Universities offering associate degrees for optics technicians could help answer the photonics skills shortage, finds Jessica Rowbury
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.
Organoid imaged with Andor’s desktop confocal microscope system, the BC43. Credit: Andor
As microscopes become ever more powerful, a growing band of businesses are racing to make the latest technologies more accessible and more affordable, reports Rebecca Pool
Illustration of a three-dimensional crystal with various types of confining centres. (a) Crystal with four confining centres, each trapping waves (yellow) in all three dimensions simultaneously. (b) Crystal with a linear confining centre where waves can propagate in one dimension, analogous to an optical fibre. (c) Crystal with a planar confining centre where waves can propagate in two dimensions, analogous to a 2D electron gas. (Image: Vos et al.)
Newly discovered fundamental rules have been embedded into software to dramatically optimise the design of photonic integrated circuits
