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Marie Freebody
Photonics Media

Marie FreebodyContributing Editor Marie Freebody is a freelance science and technology journalist with a master’s degree in physics and a concentration in nuclear astrophysics from the University of Surrey in England.

Articles
By Marie Freebody

November 2025
Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Targets Changes in Brain Metabolism
Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was once confined to stationary, wired systems that limited studies to controlled laboratory environments. But today’s devices using this...
November 2025
Smart Spectroscopy Systems Expand Across Industries and Applications
Developments in integrated laser technology and improvements in basic optics, shrinking electronics, and the personalization of computing power are converging in the modern spectroscopy workstation....
August 2025
Out of the Lab and into the Line, Raman Rises for Process Analytics
Raman spectroscopy has a long-held association with biophotonics, and the same qualities that make the technique indispensable for biomedical imaging and sensing are now driving real-time process...
July 2025
Hyperspectral Imaging Permeates Mainstream Manufacturing
Hyperspectral imaging is firmly established in environmental monitoring and aerospace applications, and the technology is gaining favor across mainstream manufacturing. In sectors including...
June 2025
In Semiconductor Manufacturing and Beyond, Extreme-Ultraviolet Extends Its Reach
Though the concept of extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) lithography dates to the late 1980s, it is only now, in this contemporary era of semiconductor manufacturing, that EUV sources are firmly in the...
April 2025
Component and System-Level Breakthroughs Extend Environmental Remote Sensing from Detection to Prevention
As the world grapples with escalating environmental challenges, demand has never been greater for durable and high- performance monitoring technologies. As a result of the number of different...
January 2025
Shrinking Optics Heighten a Focus on Manufacturing and Metrology
The transition of micro-optics from an emerging field into a cornerstone of modern optical systems offers considerable evidence in support of the commercial potential of light manipulated at...
December 2024
Adapting Metallic Coatings for Dynamic Applications
As with all products for which a variety of options is available to consumers, and for which application ultimately determines consumer selection, each type of metallic coating offers its own unique...
December 2024
Laser-Textured Components Pervade Consumer and Industrial Markets
The range of benefits that laser texturing technologies offer, which span those in the critical areas of precision, performance, and efficiency, are direct drivers to the expansion of laser...
October 2024
Motion Control Upholds Micromachining’s Dynamic Role in Complex Manufacturing
Laser micromachining has proved to be revolutionary in modern manufacturing, enabling the creation of intricate features at the micro- and nanoscale. Laser micromachining and microprocessing envelop...
September 2024
Meta-Optical Metrology Clears a Path for New Characterization Methods and Products
Meta- and nano-optics are on a fast track to a wide array of photonics systems and commercial solutions, enabling advancements that extend beyond the capabilities of more common and traditional...
June 2024
Chip-Scale Visible Sources Aim to Release Quantum Technology from the Lab
The visible range, spanning around 380 to 700 nm, has longstanding use in photonics. Many materials have specific absorption, reflection, and transmission characteristics in this band, which are...
April 2024
High-Power Lasers Open Applications and Drive Component Demand
The meaning of “high power” varies considerably by sector. Indeed, the high powers that industry applications command, for example, differ vastly from those that are considered high power...
February 2024
DUV Lasers Scale Up Pulse Energy and End Markets
In the early 2000s, a husband-and-wife team, Hongxing Jiang and Jingyu Lin of Texas Tech University, first demonstrated the range of outstanding features provided by micro-LED displays. Since then,...
January 2024
Welding Disparate Materials Bridges the Gap in Modern Engineering
Laser welding finds its place in fields such as electromobility (e-mobility), aerospace, ship and rail transport, construction, the energy sector, semiconductor, consumer electronics, medical device...
December 2023
Terahertz Radiation Boosts Quality Control from Aerospace to Pharma
Contact-free thickness measurements are increasingly important in industrial process monitoring and quality control. In the automotive and aviation industries, the exact thickness of paint and...
November 2023
The Path to Practical Attosecond Sources Is Getting Shorter
Attosecond photonics allows for deep insights into material dynamics on ultrashort timescales and at nanometer resolutions. Because the attosecond is the natural timescale of electron motion within...
