PHOTONICS WEST PREVIEW
SPIE PhotonicsWest 2015
excites with neurology, 3D printing, and silicon photonics
GAIL OVERTON, JOHN WALLACE,
and BARBARA GOODE
Twenty-thousand photonics technologists and executives will unite at the 2015 SPIE Photonics West conference this February in San Francisco to explore, among many other things, how photonics could potentially improve, repair, and communicate with the brain using light.
SPIE Photonics West has always been |
circuitry (have you |
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the go-to conference for new and ex- |
heard |
of “silicon |
citing technological breakthroughs |
photonics”?). |
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in the field of photonics. This year, |
These and numer- |
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as we enter the 2015 International |
ous other wonders of |
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Year of Light, SPIE Photonics West |
the photonics world |
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takes a more detailed look at neurol- |
are hurtling toward |
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ogy, 3D printing, and silicon photon- |
you at SPIE Photonics |
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ics—some of the hottest buzzwords |
West 2015 (with 8% |
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and buzz phrases in the photonics |
more |
technical pa- |
industry today—that have vast, far- |
pers than last year) |
The BiOS Hot Topics session is
a not-to-be-missed favorite presenting some of the most important recent developments in biophotonics on Feb. 7 from 7 to 9 pm.
for Optoelectronics— presentations will represent not only the latest work, but a heightened sense of direction and
reaching implications for the future of our society.
Imagine being able to probe, study, and even modify the brain’s behavior using light (can you say “optogenet- ics”?). Now envision using light to print brain matter and other biological tissues for life-saving repairs and mindaltering benefits (are you thinking “3D printing”?). And finally, imagine using light to communicate faster than ever before using ultra-tiny circuits that circumvent cumbersome, bulkoptic devices and interconnect bottlenecks with faster-than-light photonic
from February 7 to |
drive,” says SPIE pub- |
12 in San Francisco. |
lic relations manager |
These wonders take the form of plena- |
Amy Nelson. “Integrated photonics |
ry sessions, papers, exhibits, and res- |
for next-generation computing is an |
taurant conversations with photonic |
important area to watch as well, and |
gurus and wanna-be gurus hungry to |
speakers from companies including |
learn more about how photonics can |
IBM, Intel, and Corning will be among |
positively impact our world. |
those presenting their latest work and |
“With the recent commitment of |
directions. |
more funds toward the White House |
“Translational research has been |
BRAIN Initiative and experts com- |
quickly adopted by those in the bio- |
ing to Photonics West from all over |
medical optics community looking |
the world—including several from the |
for ways to speed the delivery of new |
Britton Chance Center for Biomedical |
treatments and diagnostic methods to |
Photonics at the Wuhan National Lab |
the patient, and the number of papers |
52 January 2015 |
www.laserfocusworld.com Laser Focus World |
BiOS and Translational Research virtual symposium
The Biomedical Optics Symposium (BiOS) and BiOS Expo will open Photonics West on Saturday, February 7. BiOS is organized into five tracks, including Photonic Therapeutics and Diagnostics; Clinical Technologies and Systems; and Nano/Biophotonics. Each of the other two tracks is a mouthful:
SPIE Photonics West will draw a crowd of over 20,000 engineers, scientists, and students to Moscone Center in San Francisco from
February 7-12, 2015.
Tissue Optics, Laser-Tissue Interaction, and Tissue Engineering; and Biomedical Spectroscopy, Microscopy, and Imaging. In addition, Translational Research is a virtual symposium that includes BiOS presentations in
in the program has increased this year,” |
Amano, and Shuji |
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says Nelson. “The Green Photonics pro- |
Nakamura are all au- |
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gram continues to dazzle with research |
thors of papers being presented. |
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that will enable applications in more |
“The SPIE Photonics West Exhibition |
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efficient photovoltaics, more disaster- |
is sold out for 2015 with all available |
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resistant telecommunications systems, |
space currently committed and a wait- |
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and new solid-state lighting solutions |
ing list in place,” says Peter Hallett, SPIE |
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for the developed as well as the devel- |
director, marketing and industry rela- |
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oping world.” |
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tions. “Approximately 1250 suppliers, |
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And once again, SPIE brings in the |
developers, and manufacturers of the |
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heavy hitters with several plenary, |
latest products, tools, and applications |
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keynote, and invited talks to be giv- |
for research and industry will be on the |
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en by Nobel Laureates: Eric Betzig and |
floor.” Hallett adds, “This year, 13 in- |
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William Moerner will speak about their |
ternational cluster and 4 U.S. regional |
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prize-winning work in |
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cluster booths are participat- |
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the field of microscopy |
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ing, including new-in-2015 pa- |
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(search on their names |
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vilions from Taiwan, Austria, |
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at http://www.spie. |
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and Korea that make SPIE |
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org/photonics-west. |
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Photonics West a true glob- |
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xml to bring up the |
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al marketplace where people |
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presentations); Shuji |
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can speak face-to-face with |
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Nakamura |
will ad- |
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the best suppliers from around |
dress the SPIE Fellows |
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the world.” |
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luncheon (see http:// |
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And last but not least, please |
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spie.org/PW/special- |
FIGURE 1. Lihong Wang |
attend the SPIE Photonics West |
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events/Membership- |
of Washington University |
welcome reception on Monday, |
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Event); |
Thomas |
in St Louis will receive |
February 9 from 7 to 8:30 pm. |
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Südhof will give the |
SPIE’s 2015 Britton |
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With the theme of the reception |
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Neurophotonics ple- |
Chance Biomedical Optics |
being “Creatures of the Light” |
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nary on |
Tuesday |
Award in recognition of |
in the 2015 International Year |
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(February 10, 2–3 pm), |
pioneering technical work |
of Light, how can you go |
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a new plenary area |
and visionary leadership |
wrong? SPIE says it will take a |
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in the development |
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this year; and Kostya |
and application of |
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“creative look backward to the |
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Novoselov, |
Isamu |
photoacoustics and |
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beginnings of time when light |
Akasaki, |
Hiroshi |
photon-transport modeling. |
was all we had.” |
all five tracks—on technologies, tools, and techniques that show high potential to improve
healthcare practice.
If past years are any indication, even after a full day exploring the conferences, exhibits, and interactive poster session, attendees will bring enthusiastic attention to the Saturday Hot Topics plenary (7–9 pm). Hot Topics will begin with presentation of SPIE’s 2015 awards in biomedical optics, including the Biophotonics Technology Innovator Award (as of late November, the winner had not been announced) and the Britton Chance Biomedical Optics Award, which will honor Lihong Wang of Washington University (St. Louis, MO) for “outstanding lifetime contributions” (see Fig. 1). Wang is being recognized for his pioneering technical work and visionary leadership in the development and application of photoacoustics and photon transport modeling; he will deliver a talk titled “Photon-Phonon Synergy: Photoacoustic Tomography and Beyond.”
Next, seven other speakers will take the stage. Three of these will focus on cancer screening and treatment: Vadim Backman of Northwestern University will speak on cancer screening and nanoscale cytology; Paola Taroni of Politecnico di Milano (Italy) will explain optical assessment of collagen and breast cancer;
Laser Focus World www.laserfocusworld.com |
January 2015 53 |
PHOTONICS WEST PREVIEW c o n t i n u e d
and David Roberts of |
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(BRAIN) Initiative, explained |
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Dartmouth Hitchcock |
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why optical imaging is key for |
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Medical Center will de- |
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neuroscience). |
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scribe fluorescence-guid- |
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Sunday, February 8 |
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ed resection of intracra- |
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will see the continu- |
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nial tumors. |
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ation of BiOS Expo, |
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The remaining talks will |
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which |
will feature |
cover advances in imaging: |
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more than 210 ex- |
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Brett Bouma of the Wellman |
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hibitors with products |
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Center for Photomedicine |
FIGURE 2. The BiOS Expo, |
such as advanced mi- |
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will report on endoscop- |
which runs Saturday from noon |
croscopes, analytical |
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ic OCT, Richard Rosen |
to 5 and Sunday from 10 am-5 |
instruments, nanosec- |
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of the New York Eye and |
pm, will feature more than |
ond lasers, fiber op- |
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Ear Infirmary will describe |
210 exhibitors and many new |
tics, spectral sensing |
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adaptive optics for the reti- |
products, including the Lumen |
systems, and scientif- |
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na, MIT’s Peter So will re- |
300-LED broad spectrum white |
ic cameras. Many new |
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light fluorescence excitation |
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port on nonlinear micros- |
illumination system from Prior |
products will be on |
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copy, and Rafael Yuste of |
Scientific. (Courtesy of Prior |
display such as Prior |
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Columbia University will |
Scientific) |
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Scientific’s (Rockland, |
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describe simultaneous imag- |
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MA) |
Lumen 300- |
ing of neural activity in 3D (at the 2014 |
LED broad spectrum white light fluo- |
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Hot Topics session, Yuste, a pioneer be- |
rescence excitation illumination system |
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hind the U.S. Brain Research through |
(see Fig. 2). Other product introductions |
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Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies |
are a developer’s kit for FEMTOprint |
SA’s (Muzzano, Switzerland) tabletop platform for making 3D micro-nano- devices; a free-running single-photon detector for the near-IR range from ID Quantique (Geneva, Switzerland); and Raptor Photonics’ (Larne, Northern Ireland) cooled visible-SWIR InGaAs camera. In case you don’t get to see all the vendors you want to on Saturday and Sunday, keep in mind that some will also exhibit in the Photonics West Expo starting Tuesday.
