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J u l y 2013
International Resource for Technology and Applications in the Global Photonics Industry
Smart glasses: Niche novelty or useful tool?

PAGE 33
High-NA EUV optics are on the way PAGE 13 2D IR spectroscopy reveals molecular dynamics PAGE 39 Silicon photonics meet evolving requirements PAGE 51 3D digital holograms visualize biomedical applications PAGE 55
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International Resource for Technology and Applications in the Global Photonics Industry
JULY 2013 VOL. 49, NO. 7
newsbreaks
9 ALD process delivers pinholefree, very large optics
world news
13
EUV Lithography
High-NA EUV optics are on their way 14

Optical Surface Inspection
Full Spectrum
Laser Focus World presents a Full Spectrum view of photonics and optoelectronicsthis month, senior editor Gail Overton speaks with Henry Kapteyn, founder and CEO of KMLabs, whose product won the 2013 CLEO/Laser Focus World Innovation Award.
Click this link to view the video in your browser: http://bcove.me/bhtf0jn0
2D refractive-index mapping models cosmological systems 3D photonic crystal creates highquality warm-white LED 10 Worlds fastest photodetector has 70 GHz bandwidth 11 Optofluidic switch ducts light for solar illumination
Structured-light 3D scanner speeds aircraft rivet inspection 18

Polariton Lasers
Two groups demo electrically powered polariton lasers 21

Metamaterial Optics
Simple layered flat metamaterial lens focuses in the UV 24

White-light Sources
Sapphire-core fiber produces broadband UV-visible light for OCT
columns
7 THE EDITORS DESK
Products from innovation
W. Conard Holton Associate Publisher/Chief Editor
departments
68 BUSINESS FORUM
Exploiting an unmet demand is a good model for success
Milton Chang
59 NEW PRODUCTS 66 BUSINESS

RESOURCE CENTER
67 ADVERTISING/WEB
INDEX
67 SALES OFFICES
31 SOFTWARE &
COMPUTING
64 MANUFACTURERS
PRODUCT SHOWCASE
Development of optical thinfilm modeling forges ahead

Angus MacLeod
LASERS 2
OPTICS
DETECTORS
IMAGING
FIBER OPTICS
I N S T R U M E N TAT I O N
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Visit www.laserfocusworld.com for breaking news and Web-exclusive articles
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33
Photonics Applied: Displays
51
Photonic Frontiers: Silicon Photonics
Head-worn displays: Useful tool or niche novelty?

While initial responses to commercial head-worn displays such as Google Glass have been positive, only time will tell if these products gain immediate traction or follow a slow march into consumer favor much like 3D technology. Gail Overton
Silicon photonics evolve to meet real-world requirements

The goal remains the same: integrating photonics with electronics to cut costs and improve data-link performance. But developers have accepted the need for compound semiconductor light sources, bonded to silicon or external to the chip.
Jeff Hecht
33 COVER STORY Bidirectional OLEDbased data eyeglasses allow the user to interact with the Internet or other smart data using gaze control or eye tracking for truly hands-free operation. (Courtesy of
Fraunhofer COMEDD)
39
Ultrafast Tunable Lasers
2D infrared spectroscopy moves toward mainstream use

A unique method to investigate molecular structure and dynamics has become a practical research tool, thanks to the advent of user-friendly, integrated 2D IR spectrometers. Martin Zanni, Chris Middleton,
Marco Arrigoni, and Joseph Henrich
55
Biomedical Imaging
3D digital holograms visualize biomedical applications

Digital hologramswhether of DNA, cells, full-sized organs, or even the life-sized human body itselfcan be holographically printed for a range of 3D analysis applications in the biomedical industry.
Javid Khan
Coming in August
New RGB LED applications change the world of lighting The first generation of solid-state lighting is finding growing applications because it offers clean and efficient illumination, but its little more than a replacement for existing incandescent and fluorescent lamps. A new generation is emerging based on mixing light from red, green, and blue (RGB) LEDs to generate white light that can be tuned in color by varying the relative intensities of the lamps.
45
Fiber-optics Test & Measurement
Specifications guide active and passive optical fiber characterization

The use of optical fibersin fiber lasers, for exampleis greatly facilitated by their proper characterization. The resulting data are the foundation for optimized device designs and efficient product development.
Rdiger Paschotta
Laser Focus World
July 2013
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Video: 2013 CLEO/Laser Focus World Innovation Awards
TAG Optics was awarded an honorable mention in the 2013 CLEO/ Laser Focus World Innovation Awards program for its ultrahighspeed TAG Lens 2.0. http://bit.ly/14MSoBx
Spectral Bytes to stimulate your brain

Grab a byte with Laser Focus World contributing editor and industry expert Jeff Hecht on a silicon microRaman laser, as well as deep-UV LEDs that can prolong freshness of produce. http://bit.ly/12N49Z6
Blog: Photon Focus

CLEO highlights Tech Transfer opportunities Senior editor Gail Overton discusses the fact that optics and photonics tradeshows are now featuring more special sessions and programs on technology transfer. Keep coming back to our blog for more hot topics, cool commentary, and other eventsrelated musings! http://bit.ly/14RIfUO
Focus on Fiber-optics
Optical fiber is probably best known for communications applications, but there are many other types and applications of fiber-optics.
Webcasts let you make new discoveries from your desktop

Whether you are looking to learn about the challenges encountered during process scale-up of optical-grade transparent Spinel ceramic, the latest in green lasers, or the fundamentals in optical coating design, weve got webcasts aplenty to meet your educational needs. http://bit.ly/Onhs9J
Distributed fiber-optic sensor market to reach $1.1B in 2016

The distributed fiber-optic sensor market is forecast to be $586 million in 2013 and projected to be $1.1 billion in 2016, according to a recent market survey report. http://bit.ly/18l5BHe
Optical fiber sees growth as medical sensors Mobile your way!

You can access the latest Laser Focus World content on iPads, iPhones, and Android phones. Visit our mobile app page and click on the tabs to get news at the speed of light! http://bit.ly/SUq2zF The intrinsic physical characteristics of optical fiber combined with its versatility in remote sensing make it an attractive technology for biomedical applications. Alexis Mendez http://bit.ly/K6TYJk
Our editors video chat with industry leaders

Get an insiders look with video interviews, featuring leaders in the field, as they sit down for some tech talk with our editorial team. Contact Conard Holton at cholton@pennwell.com if youve got some exciting insights to share! http://bit.ly/11i8ORN
Distributed fiber-optic sensing solves real-world problems

Fiber Bragg grating (FBG)-based sensing technology originally developed by NASA represents a 20-fold improvement over existing sensing solutions and could represent a quantum leap forward for several industries. Pierrick Vuillez http://bit.ly/TH189w
Laser Focus World www.laserfocusworld.com July 2013
25 Gbaud QPSK Eye Pattern
25 Gbaud QPSK Constellation
16 QAM Constellation
Typical QPSK Bit Error Ratio (per channel)
editors desk
Products from innovation

The global economic climate remained uncertain throughout the spring, resulting in attendance that was flat or slightly down at several major photonics trade shows. Yet in each case, these conferences and exhibitions brought out the best in terms of innovative technologies and new products. SPIE Defense, Security + Sensing in April felt the effects of U.S. government budget struggles and sequestration, but put on display strong advances in technologies for the infrared, unmanned vehicles, and simulation training. At LASER World of Photonics in May, the ongoing European recession could be forgotten amidst a formidable array of industrial laser manufacturers booths and an additive manufacturing zone, along with many companies focused on products for biophotonics. CLEO in June also faced the restrictions on federal research funding, and responded with excellent technical sessions and a rewarding series of market-oriented panels on topics ranging from opportunities for biomedical lasers to a useful technology transfer program. The CLEO/Laser Focus World Innovation Awards honored Femtolasers Produktions, Princeton Instruments, and TAG Optics, as well as winner KMLabs, which Milton Chang interviews in a new format of his Business Forum column (see page 68). The potential commercial impact of innovative photonics products is readily apparent in our cover story on smart glasses, also known as head-worn displays or, in one well-publicized manifestation, Google Glass (see page 33). Smart glasses may have major societal impacts, but so do or will many of the other technologies explored in this issue, from optical fiber (see page 45) to silicon photonics (see page 51), and from 2D infrared spectroscopy (see page 39) to 3D biomedical digital holograms (see page 55). Indeed, the local forecast for photonics innovation is for a fair wind with many new products expects.
W. Conard Holton Associate Publisher/ Editor in Chief cholton@pennwell.com
Christine A. Shaw Senior Vice President & Group Publisher, (603) 891-9178; christines@pennwell.com
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD EDITORIAL OFFICES Laser Focus World PennWell Corporation 98 Spit Brook Road, LL-1, Nashua, NH 03062-5737 (603) 891-0123; fax (603) 891-0574 www.laserfocusworld.com CORPORATE OFFICERS Frank T. Lauinger Chairman Robert F. Biolchini President and CEO Mark Wilmoth Chief Financial Officer
Stephen G. Anderson, SPIE; Dan Botez, University of WisconsinMadison; Walter Burgess, Power Technology; Connie Chang-Hasnain, UC Berkeley Center for Opto-electronic Nanostructured Semiconductor Technologies; Pat Edsell, Avanex; Jason Eichenholz, Open Photonics; Thomas Giallorenzi, Naval Research Laboratory; Ron Gibbs, Ron Gibbs Associates; Anthony M. Johnson, Center for Advanced Studies in Photonics Research, University of Maryland Baltimore County; Kenneth Kaufmann, Hamamatsu Corp.; Larry Marshall, Southern Cross Venture Partners; Jan Melles, Photonics Investments; Masahiro Joe Nagasawa, TEM Co. Ltd.; David Richardson, University of Southampton; Ralph A. Rotolante, Vicon Infrared; Samuel Sadoulet, Edmund Optics; Toby Strite, JDS Uniphase.
W. Conard Holton Editor in Chief, (603) 891-9161; cholton@pennwell.com

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Laser Focus World
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ALD process delivers pinhole-free, very large optics
In addition to its ion-beam-sputtering (IBS) deposition process that can uniformly coat half-meter optics, MLD Technologies has scaled up its atomic-layer-deposition (ALD) process to provide uniform (less than 1% variation), lowloss (typically less than 50 ppm total loss) precision optical coatings on substrates up to 800 mm in diameter. The ALD process creates pinhole-free coatings one monolayer at a time from the chemical reaction of gas-phase precursors for excellent barrier properties for wet or corrosive chemical environments. Coating designs for the near-ultraviolet to mid-infrared wavelength region can be deposited from a number of metal-oxide film materials. The productionscale ALD chamber designed and built by MLD is capable of coating planar, 3D, and large curved optical elements. A pilot-scale chamber is also available to coat substrates smaller than 250 mm diameter and for process development. MLD can also produce hybrid coatings, comprised of IBS layers in combination with ALD layers. These hybrid coatings are critical, for example, when fabricating high-energy laser mirrors or other optics exposed to harsh chemical or corrosive environments. Contact Ric Shimshock at ricshimshock4mld@aol.com.
2D refractive-index mapping models cosmological systems

Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Thuwal, Saudi Arabia) and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (Dhahran, Saudi Arabia) are looking at planar (2D) optical refractive-index distributions that, if created using a metamaterial, could become an experimental way of creating many observable analogies to celestial mechanics such as gravitational attractors. For example, in a stationary, planar, rotationally symmetric index mapping, light could orbit the center. Depending on the index distribution, incoming light could be captured by the device as a cosmological black hole would. The refractive index falls within the range of 0.8 to 3.5 (making metamaterials the primary way of experimental realization). In addition to a rotationally symmetric version, a mapping with two lobes can mimic a cosmological binary system. Practical uses for the concept also exist: because the light paths are very sensitive to the refractive-index distribution, a sensor could be created that would take advantage of very small changes in refractive index (for example, resulting from changes in temperature or chemical concentration). The researchers propose numerous other applications, including as transient optical memories of an optical delay, a light concentrator, a chaotic cavity, and a beam homogenizer. Contact Boon S. Ooi at boon.ooi@kaust.edu.sa.
3D photonic crystal creates high-quality warm-white LED