September 2023
Manufacturing Methods Make Freeform Optics More Accessible
From applications in ophthalmology, endoscopy, and microscopy — to use in head-up displays, lidar systems, unmanned aerial vehicles, and satellites — freeform optics are enhancing the...
August 2023
Ultrafast Laser Technology Continues to Achieve New Peaks
Ultrashort pulse lasers, such as femtosecond lasers, are becoming increasingly easy-to-use plug and play devices suitable for a wide range of industrial and biomedical applications. Fifteen years...
July 2023
Holography Lends a Whole New Dimension to Metrology
All optical imaging systems, from smartphone cameras to extreme-ultraviolet photolithography optics, are under increasing pressure to support higher resolution, broader spectral range, or higher...
June 2023
Fiber Lasers Scale Up Output Powers and End Markets
High-power fiber lasers are a versatile and powerful tool for a wide range of industrial applications, from cutting and welding to defense and beyond. Advancements in laser head design, beam...
May 2023
Polymer Optics Target Complex Imaging Systems
Polymer optics, also known as plastic optics, are ideal for reducing the footprint and weight of optical systems and assemblies, further fueling the demand for polymer optics in end uses in which...
March 2023
Smaller, Simpler Supercontinuum Lasers Illuminate a Bright Future
As broadband light sources, supercontinuum lasers are a truly revolutionary technology. While halogen light sources — or even a normal tungsten bulb — can emit a large bandwidth of light,...
February 2023
Free-Space Optical Communications Soar with the Satellite Sector
Free-space optics (FSO) and systems are uniquely valuable in enabling fast and secure connectivity, both in terrestrial and nonterrestrial networks. With major advancements in space optics over the...
January 2023
The Rise of Micro-Optics Shows No Sign of Slowing
Micro-optics are a key enabler in the modern world, spurring advancements in consumer electronics, automotive lighting, and the next generation of autonomous vehicles. As demand grows from sectors...
August 2022
UV Imaging Reveals Useful Details — at a Cost
Feature sizes of modern electronics continue to shrink, approaching or even surpassing the wavelength of light, and equipment manufacturers are looking for new ways to improve the optical resolution...
June 2022
More than Skin Deep: Photonics Protects Our Cultural Heritage
For hundreds of years, analysis trumped preservation when it came to irreplaceable cultural heritage objects such as paintings, icons, and written works. Today, conservators avoid taking even tiny...
January 2022
Metamaterials Unveil an Expanding Array of Optical Applications
Prepare for optical metamaterials to enter our pockets, kitchens, cars, and offices in the next three to five years. That’s what experts in the field predict. Thanks to rapid maturation of...
July 2021
Inspecting for Lens Defects Only Scratches the Surface
It may come as a surprise to learn that, in sharp contrast to the high-precision practices of the optics industry, many optical surfaces are still inspected by the naked eye. Humans have yet to be...
January 2021
Spectroscopy Becomes a Potent Part of Pharmaceutical Production
Fallout from the outbreak of COVID-19 continues to ripple across all sectors, and the photonics industry is no exception. But while the virus has raised challenges for many businesses, it has created...
December 2020
An Essential Exchange of Ideas Would Benefit the Optics Industry
Highly dispersive mirrors, nanostructured coatings, and freeform optics are the vanguard in optics, and they are well positioned to expand performance and open up new applications. But there’s...
October 2020
Capturing Solar Images in the Extreme Environment of Space
Imagine trying to take pictures or make optical measurements on a cloudless day beneath the blistering onslaught of 13 suns. This is the equivalent reality for the European Space Agency’s...
September 2020
Earth Imaging Reveals the True State of Land, Sea, and Air
Stephen Hawking once said, “Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet.” This deep-seated urge to make sense of where we came from and to try to understand what makes the...
May 2020
Optical Materials Bending the Rules, Shaping Our World
From the emergence of diverse 2D materials (perovskites for efficient solar cells) and twisted bilayer graphene (superconductive at a “magic angle”) to the boom in polymer science and the...
May 2020
Remote Sensing Puts Focus on Climate Change
As temperatures and carbon dioxide concentrations rise to levels not previously recorded, shifts in weather and other environmental changes are impacting the global landscape. With the U.N. recording...
