescence, and electron and polarizationmicrospectroscopy, according to the company.
Applications for the UV-VIS-NIR regions are numerous, ranging from forensic sciencesto geology to materials science, biology and pharmacology. “A lot of microspectroscopy isalso done in the semiconductor and photovoltaic fields for everything from film thicknessmeasurements to contaminant analysis,” Martin commented.
He noted that, although Craic Technolo-gies specializes in integrating optical mi-croscopy with optical spectroscopy, he hasseen spectrometers of various types addedto confocal, scanning electron and IR mi-croscopes, and that Raman microspec-trometers are also quite prevalent.
“Among the challenges faced in the microspectroscopy field are the problemsthat come with combining the operation of a microscope with a spectrophotometer,and the fact that you have a lot less lightto work with at the microscopic level,”Martin said. “To acquire good-quality
51Photonics Spectra February 2010
microspectroscopy� “Microspectroscopy is basically the ability to obtain spectra of microscopic samples or sampling areas. It differs from other microscopy techniques in that it is primarily used to acquire spectra rather than images,” according to Paul Martin,president of Craic Technologies Inc. Based in San Dimas, Calif., the company specializes in microscopy and microspectroscopy in the UV-VIS-NIR regions. �
BY CAREN B. LES, NEWS EDITOR
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spectral data easily, it takes a well-thought-out design in terms of optics, hardware andsoftware. Engineers are always trying to improve sensitivities as well as ease of use,”he added.
“When purchasing an instrument sys-tem, it is important to consider the entireintegrated tool, and not just the compo-
nents,” Martin explained. “As an exam-ple, the theoretical spectral range of thedetector will be far larger than that of theinstrument once you add a monochroma-tor, optics, light sources and even thesample – yet the spectral range of onlythe detector is often quoted.”
Microspectroscopy provides the ability totransfer most spectroscopy methods to themicroscope world, said Uwe Ortmann, headof sales and marketing at PicoQuant GmbHin Berlin. Spectroscopic techniques in com-mon practice will be transferable to micro-scopic or even nanoscopic dimensions. Theresearch will evolve to encompass the studyof smaller and smaller samples, environ-ments and particles. Confocal microscopy is commonly combined with time domainstudies and intensity fluctuation (fluores-cence correlation and cross-correlationspectroscopy), he said, adding that the com-pany’s customers are also able to combineatomic force and confocal microscopy. Ap-plications for microspectroscopy currentlydominate in cell biology and protein re-search, mostly at the fundamental level.
A system for microspectroscopy, Pico-Quant’s MicroTime 200 confocal time-re-solved microscope is a high-end researchtool for lifetime imaging, fluorescencecorrelation and single-molecule detection.It offers attomolar sensitivity down to thesingle-molecule level, Ortmann said,adding that the company is dedicated tomaking the instrument systems moreuser-friendly and lowering their costs.
Systems and advantagesIn late November 2009, Craic Technolo-
gies announced the compatibility of Win-dows 7 computer programming with itsMinerva microspectrometer control andspectral analysis software. The companysays that scientists will notice a more fluidresponse with the program’s enhanced sta-bility and advanced memory management.Windows 7 will further improve the us-ability of the software with features such
52 Photonics Spectra February 2010
Shown is an overlay of threespectra from the organic LEDchip (but with three different-colored pixels).
Craic Technologies’ QDI 2010 microspectro -photometer is a state-of-the-art instrument for UV-VIS-NIR microspectroscopy in the fields of forensics,materials science, biology, drug development andgeology, according to the company. Photos courtesyof Craic Technologies Inc.
This is an image of how an organic LED chip appears under a microspectrometer when a spectralmeasurement is being made. The black square isthe entrance aperture of the spectrometer.
microspectroscopy
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as the quick resizing of windows, easier-to-see icons, speedy access to often-useddocuments and spectra, and a fast searchengine to locate and quickly analyze data.
In 2009, Craic Technologies noted thatits QDI 2010 microspectrophotometer,combining both UV microscopy spectralimaging and the analytical capabilities ofUV-VIS-NIR microspectroscopy, can beconfigured to help manufacturers locateand identify organic and inorganic contam-
inants in hard disk drive components suchas read-write heads. Techniques commonlyused for this purpose, such as inspectionwith optical microscopes, have not beenable to adequately detect or analyze con-taminants, according to the company.
Craic Technologies also announced thatits UV microspectrophotometers, such asthe QDI 2010, can rapidly differentiateDNA from salt and even protein crystalsby absorbance microspectroscopy – andthat they can also qualify the crystal onceit has been located and identified. Study ofthe structure of DNA is commonly donewith x-ray crystallography, which requiresthe growth of DNA crystals that are stableand free from protein contaminants.
The company says that, using normal microscopy techniques, it is difficult even toidentify DNA crystals, much less determinewhether they are viable. DNA readily absorbs light at 260 nm, but a salt or protein will not absorb light at that wave-length. Due to the inherent flexibility of microspectrophotometers, besides imagingthe crystals themselves, they can producemicrospectra of crystals as small as a micron. The ability to use microspectra toqualify the crystal can save valuable time byenabling the selection of only viable crystalsfor the next step of a growth process.
Craic Technologies’ microspectroscopictechnologies and techniques have applica-tions in areas such as vitrinite coal analy-sis, measurement of surface plasmon reso-nance on the microscopic scale, and therapid and accurate metrology of organicLED and liquid crystal displays for color,intensity and mura.
FTIR microspectroscopy applicationsBiochemical changes associated with
prostate cancer can be discriminated byFourier transform infrared (FTIR) mi-crospectroscopy to classify organ-confined
and locally invasive prostate cancers, ac-cording to scientists at the Molecular Im-aging Program at Stanford and the Stan-ford Infrared Optics and PhotomedicineCenter, both at Stanford University in Cal-ifornia. The group compared the methodwith histological pathology for the evalua-tion of tissue for improved prostate cancerdiagnosis and treatment. A report on thestudy appears in the December 2009 issueof Trends in Biotechnology.
Published by Thermo Fisher ScientificInc. of Waltham, Mass., Application Note:51517, titled FT-IR Microspectroscopy inForensic and Crime Lab Analysis, coversthe use of Thermo Scientific’s NicoletiN10 infrared microscope – an optical mi-croscope with integrated Fourier transforminfrared instrumentation – in detectingcounterfeit money, and in analyzing hairfiber, and tablet, paint and fingerprintresidue.
Other methods and applicationsIn the area of Raman microspectrosco -
py, Craic Technologies’ CTR-1 MicroRa-man spectrometer performs micro Ramanspectroscopy rapidly by standard Ramanscattering or by surface-enhanced Ramanspectroscopy. Spectra of microscopic images are acquired while the user viewsthem with a high-resolution digital imag-ing system. The device has applications in such areas as biological research andsemiconductor metrology.
Published in the January 2010 issue ofthe Journal of Synchrotron Radiation, anarticle by F. Hahn and C.A. Melendres dis-cusses their work using synchrotron IR re-flectance microspectroscopy to study filmformation and the breakdown of copper.
Developments and applications of soft x-ray spectromicroscopy with a focus onscanning transmission x-ray microscopy arediscussed in an article written by Tae HyunYoon, a researcher at Hanyang Universityin Seoul, South Korea. Published in Applied Spectroscopy Reviews in March2009, the article notes that, as a result ofsignificant advances in x-ray optics and thegreater availability of third-generation syn-chrotron sources, this spectromicroscopictechnique has become an important analyti-cal tool in several disciplines, including theenvironmental and materials sciences.
53Photonics Spectra February 2010
microspectroscopy
� “When purchasing an instrument system, it is important toconsider the entire integrated tool, and not just the components,”Martin explained. �
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Beaming through to
NOVEL USESfor
HOLOGRAPHY
Typically, green, simple three-dimensional images of objects on flat paper are not unknown to today’s kids – or to anyone
who has grown up during the past few decades. We encountered them first as wonderments – optical tricks that astounded and pleased the eye in the same way as flicker rings and early 3-Dschlock movies. As playthings for kids, holographicpictures never exploded into the public conscienceas lasers and telescopes did, but, more recently,holography has found several niches in which important work can be done.
To create a hologram, two beams of light are reflected off an object. This usually involves a pair of lasers or one laser and a beamsplitter. Interferometric differencescaused by the first (illuminating) beam and the second (reference) beam record
spatial information from the object onto a photographic plate. This information does not include just intensity, such as in photography, but also dimension. The twin-beamtechnique also can be used to form a special type of diffraction – or holographic – grating.Here, however, the interference fringes are imposed onto a photoresistive material. The resulting grating exhibits less light scattering than a standard one.
At Université de Haute-Alsace in Mulhouse, France, Lavinia Balan and her colleaguesare improving the process of recording holographic gratings by adding silver nanoparticlesto the mix. In a one-pot technique, her group performed nanoparticle synthesis concur-rently with photochemical preparation of a polyacrylic base. The silver particles, now imbued into the acrylic interference pattern, significantly enhance both the holographicand diffraction efficiency of the grating. The team reported its work in the Dec. 22, 2009,issue of Chemistry of Materials.
54 Photonics Spectra February 2010
And a touch of silver nanoparticles
BY LYNN SAVAGE, FEATURES EDITOR
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55Photonics Spectra February 2010
the nanoscale structure of the cells.“That is fairly unique. Commercial
microscopes don’t do that,” he said. “In a way, this is combining holography withmicroscopy. It’s a new but very dynamicfield that we are contributing to.”
A lthough there is a lot of ongoing research into novel ways to exploreholographic principles, most of the
practical, day-to-day uses of hologramsare in measures such as securing licenses,passports, credit cards and other portableaccoutrements that often are the targets ofidentity thieves. There are a large numberof companies that churn out holographicstickers for credit cards, ID badges and
product labels at a commodities level. Butsome companies, such as JDSU Corp. inMilpitas, Calif., strive to improve theuniqueness of holograms to ensure secureidentification of people and products.
The company recently updated its linesof hot-stamped foil products, security lam-inates, and pressure-sensitive labels andseals. It also has developed a process,dubbed HoloFuse, that addresses possible
flaws in standard printed holographicproducts.
Security mavens like holography forIDs and product packaging because notwo holograms are ever alike, even if theyare made with similar equipment imagingthe same object. But even state-of-the-artmaterials, such as polycarbonate-coatedcards, are made with a laminate processthat imperfectly bonds the plastic to thehologram. The holograms used in clear-laminate cards also are prone to fading –from the lamination process on – andthieves can peel the layers of a legitimateID apart and incorporate the hologram intoa false document.
JDSU’s HoloFuse material is a polycar-bonate film that directly incorporates theholographic pattern into its surface. Noadhesives are needed, and no fading ispossible. There also are no layers of disparate materials to strip apart, leavingpotential ID thieves adrift.
Holography has a certain “wow” factorto it that draws the public, especially chil-dren, to science museums and art exhibits.Most people don’t know the science behind the technique, but for some, onereally cool hologram acts as a gateway to a lifelong interest in science.
Even more unique
Heard it through the cell grapevine
Understanding the cells that comprise our bodies ultimatelywill require that we find out
how they communicate with each other.Whether they are neurons or bloodcells, tumor cells or stem cells, theymust “talk” to each other to accomplishtheir biological tasks. And if they talk to one another, Gabriel Popescu of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology in Urbana, Ill., wants to listen in.
Where normal cellular research com-prises microscopy of fixed, dead cells,Popescu and his colleagues combine light-scattering, interferometry and microscopyto create videos of live cells in action.
“We are actually accurately measuringtheir motion at the nanoscale,” he said.“So that, in many ways, with all of thesevibrations, [it] is very close to listening tosomething.”
Ultimately, Popescu wants to be able to talk back, but for now it’s about theprocess. Adding interferometric tools to a basic microscope setup did not providemere images to look at; it provided thequantitative information that truly reveals
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THE STRUGGLEto keep
RESEARCH REAL
Beneath a scientist’s lab coat beats ahuman heart. So it should be nosurprise that researchers sometimes
fudge – or outright fake – their data.Often, this manipulation takes the form
of a doctored image. Michael Kalichman,director of the research ethics program atthe University of California, San Diego,recalls reading neuropathology papers aspart of the peer review process prior topublication. Sometimes he’d find the sameimage appearing twice in the same sub-mission. The second time it might be ro-tated or at a different magnification. In thepaper, though, it would be presented ascompletely different from the first image.
“At the very least, somebody wassloppy in their record keeping,” Kalich-man said. “At the very most, somebodywas trying to mislead about what they hadactually done.”
While the fraud may appear minimal,the National Institutes of Health (NIH) inBethesda, Md., and universities and otherorganizations take the problem seriously.
To combat it, they give tutorials to re-searchers and put systems in place. Therealso are enforcement arms that actively investigate allegations.
Fraud figuresThe amount of scientific misconduct
that goes on is hard to pin down, Kalich-man said. There are well-known exampleswhere a researcher has been shown tohave committed fraud, such as the fakecloning claims of South Korean scientistHwang Woo-suk. Based on the number ofcases like this that have been publicly dis-covered and adjudicated, the rate of seri-ous research misconduct could be one in100,000 scientists.
However, the amount of misconductcould be much higher than this low figureindicates. An analysis of data from severalsurveys that appeared in PLoS One in May2009 found that 1.97 percent of scientistsadmitted to serious misconduct, and morethan 14 percent had witnessed it in others.
The paper’s author, Daniele Fanelli, is a
research fellow at the University of Edin-burgh in the UK. He noted that the firstfigure is probably an underestimate, sincenot all researchers will report their ownmisconduct.
There are good reasons to believe thesecond figure is an overestimate, he said.“Most surveys did not control for the pos-sibility that several respondents are think-ing of the same colleague.”
In one survey, however, only one re-searcher per department was asked aboutmisconduct in that department. In thatcase, the figure was 5.25 percent, Fanellisaid.
It must be remembered, however, thatwhat is thought by others to be lab fraudor misconduct may not, in fact, be so. TheOffice of Research Integrity (ORI), whichis part of the US Department of Healthand Human Services, oversees and directsresearch integrity activities for the USgovernment public health services.
In 2007, the ORI closed 28 cases, with10 resulting in research misconduct find-
57Photonics Spectra February 2010
The original gel blot image on the right had some data removed when submitted for publication, as can be seen by comparing the two panels in the area highlighted bythe circle. Such manipulation can be innocent, but it could also be a deliberate attempt to deceive. Courtesy of Hany Farid, Dartmouth College.
BY HANK HOGAN, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
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58 Photonics Spectra February 2010
ings, administrative actions or both. Thatratio was in line with the historical aver-age and shows that most of the allegationswere not true or could not be proved.
Using technologyBy some estimates, up to 20 percent of
all images submitted for publication have
been improperly manipulated. This figureis open to debate, in part because the defi-nition of what kind of manipulation is al-lowable varies from journal to journal.
In general, it’s considered appropriate tomake an adjustment if it’s done to all pix-els and is disclosed. An example might bethe use of false color to make the differ-
ences in a gray-scale image more easilyvisible.
There are limits to this general princi-ple, however. Adjusting the brightness andcontrast of a gel blot image, for example,would treat all pixels equally. However, itcould result in the gray background andfaint blots disappearing. Paper reviewersand journal editors must guard againstthis, which can be hard to detect andwhich can arise from innocent intentions.
Attempts to deceive, on the other hand,often involve adding or subtracting pixels.That selective treatment makes it possibleto catch the alterations automatically.
