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Fujitsu of Japan has created a new venture company called QD Laser to bring commercial quantum-dot lasers and amplifiers to the market as rapidly as possible. Adarsh Sandhu spoke to its chief executive officer about the firm's plans.
Terahertz sources are already hitting the market as parts of imaging systems. Nature Photonics spoke to Carlo Sirtori from the University of Paris-Diderot and Thales Research and Technology about the implications of merging terahertz and telecommunication technologies.
Issues concerning intellectual property often rank low on the list of priorities of scientists focused on primary photonics research. However, ignorance of such matters can lead to missed opportunities, litigation or severely hinder the success of a start-up company.
The idea behind quantum-dot lasers has been around for a long time, but only recently has the field made headway in developing robust commercial products. Nadya Anscombe spoke to German firm Innolume to find out why they believe the technology will take off.
A technique for cutting thin slices of lithium niobate offers a way of integrating this valuable material, and its strong nonlinear optical properties, into small photonic circuits.
Optical modulators typically rely on weak nonlinear light–matter interactions to modulate light with light. But using surface plasmons to excite quantum dots, researchers at the California Institute of Technology have now demonstrated an efficient approach to chip-based all-optical modulation.
Experiments now show that the force exerted by light can be used to pull a waveguide towards a microdisk resonator, illustrating how optical forces could be used for positioning and control in integrated microphotonics.
There is keen interest in extending the use of laser diodes beyond traditional low-power devices. Now the techniques needed to increase the achievable output power have become available.
The development of monolithic arrays of high-power, single-mode semiconductor lasers is set to bring big benefits to the printing, coding and marking industries.