Standard white-light LEDs are made by layering a yellow-emitting cerium-doped yttrium-aluminum-garnet (YAG:Ce) phosphor over a blue-emitting gallium nitride (GaN)-based emitter; the combination of blue and broadband yellow approximates white light for many purposes. For indoor lighting, many people prefer a warm-white light; to achieve this, the proportion of light emitted by the YAG:Ce phosphor is increased. The result, however, is often light with a low color continued on page 10
Output intensity (a.u.) 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 400 c-WLEDs c-WLEDs with NCP CPhCs of a = 349 nm c-WLEDs with NCP CPhCs of a = 385 nm w-WLEDs
450
500
550 600 650 Wavelength (nm)
700
750
800
Laser Focus World
July 2013
newsbreaks
Worlds fastest photodetector has 70 GHz bandwidth
Designed to support next-generation optical communications networks using 400 Gbit/s or 1 Tbit/s coherent detectionbased optical transmission, u2t Photonics (Berlin, Germany) has developed what it says is the worlds fastest balanced photodetector, with a bandwidth of 70 GHz. The optical front end of the BPDV3120R photodetector consists of a monolithically integrated balanced photodetector chip using waveguide-based indium phosphide (InP) technology to enable extremely high bandwidth. They are integrated onto a single InP chip and
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3D photonic crystal continued from page 9
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quality, sometimes even looking greenish. Correcting this problem usually means adding some expensive red-emitting phosphor to the mix. Even then, warmlight LEDs (w-WLEDs) have lower efficiency than cool-white LEDs (c-WLEDs). Researchers at Feng Chia University (Taichung, Taiwan) and Academia Sinica (Taipei, Taiwan) have come up with another approach for improving color quality: layering a 3D non-close-packed (NCP) colloidal photonic crystal (CPhC) with a unit-cell size (a) of 349 to 385 nm over the yellow phosphor. The stopbands in the CPhC improve both the color quality (quantified as the color-rendering index or CRI) and the closeness to a blackbody emission (quantified as the correlated color temperature, or CCT). And, because the researchers start by layering the CPhC on top of a more-efficient c-WLED, with the CPhC hardly affecting the efficiency of the resultant light output, the result is a more efficient w-WLED source. Contact Chun-Feng Lai at chunflai@fcu.edu.tw.
newsbreaks
Optofluidic switch ducts light for solar illumination
Solar interior lighting can be very lowtech, as in a window, or high-tech, as in light collected by roof-based optics and ducted into and around rooms. One way of doing the latter is to focus light via a concentrator into an optical fiber, which can be a very adaptable way to route light within buildings. However, one thing this type of system needs is a device to configurably switch the light stream from a fiber into a room. Mechanical switches with flipping mirrors and additional optics are possible, but are large, costly, and ultimately unreliable. A simple optofluidic alternative has been created by Wuzhou Song and Demetri Psaltis of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (Lausanne, Switzerland), which is based on a waveguide that has a thin oil film and closely spaced interdigitated electrodes
Grating off
Grating on
on one side. When there is no voltage drop across the electrodes, the oil film has a uniform thickness and the light passes through the waveguide. When a voltage is applied, the oil bunches up
between the electrodes due to electrophoretic effects and creates a leaking (not a diffraction) grating, ducting light that is zigzagging in the waveguide out the side. With a film of 18 to 24 m of silicone oil and an electrode period of 200 m, a 50-mm-long waveguide with a cross-section of 535 m 4 mm (with light coupled in and out via fiber bundles), the light is switched one way or the other by switching on and off a voltage of 800 V. On and off response times were 0.15 and 5 s, respectively; the latter time was shortened to 0.3 s if the electrodes were short-circuited to eliminate capacitance effects. Contact Wuzhou Song at wsong@seas.harvard.edu.
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Technical advances from around the globe
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Flat UV lens
See page 21
EU V LITHOGRAPHY
High-NA EUV optics are on their way

By taking advantage of techniques such as 193 nm water-immersion optics, semiconductor photolithography has enabled shrinking of feature sizes on computer chips to around 22 nm. But wiggle room for traditional glass-based transmissive lithographic optics has shrunk; moving below 20 nm or so will require shorter wavelengths. With the development of 13.5 nm extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) light sources by Cymer (San Diego, CA) and others, as well as optics such as the NXE:3300 platform by ASML (Veldhoven, The Netherlands) with a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.33, EUV appears to be progressing toward practical use. Butas with any optical systemthe higher the NA, the better the potential resolution. As a result, SEMATECH (SEmiconductor MAnufacturing TECHnology Association) and the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at the State University of New York (both in Albany, NY), have a program to develop small-field EUV exposure tools with NAs of 0.5. Recently, a team of researchers from Zygo Corporations Extreme Precision Optics (EPO) division (Richmond, CA), SEMATECH, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL; Berkeley, CA), Hyperion Development (San Ramon, CA), and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Spiller X-ray Optics (both in Livermore, CA) presented results of their efforts to produce and make a 0.5 NA EUV optical projection module.1 than a 1 nm root-mean-square (RMS) over the entire image field. Zygo Corporation, which has two decades of experience in fabricating EUV optics and has previously supplied optics for EUV systems, is responsible for the modified-Schwarzschild mirror fabrication and metrology. The large amount of asphericity in the new EUV mirrors leads to higher-frequency spatial periods than in previous designs, making polishing more difficult and necessitating more steps in the fabrication process. When added to the tight surface tolerances, fabricators and metrologists have their work cut out for them.
Fabrication and metrology
Zygo uses a high-precision five-axis milling machine with ultrasonic capabilities that boosted the material removal rate by a factor of up to four while reducing subsurface damage. The milling machines series of diamond tools lead to a ready-topolish surface. Polishing is done using a subaperture computer-controlled optical surfacing technology developed at Zygo EPO, along with ion-beam figuring. Monitoring of the process is done with coordinate-measuring machines, profilers, and interferometers; in a vertical cavity test, the Modified Schwarzschild design interferometer uses a Zygo-fabricated The design of the 5X-reduction projection optics, which are computer-generated hologram as a difmade of a material with a near-zero coefficient of thermal fractive null element in a vertical cavity expansion, is based on a Schwarzschild design modified so that test that imitates the as-used orientation In a computerthe mirrors are 16th-order aspheres with separated centers of of the mirror optics. generated image, two curvature, as opposed to the standard Schwarzschild configuraMinimizing both mid-spatial frequenaspherical EUV mirrors tion with two concentric spheres. The field is small (20 300 cies and microroughness is extremely (shown in light blue) in a m) but is sufficient for research into EUV photoresists, photomodified Schwarzschild important at EUV wavelengths. Zygo mask materials, and so on; the feature-size (half-pitch) resolution configuration are EPO designed a sub-aperture surface shown mounted in is 11 nm, and with certain illumination approaches such as height interferometric measuring instruextreme dipole illumination, can be as good as 8 nm. In addition, their optomechanical ment (SASHIMI) with custom optics structure. A hexapod the optical system size (as well as the reduction ratio, mass, and to match the tested asphere mirrors; actuator configuration other parameters) is constrained by a requirement that it fit into the white-light instrument generates controls the positions an existing research tool as an upgrade to the previous optics. of the mirrors relative to hundreds of subapertures that were then To achieve these results, the transmitted wavefront error of each other. (Courtesy of stitched together by software. RoughZygo Corporation) the two-mirror optical projection module is specified to be less ness at even higher spatial frequencies
13
world news
between 10 m and 10 nm is characterized by an atomic-force microscope. The period of the multilayer highreflection coatings deposited on the mirrors is varied across the clear apertures to maximize reflectivity at the local angles of incidence; the molybdenum/silicon coating was developed at LLNL and is deposited using magnetron sputtering. The optomechanical structure for the two mirrors is made from Super-Invar, which has a low CTE. The mirrors are mounted via bipod structures with integrated flexures (see figure); the relative orientation of and distance between the two mirrors are controlled using an actuator-driven hexapod structure. Alignment of the optics and wavefront measurement is done via interferometer at a 633 nm wavelength to 0.5 nm RMS at the center of the field and 1.0 nm RMS at the edge of the field. Displacement sensitivities for the testing are high: for example, a 13 nm image-plane displacement produces 0.5 nm RMS of defocus error (which is easily tweaked out, but gives an idea of the other alignment sensitivities). Performance of the system was computer-modeled; analysis included printing of 12 nm lines and spaces using annular illumination with a pupil fill of 0.93 and a donut-hole size of 0.36 of the pupil. Results showed an acceptable criticaldimension variation of 10%. A simulation of printing 8 nm lines and spaces with extreme dipole illumination showed a depth of focus greater than 100 nm for a 10% change. The annular illumination configuration will be available on systems being created for the Albany and LBNL sites, while the extreme-dipole configuration is intended for the LBNL system. John Wallace
REFERENCE 1. H. Glatzel et al., Proc. SPIE Advanced Lithography, 8679-42 (2013).
O P T I C A L S U R FAC E INSPECTION
Structured-light 3D scanner speeds aircraft rivet inspection

A typical commercial aircraft is held together by several hundreds of thousands of rivetsor fasteners, as they are called in aerospace industry jargon that can result in significant safety and fuel-efficiency issues if improperly installed. Ensuring proper fastener insertion while maintaining high levels of manufacturing efficiency has been a constant balancing act when using traditional inspection techniques. Recent innovations in structuredlight 3D optical scanning and augmented reality (AR) techniques from 8tree (Denver, CO and Daisendorf, Germany)the 2013 SPIE Startup Challenge winnerare making it possible to achieve both proper fastener insertion and efficiency.1
How it works
fastCHECK is an application-specific, 3D-structured light scanner optimized to measure fastener flushness with high speed and accuracy and consistent repeatability. The system consists of a solid-state, WVGA-resolution, MEMSbased light engine and a VGA-resolution, 125 frame/s CCD sensor coupled with supporting electronics and proprietary measurement and analysis software. The light engine projects structured light patterns (variable-width fringes) onto the target aircraft surface and the reflections are detected by the sensor. Using well-established triangulation techniques, 8trees software performs a combination of 2D imaging to detect the exact physical location of a fastener combined with 3D image analysis of the reflected image to determine depth of the fasteners on the aircraft surface with a scan-acquisition time of approximately 100 ms. Operators can perform a one-time parameter adjustment specific to their task that will impact measurement results, such as fastener
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a) b) Aircraft rivets or fasteners are subject to numerous installation errors and require detailed optical inspection (a). The fastCHECK system uses 3D structured light to analyze installation parameters and compare against pass/fail criteria (b).
Countersunk too deep
Dimpled too deep
Countersunk Dimpled too shallow too shallow
Countersunk crooked
Imperfect dimpling
diameter and tolerances. After the few seconds required to set these parameters, the operators involvement is simplified to pushing a single button. Integrated into the system is a patent-pending AR technique that projects the analyzed results of the scan back onto the target surface in the form of color codes and detailed dimensional and angular data annotations (see figure). This real-time AR technique eliminates the standard and repetitive process of looking up scan data on a computer terminal and interpreting it offline and instead allows users to perform inline measurements.
By abstracting the complex and timeconsuming task of interpreting 3D scan data away from the operator and overlaying color-coded pass-fail images directly on the scanned surface, the system significantly boosts manufacturing and inspection efficiency. The light engine serves double duty by first projecting fringe patterns to enable scanning and then subsequently displaying the measurement results to create the AR image on the surface of the aircraft. Early industry benchmarking shows that fastCHECK can scan, analyze, and deliver actionable information at a rate of greater
than 1 fastener/second with repeatability and reproducibility (R&R) that sits below the 10% threshold of analysis of variance (ANOVA) gauge R&R measurement system analysis studies while maintaining 25 m accuracy and 5 m resolution for an 18 24 cm field of view. The total time for scan, measurement analysis, and visual overlay of results is less than two seconds.
In-process inspection
Fastener-flushness inspection is usually completed after fastener insertion and typically as part of the quality assurance phase of the workflow. But fastCHECK combines scanning, analysis and AR visualization with the potential for real-time inspection and on-the-spot rework. Against the backdrop of manual tactile inspection methods that require operators to remain actively hands-on at all times, the industry has gained a great deal with the adoption of optical scanning systems, which have reduced a users active involvement during measurement to dozens of mouse-clicks, says 8tree cofounder Arun Chhabra. Taking this a step further, by pursuing a highly targeted application focus and incorporating AR techniques using fastCHECK, the userinteraction can be reduced further to a single-button-push. And our next-generation system aims to build on current performance by incorporating gesture recognition, thereby simplifying the user-experience to a natural no-click environment. Chhabra says 8trees fastCHECK product is currently undergoing extensive evaluation by the aerospace industry and is scheduled to be introduced in the manufacturing workflow soon. Gail Overton
REFERENCE 1. See http://spie.org/x88933.xml.
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POLARITON LASERS
Two groups demo electrically powered polariton lasers