“The algorithms that you can developare ones that target specific forms of ma-nipulation,” explained Hany Farid, a pro-fessor of computer science at DartmouthCollege in Hanover, N.H., and an experton digital image forensics.
Farid demonstrated some years ago thatimage segmentation techniques based onintensity can be employed to detect dele-tion, duplication and removal of smallblemishes. A tampered image that isprocessed through these segmentation al-gorithms will yield an output with visibleindicators, such as solid boxes where data
RESEARCH REAL
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has been duplicated or removed. Softwarecan then look for and find these regions.
Farid noted that the tools to automatethe process do not yet exist, but he fore-sees a time when they will. He also notedthat the algorithms will never be able tocatch all possible fraudulent image manip-ulation.
Employing other toolsFor that reason, policies must be put in
place to guard against fraud. Farid, for ex-ample, advocates having researchers sub-mit the original images along with thosethat will appear in a paper.
Another example of a policy solutioncan be found in the ethics training done atNIH. This has been regularly held for allof the agency’s own researchers for thepast 10 years, said Joan P. Schwartz, theagency’s intramural research integrity offi-cer and assistant director of the office ofintramural research.
One part of this training is the use ofhypothetical cases, which change fromyear to year. The theme for this past yearwas dual-use research – work that couldbe used to help as well as harm. A fewyears ago, the training involved image
manipulation, which offers the potential tobe both good and bad.
In all instances, the goal of these sce-narios is to get everyone in a departmenttalking, Schwartz said. “We purposelymake the cases a little bit gray so that theygenerate discussion. They don’t necessar-ily have a right or wrong answer.”
In addition to the hypothetical cases,she noted that the agency has an onlinecourse that’s intended to get new employ-ees up to speed with NIH research guide-lines. It has been adopted by many univer-sities and research organizations aroundthe world.
Despite these efforts, Schwartz notedthat the rate of misconduct appears to beholding steady. Thus, training alone is notthe complete answer.
Another knob to turnThe solution may involve a change in
the structure of science, said Raymond DeVries, a professor of bioethics at the Uni-versity of Michigan Medical School inAnn Arbor. Together with colleagues BrianMartinson and Melissa Anderson, he hassurveyed researchers to see how many self-report minor and major scientific miscon-
duct. The second category includes suchbreaches as falsification, fabrication andplagiarism. The group also has collectedscientists’ opinions about the fairness ofthe science system and about researchers’experience with competitive pressure.
The team’s results show that minor andmajor misconduct are linked. Those admit-ting to the former are far more likely to re-port committing the latter. More competi-tive, rather than cooperative, views onresearch also led to more admissions ofmisconduct.
Another factor is the amount of per-ceived organizational injustice. The re-wards of science are promotions, tenure,grant money, prestige and so on. Thesemay not be distributed fairly, and scientistswho report injustice in their workplacealso report higher levels of misconduct.Thus, improving organizational justice –or at least how it’s perceived – may increase research integrity and decreaselab fraud.
Summing up the findings, De Vries saidof scientists, “If they feel like they’rebeing treated fairly, they actually reportless misconduct.”
59
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60 Photonics Spectra February 2010
Lasers, Laser Accessories & Light Sources
LaserTurn® Cylindrical Laser Processing SystemsLaserTurn® series integrated motion subsystems for cylindrical laser processing applications combine automated material handling with direct-drive linear and rotary motion. Systems feature a three-jaw gripper with a 25-mm aperture for ID or OD gripping, precision collets for 0.1- to 30-mm-diameter materials, travels up to 300 mm and up to a 30-mm clearaperture for product feed through.
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Laser Stabilizer Removes Noise and DriftSpend your time monitoring your experiment, rather than your laser, with a BEOC laser stabilizer. Our LPC, placed in the optical path, does the work of a power meter, a variable attenuator and a laser intensity stabilizer. Reduce DC drift to less than 0.03% long term. Standard, custom and OEM models are available to meet your requirements in the 325- to 1700-nm wavelengthrange.
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New 2.94-µm 1-W Laser ModuleSheaumann Laser offers the first commercially available, hermetically sealed2.94-µm diode-pumped solid-state laser. With a CW free-space output of 1 W,it is the highest power that has been achieved from a compact, lightweightpackage. It has a typical TEM00 M2 value of 1.12 and a beam divergence of 1.7 mrad.
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FemtoFiber pro Ultrafast Fiber LaserTOPTICA’s new FemtoFiber pro features the highest peak power of its class,along with complete hands-off operation. With a focus on reliability and ro-bustness, new technologies have found their way into this professional-gradeproduct; e.g., the saturable absorber mirror. Usable for many applications, including life sciences, time-domain terahertz and ultrafast spectroscopy, theFemtoFiber pro is a complex laser system used for multicolor experimentswith optically synchronized laser pulses.
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Your best products deserve the SpotlightOur Spotlight feature is a quick, easy, low-cost way to start advertising withPhotonics Spectra. Showcase your products in a modular, 1⁄6-page, four-colorad unit. Three themes rotate month to month – Optics & Optics Fabrication;Imaging Components & Systems; and Lasers, Laser Accessories & LightSources. Contact us at (413) 499-0514 or at [email protected].
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61Photonics Spectra February 2010
High-Resolution Spectrum Analyzer for IR LasersThe 721B-MIR laser spectrum analyzer provides the most complete spectralcharacterization of lasers that operate at mid-infrared wavelengths. Absolutewavelength is measured to an accuracy of ±1.0 part per million, and spectralproperties are determined to a resolution as high as 2 GHz. Now, researchersworking with quantum cascade lasers for high-resolution spectroscopy, photochemistry or optical sensing applications can achieve more meaningfulexperimental results with accurate spectral information.
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NanoScan Laser Beam ProfilerPhoton Inc.’s NanoScan measures virtually any beam of interest with either a silicon, germanium or pyroelectric detector to cover the UV to the far-IR beyond 100 µm. Pulsed and CW beams, near- and far-field profiles, M2 laserpropagation and collimation/divergence all can be accomplished using justone instrument. Ease of use, analysis speed, and accurate, repeatable resultsand NIST traceability are all yours with NanoScan.
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Tunable Bandpass FiltersSemrock has broken new ground with the release of VersaChrome™ tunablebandpass filters. VersaChrome filters offer wavelength tunability over a verywide range of wavelengths by adjusting the angle of incidence, with essen-tially no change in spectral performance. With a tuning range of greater than12% of the normal-incidence wavelength, only five filters are needed to coverthe full visible spectrum.
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HighFinesse Wavelength MetersWhen accuracy and performance are critical to your success, TOPTICA deliv-ers! Our HighFinesse wavelength meters offer the highest accuracy for bothpulsed and CW applications and offer accuracies to 2 MHz, measurementspeeds of 200 Hz, fast measurement of pulsed IR lasers and multichannel options to measure several lasers in parallel. No need for factory calibration,due to solid-state design and no moving parts. This feature set will ensurethat your wavelength needs are met with outstanding performance.
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Lasers, Laser Accessories & Light Sources
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Machine Vision Camera�Viewbits, a division of Computer ModulesInc., has launched a 12-megapixel, 25-fpsmachine vision camera with a 1.9-in. mono-chrome progressive-scan CMOS sensor. TheIyeron is compact and shock-resistant. Thewindow of interest partial scanning mode delivers the fast frame rate and can be pro-grammed to display up to 28 square windowswithin one image, and the user can select
certain ones to be read out. Features include a Camera Link interface, a 4:3 aspect ratio, and electronic global and random trigger shutters. Applications include high-speed video capture, factory automation, robotics, military, and medicaland scientific imaging. Pixel size is 6 � 6 µm, minimum illumination is 30 lx, gain control is from 0 to 18 dB, and power consumption is ~5 W from a 12-VDC [email protected]
Optical Design SoftwareCODE V 10.2 optical design software from Optical Research Associates has enhancements that simplifyuse and provide greater flexibility. Improved ray trac-ing algorithms accommodate design of optical systemswith extreme aspheres, hyperhemispherical fields ofview and highly tilted components. Custom macrowriting has been simplified, enabling users to specifyany appropriate external program as the default texteditor. Expanded graphical output options includesmarter defaults for producing optical system drawingswith the View Lens feature. File conversion improve-ments allow all plots to be saved in common formats, including bmp, gif, jpeg, png and tiff. Theupdated status bar shows more user-selected system parameters, and the Transmission Analysisfeature has been expanded to list Fresnel losses, absorption, diffraction efficiency and filter inter-ferograms. Optical Research [email protected]
Antivibration Workstations�Ergonomic ScienceDesk workstation frames and accessories have been announced by Thorlabs Ltd. The second-generation products have been upgraded with improvements to
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to tailor the workstation around an imaging system, re-ducing the footprint. Suitable for use in electrophysiology
and in high-resolution, confocal and scanning probemicroscopy, the workstation includes a
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�Single-Mode Pulse Amplifier FiberNKT Photonics A/S has introduced a new version of its double-clad rod-type fiber for use infiber amplifiers. The DC-285/100-PM-Yb-ROD is based on proprietary and patented CrystalFibre air-clad technology and features a single-mode 100-µm polarization-maintaining corewith high absorption and low photodarkening. The ytterbium-doped rod is used in outputstages of amplifier chains for high-power pulsed laser amplification, where it can sustainmegawatt peak power levels. The ytterbium core has an effective mode field area of >4500µm2. The 285-µm pump core diameter accepts pump light at numerical apertures up to 0.55for pumping at 915 or 976 nm. Pump absorption is 30 dB/m for 976 nm and is polarization-independent. Output of the fiber is single-transverse-mode beam quality, and it has beentested with >100-W average power over a range of pulse durations and repetition rates.NKT [email protected]
Thermopile Detectors�Newport Corp. has expanded its 818P series thermopiledetectors with the fan-cooled 818P-500-55, the water-cooled 818P-3KW-060 and the high-sensitivity 818P-001-12NIR. The first handles up to 500 W of continuous opti-cal power and features a 55-mm-diameter active areaand very flat responses, from 0.19 to 20 µm. It offers 100-mW measurable power, with 8 kW/cm2 maximum powerdensity at 1064 nm, continuous-wave. The second meas-ures up to 3 kW of CW optical power and, when illumina-tion is limited to 5 min, can handle up to 4 kW. Outputconnections include an attached cable with a DB15 con-nector and/or a USB port. The third is a 12-mm-diametersensor that measures down to microwatt-level opticalpower in wavelengths from 0.28 to 1.36 µm. It is cali-brated with a fused silica window mounted on the tube,and a tube screwed onto the detector head reducespower fluctuations from air turbulence.Newport [email protected]
Scanning Probe Microscope�The MultiMode 8 scanning probe microscopelaunched by Veeco Instruments Inc. employs twoproprietary and patent-pending technologies,ScanAsyst and PeakForce QNM. The former has anautomated imaging optimization mode that pro-vides access to advanced applications to obtain research-quality results; the latter is a quantitative
nanomechanical property mapping option that de-livers accurate and repeatable results for modulusand adhesion measurements while preserving sam-ple and probe integrity. The NanoScope Version8.1 software offers a simplified interface and morepowerful tools for data acquisition and off-lineanalysis. The system features a rigid mechanicaldesign and advanced control electronics. Veeco [email protected]
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Medical Imaging
Rad-icon Imaging Corp., a division of DalsaCorp., has released the Helios10 MD panel, thefirst product in the company’s new Helios cam-era family. With an active sensing area of 20 �25 cm, the CMOS x-ray panel is a medical-grade cassette package with an integrated han-dle. It was designed to meet the requirementsof a variety of medical imaging applicationssuch as full-field digital mammography, generalradiography, bone densitometry and other mo-bile digital radiography uses. The panel buildson the tiled configuration of Rad-icon’s Rad-Eye100 very large area CMOS image sensors toachieve its total active sensing area, whilemaintaining high image resolution with a pixelsize of 96 µm. The active-pixel CMOS photo-diode array at the core of the panel consists ofmore than 5 million pixels that convert lightemitted by the integrated scintillator screen intoan electrical signal. The detector’s low-noise,14-bit digital output produces crisp, sharp im-ages, high sensitivity and a high dynamic range. [email protected]
Power MetersThe Flash handheld power meters manufac-tured by Gentec Electro-Optics Inc. deliver a re-sponse time that the company says is at leasttwo times shorter than that of most other mod-els on the market. They allow the user to takemore measurements in less time, and their lownoise level enables accurate measurement ofpowers as low as 2 W. Features include fullycustomizable calibration, a rugged all-metalbody, a high damage threshold and an effectiveaperture of 55 mm. Operating temperature
ranges from 10 to 40 °C. The meters are suit-able for use in job shops and laser servicing.They are available in two models and are de-signed to be stable when placed flat on a table.Gentec [email protected]
HD Video Sensor
A high-definition (HD) video sensor has beenunveiled by OmniVision Technologies Inc. Thecompact OV9726 delivers 720-pixel HD videoat 30 fps and is suitable for use in notebooks,netbooks, webcams, mobile phones, portablemedia players and other mobile entertainmentdevices. Built on a proprietary 1.75-µm back-side illumination pixel architecture, it achieveslow-light sensitivity of 1480 mV/lx-sec in a1/6.5 form factor. Because the image sensor re-ceives light through the back of the chip, thereis no metal wiring to block the image light, andthe entire back of the sensor can be photosensi-tive. The front of the chip surface area is devoted entirely to processing, increasing thenumber of metal layers. Capturing light on theback of the sensor reduces the distance that thelight has to travel to the pixels and provides awider angle of light acceptance. OmniVision [email protected]
Deconvolution SoftwareScientific Volume Imaging BV has released ver-sion 3.5 of its Huygens 3-D deconvolution, visu-alization and analysis software. This version in-cludes the newly developed object stabilizer toolthat can measure and correct for cell motion intime series, or movements in Z-series that arecaused by shaking or thermal drift. Stabilizationmethods based on cross correlation, multi-ob-ject tracking or center of mass alignment can beselected and involve X-Y-Z translation and axialrotation. New features include improved spheri-cal aberration correction by taking into account
the coverslip position and imaging direction,and an HDF5 file format reader and writer to store more microscopic parameters and datain a fully open, compact and easy to access for-mat. The graphical interface has been modern-ized, scheduling of high-throughput deconvolu-tion tasks is improved, and settings in visual-ization and analysis tools can be saved in templates. Scientific [email protected]
CO2 Laser