Two special events are set to begin Sunday at 12:30: the BiOS Student Networking Lunch with the Experts and the Translational Research Lunchtime Forum. The latter will feature Bruce Tromberg of UC Irvine and Gabriela Apiou of Harvard Medical School facilitating a discussion about outcomesbased work that can change the lives of patients, presentations of work selected from the Translational Research virtual symposium, and Best Paper awards.
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PHOTONICS WEST PREVIEW continued
Then, from 5–7 pm on Sunday, aca- |
conference, and the Ocean Optics Young |
describe recent studies showing how dys- |
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demic researchers and those working in |
Investigator Award (6:10 pm), in con- |
function of neurexins and their ligands |
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small business will have an opportuni- |
junction with the Colloidal Nanocrystals |
might predispose to neuropsychiatric dis- |
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ty to learn about U.S. Food and Drug |
for Biomedical Applications confer- |
orders. And the evening plenary, hosted |
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Administration (FDA) policies and proce- |
ence. (Two other awards programs, the |
by the International Biomedical Optics |
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dures relevant to their work. Chaired by |
PicoQuant Young Investigator Award, |
Society group—which aims to facilitate |
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Warren Grundfest of UCLA and Ramesh |
part of the Single Molecule Spectroscopy |
communications between clinicians and |
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Raghavachari of the FDA, the session |
and Superresolution Imaging conference, |
engineers—will feature a talk by Stephen |
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will feature Roger Bagwell of Actuated |
and the Seno Medical Best Paper Awards, |
Boppart of the University of Illinois at |
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Medical offering insights on regulatory |
part of the Photons Plus Ultrasound con- |
Urbana-Champaign: Transforming |
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approval and commercialization of med- |
ference, run on Sunday at 3:25 pm and |
Medicine and Surgery with Biophotonics. |
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ical devices, and Martin Culjat of Farus |
Tuesday at 5:40 pm, respectively). |
BiOS interactive poster sessions will |
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LLC and UCLA on FDA submissions for |
Three more plenary sessions will take |
run through Tuesday (hours are Saturday |
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startups. At 7 pm, Nobel Laureates Betzig |
place on Tuesday, February 10. In the |
and Sunday, 3–4 pm, Sunday and |
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and Moerner talk about their work on |
Nano/Biophotonics plenary (10:30 am), |
Monday, 5:30 – 7:30 pm, and Tuesday, |
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fluorescence microscopy as described in |
Gabriel Popescu of the University of |
6–8 pm), and the BiOS conferences will |
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the introduction to this preview. |
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will dis- |
run through Thursday. While it is diffi- |
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On Monday, February 9, three priz- |
cuss the use of optics to bridge molecu- |
cult to select highlights from the thou- |
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es will be awarded to early career scien- |
lar and cellular biology and present some |
sands of fascinating offerings, here are |
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tists with the JenLab Young Investigator |
recent advances in phase-sensitive mea- |
a few that captured our attention. The |
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Award (9:35 am) and the Student Poster |
surements. The Neurophotonics plenary |
first three are part of the Translational |
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Session Competition (2:50 pm), both |
(2 pm), delivered by 2013 Nobel Laureate |
Research virtual symposium: |
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of which are part of the Multiphoton |
Thomas C. Südhof of the Stanford |
1. Paper 9303-603: Photoacoustic im- |
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Microscopy in the Biomedical Sciences |
University School of Medicine, will |
aging: A potential new platform for |
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PHOTONICS WEST PREVIEW continued
assessment of bone health (a technologically difficult task), by Xueding Wang of the University of Michigan Medical School and colleagues.
2.Paper 9308-18: Enabling technology for photodynamic therapy in global health settings: Battery-powered irradiation and smartphone-based imaging for ALA-PDT by Joshua Hempstead of the University of Massachusetts (Boston) and colleagues. Photonics has much to offer global health, and this is an exciting new example.
3.Paper 9311-7: Quantitative wide-field fluorescence imaging in neurosurgery by Keith Paulsen of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College and colleagues. Wow: fluorescenceguided neurosurgery.
4.Paper 9334-22: Lattice light-sheet microscopy: Imaging molecules, cells, and embryos at high spatiotemporal resolution by Wesley Legant, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Farm Research Campus and colleagues. This technique represents recent work by Nobel Laureate Betzig (see Fig. 3).
LASE
The LASE plenary session, held Wednesday, includes presentations on the future of NASA’s optical communications program by Donald Cornwall Jr., head of NASA’s Advanced Communications Division; coherent combination of ultrafast laser pulses by Jens Limpert, head of the Laser Development Group at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena (Germany); and laser 3D printing of metallic components by Xiaoyan Zeng, deputy director of the lasers and terahertz department at Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (China). The talk given by Limpert is notable in that he discusses the coherent combination of a large number of ultrafast fiber amplifiers, with the goal of not only petawatt peak powers, but also megawatt average powers.
The LASE technical sessions are divided into five tracks: Laser Source Engineering, Nonlinear Optics,
Semiconductor Lasers and LEDs, Laser Micro-/Nanoengineering, and Laser Applications. A few of the almost 30 technical-session topics include Fiber Lasers XII: Technology, Systems, and Applications (Conference 9344); Ultrafast Phenomena and Nanophotonics XIX (Conference 9361); High-Power Diode Laser Technology and Applications XIII (Conference 9348); Advanced Fabrication Technologies for Micro/Nano Optics and Photonics VIII (Conference 9374); and Laser Refrigeration of Solids VIII (Conference 9380). And, of course, each of these 30 session topics has its own group of subtopics, resulting in hundreds of individual session tracks—sure- ly one for every researcher’s and engineer’s specialty.
In a session on the integration of nanostructures into photovoltaics (9352-13; Sunday, February 8), Vivian Ferry of the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis) discusses the many ways that nanostructures offer the ability to control, concentrate, and spectrally tune light in subwavelength dimensions; the talk concentrates both on light trapping and luminescent solar concentrators.
The use of fiber lasers as directed-en- ergy devices will be the topic of an invited paper (9344-12; Monday, February 9) by Don Seeley of the High Energy Laser Joint Technology Office (HEL-JTO; Kirtland AFB, NM) and John Slater and LeAnn Brasure of Schafer Corp.
(Arlington, VA). The same session track includes a talk on extreme-ultraviolet generation by a high-intensity nanosecond all-fiber-coiled laser, given by ChunLin Chang and colleagues from National Taiwan University and National Central University (Taiwan).
A multinational team of researchers will describe the achievement of 517– 538 nm tunable second-harmonic generation in a diode-pumped periodically poled potassium titanyl phosphate (PPKTP) waveguide crystal (9347-11; Tuesday, February 10) using a tunable quantum-well (QW) external-cavity fi- ber-coupled laser diode; maximum output power at 530 nm is 12.88 mW. On Wednesday, February 11 (paper 935315), a German group will discuss the direct laser writing of 3D nanostructures using a 405 nm laser diode; the shorter wavelength allows them to create periodic structures with a finer lattice constant.