A new type of low-power semiconductor laser has reached an important milestonethe first electrically powered operation. Two independent groups described strikingly similar demonstrations in reports published within hours of each other on May 15, 2013, in Nature and Physical Review Letters.1, 2 Neither group knew about the others success until they saw the papers. Atac Imamoglu of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Zurich, Switzerland) in 1996 proposed the concept of extracting coherent, monochromatic light from polaritons, which are quasiparticles formed by the interaction between a photon and an electron-hole pair (exciton) in a semiconductor. Polaritons are bosons, so many of them can occupy the same quantum state, creating a condensate similar to a Bose-Einstein condensate. Polaritons in these states have subnanosecond lifetimes, spontaneously decaying by releasing a photon. Because all polaritons in a condensate occupy the same quantum state, the emitted photons are coherent and monochromatic.
Potentially very efficient
Theory predicts high polariton-laser efficiency at low powers, making them attractive for applications such as optical interconnects. The polariton mechanism does not require a population inversion, says Alexey Kavokin of the University of Southampton (Southampton, England). That is why we expect thresholds maybe orders of magnitude lower than conventional semiconductor microlasers, he notes. Polaritons also promise very high speed. It took just two years for the first polariton laser to be demonstrated by optical pumping of a cryogenically cooled semiconductor microcavity. Kavokins group was the first to demonstrate optical pumping at room temperature in 2007.3 Shifting to electrical pumping required major changes, starting with doping the microstructure to produce Ring electrode a p-n junction and conduct current. The logical semiconductor for experiments p-type DBR was gallium arsenide (GaAs) because its technology is well developed, and light emission in a polariton light-emitting diode was developed in 2008.4 Single-wavelength cavity layer But developing a device that produced coherent, monochromatic laser lightand produced persuasive evidence that the light came from n-type DBR polaritons rather than from the laser-like microcavitytook considerably longer. An electrically pumped polariton laser is shown in One key issue was the a schematic cross-section. The structure, which nature of the polariton excitaconsists of a 20-m-diameter micropillar with a gold tion and condensation process. ring electrode on top, has an active layer sandwiched It starts with creating an by distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs). The active layer contains four InGaAs quantum wells. electron-hole plasma which
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generates a population of excitons, and these excitons then couple with photons in a resonant cavity to produce polaritons, says Pallab Bhattacharya of the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI), whose group described its approach in Physical Review Letters. However, a bottleneck can occur in scattering the polaritons to the lowest polariton energy levels, blocking production of the large coherent population of polaritons at the levels needed for coherent emission. Both groups overcame that problem by applying strong magnetic fields of several Tesla, increasing the scattering to overcome the bottleneck and help them demonstrate polariton-laser action.
Theory predicts high polariton-laser efficiency at low powers, making them attractive for applications such as optical interconnects.
was solved by cooling the GaAs microcavities to temperatures of 10 to 30 K. Low temperatures showed the physics clearly, says Sven Hfling of the University of Wrtzburg (Wrtzburg, Germany), whose group reported its approach in Nature. Operating at higher temperatures will require semiconductors with wider bandgaps, such as nitride or II-VI compounds. Proving that experiments actually demonstrated polariton lasing was a challenge because the microcavity
Cooling was required

Bhattacharya says another issue is that in GaAs the exciton binding energy is relatively weak, so the excitons tend to fall apart well below room temperature, preventing polariton emission. That
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diode strongly resembles a VCSEL, with a resonant cavity that could produce laserlike effects. Hfling says his group needed more than two years to convince referees that they were observing nonlinear emission from the polariton process, rather than a weakly coupled microcavity laser. We saw all the signatures [of polaritons] without the magnetic field, he says, but they had to add the magnetic field to make the observations definitive. Bhattacharya recalls some sleepless nights worrying if his groups evidence was definitive. The simultaneous publication of independent results was an additional confirmation. Some quibbling over definitions is still likely because, strictly speaking, the coherent output photons are produced by spontaneous emission from the coherent polariton states. Bhattacharya calls the process light amplification by stimulated scattering of polaritons [LASSPs], but it remains to be seen if polariton lasers will become LASSPs. Both groups say their next steps will be trying to demonstrate electrical pumping at the higher temperatures needed for practical applications, with room temperature the ultimate target. That will require switching to wide-bandgap semiconductors such as gallium nitride or zinc oxide. Success would open the way for polariton use in applications where low power consumption is critical, such as optical interconnects, switches, and logic gates. Kavokin suggests polaritons might also generate terahertz frequencies. And Hfling is hoping that electrical excitation at room temperature also can generate polariton condensatesanalogs of Bose-Einstein condensates that would be much easier to produce and use. Jeff Hecht
REFERENCES 1. C. Schneider et al., Nature, 497, 348 (May 16, 2013); doi:10.1038/nature12036. 2. P. Bhattacharya et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 110, 206403 (2013); doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.206403. 3. S. Christopoulos et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 98, 126405 (2007). 4. S. I. Tsintzos et al., Nature, 453, 372 (May 15, 2008); doi:10.1038/nature06979.
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Laser Focus World
M ETA M AT ER I A L OP T ICS
Simple layered flat metamaterial lens focuses in the UV

A team of U.S. and Canadian scientists has created an easily fabricated sputtered-on flat thin-film metamaterial lens that works at UV wavelengths.1 The team includes scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST; Gaithersburg, MD), the University of Maryland (College Park, MD), Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY), and the University of British Columbia (Kelowna, BC, Canada). The lens consists of alternating layers of metal and dielectricin this case, silver (Ag) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) on the order of 30 nm thickon a transparent glass substrate. The structure forms many strongly coupled plasmonic sheet waveguides that allow a transverse-magnetic-polarized (TMP) backwards electromagnetic mode with a frequency that falls between the bulk plasmon-resonance frequency of the metal and the surface plasmon-resonance frequency of the metal-dielectric interface; in this case, the researchers chose to work with light at 363.8 nm. y, -z). The result is a 3D mirror image of the object, always at unity magnification and without lens aberrations. Also, as a result, the lens has no optical axis and could in theory be made into an arbitrarily large sheet and still create images of the same high quality. While the distances between the lens which is only 450 nm thickand the object and image are small (on the order of the lens thickness), the lens is a far-field imager, meaning that an image appears in free space, rather than on the lens surface. On the metamaterial lens, which has both negative electric permittivity
One-to-one 3D imaging
Because the metamaterial has a refractive index of -1, the incidence angle (with respect to the surface normal) of any ray passing into or out of it is flipped (multiplied by -1). The result is an unusual sort of image in which light from every point on one side of the lens is focused to a corresponding point on the other side of the lens that is exactly the same distance away from the lens, and also has the same lateral position; so, for example, an object point at (x, y, z) gets imaged to (x,
and negative magnetic permeability, the researchers deposited an opaque

film of chromium (Cr) in which was patterned a 600-nm-wide illumination aperture. Through this aperture, they
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confirmed negative refraction for TMP light, along with conventionaland expectedpositive refraction for transverse electric polarization. Because linearly polarized light thus results in focusing only in one direction, the researchers actually b) use circularly polarized light for imaging experiments; light with a circular polarization has equal amounts of the two orthogonal linear polarizations (with a relative phase shift), so that, no matter what the orientation of the image feature, there is always some light available with the properly Two-dimensional objects such as a cross and a circle (a) with oriented polarization. 180 nm linewidths were imaged by a metamaterial lens focusing view an image created by the metamaterial lens of a 180-nmwide slit (see figure). The result showed a minimum slit width of about 370 nm full width at half maximum (FWHM). The NIST researchers and their colleagues took their inspiration from a theoretical metamaterial design recently proposed by a group at the FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), adapting the design to work in the UV. According to NIST researchers Ting Xu, Amit Agrawal, and Henri Lezec, aside from achievUV light, producing good-quality images (b). (Courtesy of NIST) ing record-short wavelengths, Imaging results the metamaterial lens is inherFinite-difference time-domain (FDTD) amount of loss, dispersion, and other ently easy to fabricate. It doesnt rely simulations for an ideal case showed factors would be expected to degrade on nanoscale patterns, but instead is a minimum beam width at focus of this. As an experiment, the researcha simple sandwich of thin films, the about 200 nm. However, a realistic ers used a UV microscope objective to construction of which is routine. And
a)
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because its design consists of a stack of strongly coupled waveguides sustaining backward waves, the metamaterial exhibits a negative index of refraction to incoming light regardless of its incidence angle. The metamaterial flat lens achieves its refractive action over a distance of about two wavelengths of UV light, making possible small image distances that are challenging to achieve with conventional refractive optics such as glass lenses. In addition, the researchers determined that transmission through the metamaterial can be turned on and off using higher-frequency (290 nm) light as a switch, allowing the flat lens to act as a shutter with a 50% intensity-modulation contrast (and no moving parts). John Wallace
REFERENCE 1. T. Xu et al., Nature, 497, 470, doi:10.1038/ nature12158 (May 23, 2013).
W HITE-LIGHT SOU RCES
Sapphire-core fiber produces broadband UV-visible light for OCT