Coherent Inc. has unveiled the pulsed DiamondE-1000, a compact sealed 1-kW CO2 lasersuited for use in small machines and for space-sensitive applications involving cutting, perforat-ing and drilling of paper, plastic films, plastics,glass, carbon composites and thin metals. It requires no external gas supply, and the onlyconnections to the laser are a power cord and awater hose, rendering it easy to mount on amoving robotic arm. Beam characteristics in-clude spatial mode quality of M2 <1.2 and asquare wave pulse shape that delivers up to 2.5kW of peak power. The laser is liquid-cooledand equipped with onboard Internet-accessiblediagnostics and control. It operates from 10.2 to10.8 µm and outputs 1000 W. Peak effectivepower is >2500 W, power stability is ±5%, full-angle beam divergence is <15 mrad, and pulsefrequency is from single-shot to 200 kHz. [email protected]
Gigabit Ethernet Multispectral CamerasFluxData Inc. has added Gigabit Ethernet con-nectivity to its FD-1665 three-CCD multispectral
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imaging cameras, supplied in the same 121.9� 88.9 � 111.8-mm form factor as the com-pany’s FireWire cameras. GigE supports cablelengths up to 100 m and data transfer rates upto 1000 Mb/s. The cameras are built aroundthe FD-1665 optical prism engine, which re-duces spherical and chromatic aberration andenables the use of standard 35-mm single-lens-reflex F- or T-mount lenses. The modular designencompasses 12 CCD sensor options with vary-ing frame rates up to 120 fps and resolutionsup to 1626 � 1236. Filtering options includepolarization, multispectral, and high dynamicrange. The Gigabit Ethernet option renders thecameras suitable for use in machine vision, surveillance and medical imaging, and offersthe flexibility of increased remote deployment ofthe camera from the host [email protected]
Spectrometers
Ocean Optics Inc. has expanded the wave-lengths of its XR series miniature monolithicfiber optic spectrometers to cover from ~200 to1050 nm. The newly developed XR-1 gratingovercomes the challenges of providing broadUV-NIR coverage in a single device. It offersdensity of 500 lines per millimeter and is avail-able preconfigured in the USB2000�, JAZ-EL2000 and USB4000 and can be added as anoption to custom-built systems. The spectrome-ters deliver optical resolution of ~2 nm FWHM.A proprietary order-sorting filter is applied di-rectly to the detector to eliminate second- andthird-order effects. The 25-µm slit on the pre-configured units provides good optical resolu-tion. The devices are suitable for setups that re-quire both UV-VIS and VIS-NIR measurementsand for measurement of samples with response
across the entire wavelength range, such assolar irradiance, atomic emission line measure-ment and some plasma applications.Ocean [email protected]
Sample Prep Kit
To simplify quality assurance and UVA protec-tion factor analysis in the development and testing of sunscreen and cosmetics using Lab-sphere’s UV-2000S transmittance analyzer, thecompany has introduced the UV2000S, a sam-ple preparation starter kit. It includes all toolsneeded to prepare the appropriate in vitro sun-screen sample common to Boot Star, Colipa,FDA and user-defined sun protection factor(SPF) measurement methods. The kit includes a tube of Vaseline, a positive displacementpipette, pipette capillaries and pistons (25 µl),pipette capillaries (100 µl), nonpowdered fingercots and a sample preparation guide. The
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benchtop R&D system rapidly measures thespectral transmission of sunscreen products, es-pecially those with SPF factors of 50 and above,as well as UVA/UVB protection factor. It meas-ures the diffuse transmittance of a product sam-ple over the 250- to 450-nm ultraviolet [email protected]
Flattop Motorized Microscope Stage
Prior Scientific Inc. has introduced the H117P2IXflattop stage for the Olympus IX series invertedmicroscopes. Suitable for all high-precision bio-medical and materials sciences scanning opera-tions, it was designed to assist researchers con-ducting prolonged live-cell studies. The stagemaximizes access to the nosepiece for correc-tion collar adjustment, and miniaturized driveboxes occupy a fraction of the space of previousmodels. With all of the drive components
mounted below the top plate, it also provideseasy access for micromanipulators, environmen-tal chambers and robotic loaders. The deviceenables scanning using a broad range of sam-ple holders, including microtiter plates, slideholders, petri dishes, well plates, flasks, hemo-cytometers and metallurgical sample holders.Stages can be driven by proprietary motor con-trollers or by compatible systems in existingOEM configurations.Prior [email protected]
Ductless Fume HoodAir Science USA hasintroduced the Purair20, a ductless fumehood that protects operators using haz-ardous substances. Aface velocity at 100ft/min ensures con-tainment of fumes,and an alarm alertsthe operator when theairflow level becomesunacceptable. Allmechanisms in thehead are on the cleanside of the filter, pre-venting contamination. Switches and electricalcomponents are isolated from the dirty airflow,and the work area has a removable spillage
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tray that can be cleaned. The main filter can bechosen from 14 types of carbon, includingmedia for vapors of organics, solvents, acids,mercury and formaldehyde. Optional integrallighting is available. The hood measures 1244.6� 698.5 � 1206.5 mm, with other sizes avail-able up to 2438.4 mm wide. Air Science [email protected]
Pan and Tilt MountsThe APT series pan and tiltmounts unveiled byAerotech Inc. are designedfor use in positioning ap-plications in thesecurity, defenseand surveillancemarkets. Thedrive mechanism has agear preloading fea-ture that self-adjustsfor the effects of wearand temperaturevariation. The En-semble controller re-sponds to motion com-mands via Ethernet, or it can be programmedfor stand-alone operation. The slip ring carriescamera connections to the base of the unit.Continuous 360° pan rotation with limited traveltilt is standard. An inertial stabilization optionintegrates gyroscopes and inertial sensors to
maintain the line of sight when operated on air-craft, ships and land vehicles. Maximum panand tilt speed is 180°/s, tilt range is ±95°, pay-load is 35 kg, and position resolution is 7.6 arc-sec. Unidirectional position repeatability is 10arcsec, and bidirectional, 30 arcsec. [email protected]
Blackbody Source
The BBS-200 blackbody source from OptikosCorp. is a reference source of infrared radiationsimilar in geometry to the primary standard ofthe UK’s National Physical Laboratory. Designedto emit maximum flux at any temperature, itmakes measurements in the 2- to 14-µm ther-mal wavebands and can be used for calibratingthermal imagers and radiometers. It is heatedand cooled by a recirculating water bath con-nected by insulated hoses with self-sealing
quick-disconnect connectors. It has a double-helix water jacket in which water circulates inthe cylindrical heat exchanger from front toback and vice versa, simultaneously, to mini-mize thermal gradients along the cavity. A mo-torized shutter closes off the cavity while theblackbody is changing temperature, shorteningsettling time and minimizing proximity heatingof the instrument being calibrated. [email protected]
Thermoelectric Controller
A high-power thermoelectric cooler controllerhas been launched by Elite Thermal Engineer-ing. The MC-1000 is configurable to drive all ofthe company’s thermoelectric cold plates withup to 600 W of power output, and auxiliarypower for fans or pumps up to 40 W. To oper-ate the controller, the user wires the thermo-
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electric cooler, fan and temperature sensor tothe terminal block on the back of the unit, plugsin the provided power cord and flips the switch.A knob in the front panel adjusts the tempera-ture, and an LCD displays the set and actualtemperatures. The device can be factory-con-figured for various power output mixes, withpower output starting at tens of watts, voltagefrom 12 to 48 VDC and current up to 12 A. Italso can be used as a heater controller and isdesigned to work with a digital temperaturesensor, which is shipped as an accessory. It isimmune to electromagnetic compatibility noiseand can be placed up to 20 m away from thecontroller.Elite Thermal [email protected]
Linear Stage
The PA 30x40-SM01 from Steinmeyer Inc. is asingle-axis precision linear stage used in minia-ture robotics, pick-and-place devices, specimenhandling for life sciences and scientific applica-tions where precision positioning with a narrow
footprint is required. Fully enclosed, it measures30 � 40 mm and offers travel ranges from 25to 150 mm. Positioning repeatability is 1 µm,maximum speed is 50 mm/s, and load capacityis 100 N. The system comprises a proprietarypreloaded 8-mm-diameter ball screw, a size 9linear guideway, noncontact limit switches, anda choice of a stepper motor or a DC servomotorwith encoder. A separate motion controller isavailable as an [email protected]
Glass Filter
Laservision USA has introduced a glass andnanospec laser safety filter that covers OD 7�
from 190 to 535 nm and OD 6� from 1030 to1064 nm. The 00530 is a thin-film filter with adielectric thin-film coating that provides maxi-mum viewing with good protection. It is avail-able in a wide variety of frames. [email protected]
CO2 Lasers
Synrad Inc. has launched the 48-1, a 10-Wlaser for marking permanent, traceable andsterile lot and date codes, order numbers andother manufacturing or personal data on med-ical devices. It also can be used on plastic tub-ing, implantable devices, glass vials and paperpackaging. Designed for easy OEM integrationinto machinery, it can identify products withoutthe use of hazardous inks or chemicals. It deliv-ers a TEM00 beam with 95% purity and M2 <1.2.Ellipticity is <1.2, rise time is <150 µs, beam di-ameter is 3.5 mm, and full-angle beam diver-gence is 4 mrad. The OEM version is air-cooled,and the key switch version is cooled by water.Maximum heat load is 300 W, input voltage is30 VDC, and input current is 7 [email protected]
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Tunable Diode Lasers
Toptica Photonics Inc. has announced that its DLpro ultrastable tunable diode lasers are nowavailable at all diode wavelengths between 372and 1670 nm. The design of the new version,called the DL 100/pro, enables external cavitydiode lasers that are stable against acoustical,mechanical and thermal disturbances. It allowseasy coarse tuning across the complete gainspectrum of the integrated laser diode, makingit suitable for Bose-Einstein condensation andquantum coupling experiments. Output powerrange is up to 300 mW.Toptica [email protected]
Micropositioning X-Y StagesMicropositioning X-Y stages from IntelLiDrivesInc. have integrated micropositioning multiaxisX-Y-Z systems built with LSMA-173 series motorized actuators to provide up to 200-mmtravel. Driven by a brushless or stepper motor
with a ground ball screw, they provide resolu-tion of up to 0.1 µm. The actuator’s low-profile,high-stability, compact and monolithic designenables integration into high-precision meas-urement and manufacturing systems. MLA(micro linear actuator)-173 translation stageshave two limit sensors for end of travel and ref-erencing. Graduated knobs enable manual op-eration and position observation. Load capacityis 8 kg, and straightness is 5 µm. Applicationsinclude fiber optic alignment, laser diode re-search, biomedicine and inspection systems. [email protected]
Microscope Upgrade
The Turbo Slide Scanner from Jenoptik OpticalSystems Inc. is a turnkey upgrade for existingmicroscopes, converting them into turbo digital
scanning instruments for digitizing, archiving,slide telepathology, frozen sections, immuno-histochemistry and tumor boards. Microscopesfrom Zeiss, Nikon, Olympus and Leica are sup-ported. Because it works with existing micro-scopes and computers, it generates imagescost-effectively. Jenoptik Optical [email protected]
DPSS LaserKlastech-Karpushko Laser Technologies GmbHhas launched a 442-nm, <200-mm-long diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) laser as an alterna-tive to HeCd gas types. Beam pointing stabilityis <10 µrad/°C, and lifetime is >10,000 h. TheConcerto achieves <0.5% rms noise, offers adiffraction-limited TEM00 output beam with M2
>1.05, produces 20 mW of continuous-wavepower and provides long-term power stability of<2%. Spectral linewidth is <1 MHz and coher-ence length, >100 m. Polarization is vertical,with a polarization ratio of ≥100:1. Measuring188 � 80 � 66.3 mm, it operates over a temperature range from 15 to 35 °C. The air-cooled laser delivers ultrahigh second-harmonicconversion efficiency and intrinsic single-longi-tudinal-mode performance from a scalable de-sign. Applications include disc mastering, datastorage, Raman spectroscopy, reprographics,thin-film analysis and holography.Klastech-Karpushko Laser [email protected]
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Optical Spectrometer
McPherson Inc.’s 248/130 grazing incidencewavelength dispersive optical spectrometer en-ables rapid analysis of spectral light in the ~1-to 300-nm wavelength region (4 to ~1200 eV).It is useful for spectroscopy in the vacuum-UVand also the extreme- and soft-x-ray wave-length regions. Using direct-detection CCDs,gated image intensifiers or fast channel electronmultipliers for detection, it provides a wideworking range and flexibility in spectral acquisi-tion. It is completely assembled, vacuum leak-checked and calibrated with respect to wave-length. It can include adapters, differentialpumping and grazing incidence collection opticsto facilitate connection to the experiment. It
ships with a wavelength calibration certificationthat facilitates rapid identification of closelyspaced high harmonics. Configured in reverse,the instrument operates as a tunable lightsource. Vacuum-UV spectroscopy accessories including various detector systems and wave-length calibration sources are available from<1 nm to the [email protected]
Optical Spectrum Analyzer
The Yokogawa Test & Measurement Div. hasannounced the AQ6373, an optical spectrumanalyzer that measures from 350 to 1200 nm. It features a color analysis function that rendersit suitable for measuring LEDs and laser lightsources. Wavelength accuracy is ±0.5 nm,wavelength resolution is down to 0.01 nm, andsensitivity is �80 dBm. Standard sweep time is1 s, and 0.5 s in automatic mode. The free-
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space optical input makes the instrument suit-able for use with single-mode, multimode andlarge-diameter-core fibers. A built-in lightsource aids optical alignment. The 10.4-in.bright display has an intuitive graphical user interface, and operation can be controlled viaUSB mouse, keyboard and panel keys. Internalmemory of 128 MB is backed up by USB mem-ory support. Functions include filtering, auto-matic measurements and pass/fail testing. Fastremote operation is available via GPIB, RS-232and Ethernet. Applications include R&D evalua-tion and production testing of short-wavelengthlaser filters and LEDs.Yokogawa [email protected]
Transparent Receiver
Pinpoint Laser Systems has expanded its Micro-gage 2D family with the introduction of a trans-parent receiver that allows a laser beam to pass
through it while making precise position meas-urements for aligning machinery and equip-ment. The compact device is suitable for borealignment and checking extruder barrels andshaft bearings. A narrow laser beam provides ameasuring reference line, and the receiver determines the position of a machine or sub-assembly relative to the beam. It operates overdistances of ≥100 ft and delivers measurementprecision of 0.0005 in. The system and receivercan be used for lathe and spindle alignment,checking machine tool run-out, and roll andweb alignment. The two-axis system operateson batteries, and all components are machinedof solid aluminum with a hard anodized coatingfor wear resistance. It includes a sealed push-button keypad and a large LCD display.Pinpoint Laser [email protected]
Thermal Imaging CamerasThe PTI-170L series portable thermal imagingcameras released by Process Sensors Corp.have a 384 � 288-pixel UFPA detector and operate at 60 Hz. Dual vision capabilities blendhigh-resolution thermal and visible light imageson one screen to facilitate analysis and problemdetection. A choice of six color palettes enablesusers to detect temperature anomalies. Featuresinclude manually focusable optics that are ad-justable from 300 mm to infinity and an on-board full-color CCD camera. Video output is inPAL and NTSC formats, a distance-adjustable
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position laser pointer is standard, and a high-resolution 2.5-in. LCD color VGA digital backlitdisplay is included. Report-generating softwareproduces detailed summaries in an instant. Thefully radiometric cameras have a 24° × 18° fieldof view, a spectral range of 8 to ~14 µm andspatial resolution of 1.3 mrad.Process [email protected]
Laboratory Detector Module
The LDM100-GEM from the Ortec ProductsGroup of Ametek Advanced Measurement Tech-nology is an integrated gamma-ray spectrome-ter for fixed and mobile counting room applica-tions. The compact self-contained laboratorydetector module (LDM) generates <20 W ofwaste heat. It includes a high-purity germaniumdetector element encapsulated within a cryostat
