If lasers helped to redefine many manufacturing operations, then ultrashort-pulsed (USP) lasers promise to revolutionize them. They can process almost any material, and they can do so with a...

It was quite a brave decision to start a trade fair for a technology that, at the time, was seen as “a solution seeking a problem.” But in 1973, expectations were high that the emerging...

LASER World of PHOTONICS (LASER Munich), the leading international trade fair for photonics components, systems, and applications, returns to Germany between June 27 and 30 for the industry...

We generally relegate basic and applied research stories to the Technology News section each month in Photonics Spectra, and we reserve our explorations of technical, engineering, and industry trends...

In 2000, Berthold Leibinger, the man who brought laser technology into Germany’s TRUMPF Group, established the Innovation Award — expressed in native German as the...

The International Laser Marketplace Seminar, traditionally held as part of the LASER World of Photonics event in Munich, has provided a reliable source for market and trend information in the field...

The internet is an inescapable part of modern life, and the hardware that enables it is almost as ubiquitous. Fiber cables transmit terabytes of data around the world every second and, although the...

The laser is a versatile tool for many applications partly due to its capacity to generate harmonic wavelengths in which, for example, two red photons combine to generate a blue photon. But with the...

“Globalization was about profits,” said Timothy Paul Kennedy, vice president of Global Sales at Edmund Optics during the Annual Grand Meeting of the European Photonics Industry Consortium...

It is a rare event when a successful experiment in basic research makes it to the evening news. In December 2022, the U.S. secretary of energy announced a breakthrough in laser-based nuclear fusion....

For the last few years, I have taken time in December to reflect on what happened in the last year and what it means for the one to come. I would reflect on the major events within the laser industry...

As anyone who has ever worked with an alexandrite laser can attest, its lasing medium demands respect. “It has about every problem a laser engineer can imagine,” said Josef Höffner,...

The 2022 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to three scientists, each with a record in quantum research. They were rewarded for discoveries they had made three decades ago, discoveries that paved the...

Welding is an ancient technology. Five thousand years ago, Egyptians used it to join copper water pipes together. Over the centuries it evolved into an essential technology to fuse various types of...