Issues

Browse our previous issues below, or browse and search for specific features or analysis & opinion.

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November 2022

Hamza Farah is undertaking a one-year photonics internship at the UK’s Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult

Analysis and opinion

Photonics: The next generation | Part two: Hamza Farah

19 October 2022

Ahead of the Day of Photonics, we're asking with those at the start of their photonics careers what’s important to them in their work. Next up: Hamza Farah, Photonics Intern

October 2022

The ALD system could be used to coat complex augmented, virtual and mixed reality optics at higher efficiency

Feature

Coating complex freeform optics

28 October 2022

Tim Reynolds speaks to Gerd-Albert Hoffmann, head of the Optics Integration Group at Laser Zentrum Hannover, about a new spatial atomic layer deposition system

Gabriella Gardosi and her colleagues at the Aston Institute of Photonic Technologies have developed a new method for fabricating ultralow-loss optical microresonators

Analysis and opinion

Photonics: The next generation | Part one: Gabriella Gardosi

18 October 2022

Ahead of the Day of Photonics, we're asking with those at the start of their photonics careers what’s important to them in their work. First up: Research Student Gabriella Gardosi.

Image credit: FrankHH/Shutterstock.com

Product focus

Tech focus: Safety

6 October 2022

A look at the commercial offerings of the main players in safety equipment and services

My first 18 months in photonics

2 September 2022

It is now just over two years since I graduated from the University of Leicester with a first-class honours degree in physics with space science. I remember being asked 'Are you looking forward to taking the skills from your degree and putting them to work in the professional world?' I laughed. I had no idea how to make use of the knowledge I’d gained in Raman Spectroscopy, CMOS vs CCD technology or thermography in the real world. And yet, by the time you read this, I’ll have spent 18 months in an industry I didn’t know existed when I started my job hunt in 2020. 

August/September 2022

Coating to protect and serve chalcogenide glass

26 August 2022

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

Optical technologies offer researchers a powerful new toolkit to explore the structure and function of the brain. (Image: Sergey Nivens/Shutterstock.com)

Feature

Fibre guides optogenetics to brain breakthroughs

19 August 2022

Advances in optical fibres and microscale LEDs are furthering neuroscientists’ understanding of the brain, Susan Curtis discovers

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)

Analysis and opinion

Emerging astrophotonics technologies

12 August 2022

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

Feature

James Webb: An optical success story

1 August 2022

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

July 2022

Optical benches at Politecnico di Milano, the general coordinator of the Crimson project. Credit: Politecnico di Milano

Feature

Remedy for medical photonics innovation

20 July 2022

It can take a village to bring a medical photonics device to market, Benjamin Skuse discovers

Driving lidar forward

20 July 2022

How automotive companies can choose the right lidar technology for their applications, by Gemma Church

June 2022

3D printed Fresnel lens combining diffractive elements with refractive surfaces. Credit: Nanoscribe

Feature

Printed optics reach imaging performance

29 June 2022

Benjamin Skuse investigates some impressive additive methods for producing polymer and glass optics for imaging

Image credit: metamorworks/Shutterstock.com

Product focus

Tech focus: Lidar

16 June 2022

A look at the market for lidar and some of the systems, products and solutions available

Image credit: Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock.com

Product focus

Tech focus: Neurophotonics

15 June 2022

A look at the current market for Neurophotonics and some of the products and solutions available

The space sector offers numerous oppurtunities for photonics technologies in the development and offering of satellite-based services. (Image: Shutterstock/Dima Zel)

Feature

Looking skyward: Photonics opportunities in space

14 June 2022

The ongoing commercialisation of the space sector is creating numerous opportunities for photonics technologies, Matthew Dale learns

Preliminary testing of the quantum gravity gradiometer designed by Michael Holynski and colleagues at the University of Birmingham, which has now been shown to locate an underground tunnel with a positional accuracy of 20cm. Credit: Crown Copyright

Feature

Underground quantum sensing set to erupt

13 June 2022

Susan Curtis explores the new breed of quantum gravimeters finding their way onto the slopes of Mount Etna and into tunnels deep under Birmingham

Ams Osram’s multi-junction VCSELs are helping to improve automotive lidar. Credit: Ams Osram

Feature

VCSELs rev up for life in the fast lane

6 June 2022

Multi-junction vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers are likely to displace LEDs and edge-emitting lasers in sensing, finds Andy Extance

At this year’s EPIC AGM Matthew Dale learned that increasing advocacy efforts is a must to ensure an ideal future for European photonics

Analysis and opinion

What exactly does our industry need? Advocacy!

