Lasers can now tell you if you’re eating a healthy diet with sufficient fruits and vegetables following trials with human beings that involve Raman spectroscopy and blue and green wavelengths.

The optical fibre might have transformed the telecoms industry, being faster than copper cabling, but its capacity as an optical sensor is proving highly useful in detecting strain and temperature variations in buildings, oil pipelines, dams, and bridges, and even aircraft are incorporating fibres to monitor the integrity of the body, engine and wings.

Precision is a defining characteristic of photonics, and the laser systems the industry uses need precise coatings for filters and optics to deliver the performance expected of them.

Whether it is metal-based lenses combined with physical vapour deposition or ion beam sputtering, the goals of more precision, more control, and better results, are pushing the industry to progress every aspect of these thin film coating technologies.  The industry talks to Electro Optics about how it is continuously improving the thin film coating processes to deliver on customers needs.

Techniques for creating synthetic diamond have been around for more than 50 years, but there are still relatively few players in the market. Fewer still target the photonics market, which is why Element Six is making a big name for itself in this sector.