A team of Taiwanese researchers has developed a very broadband (near-UV through the visible region) optical-fiberbased light source for uses in the bioscience and medical fields.1 Based on a glass-clad crystalline-sapphire fiber pumped by a near-UV laser, the source is potentially useful for optical coherence tomography (OCT), as well as fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry. The group, which includes researchers from National Dong Hwa University (Hualien), National Taiwan University (Taipei), and National Sun Yat-Sen University (Kaohsiung) demonstrated a fiber with a 1.16 mW optical output power (when pumped by a 325-nm-emitting helium-cadmium laser) at a 4.7% optical-to-optical efficiency and a white-light output with CIR chromaticity coordinates of (0.287, 0.333), which is a slightly bluegreen shade of white.
Glass-clad sapphire
To fabricate the fiber, a 40-m-diameter sapphire single-crystalline core was grown via a laser-heated pedestal growth (LHPG) technique in which a carbon dioxide (CO2) laser heats a large-diameter source rod, creating a molten zone from which a slightly hexagonal crystalline core is drawn. To create the color centers (oxygen-atom vacancies) and other spectral peaks in the sapphire on which the white-light generation
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The broadband UV-visible photoluminescent output of a glassclad sapphire-core optical fiber excited by light at 325 nm includes many components, such as peaks resulting from color centers and Ti and Cr impurities. The 1.16 mW output and 4.7% opticalto-optical conversion efficiency of the fiber light source make it suitable for OCT and other biomedical applications.
depends, a small amount of titanium (Ti) and chromium (Cr) ions were added to the core. The core was then inserted into a borosilicate glass tube with a 320 m outer diameter and an inner diameter slightly greater than the sapphire core; the same CO2 laser setup was used to melt the glass and collapse it onto the core in a vacuum environment; this step also caused the sapphire to be regrown. An 18-mm-long segment of the fiber was used for white-light generation. The fiber segment was wrapped in a tin-lead alloy and clamped in an aluminum heat sink. Up to 25 mW of laser light was focused by a 40X objective lens into the input end of the fiber to generate white light. The resulting output spectrum ranged from 300 nm out to past 650 nm (see figure). Many possible photoluminescent (PL) bands can contribute to such a spectrum, including PL bands with peaks at 375, 420, 458, 485, 531, 577, and 648 nm that correspond to color centers, and bands associated either with Ti or Cr and which have peaks at 380, 420, 460, 480, 510, 590, and 650 nm. To determine which peaks actually contributed to the actual output, the researchers fitted a curve to the white-light spectrum, then, assuming Gaussian profiles for all the possible PL bands, did a best fit of the possible peaks to the overall curve. The result revealed a combination of color centers and effects of Ti and Cr ions, as well as aluminum vacancies filled by Ti. The resulting high 4.7% conversion efficiency is the highest among existing active-waveguide white-light-producing approaches, including supercontinuum lasers, the researchers note. John Wallace
REFERENCE 1. C.-C.Lai et al., Opt. Exp., 21, 12, 14606 (June 17, 2013).
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Software&Computing
Development of optical thin-film modeling forges ahead

ANGUS MACLEOD
We use models in virtually everything we do, and the design and analysis of optical coatings is no exception. Here, a model is an absolute necessity and, when implemented on a computer, it removes from our shoulders a huge and debilitating volume of tedious calculation. The basic model, created by Romanian-born French researcher Florin Abels (who also founded the journal Optics Communications in 1969), is so good that it has remained virtually unchanged for more than 60 years. Advanced, powerful commercial programs are readily available, and it is becoming rare to find companies that still use home-brewed programs. In spite of the longevity of the model, these computer programs continue constantly to develop and advance. How can this be?
The starting model is an ideal one that assumes ideal conditions. It employs parallel-sided films of precise thickness, featureless interfaces, and known optical constants that are illuminated by a monochromatic, linearly polarized plane wave. Usually, our coating designat least in the first instanceis achieved under such conditions. But in the real world, illumination is never strictly monochromatic nor a perfectly collimated wave of infinite extent. The coating layers have rough surfaces and their thicknesses may not be uniform. And there may be other departures from the ideal model. Examination of such effects requires elaboration of our model and suitable tools for this are important components of modern thin-film software, and, responsive to the ever-growing needs of modern optics, more are constantly under development. Lets look at just two of the consequences of real-world conditions where such software tools are invaluable.
Cones of illumination Calculations at oblique incidence are a bit more complicated than those at normal incidence because of polarization effects. We decompose the polarization of the light into two modes, one with electric field parallel to the plane of incidence, p-polarization, and one with the electric field perpendicular to the plane of incidence, s-polarization. The appropriate coating properties differ, but these two modes possess the advantage of retaining their polarization orientation both in transmission and in reflection. Any ray at Extinctionratio oblique incidence, therefore, is first decomposed into its p- and s-components that are calculated separately and 100 then, after emerging from the coating, are recombined to give the resultant. 10-2 4coneperformance There are three effects of tilted illumination, all of which are dependent on the cosine of the angle of prop10-4 agation. The interference path differences are reduced, -6 making the layers appear thinner, so that there is a shift 10 to shorter wavelengths. The performance for s-polariza10-8 tion tends to strengthen, while that for p-polarization Collimated light weakens; a difference in the two performance character10-10 istics known as polarization splitting is the result. Low400 500 600 700 Wavelength(nm) index layers are affected more than the high, and so there is also sometimes a further distortion of the characterisFIGURE 1. Polarizer performance in collimated light shows an tic. The effects increase roughly as the square of the anextinction ratio as low as 0.000000001; however, in a 4 cone (semigle as we slide down the cosine curve. apex angle), it reaches 0.0012almost exactly as predicted by the approximate expression. Making our optical system capable of a reasonably
27
Software&Computing
high-energy throughput results in a de- nation is a cone with uniform irradiance duce our cone of illumination. parture from perfect collimation of the throughout the cone. Cones of illuminaThe desired polarizations in such a delight, and we can think of the illumination decrease edge sharpness, broaden the vice are locked to the principal plane of spectral output of narrowband filters and, even if nominally at normal incidence, shift coating characteristics slightly to shorter wavelengths. Wavefronterror(waves) However, there is a major 0.00 effect when thin-film polarizActualat 0.02 550nm ers are involved that may not 0.04 be as well known as it should. 0.06 A common thin-film polarizGeometrical er is a reflecting structure of 0.08 quarterwaves tilted at 45 in a 0.10 high-index glass cube. Ideally, 10 5 0 5 10 15 the p-performance is so weakPosition(mm) ened that it is transmitted withFIGURE 2. A 21-layer quarterwave stack has a out loss while the strengthened maximum uniformity error of 2% with a spherical s-polarization performance surface. The wavefront predicted purely by geometry results in its total reflection. is convex and ellipsoidal with a maximum error of Incredibly low extinction rajust over one tenth of a wave. When the phase shift tios (undesired or desired) can from the coating is taken into account, the true wavefront shows slightly less curvature than the purely be achieved. Problems appear, geometrical prediction. however, as soon as we introtion as encompassing a range of angles of incidence. A useful model of such illumiincidence of the cone, while the actual polarization modes of any individual ray are locked to its local plane of incidence; for skew rays out of the principal plane of incidence, these are not the same. The result is polarization leakage that limits the performance of the device. It is a geometrical effect that depends purely on the principal angle of incidence and the cone semi-apex angle, (both measured at the coating); the limiting extinction ratio that cannot be exceeded is given to a good approximation by 2/(4tan2 ) with in radians.1 Figure 1 shows a comparison between an ideal polarizer performance at 45 incidence in collimated light and in a 4 cone of illumination. The degraded performance in the cone is virtually that predicted by the formula. It is clear from the formula that a move
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Software&Computing
to still higher angles of incidence would Uniformity problems posited over a completely flat substrate improve the performance in an illuminat- The uniformity of deposition thickness of 30 mm diameter and that there is a raing cone. A move to 63 would improve in a coating machine follows laws sim- dial error in the thickness of the coating performance by a factor of four. But this ilar to those of illumination; techniques such that the resulting surface is spheriimplies a more difficult system design in- of masking, along with moving substrates cal with a drop from center to periphery volving rather more glass, and as a result, and even sometimes sources, are used of about 2%. We assume that the parts the 45 incidence angle is much preferred to reach the necessary uniformity tar- are illuminated at normal incidence by by system designers. gets. Even with the best attention to detail a perfectly collimated monochromatic and the most advanced equip- wave. Geometrical considerations tell us Refectance (%) ment, there can be residual vari- that the resulting wavefront should now ations in thickness across a coat- be ellipsoidal with a variation of exactly 100 ed part; these can sometimes double that in the coating. 98 have unexpected consequences. The first coating is a simple quarter96 Like the polarization effects de- wave stack. This is the basic reflecting scribed earlier, these effects are interference coating. Here, the overall 94 completely calculable by a suit- physical thickness of the 21-layer coat92 able computer model. ing of alternate tantala and silica quar90 We can illustrate some of the terwaves, with 510 nm as reference wave400 500 600 700 sometimes-unexpected effects length, is 1.53 m. At 550 nm, a reflected Wavelength(nm) on optical performance by ex- wavefront based on geometrical considFIGURE 3. Spectral reflectance across the visible amining two different front- erations only would have a maximum region is shown for a 41-layer extended zone reflector. surface thin-film-interference error of 0.11 waves. But we also need The reflector consists of two quarterwave stacks reflecting coatings. We shall as- to include the phase on reflection; when centered on 460 and 600 nm, separated by an intermediate-thickness low-index layer. sume that these coatings are de- that is taken into account, the maximum
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Software&Computing
wavefront error is actually slightly less the coating to be reflected at some depth. (see Fig. 2). The quarterwave stack is a This results in quite rapid changes in kindly coating with few surprises. phase with wavelength, which is transWe can increase the spectral range of lated into rapid changes with total thickhigh reflectance by combining two or ness. Figure 4 shows some of the conmore quarterwave stacks into one coat- sequences. Here we have, once again, a ing to create an extended-zone high re- 2% maximum error in uniformity with a flector (see Fig. 3). However, over part regular spherical surface. This coating is of the range, the light will penetrate into 3.15 m thick and the geometrical calculation shows a convex wavefront Wavefronterror(waves) with, at 550 nm, a maximum er0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.2 10 Geometrical 5 0 5 Position(mm) 10 15 561nm 556nm 552nm 547nm
FIGURE 4. A purely geometrical calculation at 550 nm of the wavefront reflected from the extended zone coating, with its uniformity error of 2%, shows that it should be convex and ellipsoidal with a maximum error of around 0.2 waves. However, taking the phase properties of the coating into account and varying the wavelength slightly from 550 nm, we find a rapidly changing wavefront shape that is certainly far from spherical or ellipsoidal.
ror of just over 0.2 wave. However, varying the wavelength slightly gives actual wavelength shapes that are very differentand in many cases concave rather than convexand quite different from spherical or ellipsoidal. Although the fundamental model of thin-film interference has been with us for a long time, innovations and elaborations are still being made. Software products that do the calculations for us and in so doing free us from the massive burden of calculation are far from static. The calculations in this article were all carried out by the Essential Macleod software package for thin-film design, manufacture, and analysis.
REFERENCE 1. A. Macleod, Thin film polarizers and polarizing beam splitters, Society of Vacuum Coaters Bulletin, Issue Summer, 2427 (2009).
Angus Macleod is president and CEO of Thin Film Center, Tucson, AZ; email: angus@ thinfilmcenter.com; www.thinfilmcenter.com.
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Head-worn displays: Useful tool or niche novelty?