and cooled by a miniature cryocooler, so thereis no need to thermal cycle during partialwarm-up. It is powered from a 10- to 17-VDCsupply and has a built-in battery backup thatprovides an additional 3 h of operation during apower failure. It includes a built-in high-stabilitydigital signal processor. An AC or DC powersource and a PC on which to install the accom-panying Maestro MCA software make a com-plete gamma spectrometry system. Ortec Products Group/[email protected]
Shutter Systems
Vincent Associates has announced three addi-tions to its Uniblitz N-CAS DSS (design scalableshutter) series: the 10-mm-aperture DSS10, the20-mm-aperture DSS20 and the 25-mm-aper-ture DSS25. The patent-pending devices haveflat mounting surfaces on both sides and haveno external actuator or other interfering compo-nents, allowing flush mounting. Drive and
damping components related to the mechanicalmotion of the shutter are contained or inte-grated within. The only moving parts are thedrive ring and the blades, limiting points ofwear. A circular envelope with a concentricaperture enables fast integration into customer-specific applications, and bi-stable operation reduces power draw. Vincent [email protected]
Video Processors
Calibre UK Ltd. has unveiled a range ofHQView video processors, including models thatperform sophisticated warp mapping and seam-less soft-edge blending of multiple projectedimages. The scaler-switchers combine Inte-grated Device Technology’s Reon video process-ing with Calibre’s state-of-the-art HQV algo-rithms, hardware and firmware to deliver goodimage quality for corporate audio/visual, pro-
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fessional and broadcast applications. Availableare eight compact or IU rack-mountable modelsoffering a variety of input types and configura-tions, ranging from component and compos-ite/YC to 3G-SDI, with output resolution of upto 1080-pixel WUXGA. Users can select be-tween low-latency and highest image qualitymodes, with picture-in-picture, picture-and-picture or picture-on-picture output. [email protected]
Spatial Light Modulators
The Pluto phase-only spatial light modulatorsfrom Holoeye Photonics AG are based on liq-uid-crystal-on-silicon microdisplays with high-definition TV 1920 � 1080-pixel resolution, andthey provide a phase shift of 2 π up to 1550nm. For easy integration into optical setups,they are packaged in a compact 121 � 73 �
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22-mm housing. Four models are available,covering the 405- to 700-nm, 700- to 900-nm,900- to 1100-nm and the 1550-nm wave-lengths. The programmable devices are sup-plied with driver software to control settings andimage parameters. The software provides easygamma control to configure the modulator forvarious applications. Tailored application soft-ware enables generation of dynamic opticalfunctions such as gratings, lenses, axicons andapertures, as well as calculation of diffractiveoptical elements based on user-defined images.Holoeye [email protected]
Fiber Collimator
Micro Laser Systems Inc. has introduced theFC40 fiber collimator, which has a large 46-mmaperture and generates a beam measuring ~20mm. It has adjustable focus with no rotation toenable fine tuning of the wavelength. Once theproper focus or collimation is found, it can belocked down. All optics have a broadband an-
tireflection coating that has no epoxy in the optical path. Wavefront error is <�/10 over1/e2 points. Output is diffraction-limited to yielda Gaussian beam at large distances. The colli-mator is packaged in a stainless steel housingand is available with FC or FC/APC receptacles.An optional mount is available for attaching itto a tripod or optical hardware. Applications in-clude lidar, free-space communications, inter-ferometry and large structure alignment. Micro Laser [email protected]
Software/Database Package
Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc. has released version8.1 of its KnowItAll Informatics system, a fullyintegrated software and database package thatincludes database building and management,search, analysis, structure drawing and report-
ing in a single user interface. The spectral mixture analysis tool has been improved toallow researchers to import the digital spectrumto be analyzed, and the software searches andcompares the sample to reference databases of known compounds. Results include mixturecomponent ratios to help researchers understand the relative proportions of the components. Bio-Rad [email protected]
Optical Spectrum Analyzer
To facilitate network commissioning, upgradingand troubleshooting for carriers and networkequipment manufacturers, Exfo Electro-OpticalEngineering Inc. has launched the FTB-5240BP,a field optical spectrum analyzer. Field crewscan analyze the spectral content of any modula-
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tion format, measure the optical signal-to-noiseratio between ultradense signals, track nonlin-ear effects and monitor component imperfec-tions. The system can perform in-depth charac-terization and troubleshooting on ultradensewavelength-division multiplexing networks withlimited spacing of 25 and 12.5 GHz. It makesoptical signal-to-noise ratio measurements insystems where noise fluctuates from channel to channel, such as reconfigurable opticaladd/drop multiplexers and 40-G testing in next-generation networks.Exfo Electro-Optical [email protected]
Crystal Imaging and Detection
Rigaku Automation’s Minstrel HT UV high-throughput ultraviolet and visible crystal imag-ing and protein crystal monitoring system is foruse in protein crystallization experiments. Therobotic device can find crystals in complex drops
and can distinguish protein ones from nonpro-tein ones. Proprietary Clean Light Technologyprovides UV illumination for positive crystalidentification without photodamage and allowsUV light to be focused onto the well of interestand then strobed to minimize UV exposure timeso that the crystal imaging has no effect on dif-fraction quality. The technology brings no addi-tional heat to the well. Rigaku [email protected]
Terahertz SystemTeraView Ltd.has unveiledthe CW Spectra499, a continu-ous-wave tera-hertz systemwith fiber-fedexternal de-vices. The com-pact and fullytunable spec-trometer anddetector oper-ate in the 50- to 1500-GHz range, with highspectral resolution. The system is suitable foruse in solid-state physics research, terahertzpropagation in metamaterials, high-frequencydielectric measurements, gas and solid phasespectroscopy, medical tissue characterizationand nondestructive testing. The turnkey system
employs proprietary GaAs-based photomixersand optical fibers for flexibility. Imaging andspectral analysis software is supplied, and a gantry can be added for imaging of large objects. [email protected]
Airborne Amplifiers
Endevco Corp. has launched a series of com-pact, lightweight and rugged airborne amplifiersfor use in flight test applications. Designed foruse with piezoelectric microphones and ac-celerometers, they operate from an onboardaircraft DC power source. The 2680M-XXX is acharge amplifier that offers one biased and oneunbiased output, both adjustable with a com-mon gain control. An optional low-pass filter isavailable. Model 2685V is a voltage amplifier
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for use with Isotron accelerometers. It providesa constant current power source to a trans-ducer’s integral electronics while maintaining atwo-wire connection. Both models have a hybridmicrocircuit construction and are supplied in acompact and rugged package, with low powerconsumption. Output voltage is proportional toinput acceleration or sound, and amplifier sen-sitivity is not affected by input cable [email protected]
Wafer Inspection SystemIris, a macro waferdefect inspectionsystem launched bySemiProbe, is foruse by microelec-tronic device manu-facturers. It detectscontamination,processes damageand flaws in the circuit pattern, andis suitable for usewith microelectro-mechanical systems,optical components,double-sided devices and photovoltaics. It de-tects visual defects as small as 3 µm, includingprobe marks, ink dots, residual films, throughsilicon vias, bumps, incomplete etches,
scratches, cracks and chips, passivation andlarge-scale contamination. When a defect isidentified, its failure code is noted on the wafermap, and the mapping tool enables graphicaland data analysis of the inspection during andafter the scan. The system is available withmanual visual inspection on a semiautomaticstage or with automated inspection using theproprietary Pilot pattern recognition system. [email protected]
Die-Bonding Materials
Shin-Etsu Silicones of America has introducedthe KER series, a line of silicone die-bond mate-rials that provide advanced encapsulating per-formance for high-brightness LEDs. The prod-ucts were developed as a die encapsulation,die-attach adhesive and lens-type material toprovide long-term reliability for applications ingeneral-purpose lighting as well as in high-
brightness LEDs. The methyl silicone-based sys-tems harden by using a heat-cured platinumcatalyst. The KER-300-M2, KER-3100-U2 andKER-3200-T1 offer a broad spectrum of siliconepolymer chemistry and structural composition.Applications include display equipment such astraffic light signals, backlight sources such asLED TVs, and automobile headlights. The prod-ucts are available in clear, opaque and whitethin-bond line versions to minimize light ab-sorption and to maximize heat dissipation.Shin-Etsu [email protected]
Infrared Detector
Ulis has launched a long-wave 640 � 480-pixeluncooled 17-µm-format infrared detector to up-grade the image quality of the infrared camerasused in surveillance, enhanced night drivingand thermography applications, such as detect-
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ing heat loss in buildings. Measuring 24 � 24 mm and weighing 10 g, itconsumes <0.160 W of power. Operating temperature range is from �40to 85 °C, typical array operability is >99.9%, typical signal response is >7mV/K, and standard deviation is ≤1.5%. Spectral response is from 8 to 14µm, area fill factor is 70%, and thermal time constant is <10 ms. The focalplane array is made of resistive amorphous silicon and features a CMOSmultiplexer integrated circuit with ripple imaging operation. [email protected]
High-Output EmitterCal Sensors announces the launch of PIRE-Plus, a high-output, high-pulse-rate emitterthat can be pulsed as a source of blackbodyradiation for near- to far-infrared applica-tions at 180 Hz with 50% modulation depth.With a pulsing speed that the company saysis 18 times faster than alternative technolo-gies offer, it enables users to obtain accuratereadings of materials and trace gases withconcentrations at very low parts per million.The solid-state emitter maximizes signal-to-noise performance, expanding the measure-ment dynamic range and resolution. It pro-duces output of 4 � 10�2 W/cm2 at 1 in.from the filament and includes integrateddrive electronics in an industry-standard 14-pin DIP integrated circuit package. The de-vice is suitable for use in a variety of applications, including industrial andmedical gas analysis, environmental monitoring, process control instru-mentation, spectroscopy and plastics sorting.Cal [email protected]
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Lightguide Film TechnologyAvago Technologies has announced an ultrathinhigh-brightness lightguide film technology forbacklighting cell phones, handheld games andglobal positioning systems. It enables designersto reduce the number of LEDs needed to illumi-nate backlit keypads. The graphic fusion multi-mode exchangeable (G2MEX) technology relieves the complexity and congested icons onkeypads and keyboards. Key characters can be overlapped and selectively illuminated, andthe illumination areas are transparent to eachother. With this technology, only two side-firingLEDs are needed to backlight display icons uniformly. Avago [email protected]
Infrared Camera
Telops Inc. has developed a line of advancedinfrared cameras designed for use by researchscientists and infrared experts. The Hyper-CamFAST-IR is a 1000-fps full-frame camera thatenables thermal imaging of dynamic events
with high temporal resolution and is suitable foruse in military, R&D, scientific and industrial ap-plications. Real-time calibrated images are visi-ble, even in raw data output mode. Features include a fast filter wheel and complete controlwith the software development kit. It has anInSb detector and operates over the 3- to 5-µmspectral range with 320 � 256-pixel resolution.Noise equivalent delta temperature is 14 mK,detector pitch is 30 µm, integration time is from3 µs to 1.8 ms, and dynamic range is 16 bits.Operating temperature range is from �15 to1500 °C. [email protected]
Fiber LaserDiode Laser Concepts Inc. has added fiber-pig-tailed diode laser systems to its product offer-ings with the introduction of Teleos. Deliveringgood optical stability and performance, thethermoelectrically cooled OEM system providesan alternative laser solution for flow cytometry,cell scanning, confocal microscopy and otherbioinstrumentation, medical and scientific appli-cations. At 643 and 405 nm, it features up to60 mW of output power from the exit apertureof the single-mode polarization-maintainingfiber, with an output power stability of <1%over 12 h. It also offers a TEM00 spatial modebeam with an M2 value of <1.1 with integratedlaser drive electronics, using advanced elec-tronic, thermal and mechanical stability design
features. Customizable specs include the fibertype, fiber length, fiber termination, wave-length, output power and mechanical mounting.Diode Laser [email protected]
78
b BRIGHT IDEAS
Photonics Spectra February 2010
b ANOTHER BRIGHT IDEA
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 Craig Suriner at (413) 499-0514, or e-mail [email protected].
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MARCHMEDTEC Europe (March 23-25) Stuttgart,Germany. Contact Canon Communications, +1 (310) 445-4200; [email protected]; Mr. Alison Trebble, +44 1458 835 955.
Intertech Image Sensors Europe 2010(March 23-25) London. Contact Stacey Ludlow at IntertechPira, +44 1372 802 052;[email protected].
23rd International Conference on 3-D Image Processing in Microscopy/22nd International Conference on Confocal Microscopy (March 28-31) Shanghai, China.Contact Qiushi Ren, +86 21 3420 4080; fax: +86 21 3420 4078; www.focusonmicroscopy.org.
Principles of Lasers and Laser SafetyCourse (March 30-31) Cincinnati. ContactRockwell Laser Industries, +1 (513) 271-1568;fax: +1 (513) 271-1598; [email protected].
Machine Vision China 2010 (March 31-April 2) Shanghai, China. Contact Guo Qinrui, +86 21 6875 8536;[email protected]; US: Dana Whalls,+1 (734) 994-6088; [email protected].
APRILSPIE Defense, Security + Sensing 2010(April 5-9) Orlando, Fla. Contact SPIE, +1(360) 676-3290; www.spie.org.
CISILE 2010: International Exhibition for Analytical and Testing Instrumentation,Optical/Electronic Optical Instrumentation,Laboratory Furniture and Equipment, and Biotechnology and Instrumentation(April 8-10) Beijing. Contact Ivy Lee, +86 10883 951 25; [email protected]; www.cisile.com.cn.
OSA Optics & Photonics Congress: Biomedical Optics and 3-D Imaging (April12-14) Miami. Contact the Optical Society ofAmerica, +1 (202) 223-8130; www.osa.org.
Illumination and Stray Light Analysis UsingZemax (April 12-16) Celebration, Fla. ContactZemax Development Corp., +1 (425) 822-3406; [email protected]; www.zemax.com.
SPIE Photonics Europe 2010 (April 12-16)Brussels, Belgium. Contact Amy Nelson, +44 29 2089 4747; [email protected];spieeurope.org.
Lighting Japan 2010: LED/OLED LightingTechnology Expo (April 14-16) Tokyo. Contact Reed Exhibitions Japan Ltd., +81 3 3349 8568; www.lightingjapan.jp.
2010 IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (April 14-17) Rotter-dam, the Netherlands. Contact Laura J. Wolf,+1 (732) 981-3433; [email protected];www.embs.org.
Laser 2010: American Society for LaserMedicine and Surgery’s 30th Annual Con-ference (April 14-18) Phoenix. Contact Na-dine Tosk, +1 (847) 920-9858; www.aslms.org.
Smart Fabrics 2010 (April 15-17) Miami.Contact IntertechPira, +1 (207) 781-9618;www.smartfabricsconference.com.
8th European Machine Vision Business Conference (April 16-17) Istanbul, Turkey.Contact EMVA, +49 69 6603 1466; fax: +4969 6603 2466; www.emva.org.
Society of Vacuum Coaters 2010: 53rd Annual Technical Conference (April 17-22)Orlando, Fla. Contact SVC, +1 (505) 856-7188; [email protected].
IEEE Wireless Communications & Networking Conference (April 18-21)Sydney, Australia. Contact Heather AnnSweeney, +1 (212) 705-8938; [email protected]; www.ieee-wcnc.org/2010.
Photonics 2010: World of Lasers and Optics (April 19-22) Moscow. Contact Expocentre, +7 499 795 3799;www.photonics-expo.ru.
Interactive Displays 2010 (April 20-22)San Jose, Calif. Contact IntertechPira, +1 (207) 781-9800; www.intertechpira.com.
Organic Photovoltaics 2010 (April 28-30)Philadelphia. Contact IntertechPira, +1 (207)781-9800; www.intertechpira.com.
MAYLaser Safety Officer Course (May 3)Cincinnati. Contact Rockwell Laser Industries,+1 (513) 271-1568; fax: +1 (513) 271-1598;[email protected].
iMAPS New England: 37th Annual Symposium & Expo (May 4) Boxborough,Mass. Contact Harvey Smith, +1 (508) 699-4767; [email protected].
