Gamma Scientific's Highway-Safety Division and Advanced Retro Technology have merged to create RoadVista. RoadVista will supply safety equipment based upon technology that measures reflected light. Headquartered in San Diego, California, with offices in Boston, Massachusetts and Baltimore, Maryland, the company will be managed by Gamma Scientific. Advanced Retro Technology will be fully absorbed into RoadVista.

30 March 2006

• Photon Inc has a new distributor in China. China Light, based in Bejing, will be responsible for sales and marketing for all Photon's products, covering areas such as beam profiling and positioning, throughout China. China Light also represents General Photonics and Strainoptics in China.
• Scitec Instruments has opened a sales office in Warsaw, Poland, which will be responsible for distributing lasers and laser accessories, instrumentation, optical components and fibre optic test products. To support its Polish sales activities Scitec has launched a new website, in Polish, available at www.scitecinstruments.pl

  28 March 2006

Rofin-Sinar Technologies has acquired a 40 per cent stake in H2B Photonics. H2B Photonics will continue as an independent company within the Rofin Group with its founders, Michael Haase, Oliver Haupt and Carsten Büsching, remaining as managing directors, holding the remaining 60 per cent of the company's shares between them.

Founded in 2005 as a spin-off from LZH, the laser institute of Hanover, Germany, H2B Photonics specialises in the development, manufacturing and sales of laser-based systems used to cut brittle materials, such as glass, to produce smooth, perfectly cut edges for applications such as plasma screens, windows, and automotive parts. The company holds the worldwide licence rights on the multiple laser beam absorption process.

27 March 2006

G. Groot Gregory, a vice president of Lambda Research, has been appointed as a fellow of SPIE, for his work in developing software for designing optical systems. Gregory is one of the original authors of TracePro, Lambda Research's stray-light analysis and illumination design software. He is also an active contributor to the development of OSLO, a software program for lens design and analysis.

Gregory has published many papers in the field of optics research. Gregory has been an associate editor of Optical Engineering for the past five years, and has served on the SPIE Awards, Strategic Planning, Education and Scholarship Committees. He is also an active member of the Optical Society of America and a past president of the New England Section of the OSA.

27 March 2006

Optical component and assembly manufacturer Anteryon has changed hands. A new investment consortium, named Anteryon International, has bought all the outstanding ordinary shares in Anteryon from Koninklijke Philips Electronic. The ultimate shareholders of Anteryon International are Cosyma, Koninklijke Philips Electronics and the management team of Anteryon.

23 March 2006

Optima Research has announced the dates for its latest series of training days for optical designers. The first course, titled Essential Skills for Optical Design, will be held from 24-26 April. The next course, Advanced Optical Design Using ZEMAX, will take place 15-19 May, while the last in this series, Illumination and Stray Light Analysis Using ZEMAX, will be held from 12-16 June. All the courses will be hosted in Stansted, near London in the UK.

23 March 2006

On 1 April 2006, Gresham Scientific Instruments will be renamed e2v scientific instruments. This re-branding comes after Gresham Scientific Instruments was purchased by e2v technologies in July 2005, for 5.1m.

Tony Bosley, the managing director of Gresham Scientific Instruments, said: 'The integration of Gresham into e2v technologies has been sensitively handled, with consideration for our employees, suppliers and customers. The time is now right to align Gresham more fully under the e2v corporate umbrella. Changing our name to e2v scientific instruments is just part of an ongoing programme which will improve systems and help us to share information and technology with e2v.'

22 March 2006

Chinese firm Photop Technologies has expanded its production facilities in response to increasing demand for fibre optics components and modules. In the new facilities, Photop has established an all-glass technology platform, a lead-free technology platform and automated assembly systems for many components.

22 March 2006

A joint team from the University of Southampton and Penn State University has developed a new way to combine optical fibre and silicon or germanium-based electrical semiconductor technologies. The team has made semiconductor devices, including a transistor, inside micro-structured optical fibres. The resulting ability to generate and manipulate signals inside optical fibres could have applications in fields such as medicine, computing, and remote sensing devices.

'This advance is the basis for a technology that could build a large range of devices inside an optical fibre,' said John Badding, associate professor of chemistry at Penn State University. 'At present you still have electrical switching at both ends of the optical fibre. If the signal never leaves the fibre, then signal transmission is faster, cheaper and more efficient. If we can actually generate signals inside a fibre, a whole range of optoelectronic applications become possible.'

The crystals were formed using chemical vapour deposition (CVD) to deposit germanium and other semiconductors inside the long, narrow pores of the hollow optical fibre. In the CVD process, a germanium compound is vaporised and then forced through the pores of the fibre at 1,000 times atmospheric pressure and temperatures up to 500°C. A chemical reaction within the pores allows germanium to coat the interior walls of the hollow fibre and then form crystals that grow inward.

20 March 2006

Aculight has won two contracts from the US Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate at Kirtland Air Force Base with a value of $2,578,000 in 2005 and $935,000 in 2006. Within the terms of these contracts Aculight will develop prototype mid-infrared and infrared semiconductor laser transmitters for use in future aircraft defensive systems.