In an invited paper (9363-56; Thursday, February 12), a group from Nichia (Anan, Japan) will present recent results on high- output-power deep ultraviolet LEDs emitting, for example, 35 mW at 258 nm for a single-chip device with a lifetime of more than 3000 h. Researchers at Korea University (Seoul) will discuss the use of chemically doped graphene films as a transparent conductive layer in gallium nitride (GaN)-based LEDs (936375; Thursday, February 12); such layers can replace the fragile indium-tin-ox-
ide layer currently widely used. Experimental results will be presented.
FIGURE 3. BiOS paper 9334-22 will describe lattice light sheet microscopy. A new development from the lab of 2014 Nobel Laureate Eric Betzig, it generates high-resolution images quickly while minimizing damage to cells. (Courtesy of the Betzig lab, HHMI/Janelia Research Campus)
OPTO
Held on Monday, February 9, the OPTO plenary session will open with a talk on silicon integrated nanophotonics given by Yurii Vlasov of the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center (Yorktown Heights, NY). Vlasov will highlight IBM’s nanophotonics technology for
58 January 2015 |
www.laserfocusworld.com Laser Focus World |
PHOTONICS WEST PREVIEW continued
cost-efficient optical links that con- |
oxide on a silicon chip (9365-21; Tuesday, |
tailors the spectrum of the spectrograph. |
nect racks, modules, and chips togeth- |
February 10); the devices show an inter- |
A mockup has already been designed, fab- |
er with ultralow-power single-die op- |
nal net gain of 20 dB at 1532 nm. A group |
ricated, and tested. Bjarke Rose of Ibsen |
tical transceivers. Christoph Lienau |
at Fachhochschule Karlsruhe Technik |
Photonics (Farum, Denmark) will dis- |
from Carl von Ossietzky Universität |
und Wirtschaft (Karlsruhe, Germany) |
cuss programmable spectroscopy en- |
Oldenburg (Germany) will discuss ul- |
will discuss air-suspended quasi-single- |
abled by a digital light projector (DLP; |
trafast coherent charge transfer in so- |
mode polymer rib waveguides (9365- |
see Fig. 4), as opposed to more-traditional |
lar cells, using coherent femtosecond |
28; Tuesday, February 10); suspending |
diode-array-based spectrometers (9376- |
spectroscopy for exploration at the |
waveguides in air results in air cladding |
18; Wednesday, February 11). |
tens-of-femtoseconds time scale. Harry |
that produces the highest refractive-in- |
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Atwater from the California Institute |
dex contrast possible between the core |
3D Printing virtual symposium |
of Technology (Caltech; Pasadena) will |
and cladding. |
In its inaugural year, the 3D Printing vir- |
highlight progress in tunable and quan- |
Scientists from Caltech and the Jet |
tual symposium focuses on papers from |
tum metaphotonics (resonant subwave- |
Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, CA) |
BiOS, LASE, and OPTO that describe |
length structures), which can serve as |
will present the development of efficient |
the innovative technologies and applica- |
tunable radiation absorbers or emitters. |
high-numerical-aperture flat microlenses |
tions surrounding this hottest of trends |
The OPTO session tracks cover |
made from high-contrast “transmit ar- |
in the photonics community. The um- |
the gamut, including Optoelectronic |
rays,” which are a periodic arrangement |
brella term “3D printing” encompasses |
Materials and Devices; Photonic |
of amorphous-silicon posts with differ- |
several technologies including additive |
Integration; Nanotechnologies in |
ent diameters on a fused-silica substrate |
manufacturing, selective laser melting, |
Photonics;MOEMS-MEMSinPhotonics; |
(9372-24; Thursday, February 12). The |
laser sintering, laser photopolymeriza- |
Advanced Quantum and Optoelectronic |
near-infrared microlenses have spot siz- |
tion, and many more specifically light- |
Applications; Semiconductor Lasers and |
es as small as 0.57 λ and focusing effi- |
based variants as well as the software and |
LEDs; Displays and Holography; and |
ciencies of more than 80%. |
probes that quantify the performance of |
Optical Communications: Devices to |
One of the most common microelec- |
these systems. |
Systems. Integrated photonics and nan- |
tromechanical-systems (MEMs) devices, |
3D Printing virtual symposium chair |
otechnology are both hot topics that ap- |
the digital micromirror device (DMD), |
Henry Helvajian of The Aerospace |
pear repeatedly in these sessions. |
is the topic of its own group of sessions. |
Corporation (Los Angeles, CA) says |
For example, researchers from the |
In one example, a group of French astro- |
that nearly 130 papers have been iden- |
University of Twente (Enschede, The |
physicists will present results on a DMD- |
tified for this multidisciplinary field that |
Netherlands) will describe the fabri- |
based programmable wide-field spectro- |
is revolutionizing manufacturing by en- |
cation and testing of spiral-waveguide |
graph for Earth observation (9376-16; |
abling the development of more integrat- |
amplifiers in erbium-doped aluminum |
Wednesday, February 11); the DMD |
ed devices and lowering the cost of more |
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Laser Focus World www.laserfocusworld.com |
January 2015 59 |
PHOTONICS WEST PREVIEW c o n t i n u e d
complex-shaped parts that enable the development of lighter-weight cars and planes and better control combustion/ chemistry to reduce carbon emissions. Furthermore, with insight and technologies derived from BiOS research, 3D printing could create new capabilities for first responders and others in the field to quickly obtain the right piece of equipment.
“3D printing has a likeness to biology where material is grown, cell by cell,” says Helvajian. “In the most soaring of visions, a 3D manufactured product would not only have the necessary complex shape but also include means for ‘sensing’ an environment, harvesting energy, and ‘communicating’ its state. We are far from realizing this vision, but recent strides in fields such as in materials development and materials processing along with research that explores biological processes from the perspective of part
manufacturing brings hope that 3D manufacturing could change the world much like the industrial and electronics
revolutions. |
FIGURE 4. A recently introduced digital light projector (DLP) device |
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“Present at SPIE |
developed by Texas Instruments (TI; Dallas, TX) is optimized for use |
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Photonics West |
with near-infrared light (left). A module by Ibsen Photonics used |
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are experts in ma- |
for programmable spectroscopy combines a DLP unit with high |
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terials |
develop- |
efficiency fused-silica transmission gratings (right). (Courtesy of TI and |
ment, |
materials |
Ibsen Photonics) |
processing, min-
iaturization, MEMS/NEMS, and forSPIE started a 3D manufacturing con-
tuitously those who analyze and characterize biological systems,” says Helvajian. “All the assembled experts have the belief that light—lasers or otherwise—has the capacity to not only process materials but also serve as an in situ diagnostic if the light/matter interaction can be sufficiently controlled. In the 2014 PW meeting,
ference with this vision in mind. For the 2015 meeting, SPIE has assembled a virtual symposium that comprises selected papers to foster these cross-disciplinary interactions and realize the 3D manufacturing vision sooner.” Helvajian concludes, “Ergo, we look for technical innovations from the ‘light source’ vendor, the materials supplier, the CADCAM system developer, and the light-matter processing technologist, and seek help from those who unwrap the evolution- ary-developed processes in biology and make it evident as to how it could be applied to 3D manufacturing.”
Specific Laser Focus World (LFW) paper recommendations include “3D printed biomimetic vascular phantoms for assessment of hyperspectral imaging and diffuse reflectance systems” (paper 9325- 8) from University of Maryland, College Park and the US FDA and NCI. This paper discusses turbid polymer phantoms with biomimetic subsurface channels based on a fundus camera image of the retina have been produced with biologically relevant optical properties that are durable, reusable, and reproducible.