Principles of Lasers and Laser SafetyCourse (May 11-12) Cincinnati. Contact Rockwell Laser Industries, +1 (513) 271-1568;fax: +1 (513) 271-1598; [email protected].
CLEO/QELS 2010: Laser Science to PhotonicApplications (May 16-21) San Jose, Calif. Includes PhotonXpo. Contact Optical Society of America, +1 (202) 416-1907; [email protected]; www.cleoconference.org.
Sensor + Test 2010: The Measurement Fair (May 18-20) Nuremberg, Germany. Contact AMA Service GmbH, +49 5033 96390; fax: +49 5033 1056; www.sensor-test.de.
2010 IEEE International CommunicationsConference (May 23-27) Cape Town, SouthAfrica. Contact Heather Ann Sweeney, +1 (212) 705-8938; [email protected].
SID: 2010 International Symposium, Seminar and Exhibition for the ElectronicDisplay Industry (May 23-28) Seattle. Contact Mark Goldfarb, +1 (212) 460-8090Ext. 202; [email protected]; www.sid.org.
10th International Conference of the European Society for Precision Engineering& Nanotechnology (EUSPEN) (May 31-June4) Delft, the Netherlands. Contact DebbieNyman, +44 1234 754 154; [email protected].
JUNEEIPBN: 54th International Conference on Electron, Ion and Photon Beam Technology and Nanofabrication (June 1-4) Anchorage, Alaska. Contact MartyFeldman, +1 (225) 578-5489; [email protected]; www.eipbn.org.
HAPPENINGS
79Photonics Spectra February 2010
PAPERSLaser Optics 2010 (June 28 – July 2) St. Petersburg, Russia Deadline: abstracts and summaries, March 1Organizers of Laser Optics 2010 invite abstracts of 35 to 40 words and summaries of one page for oral and poster presentations. Topics to be considered include solid-state lasers and nonlinear frequency conversion; high-power gas lasers; laser beam control; superintense light fields and ultrafast processes; and semiconductor materials, lasers and devices. Contact Program and Organizing Committee, Institute for Laser Physics of Vavilov SOI Corp., +7 812 328 5734;[email protected]; www.laseroptics.ru.
Remote Sensing and Security + Defence (September 20-23) Toulouse, FranceDeadline: abstracts, March 22Researchers are encouraged to submit their latest work for the SPIE Remote Sensing conference in areas such as lidar, next-generation satellites and synthetic aperture radar image analysis. Topics to be addressed in SPIE Security+Defence include infrared systems, biological and chemicalsensing, unmanned/unattended sensors, optical materials, and imaging and display technologies.Contact SPIE, +1 (360) 676-3290; [email protected]; spie.org/x6262.xml.
EWOFS 2010 (September 8-10) Porto, PortugalDeadline: submissions, March 31, noon EDT (16:00 GDT)Original papers are sought for the fourth European Workshop on Optical Fibre Sensors. The scope of the workshop is wide enough to include new concepts, developments and applications in the field of optical fiber technology. Among the relevant topics are distributed sensing, and passive andactive devices for photonic sensing. Contact INESC Porto, University of Porto, +351 220 402 301;[email protected]; www.ewofs.org.
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Optical Interference Coatings (June 6-11)Tucson, Ariz. Contact OSA, +1 (202) 223-8130;[email protected]; www.osa.org.
Sensors Expo & Conference (June 7-9)Rosemont, Ill. Contact Questex Media GroupInc., +1 (617) 219-8300; www.sensorsexpo.com.
Imaging and Applied Optics (June 7-10)Tucson, Ariz. Contact OSA, +1 (202) 223-8130;[email protected]; www.osa.org.
LASYS 2010 (June 8-10) Stuttgart, Germany.Includes a short course titled “Basics on Lasersand Laser Material Processing.” Contact MesseStuttgart International, +49 711 258 9550; fax:+49 711 258 9440; www.messe-stuttgart.de.
EuroLED 2010 (June 9-10) West Midlands,UK. Contact Eve Gaut, +44 121 250 3515;[email protected];www.euroled.org.uk.
OSA Optics & Photonics Congress (June 21-24) Karlsruhe, Germany. ContactOSA, +1 (202) 223-8130; [email protected];www.osa.org.
Nanotech Conference & Expo 2010 (June 21-25) Anaheim, Calif. Contact SarahWenning, +1 (925) 901-4959; fax: +1 (925)886-8461; www.techconnectworld.com.
h HAPPENINGS
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aADVERTISER INDEX
81Photonics Spectra February 2010
Photonics Media Advertising Contacts
Please visit our Web sitePhotonics.com for all your marketing needs.
Robert J. Briere, Director of SalesVoice: +1 (413) 499-0514, Ext. 101Fax: +1 (413) [email protected]
New England, Southeastern US, Yukon & British Columbia Rebecca L. Pontier, Regional ManagerVoice: +1 (413) 499-0514, Ext. 112Fax: +1 (413) [email protected]
NY, NJ & PATimothy A. Dupree, Regional ManagerVoice: +1 (413) 499-0514, Ext. 111Fax: +1 (413) [email protected]
Northern CA, NV, Pacific Northwest, Central & Southern CA, Karen Hardison, Regional ManagerVoice: +1 (916) 990-1473Fax: +1 (916) [email protected]
Rocky Mountains, AZ, NM, HI, Eastern, Central & Western Canada, FLJason A. Camboni, Regional ManagerVoice: +1 (312) 253-4028Fax: +1 (312) [email protected]
South Central USSusanna L. Rogers, Regional ManagerVoice: +1 (413) 499-0514, Ext. 229Fax: +1 (413) [email protected]
Europe & IsraelPenny Pretty, European Sales ManagerVoice: +44 1494 564411Fax: +44 1494 [email protected]
Austria, Germany & LiechtensteinDavid Round, Advertising AssociateVoice: +44 208 773 9944Fax: +44 208 181 [email protected]
ChinaHans ZhongVoice: +86 755 2157 3066Fax: +86 755 2872 [email protected]
JapanScott ShibasakiVoice: +81 3 5225 6614Fax: +81 3 5229 [email protected]
Reprint ServicesVoice: +1 (413) 499-0514Fax: +1 (413) [email protected]
Mailing addresses:Send all contracts, insertion orders and advertising copy to:Laurin PublishingPO Box 4949Pittsfield, MA 01202-4949
Street address:Laurin PublishingBerkshire Common, 2 South St.Pittsfield, MA 01201Voice: +1 (413) 499-0514Fax: +1 (413) 443-0472E-mail: [email protected]
4D Technology Corporation.................................66
aAerotech Inc. .....................................................60Anchor Optics ....................................................69Applied Scientific Instrumentation.........................58 Argyle International ............................................70Arroyo Instruments LLC........................................71
bBristol Instruments Inc. ..................................52, 61Brockton Electro-Optics Corp. .............................60
cCargille Laboratories ...........................................48Coherent Inc. .....................................................11Cooke Corporation Ltd. ......................................15CVI Melles Griot ...........................................19, 21
dDirected Energy Inc. ...........................................65
eEdmund Optics .............................................44, 45
gGooch & Housego ..............................................69
hHellma USA..........................................................8Hospitalité Québec..............................................50
iIDEMA Show Group ...........................................56Image Science Ltd. .............................................20
kKlastech Karpushko Laser
Technologies GmbH .........................................10
lLake Shore Cryotronics Inc. ................................75Landesmesse Stuttgart..........................................70Lightmachinery Inc. ......................................48, 73
mMad City Labs ....................................................66Master Bond Inc. ................................................67Meller Optics Inc. ...............................................67Micro Laser Systems ............................................80Mightex Systems .................................................77
nNewport Corp ..............................................26, 59nm Laser Products Inc. ........................................73Nusil Technology ................................................27
oOcean Thin Films ................................................12Opco Laboratory Inc. .........................................22Optical Society of America............................36, 63Optics Balzers AG ..............................................73Optimax Systems Inc. .........................................41Oxxius ...............................................................74
pPhoton Engineering LLC .......................................28Photon Inc. ........................................................61Photonic Products................................................38Photonis USA Inc. ..............................................49 PI (Physik Instrumente) L.P. ............................61, 64Picoquant GmbH ................................................31Power Technology Inc. .......................................23Princeton Instruments ...........................................13
rReed Exhibitions Japan Ltd. ................................68Research Electro-Optics.....................................CV3Rolyn Optics Co. ................................................30RPC Photonics Inc. .............................................25Rsoft Design Group ...............................................6
sSemrock Inc. ......................................................61Sensors Unlimited Inc.
Part of Goodrich Corporation..............................9Sheaumann Laser Inc. ........................................60Shenzhen BMC Herong
Exhibition ........................................................76Siskiyou Corporation...........................................24 Society of Vacuum Coaters ..................................72Spectrogon US Inc. ............................................74Spectrum Scientific Inc. .......................................77SphereOptics LLC................................................17Stanford Research Systems Inc. .......................3, 39Sutter Instrument .................................................78Sydor Optics Inc. ...............................................71
tThe Chinese Mechanical Engineering
Society ............................................................80Thermo Fisher Scientific .........................................7Tohkai Sangyo Co. Ltd. ......................................70Toptica Photonics Inc. ...................................60, 61Trioptics GmbH...................................................53
vVarian Australia PLY Ltd. .................................CV2Vortran Laser Technology Inc. .......................58, 78
wWestech Optical Corp. .......................................14 Williams Advanced Materials............................CV4
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p PEREGRINATIONS
Depending on the kindness of strangerspairs of matching points between individ-ual images. After these likely pairs wereidentified, the software then refined thematching – including dimensional infor-mation – and stitched the images together.With the computing power on hand, theycompleted the matching and reconstruc-tion process in only about 65 hours.
82 Photonics Spectra February 2010
Composites courtesy of the University of Washington.
With the help of hundreds of people you’ve never met, youmight be able to get a grand
view of a tourist destination you’ve nevervisited.
Imaging science has led to ways to create detailed recordings of famous land-marks, including the Colosseum in Romeand the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Such record-ings provide exquisite three-dimensionalviews but require painstaking measure-ment via laser or acoustic systems, and ex-pensive high-end cameras. Now, however,a team of researchers at the University ofWashington (UW) in Seattle has devised a3-D image reconstruction method thatpulls photographs from an Internet-basedrepository and stitches them together withunheralded speed.
Acting under Sameer Agarwal, assistantprofessor of computer science and engi-neering, the group processed hundreds of
thousands of snapshots taken by tourists in and around Rome and Venice, Italy, aswell as in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The photoswere found by searching for the cities’names on flickr.com, a public photo-host-ing site owned by Yahoo Inc.
For example, to create representationsof Venice – some of which are shown here– the UW scientists downloaded 250,000images taken by a disparate group oftourists. Despite differences in camerasand lenses used, viewing angles, back-grounds, lighting and other factors, thesoftware developed by the team pieced to-gether richly detailed models of the entirecity, not just of individual buildings andfeatures.
Agarwal and his colleagues processedthe multitude of snapshots with a series of62 computer nodes, each comprising dualquad-core chips. The algorithms they de-signed searched first for the most likely
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February/March 2010
PATENTS ANDSYNTHETICBIOLOGY RESEARCH
Putting Imagingin the Picture
Finding Toxinsin Vegetables
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PHOTONICSThe technology of generating and harnessing light and other forms of radiant energy whose quantum unit is thephoton. The range of applications of photonics extends from energy generation to detection to communicationsand information processing.
NEWS
E 4 | EURO NEWSWhite light supercontinuum: power struggleThe 3-D way to slice itIt’s a terascale world after allGermany: managing the downswingLet it shine the easy way: laser polishing
FEATURES
E 10 | PUTTING IMAGING IN THE PICTUREby Marie Freebody, Contributing EditorImages today are produced in myriad ways – using infrared, fluorescence, bioluminescence,x-ray machines, optical coherence tomography, lidar – for use in a variety of industries.
E 14 | PATENT ISSUES IN SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY RESEARCHby Jörg Schwartz, Contributing EditorThe roles patents play in this emerging biophotonics application.
E 16 | ECOPHOTONICSby Krista D. Zanolli, Contributing EditorSpectroscopy detects toxins in veggies.
DEPARTMENTS
E 18 | PRODUCT PREVIEW
E 23 | ADVERTISER INDEX
THE COVERThe intellectual property issues surrounding synthetic biology research inspired this month's cover. Some say granting ownership to someone who "discovers" something created by nature is equivalent to allowing someone who catches a butterfly to patent the creature. This month’s cover was designed by EuroPhotonics Art Director Juliana T. Willey.
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Volume 15 Issue 2
EuroPhotonics February March 2010
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EMVA Business Conference 20108th European Machine Vision Business Conference April 16th and April 17th, 2010, Istanbul, Turkey
International platform for networking and business intelligence. Where machine vision business leaders meet.
www.emva.org
Golden Sponsor Silver Sponsors
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LILLE, France – Researchers are pioneer-ing a practical way of generating high-power white light suitable for applicationsincluding spectroscopy, microscopy andoptical coherence tomography. Producinghigh-power light across a broad spectrum,also known as a supercontinuum, is not
easy. It requires high-power pumping totrigger significant nonlinear effects (usu-ally within a nonlinear medium such as anoptical fiber). In this process, incidentlight can be converted into supercontinu-ous white light.
Today’s pump source of choice is the
pulsed laser. With typical peak powers ofup to several tens of kilowatts, it providesmore than enough power to excite mostnonlinear effects. On the other hand, theaverage power of a compact and low-costcontinuous wave (CW) laser is much lower(between 10 and 100 W), falling far shortof meeting the requirements of the job.Now, Alexandre Kudlinski and colleaguesat the University of Lille have managed tocompensate for this power shortfall, gener-ating a CW-pumped supercontinuum span-ning the elusive visible region.
The group’s white light source extendsfrom 470 to more than 1750 nm, with al-most 10 W of average power for a pumpof just 45 W. Kudlinski believes that thisalternative approach opens up possibilitiesthat could benefit many applications, including flow cytometry, endoscopy, optical coherence tomography and fluo-rescence microscopy.
“Most commercial confocal micro-scopes are generally made up of severalvisible CW lasers to excite fluorophores invarious biological samples,” he explained.“Many interesting fluorophores are unus-able because of the lack of suitable lasersources to excite them. Our CW supercon-tinuum source provides the required wave-lengths with sufficient spectral power den-sity for efficient excitation of new, usefulfluorophores.”
What’s more, a CW supercontinuum ismuch easier to use than its pulsed counter-parts. There is no need to synchronize thedetection setup with the source, as op-posed to when using a pulsed supercontin-uum where expensive and cumbersomesynchronization elements are required.
The researchers found that achievingtheir goal involved a careful balancing actbetween increasing the nonlinear responseof the optical fiber and maintaining opti-mized dispersion. They opted for a pho-tonic crystal fiber with a germanium dioxide-doped core to promote nonlinearbehavior, and they controlled the resultingdispersion using a cleverly tapered fiberdesign.
“It is well-known that germaniumdioxide enhances both the Kerr andRaman nonlinear responses of silicaglass, which is, of course, beneficial for
NEWSEURO
White light supercontinuum: Power struggle
E4 EuroPhotonics February March 2010
This photograph is of the illuminated fiber spool dur-ing CW supercontinuum experiments. The red lightis generated first and progressively turns into yellowas the fiber length increases. Finally, all visiblewavelengths are generated, leading to white lightcollimated with a lens at the fiber output.
In this experimental setup of CW supercontinuum generation, the illuminated fiber spool and fiber end are delivering high-power white light through a collimating lens. Images courtesy of Université Lille 1.
