Keely Portway finds out how advances in dual-frequency comb spectroscopy could help to significantly speed-up the rate of detection in a wide range of applications
Dual-frequency comb spectroscopy permits broadband precision spectroscopic measurements with short acquisition time. A dramatic improvement of the maximal spectral bandwidth and the minimal measurement time can be expected when the lasers’ pulse repetition rate is increased, owing to a quadratic dependence (Nyquist criterion). This white paper demonstrates a dual-comb system operating at a high repetition rate of 1 GHz based on mature, digitally-controlled, low-noise modelocked lasers
Monitoring greenhouse gases directly from space is essential to improve the accuracy of climate change analysis. This whitepaper details the use of a LIDAR in space using a GHz frequency-comb for in-orbit calibration.
Menhir Photonics offers industrial-grade femtosecond lasers operating at 1,550nm with GHz repetition-rates and ultra-low noise performance. Combined with their unprecedented reliability, these laser enable applications both in the field and in industrial environments. An ultrafast laser that’s as precise and reliable as a Swiss timepiece.
A technician loads a wedged focus lens, a key element in the NIF final optics assembly, into a cleaning/coating frame
Keely Portway finds out how the latest advances in photonics have enhanced the research environment, and how they have translated to the commercial sector
Professor Paul Shore led the team that micromachined the complex mirrors within James Webb’s mid-infrared instrument. He chats about the technical lessons learnt
EMF invested a great deal of time and effort in developing a coating system for producing long-lasting diamond like carbon (DLC) coatings on chalcogenides at scale
The properties of chalcogenide glass optics have opened up a number of use cases in infrared optics applications and beyond. This article assesses how some of the associated manufacturing and handling challenges of this material can be overcome
Image credit: Yury Zap/Shutterstock.com
We detail the commercial offerings from some of the main players in optical mirrors
Image credit: Mia Stendal/Shutterstock.com
Shining a light on the latest products and solutions in the diode laser space
Optical technologies offer researchers a powerful new toolkit to explore the structure and function of the brain. (Image: Sergey Nivens/Shutterstock.com)
Advances in optical fibres and microscale LEDs are furthering neuroscientists’ understanding of the brain
The nulling interferometry devices under development at Caltech’s Exoplanet Technology Laboratory cancel out starlight to help detect and identify foreign worlds. (Credit: Shutterstock/Dotted Yeti)
Nemanja Jovanovic, lead instrument scientist at Caltech’s Optical Observatory and Exoplanet Technology Laboratory, on emerging astrophotonic technologies on his radar
Robert Smith is a professor at the University of Alberta and historian to JWST since 2002
As James Webb Space Telescope beams back images from the edge of space and time, space historian Robert Smith recalls some of the decisions made to bring the $10bn NASA project to fruition. David Stuart reports
