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Slow-light techniques originally conceived for buffering high-speed digital optical signals now look set to play an important role in providing broadband phase and true time delays for microwave signals.
The photosensitive optical fibre — a work-horse of the telecommunications industry for many years — is now seeing rapid uptake in the sensor and laser industries.
Twisting and microforming an optical fibre provides it with unique chiral properties that are useful for polarization control, harsh-environment sensing and dense multichannel coupling to photonic integrated circuits.
Important developments in fibre technology now allow the realization of fibre lasers with reliable and stable single-mode operation at power levels beyond 1 kW.
A growing body of medical evidence suggests that disrupting the body's biological clock can have adverse effects on health. Researchers are now creating the photonic tools to monitor, predict and influence the circadian rhythm.
Scaling IT infrastructure from microscale processors to macroscale data centres and telecommunications networks requires high-bandwidth technologies that are cheap, low-power and small. Silicon photonics that utilizes scalable CMOS technology may offer a highly integrated photonics transmission platform for such applications.
The advent of ophthalmic imaging instruments equipped with adaptive optics technology now makes it possible to visualize the retina at the cellular level, allowing the early detection of eye diseases.
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology has allowed the realization of cost-effective, high-performance deformable mirrors for adaptive-optics-enhanced imaging.
Holographic laser projection technology, combined with infrared touch-recognition technology, enables consumers to interact with a virtual display that can be projected onto a wall or table.
Microdisplays based on liquid-crystal-on-silicon technology may soon gain wider recognition as they penetrate an increasing number of markets, ranging from electronic viewfinders to miniature data projectors and head-up displays.
Quantum-dot-based solar cells promise to deliver efficiencies approaching those of crystalline solar cells but with the manufacturing simplicity of organics.
Sphelar solar-cell technology uses an array of tiny spheres of silicon within a transparent matrix to generate power, promising new opportunities for the use of solar cells in power-generating windows and portable, foldable power supplies.
Distributed fibre-optic sensors that rely on Brillouin scattering are being used by the oil and gas industries to keep their infrastructure safe and working properly.
A direct UV writing technique that can create multiple Bragg gratings and waveguides in a planar silica-on-silicon chip is enabling sensing applications ranging from individual disposable sensors for biotechnology through to multiplexed sensor networks in pharmaceutical manufacturing.
A high-definition LIDAR system with a rotating sensor head containing 64 semiconductor lasers allows the efficient generation of 3D environment maps at unprecedented levels of detail.
The excimer laser is synonymous with precision. Today it is enabling the production of integrated circuits and nextgeneration displays, as well as new breakthroughs in eye surgery.
Since their invention, quantum cascade lasers have made considerable progress in terms of their wavelength range and efficiency. Today, they have important applications in environmental science, process control and medical diagnostics.
When the Ti:Sapphire laser was first invented, it took the research community by storm. Today, it has an important role in imaging, spectroscopy and many other applications.
The Nd:YAG was one of the first ever industrial lasers, and even today it still has many advantages over other laser technologies. Competition from newer laser technologies, however, has made its evolution critical to its survival.
