Volume 1 Issue 8, August 2007

The photonics industry is in excellent health, with more job opportunities than have been seen in a number of years. The key is to find a position that's right for you.

The idea of photovoltaic cells that can be printed onto thin, flexible plastic substrates are an enticing prospect for promoting solar energy generation. Duncan Graham-Rowe reports.

The International Space Station will soon be using fibre-optic communication technology for the first time, and products from US start-up company Space Photonics are helping to make this possible. Nadya Anscombe spoke to the company's CEO, Chuck Chalfant, to find out more.

The continuing rapid progress of quantum information technology was evident from the latest research presented at the CLEO/Europe–IQEC conference in Munich.

Peidong Yang, of the University of California, Berkeley, recently added another prestigious prize to his collection — the National Science Foundation's Waterman award. Nature Photonics spoke to Yang about his latest accolade.

Researchers uncover a new route to building ultrasmall spectrometers, by directly probing an optical standing wave.

The first experimental demonstration of a mirrorless optical parametric oscillator could lead to compact sources of tunable light that require fewer parts and are alignment free.

High-fidelity line-by-line spectral shaping has been applied to more than 100 phase-stable optical frequency-comb components. This represents a significant step towards optical arbitrary waveform generation and control.

Knowledge of a laser beam's shape and output-power distribution is critical for optimizing laser performance. Neil Savage summarizes the latest beam-profiling products on the market.

Over 40 years ago, a device known as a mirrorless optical parametric oscillator was proposed. Only now has it been demonstrated in the lab. Nature Photonics talked to Carlota Canalias and Valdas Pasiskevicius of KTH, The Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, to find out how.