An additional LFW recommended paper is “FPscope: A 3D-printed high-reso- lution microscope using a cellphone lens” (paper 9314-3) from the University of Connecticut. Here, FP stands for Fourier ptychography in which an LED array illuminates the sample from different incident angles; a commercially available 3D printer (Makerbot) prints the plastic case to house the LED array, cell-phone
60 January 2015 |
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PHOTONICS WEST PREVIEW c o n t i n u e d
lens, and CCD detector. The captured images are stitched in the Fourier domain, and hardware is replaced by computational imaging to recover a high-resolution, large field-of-view
image of the sam- |
FIGURE 5. FPscope is a 3D-printed high-resolution microscope that |
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ple (see Fig. 5). |
uses a cellphone lens. (Courtesy of University of Connecticut) |
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Green |
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Photonics virtual symposium |
transparent electrodes without the use |
|
Once again chairing the Green Photonics |
of rare earth materials (paper 9351-41), |
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virtual symposium, Steve Eglash, ex- |
and the University of Minnesota, Twin |
|
ecutive director of the Stanford Data |
Cities, where researchers are working |
|
Science Initiative at Stanford University, |
to increase absorption in semiconductor |
|
sees two OPTO plenary talks of partic- |
films to enhance performance and de- |
|
ular interest: “Silicon integrated nano- |
crease production cost. Light is trapped |
|
photonics: From fundamental science to |
in ultrathin silicon solar cells with me- |
|
manufacturable technology” from Yurii |
tallic and resonant semiconductor nano- |
|
Vlasov of the IBM T.J. Watson Research |
structures (paper 9352-13). |
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Center (February 9, 8:10–8:50 am) and |
Eglash adds that efficient new light |
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“Ultrafast coherent charge transfer in so- |
sources will provide long-lived and eco- |
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lar cells and artificial light harvesting sys- |
nomical illumination for human activities |
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tems: Toward movies of electronic mo- |
and information display. Researchers at |
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tion” from Christoph Lienau of Carl |
the Technische Universität Braunschweig |
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von Ossietzky University (February 9, |
(Germany) describe GaN nanorods and |
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8:50–9:30 am). |
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3D columns as an exciting new route to- |
Eglash says the Green Photonics sym- |
ward light engines for SSL (paper 9383- |
|
posium highlights papers from OPTO |
38), and a team from National Taiwan |
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and LASE that show how new photon- |
University will report on using cholester- |
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ic and optoelectronic tools and materi- |
ic liquid crystals for a long-lived bright |
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als will reduce power consumption, en- |
light source without the need for contin- |
|
able cleaner manufacturing, and generate |
uously supplied voltage (paper 9384-26). |
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new energy for a broad range of applica- |
Photonics are at work in disaster |
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tions. Papers describe progress and break- |
prevention and management as well. |
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throughs in biomedicine, photovoltaics |
A team from the National Institute |
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(PV), solid-state lighting (SSL), battery |
of Information and Communications |
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manufacturing, optical communications |
Technology in Japan will report on |
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(at all scales from intra-chip to intercon- |
a wireless mesh network test demon- |
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tinental), optical characterization/spec- |
strating disaster-resistant telecommu- |
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troscopy/metrology, and sensors for the |
nication technologies (paper 9387-19). |
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Internet of Things and applications such |
Also, anticipating climate-change related |
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as climate-change adaptation. |
floods and landslides, researchers from |
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Among labs reporting on advanc- |
the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana |
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es in nanophotonics toward improved |
(Columbia) will report on a hybrid op- |
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PV efficiency are Fraunhofer IWS de- |
tical and wireless sensor network with |
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scribing a new generation of thin me- |
highly reconfigurable and self-healing |
|
tallic films in fabricating highly efficient |
capabilities (paper 9387-22). |
62 January 2015 |
www.laserfocusworld.com Laser Focus World |
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P H O T O N I C F R O N T I E R S : O P T I C S
LOOKING BACK/LOOKING FORWARD:
A transformation of optical components
JEFF HECHT, contributing editor
Half a century ago, optics
were polished glass lenses with spherical shapes.
Now we also have molded plastic and glass aspheres
and a variety of infrared and UV materials. Tomorrow we’re looking for versatile broadband optical systems and metamaterials.
more than 99.5% across the visible spectrum. D. E. Perry and Eugene Gordon of Bell Telephone Laboratories had deposited 35 dielectric layers, more than double the earlier record of 15 layers. That was important news because low-gain
I discovered optics when my father gave me a one-inch Wollensak refracting telescope in the early days of the space race. The Edmund Scientific catalog followed, and I saved my allowance to buy surplus optics.
Optics seemed new and fascinating, but in reality it was a sleepy backwater of technology when the laser was born in 1960, and largely remained so when Laser Focus published its first semimonthly issue on January 1, 1965. My surplus polished-glass lenses dated back to World War II, and Wollensak had made similar telescopes in the 1930s. Plastic contact lenses were newer, but the only plastic optics I saw were toys.
Thin-film coatings and exotic materials
The first issue of Laser Focus concentrated on lasers, but the January 15 issue described “nearly perfect” laser mirrors with reflectivity
gas lasers needed high-reflectivity cavity mirrors to reach threshold.
Optics had come a long way by the time I joined the Laser Focus staff in 1974. The August 1974 issue reported that the damage threshold of thin-film coatings had reached 3 to 4 joules/cm2 for 30 ps pulses. The December 1974 cover featured the new technology of adaptive optics, a mirror
with an array of 21 piezoelectric transducers that shaped its flexible surface, described in a feature by Julius Feinleib of the Itek Corp. (Bedford, MA, but long defunct) (see Fig. 1).
Commercial optics had also advanced. In the same issue, Optical Sciences Group (San Rafael, CA)
advertised Fresnel and spherical plastic lenses ranging from 3 mm to 3 ft in diameter (see Fig. 2). An ad from CVI Laser (Albuquerque, NM) offered optics of germanium, zinc selenide, potassium chloride, sodium chloride, and cadmium telluride for use with 10 µm lasers.
The April 1977 issue described diamond machining of metal mirrors, which the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory used to make aspheric mirrors as large as 38 inches,
including the 11.8 inch axicon shown on the issue’s cover (see Fig. 3).
Optics in the 1980s
In an October 1984 review, Bob Shannon of the University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ) credited interferometric measurements with “the principle gains in productivity” in optics
FIGURE 1. The December 1974 cover of Laser Focus World
featured the new technology of adaptive optics, which had a mirror with an array of 21 piezoelectric transducers that shaped its flexible surface.
Laser Focus World www.laserfocusworld.com |
January 2015 65 |
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OPTICS continued
manufacturing over the past 25 years. He wrote that aspheric optics were “beginning to enter the production stage.”
The New Products
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|
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1987 issue reported |
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that Perkin-Elmer’s |
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Applied |
Optics |
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Operations (Garden |
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Grove, CA) had be- |
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gun diamond-turning |
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beryllium mirrors, at- |
FIGURE 2. In the April 1974 issue, Optical Sciences Group |
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tractive for space ap- |
advertised Fresnel and spherical plastic lenses ranging from 3 |
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plications |
because |
mm to 3 ft in diameter. |
of their light weight. |
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Reflecting increased laser powers, Spawr |
(Townshend, VT) advertised lenses, win- |
Optical Research (Corona, CA) adver- |
dows, beamsplitters, and mirrors made |
tised copper mirrors to 24 inches with the |
from 23 different materials to span wave- |
“very highest damage threshold for your |
lengths from the vacuum ultraviolet to |
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66 January 2015 |
www.laserfocusworld.com Laser Focus World |
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OPTICS continued
The 1980s also saw a new approach to big optics—spin- casting parabolic glass telescope mirrors. Our June 1988 issue reported
that |
Roger Angel |
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at the University of |
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Arizona |
had spin- |
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cast a 3.5 m mirror, |
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and was building a |
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furnace to make big- |
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ger ones. He cast |
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the |
first |
success- |
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ful 6.5 m mirror in |
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1992 and completed |
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the first 8.4 m mir- |
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ror, for the Large |
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Binocular Telescope, |
FIGURE 3. The April 1977 issue described |
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in January 1997. But |
diamond machining of metal mirrors, |
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it took a set of tiny |
which the Lawrence Livermore National |
||
Laboratory used to make aspheric mirrors |
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optics, designed and |
as large as 38 inches, including the 11.8 |
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fabricated with ex- |
inch axicon. |
acting precision, to make the Hubble
Space Telescope the world’s premier eye in the sky despite its flawed primary mirror, as I reported in the February 1995 issue.
Commercial optics advanced apace. In the January 1995 issue, II-VI Inc. (Saxonburg, PA) advertised two-axis diamond turning of precision aspheric lenses and metal mirrors. Newport Corp. (Irvine, CA) advertised mirrors providing the full optical bandwidth and time resolution needed for ultrafast titani- um-sapphire lasers. And AOtec, a subsidiary of the venerable American Optical Corp. (Southbridge, MA), advertised “glass quality from plastic lenses,” a departure from AO’s long focus on glass optics.
