JUSTINE MURPHY, SENIOR EDITOR, [email protected]Biennially, the Frankfurt (Germany) International Exhibition Center hosts some of the world’s top innovators who showcase their work and products at the Optatec International Trade Fair. To be held May 15-17, this event highlights the latest optical technologies, components, and systems in areas such as optomechanics and laser components. Products and systems to be demonstrated will target those in development and production roles, in addition to the industrial and manufacturing sectors. This year, more than 500 exhibitors from around the world will fill the exhibition...Read full articleRelated content from Photonics MediaARTICLESLaser-based Method Derives Data from Disordered MediaResearchers from TU Wien and Utrecht University have developed a laser-dependent method for gathering data through disordered and complicated media, using a mathematical procedure. In contexts...Photonics Spectra April 2021 IssueLens-Free Fluorescence Microscope Achieves High Throughput, High ResolutionA fluorescence microscope being developed by imec researchers will be able to achieve high throughput and high resolution, without a lens component. The technology could significantly speed up...Photonics.com 7/5/2021Suppression of Backscattering Could Improve Optical Data TransmissionTo control backscattering and reduce energy loss during optical data transmission, researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign exploited the interaction between light and sound...Photonics.com 8/14/2019Mirror Specifications and Energy-Efficient Design Support Increasingly Portable System for Laser Precision at Room TemperatureA team of MIT physicists, working with researchers from Louisiana State University (LSU) and Crystalline Mirror Solutions (CMS, now part of Thorlabs Inc.) has designed a quantum “light...Photonics.com 7/30/2020PRODUCTSSapphire OpticsSapphire optics from Precision Glass & Optics can be used in lasers, imaging, LEDs, fiber optics, and more. The optics operate from the VIS to IR spectral wavelengths. The durable substrate...Photonics.com 10/30/2020Picosecond Microchip LaserThe QSL103A Picosecond Microchip Laser from Thorlabs Inc. is a passively Q-switched system producing 500-ps pulses centered at 1030 nm. The μJ-level pulse energies produced at kHz-repetition...Photonics.com 5/4/2021Rotation StageThe Newport™ RGA150 low-profile, fast-rotation stage from MKS Instruments Inc. is a mid-size, high-speed, large-aperture rotation stage designed for semiconductor wafer positioning...Photonics.com 5/31/2021PyrometersThe Metis M3 line of pyrometers from Process Sensors Corp. is available in both single- and dual-wavelength versions, offering manually adjustable focus, fixed focus, or remote motorized focus...Photonics Spectra July 2020 IssuePHOTONICS HANDBOOK ARTICLESFiber Lasers Continue to Power Growth: Powerful, reliable, and compact, fiber lasers further offer the versatility to address a multitude of applications spanning a broad array of industries, and their potential continues to grow.Early fiber lasers were inefficient and limited to low powers, until more effective methods emerged to deliver the pump light into the cladding. Valentin Gapontsev, founder and CEO of IPG Photonics,...Photonics HandbookDigital Still Cameras: The Changing Face of Imaging: The digital camera reflects a sea change in the compact camera market. While the 20th was the century of film cameras, the 21st belongs to the digital camera.The digital camera represents an integration of optics, mechanics and electronics consisting of three layers (Figures 1a, b and c). The top and the middle layers are printed circuit boards (PCBs),...Photonics HandbookLaser Perforation: The Diffractive Beamsplitter Advantage: Perforated thin sheets of material are required in many applications, including plastic and metal sheets in the packing industry, cartons and metal foil that enable easy tear-off, filters for cigarettes, tubes for liquid or gas drainage, and preweakening of metal sheets for automobile air bags.The basic setup in laser perforation includes a pulsed laser, a lens and either a moving mirror, a rotating web or both. Each laser pulse creates a hole in the material. During the blank time in...Photonics HandbookCO2 Lasers: The Industrial Workhorse: Four decades ago, the first industrial use of lasers was for drilling through diamonds or wire draw dies. From that beginning the laser has become an integral part of the conventional technology in many production plants. In the forefront of that revolution has been the CO2 laser, today a varied and sophisticated tool.In the three decades since its introduction, the CO2 laser has become the workhorse of industrial lasers. Today it is available in a range of designs and sizes with output powers of 20 kW and more....Photonics HandbookWHITEPAPERSBall Shaped End CapsIn this paper, general ball shaped end-caps are studied and illustrated. Different ball shaped end-caps were tested and measured for a variety of applications. For example, a 2.2 mm diameter ball...Photonics.com 12/31/20193SAE End-Cap Fusion Splicer (ECS)The world's first portable end-cap fusion splicer that provides capabilities that