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Photonics/Optics

Developing User Terminals for ESA's Optical Communications Network

Kepler Communications, a Canadian satellite telecommunications provider operating the first commercial optical data relay constellation, is leading a group of industry...

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Photonics/Optics

Libera Space Instrument Continues Unbroken Record of Earth’s ‘Energy Budget’

Sometime next year, a new NASA instrument designed and built in Colorado will get an eagle-eye view of Earth. The instrument, known as Libera, will circle the...

Briefs

Electronics & Computers

Could Metasurfaces Be The Next Quantum Information Processors?

Optics researchers in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have created specially designed metasurfaces — flat devices etched with nanoscale light-manipulating patterns — to act as ultra-thin upgrades for quantum-optical chips and setups. Read on to learn more.

Application Briefs

Power

A New Record for Optical Power Beaming

DARPA recognized the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory during their POWER Phase 2 Industry Day, for contributions to the Persistent Optical Wireless Energy Relay program, which shattered existing records for optical power beaming over distance. Read on to learn more.

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Photonics/Optics

German Satellite's Multispectral Camera Improves Weather Forecasting Data

The German Space Agency is planning the launch of the Metop-SGA1 satellite of the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT)...

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Defense

Fiber Deep Upgrade Improves Cyber Resilience for JBPHH

An Air National Guard fiber cable installation team is implementing the 'Fiber Deep' project on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. This project aims to save up to $10 million by...

Articles

Electronics & Computers

Microcomb Chips Could Improve Accuracy of GPS Systems

The optical atomic clocks that exist today are bulky and require complex laboratories with specific laser settings and optical components, making it difficult to use them outside lab environments, such as in satellites, remote research stations, or drones. Now, a research team has developed a technology that makes optical atomic clocks significantly smaller and accessible for more widespread use in society. Read on to learn more.

Briefs

Unmanned Systems

Army Researchers Develop Chemical Threat Scanning on the Fly

U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center researchers are developing a way to scan for chemical biological agent on surfaces on the fly. It is called Hyperspectral Threat Anomaly Detection, or HyperThreAD for short. Read on to learn more about it.

Articles

Software

Next Level Rugged Fiber Optic Interconnects: A New Era of High-Speed Data Transmission in Defense

In addition to the high level of complexity, the upcoming generation change from fifth- to sixth-generation fighter jets poses major challenges for component suppliers and accelerates the pace of technological competition. Read on to learn more.

NASA Spinoff

Software

Tweaking Analysis Tools to Give SAGE Advice

Under SBIR funding from Langley Research Center, Quartus Engineering of San Diego tested the tools it used to analyze optical assemblies for an atmosphere-observing satellite. With better modeling and analysis tools, Quartus and NASA hope to cut time and expense from future optical instrument design. Read on to learn more.

Articles

RF & Microwave Electronics

Everyday Life, Improved by Light: GRYPHON’s Photonic Discoveries

GRYPHON will leverage recent developments in nonlinear photonics and photonic-electronic integration to develop microwave sources with noise performance that meets or exceeds that of the best discrete oscillator modules. Read on to learn more about the endeavor.

Articles

Manned Systems

Space Lasers: Aiming Towards Next Leap in Global Communications

Space lasers are transforming the world. Not the far-off future of science fiction, but the universe of how data and communications flow today — everywhere from deep space missions to countless applications here on earth, including consumer internet services, military operations, and banking transactions. Read on to learn more.

Briefs

Electronics & Computers

Streamlined Microcomb Design Provides Control With The Flip of a Switch

Researchers at the University of Rochester describe new microcomb lasers they have developed that overcome previous limitations and feature a simple design that could open the door to a broad range of uses. Read on to learn more.

Briefs

Semiconductors & ICs

Researchers Demonstrate the First Chip-Based 3D Printer

Imagine a portable 3D printer you could hold in the palm of your hand. Researchers took a major step toward making this idea a reality by demonstrating the first chip-based 3D printer. The prototype chip has no moving parts, instead relying on an array of tiny optical antennas to steer a beam of light. Read on to learn more.

