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A recent salary survey conducted by SPIE indicates that optics professionals working in North America are likely to earn significantly more than those elsewhere.
Liquid waveguides, deformable lenses, microdroplet lasers and biosensors are all technologies based on optofluidics. Now the field may even be able to help with issues such as energy production.
Since the discovery of the optical gradient force in 1970 and the first use of laser beams to manipulate microscopic and atomic systems in 1986, optical manipulation has proved to be a versatile optical tool for uncovering mysteries throughout many fields of science.
Frequency combs, optical clocks and quantum techniques that go beyond classical limits are all making photonics a powerful tool for understanding and defining our universe in ever-greater detail.