GAIL OVERTON
While initial responses to commercial head-worn displays such as Google Glass have been positive, only time will tell if these products gain immediate traction or follow a slow march into consumer favor much like 3D technology.
Head-worn displays such as Google Glass from Googles (Mountain View, CA) Project Glass are just now reaching the consumer: the first Google Explorer Editions ($1500) are rolling off the assembly line to a select audience of trial users. And while initial responses have been positive, the future seems uncertain for these augmented reality devicesperhaps much like the tenuous penetration of 3D technology in cinema and smart devices.1 In April 2013, market research firm IHS iSuppli (El Segundo, CA) forecast Nomenclature that nearly 10 million smart glasses Before launching into commercial would ship between 2012 and 2016 (and emerging) head-worn display (see Fig. 1).2 Initial revenues, they say, options and non-proprietary technolwill be driven by sales to developers, ogy features, a note about terminolowith sales increasing 250% in 2014 as gy would be helpful. Specifically, headGoogle Glass products beHigh-end forecast of worldwide come publicly available. shipments of smart glass products But Google isnt the only (Unit shipments in thousands) FIGURE 1. company betting on a solDriven by Googles lead, nearly 10 id future for these photonmillion smart ic-intensive electronic gadglasses or headgets: the Vuzix (Rochester, worn displays are NY) M100 Smart Glasses forecast to ship are under $500; Epsons between 2012 and 434 (Long Beach, CA) Moverio 124 2016. (Courtesy of 49.6 BT-100 display is designed IHS iSuppli ) 2012 2013 2014 for in-home video viewLaser Focus World www.laserfocusworld.com
ing; and Innovegas (Bellevue, WA) iOptic augmented reality contact lenses are several years away (2015), but attempt to reduce the size of the head-worn device by projecting information directly into the wearers eye. There is even a hands-free Golden-i headset developed by Kopin Corporation (Westboro, MA) with multilingual speech recognition, gesture interface, on-demand night vision, infrared thermal vision, facial recognition, GPS, and passive health monitoring. A Golden-i Police Pro application from Ikanos Consulting (West Bridgford, England) could give this technology real longevity.3
worn display (HWD) products are also named head-mounted displays (HMDs), head-up or heads-up displays (HUDs), augmented reality (AR) devices or displays, smart glasses, digital glasses, eyeglass displays, or even wearable computers. Is there a difference in these named technologies? It is generally agreed that headsup displays or HUDs are those devices intended for military/aircraft use to augment the pilots other available navigation devices, says Jannick Rolland, professor of Optics and Biomedical Engineering and director of both the R.E. Hopkins Center for Optical Design & Engineering and the planned NSF Center for Freeform Optics, all in The Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester (Rochester, NY). Rolland has been developing head-worn display device technology for nearly 23 yearssome in partnership with industry players NVIS (Reston, VA) and Revision Military (Essex Junction, VT)and continues to advance HWD technology. In recent years, she partnered
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with Optical Research Associates (now Synopsys, Mountain View, CA) to create a path for real-time warping of stereo distortion-free images as well as a wireless version of the companys HWD prototype.4-6 Head-worn displays or HWDs refer to those devices meant for more consumer-related and sports applications like surfing the Internet, checking the time or vital statistics, and getting alerts for appointments using a device worn on the head that acts like a computer to augment the users surroundings, adds Rolland. That is, an augmented reality device is a more futuristic name for any HWD products that are meant to easily and seamlessly integrate information into the users field of view. Currently, Google is on a path to commercialize AR HWDs, and many other industry giants are on that similar path.7 Note that many consumer devices are still named heads-up displays
even though they are not used in a mil- HUD devices, the discussion that folitary/defense application; indeed, the lows is concerned primarily with connomenclature confusion will subside sumer HWD applications. as the early adoption phase passes for this personal display technology. Due A day in the life to the proprietary nature of military Youre getting ready to step outside and take the bus to work and wouldnt want to forget your smartphoneand smart glasses. You slip them on and immediately get a visual text alert in your field of view and an audio message reminding you of your 9 am teleconference. You have a little time while sitting on the bus, so you call up your HWD Facebook app and find out whats happening by using eye or voice cues to scroll through the postings viewed in your glasses as you note the long lines at the Starbucks on the next corner. You play that hilarious cat video again and call up your Twitter app to let the world know just how funny it is by Tweeting the YouTube video FIGURE 2. Google Glass is now available link by typing it into your smartphone. for limited release to beta testers. (Courtesy of Google) Somehow, youve managed to strike up a
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conversation with the person sitting next Facebook integration. the lens elements may include: a transto you and so use your HWD to take Perhaps the most hyped of all HWD parent or semi-transparent matrix disa picture of them and apply facial rec- devices is Google Glassa monocular play, such as an electroluminescent disognition software (and hopefully, their display worn over one ear that transmits play or a liquid crystal display, one or verbal permission) to friend them on images and videos to a small screen (0.75 more waveguides for delivering an imFacebook.8 For lunch today, youll do the in. deep, 0.375 in. wide and tall, or half age to the users eyes, or other optical healthy thing and head to the gym where an inch at the diagonal) situated between elements capable of delivering an in foyour smart glasses will display your cur- your eyebrow and upper lid (see Fig. 2). cus near-to-eye image to the user or rent weight, respiration rate, and other The wearer glances up and to the right to additionally, a laser or LED source and vitals youve programmed into the health view the display with a resolution equiv- scanning system could be used to draw monitor that interfaces with your glasses. alent to a 25 in. high-definition screen a raster display directly onto the retina While the scenario here is hypotheti- seen from 8 ft away and touch and voice of one or more of the users eyes. cal and representative of what some con- controlled via a bone conduction transGoogle Glass is targeted at social acsumer-targeted smart glasses intend to ducer, according to Internet resources tivitiestake a picture, take a 10-second do, Recon Instruments (Vancouver, (Google would not provide further tech- video, read a tweet, see an SMS text, anBC, Canada) launched the first con- nical details citing the beta pre-release swer your phone; but Golden-i was desumer HUDs for sports enthusiasts in status of the product).9 veloped as a powerful hands-free tool late 2010. Precision GPS and altimeters In its United States Patent Application with the sophistication of a Ferrari [or] guide ski enthusiasts, for example, with 20130044042, however, Google does a Porsche, and as robust as an Abrams 1 m precision as their MOD Live HUD describe a binocular (assumed future tank when required, says Jeff Jacobsen, displays speed, vertical descent, and version) HWD with an external im- VP of technology at Kopin Corporation. jump airtime while avoiding soggy pa- age viewable through the prism that Water- and dust-resistant Golden-i genper trail maps. Inserted into any Recon could incorporate gyroscopes or other eration 3.8 headsets from Kopin are opReady goggle, MOD Live gives wear- sensors and, in alternative embodiments, erated using voice commands and head ers an 84 unobstructed view; prism optics project microdisplay data to appear as if viewed on a 14 in. screen from a distance of 5 ft. Announced at the May 2013 Google I/O developers conference, the next-generation Recon Jet is targeted at a broader consumer audience and Opto Diode supplies high power anticipated to be faster and smaller with IR LEDs around the world. live activity tracking, video streaming, From high output visible to high output near IR, from low cost to hi-rel, our wide variety web and smartphone connectivity, and of state-of-the-art LEDs are used in photo controls, optical encoders, night vision systems and auto-focusing cameras. Our Hi-Rel IR LEDs are used in aerospace, space and neutron radiation hard system applications. Youll even find our LEDs flying high on the Space Shuttle, F/A-18 aircraft and weather satellites. High output power. Custom solutions. Better performance. And made in the USA. What more could you ask for?
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FIGURE 3. Golden-i headsets offer a full PC experience with enhanced synthetic vision, speech recognition, and ambient noise cancellation, allowing hands-free immediate access to notebooks or your desktop and server. (Courtesy of Kopin Corporation) Laser Focus World
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a)
b)
Photodiode
OLED pixel
FIGURE 4. Bidirectional OLED-based data eyeglasses allow the user to interact with the Internet or other smart data using gaze control or eye tracking for truly hands-free operation (a). Photodetectors as well as OLED display pixels are integrated onto a CMOS 50% transparent backplane (b) to both display and capture images. (Courtesy of Fraunhofer COMEDD)
movements captured and understood full-color transmissive thin-film transisby a nine-axis MEMS tracker, all inter- tor (TFT) LCD microdisplay (960 540 connected to other remote devices and resolution) that looks like a 15 in. laptop the Internet by WiFi, Bluetooth, and screen situated about 18 in. away from Verizon 4G LTE wireless interfaces (see the users eye, Golden-i targets more Fig. 3). The monocular display can be industrial applications as a computing worn below or above the left or right and communications tool. Incidentally, eye and is compatible with reading glass- Vuzix M100 Smart Glasses and Recon es, safety glasses, hard hats, or helmets. goggles and Jet glasses all incorporate With a quarter high-definition (qHD) Kopin displays, backlights, and in some
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cases optics, and offer similar functionality to Google Glass. Also with hands-free operation, organic light-emitting diode (OLED)based bidirectional microdisplay HMD data eyeglasses from the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Organics, Materials and Electronic Devices (COMEDD; Dresden, Germany) won CeBITs Innovation Award IT among 4900 submissions and will enable a gardener to immediately identify the winged insect that just ate through its petunias by surfing the Internet via gaze control or eye tracking. Because OLED microdisplays integrate highly efficient light sources with photodetectors on a CMOS backplane, the COMEDD HMD device can present and capture images at the same time (see Fig. 4). Its smart glasses incorporate a 640 480 VGA-resolution color OLED microdisplay (8 m square pixels) with a 10.2 mm 7.7 mm physical display area in a 39.1 (horizontal) 26.6 (vertical) see-through (50% transparency) field of view. The nested photodiode pixels enable an embedded camera with 128 96 pixel resolution. The Fraunhofer COMEDD HMD development team also included Trivisio Prototyping (Trier, Germany) for the binocular, see-through optics design and the Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation (IOSB; Karlsruhe, Germany) for its eye-tracking technology. In addition to the OLED microdisplay with embedded photodiodes, the
Laser Focus World
glasses also house a 5.6 11.2 mm eye- Privacy and distraction? motion box that captures an image of Weve already seen how texting while the users right pupil and projects it to driving can be deadly. So how about a photodetector matrix. The embedded driving while wearing your HWD or camera converts the image to a digital even walking down the street? In a redata stream and a mobile computer uses cent Insight Media (Norwalk, CT) an eye-tracking algorithm to calculate Display Central article, Phil Wright says coordinates and extract the users point that the former primary concern of deof gaze to control the display. velopers as to whether the geeky eyeOLED HWD proponents also include wear would be widely adopted by coneMagin (Bellevue, WA) with its Z800 sumers is now being replacedas the 3DVisor aimed at the PC gaming market technology matures and the geek factor (see Fig. 5). While the product proved becomes less of an issueby implicato be too bulky for widespread consumer tions to privacy and safety matters.10 use, the 40 degree diagonal field of view Wright describes how recent press and greater-than-HD WUXGA [1900 accounts cite some specific privacy con1200] resolution make eMagin OLEDs cerns that may or not become hot topics the microdisplays of choice for the U.S. with the emergence of wearable alwaysArmy and military organizations around on image capture and display devices. the world for night-vision goggles, situ- For example, several observers have inational awareness HMDs, and thermal quired whether it would be appropriate weapon sights, says R. Bruce Ridley, to wear Glass in a public restroom. And eMagin VP of business development as for safety issues, Wright considers that and special projects. Backlight-free, for recreational eyewear users like skilow-power-consumption, active-matrix ers and snowboarders, the concern that OLED microdisplays enable head-worn injuries may result from distracted highdisplays with high pixel count, wide field velocity users is legitimate. of view, and high contrast. Only time will tell how well HWD technology is adopted, and, like cell phones, laws will no doubt be written to control when, where, and how the devices are used. In this early stage of development, Wright says it best when he concludes, The social norms that should accompany the adoption of such wearable always-on technology are not yet established, understood and widely applied.
REFERENCES 1. See http://bit.ly/11mQOHm; http://bit.ly/ yEIHdv; and http://dailym.ai/OMuMTZ. 2. See http://bit.ly/12pAXqF. 3. See http://huff.to/ZXkSXn. 4. J. Rolland and O. Cakmacki, Optics & Photonics News, 20, 4, 2027 (April 2009). 5. A. S. Bauer, Opt. Exp., 20, 14, 1490614920 (2012). 6. J. P. Rolland et al., See-Through Head Worn Display (HWD) Architectures, Handbook of Visual Display Technology, 21452170, Springer, New York, NY (2012). 7. See http://bit.ly/11Cl9zi. 8. See http://bit.ly/11zU3Xr. 9. See http://cnet.co/11ONKBm. 10. See http://bit.ly/16Erkd8.
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FIGURE 5. The Z800 3DVisorwhile it proved too bulky for widespread consumer usewas the forerunner of HWD OLEDbased devices that are now being improved for consumer use with higher contrast and brightness, wider field of view, and lower power consumption than alternative LCD or LCOS technologies. (Courtesy of eMagin) Laser Focus World
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U LT R A FA S T T U N A B LE L A S E R S
2D infrared spectroscopy moves toward mainstream use

