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
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
Susan Curtis explores the new breed of quantum gravimeters finding their way onto the slopes of Mount Etna and into tunnels deep under Birmingham
A 2 x 2mm integrated photonic chip will make interferometers, and therefore precision optics, even more powerful. Credit: J Adam Fenster/University of Rochester
University of Rochester researchers have packaged a way of amplifying interferometric signals using inverse weak value amplification - without increase in extraneous input or 'noise' - on an integrated photonic chip
The GEMINI interferometer enables an innovative approach to broadband pump-probe spectroscopy. Thanks to the employed time-domain Fourier Transform (FT) detection system, this configuration permits the measurement of the broadband pump-probe signal with a single-pixel detector and a single-channel lock in amplifier. In this way, it's possible to combine an ultra-broad spectral coverage with an extremely high sensitivity
Thorlabs has expanded its swept source OCT (SS-OCT) offering with the release of Atria systems centred at 1,060nm
In deflectometry, a camera images fringe patterns that have reflected off a surface under test, so that a system can deduce a map of the surface slopes from the deviation of the projected fringes, and from that determine the surface shape. Credit: Mahr
Lens features have been getting too small to properly characterise – but metrology providers are catching up, finds Andy Extance
New methods and instruments are building on impressive investigative capabilities, finds Andy Extance
L to R: Marc Canales, Roger Artigas, EPIC’s Ana González & Carlos Lee
Jose Pozo, CTO at EPIC, talks with Roger Artigas, co-founder, president and CTO of Sensofar Metrology – a designer and manufacturer of 3D surface metrology instruments
Keely Portway looks at some of the latest advances in light-based test and measurement techniques
The laser ranging interferometer (LRI) instrument has been successfully switched on aboard the recently launched twin US/German Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) satellites
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
