Raman microscopy is a fantastic technique for analyzing the chemical composition of samples. It is a nondestructive technique that mitigates the need for material preparation and the use of stains or dyes. Further, combining Raman spectroscopy with microscopy enables high spatial resolution to be obtained that can be applied to particles measuring a few micrometers in size. This versatility has prompted use of the technology in a wide range of applications and end markets, from semiconductors...

Early in his career, Benjamin Miller was focused on drug discovery and strategies for studying how potential medicines bind to their target proteins. There was only one problem: “All of the technology that was available for doing that was...

Contact-free thickness measurements are increasingly important in industrial process monitoring and quality control. In the automotive and aviation industries, the exact thickness of paint and coating layers not only affects the overall appearance...

A figure-of-nine femtosecond fiber laser seeds a novel dispersion patterned chip to enable compact, low-power supercontinuum generation. The new technology could support more portable supercontinuum sources for sensing, ranging, and imaging...

In 2020, the world slammed to a halt. Flights were grounded. Cars remained parked in driveways. Smokestacks were extinguished, and industrial projects were put on hold as billions of people were confined to their homes. All the usual suspects of...

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 “Innovationspreis” — to honor outstanding R&D in...

In 2018, when California became the first state to pass legislation requiring the measuring of microplastics in drinking water supplies, it essentially set off a competition that would pit photonic technologies against one another as well as...

Because they separate light into its spectral components, diffraction gratings lie at the heart of modern spectrometers, hyperspectral imagers, optical coherence tomography systems, and similar instruments. In the future, gratings may improve...

For biomedical instrumentation applications such as fluorescence microscopy and Raman spectroscopy, sputter-coated thin-film interference filters deliver exemplary performance. These filters also enhance imaging system performance for applications...

For hundreds of years, analysis trumped preservation when it came to irreplaceable cultural heritage objects such as paintings, icons, and written works. Today, conservators avoid taking even tiny samples from works of priceless art, making...

Rather than coining the phrase “x-ray vision,” perhaps comic book writers should have called it “terahertz vision” instead. The precise blend of electromagnetic and material properties in the terahertz spectrum enables...

Raman spectroscopy is a powerful nondestructive analytical technique that can provide insights into works of art and cultural heritage. It enables chemical and structural investigations of artifacts, such as the identification of pigments, to allow...

Spurred by the passage of state legislation last fall, the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project issued a methodology for monitoring microplastics in drinking water. The California regulation was the first of its kind in the U.S. to...

Join Photonics Media online April 12-13 for the Photonics Spectra Spectroscopy (PSS) Conference, a virtual event exploring new and evolving trends in spectroscopic tools and techniques. The conference will feature two keynotes and nearly 20...

Since the unveiling of the quantum cascade laser (QCL) at Bell Labs in 1994, the technology has evolved — from being simply a cutting-edge field in pho­tonics research to being commercially available in the form of packaged lasers, QCL-powered...

Spectroscopy and other photonics technologies have long been of interest in criminal forensics — the use of analytical tools and tests to reveal unseen clues during a criminal investigation. Unlike some methods of chemical testing, photonics draws...

Real-time precision gas analysis is critical to a wide range of industries, including medical diagnostics, emissions monitoring, and semiconductor fabrication. The relatively simple molecular structure of most gases makes them ideal candidates for...

Photonics Media will host the first-ever BioPhotonics Conference online Oct. 26-28. Experts in microscopy, spectroscopy, OCT, flow cytometry, and medical lasers will present on topics such as the detection of cancer and viruses, the analysis of...

Quantum cascade laser sources offer a compelling option in the MIR range, but they currently deliver limited output power. This drawback is driving growing interest in methods that would allow QCLs to combine their beams passively and in a compact...

The modern world, with the ever-growing impact of technology on humanity and the environment, requires us to thoroughly understand how our civilization works and what it produces — even the invisible matter such as gases that we emit into the...

UV-VIS spectroscopy has been a robust spectroscopic modality since at least the early 1940s. That’s when National Technical Laboratories (now Beckman Coulter) released its DU spectrophotometer — one of the first widely available, tabletop-size...

As people, we have a complex relationship with food. We want it to be simple, cost-effective, and convenient. But we also savor gourmet foods prepared with the finest ingredients available. The quality of high-end ingredients depends on their...

The terahertz spectral region, which falls between the microwave and infrared ranges, is one of the most promising regions of the electromagnetic spectrum for research and industry, but it is currently underutilized in these areas. There is no...

Fallout from the outbreak of COVID-19 continues to ripple across all sectors, and the photonics industry is no exception. But while the virus has raised challenges for many businesses, it has created opportunities for others. Innovative treatments...

Since its emergence in the 1990s, digital micromirror device (DMD) technology has been used extensively in display applications for conference rooms and cinemas. The technology has also supported dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM)...