“The Year of WDM”
Strong demand for fiber-optic bandwidth offered by wave- length-division multiplexing (WDM) pumped up the market for narrowband filters. Herwig Kogelnik, director of Photonics Research at Bell Laboratories (Holmdel, NJ) proclaimed 1996 “the year of WDM” in our December 1996 issue. Multiplexing eight wavelengths sent 20 Gbits/s through a single fiber. In our March 1997 issue, the Optical Corporation of America (Marlborough, MA) described thermally stable WDM filters for the new 100 GHz (0.8 nm) dense-WDM channel spacing standard. After the turn of the century, DWDM systems became the backbone of the global telecommunications network.
In a series of other advances, metamaterials emerged from nowhere to become the cutting edge of 21st century optics, able to perform hitherto impossible feats, as described in our January
www.laserfocusworld.com Laser Focus World
2005 issue. A research paper concluded a metamaterial with negative refractive index could achieve subwavelength resolution, but only in the near field. CVI Optical Components and Assemblies advertised optics for 193 nm water-im- mersion photolithography, which provides subwavelength resolution for making semiconductor chips. The world’s fastest adaptive optics system was installed on the world’s oldest super-tele- scope—the 200-inch Hale Telescope at the Palomar Observatory (San Diego, CA). And the laser marketplace had become global, with advertisers including HC Photonics (HsinChu City, Taiwan), providing a variety of periodically poled nonlinear optical materials, and Kaleido Technology (Farum, Denmark), offering precision-molded aspheric glass optics.
October 2014 saw the award of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell, and William Moerner for developing super-resolution fluorescence
microscopy to overcome the limits of conventional optical microscopes. Special Optics (Wharton, NJ) said it was “excited to have made a small contribution” to Betzig’s work by developing custom microscope objectives for his experiments.
New materials for future optics
Looking forward, Duncan Moore of the University of Rochester says the future of optical components “is going to be all about broadband,” ranging from the ultraviolet to 14 µm for applications ranging from smartphones to military systems. Merely transmitting light is not enough; broadband optics should also be achromatic. “If you want a 10× zoom, you have some real challenges,” says Moore.
StingRay Optics (Keene, NH) has developed a series of SuperBand lenses optimized for wavelengths from 0.7 to 5 µm, which combine materials to bring the whole band into focus, says company president Chris Alexay. StingRay Optics
OPTICS continued
hopes to land a contract to develop a midinfrared zoom lens to handle both laser designation in the 1 µm band and imaging in the 3 to 5 µm band, avoiding the need for dual optical systems in drones.
The auto industry’s interest in 8 to 12 µm thermal imaging has dramatically reduced prices for optics and sensors in that band, says Moore. BMW offers the BMW Night Vision system as a $2300 option to help drivers spot pedestrians or large animals in or near the road. FLIR offers a thermal camera accessory for the iPhone at $349. But with market volume smaller in the mid-infrared, Moore says good 3 to 5 µm cameras still sell for tens of thousands of dollars.
“I can’t imagine a time when the industry has been more poised for new developments,” says Alexay. He expects the Naval Research Laboratory (Washington, DC) to report a promising new family of materials at the upcoming SPIE Defense Security and Sensing meeting on April
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January 2015 69 |
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OPTICS continued
20–24, 2015 in Baltimore.
A U.S. DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) project seeks to reduce cost, complexity, and weight of military optics by developing manufacturable graded-index (GRIN) lenses, which can route light along complex paths to fit into compact military systems. Surmet Corp. (Burlington, MA) is developing volume-manufacturing processes for GRIN lenses based on the polycrystalline ceramic aluminum oxynitride (AlON), which is transparent from the visible to beyond 5 µm and is so strong it is used for tank windows, says Moore.
Plastic optics and thin-film colors
“We’re only in the second or third inning of where we want to go with plastic optics,” says Al Kapoor, chairman of Syntec Optics (Pavillion, NY). Their biocompatibility has made them a big success in medical applications. Their low cost and light weight are attractive for reducing soldiers’ loads in the field. Now new plastics are overcoming the 70°C limit of acrylic plastics.
One material called ULTEM is usable to 170°C, which Syntec is developing for use in head-up displays expected in cars by 2016.
The range of shapes continues to expand. “Aspheres were a big thing 10 years ago, but now we can do them easily,” says Kapoor. Syntec is currently developing ways to make more complex, asym-
FIGURE 4. Complex optical designs previously limited to glass optics are now possible in plastic, including this lens, which has multiple optical surfaces with various mounting features. (Courtesy of Syntec Optics)
metric, and non-rotationally-symmetric plastic optics (see Fig. 4). As optics get smaller and their profiles grow more complex, he says, “the advantages of plastics go up” because molding can mass-produce shapes not practical in glass. “Our work is starting to touch the consumer market,” says Kapoor, citing augmented reality systems such as Oculus Rift, and Samsung’s development of eyewear similar to Google Glass that projects images onto the optics. But challenges remain, including bonding lenses together to make achromats, applying coatings, and a limited range of refractive indexes.
The spread of digital imaging is opening a new range of applications for thin-film coatings—providing crucial “ground truth” for color in medical imaging, says Jennifer Kruschwitz of JK Consulting (Rochester, NY). Diagnoses depend on color, so medical imaging needs stable color
70 January 2015 |
www.laserfocusworld.com Laser Focus World |
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OPTICS c o n t i n u e d
standards. Thin-film coatings can provide that stability, and can be made on a micrometer scale for microscopic imaging. In 2014, DataColor (Lawrenceville, NJ) introduced a series of thin-film calibration color slides called ChromaCal.
Metamaterials and the future
The allure of metamaterials is their tremendous potential for building optical materials to order, with otherwise unobtainable properties. Optical metamaterials remain in the laboratory stage, but two invited talks at the December 2014 Materials Research Society (MRS) meeting in Boston gave exciting visions of the future.
In the first talk, Nader Enghata of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) said an impressive array of applications have already been demonstrated, including cloaking, superlenses, ultra-thin cavities, transformation optics, and metasurfaces. Then he went further. “Imagine a
f1( y)
df1( y)
–––––
dy
FIGURE 5. Metamaterial manipulates light waves for computation. (Courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania)
metamaterial that computes [see Fig 5]. Could we design a material to get a derivative or an integral of a wave that you put into it?” He has been exploring the possibilities of optical “metatronics,” metamaterials that conduct current and integrate optical and electronic functions, and his group is attempting to use one to take the second derivative of an input signal. In the long term, the group envisions an optical computational feedback loop.
In a second invited talk, Kevin
MacDonald of the University of Southampton (England) argued for moving beyond widely used metallic metamaterials. “We can do better with all dielectric opto-mechanical metamaterials; we want to avoid losses associated with metals and create much stronger optical forces between resonators,” he told the MRS meeting. He also envisioned moving beyond today’s static metamaterials to active metadevices, and perhaps ultimately to metastructures that could be reconfigured by changing the applied electromagnetic field.
How many of these bright visions are attainable in the next half-century? If the past is any lesson, we overrate some ideas and are surprised by some unexpected successes. But we can safely say that the future of optical components is not likely to be a sleepy backwater.
Tell us what you think about this article. Send an
e-mail to LFWFeedback@pennwell.com.
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72 January 2015 |
www.laserfocusworld.com Laser Focus World |
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PHOTONICS PRODUCTS: H I G H - P O W E R L A S E R - D I O D E A R R A Y S
Diode arrays are compact, high-power light dynamos
JOHN WALLACE, SENIOR EDITOR
With their high-power density, high efficiency, and long life, laser-diode arrays are the essential light source for materials processing, laser pumping, and other applications.
High-power laser-diode arrays,
beam; in addition, laser manufacturers are constantly refining beamcombining techniques to produce ever-bright- er high-power laser-di- ode sources.
which are made of stacks of individual or multistripe laser diodes, or in some cases vertical-cavity surfaceemitting lasers (VCSELs), can put out watts to kilowatts of optical power for uses such as laser pumping, industrial heating, illumination, or as the input for fiber-optic direct-diode laser devices for materials processing or for medicine.
Laser diodes typically have much higher electrical-to-optical (wall-plug) efficiencies than other types of lasers; in fact, they are some of the most-effi- cient light emitters
known. The d isadvan - tage of la- ser-diode arrays is their rel-
a t i v e l y low beam quality— there are no
single-mode kilowatts-level la-
ser-diode sources in our near future. However, there are many applications that do not require a single-mode
From watts to kilowatts
“High-power diode lasers are commonly referred to as being bar-based or single-emitter-based,” says Steve Patterson, VP and GM of DILAS (Tucson, AZ). “In point of fact, they exist on a continuum with single emitters on one end and bars—typically a centimeter wide or less, consisting of multiple emitters on a single piece of semiconductor—on the other. The diode lasers are then mounted to any of a variety of heat sinks, the choice depending upon operating conditions and what final package the diode la-
bar might go into.”
