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FOCUS ON: Metamaterials |
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:: News From Laser Focus World The Laser Focus World e-Newsletter is distributed twice monthly to interested readers and is part of a global franchise that includes the print version of the magazine, the Laser Focus World Buyers Guide, and the Laser Focus World web site (www.laserfocusworld.com). Our news, features, and industry reporting provide optoelectronics and photonics professionals throughout the world with in-depth coverage of the optoelectronics industry, its technology, and applications. |
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INDUSTRY NEWS :: Lockheed Martin agrees to acquire Aculight Lockheed Martin Corporation (Bethesda, MD) entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Aculight Corporation (Bothell, WA). Aculight is a privately held company primarily focused on providing laser-based solutions for national defense and aerospace customers. The new business unit will report to Lockheed Martin's Maritime Systems & Sensors business in Akron, OH. :: Click Here for Full Story :: :: Goodrich acquires assets of Recon/Optical Goodrich Corporation (Charlotte, NC) signed an agreement with Bourns (Riverside, CA) to acquire the Chicago Aerial Industries (CAI) and Pacific Optical Division (POD) assets of Recon/Optical (ROI; Barrington, IL and Riverside, CA), a provider of low-to-medium altitude airborne reconnaissance cameras and optical products for the homeland security and military market. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. :: Click Here for Full Story :: :: SEMICON West marches to the relentless beat of Moore's law It was obvious that Moore's law and its relentless march towards finer and finer feature sizes on integrated circuits was once again the overriding theme of SEMICON West 2008, held July 15-17 in San Francisco, CA. This year's show was also co-located with Intersolar North America for the first time, allowing SEMI (San Jose, CA) to expand its technology focus from the traditional semiconductor industry into the exploding photovoltaic market. :: Click Here for Full Story :: :: Pirelli and CyOptics form integrated photonics alliance The Pirelli Group (Milan, Italy) and CyOptics (Lehigh Valley, PA) have announced the formation of a strategic alliance in integrated photonics. The combined business will be one of the strongest in the optoelectronics industry, bringing together an unparalleled set of technologies addressing the future needs of telecommunication networks. :: Click Here for Full Story :: TECHNOLOGY NEWS :: Molecule-destroying pulses help characterize nanostructured surfaces Surface-enhanced Raman scattering can be used to detect deadly fumes in subways, toxic gases in chemical spills, and hidden explosives in baggage. To further improve the technique's sensitivity, scientists must design better scattering surfaces, and more effective ways of evaluating them. Researchers at the University of Illinois (Urbana, IL), led by chemistry professor Dana Dlott, have devised a method to evaluate substrate surfaces by using a series of laser pulses that tear molecules apart; the group calls them "killer" laser pulses. :: Click Here for Full Story :: :: Scientists demonstrate highly directional semiconductor lasers Applied scientists at Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) in collaboration with researchers from Hamamatsu Photonics (Hamamatsu City, Japan) have demonstrated for the first time highly directional semiconductor lasers with a much smaller beam divergence than conventional ones. The innovation opens the door to a wide range of applications in photonics and communications. Harvard University has also filed a broad patent on the invention, the so-called "contact lens for lasers." :: Click Here for Full Story :: :: Production optical lithography equipment accomplishes the seemingly impossible Imagine a camera that takes photos containing half a trillion pixels. Such a camera exists, in the form of a semiconductor optical lithography tool called the Twinscan XT:1950i, which creates single-exposure images 22 x 33 mm in size with a 38 nm resolution in photoresist on a silicon wafer, for a total pixel count of 503 gigapixels. Just announced by ASML (Veldhoven, The Netherlands), the XT:1950i operates at the argon fluoride (ArF) excimer-laser wavelength of 193 nm and is built around an immersion catadioptric 4X reduction lens with a numerical aperture (NA) of 1.35. The tool is expected to begin shipping in the first quarter of 2009. :: Click Here for Full Story :: :: Scientists measure ice crystals in clouds using scattered light Scientists have created an optical scattering instrument designed to help determine the shapes and sizes of tiny ice crystals typical of those found in high-altitude clouds, down to the micron level (comparable to the tiniest cells in the human body), according to a new study in Optics Letters, a journal published by the Optical Society of America. The data produced using this instrument likely will help improve computer models used to predict climate change. :: Click Here for Full Story ::
NEW PRODUCTS 
:: Multispectral camerasThe FD-1665 series of 3-CCD cameras contains three sensors, fitted with customer-specified optical filters, to simultaneously capture images through a single lens. It comes in 1.4, 2, and 5 megapixel resolutions. Users can select a pre-configured 3, 5, 7, or 9 channel camera to configure an application-specific system. It can have any combination of narrow- or broadband filter coatings between 380 and 1100 nm. FluxData, Rochester, NY :: Click Here for Full Story :: 
:: Assembly stationThe OptiCentric assembly and test station offers centration error measurement, error-free alignment, cementing, bonding, and assembly of optical systems in a fully automated manufacturing process. The modular workstation can perform high-speed measurement of most optical parameters of single lenses and multilens objectives of up to 40 elements in mounted conditions. Trioptics, Wedel, Germany :: Click Here for Full Story :: 
:: UV light sourceThe Slarc 24-W UV high-intensity discharge metal-halide lamp is designed for applications including photo-activation, spectrophotometry, and medical point-of-care testing. The lamp produces intense, elliptically focused light in the 320 to 500 nm range. The design allows system integrators to incorporate them into compact devices. Welch Allyn Lighting Products, Skaneateles Falls, NY :: Click Here for Full Story :: :: More new products ... ... from the pages of Laser Focus World :: Click Here for Full Story ::
FOCUS ON: METAMATERIALS :: Researchers demonstrate nonlinear tunable metamaterial A research team at the Nonlinear Physics Centre of the Australian National University in Canberra reports that it has produced the first nonlinear tunable metamaterial and, using the metamaterial, has demonstrated several novel effects. :: Click Here for Full Story :: :: Lasing spaser creates coherent radiation A new type of nanoscale optical device called a lasing spaser combines metamaterials and spasers to create a versatile planar source of coherent radiation. :: Click Here for Full Story :: :: Researchers create 3-D photonic metamaterials Researchers at the University of Stuttgart recently created a stacked split-ring metamaterial for the optical wavelength range that could eventually lead to superior lenses that can beat the diffraction limit, as well as optical cloaking devices. :: Click Here for Full Story :: :: Optical guiding slows light to speed it up Ortwin Hess and colleagues at the University of Surrey have proposed a technique using negative-refractive-index metamaterials that display the Goos Hänchen effect, in which light travels very slightly backward along an interface between two media. :: Click Here for Full Story :: |
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