Aculight will incorporate these optically pumped semiconductor laser transmitters for use in military flight environments. The lasers will have to perform in the harsh environment encountered in military flights, such as wide temperature variations and violent vibrations. The lasers will eventually be used for applications such as infrared countermeasure systems, which can autonomously detect, track and jam heat-seeking missiles, protecting both military and commercial aircraft.

20 March 2006

On 1 March Multitel, alongside a consortium of partner companies from across the EU, launched the OFSETH project - Optical Fibre Sensors Embedded into Textile for Healthcare. The project, led by Multitel's Applied Photonics Department, aims to investigate the application of optical fibre sensor techniques to healthcare applications, such as monitoring patients.

The project, supported by the European Sixth Framework Programme, is planned to last three and a half years, and will encompass research, development, and clinical evaluation of the sensors. The industrial and academic partners supporting the project are Centexbel (Belgium), Shishoo Consulting (Sweden), TAM Télésanté (France), Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire de Lille, Institut de Technologie Médicale (France), Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und Prüfung (Germany), Advanced Optics Solutions (Germany), Fiberware Generalunternehmen für Nachrichtentechnik (Germany), Technische Universität München (Germany), Elasta (Belgium) and Tytex (Denmark).

8 March 2006

Bookham has signed an agreement to acquire Avalon Photonics, a Swiss firm that manufactures single and multi-mode vertical cavity surface emitting laser chips, arrays and subassemblies for sensing, measurement, and communications. Manufacturing of Avalon products will be transferred to Bookham's existing facility in Zurich. Some production will eventually be relocated to Bookham's manufacturing plant at Caswell in the UK.

8 March 2006

sp3, a supplier of diamond film products, equipment and services, has received a large injection of capital from existing partner Seki Technotron, a Japanese sales and marketing company that specialises in high technology industries. The investment, which gives Seki more than 10 per cent ownership, will allow sp3 to develop further the use of diamond in advanced technology applications, and enhance the penetration of sp3 Diamond Technologies' CVD diamond products into advanced technology markets.

28 February 2006

Researchers from Imperial College London and the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland, have pioneered a new optical technique, which could eventually lead to solid objects, such as walls, being rendered virtually transparent.

First reported in the journal Nature Materials, the development saw professor Chris Phillips and his team create a new material, consisting of specially patterned crystals only a few billionths of a metre long. When light was shone into the crystals, it became entangled with the crystals at a molecular level rather than being absorbed, causing the material to become transparent. Refining the technique may allow other materials to be rendered transparent in a similar way.

The work is based upon the ability of photons and electrons to act with both particle and wave-like properties. By exploiting this ability, the scientists were able to contradict Einstein's theory that for a laser to work, the lasing medium, usually a crystal or glass, must be brought to a state known as 'population inversion' — the condition of the atoms within the material being excited with enough energy to make them emit rather than absorb light. This has previously been demonstrated with gases, but this is the first time the effect has been shown in a solid.

In the short term this technique could help develop more efficient lasers, more secure communications, and a storage mechanism for fabled quantum computers.

22 February 2006

PicoQuant is hosting the 12th international workshop on single molecule spectroscopy and detection. The workshop, to be held at Berlin-Adlershof from 20-22 September, will discuss the most recent research in the field, such as two-photon excitation, new and robust fluorophores such as quantum dots, metalfluorophore interactions, analysis of living cells, applications in HTS, investigation of protein folding and biological function studies of macromolecules.

PicoQuant has issued a call for papers, asking all researchers working in the field to submit contributions on new and relevant topics in single molecule spectroscopy, either as a talk or a poster. The deadline for submitting abstracts is 1 June 2006. In addition, an award of €750 has been set up to encourage young students to take up research in the field of single molecule spectroscopy. Further details can be found at www.picoquant.com/_workshop.htm.

14 February 2006

A new industrial trade fair, called LASYS, will be one of the first major events to be held at the new Messe Stuttgart, from 4-6 March 2008. The show will be held every two years thereafter. The advisory panel for the show is made up of representatives from industry, research and industrial bodies located in and around the Baden-Württemberg region.

LASYS will focus on different applications of laser systems in industrial production, primarily in the car industry, the mechanical engineering and plant construction industry, the precision mechanics and precision engineering industry, and medical technology.

Ulrich Kromer, managing director of Messe Stuttgart, is expecting around 150 exhibitors and up to 8,000 visitors from the trade in Germany and further afield.

8 February 2006

Mark Lewandowski of Prairie Fiber Optics won the CVI Challenge, held at Photonics West. The entrants to the quiz had to answer a series of questions about optics in general and CVI products in particular. Topics ranged from identifying CVI aspherical for excimer focusing to calculating various optical parameters of components in the infrared. His prize was $1,000-worth of products from the 2006 CVI Catalogue of optical components and assemblies.

8 February 2006

Boston Micromachines has won a contract worth $600,000 from NASA’s Small Business Research Programme, to develop a deformable mirror, for a space-based high-resolution imaging system, which will eventually be used to search for planets outside our solar system. The deformable mirror will be made from single crystal silicon, using MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems) manufacturing techniques, allowing the mirror not only to be extremely precise, but also thermally stable.