News

Unmanned Systems

AutoSens: Nodar’s Plan to Make Park Assist Tech Better, Cheaper, Cleaner

Park assist technology seems like low-hanging fruit in the assisted and automated driving space, but anyone who’s attempted to use one of these systems might have...

News

Materials

MEMS Drive Wants to Shake up Automotive Sensor

Advanced optical image stabilization (OIS) technology used in mobile phones should have a home in the automotive world. Specifically, using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) to move an...

Briefs

Photonics/Optics

NRL Research Physicists Explore Fiber Optic Computing Using Distributed Feedback

U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) researchers have outlined a novel contribution in fiber optics computing in a paper recently published in Communications Physics Journal that brings the Navy one step closer to faster, more efficient computing technologies.

News

Photonics/Optics

CES 2024: Aeva Launches 4D Lidar for SAE Level 4 Trucks

Daimler Truck announced that Aeva will supply its latest Atlas 4D lidar for the Freightliner Cascadia truck platform and collaborate with Torc Robotics to integrate the technology....

Articles

Photonics/Optics

Physicists Develop a New Type of Antenna

This research and demonstration presents a simple technique for a remote Rydberg-atom-based RF sensor, which was verified for distances of up to 30 m between the passive sensing unit and the base station — currently limited by the length of the hallway used in the demonstration.

Articles

RF & Microwave Electronics

How Laser Communications Innovation is Finally Coming of Age and Driving Innovation in Defense

Though laser technology has advantages over radio, and those advantages are growing as innovation accelerates, what is essential to realize is that they need not be in competition.

Briefs

Photonics/Optics

Spatial Calibration for Accurate Long Distance Measurement Using Infrared Cameras

All commercially available camera systems have lenses (and internal geometries) that cannot perfectly refract light waves and refocus them onto a two-dimensional (2D) image sensor. This means that all digital images contain elements of distortion and thus are not a true representation of the real world.

Briefs

Photonics/Optics

Towards Greater Sensitivity: A Brief FTIR and Infrared-Based Cavity Ring Down Spectroscopy Comparative Study

Cavity Ring-Down spectroscopy (CRDS) is a newer IR absorption-based technique made possible by the use of tunable pulsed lasers. Rather than using a broadband (blackbody) emitter as is done with traditional IR techniques, a pulsed laser is tuned across wavelengths into an optical cavity.

Briefs

Photonics/Optics

Determining Optical Material Parameters With Motion in Structured Illumination

Ellipsometry measures the amplitude ratio and the phase difference between polarized light reflected from the surface of a film and determines the refractive index or thickness by fitting the experimental data to an optical model that represents an approximated sample structure.

Briefs

Photonics/Optics

Deep Image Prior Amplitude SAR Image Anonymization

Synthetic Aperture Radar images are a powerful tool for studying the Earth’s surface. They are radar signals generated by an imaging system mounted on a platform such as an aircraft or satellite. As the platform moves, the system emits sequentially high-power electromagnetic waves through its antenna.

Briefs

Photonics/Optics

Free-Space Quantum Communications in Harsh Environments

The project aims to explore the possibility of all-weather secure quantum communication using macroscopic quantum states of light.

News

Robotics, Automation & Control

Owl AI’s 3D Thermal Sensors See Further into the Dark

The race to develop low-cost and effective sensors for automated driving requires all-day effort. Getting sensors to accurately identify the world around them is easiest on a clear, sunny day, but that solves just part of the problem.

News

Unmanned Systems

Making Sense of Next-Gen ADAS Sensing

“I don’t expect [SAE] Level 3-capable vehicles to ship in significant numbers until 2030,” asserted Rudy Burger, of Woodside Capital Partners, during May’s AutoSens 2023 conference in Detroit....

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Propulsion

Filtered Rayleigh Scattering Enables Laser-Optical Measurement of Turbofan Thrust

Pratt & Whitney and Virginia Tech announced a pioneering new technology for calculating thrust using lasers to enable high-fidelity measurement of key gas...

Briefs

Photonics/Optics

Overcoming Performance Limitations of Distributed Brillouin Fiber Laser Sensors

Distributed fiber sensors are a powerful tool for structural health monitoring and environmental sensing due to their ability to remotely monitor the strain at 1,000s of locations using low-cost optical fiber.