23 May 2022

At this year’s EPIC AGM Matthew Dale learned that increasing advocacy efforts is a must to ensure an ideal future for European photonics

May 2022

Building a new semiconductor fab can cost more than €10bn. Credit: Imec

Feature

Subsidising a way out of semicon shortages

24 May 2022

Proposed multi-billion dollar and euro packages look set to increase uptake of leading-edge lithography, including for photonic technologies, finds Andy Extance

Mathias Bochow, GFZ Helmholtz Centre, Potsdam, is working on the Trace project to track marine plastic. Credit: Frank Schweikert, Aldebaran Marine Research & Broadcast  (www.aldebaran.org/en/)

Feature

The hyperspectral view from space

18 May 2022

Abigail Williams speaks to scientists tracking marine plastic using satellite spectral imagery

April 2022

The Central Laser Facility’s Vulcan laser amplifier and mirror bench, R1, at STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, 26 January 2015. Credit: Science and Technology Facilities Council

Feature

Ultrafast gets ultra-small

7 April 2022

Katrina Wesencraft outlines engineering and optical challenges involved in shrinking ultrafast lasers, all the way down to tiny devices for sending into space

Metalens imaging simulation in Synopsys BeamProp BPM tool. Credit: Synopsys

Feature

Scaling challenges of metasurfaces

5 April 2022

Greg Blackman explores the optical design approaches for modelling metasurfaces

PureLiFi has launched a LiFi system for the home. LiFi at Home has a downlighter that fits into standard GU10 lightbulb fittings. Credit: PureLiFi

Feature

LiFi comes to life

4 April 2022

Laser-based technology and sophisticated modulation schemes could help deliver on future demands for high data volumes, finds Andy Extance

Shining a light on intensified imaging

4 April 2022

Keely Portway investigates how the latest developments in specialised intensifier cameras have allowed opportunities for a number of exciting specialist applications in low-light scenarios

Image intensifiers help to increase the intensity of the available light in a system, which allows better image reproduction in low-light scenarios. This specialist technology is used in a range of applications, including biotechnology, industry, research and astronomy. 

The technology for optical systems generation is becoming increasingly diversified, while each stage of the fabrication chain is becoming deeper and more specialised. (Image: PanDao)

Feature

Do you speak optica? Streamlining optics fabrication

14 February 2022

Matthew Dale reports on efforts to modulate and streamline in softwareoptical system design and fabrication

March 2022

Laser guide star for tracking space junk, developed by Electro Optic Systems together with the Australian National University. Credit: Electro Optic Systems

Feature

Illuminating the space junk problem

1 March 2022

Benjamin Skuse explores photonics-based efforts to track, and possibly even remove, debris from the very crowded region of near-Earth space

Fluidically assembled full colour RGB microLED display demonstrated by the eLux and development partners. Credit: eLux

Feature

Mass movement for microLEDs

1 March 2022

From compelling augmented reality experiences to jaw-droppingly vivid TVs, affordable microLED displays could be closer than you think. Rebecca Pool reports

February 2022

Canadian start-up Xanadu has built a series of small-scale quantum chips, available in 8- and 12-qubit versions, along with a 24-qubit processor, and a 40-qubit chip now at the fabrication stage. Credit: Xanadu

Feature

Quantum computing gets photonics spin

24 January 2022

Susan Curtis speaks to start-ups building quantum processors based on the photon

An infrared beam from a quantum cascade laser excites glucose molecules in skin, which are then detected via DiaMonTech’s photothermal deflection technique. Credit: DiaMonTech

Feature

Glucose monitoring gains from MIR sensing

24 January 2022

David Stuart on the health benefits of mid-infrared spectroscopy

December 2021/January 2022

Image credit: bogdanhoda/Shutterstock.com

Feature

Diamonds are forever

11 January 2022

Tiny nanodiamonds are being used to dramatically optimise the calibration of optical microscopes, Matthew Dale finds

 

After the test disk is placed inside the chamber, some fine tuning is required to ensure they are horizontal and perfectly centred (credit: Caltech)

Feature

Making waves in cosmic ripple detection

7 January 2022

LIGO scientists have developed a new mirror coating that could dramatically increase the observatory's detection rate of gravitational waves

LLNL optical engineers Justin Wolfe (left) and Simon Cohen are seen through the 'r' filter (credit: Garry McLeod)

Product focus

Look to the skies

6 January 2022

A telescope, described as one of the world’s newest, has been completed following a project undertaken by researchers to develop some very specialist optical filters

Magic cinema/Shutterstock.com

Product focus

Watch this space

6 January 2022

Advances in optical prisms are being used to help researchers gain a greater understanding of space and astronomy

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