The white-light-output spot, collimated and dispersed with a prism, shows the whole visible spectrum generatedin the fiber.
Shown are scanning electron microscope images of the tapered photonic crystal fiber output face(outer diameter of 85 µm). The black regions areairholes and the gray regions, silica. The germanium dioxide-doped core appears slightlylighter at the center of the structure.
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supercontinuum generation,” Kudlinskisaid. “On the other hand, germaniumdioxide modifies the dispersion proper-ties, making it generally unsuitable forefficient supercontinuum generation. Thekey to our work was to adjust the disper-sion by transversally controlling the size
of the airholes within the microstructuredfiber and by longitudinally decreasing thezero-dispersion wavelength along thelength of the fiber.”
In the next stage of the research,Kudlinski aims to reach even shorterwavelengths (down to 350 nm), which is
E5February March 2010 EuroPhotonics
The 3-D way to slice itGIRONA, Spain, and LODI, Italy – Theymay all look the same in their transparentpackets in your supermarket’s refrigeratedcases, but hams, sausages and cheeses arenowhere near uniform, and slicing them remains a challenge for the food industry.Today’s fixed-volume or fixed-weight ap-proaches deal with shape variations and re-quire significant margins, factors that causemore food to be placed in a pack than isneeded. That extra cost to the manufacturereventually is borne by the customer.
A new three-dimensional imaging sys-tem developed by Spanish 3-D softwarecompany AQSense and Italian solutionprovider ImagingLab srl uses three line-laser emitters and three cameras to gener-ate a contour of the whole object before itis sliced, with less than 1 percent measure-ment error. Demonstrated at Vision Show2009 in Stuttgart, Germany, in November,it calculates the best way of slicing whilethe job is being processed, at speeds in therange of 10 m per minute.
Three-dimensional measurements are ahot topic in machine vision (see “VisionMarket on the Upswing” at photonics. com), with quality control a key area ofapplication. Industrial 3-D measurementsystems typically generate “point clouds”of data, with the size of the cloud de-pending upon the object and the resolu-tion of the measurement system. The big-ger the cloud, the more demanding theprocessing.
Typically, the goal of such data han-dling is to compare the test object with acomputer-aided design model to seewhether it has any defects, a process thatdetermines a pass/fail decision. Doing thisat high speed for complex objects is de-manding, but rapid progress is being madeon the hardware side, with faster and moreintelligent cameras and computers.
New algorithms also are enabling quick
matching of 3-D objects, somewhat simi-lar to 2-D pattern recognition. “Our goal isto offer a comprehensive library such asthose available for 2-D machine vision,”said Ramon Palli, AQSense’s CEO.
He said the challenge is not only in cal-culating the full shape, but also in extract-ing the data from the measurement. “Lasertriangulation is a most widely used detec-tion method, but for many surface types,the data is not directly usable and requirescalculating the peak in the reflected laser
particularly interesting for many applica-tions, including fluorescence microscopy.He also plans to test the source by inte-grating it into the laboratory’s confocalmicroscopes.
Marie Freebody [email protected]
light before that data can be used.” Such is the case for surfaces where the
light is not just reflected but where it par-tially penetrates the material; e.g., whenthe reflected light has a non-Gaussian pro-file, and the peak intensity and center ofgravity are not the same.
This know-how and that of 3-D shapeanalysis – in the form of the company’ssoftware library SAL3D – were combinedwith the hardware and system integrationskills of ImagingLab when developing the
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360° scanner prototype for food process-ing. ImagingLab also wrote LabView application software, including samplehandling and user interface.
Both companies say that slicing food isjust the beginning. The combination of 3-D machine vision and robotics is needed
for flexible manufacturing in a wide rangeof areas – with both their 3-D library andthe application software being compatiblewith any other 3-D imaging device gener-ating point clouds.
Jörg [email protected]
e EURO NEWS
E6 EuroPhotonics February March 2010
It’s a terascale world after allGHENT, Belgium – Using high-resolutionoptical lithography techniques that are im-portant in microelectronics fabrication, re-searchers in Belgium have produced aterascale world map with a circumferenceof only 40 μm, or about half the width ofa human hair.
With CMOS fabrication tools, scien-tists at the Photonics Research Group, a
laboratory of Ghent University that is as-sociated with the Interuniversity Micro-electronics Center (IMEC), put the mapin a corner of an optical silicon chip de-signed for one of the group’s researchprojects on nanophotonic integrated cir-cuits. The world map was defined on asilicon photonics test chip in IMEC’scleanroom for 200-mm processing.
The smallest fea-tures resolved on themap are about 100nm, a size that is stillseveral times largerthan today’s state-of-the-art transistors.However, the scale reduction enablesmore complex opticalfunctions on a singlechip for applicationsin telecommunica-tions, high-speedcomputing, biotech-
A laser-triangulation-based three-dimensional scanner generates a point cloud of measurement points, used to determine the shape of cheese or ham before it is sliced. This example shows the growing capabilitiesof 3-D imaging, while making food preparation and processing more efficient.
The small map is viewed through a scanning electron microscope. Images ©Photonics Research Group-University of Ghent 2009.
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nology and health care, the researcherssaid.
The fabrication process consisted of 30steps, including layer depositions andchemical etching on a silicon-on-insulatorwafer. Four different layer thicknesseswere resolved, and these corresponded tofour different images, or mask layers, thathad to be patterned separately.
The silicon photonic technology devel-oped with these chips integrates opticalcircuits onto a small chip: Light can bemanipulated on a submicrometer scale intiny strips of silicon called waveguides orphotonic wires, which means that thesesilicon photonic circuits can pack a mil-lion times more components into the samespace than today’s commercial glass-basedphotonics can.
The circuits developed on this chipwere used to demonstrate photonic wireswith the lowest propagation losses, theresearchers said. Also, structures weredeveloped to improve the efficiency ofcoupling light from the outside world, as with an optical fiber, to the wires on a chip.
Located in Leuven, Belgium, the Pho-tonics Research Group works to build ontechnologies developed for the microelec-tronics industry to create smart photonic
chips for health care, communications,identification and biosciences.
Melinda [email protected]
eEURO NEWS
E7February March 2010 EuroPhotonics
The terascale world map, created using high-resolu-tion optical lithography techniques, is hidden in thebottom right corner of a photonic chip.
The small map is viewed through an optical microscope. The different colors are caused by interference effects in the different layer thicknessesof silicon.
Germany: Managing the downswingBERLIN – Looking back on 2009, manybusiness analysts see Germany as lesshard-hit by the recession than some otherEuropean countries, and a feeling prevailsthat “it could have been worse.” However,as was the case in most neighboring coun-tries, the government had to use tax moneyto keep things going. The German govern-ment, with a new coalition since the Sep-tember 2009 elections, did this not by na-tionalizing whole sectors or by cutting thesales tax but by injecting funds into key in-dustries – with indirect relief also for manyparts of the photonics sector.
Cars are important in Germany, not onlyfor the average citizen but for the overalleconomy, with the auto industry providing1.4 million jobs plus many more that de-pend on vehicle manufacturing. The carscrappage scheme available in the first ninemonths of 2009, although criticized bymany, probably has helped this key industryto avoid a much deeper dive; other countriesalso have adopted the incentive program.
Rolling right alongNot surprisingly, large sectors of the
photonics industry depend on core Ger-man businesses such as engineering andautomobile manufacturing. As a result,there is little talk of companies struggling,and the outlook is even moderately posi-tive. As for Germany’s machine vision in-dustry, overall business volume was down30 percent; the VDMA, the national engi-neering association, described 2009 as“lost.” However, it also reported signs thatin 2010, the numbers will be positiveagain, as they were for more than a decadeup until 2008 (see “Vision on the Up-swing,” November 2009 photonics.com).
Laser machinery maker Trumpf GmbH& Co. KG of Ditzingen, which also isheavily involved in car manufacturing, ex-pects a “transition” year. “We have identi-fied an economic upswing in individualmarkets, and there are signs that order de-clines may be slowing,” said PresidentNicola Leibinger-Kammüller in presenting
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the company’s results. Despite consider-able sales declines, the company closedout the year with a profit. The only busi-ness division that saw any growth – of 11 percent – was medical technology.
The impact of the downturn on thecountry’s job market has been found to besurprisingly small, with fears of a jump inthe unemployment rate proved wrong.One reason for this is that many employ-ers are reluctant to lay off workers for fearthat skilled staff cannot be replaced whentimes get better. This is particularly truefor the photonics field: Spectaris, the Ger-man Association for Optical, Medical andMechatronical Technologies, has identifieda shortage of skilled labor; working with11 companies, it has launched a campaigncalled LightAlliance to raise awareness ofoptical technologies among students andto encourage them to consider careers inphotonics.
Renewable still greenEnvironmental awareness has a long his-
tory in Germany, and “green” technologiessuch as renewable energy continue to gainsignificance in the overall economy. Gener-ous funding for solar cell installations (see“Make green energy, not war,” October2009, p. E18) has helped a whole industryto grow – although, as with the car scrap-page scheme, a lot of the funding goesabroad to vendors producing at lower cost.
So even this sector saw a dip, but de-mand for solar power systems is expectedto grow this year in Germany and in sev-
eral important foreign markets, despite thefinancial crisis, according to the latest pre-dictions of BSW-Solar, the interest groupof the German solar energy industry. Thisforecast is only put at risk by the new gov-ernment’s recent announcement that it willcut its generous subsidy to citizens feedingsolar electricity into the national grid.
If you think all the money has beenspent by now, think again. Even in diffi-cult times, when solving immediate issueswith short-term stimulus packages domi-nates the news, it is important not to losesight of the midrange and long-term fu-ture. The Federal Ministry of Educationand Research is still the largest nationalsupporter of photonics research, with sig-nificant funding going to a broad range ofoptical technologies, such as “femtonics”(materials processing and medicine withultrashort laser pulses), high-performancediode lasers, biophotonics and organicLEDs.
On the research horizon, the outlookalso is promising. In November 2009, anagreement signed by 13 European coun-tries established XFEL (X-ray Free-Elec-tron Laser) as an international researchcenter. The facility, near Hamburg, is ex-pected to be commissioned in 2014 andwill make it possible to depict moleculesthat in the past were too small for imagingtechniques or that could not be fixed, andto film molecules during chemical reac-tions.
Jörg [email protected]
e EURO NEWS
E8 EuroPhotonics February March 2010
The European x-ray laser research facility XFEL is under construction in the vicinity of Hamburg, Germany.Beginning in 2014, it will generate extremely intense x-ray flashes to be used by researchers worldwide.
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AACHEN, Germany – Pol-ishing by hand is not a verypopular job – unless youown a classic car and give ita shine over the weekend.But in many industries, pol-ished surfaces are a verynecessary evil; for example,medical implants, variousmetallic products and opticsall require precise polishing.
In molding and toolmak-ing for industrial production,polishing often is the laststep in making the importantmaster that is used to makecar or machine parts, med-ical instruments, or evenpills or food. The polished surface shouldbe free of contamination and should notcreate friction or adhesion.
No doubt, there is a wide range of me-chanical polishing machines available todo this; however, in practice they can beapplied to relatively simple surfacegeometries only. Whenever the shape ismore sophisticated and the parts hard toreach – as is often the case with injectionmolds for plastic parts – manual polishinghas been the only option.
Now, however, lasers may revolution-ize how these polishing tasks are per-formed. Unlike the classic process, whichremoves material via grinding and polish-ing, the laser process involves melting thesurface of the medium to a depth of about50 to 100 μm. Surface tension makes theliquid metal flow evenly and solidifysmoothly.
Laser polishing is described by Dr.Edgar Willenborg, a researcher at Fraun-hofer Institute for Laser Technology (ILT),in his award-winning 2005 dissertation. Init, he asserts that manual metal polishingis an art, not just a skill: “Polishing is notonly a very labor-intensive task. The qual-ity also depends to a huge degree on theskills and experience of the polisher –making it almost an art rather than a technology.”
As for the laser method of polishingmetal, it has one thing in common withthe traditional manual art: It requires sev-eral stages. “This is because metals are alittle too liquid,” Willenborg explained.
“Amorphous materials like glass are moreviscous and also won’t create crystalliza-tion defects when changing phase.”
In the first step, the laser is set to meltto a depth of about 100 μm; during thefollowing stages, the penetration depthgradually is reduced. The result is a sur-face roughness (Ra) of about 50 nm, anadequate level for many applications.The high end of metal polishing, how-ever, remains a human domain, with anexperienced polisher reaching as little as5 nm.
The melting depth can be determinedby adjusting various parameters, such asthe laser output power, the speed thebeam travels along the surface and thelength of the pulses. In fact, the laser isoperated in continuous-wave mode for therough preprocessing stage before it isswitched to pulsed operation for the finework. For metals, typically diode-pumpedsolid-state lasers (Nd:YAG or Nd:YVO4)are used.
This process also can be used for mate-rials other than metals, including glass andplastic optics, and for functions other thanpolishing. “Molds are only one applica-tion, and we are working on a whole rangeof laser polishing applications at ILT,”Willenborg stressed.
For glass and plastic optics, CO2 lasersare used because they absorb better andcan simplify another tough job: polishingaspheric lenses.
Jörg [email protected]
eEURO NEWS
February March 2010 EuroPhotonics
Free-form surfaces such as this mold require high-quality polishing toensure seamless manufacturing and good surface quality of the massproduct. To date, this has been a manual job, but now lasers can help.
Let it shine the easy way: Laser polishing
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PICTUREPUTTING IMAGING IN THE
It is now more than 180 years since thefirst image was captured by JosephNicéphore Niépce from an upstairs
window on his estate in France usingpewter plates and a camera obscura – theforerunner of today’s cameras.
Images today are produced in myriadways – using infrared, fluorescence, bioluminescence, x-ray machines, opticalcoherence tomography (OCT), lidar – foruse in the medical, scientific and businessindustries; for space exploration; and for
security purposes by the military and gov-ernments.
One of the most important breakthroughsin optical imaging in recent years is thedevelopment of CCD sensors, which laidthe foundation for digital photography. In-ventors of the CCD, Willard SterlingBoyle and George E. Smith, were dulyrecognized in 2009 with the Nobel Prizefor physics.
Important advances also have occurredin the way we process and deliver images,such as compression technology used indigital TV, image processing associatedwith medical imaging and diagnosis, andthe development of LCD displays for con-sumer electronics.
Medical imaging: Tools of the tradeToday, the most significant optical im-
aging tool used in medical imaging is stillthe standard optical microscope, which isused to analyze excised tissue. Tens ofmillions of biopsies are analyzed annu-ally by trained histopathologists usingthese microscopes. However, it is notmedical imaging in the same way as
E10 EuroPhotonics February March 2010
These images show Michelson Diagnostics’ VivoSight multibeam OCT scanner in action at University CollegeHospital in London. This product is not currently approved for clinical use in the USA. Images courtesy ofMichelson Diagnostics.
The T5000 is an outdoor people-screening systemthat can detect concealed threats at distances suit-able for operational requirements. It can be used forcheckpoint security, urban surveillance and counter-terrorism applications. Courtesy of ThruVision Systems Ltd.
BY MARIE FREEBODY, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
x-ray, MRI or CT, which can provide real-time images of a patient noninvasively.
Optical endoscopes are used widely forlooking inside the body. But unlike x-rayand MRI, they do not provide a subsurfaceimage. Another imaging method gainingmomentum is confocal endoscopy viahandheld probes or endoscopes. This tech-nology provides high-resolution subsur-face images but a very small field of viewand very limited depth – up to approxi-mately 250 μm.
