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Volume 2 Issue 1, January 2008

Guiding light round the bend in three-dimensional photonic crystals.

Cover design by Stephen Eisenmann (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Tom Wilson

Article by Rinne et al.

Volume 2 Issue 1

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Editorial

  • Although large research facilities are sometimes criticized for the colossal amounts of funding they consume, the lessons that are learnt from the 'extreme' science that they perform benefit labs of all sizes.

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Profile

  • What would you do if you owned the world's most powerful laser? The US government is hoping to use it to achieve the ignition of thermonuclear fusion in the lab for the first time. Nature Photonics spoke to Edward Moses of the National Ignition Facility to find out more.

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    Profile
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Research Highlights

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News & Views

  • A re-examination of firefly bioluminescence has revealed that the efficiency of light generation in fireflies is actually less than half the widely accepted value. The study also casts doubts over the mechanism that determines the colour of the emission.

    • Natalia Nikolaevna Ugarova

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    News & Views

  • Defect engineering is crucial for realizing all-optical integrated circuits from self-assembled photonic crystals. A two-photon polymerization strategy paves the way towards incorporation of arbitrary defects in silicon inverse opal photonic crystals.

    • Chih-Hung Sun
    • Peng Jiang

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    News & Views

  • The regeneration of weak and distorted optical signals is vital in long-haul optical communication systems. Now scientists at Cornell University have developed an all-optical scheme that performs the task and is small enough to fit on a chip.

    • Ozdal Boyraz

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    News & Views

  • Researchers at Harvard Medical School have developed a highly sensitive microscope that can image the mechanical properties of living tissues.

    • Peter So

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    News & Views
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Editorial

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Research Highlights

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Industry Perspective

  • Flexibility, speed of processing and maintenance-free operation are now rapidly making fibre lasers the technology of choice for marking plastics and metals.

    • Jack Gabzdyl

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    Industry Perspective

  • The fibre laser brings many advantages to many industrial markets, be it welding large car parts or micromachining tiny medical devices.

    • Bill Shiner

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    Industry Perspective

  • Fibre-laser technology is enabling the creation of new types of compact light sources with unique ultrabroad or ultranarrow spectral characteristics. These lasers are now finding applications in diverse fields ranging from biotechnology to test and measurement apparatus.

    • Husain Imam

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    Industry Perspective
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Business News

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Product Highlights

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Interview

  • Many of the advances in fibre-laser technology are thanks to work by Andreas Tünnermann, now head of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering in Jena, Germany. Nadya Anscombe spoke to him about developments in the area and his views on its future.

    • Nadya Anscombe

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Letter

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Article

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Photonics at NPG

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Interview

  • The ability of living organisms to generate light by bioluminescence is a fascinating phenomenon. Nature Photonics spoke to Yoriko Ando from the University of Tokyo about her recent quantitative analysis of the effect in fireflies.

    • Rachel Won

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In This Issue

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  • The fibre laser is unlike any other laser on the market and has found a role in a wide range of applications.

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