DILAS produces laser bars that range in output power from single-digit values out to hundreds of watts per bar. Their wavelengths range from 635 nm (visible
FIGURE 1. The output beam of a 200 W laser-diode array
made by DALSA and used to enhance MRI imaging is hexagonal with a beam size of ~63 mm.
(Courtesy of DILAS)
red) to greater than 2300 nm and beyond, with electrical-to-optical efficiency reaching to more than 70% in some cases, notes Patterson.
The mounted bars can then be packaged into arrays that produce up to kilowatts of total output power, whether the output be a free-space laser beam or coupled into an optical fiber. With these sorts of capabilities, says Patterson, “any market from the traditional pumping of solid-state and fiber lasers, to direct-diode applications in medicine such as dermatology or phototherapy, to industrial processing of materials such as the deposition of laminates to emerging markets in cinematography and enhancements in advanced medical-imaging technologies may be addressed.”
Patterson notes that there have been many new developments over the past year: for example, enhancements in visible red and blue outputs for applications in cinematography and medical photodynamic therapy; fiber-cou- pled systems that output on the order of 10 kW in wavelengths ranging from around 800 nm to 1000 nm, typically used for all sorts of materials processing, including welding; and a unit developed to enhance magnetic-reso- nance imaging (MRI).
“All aspects of diode-laser technology were challenged here,” says Patterson. The challenges included development of the basic epitaxy design of the diode laser, advances in
74 January 2015 |
www.laserfocusworld.com Laser Focus World |
the volume Bragg gratings that narrow the spectral line of the diode laser to a range that is useful for the particular application, custom package design that permits tunability of the spectral line emitted from the module, and the custom optics that form the beam to a precise output form also demanded by the application.
Patterson provides background on the MRI module (see Fig. 1), explaining that it permits the hyperpolarization of a particular isotope of xenon using a process called spin-exchange optical pumping; the spectrally narrowed and precise wavelength of circularly polarized laser light from the module excites rubidium electrons inside a gas cell. The use of hyperpolarized gas in MRI allows observation of otherwise inaccessible bodily processes, such as pulmonary function and blood profusion in the brain. The module itself emits 200 W of circularly polarized light at a 794.7 nm wavelength and a linewidth of <0.3 nm; the optically isolated beam is tolerant to 100% backreflection.
Direct diode
While laser-diode bars are used widely as laser pump sources, by using the right optical techniques, light from the same sorts of diodes can be directly coupled into optical fibers to produce a high-power “direct-diode” laser, notes Tracey Ryba, product manager for lasers at the TRUMPF Laser Technology Center (Plymouth, MI). For example, the same 940 nm diode-bar platform used by TRUMPF as pumps for its disk lasers is the source for the company’s kilowattslevel direct-diode systems.
Optical techniques for combining la- ser-diode outputs to boost power while maintaining brightness include spatial and spectral beam combining. However, the details, which are derived from careful optical design and which make all the difference in final beam brightness, are usually proprietary.
The diode bars in TRUMPF’s directdiode systems are mounted on a passively cooled heat sink, eliminating the
need for high-quality deionized (DI) water and eliminating microchannel failure, explains Ryba (see Fig. 2).
“The final fiber-coupled direct-diode laser uses wavelength combining of one, two, or three wavelengths depending on power of the laser and varying in wavelengths from 920 nm to 1020 nm,” he says. The company’s 150 and 300 W di- rect-diode lasers have a beam-parame- ter product (BPP) of 8 mm-mrad, while
FIGURE 2. Light from high-power laserdiode bars is optically combined and fed into optical fibers (yellow) in this direct-diode light source unit from TRUMPF used for materials processing. A 6000 W direct-diode laser is shown in the inset. (Courtesy of TRUMPF)
the BPP for the 600 and 900 W lasers is 12 mm-mrad. The high-power 2000–4500 W lasers have a BPP of 30 mm-mrad and the highest-power 30006000 W model has a BPP of 50 mm-mrad.
“Lasers ranging from 150 to 300 W typically are used for plastic welding, soldering, and other low-power welding applications,” says Ryba. “Between 600 and 900 W, the ideal applications are thin-met- al welding and low-volume cutting. The 30 mm-mrad models are used for deep-penetration and heat-conduction welding, heat treating, and laser metal
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Laser Focus World www.laserfocusworld.com |
January 2015 75 |
HIGH-POWER LASER-DIODE ARRAYS c o nt i n u e d
deposition, while the 50 mm-mrad applications typically are brazing, heat treating, and laser metal deposition.” Wavelengths in the “9xx” nm wavelength range are slightly shorter than those of traditional 1 µm lasers such as disk, fiber, and Nd:YAG. These shorter wavelengths allow better absorption in highly reflective materials such as copper, brass, and aluminum, says Ryba. Additionally, the lower-beam- quality versions are ideal for brazing and surface treatments due to the large divergence and the more distinct flattop mode profile, especially when compared to high-beam-quality disk and fiber lasers where a relatively complex beam delivery and large focal lengths are needed to achieve the same desired
effects at the workpiece.
Replacing traditional processes
The attributes of high-power laser diodes can lead to transformations in certain
areas of materials processing. “Major ‘direct-diode’ applications for these products are transforming the surface properties of large metal parts through heat treating—historically called case hardening—and cladding,” explains Frank Gaebler, director of marketing at Coherent (Santa Clara, CA).
Coherent manufactures laser diodes and laser-diode arrays over a broad range of output powers in configurations from single emitters through linear bars (fi- ber-coupled and free-space) up to 2D arrays of bars. The company’s most powerful system produces 10 kW of output power at 975 nm; internally, it consists of five bars, each derated to 2 kW to ensure tens of thousands of hours of main- tenance-free operation at or above specified power, says Gaebler.
The free-space output of the laser system can be configured to deliver a variety of interchangeable beam shapes (with widths from 1 to 12 mm and lengths from
6 to 36 mm) to enable rapid processing of large areas with a high degree of control over process parameters.
The product is targeted at large-area cladding applications to create a metallurgically bonded layer on the surface of a metal, usually some type of steel (see Fig. 3). “This is typically done in order to transform the surface properties—for improved wear characteristics or high corrosion resistance—without modifying the desirable bulk properties (such as tensile strength and rigidity) of the part,” says Gaebler. “Cladding is also often used to refurbish worn parts.”
Traditionally, large parts were mainly clad by thermal spray (for example, high-velocity oxygen-fuel spraying, or HVOF) or plasma-transfer arc (PTA) or, less commonly, electroplating, as Gaebler explains. Thermal spraying is a fast and relatively cheap process where metal powder is melted and sprayed on to the substrate, where it solidifies. The
120W CW per bar No microchannel cooling
1.1mm bar-to-bar spacing Filtered water (not deionized)
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HIGH-POWER LASER-DIODE ARRAYS c o nt i n u e d
problems are that the coating is not met-
allurgically bonded to the surface, which |
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limits its long-term wear resistance, and, |
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head |
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in addition, the final coating has vary- |
Powder |
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ing degrees of porosity, which can com- spray nozzle |
Powder |
promise its corrosion resistance.
In contrast, the laser-diode approach not only melts the powder, but also melts a very thin outer layer of the substrate, producing a fully bonded layer with very low porosity.
Giantree Laser Technology (Shanghai, China), one of the leaders in laser cladding applications in China, has extensive firsthand experience with laser cladding, thermal spray coating, machining/ grinding, and materials/alloys know-how, says Gaebler.