OCT, undoubtedly a groundbreaker interms of optical imaging, also is widelyused in ophthalmology. In recent years, in-cremental improvements in the design ofcomponent light sources and probes havebeen opening the door to new applica-tions; e.g., OCT imaging is expected tobecome widely used in diagnosing manytypes of cancer and in guiding treatment.It is making rapid progress in cardiology(scanning arteries for vulnerable plaques)
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and as a general-purpose imaging tool indermatology.
“The combination of high-resolution,real-time two- and three-dimensional im-aging capability, ease of use as well asnonionizing properties make it of great in-terest to clinicians,” said Jon Holmes,chief executive officer of Michelson Diag-nostics Ltd. in Kent, UK. “In most cases,the depth of penetration is sufficient topenetrate mucosal layers to reveal detailsof organs and organelles that are too smallto be seen with other imaging modalitiesand too deep for conventional micros-copy.”
As volumes rise and component costsfall, Holmes believes that OCT also maymake progress in price-sensitive applica-
tions such as dentistry – for early diagno-sis of tooth decay and gum disease.
“Commercial growth will take off rap-idly once OCT has ‘conquered’ a couplemore clinical applications – as it has al-ready done so in ophthalmology,” he said.“It will be seen that transferring theknowledge gained into new applications isjust a matter of engineering and clinicaltesting.”
Terahertz imaging: New applicationsAstronomical imaging has always been
a major driver of innovations in optics.New imaging technology came to lifewhen the European Space Agency’s Star-Tiger team captured the world’s first tera-hertz-frequency picture of a human handin September 2002.
Terahertz waves, defined as frequenciesfrom 100 GHz to 100 THz, easily can pass
E11February March 2010 EuroPhotonics
Screening people for concealed objects is just one of the promising applications of terahertz radiation. Courtesy of ThruVision Systems Ltd.
Image processing can help track players and a football during a match, toconvey game information to a mobile phone. Courtesy of Digital ImagingResearch Centre.
Extracting a person’s “pose”using a single camera can beused to assess improvement ina patient’s body movementafter an operation or physio-therapy. Courtesy of DigitalImaging Research Centre.
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through some solid materials, such aswalls and clothes, penetrating materialsthat are usually opaque to both visible andinfrared radiation. This makes terahertzcameras ideal for security applications,where they potentially could be used toscreen airport passengers for hidden objects.
For the screening of dangers of a differ-ent kind, terahertz also is showing greatpromise in medical imaging. Light at thispart of the spectrum is absorbed stronglyby large biological molecules and bywater and is subject to far less scatter than
visible or infrared wavelengths, resultingin sharper images. Furthermore, unlike x-rays, terahertz radiation is nonionizing,so there are no safety issues to consider.
Technology operating in the terahertzregime is still in its infancy compared withthe rest of the electromagnetic spectrum.This is largely a result of the “terahertzgap” between solid-state electronic de-vices and photonic devices. Despite this, a growing number of firms are catching on to the untapped potential of terahertztechnology.
“Our current products all image pas-
E12 EuroPhotonics February March 2010
Tracking people and vehicles across various cameras can be useful in interpreting movement for public closed-circuit television systems or fortraffic monitoring. Courtesy of Digital Imaging Research Centre.
sively at 1250 microns,” said Chris Mann,chief scientific adviser at ThruVision Sys-tems Ltd. in Abingdon, UK. “With respectto passive imagery, this part of the electro-magnetic spectrum is completely unex-plored, and as the imaging equipment becomes more widely available, we areconvinced many new applications willemerge.”
Companies such as ThruVision arehelping terahertz advance into other fields.One of the first to emerge is in productionand quality control. Infrared cameras areused routinely in this sector, but for somematerials, their limited penetration meansthey cannot meet industry needs. In con-trast, terahertz cameras can see throughgreat thicknesses – 10 to 1000 nm – ofmany common low-density manufacturingmaterials to spot unwanted defects, suchas voids or inclusions, in real time.
Digital imaging, processingEnhancing and extracting features of
interest are all part and parcel of imageprocessing. Increasingly powerful comput-ers have enabled image processing to beperformed in real time, opening up manyultramodern applications.
“Much of the human brain is used to
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process visual information so that we canmake decisions, explain, archive and soon,” said Dr. Sergio Velastin, director of theDigital Imaging Research Centre atKingston University in the UK. “To be ableto do the same automatically using comput-ers is an important goal for a wide range of practical applications, including surveil-lance, driverless trains, unmanned space exploration, automatic tagging of contentsand advanced robotics, to name a few.”
Digital imaging is being adopted in-creasingly in manufacturing industries,where it is used in machine vision systemsfor sorting, quality control and assembly.But one of the most intriguing applicationslies in motion capture.
Motion-capture systems can be used totrack and interpret movement – be ithuman behavior for public closed-circuittelevision systems or vehicle motion for traf-fic monitoring. “Understanding human/vehicular behavior helps to prevent inci-dents,” Velastin said. “And detectinganomalies in normal behavior means bet-ter controls can be put in place.”
Motion capture also is making waves inmedicine, where it can be used to assessimprovement in body movement afterphysiotherapy or an operation, and it isfinding application in the gaming industryto create virtual worlds.
The possibilities may seem endless, butaccording to Velastin, investors must bemore adventurous to fund companies thatwill encourage end users and suppliers toembrace the potential of imaging. An ideaof what we could expect in the next five to10 years includes assisted living for theelderly or infirm, driver-assisted systemsin the automotive industry, and intelligenthome/office environments that respond according to human presence and motion.
E13February March 2010 EuroPhotonics
These images track the same person across many cameras for public closed-circuit television systems. Courtesy of Digital Imaging Research Centre.
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E14 EuroPhotonics February March 2010
Patent Issues inSYNTHETIC
BIOLOGY RESEARCH
Synthetic biology is an emerging field that intersects with biotechnology, software
and electronics, so intellectual property protection is unclear. Some activists say thatgranting commercial ownership to someoneisolating something created by evolution is
like giving an entomologist the right topatent a butterfly caught in his net.
Their role in this emerging biophotonics
application
BY DR. JÖRG SCHWARTZ CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Synthetic biology aims to design and engineer bio logically based parts, novel devices and systems as well as to redesign existing, natural biological sys -tems – often with support from photonic tools. For “synbio,” a relatively new and emerging field that intersects with
biotechnology, software and electronics, a number of issues onwhether and how to protect intellectual property have surfaced, some
of which also may become relevant to other scientific areas. Synbio’s promoters – for example, members of The Royal Academy
of Engineering in the UK – say that synthetic biology has the potential tocreate another r aft of major new industries. They believe that there isenormous potential, ranging from innovative biofuels to enabling productsfrom cheap, lifesaving new drugs. Others, such as the ETC Group in Ottawa, however, see the field as “genetic engineering on steroids” anddescribe the social, environmental and biological weapons threats of synthetic biology as surpassing the possible dangers and abuses of (conventional) biotechnology.
Despite these concerns, synbio is attracting attention from venture capitalists, major corporations and startup companies. Some say investment is
attracted because of the ability to claim patent rights for the “discovery” of things that exist in nature, while others see the need to offer appropriate –commercial – protection of inventions in this field to keep it going.
At a November 2009 event called “Patenting Synthetic Biology – A Trans -atlantic Perspective,” hosted by the Synthetic Biology Project at the WoodrowWilson Center in Washington, the audience discussed factors influencing poli-cies on the evolution of intellectual property protection for synthetic biologywith Dr. Berthold Rutz of the European Patent Office (EPO) and with JohnLeGuyader of the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Morality vs. commerceThe question as to whether something that already exists in nature is
patentable is clearly answered in Europe by the Regulations of the EuropeanPatent Convention (EPC), which state in part that any biological material –i.e., any material containing genetic information and capable of producing itself or of being reproduced in a biological system – shall be patentable.However, this applies only if it has been isolated from its natural environ-ment or produced by means of a technical process; i.e., has been made technically available.
The same applies in the US and, based on case law in the 1980s, theUSPTO “considers nonnaturally occurring, nonhuman multicellular living organisms, including animals, to be patentable.” However, if the broadest possible interpretation of an invention as a whole encompasses a human being,a rejection must be made, “but pieces are OK,” LeGuyader said. Europe hassimilar rules, with the EPC prohibiting patents from modifying the germ linegenetic identity of human beings and processes for cloning human beings.
“Making” parts of humans may sound scary, and clearly there is an ethicalaspect to the whole argument, despite the fact that the Washington discussionstayed mainly at the level of patent technicalities, with both speakers statingthat they are not policymakers. Nevertheless, in Europe there are explicit con-nections between ethics and intellectual property in the morality clause in theEPC (Article 53), excluding inventions contrary to “ordre public” or moralityfrom being patentable. “Biologic weapons would be an example,” Rutz said.
In addition, there is the European Group on Ethics in Science and NewTechnologies (EGE), which published its “Opinion Nr. 25 Ethics in Syn-thetic Biology” just recently. The EGE proposes that debates on the mostappropriate ways to ensure the public access to the results of synthetic biology be launched. These debates should include what can be objects of patent and what should be available through open access.
However, as Rutz explained, although this group has been tasked by theEuropean Commission, the role of the EGE is “legally not fully clear,” andits recommendations are not binding for the EPO but “are taken, of course,into consideration.”
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Same engineering tools?Beyond that, anyone applying for a po-
tentially unethical patent must be in “pos-session” of the invention and must veryclearly state what he or she does – namely,in a description forming part of the patentapplication that gets published. A slight difference is that, in the US, for any patent,the best way must be described, whereas inEurope, at least one way of carrying out theinvention – not necessarily even a goodway – must be included in the application.Also in Europe, there are further require-ments, including clear and concise claimsand disclosure of the invention in a mannersufficiently complete that it can be carriedout by a person skilled in the art, a processused if claims are too broad, Rutz said.
The flip side of patents making all thispublic is that they offer the owner exclusiv-ity and protection – and commercial gainvia license fees. This begs the question ofwhether applying the rules of patenting –proved in other fields of engineering – tosynthetic biology is such a good idea. Someactivists say that giving exclusive commer-cial ownership to someone isolating some-thing that evolution has created is like giv-ing an entomologist the right to patent abutterfly that ends up in his catcher.
But even for those closer to the technol-ogy, there are open questions. In his pres-entation, Rutz quoted professor JoachimHenkel from Technical University Mu-nich, who sees that, in synthetic biology,“building blocks such as genes that have a certain function are synthesized and putinto a cell so that a cell starts to produce a certain substance. To arrive at this result,you need sometimes hundreds of thesebuilding blocks. Now if each of thesebuilding blocks is protected by a patent,any innovation which is based on any ofthem is blocked.” He suggests excludingbiological building blocks from beingpatentable and allowing this only for thecomplex biological structures that resultfrom these building blocks.
An open source arrangement – as usedin software development – could be a
potential route. Asked whether this wouldbe compatible with patents, the USPTO’sLeGuyader referred to a study by the USDepartment of Health and Human Serv-ices on how gene patents affect medicalapplications with a “neutral” outcome, buthe also admitted that only time will tell.
And Rutz expresses hope that someform of arrangement can be reached be-tween industry and research to keep re-search going. Many see this as crucial, and
the same applies from a photonics perspec-tive because only active research will stim-ulate the need for photonic tools, includingusing light to identify networks of proteinfor cellular engineering (see “Light Re-veals Neuron Function,” Photonics.com,Sept. 17, 2009).
For more information on the synbioevent or to view the webcast, visit:www.synbioproject.org.
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Spectroscopy detects toxins in veggiesLYON, France – For as long as pickyeaters have resorted to hiding vegetablesor feeding them to the dog under the table,they also have sought excuses not to eatthem. But “They’re icky” doesn’t hold upagainst the advice of nutritionists. Andnow neither does the health concern,“What if the soil is polluted?”
A new high-resolution, time-resolvedspectroscopy system is helping researchersdirectly measure trace pollutants in freshvegetables that are intended for publicconsumption. There goes the “pollutant”excuse.
The research, led by Jin Yu, a professorat the University of Lyon, used a systemcomposed of Andor Technology’s iStarICCD camera and Mechelle 5000 spectro-graph to detect optical emissions fromplasma using a technique called laser-in-duced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).
LIBS is useful for detecting trace ele-ments because it is both sensitive and reli-able. In the LIBS process, a high-powerlaser pulse is focused onto a sample – inthis case, a vegetable – to create plasma, agas made up of electrons and ions; a spec-trograph then analyzes its optical emis-sion. The LIBS technique has appeal be-cause little or no sample preparation is
required to obtain useful results, openingup the possibility of field applications.
Yu and his team observed the emissionspectrum of the plasma generated by fo-cusing a laser pulse on a potato skin.Within a fixed time window, the emissionfrom the plasma plume was collected andevaluated by the detection system, whichdetermines electron density and plasmatemperature. From those readings, thetrace element concentrations were deter-
mined. This technique is the first step to-ward studying the link between soil pollu-tion and food impurities.
“The real challenge for the LIBS tech-nique is to get quantitative measurementsof trace elements contained in a complexmatrix, such as a fresh vegetable, becausewe don’t know in detail the property ofthe plasma generated by a laser on it,” Yusaid. “The Andor system is important tothis work because we can make time-resolved observations of the plasma.”
Time-resolved observations are impor-tant because the plasma plumes expandwith time. After about 1 μs from the inci-dent laser pulse, discrete spectral linesstart to become apparent. The spectrallines and the timing vary depending uponthe sample, the distance from the center ofthe plasma and the wavelength of the laserlight, but the evolution of the changeswithin the plasma plume occurs on a microsecond timescale.
Yu also noted the importance to thestudy of the system’s high resolution.“The Andor system also has a high resolu-tion. When we combine these attributes,we can simultaneously measure a largenumber of elements. It’s a truly multiple-element detection system,” he said. Thespectrograph also allows measurementsover a very large spectral range – from theultraviolet to the infrared.
“There are several metals that are harm-ful or beneficial to your health. One exam-ple is copper, which is toxic if you absorbtoo much of it. You can prevent vegetablesgrown in environments with too muchcopper from reaching the food chain andclean up those places, if you have a sensi-tive and reliable detection technique,”added Dr. Matthieu Baudelet, a member ofYu’s team who is now at the University ofCentral Florida in Orlando. “LIBS is agood technique for this kind of analysisbecause the hot plasma can excite everyelement in a vegetable – even if it’s pres-ent at low concentrations.”
Results of the study were published inthe November 2009 issue of Spectrochim-ica Acta, Part B.
Krista D. [email protected]
E16 EuroPhotonics February March 2010
"You can preventvegetables grown inenvironments withtoo much copperreaching the foodchain and clean upthose places, if youhave a sensitive andreliable detectiontechnique."
