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Application Briefs

Manufacturing & Prototyping

Challenges of Fabricating and Coating Laser Crystals

Because laser crystals are sensitive optical components and are often used with high-power lasers, depositing the correct coatings onto them without introducing any defects is essential.

Briefs

Photonics/Optics

Triggering Li-ion Battery Cells with Laser Radiation

Inducing TR in a battery cell allows engineers to test and improve the safety performance of overheated batteries that can potentially catch fire or explode.

Products

Photonics/Optics

Product of the Month: September 2022 Tech Briefs

The compact optoNCDT 1420LL laser sensors from Micro-Epsilon, Ortenburg, Germany, perform precise distance measurements on metallic and structured surfaces. The sensor projects a small...

Briefs

Aerospace

On the Pulsed Laser Ablation of Metals and Semiconductors

The fundamental goal of this research is to build from a broad set of experimental and theoretical data to a narrower set of scaling relations, heuristics, and trends that provide a roadmap for understanding laser ablation across relevant regimes.

Briefs

Photonics/Optics

Modeling Optical Time and Frequency Generation and Transfer Systems

The research was closely tied to work that was led by Nathan Newbury at NIST, and the principal goal was to support the development of advanced laser sources.

Briefs

Weapons Systems

Navy Lasers, Railgun, and Hypervelocity Projectile: Background and Issues for Congress

Two key limitations that Navy surface ships currently have in defending themselves against ASCMs and ASBMs are limited depth of magazine and unfavorable cost exchange ratios.

Briefs

Photonics/Optics

Design, Demonstration, and Simulation of the Diode-Pumped Thulium/Holmium (Tm/Ho) Composite Fiber 2.1-μm Laser

This research demonstrates for the first time a polariton laser with coherence reaching the intrinsic limit of single-mode matter-wave lasers.

Articles

Photonics/Optics

Products of Tomorrow: September 2022

This column presents technologies that have applications in commercial areas, possibly creating the products of tomorrow.

NASA Spinoff

Photonics/Optics

Webb Telescope Mirror Tech Improves Eye Surgery on Earth

Eye surgery patients on Earth are benefiting from early research on the NASA’s James Webb Telescope’s enormous mirrors.

5 Ws

Green Design & Manufacturing

5 Ws of Unmanned Lasers for Methane Detection

As concerns rise about methane, a CU startup is working toward plugging the leaks.

Briefs

Lighting

Laser Processing Method for Optoelectronic Devices

This method increases the efficiency of light-emitting diodes and other optical elements.

Question of the Week

Unmanned Systems

Next-Generation High-Performance Lasers

NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), a sort of GPS system for space, relies on atomic clocks for extreme accuracy. Any modern navigation system must accurately time radio signals to triangulate a location. But the need for accuracy is even higher in space, where great distances can compound even tiny...

Special Reports

Communications

Special Report: Optics & Photonics Innovations - July 2022

The most powerful telescope ever launched, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will peer back in time to the birth of the universe's first stars. Learn about its highly advanced optics...

R&D

Photonics/Optics

Deep UV Lasers for Device Sterilization

Engineers have created a deep-ultraviolet (UV) laser using semiconductor materials that show great promise for improving the use of UV light for sterilizing medical tools, among other applications....

INSIDER

Photonics/Optics

Researchers Test Cooling Solutions for Directed Energy Weapons

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Directed Energy Directorate recently signed a five-year Strategic Education Partnership Agreement (EPA) with New Mexico State...

Articles

Electronics & Computers

Breakthrough Lightweight AR Eyeglasses

With AR eyeglasses, the screen of a mobile device can be transitioned to the lens of a pair of eyeglasses. The problem with that is that even though the technology has been around for a while, the...

Application Briefs

Weapons Systems

Missile Protection System

BIRD Aerosystems Herzliya, Israel
+972 9-972-5700
www.birdaero.com

BIRD Aerosystems, a global provider of defense technology and solutions that protect the air, sea, and land fleets of governments and...

Briefs

Photonics/Optics

Compact Laser Source Detects Pollution

A middle infrared light source can detect greenhouse and other gases as well as molecules in a person’s breath. The compact system, which resembles a tiny suitcase, contains just two parts: a standard...

Briefs

Imaging

High-Power Terahertz Laser for Sensing and Imaging

A terahertz laser was developed with high constant power, tight beam pattern, and broad electric frequency tuning for a wide range of applications in chemical sensing and imaging. The...

NASA Spinoff

Photonics/Optics

Next-Generation High-Performance Lasers

NASA’ Deep Space Network (DSN), a sort of GPS system for space, relies on atomic clocks for extreme accuracy. Any modern navigation system must accurately time radio signals to triangulate a...

INSIDER

Photonics/Optics

Photonic Quantum Computer Made in Germany

Everyone is talking about quantum computers. By interconnecting as many qubits (two-state quantum systems) as possible, massive amounts of data can be processed more easily, quickly and securely...

INSIDER

Sensors/Data Acquisition

Sapphire Fiber Could Enable Cleaner Energy and Air-Travel

Researchers at Oxford University have used a sapphire optical fiber – a thread of industrially grown sapphire less than half a millimeter thick – that can withstand...

INSIDER

Photonics/Optics

High-Power Laser Being Constructed for New Experimental Facility

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s expertise in developing high-energy lasers is being tapped to provide a key component of a major upgrade to SLAC National...

Technology Leaders

Photonics/Optics

Ensuring Optical Fiber Alignment

Most optical networks have many fiber couplings and even minor losses at these junctions will produce significant signal losses that cause problems in data transmission. Precise fiber alignment at the optical...

Products

RF & Microwave Electronics

New on the Market: May 2022

Dual Locking C14 IEC Connector

The SG03DC from MEGA Electronics, New Brunswick, NJ, contains side locking tabs similar to the Raritan Securelock. It will mate with any standard nonlocking C13 Outlet along...

Articles

Robotics, Automation & Control

Removing Aircraft Paint Using Laser-Equipped Robots

Hexavalent chromium is not a term frequently associated with engineers. Residents of Hinkley, California, however, know all about it. So do workers tasked with the labor-intensive...

Briefs

Manufacturing & Prototyping

3D System Prints Structures of Submicrometer Accuracy

3D printers working in the millimeter range and larger are increasingly used in industrial production processes. Many applications, however, require precise printing on the micrometer...

Briefs

Photonics/Optics

New Family of Glass for Lens Applications

A new composition of germanosili-cate glass created by adding zinc oxide has properties good for lens applications. The new family of zinc germanosilicate glass has a high refractive index comparable...

Products

Photonics/Optics

New Products: May 2022 Photonics & Imaging Technology

Plasma Deposition Process

Alluxa, Inc. (Santa Rosa, CA) recently introduced its next-generation SIRRUS™ plasma physical vapor deposition (PVD) platform offering full spectral...