April 2020
Light Brings a Delicate Touch to Treatment
Almost as soon as the first working laser was built in 1960 by Theodore Maiman, reports from users of lasers multiplied regarding the curious effects that light can elicit on living tissue. In 1962,...
November 2019
Free-Space Communications Extends Its Reach
It is little wonder that the concept of transmitting information across open air — free of wires, channels, or any other incumbent medium — is a tantalizing one. No longer confined to the...
July 2019
Fiber Optic Sensors Compete in Environmental Monitoring Market
Modern societies are facing rising concerns about global environmental issues, including an alarming rise in pollution of our seas, waterways, land, and air. As we bear witness to widespread...
June 2019
Multispectral Imaging Aids Wound Healing, Pathology Research
From airborne mapping to astronomical imaging to manufacturing inspection, multispectral imaging (MSI) has long been the go-to tool for extracting crucial details, often from distant views. Today,...
October 2018
Fiber Optics Crucial to Future Datacom Transmission
Fiber optics technology plays a critical role within the telecommunications sector, thanks to the wide-scale and growing adoption of the technology in communication and data transmission services....
August 2018
Optical Components Pushed to Precision, Tolerance Limits
From materials processing and automotive industries to next-generation inspection of semiconductors and laser surgery, the demand for high performance optical components has never been greater. ...
May 2018
Point-of-Care Optics Helps Halt the Spread of Infectious Diseases
Early diagnosis is the critical starting point to a better outcome for a patient. It allows effective treatment to start earlier, giving the patient the best possible prognosis. Prompt diagnosis also...
May 2018
Optical Sensors Support the Rise in Automation
As automation becomes an increasingly familiar feature throughout numerous industries, demand for technologies to be smarter and offer more has never been more prominent — from manufacturing a...
March 2018
Adaptive Optics Look Farther Than Ever Before
Decades after the Cold War ended, technology developed for the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative (“Star Wars”) missile defense program continues to be of use, emerging in fields ranging...
March 2018
SMS Reveals Hidden Behaviors
It was 28 years ago that the first optical experiments to detect a single molecule took place in the Moerner Laboratory at IBM Research, with relatively esoteric, low-temperature, high-resolution...
February 2018
Lasers Adapt to Changing Threat Landscape
The danger facing today’s global defense force is shifting. With the rise in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and enemies gaining greater ballistic missile expertise, ultraprecise and...
January 2018
Innovations in Lens Measurement
Automobile cameras, telescopes, head-mounted displays, laser-focusing heads and other modern photonic devices incorporate high-grade optics that can perform under extreme environmental conditions....
January 2018
Imaging UAVs Move to the Forefront of Surveillance and Reconnaissance
With the U.S. and the U.K. deploying more troops overseas, and given the global increase in the frequency and lethality of terrorist attacks, it’s little surprise that versatile unmanned aerial...
December 2017
New Frontier for Quantum Sensing
Quantum physics is a peculiar field. In the subatomic domain, the usual physical laws no longer apply. Instead, nonintuitive behaviors reign and new laws govern. A case in point is the Heisenberg...
December 2017
Terahertz Imaging Takes Aim at Dermatology and Dentistry
The first terahertz image was taken at the AT&T Bell Laboratories more than 20 years ago in 1995. The astonishingly clear image of the inside of a packaged semiconductor integrated circuit...
November 2017
Packing More Performance Into Smaller Spectrometers
From food safety and manufacturing efficiency, to environmental testing and medical diagnosis, optical spectroscopy is already an indispensable tool across several industries. Today, thanks to...
October 2017
Optical Techniques Tackle Nanoscale Measurements
Materials at the nanoscale can behave in surprising ways. While the properties of macro materials can often be predicted, the behaviors of a material invisible to the naked eye can differ greatly....
October 2017
Terahertz Window Offers Untapped Potential
Sandwiched between the infrared and microwave parts of the electromagnetic spectrum lies the terahertz window — a valuable and largely untapped portion of energy that can reveal a huge variety...
October 2017
Promise of Organic Photonics Looms Large
Organic materials could supersede their inorganic cousins in many applications thanks to some unique and intriguing properties. From lasers, lighting and Li-Fi (light fidelity) to OLED TVs and solar...