MARTIN ZANNI, CHRIS MIDDLETON, MARCO ARRIGONI, and JOSEPH HENRICH
A unique method to investigate molecular structure and dynamics has become a practical research tool, thanks to the advent of user-friendly, integrated 2D IR spectrometers.
Two-dimensional infrared (2D IR) spectroscopy has many advantages over commonly used forms of IR spectroscopy. As an analytical tool, it can help identify compounds and What is 2D IR spectroscopy? disentangle mixtures. As a research The predecessor to 2D IR spectrostool, it can provide both kinetic and copy is FTIR spectroscopy, which is structural information, such as what currently one of the most widely used is needed for research in biophysics, analytical and research tools in the drug binding and membrane dynam- world. FTIR spectroscopy is often the ics, and materials sciencefor exam- first tool that a researcher uses to anaple, organic LEDs (OLEDs) and or- lyze a new compound, check whether ganic photovoltaics. a chemical reaction has completed, or Until very recently, the technique determine whether or not a molecule was characterized by daunting prac- has bound to a surface. tical complexity, limiting its use to a Nearly every molecule small handful of specialized ultra- that vibrates produces a fast laser-spectroscopy labs. The re- characteristic IR absorpFIGURE 1. Experimentally measured (top) FTIR and (bottom) 2D IR spectra are shown for a mixture of compounds. From the FTIR spectrum, one cannot determine how many types of molecules are contained in the mixture. In contrast, the 2D IR spectrum exhibits a pair of diagonal peaks for each of the peaks in the FTIR spectrum. The cross-peaks in the 2D IR spectrum reveal that the two higherfrequency peaks are coupled to one another, meaning that the vibrational motions of these two modes influence one another; this usually occurs when two modes reside on the same molecule. In fact, these spectra were collected for a mixture of two compounds. Absorbance A is due to W(CO)6 and peaks B and C are from a rhodium dicarbonyl (RDC). One does not see cross-peaks between W(CO)6 and RDC because the mixture is too dilute. (Data collected by Tianqi Zhang)
cent development of a user-friendly 2D IR instrument now makes 2D IR spectroscopy almost as routine as established techniques such as Fourier-transform IR (FTIR) or nuclear-magnetic-resonance (NMR) spectroscopies, unlocking its vast potential for a broad range of users.
tion spectrum, and so FTIR has uses in fields as diverse as biophysics, materials science, energy sciences, and analytical chemistry. Catalogs have been compiled containing the FTIR spectra of thousands of molecules so that unknown compounds can be identified. However, one of the things that cannot be learned from FTIR is whether two absorption lines come from the same molecule or not. Consider the FTIR spectrum in Fig. 1 (top), which contains three peaks labeled A, B, and C. Are these three peaks all created by the same molecule? Or do they arise from the mixture of different types of molecules? Reference spectra can help, as can additional experiments, and often enough is known about the sample to eliminate some possibilities, but
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without further information, an FTIR spectrum cannot unequivocally answer this fundamental question. Two-dimensional IR spectroscopy is able to answer this question, and many others, by providing a dynamic and 2D picture of how the absorption peaks are connected with each other.1 A typical 2D IR spectrum (see Fig. 1, bottom) is a 2D map in which molecular absorption is plotted as a function of two excitation frequencies covering the same wavelength (or wavenumber) range. The peaks observed along the diagonal line are similar to a conventional FTIR spectrum, while the off-diagonal structures (called crosspeaks) are created by the interactions or energy flow between vibrational energy levels. The dynamic evolution of the system, such as energy flow or chemical exchange, can be monitored by varying the time delay between the combination of pulses used to excite the sample. Going back to the example of Fig. 1, each of the three peaks in the FTIR spectrum creates a diagonal pair of peaks in the 2D IR spectrum. The pairs of crosspeaks between B and C (connected by a square) indicates that these two absorbances arise from one species, while peak A, which is not connected by any cross-peaks, belongs to a second species. In fact, these experimental spectra were measured for a dilute mixture of tungsten hexacarbonyl [W(CO)6] and rhodium dicarbonyl (RDC) in acetone. W(CO)6 has a single absorption band at
1670 cm-1, whereas RDC has two absorption bands at 1990 and 2070 cm-1. Thus, the cross-peaks help disentangle the FTIR spectrum. Where do these cross-peaks come from? The cross-peaks measure the coupling between vibrational modes.1 In the example above, modes B and C of RDC come from the stretches of the two carbonyl groups attached to the metal center. Because of their close proximity and because they share a common central atom (the metal), the vibrational motions of one carbonyl mode influences the motions of the other.2 That is what is meant by coupling. As a result, a cross-peak appears between the two. Cross-peaks can also occur between molecules if the vibrational modes of those molecules become intertwined, such as often occurs between hydrogen-bonded species, stacked aromatic ring systems (such as in DNA), and other sorts of structural arrangements such as protein secondary structures. Thus, like an FTIR spectrum, a 2D IR spectrum provides frequency and intensity information, but in addition also reveals the connectivity between bonds. How does one collect a 2D IR spectrum? The principles behind 2D IR spectroscopy are relatively straightforward. If two vibrational modes are coupled, excitation of one of those modes with a laser pulse should change the frequency of the other one. If that happens, there is a cross-peak. In fact, this is how the first 2D IR spectra were generated: the frequency of a tunable narrowband midIR laser pulse was scanned across the vibrational resonances while monitoring the absorption of a probe pulse.3 The change in absorption or optical density (OD) was plotted as a function of the narrowband frequency to give probe and pump axes, respectively (see Fig. 2). This frequency-domain approach of collecting 2D IR spectroscopy is still being used, although it is now largely being replaced by a time-domain version that is much more accurate. In the time-do-
main approach, the narrowband pulses in Fig. 2 are replaced with pairs of femtosecond pulses whose bandwidth covers all the vibrational modes at once. Data are collected as a function of the time delays t1 and t3. The time-domain data are then processed by taking a Fourier transform to present the spectrum in a similar manner to how an FTIR instrument processes its interferograms. Instead of replacing the probe with a pair of pulses, it is also possible to use a single femtosecond pulse and a monochromator so as to optically produce the Fourier transform of the probe axis. The time-domain approach is usually preferable to the frequency-domain approach because the narrowband pulses are picoseconds in duration, during which most molecules move and lose a substantial amount of their energy (see Fig. 3). Thus, the signal is stronger and the spectra more easily interpreted. Implementing 2D IR spectroscopy using pulse shaping In principle, what we have described above is straightforward to do experimentally, but in practice it has taken more than 10 years to learn the best and simplest ways of implementation. To implement the time-domain pulse sequence, one needs to generate four beams of
Pump Probe
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FIGURE 2. The conceptually simplest way to collect a 2D IR spectrum is to scan the frequency of a pump pulse and monitor the change in absorbance of a probe pulse.
FIGURE 3. Modern 2D IR spectra are usually collected in the time domain by replacing the pump and probe pulses in Fig. 2 with a pair of femtosecond pulses whose bandwidth spans all the vibrational modes of interest. The time delays (t1 and t3) between the pulses are scanned and the data Fourier-transformed. In principle, identical spectra should be obtained with either the frequency of time-domain methods, but in practice femtosecond pulses produce much higher-quality spectra. Laser Focus World
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femtosecond pulses, control their relative delays with accuracies of a few femtoseconds, focus them all into the sample at the same spot, and then direct the signal onto a detector. This process is even more difficult when considering that the laser beams are in the mid-IR, and thus invisible to the naked eye. Building a spectrometer from scratch can take months for even the best experimentalist, and when assembled, if a single mirror is bumped, it can take days to get the signal back. A laser system that generates the mid-IR light is also critical, because high beam stability is mandatory to keep temporal and spatial overlap of these four pulses. Thus, the great potential of 2D IR spectroscopy has been hampered by experimental complexity. A technique that combined the best of both worldsfemtosecond pulses with a simple optical layoutwas invented a few years ago when the Zanni Research Group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison used femtosecond pulse shaping to collect a 2D IR spectrum.4 Femtosecond pulse shaping was
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invented nearly two decades ago; Martin Zanni built the first pulse shaper that operates in the mid-IR by using an acousto-optic modulator made of germanium. Using this pulse shaper, his research group generated and scanned the time delay between the pairs of femtosecond pulses in Fig. 3 to generate a 2D IR data set. Moreover, they showed that spectra could be collected in a pump-probe beam geometry in which the two pump pulses (and probe pulses) are collinear, rather than having separate beam paths for each of the four pulses. Thus, their experimental design enabled computer-generated pulse sequences (similar to how an NMR spectrometer generates radio-frequency pulses) and reduced the number of laser beams from four to two. It has become apparent over the past five years that this method offers many other advantages as well. The pulse shaper can update the time delay with every laser shot, eliminating the need for mechanical translation stages and resulting in faster data collection and a higher signal-to-noise ratio. The phases of the pulses can be cycled, allowing the background to be subtracted B without chopping the laser beams; this effectively increases the repetition rate and allows scatter from heterogeneous samples to be removed. In addition, more sophisticated pulse sequences can be generated that enable mixed frequency/time-domain data collection and the coherent control of molecular vibrations, for example.
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FIGURE 4. Infrared spectra of the amylin polypeptide associated with type 2 diabetes are shown in two forms: (top) a FTIR spectrum; (bottom) a 2D IR spectrum with regions highlighted by boxes that correspond to peptide secondary structures. Peak C is created by an isotope label at Ala-13. Its cross-peaks linked to A and B but not D reveal that it is located in a -sheet of the fiber.
Reducing complexity Not surprisingly, the complexity with which 2D IR spectrometers were originally built limited their use to a few specialty ultrafast-laser labs. Two key developments have combined to enable the devel-
opment of user-friendly 2D IR spectrometers. First, the availability of intense and stable mid-IR laser sources such as the Libra, provided by Coherent: the Libra is a one-box integrated regenerative ultrafast amplifier that produces highly stable pulses at the millijoule energy level with less than 100 fs duration at kilohertz repetition rates. The lasers output is directed into a pre-aligned optical parametric amplifier (OPA) such as the Coherent OPerA Solo (TOPAS), which generates femtosecond mid-IR pulses. These pulses span 150 cm-1 or more and are tunable over the 2.611 m range. Thus, with computercontrolled software, the mid-IR pulses can be set to cover the vibrational modes of interest. The other key development consisted of developing a similarly user-friendly 2D spectrometer. The 2DQuick, by PhaseTech Spectroscopy, is the first closed-box 2D IR spectrometer; it used pulse shaping technology from the Zanni Research Group discussed above.5 This instrument has two acousto-optic modulators, one to generate the pump pulses and the other the probe pulses. By using two pulse shapers, either axis of the 2D IR spectrum can be collected in the frequency or time domains, and thus the best method of scanning can be selected based on the properties of the molecules. Moreover, phase cycling can be performed for either the pump or probe pulses, thereby optimizing background subtraction. For most academic research groups it takes one or two years to build a 2D IR spectrometer, skilled laser experts to maintain it, and a deep knowledge of the nonlinear formalism to program the data-collection software. In contrast, 2DQuick collects a 2D IR spectrum in seconds and produces publication-quality data in just a few minutes for many molecular systems (averaging may be required, depending on signal strength for the molecule of interest). The software comes with a collection of standard pulse sequences used by the 2D IR community, or users can program their own
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pulse sequences. The spectral range of the standard instrument covers the 38 m wavelength range, with other ranges available upon request. This spectrometer enables a broad range of scientists to utilize 2D IR spectroscopy. For non-experts, it is a user-friendly blackbox. For spectroscopy experts, it enables them to easily implement their own custom-designed pulse sequences to explore new ideas. For instance, one could optimize a pulse sequence using concepts from coherent control to maximize vibrational excitation.
Example applications Although in its relative infancy, 2D IR spectroscopy has already proven to be a powerful tool in delivering insights on some important scientific problems. In life sciences, for example, it is known ACKNOWLEDGEMENT that diseases such as Parkinsons, Type All of the data shown in this article was II diabetes, mad cow disease, and collected using spectrometers at the Alzheimers, are associated with anom- University of Wisconsin-Madison that alous folding and/or aggregation behav- became the basis for the product called ior of amyloid proteins, specifically the 2DQuick Array. way that these proteins stick together to form secondary structures such as REFERENCES 1. P. Hamm and M. Zanni, Concepts and -sheets. methods in 2D IR spectroscopy, Cambridge In another example, 2D IR spectra University Press, Cambridge, England (2011). were used to characterize the fiber-for- 2. O. Golonzka et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 86, 10, 2154 (2001). mation kinetics of the human islet amy3. P. Hamm et al., J. Phys. Chem. B, 102, 31, loid polypeptide (hIAPP) that is involved 6123 (1998). in type II diabetes.6 Spectroscopic mark- 4. S.-H. Shim et al., Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 104, ers were identified that uniquely moni14197 (2007). 5. D. R. Skoff et al.,Simplified and economical tor random coil versus -sheet secondary 2D IR spectrometer design using a dual structures, as well as probe -sheet elonacousto-optic modulator, Chemical Physics, gation and stacking (see Fig. 4). These in press. measurements provided more rigorous 6. D. B. Strasfeld et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 130, 6698 (2008). kinetics for the secondary structure 7. A. Ghosh et al., Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 108, evolution of amyloid formation than is 6115 (2011); doi:10.1073/pnas.1103027108. available with other techniques. 8. J. Manor et al., Structure, 17, 247 (2009). The 2D IR approach has also recent- 9. W. Xiong et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 131, 18040 (2009). ly been used to study the influenza vi10. L. W. Barbour et al., J. Phys. Chem. B, 110, 7, 8 rus. Specifically, it was used to exam24281 (2006). ine the pH-controlled M2 protein from influenza A that is a critical component Martin Zanni and Chris Middleton are at of the virus, and serves as a target for the PhaseTech Spectroscopy (www.phasetechaminoadamantane anti-flu agents that spectroscopy.com) and the Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison; block its proton channel activity. 2D IR Marco Arrigoni and Joseph Henrich are at data revealed that trans-membrane pro- Coherent, Santa Clara, CA; e-mail: marco. teins undergo a very subtle, but specif- arrigoni@coherent.com; www.coherent.com.
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ic, conformational shift when this channel is closed. Many 2D IR researchers have been focusing on the structural dynamics of liquids and proteins, but materials-science applications are a promising new direction. In materials sciences, molecular conformations at organic/inorganic interfaces play a vital role in certain emerging technologies, ranging from solar cells to molecular electronics such as OLED displays. However, studying conformations of molecules adsorbed to materials is very difficult. 2D IR spectroscopy was used to identify three conformations of an organic dye on a titanium dioxide (TiO2) polycrystalline thin film, and monitored the electron injection kinetics for each.9 Electron transfer in polymer photovoltaics has also been studied.10
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FIBER-OPTICS TEST & MEASUREMENT
Specifications guide active and passive optical fiber characterization