Giantree now has two in-house lasercladding systems based on high-power di- rect-diode lasers, including a 10 kW unit from Coherent. Giantree services clients in several heavy industries, such as petrochemicals and coal mining. Typical
Clad area |
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Line beam |
Direction of beam travel |
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FIGURE 3. Typical processing geometry |
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for high-power laser-diode powder |
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cladding is shown above. The cladding of |
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a roof-support cylinder by Giantree (right) |
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is created by a high-power direct-diode |
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laser from Coherent that produces 10 kW |
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of near-infrared power. (Above, courtesy of |
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Coherent; right, courtesy of Giantree) |
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high-value components that require clad- |
for better corrosion resistance. |
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ding are the hydraulic roof supporters |
Until recently, electroplating had been |
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used to prevent collapse of tunnels and |
Giantree’s first-choice method for coating |
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galleries (see Fig. 3). Giantree coats both |
these supporters. According to Kenneth |
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the cylinders and pistons of roof support- |
Liao, manager of Giantree, “Simply stat- |
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ers with materials such as stainless steel |
ed, laser cladding delivers better corro- |
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sion resistance, and thus longer lifetime |
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for these supporters because it produc- |
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es a full-density coating, which electro- |
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plating typically doesn’t.” |
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VCSEL arrays for imaging |
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and gesture recognition |
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High-power laser-diode arrays don’t |
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have to be made up of edge-emitting di- |
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odes. For example, Princeton Optronics |
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(Mercerville, NJ) makes arrays of vertical- |
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cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) |
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for illumination and other purposes. |
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“One major high-volume application |
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of laser diodes is for 3D imaging and |
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gesture recognition with computers, |
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tablets, and cell phones,” says Chuni |
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Ghosh, the company’s CEO. “Projects |
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like Google Project Tango and Intel |
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RealSense are platform technologies |
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that are being adapted by manufactur- |
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ers for production in the near future. |
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VCSEL arrays are particularly suited |
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for such applications.” |
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Depth sensing is done by structured |
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light, time of flight, and stereoscopic |
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approaches, explains Ghosh. “VCSELs |
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have advantages compared to other tech- |
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nologies in all three approaches. The |
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78 |
January 2015 |
www.laserfocusworld.com |
Laser Focus World |
HIGH-POWER LASER-DIODE ARRAYS c o nt i n u e d
advantages come from being able to sur- |
a reliability (mean time to failure, or |
and shape of the spots. |
face-mount the devices (versus TO-can |
MTTF) of more than 100 years for oper- |
For time-of-flight mea- |
packaging of edge emitters), which makes |
ation at 70°C; these figures are achieved |
surements, very fast |
the height very small.” A height of 3 mm |
“with some proprietary process innova- |
rise and fall times |
or less is needed for the complete illumi- |
tions,” says Ghosh. |
are needed, explains |
nator with the projection lens, he adds. |
In structured-light applications, a pat- |
Ghosh. VCSEL arrays |
The VCSELs produced by Princeton |
tern of spots is projected onto the object |
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Optronics have a wall-plug efficiency |
of interest (see Fig. 4); using a camera, the |
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of >40% at a temperature of 60°C and |
depth is estimated from the distribution |
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FIGURE 4. A VCSEL-based illuminator projects a pattern of spots that can be used to capture depth information in a 3D scene. An 8 W VCSEL array (inset) is only 1.5 mm square. (Courtesy of Princeton Optronics)
give very fast rise and fall times, typically <300 ps, and rise and fall times of <100 ps can be obtained with low-inductance submounts.
VCSEL arrays also have a narrow emission wavelength (<1 nm) and low variation of the wavelength peak with respect to temperature (0.07 nm/°C), which helps to reject the background illumination when the camera chip is attached with a narrowband filter.
Princeton Optronics’ technology has been developed with funding from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and other agencies, says Ghosh. “We have developed VCSEL chips with power levels as high as a kilowatt from a 5 × 5 mm array with a greater than 55% wall-plug efficiency,” he notes. “This technology is being used to make many different types of products for 3D imaging applications.”
One such product is an 8 W VCSEL array used for time-of-flight as well as struc- tured-light applications. The laser chip is 1.5 × 1.5 mm in size, has a large number of VCSEL devices, and is mounted on a surface-mountable ceramic substrate. The device is finding application in computers, tablets, and mobile phones.
80 January 2015 |
www.laserfocusworld.com Laser Focus World |
development of batteryoperated sensors for remote monitoring of water quality. LED-based instruments also allow
manufacturers to address market segments that might otherwise avoid their products because of footprint, cost, or complexity of operation.
Following are a few examples in which the use of UV LEDs versus traditional UV light sources is compared for various spectroscopic applications.
HPLC: Replacing deuterium lamps with LEDs
High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is a separation technique in which a sample mixture is introduced into a column; the distinct compounds of the mixture then pass through the column at varied rates due to differences in how they partition between the mobile phase and the stationary phase. Once detected, these components are analyzed using a UV spectrophotometer. HPLC is typically
used for protein purification, routine process monitoring in pharmaceutical and beverage manufacturing, process quality control, and biotech research.
Current HPLC detectors typically use deuterium lamps as their primary light source due to their stable light output. This stability is characterized by measuring fluctuations in light output over short periods, such as the duration of a measurement. Using a UV light source with high light-output stability in HPLC ensures detection of lower concentrations of compounds. As seen in Figure 1, deuterium lamps are more stable than many UV lamp alternatives (for example, by almost two orders of magnitude over xenon flash lamps).
Engineers also prefer the long life of deuterium lamps, as well as the relatively high light output of the lamps at their HPLC-relevant UV wavelengths. Deuterium lamps, however, require a very stable power supply to maintain their performance and a warm-up period of up to 30 min to allow the lamp
less power. In environmental moni- |
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FIGURE 1. Stability of light |
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output for various traditional UV |
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light sources. (Source: Adapted |
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from Hamamatsu Light Source, |
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http://www.hamamatsu.com/ |
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Vacuum ultraviolet deuterium lamps |
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resources/pdf/etd/LIGHT_SOURCE_ |
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TLSZ0001E01.pdf, Apr. 2014.) |
Deuterium lamps (L2D2 lamps) |
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Hollow cathode lamp |
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Laser Focus World www.laserfocusworld.com |
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January 2015 |
ULTRAVIOLET LEDS continued
to reach thermal equilibrium. For this reason, most lamps are left on while not in use so that the instru-
Table 1. Cost analysis for two typical fixed-wavelength HPLC detectors
L2-4000 deuterium
UVC LEDs
lamp
Instrument cost
ment is ready as |
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Lamp |
$400 |
$600 |
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needed—wasting |
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$100 |
n/a |
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much of the lamp’s |
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Monochromator |
$950 |
n/a |
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useful life. |
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Power Supply |
$1450 |
$50 |
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Newly |
avail- |
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Beamsplitter |
$200 |
$200 |
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able high perfor- |
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Detector |
$5 |
$5 |
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mance deep ul- |
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traviolet |
(UVC) |
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Heat enclosure |
$900 |
n/a |
LEDs can provide |
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Total |
$4005 |
$855 |
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better light stabil- |
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Operating and maintenance over 5 years |
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ity than high-end |
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Power consumption* |
$6 |
$2 |
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deuterium lamps |
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Replacement lamps |
$1600** |
n/a |
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and offer |
more |
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Total |
$1606 |
$2 |
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light output and |
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useful life. UVC |
* Energy cost of $0.12/kW-hr |
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LEDs reach full |
** Four annual replacements for the deuterium lamp at $400 each. |
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stability instantaneously, unlike deu- |
sample measurement per day. For this |
terium lamps. This allows end users to take complete advantage of the LED’s lifetime, typically 3000 to 8000 h, de-
analysis, the instrument using the LED is turned on only when needed.
pending on application conditions. In addition, UVC LEDs emit negligible front-side heat, which makes them ideal for heat sensitive samples.
With UVC LEDs, manufacturers can offer smaller, more cost-effective instruments for end users that require a single wavelength or a few fixed wavelengths. This evolution of low-cost, fixed-wave- length HPLC detectors will enable adoption in new applications such as caffeine detection in beverages and will increase penetration in applications such as prep HPLC of proteins.
Ozone monitoring: Improved measurement performance
Commonly found air pollutants, or “criteria pollutants,” include particulate matter, ground-level ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and lead. Exposure to ozone, at even relatively low levels, is harmful to health and can result in reduced lung function and aggravation of pre-exist- ing respiratory conditions. Considering that ozone is also used in industrial applications in processes as varied as semiconductor cleaning to water purification, monitoring ozone levels is critical.
HPLC instrument cost analysis
Table 1 provides typical component and operating costs for a fixed-wave- length HPLC detector using deuterium lamps versus UVC LEDs. This illustrative example assumes detection for two fixed wavelengths and thus requires two UVC LEDs. Operating costs are estimated based on a typical laboratory operation where a deuterium lamp would be on 12 h a day, 52 weeks a year, and assumes 4 h of
Countries in Europe and Asia have even taken measures to limit auto traffic in cities or to shut down factories in order to curb emissions in densely populated areas.