August 2017
Cardiac Optogenetics Seeks to Fulfill Its Promise
The next decade is going to be a telling one for those working in pursuit of cardiac optogenetics. Initial proofs have been demonstrated, the optical tools have been developed and scientific evidence...
July 2017
Ultrafast Optics Faces Challenges Outside of Research Labs
Ultrafast optics is currently a scientifically dominated area with a lot of dynamics in both research and development. Often, complex setups make it challenging to create compact devices that can be...
May 2017
IoT Unlocks New Markets for Compact Optical Sensors
It’s a complex, technology-mixing ecosystem that combines sensors, IT and networking technologies to enable billions of devices to be connected around the world. On a typical day, you may...
March 2017
Added Intelligence Transforms Medical Sensors Into Diagnostic Devices
As sensors shrink in size, they are able to reach places that were previously inaccessible — such as inside the human body. What is more, incorporating such increasingly tiny sensors within a...
March 2017
Advances in Surgical Microscopes Pave the Way to Improved Outcomes
By integrating intelligence, video, intraoperative-imaging and navigation technologies, today’s surgical microscopes provide surgeons with insights to improve their decision-making at the point...
February 2017
From Crop Science to Space Exploration, Optical Sensing on the Rise
From smartphones, smart homes and autonomous vehicles to crop science, food inspection and space observations, optical sensors are finding increasing use in the commercial sector. Image sensing...
January 2017
Superresolution Microscopy: An Imaging Revolution
Superresolution optical microscopy, for which the Nobel Prize was awarded to Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell, and William Moerner in 2014, has been one of the most momentous developments in the life...
December 2016
Optics, Tunable Lasers to Move Multiphoton Microscopy Forward
Of the numerous far-field imaging techniques, multiphoton microscopy has proved particularly valuable in many biological studies, providing multimodal images from deep within tissue, as well as...
November 2016
Medicine and the Life Sciences
Imagine testing for a host of diseases and conditions in a single sample of blood, saliva, urine or even a few tear drops. Cancers, heart conditions, viruses, food allergies and sepsis are just some...
November 2016
OLEDs Step In Where Design Matters
From the Apple watch to Samsung smartphones, LG televisions, virtual reality headsets and the first laptop screen, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are set to disrupt the display market. In...
October 2016
Solar Steps Up
Despite a challenging environment, there is hope for the solar market with progress being made across many areas of technology. While the advances may not be revolutionary, the small steps toward...
October 2016
Optical Materials of Tomorrow
From silicon photonics and quantum dots to metamaterials and carbon nanotubes, innovative materials promise a faster, brighter and more integrated future. While some materials have already enjoyed a...
September 2016
LEDs and Lasers Battle for Dominance in Brain Research
Lighting up the brain to better understand, treat or even cure brain disorders has become an established field known as optogenetics. First introduced in 2005 by professor Karl Deisseroth as he...
August 2016
Great Strides in Optical Fabrication
In 2018, a six-and-a-half-meter mirror made up of 18 hexagonal segments will quietly unfurl 1.5 million km from Earth, marking the end of years of intense research and refining of optics fabrication...
June 2016
Image Processing Interprets the Modern World
From the moment we wake up and open our eyes, we are processing images. It is this image processing that enables us to successfully complete tasks from the mundane to those that are undertaken only...
May 2016
Applications on the Upswing as Cost of Imaging Systems Come Down
Every autumn — usually from mid-September until around mid-November in North America and March through May in South America — cranberries reach their peak of color and flavor and are...
April 2016
Lighting Up Microscopes: Advances and Emerging Sources
Microscope developers are a resourceful bunch, opting to use the light source available to them at the time to peer at or below the surface of various materials. Even dating back to the 17th century,...
March 2016
Delivering Optical Devices to the Medical Market
Medical optics is big business. The global market for medical device technologies is expected to reach $538.7 billion in 2018, registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.5 percent over...
February 2016
Manufacturers Unite to Create Submicron Precision
Ultraprecision manufacturing and optics unite two sophisticated technologies that are essential for a modern world that demands exact and meticulous results. From spacecraft components,...
January 2016
Can Confocal Microscopes Compete with the Emergence of Superresolution?
Like most things, confocal microscopes have improved with age. The technique dates back to 1955, when American cognitive scientist Professor Marvin Minsky proposed that the ideal microscope would...

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