RDIGER PASCHOTTA
The use of optical fibersin fiber lasers, for exampleis greatly facilitated by their proper characterization. The resulting data are the foundation for optimized device designs and efficient product development.
For many applications of optical fibers, it is vital to know various details. Consider an ytterbium (Yb)doped fiber, into which only a pump wave is injected (see Fig. 1). Even in this simple situation, the fiber behav- Propagation losses ior is already rather complicated: as a If light is to be sent through long function of varying pump power, am- lengths of fiber, the propagation lossplified spontaneous emission (ASE) es (in dB/km) are relevant. A simple and upper-state excitation of the Yb measurement of output power and ions vary greatly. Measurements re- incident power is not sufficient beveal that backward ASE extracts sub- cause coupling light into the fiber stantial power, but the effect of for- may also cause substantial unknown ward ASE would not be seen as the losses. This problem is often solved emission is largely reabsorbed in the with cutback measurements. One first fiber before it reaches the end. In ef- launches light into a longer length of fect, pump absorption exhibits surprisPump power (mW) ing variations caused FIGURE 1. The Forward ASE (mW) evolution of pump by saturation effects Backward ASE (mW) power, forward- and of ASE light. 500 backward-amplified Only with a nustimulated emission merical model based 400 (ASE) power, and the on reliable fiber data upper-state population 300 can such details be in an ytterbium (Yb)well understood. The doped fiber that is 200 pumped at 920 nm are model will then reveal shown. The simulation performance-limit100 was done with RP ing factors and fa0 Fiber Power software. cilitate the planning 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 Position in fber (m) of prototype tests so
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that desired results are obtained without too many costly and time-consuming test iterations. To that end, certain essential optical and spectroscopic fiber properties need to be measured. Some straightforward specifications such as outer fiber diameter and coating details are not discussed here, as these are easy to understand and usually have no influence on optical fiber performance.
fiber and measures the transmitted power. Then one cuts the fiber back to a substantially shorter length and measures the power again. The difference can be attributed to the propagation losses in the length by which the fiber was shortened. Using a white light source and a spectrometer, one obtains the propagation losses for a range of wavelengths. Another option is to launch light with a known efficiency, measured in previous tests. Obviously, rather longer fibers make it easier to obtain precise loss data. Time domain reflectometry is another solution, but requires more sophisticated equipment. For active fibers, the optical power of the probe light must be low enough to avoid significant excitation of the laser-active ions and the resulting saturation effects. Also, the high losses in absorption bands of laser-active ions enforce the use of short fiber lengths; light in cladding modes may then get
Upper-state population (%) 100 80 60 40 20 1.0 1.2 0 1.4
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F I B E R - O P T I C S T E S T & M E A S U R E M E N T c o nt i n u e d
Optical Filters
to the end of the fiber. Particularly if the core absorption is strong and the fiber is stripped, light in cladding modes can spoil the results. One then needs to take special precautions to attenuate light in cladding modes, for example, placing a drop of index-matching fluid on the fiber to let light escape on the side.
rad or 5.7. At a distance of 5 cm, the mode will already have expanded to a radius of 5 mm. The numerical aperture (NA) is not very relevant for a singlemode fiber. It is even useless if the user does not know how it is defined for a fiber with a smooth index profile.
Performance Priced Right.

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Singlemode cutoff Multimode fibers A singlemode fiber supports only one Multimode fibers are more difficult guided propagation mode per polar- to characterize, partly because the inization direction. Below a certain cut- put light always excites some mixture of off wavelength, additional higher-order modes, with the power distribution demodes are supported. The simplest meth- pending on the launch conditions. od for measuring the cutoff wavelength For step-index fibers with large cores, is to measure the intensity spectrum the core size and the NA are normally of transmitted light when a white light well known from production. The NA is source is used as the input. Below the most easily obtained from the refractive cutoff, the transmitted powers are higher indices of core and cladding as measured because more modes capture more light. on the preform. From the core radius With a tunable laser source, the cut- and NA, one can calculate the relevant off can be seen more precisely. In the mode properties such as the number of singlemode regime, the spatial profile modes and range of group indices. of the transmitted light is very smooth. Graded-index fibers are more chalBelow the cutoff wavelength, it be- lenging. A refractive index profile, poscomes asymmetric and strongly wave- sibly measured on the preform and reslength-dependent due to interference caled to the fiber dimensions, can be effects between the modes. helpful, as it allows the numerical calculation of mode properties. Propagation Mode size, core size, losses will generally depend on the mode. and fiber NA Measuring mode-dependent losses is difFor singlemode optical fiber applications, ficult, however. the size of the guided mode is normally more relevant than the core size; the Chromatic dispersion latter is not clearly defined for smooth For some applications, particularly with profiles. The guided mode is too small singlemode fibers, the chromatic disperfor a direct accurate measurement, but sion is of high interest. A relatively direct one can simply measure the beam diver- measurement method is the pulse delay gence of light exiting the fiber (see Fig. 2). technique, where one measures time deOne can usually assume an approximate lays for ultrashort pulses with different Gaussian beam for which the divergence center wavelengths to obtain the differhalf-angle is defined as /(w0), where ences in group delay. A similar method is the wavelength Singlemode fber in the medium and w0 is the beam raCore dius at the beam Cladding waist. For example, for a mode radius of 5 m at FIGURE 2. It is hard to determine the exact spot size of a laser 1550 nm, the diver- beam required to efficiently launch into a singlemode fiber, but it gence half-angle is is easy to find out the divergence of the light exiting the fiber by approximately 0.1 measuring the beam radius at some distance after the fiber.
With a Fourier transform, one can extract the chromatic dispersion in the full wavelength range of the light source. The spectral resolution is limited by measurement noise, and is thus higher if a high-intensity light source such as a superluminescent diode is used. A modified method (spectral interferometry) uses a spectrometer instead of a simple detector, making the scanning of an arm length unnecessary.
is the phase shift technique, where one diode is used. A modified method (specmeasures the time delay of an intensi- tral interferometry) uses a spectrometer ty modulation. Usually, however, such instead of a simple detector, making the measurements are limited to narrow scanning of an arm length unnecessary. wavelength regions. Most convenient for chromatic dis- Transition cross-sections persion measurements in wide wave- The pump absorption in a rare-earthlength regions is white-light interferom- doped fiber depends on the doping proetry. The fiber under test (a singlemode file, the mode size, and the wavelengthfiber) is incorporated in one arm of a dependent absorption cross-sections. For Michelson interferometer with a white a fiber laser or amplifier, the total ablight source. The output power is record- sorption in dB/m is not the only relevant ed with a simple photodetector while the parameter, as saturation effects cannot arm length difference is scanned. An ad- be calculated from absorption alone. ditional interferometer precisely moni- One also requires absorption cross-sectors the length changes. With a Fourier tions and the core overlap factor, or at transform, one can extract the chromat- least the product of both; that product ic dispersion in the full wavelength range determines how strongly the optical field of the light source. The spectral reso- interacts with the laser-active ions. As an lution is limited by measurement noise, example, absorption and emission crossand is thus higher if a high-intensity sections are shown for Yb3+ ions in gerlight source such as a superluminescent manosilicate glass (see Fig. 3).1 Often, the absorption is meaCross-sections (pm2) sured easily, and 3.0 the overlap can be 2.5 estimated, but the 2.0 dopant concentration is not known. 1.5 Its measurement 1.0 Absorption in the small core 0.5 of a fiber is hard; Emission it is more realis0.0 tic to do that on a 900 950 1000 1050 1100 preform. Another Wavelength (nm) possibility is to fabricate a homogeFIGURE 3. Absorption and emission cross sections are shown for 3+ neously doped samytterbium (Yb ) in germanosilicate glass.
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laser-active ions ifications for essential details, particwith a detector on ularly concerning spectroscopic data. the side of the fiber, The required know-how is not trivial 0.8 while a continuous- and is not always available in-house. It wave pump laser is common to specify only the fibers 0.6 beam is modulat- absorption at one or two wavelengths ed with a rapid- such as a common pump and signal 0.4 ly rotating chopper wavelength, whereas cross-section data wheel. The use of a are often not presented. Some manufac0.2 pulsed pump laser turers can at least offer data for their is better for short- most popular fibers. 0.0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 lived levels (see Fig. For commonly used Yb-doped fiTime (ms) 4). Note that the bers, the chemical core compositions FIGURE 4. Temporal variation of the intensity of the fluorescence of fluorescence decay vary little from the data shown previerbium ions is shown for excitation with a nanosecond pump pulse. is not necessarily ously in Fig. 3. Some absorption figexponential: ini- ures then serve to determine the doping ple, make a chemical analysis of it to tially, it may be faster if upconversion concentration. This may already be suflearn the doping concentration, and ob- processes via ion-ion interactions take ficient for quite accurate modeling retain the absorption cross-sections of the place. One will then obtain shorter life- sults. The situation is more difficult for laser-active ions from the measured ab- times when measuring with stronger ex- erbium (Er)-doped fibers because they sorption. One may then assume that the citation and when using only the high-in- have more variable chemical composicross-sections are essentially the same tensity part of the decay curves. tions. Note also that fiber data can vary for the fibers in order to calculate the efIt is generally advisable to compare substantially between different fabricafective doping concentration from a fi- the measured lifetime with the radiation runs if the fabrication conditions bers transmission spectrum. tive lifetime as computed from the emis- are not stable. The device performance For some more complicated laser- sion cross-sections. A shorter measured may then also be inconsistent. active ions, multiple metastable levels lifetime may result from parasitic deIt is often remarkable how limited can be relevant, and the cross-sections cay processes, whereas a longer mea- the available data are for optical fiber. for excited-state absorption need to be sured lifetime indicates inconsistency For example, one can hardly imagknown. These are more difficult to mea- of the results. ine a manufacturer of electronic chips sure than ground-state absorption crosswho leaves it to his/her customers to sections, since the ions need to be excited Double-clad fibers find out exactly how these chips beinto some higher level and the fraction Additional complications arise for dou- have in common active or passive apof the ions in that level is not usually ble-clad fibers, where the pump light plications. Specialty fiber technology known. Fortunately, there are modula- is injected into an inner cladding and is a field where relatively small quantion techniques that can solve this mea- has an accordingly reduced overlap tities are sold, and manufacturers ofsurement problem. with the doped fiber core. The result- ten hesitate to invest heavily in fiber Measurement of the fluorescence spec- ing pump absorption is reduced due characterization. It would be more eftrum taken from the side of the fiber can to the limited overlap and is strongly ficient, though, if the manufacturers give the shape of the emission cross-sec- mode-dependent. rather than the users would measure tions curve (taking into account a factor Therefore, it is actually not well char- these data in order to facilitate the deof -5 for the translation from emission acterized by a simple wavelength-development of fiber devices. cross-section to fluorescence intensity in pendent absorption coefficient, except microwatts per nanometer). The abso- if strong mode mixing is obtained as a REFERENCE 1. R. Paschotta et al., IEEE J. Quantum Electron., lute scaling may be obtained using the result of a suitable fiber design such as 33, 7, 1049 (1997). reciprocity principle, for example. one with a D-shaped or octagonal inner cladding. With strong bending of the fi- Rdiger Paschotta is founder and execuUpper-state lifetime ber, mode mixing and thus pump ab- tive of RP Photonics Consulting, Waldstrasse 17, 78073 Bad Drrheim, Germany; Another relevant quantity is the lifetime sorption may be enhanced. e-mail: paschotta@rp-photonics.com; www. of the excitation of the upper-laser level rp-photonics.com. (and sometimes further metastable lev- Better characterization needed els). For long-lived states, it can be suffi- Unfortunately, many commercial opti- Tell us what you think about this article. Send an cient to monitor the fluorescence of the cal fibers do not come with proper spec- e-mail to LFWFeedback@pennwell.com.
1.0
Fluorescence intensity (a.u.)
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PH O T O N I C F R O N T I E R S: S I LI C O N PH O T O N I C S
Silicon photonics evolve to meet real-world requirements