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High-Power LEDs
The new calibration LEDs in the ACS-530 series from Instrument SystemsGmbH enable users to check optical instruments easily and reliably. Cali-brated using traceable standards for luminous flux and intensity, the LEDsoffer reproducible and stable optical output power for reliable measure-ments. They feature photometric stability of 0.1% and are housed in a casingwith low thermal conductivity together with a thermoelectric cooling elementto eliminate sensitivity to external temperature fluctuations, and a tempera-ture sensor. The LEDs are available in red, green, blue and white. They aresuitable for checking results for dominant wavelength, color coordinates andcolor temperature. Instrument [email protected]
Ultraquiet Air CompressorNewport Corp. has introduced theACWS, a compact, ultraquiet air com-pressor, to supply air to any of its Iso-Station workstations or SmartTable-OTS(optical table systems). The supply tankcan supply air for up to three worksta-tions, making it suitable for new labs orfor upgrading existing nitrogen-bottleconfigurations. The compressor oper-ates intermittently, based on air usage,and is monitored by a sensor that main-tains the reserve tank’s preset minimumpressure. It includes a high-grade 5-µmair filter/regulator. For higher-capacityneeds, the company’s ACGP offers the
same ultraquiet performance for larger isolator systems, including the S-2000 Stabi-lizer family of isolators. It features superprecise vertical adjustment down to ��0.25mm, and it operates from 0 to 120 lb/sq in. [email protected]
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DPSS LaserVerve, a diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) laserfrom Klastech-Karpushko LaserTechnologiesGmbH, providesCW output at 266nm and is suitable for semiconductor inspec-tion and UV spectroscopy applications. Usingthe company’s iMAT laser technology, whichprovides second-harmonic-conversion effi-ciency, the 100-mW laser features reducedpower consumption and minimal heat genera-tion. It requires no water cooling and remainsmechanically stable throughout operation, en-suring that the beam pointing stability is main-tained to >10 µrad/°C. The laser also deliverssilent running at <0.5% rms, diffraction-limitedoutput beams with M2 >1.05 and long-termpower stability of <2%, and it produces pitch-perfect single-frequency performance with alinewidth of <1 [email protected]
LED MicroscopeOlympus Scien-tific EquipmentGroup has un-veiled the Olym-pus CX21LED micro-scope for use bymedical and veterinarystudents, doctors andprofessionals working insmall laboratories. Theergonomically de-signed LED systemoffers easy handling,ultralong-life illuminationand robust capabilities. Suitable for imagingusing bright-field illumination, it delivers crisp,bright images, and dark-field imaging is avail-able with the addition of a dark-field stop. Anaddition to the company’s CS microscope line,it complements the CX21 model with halogenillumination and joins the CX31 and CX41,which handle phase contrast, polarized light,fluorescence imaging and other techniques forforensic and laboratory applications. [email protected]
Dye Laser
The Credo-YHP high-repetition-rate dye lasersystem from Spectra-Physics, a division ofNewport Corp., offers the proprietary diode-pumped solid-state Navigator 532-40 inte-grated into the laser box for assured align-ment, a smaller footprint and portability. With
tunable wavelength coverage from 370 to 900nm, the system can cover 216-, 228- and 247-nm wavelengths with an optional doubler. Itdelivers a wavelength accuracy of <30 pm, divergence of 0.5 mrad and vertical polariza-tion of >98%. It is suitable for laser-inducedfluorescence and combustion applications. [email protected]
Flexible PhotovoltaicsRofin-Baasel UK Ltd. has released a reel-to-
reel system designed to incorporate multiplelaser sources for processing tasks on Si, µSi,copper indium gallium selenide and organic
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cells, all within a single machine. Built on agranite base, the system incorporates high-speed, high-precision motorized axes to drive vibration-proof optics when used in thestep-and-repeat mode. Beam positioning isachieved using fast, precise galvo scanningheads for on-the-fly applications. When cou-pled with the company’s PowerLine SL PVlaser series, the system is suitable for use inflexible photovoltaic applications. [email protected]
Laser Diode ModuleFrankfurt LaserCo. has intro-duced a line ofhigh-powertemperature-stabilized laserdiode modulesfor medical andmaterials pro-cessing applica-tions. The HEML-FC series is equipped withmultimode fiber output and provides high output power for a variety of applications thatrequire compact, rugged laser sources com-bined with fiber light delivery. The modulesoffer stable power output of <1% and a wave-length of <0.5 nm over a wide temperatureband from 0 to 40 °C. They also provide goodpointing stability and alignment and are sup-plied with high-power laser diodes up to 2 Wor with green diode-pumped solid-state lasersup to 200 mW. Frankfurt [email protected]
Laser Power ExtensionsPower exten-sions for DilasIndustrial LaserSystems’ Com-pact diode lasersystem serieshave been re-leased. Deliver-ing 300 W froma 200-µm fiberand 400 W froma 300-µm fiberat 9xx nm, the turnkey systems are based onconduction-cooled diode laser bars. They areavailable with an industrial water-to-air chiller,a power supply and an integrated control unit.Their features are controlled by 24-V interfacesignals, and their 19-in. rack mount for laserand cooling units is suitable for OEM integra-tors. They can be combined with a range ofaccessories for process control, including laserprocessing heads, cameras, pyrometers andgalvo scanners. When combined with a galvoscanner, they are suitable for quasi-simultane-ous plastics welding. Other applications include medical device manufacturing and automotive. [email protected]
Positioning StagesAerotech Ltd. has added another ANT series oflinear positioning stages to its ultrahigh-preci-
sion nano Motion Technology (nMT) range ofproducts. The ANT130-L delivers a higher loadcapacity and provides increased travel of up to160 mm, while maintaining the nMT character-istics of precision, rapid acceleration, highspeed and 1-nm positioning resolution. Thestages have a nominal width of 130 mm andare available in 35-, 60-, 110- and 160-mmtravel ranges, each with a choice of two certi-fied accuracy grades between ±2 µm and ±250nm. They offer in-position stability of 3 nmand repeatability to 50 nm. They feature anti-creep cross-roller bearings and deliver zerobacklash or [email protected]
DPSS Laser
The Cobolt Samba 05-01 is a continuous-wavesingle-frequency diode-pumped solid-state(DPSS) laser operating at 532 nm with up to 1 W of output power in a TEM00 beam. Manu-factured by Cobolt AB, the laser is suitable forapplications including Raman spectroscopy,interferometry, flow dynamics, high-speedfluorescence analysis and laser pumping. It isavailable on the same platform as the com-pany’s Zouk model. Its new proprietary cavitydesign provides typical ultralow noise per-formance <0.1% rms and a narrow spectrallinewidth of <1 MHz. Designed with the com-pany’s proprietary HTCure technology in acompact and hermetically sealed package, it can withstand multiple 60-g mechanicalshocks in operation without any sign of de-graded performance. It also can be exposed totemperatures >100 °C and is insensitive topressure and humidity.Cobolt [email protected]
Electroabsorption ModulatorTo meet customer needs for an optical modu-lator with low insertion loss and low drivevoltage for radio-over-fiber applications andremote antennas, CIP Technologies has released the 60G-R-EAM-1550 reflective electroabsorption modulator. Featuring a combined modulation and photodetectiontransducer that works at up to 60 GHz, the
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device produces an insertion loss of 3.6 dB,and it provides digital optical modulation at 50Gb/s and radio-frequency modulation over its60-GHz bandwidth. Operating across the 1550-nm C-band with a low-chirp parameter, it is intended for use with a laser diode source. CIP [email protected]
Phosphorescence Imaging
Lambert Instruments has added the LIFA-X toits line of fluorescence lifetime imaging attach-ments. Suitable for long-lifetime imaging mi-croscopy from 0.1 ns to 1 ms, it can be usedfor measuring reactive oxygen species in cellsor oxygen concentrations using optodes. Itcan be attached to any wide-field fluorescencemicroscope and works in the homodyne fre-quency domain. Its high-frequency mode pro-vides lifetime measurements in the 0 to 300-nsrange, while the low-frequency mode deliversmeasurements in the 300-ns to 1-ms range. Lambert [email protected]
USB CameraVideology Imag-ing SolutionsInc. has intro-duced an indus-trial-grade auto-focus 10× opticalzoom photo iden-tification camerafor applications includingsecurity, visitor management and passportphotos. The camera is fully USB 2.0-compliantand is compatible with the company’s TWAIN,Windows Driver Model and DirectX products.Featuring a 2-megapixel progressive-scan sensor that creates sharp edges, it providesstill image capture and has streaming videocapabilities. A software development kit isalso available. [email protected]
Nanopositioning StagesPI (Physik Instrumente) LP has introduced twomultiaxis stages for superresolution micros-
copy. Thestages provideaccurate mo-tion with sub-nanometer res-olution in twoand three axesover travelranges of 200µm in X-Y andX-Y-Z. Thenano1�3 stages are designed for inverted microscopes from Leica, Nikon, Olympus andZeiss. The large aperture accommodates microscopy accessories such as slide and petridish holders. Features include a 24-bit con-troller with USB, Ethernet and RS-232 inter-faces and analog control, closed-loop controlfor subnanometer precision, and ceramic-encapsulated piezo drives for a longer lifetime.All parts are black anodized for minimum reflection. Options include a manual X-Y stagewith a motor upgrade. Also available is soft-ware support for leading image acquisitionpackages.PI (Physik Instrumente)[email protected]
Rod-Type Fiber Laser
Eolite Systems has released the Octopus, arod-type laser for thin-film scribing applica-tions. With up to 16 fiber-delivery channels,each beam provides light at 515 or 1030 nm,with pulse duration as low as 10 ns, peakpower up to 4 kW and repetition rates up to300 kHz. Each fiber channel (up to 5 m long)provides up to 4 W at 515 nm with good beamquality, or up to 30 W in a uniform multimodeoutput configuration. Each channel can be independently power controlled. The laser’srod-type technology, together with demuxfiber architecture, enables independent multi-fiber delivery. Other applications include sili-con doping and solar cell scribing. Eolite [email protected]
Laser ShuttersThe FlexSorb lineof laser shuttersfrom nmLaserProducts Inc. fea-tures a high dam-age threshold,quick switchingspeed, a small size,quiet operation and good thermal dissipation.The only moving part is a low-mass, flexibleferromagnetic cantilever membrane that oper-ates in and out of the beam by noncontactelectromagnetic techniques, reducing openingand closing shock, vibration and wear. Theflexures are unaffected by foreign particles
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clinging to the magnetic pole, and they offerlong lifetimes. All units are immersion clean-ing-compatible and can be provided for clean-room applications. Slightly overdamped controllers eliminate system ring, ensuring ef-ficient energy transfer to the magnet. Thatheat is merged with the laser optical absorp-tion heat and is dissipated using thermal conduction to a common mounting surface. nmLaser [email protected]
GigE Vision CameraMatrox Imaging has unveiled the MatroxGatorEye, an indus-trial IP67-rated Giga-bit Ethernet camerafor use in machine vi-sion applications. It isavailable in six sensorconfigurations: 640 �480 at 110 fps with a 1⁄3-in. monochrome orcolor CCD; 1280 �960 at 22 fps with a 1⁄3-in. monochrome or colorCCD; and 1600 � 1200 at 15 fps with a 1/1.8-in.monochrome or color CCD. To connect to ex-ternal devices, the camera has an optocoupledtrigger input, strobe output, eight general-purpose input/outputs and a controlled currentsource for driving LED illuminators directly. It
can be powered by 12- to 24-VDC or by Powerover Ethernet. Matrox [email protected]
Solar Cell Processing
Jenoptik Laser, Optik, Systeme GmbH has released the JenLas disk IR50 for metal andemitter wrap-through applications. The lasercombines beam quality in the infrared wave-length range at 1030 nm, with a flexible tun-able pulse length. The 45-W system is suitablefor laser drilling of silicon wafers for back-con-tact solar cells. It features passively cooleddiodes, laser parameter adjustability and fastacousto-optic modulator power control. It de-livers output power of >45 W at 30 kHz, linearpolarization and a beam quality of M2 ≤1.2.Other applications include 3-D prototyping, engraving, wafer dicing and scribing, micro-drilling, microcutting and microstructuring. Jenoptik Laser, Optik, [email protected]
Dual-CCD CameraThe Orca-D2, ahigh-sensitivitycamera for simul-taneous dual-wavelength imag-ing, is availablefrom HamamatsuPhotonics UK Ltd.Featuring twoCCD devices andinterchangeableoptical blocks, the camera delivers ease of usewith optical setup steps, including imagealignment and focusing. It provides a widefield of view during wavelength imaging anddelivers high sensitivity, low noise and a widedynamic range. Its proprietary vacuum-sealedchamber technology promotes long-term,maintenance-free operation for demanding applications. It is suitable for Förster reso-nance energy transfer, ratio imaging and dual-wavelength total internal reflection [email protected]
INFRARED OPTICS CATALOG E-STOREISP Optics’ new E-Store is now open for business.
You will find more than 1400 catalog items, including infrared windows, lenses, prisms, filters, beamsplitters, polarizers, objectives, and micro-optics available on-line for immediate delivery at
www.ispoptics.com/storeISP Optics Latvia 24a Ganibu Dambis Street, Building 13, Riga, Latvia, LV-1005 tel: +371 6 7 323 779, fax +371 6 7 323 781, e-mail: [email protected]
Please select the infrared product category:
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aADVERTISER INDEX
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Baumer Optronics GmbH .................................................................................................15www.baumer.com/cameras
Castech Inc. .......................................................................................................................6www.castech.com
China Daheng Group Inc. ................................................................................................20www.cdhcorp.com
European Machine Vision Asociation ...................................................................................3www.emva.org/conference/upcoming/8th_emva_business_conference_2010
Image Science Ltd ..............................................................................................................8www.image-science.co.uk
Iridian Spectral Technologies...............................................................................................9www.iridian.ca
ISP Optics ........................................................................................................................22www.ispoptics.eu
Jenoptik Polymer Systems..................................................................................................17www.jenoptik-ps.de
Klastech Karpushko Laser Technologies GmbH....................................................................7www.klastech.com
Lasermet Ltd.....................................................................................................................11www.lasermet.com
Mikrocentrum...................................................................................................................17www.fotonica-evenement.nl/index.php?id=4
Newport Spectra-Physics .....................................................................................................5www.newport.com
nm Laser Products Inc.......................................................................................................17www.nmlaser.com
PI (Physik Intrumente) L.P. .................................................................................................13www.pi.ws
Scitec Instruments Ltd........................................................................................................21www.scitecinstruments.pl
Sill Optics GmbH ...............................................................................................................2www.silloptics.com
SPIE International Society for Optical Engineering ..............................................................24www.spie.or/x12301.xml
Stemmer Imaging Services GmbH.....................................................................................19www.stemmer-imaging.com
Advertising Contacts
Please visit our Web site, Photonics.com, for all your marketing needs.
Robert J. Briere, Director of SalesVoice: +1 (413) 499-0514 Ext. 101Fax: +1 (413) [email protected]
Penny Pretty, European Sales ManagerEuropean Main OfficeLaurin Publishing CompanyWhitehouse134 TemplewoodWalters AshHigh WycombeBucks, HP14 4UF, UKPhone: +44 1494 461071Fax: +44 1494 [email protected]
David Round, Advertising AssociatePhotonics Media19 Pine Ridge, CarshaltonSurrey, SM5 4QQ, UKPhone: +44 208 773 9944Fax: +44 208 181 [email protected]
USATimothy A. Dupree, Regional ManagerPhone: +1 413 4990514 Ext. 111Fax: +1 413 [email protected]
Rebecca L. Pontier, Regional ManagerPhone: +1 413 4990514 Ext. 112Fax: +1 413 [email protected]
Joanne C. Gagnon, Advertising AssociatePhone: +1 413 4990514 Ext. 226Fax: +1 413 [email protected]
ChinaHans ZhongPhone: +86 755 2157 3066Fax: +86 755 2872 [email protected]
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Reprint servicesVoice: +1 (413) 499-0514Fax: +1 (413) [email protected]
Mailing addresses:Send all contracts, insertion orders and advertising copy to:Laurin Publishing, PO Box 4949Pittsfield, MA 01202-4949
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February March 2010 EuroPhotonics
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