Features | Photonics Spectra

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Features

Long dismissed by some pundits as expensive and impractical, photovoltaic cells, also known as solar cells, are a popular way to generate electricity in remote areas. John Benner, a researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., said the main reason is cost: Stringing wires from existing power lines to outlying areas averages between $20,000 and $30,000 per mile. Industry experts predict that by the mid-21st century, photovoltaics will expand beyond su...

Photonics Spectra, December 1999

Sensing the Century

The Deep Space 2 microprobe, which recently slammed into Mars, only hints at what’s possible in the next century as smart sensors merge with biological and chemical systems, according to Barbara Wilson, chief technologist and director of...

Photonics Spectra, December 1999

The Photon Connection

Wearable, miniature computers that moonlight as movie viewers with nearly unlimited selections. Enough bandwidth to simultaneously connect every living person through just one optical fiber. These are the applications that photonics should enable by...

Photonics Spectra, December 1999

A Start on Parts for Multiphoton Microscopy

Ten years ago, in a Cornell University laboratory in Ithaca, N.Y., researchers unveiled the first multiphoton microscope for biological imaging. The biomedical research community quickly realized the virtue of the technology, which demonstrated that...

Photonics Spectra, November 1999

Beyond Franklin’s Kite

When scientists at Hydro-Quebec, one of Canada’s largest power companies, want to see how a piece of electrical equipment holds up under the blast of a lightning bolt -- which can go as high as 300,000 amperes -- they plop it down in the...

Photonics Spectra, November 1999

Inside the Head of a Systems Integrator

Somewhere, someday, someone may employ photonics to build a better mousetrap. The invention will require some sort of sensing component -- an interferometer, perhaps, or an infrared camera equipped with illumination, an image processor and...

Photonics Spectra, November 1999

From Earth to Space, Lasers Take on Pollution

Recent advances in solid-state-laser and nonlinear optics technology are increasing the performance, versatility and reliability of the lasers that we can design into sensing systems. The monitoring and management of air quality is of direct concern...

Photonics Spectra, October 1999

Plastics Learn to Love Lasers

For many years, Nd:YAG, CO2 and high-power semiconductor lasers have been successfully cutting, welding and marking on metals, ceramics and other materials. You need look no further than your computer keyboard or the buttons on your automobile radio...

Photonics Spectra, October 1999

Remote Sensing Methods Monitor Natural Resources

Advances in hyperspectral imaging can provide the information needed to help protect and redevelop wildlands. Environmental scientists are concerned about the impact of changing land use and habitat fragmentation on the ecosystem. Past and current...

Photonics Spectra, October 1999

Water Researchers Perfect Monitoring Techniques

Microbiologists in California’s Orange County use a wide range of microscopy and imaging techniques to examine the organisms within the local water supply. New laser and fluorescence systems could offer improvements. Water quality is a primary...

Photonics Spectra, October 1999

Abject About Aberration?

Chromatic aberration, spherical aberration and astigmatism induce sweat on the brows of optical designers in many diverse application areas. Avoiding these deviations from "perfect" optical systems is often difficult, but correcting them with...

Photonics Spectra, September 1999

Adventures in Drug Discovery

With billions of dollars at stake, pharmaceutical companies go to exotic lengths to find the cures for what ails us. And photonics goes with them. In the film Medicine Man, Sean Connery lived in a jungle treehouse where he searched for a cure for...

Photonics Spectra, September 1999

Keep Your Photonics in Line

Communications network engineers have found polarization-maintaining fiber to be a finicky but necessary technology for coherent transmission systems. Advanced splicing tools can help tame the beast. Once an exotic technology used primarily by...

Photonics Spectra, September 1999

The Tribulations of Trials

It’s human nature to try to thwart a double-blind clinical trial of a new drug: Am I taking the real drug or a placebo? A pharmaceutical company is investigating ways of using photonics to ensure that nobody finds the answer. Deep inside a...

Photonics Spectra, September 1999

Virtual Rays Enlighten Lamp Designs

To most engineers, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) seem rather simple, comprising a chip inside a plastic envelope with leads sticking out. When you apply current to one end, light comes out the other end. In fact, LEDs are quite a bit more...

Photonics Spectra, September 1999

Adding Lanes to the Photonic Highway

If long-haul telephony marked the infancy of fiber optic communications, video and data transfer will mark its maturity. Increasing reliability and decreasing prices are the clear indicators that optical networking components are moving past their...

Photonics Spectra, August 1999

An End to Bloodletting?

Each day millions of diabetics perform a ritual, stabbing their fingers with a metal lancet to draw a few drops of blood. After the blood is placed on a test strip, a machine reads the strip and provides a reading in about half a minute. The...

Photonics Spectra, August 1999

Cancer in the Crosshairs

One problem of radiation and chemotherapy is the ravaging effect it can have on healthy, noncancerous cells. In the last few years, one treatment has gained attention as a viable alternative for some forms of esophageal and early-stage lung cancer:...

Photonics Spectra, August 1999

Combat by Remote Control

During the American Civil War, mounted Confederate scouts hand-sketched maps with remarkable speed and accuracy to aid Southern generals on the cusp of battle. Since then, laser-guided bombs and infrared heat-seeking missiles have increased the...

Photonics Spectra, August 1999

Photonics Rolls Up Its Sleeves

As might be expected, photonics plays a major role in manufacturing. But the story is bigger than that. Thanks to the application of photonics in such critical areas as semiconductors, electronics and transportation, much of modern manufacturing is...

Photonics Spectra, August 1999

Photonics Under the Microscope

Predicting funding trends for laboratory research is more of an art than a science. Science at least follows some semblance of fixed natural laws that under repeatable conditions produce repeatable results. These natural laws, unfortunately, do not...

Photonics Spectra, August 1999

Physicians Consider Photonics Alternatives

Although photonics offers some positive and clear benefits to the medical practice, their expense and traditional consignment to niche applications leaves them open to competition from less costly technologies. Ophthalmology, diabetes management,...

Photonics Spectra, August 1999

Sticker Shock!

The dental drill instills dread in millions of patients each year. Many find the vibration and high-pitched sound irritating and unpleasant. But for decades, the drill was the only widely accepted method for decay removal, and dentists and patients...

Photonics Spectra, August 1999

The Quest for Beauty

The desire to preserve youth has its roots in ancient civilizations. The Egyptians used pumice to smooth wrinkles and remove flaws. Recipes for smoothing the skin with lemon juice and cucumber appeared in India centuries ago. This age-old desire to...

Photonics Spectra, August 1999

Vision Correction for the Masses?

Ask eye surgeons about the future of laser vision correction, and they’ll tell you that the number of procedures performed each year is growing at a meteoric rate. Laser eye centers are popping up in metropolitan areas around the globe to...

Photonics Spectra, August 1999

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