Boston Micromachines is providing a deformable mirror for a project being run by Boston University and sponsored by NASA. The project, called Planet Imaging Concept Testbed Using a Rocket Experiment (PICTURE), aims to take a direct image of a giant extra-solar planet. The mirror will form part of the adaptive optics system for the project.

6 February 2006

Mesophotonics has launched a design and licensing service for LED manufacturers. The service will encourage producers to exploit quasi-crystal technology. Quasi-crystal structures - structures that are precisely defined at a small scale, but appear to lack order when examined in less detail - increases light extraction from an LED using surface patterning of the diode, without additional beam shaping optics.

6 February 2006

An electrical engineer from the University of Texas at Austin yesterday told the SPIE Photonics West Conference in San Jose, California, that he had created a silicon photonic crystal that slowed laser light travelling through the chip sufficiently for a small electric current to modulate the pattern of light transmission.

Professor Ray Chen's chip is about 10 times shorter and uses 10 times less power than the best conventional silicon optical modulators. Large regions of regularly spaced, nano-sized holes are designed into the crystal structure, and these 'line defects' slow the light's passage considerably. The development represents a further step towards optical computing technology, where chips based on silicon photonic crystals could reduce overheating and power consumption compared to conventional computer chips. These optical chips can be fabricated using traditional mass-production practices in a silicon foundry.

26 January 2006

A new European project is using laser technology to design better fitting shoes. The ERGOSHOE project, funded by the European Commission, uses a laser foot scanner to create a three-dimensional model of a person’s foot on a computer. A shoe manufacturer can then use the computer model to design and make a shoe specifically for the person’s foot, without the additional cost and time of the traditional process of manufacturing bespoke shoes, where a plaster cast of the customer’s foot is made.

The ERGOSHOE method will offer particular benefits to people suffering from diabetes. Diabetics can suffer from poor blood circulation to their hands and feet, so are acutely sensitive to conditions such as ulceration of the feet. In extreme cases, sufferers may have to have a foot amputated. Therefore it is very important that diabetics have well fitting shoes. ERGOSHOE not only helps design these shoes, but will reduce healthcare costs associated with the treatment of diabetes.

25 January 2006

The University of Manchester in the UK is launching a new research centre for light and laser technologies. The Photon Science Institute will be the largest research and teaching centre of its kind in the UK with a projected annual research income of £5m and more than 30 full-time academic staff. A full-time postgraduate MSc in Photon Science will be offered from October 2006.

Research will focus on the development and application of laser technologies and systems spanning medicine, pharmaceutical, the life sciences, and the physical sciences. Projects will include the development of new optical materials and the development of new non-invasive medical technologies, such as measuring blood sugar levels without taking a blood sample, which will be of vital interest to diabetics.

24 January 2006

The American National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has submitted a set of recommendations to the US National Fire Protection Association to help fire fighters choose the right thermal imager for a particular job. Thermal imaging systems give firefighters crucial information about the nature of fires, enabling them to put out fires more quickly.

The NIST recommendations outline six emergency situations by which the performance of a thermal imager should be tested. Under these guidelines, thermal cameras should be able to: detect unusually hot areas, such as electric sockets and light fittings; guide fire hose streams toward the fire source; examine thermal conditions inside a building, such as hot walls or ceiling sections, in preparation for entry; identify faces and bodies of firefighters and victims for search and rescue operations; find 'hot spots' and hidden smouldering materials during reconnaissance in the aftermath of a fire; and locate hazardous material spills.

23 January 2006

US firm Edmund Optics has received $2.8m from the US Department of Defence to fund research into low and mid-volume manufacturing techniques and tools for advanced optical components, particularly highly precise glass moulding for making aspherical lenses.

One of the main objectives of the project is to reduce the manufacturing time and costs, as well as the physical bulk, of optical systems used for security and defence, such as night vision and fire control systems. John Stack, president of Edmund Optics, said: 'Making aspherical technology cost effective is a major obstacle to increasing performance and reducing weight in related DoD programmes. The grant will go a long way to solving long-standing technical and manufacturing hurdles.'

Edmund Optics will manage the project, in conjunction with the Benet Weapons Laboratory of the US Army.

23 January 2006

A team of researchers visited the Smithsonian Institute recently to study the optical properties of a suite of coloured diamonds, including the famous 'hope' diamond. At 45.52 carats the Hope diamond is thought to be the biggest known blue diamond in the world.

The researchers, most of whom were from the Naval Research Laboratory in the United States, carried out Raman spectroscopy and studied absorption, fluorescence, and the spectral and temporal properties of phosphorescence, on the Hope diamond, the Blue Heart diamond, and 239 other diamonds. They used a USB2000-FL spectrometer from Ocean Optics, and the company's Dr Roy Walters was part of the visiting team.

The NRL has been creating synthetic diamonds for years to research their use for defence applications. Blue diamonds are of particular interest because of their properties as electrical semiconductors. By learning about the impurities in natural diamonds they can better understand the defects observed in synthetic diamonds. Analysis of the data is now under way.

23 January 2006