overcome the limitations of current end-cap splicing processes.Photonics.com 6/24/2020Annular Heating of Optical Fiber with a CO2 Laser Using Reflective Axicon ElementsBy offsetting the light structure, precise localized zone heating and annealing of specific areas at a fiber’s surface can be achieved as well. This is essentially a passive device into which active...Photonics.com 2/1/2020New Approach for High Reliability, Low Loss Splicing between Silica and ZBLAN FibersThis paper presents results obtained by using the high thermal expansion coefficient of the ZBLAN fiber to encapsulate a smaller SiO2 fiber. A CO2 laser glass processing system was used to control...Photonics.com 2/25/2020WEBINARSEuropean Photonics Manufacturing Services Funded by ECThis event is supported by the European initiatives presented and is moderated by EPIC, the European Photonics Industry Consortium. The European Commission is helping companies access the...Photonics.com 6/30/2021Waveguide Simulation with the Beam Envelope MethodThe beam envelope method is an efficient numerical tool for solving nonlinear optics in long and slender structures, such as optical waveguides, laser rods, and more. This webinar will demonstrate...Photonics.com 9/17/2019Building the Best Coherent or FMCW Lidar: 5 Criteria for Selecting the Right LaserBuilding a great lidar system requires a great laser. In this webinar, the presenters discuss the five most important criteria for choosing the right laser for your lidar systems, which are...Photonics.com 4/28/2021CLEO 2014 Technology Transfer Preview WebinarThe Technology Transfer Program, part of the annual Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, is a chance for researchers to learn about turning their discoveries into marketable products. This...Photonics.com 5/29/2014PHOTONICS DICTIONARY TERMSmagnitudeIn astronomy, the relative brightness of a celestial body. Originally a scale from 1 to 6, where 1 represented the brightest and 6 the faintest visible night sky objects. This scale has been expanded...EDU.photonics.com 1/14/2013planar access couplerLow-insertion-loss fiber coupler fabricated from a sheet of light-sensitive material laminated onto a fused quartz substrate and exposed through a suitable mask. After development of the plastic...EDU.photonics.com 9/8/2009uniformly redundant array (URA)Array used in coded-aperture imaging experiments with two-beam CO2 lasers that provide an artifact-free process, faithful reproduction of the true image, and more photon collection than the pinhole...EDU.photonics.com 9/8/2009H-plane bendWith respect to waveguides, the continuous change in the direction of the axis of the wavelength, during which the axis is perpendicular to the direction of polarization.EDU.photonics.com 9/8/2009MEDIAPhotonics on the Showroom Floor and in the Lab - LIGHT MATTERS 02.2018On this month's episode of Light Matters, we take you on a brief tour of the Higgins Laboratories at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). Quinsigamond Community College and WPI received a $4M grant...Photonics.com 2/21/2018Fluorescence Microscopy Using the TECHSPEC Cage SystemKatie Walker, a Product Line Engineer at Edmund Optics, showcases Edmund Optics' Optical Cage System and how it can be used to build a digital video fluorescence microscope. The Optical Cage System...Photonics.com 9/25/2013Photonics West 2017 Ushers in the New Year - LIGHT MATTERS 02.2017Photonics Media followed the photons all the way to San Francisco earlier this month for SPIE’s Photonics West 2017. The year truly begins with this event for many in the industry, as it is a symbol...Photonics.com 2/23/2017Light Tomorrow with TodayLuminate NY, the only optics, photonics and imaging (OPI) accelerator and investment fund in the world, announced the final winners at the Light Tomorrow with Today event in Rochester, NY. For the...Photonics.com 7/2/2018PHOTONICS BUYERS' GUIDE CATEGORIESLaser Diode ModulesFiber LasersA fiber laser is a laser in which the lasing medium is an optical fiber doped with low levels of rare-earth halides to make it capable of amplifying light. Output is tunable over a broad range and...Information Display SystemsDiode-Pumped Solid-State LasersCOMPANIESFOCtek Photonics Inc.FOCtek provides customers with all types of custom manufactured lenses, Precision Optical Components, Polarizing Optics, Prisms, Filters, Coatings, Optical Systems, Crystals, Nonlinear Crystals,...Photonics Buyers' GuideLambda Research Optics Inc. (USA)Lambda Research Optics, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of laser optics with high power thin-film coatings and high precision fabrications. Lambda serves a wide range of industries, such as Biotech,...Photonics Buyers' GuideSmarAct Inc.Since 2005, SmarAct develops piezo-based, high-performance positioners and measurement tools for the micro- and nanometer scale. Positioning systems with numerous degrees of freedom and parallel...Photonics Buyers' GuideOhara Corporation, Western OfficeOhara manufactures precision optical glasses: strip/slab, cut/molded blanks, pressings, high homogeneity blanks, fine gobs, polished ball lenses, near-UV transmitting i-Line glass, ceramic...Photonics Buyers' Guide