The current EPA ozone standard is set at a level of 75 ppb; this quantification of ozone in air is measured using UV absorption spectroscopy. Ozone monitors traditionally use mercury lamps as the light source for their measurement, as ozone has a strong absorbance at ~254
82 January 2015 |
www.laserfocusworld.com Laser Focus World |
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ULTRAVIOLET LEDS continued |
nm, the emission line of a low-pressure |
direct-current (DC) power, operating |
alternatives to mercury lamps to address |
mercury lamp. |
from 6 to 10 V depending on drive cur- |
these legislative changes. By migrating |
Typically, ozone concentration is de- |
rent, which allows remote or handheld |
from mercury lamps to UVC LEDs, en- |
termined with sequential measurements |
instruments to be battery or solar op- |
gineers can reduce the footprint, power |
of the sample gas and zero gas that are |
erated. This, coupled with the compact |
consumption, and environmental impact |
fed alternately through a chamber; it is |
size of the LED, can lead to instruments |
of their instruments without sacrificing |
therefore important that the intensity of |
that are up to 60% smaller than those |
measurement accuracy. |
the light source be stable between the |
using mercury lamps. UVC LEDs are |
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two measurements. The mercury-xe- |
a nontoxic source of ultraviolet radi- |
Cost analysis of a typical |
non lamps that have been traditionally |
ation—unlike mercury lamps, which |
ozone monitor |
used have higher power consumption |
contain hazardous waste. |
Table 2 provides typical component and |
and lower stability of light output than |
In addition, international agreements |
operating costs for an ozone monitor |
other UV light sources (as seen in Fig. 1). |
and regulations, such as the Minamata |
for fixed-wavelength detection at 255 |
Newly available UVC LEDs provide |
Convention, are aimed at reducing |
nm using mercury lamps versus UVC |
the high power output and spectral qual- |
mercury pollution. (The Minamata |
LEDs. The operating costs are estimat- |
ity required for trace detection of pollut- |
Convention on Mercury, a global treaty |
ed based on a typical real-time moni- |
ants at the parts-per-billion level to com- |
to protect human health and the environ- |
toring application where the mercury |
ply with government regulations. This |
ment from the adverse effects of mercu- |
lamp would be on 24 h a day, 52 weeks |
allows end users to achieve more accu- |
ry, was agreed upon at the fifth session |
a year, and the LED is operated contin- |
rate measurements and benefit from the |
of the Intergovernmental Negotiating |
uously at a 10% duty cycle. Note that |
instant on/off nature of LEDs. |
Committee in Geneva, Switzerland, on |
the mercury lamp is kept on contin- |
Other inherent benefits of LEDs |
January 19, 2013. See www.mercury- |
uously to avoid both the slow warm- |
make them attractive light sources |
convention.org.) |
up time and lifetime degradation with |
for these instruments. UVC LEDs use |
Manufacturers are looking for |
on/off cycles. |
|
|
|
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84 January 2015
ULTRAVIOLET LEDS continued
Tracking water quality with LEDs
Water purity is a major concern for developed and developing nations alike, with hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and possible effects of climate change highlighting water-quality concerns. The impact of natural events, such as rainfall and accompanying runoffs, and industrial water treatment are increasingly felt in water-distribution networks across the world. Rapid detection of changes in water quality is critical to ensure consumer health and environmental preservation.
Wastewater treatment plants and industrial facilities monitor influent and effluent water quality for productivity, effectiveness, and compliance with regulatory requirements. The collection of ongoing, real-time data on contaminant levels
Table 2. Cost analysis for two typical ozone monitors
|
TUV 11 W |
UVC LEDs |
|
mercury lamp |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Instrument cost |
|
|
|
|
|
Lamp |
$25 |
$300 |
|
|
|
Filter |
$350 |
n/a |
|
|
|
Power Supply |
$50 |
$50 |
|
|
|
Detector |
$5 |
$5 |
|
|
|
Heat enclosure |
$150 |
n/a |
|
|
|
Total |
$580 |
$355 |
|
|
|
Operating and maintenance over 5 years |
|
|
|
|
|
Power consumption* |
$58 |
$1 |
|
|
|
Replacement lamps |
$100** |
n/a |
|
|
|
Lamp disposal |
$25 |
n/a |
|
|
|
Total |
$183 |
$1 |
* Energy cost of $0.12/kW-hr
**Four annual replacements for the mercury lamp at $25 each.
Table 3. Cost analysis of two water-quality monitors
|
35 W xenon |
UVC LEDs |
|
flash lamp |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Instrument cost |
|
|
|
|
|
Lamp |
$447 |
$600 |
|
|
|
Socket |
$100 |
n/a |
|
|
|
Power Supply |
$750 |
$50 |
|
|
|
Beamsplitter |
$200 |
$200 |
|
|
|
Detector |
$2000 |
$5 |
|
|
|
Total |
$3497 |
$855 |
|
|
|
Operating and maintenance over 5 years |
|
|
|
|
|
Power consumption* |
$31 |
$2 |
|
|
|
Replacement lamps |
$447** |
n/a |
|
|
|
Total |
$478 |
$2 |
*Energy cost of $0.12/kW-hr
**One replacement of the xenon flash lamp at $447 after typical life to 1E9 flashes.
www.laserfocusworld.com Laser Focus World
can decrease the response time to potential quality issues from days to hours. This depends on the use of autonomous water monitors—ones that need to be compact and cost effective—that continuously test water quality at multiple locations along the network.
Typical causes of changes in water quality include natural events, such as flooding, accidental discharge or spills, or other sources of contamination. UV photometry provides quantitative analysis of the organic content in water. By using continuous spectroscopic measurements instead of intermittent chemical testing with grab samples, end users gather process information, detect issues in water quality, and make the necessary process changes in real time.
Traditionally, these water-quality measurements have used xenon flash lamps as the light source for spectroscopy. Xenon flash lamps provide a broad spectrum of wavelengths and often require an expensive photodiode array for detection. These lamps also require an expensive power supply to maintain lamp performance. Although these high-quality instruments offer precise, accurate measurements of multiple parameters of water quality, they are often more than what a typical water facility requires. The associated costs are also restrictive to small water utilities, and unreasonable for developing regions.
Engineers can achieve the same benefits of xenon flash lamps for a subset of parameters by using UVC LEDs, along with a less costly detector and power supply. Newly available high-performance UVC LEDs offer linearity of measurement that matches the performance of expensive xenon flash lamps. This parameter refers to the correlation between the optical method of water-quality measurement with a reference method (typically a chemical measurement in the lab). A more compact, less costly instrument can thus become accessible to a wider crosssection of the market. Additionally, the reduced size and low power consumption of these instruments open possibilities for remote monitoring.
Cost analysis of a typical water-quality monitor
Table 3 provides figures for the typical cost of a broad-spectrum xenon flash- lamp-based monitor versus a wave- length-specific LED version. The UVC LED instrument assumes fixed wavelength detection at two wavelengths: 255 nm for the standard UV254 measurement and a second UV wavelength depending on the water-quality parameter of interest. Operating costs are estimated based on a typical water-qual- ity measurement where the light source would be used for continuous measurement at a duty cycle of 1% (1 ms on, 100 ms off).
Cost-effective, compact instruments for the future
Traditionally, instrument designs that used UV lamps could take advantage of the benefits of the lamp, but unavoidably
had to make concessions in instrument design due to limitations of the light source. High-performance UVC LEDs now enable design engineers to address market pressure for lower-cost products with instruments tailored for applications in life sciences and environmental monitoring.
By transitioning to UVC LEDs, instrument manufacturers can reduce instrument costs by 40% to 80%. These cost savings continue at the customer site due to a large reduction in operating and lamp-replacement costs over a five-year period. In addition, these “lite” instrument versions can capitalize on the instant on/off, low power consumption, and high-sensitivity features of UVC LEDs for better performance.
Hari Venugopalan is director of global product management at Crystal IS, Green Island, NY; email: venugopalan@cisuvc.com; http:// www.cisuvc.com/.
FermionicssOpto-Technology w w w.fermionics.com
4555 Runway St. • Simi Valley, CA 93063 Tel (805) 582-0155 • Fax (805) 582-1623
Laser Focus World www.laserfocusworld.com |
January 2015 85 |
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