JEFF HECHT, contributing editor
external sources and of computing power and digital data bonding III-V emitters transmission. The main needs today onto silicon. Others in- are for backplane connections in highclude designing devices, performance computers and for transfabrication techniques, mission within data centers. and transmission proComputing performance hit one tocols that balance sil- important performance wall a few icon capabilities, with years ago. Processing cores cannot user requirements that perform more than a few billion opSilicon photonics is evolving as it match selections of transmission pro- erations per second without requiremerges from the laboratory to be- tocols, which balance silicon capabil- ing active cooling. That forced decome a real-world technology. The ities and user system requirements. signers to shift to multicore chips basic thrust remains the same, to inand increasingly parallel operation, tegrate photonic and electronic com- Driving forces even for personal computers. Highponents on a silicon-based platform The driving force behind silicon pho- performance computers require to transmit high volumes of data at tonics remains the inexorable growth massive parallelism with extensive low cost. However, developers are refining the technology to circumvent the inherent performance limitations of silicon and to meet evolving application requirements. Its a time of weighing technological alternatives, trying to develop standards for the near term, and considering how to meet future needs. With electrically pumped silicon emitters still not in the cards, one key choice is between piping light from
The goal remains the same: integrating photonics with electronics to cut costs and improve data-link performance. But developers have accepted the need for compound semiconductor light sources, bonded to silicon or external to the chip.
FIGURE 1. Magnified view of IBM silicon nanophotonic chip fabricated with 90 nm technology. The red feature at the left side of the cube is a germanium detector fabricated on silicon. The blue feature at right with the beam entering it is the modulator. Yellow areas are conductors. The small red dots at lower right are silicon transistors. (Courtesy of IBM)
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PH O T O N I C F R O N T I E R S: S I LI C O N PH O T O N I C S c on t i n u e d
movement of data among backplanes within the system. Data centers and server farms used for cloud computing similarly have massive needs for highspeed data transmission among many machines.1 New data-center standards are being developed with serial rates of 25 Gbits/s per channel, says Yurii Vlasov, manager of the Silicon Nanophotonics Project at the IBM Watson Research Center (Yorktown Heights, NY). Silicon technology is not going to reach higher line rates for at least five years, he explains. So its not important to increase the capacity per channel. What you need is to show scalability in the number of channels and in the degree of WDM [wavelength-division multiplexing], so you need less fiber per channel. We need denser and more integratable technology. The sheer number of connections in a data center makes cost crucial. What counts is the total cost of the solution, Vlasov says. That includes modules, signal conversion from electronic into optical format and back again, and cable. Packing more channels into each fiber using WDM and other techniques becomes more important at distances longer than several tens of meters, where cable become a large part of total cost. Scaling to 100 Gbit/s Ethernet IBM sees 25 Gbit/s silicon photonic modules as a fundamental building block for a new generation of fiber systems transmitting 100 Gbit/s and up on many parallel channels over singlemode fiber. Early versions of 100 Gigabit Ethernet transmitted 10 Gbit/s over each of 10 multimode fibers at 850 nm for short-haul transmission. The new 802.3bm proposal sets 25 Gbit/s transmission on each of four wavelengths spaced 20 nm apart in the 1310 nm band through up to 500 m of singlemode fiber. At the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting in December 2012, IBM described fabrication of the first such module using complementary met-
al-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) tech- Hybrid silicon photonics nology with 90 nm geometry. 2 The An alternative approach is molecular module included four coarse WDM bonding of III-V gain material directchannels spaced 850 GHz apart in the ly to the silicon, adding light sources 15001550 nm range and filters with and gain to the CMOS silicon platform, flat tops 500 GHz wide. Detection was plus offering new options for modulawith a germanium photodiode, compat- tion and detection. Adding the III-V ible with CMOS processing, having 3 material requires steps outside the standB input bandwidth of more than 20 dard silicon processing, but also inteGHz, and followed by a transimped- grates the two more tightly. Most work ance amplifier, limiting amplifiers, and has focused on indium phosphide matean output buffer. rials for 1.3 or 1.55 m bands. All the functions are on the chip exHybrid silicon now has the same percept the laser, which is the optical pow- formance as pure indium phosphide, er supply, says Vlasov. Input signals says Martijn Heck of the University of are coupled into the module through California at Santa Barbara (UCSB; the germanium photodiode, and an Santa Barbara, CA). The number of external continuous-wave laser is an components integrated on InP suboptical power supply coupled to the strates has been doubling every 2.6 transmitter through Number of components per chip the modulator (see 1000 Fig. 1). The module also includes WDM Indium phosphide filters, waveguides, Doubles every 2.6 years Hybrid silicon crossings, direction- 100 Doubles every al couplers, and ver1 year tical grating couplers. In addition to benefitting from billions 10 of dollars invested in silicon technology, Vlasov says the 1 IBM approach also 1985 1995 2005 2015 Year benefits from two other factors. Use FIGURE 2. Photonic integration on hybrid silicon got a late of a single die al- start, but it is catching up to indium phosphide. The plot shows lows standard pick- the number of components per chip, which are doubling every year for hybrid silicon but only doubling every 2.6 years for InP. and-place assembly (Courtesy of Martijn Heck7) techniques, greatly reducing packaging costs. The design also accommodates years, but hybrid silicon integration has standard microelectronic techniques been doubling every year since the first that can test components during assem- demonstration less than a decade ago, bly, before costly packaging is finished. two decades after the first InP integraLooking forward to 400 Gigabit tion (see Fig. 2).3 Ethernet, Vlasov envisions transmitSo far, the best developed hybrid silting 25 Gbit/s signals on 16 chan- icon photonics are fabricated on silinels spaced more closely, but still al- con on insulator (SOI) substrates (see lowing operation at temperatures of Fig. 3). Bonding the III-V junction 0 to 70C without significant cross- just above a silicon waveguide cretalk. He says scaling from 100 to 400 ates a hybrid waveguide that couples Gbit/s is a question of design rather light generated in the III-V active rethan technology. gion into a different mode that resides
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of demultiplexing eight channels separated by 400 III/V diode with quantum wells GHz, then added InGaAs photodeSOI circuit tectors capable of detecting 50 SOI waveguide Gbit/s. That allowed the module to process a 400 Gbit/s signal.6 This opens a Tapered mode converter Hybrid waveguide new perspective for applications, FIGURE 3. Integration of a III-V optical amplifier with silicon on says Heck. We a SOI chip. The top shows a cross-section illustrating how metal are working on contacts (yellow) apply a current across the III-V quantum wells microwave pho(red) to generate optical emission (whitish region). Bottom shows a schematic of how tapered mode converters couple light between tonics, narrowthe III-V hybrid waveguide and the silicon waveguide. (Courtesy of band radio-freMartijn Heck7) quency generators with low phase entirely within the silicon. In a post- noise. The ultra-low-loss waveguide deadline paper at the Conference on technology also benefits development of Optical Fiber Communications in narrow-line or ultrastable modelocked March 2013, Aurrion (Goleta, CA) relasers. In principle, it could allow deported hybrid silicon integration, in- velopment of integrated ring resonators corporating both an array of eight un- with Q factors of a few hundred milcooled 1.3 m band lasers fixed at 200 lion. The AWG could be combined with GHz intervals for data communica- III-V optical amplifiers to make oscillations, and a tunable laser in the 1.55 m tors with multiple output wavelengths. band for telecommunications.4 In the Silicon photonics were conceived for same session, Skorpios Technologies data center communications, but with (Albuquerque, NM) described its own performance now on a par with indium tunable hybrid silicon laser in the 1.55 phosphide, Heck says, more high-perm band. Intel (Santa Clara, CA) has formance telecommunications applicademonstrated what it calls a fully tions are within reach. functional hybrid silicon photonics UCSB also is developing free-space module operating at 100 Gbit/s.5 beam-steering silicon photonics for John Bowers group at UCSB also is DARPAs Sweeper project. Large-scaled developing a new generation of hybrid phased arrays of grating emitters with silicon photonics based on silica-on- their beams emitting from the chip sursilicon technology, which allows fab- face would be steered by electro-optical rication of silicon nitride waveguides phase modulators a few orders of magwith as low as 0.05 dB/m and other nitude faster than conventional MEMS higher-performance components in- devices. Although power would be limcluding array waveguides (AWGs) and ited, the technology could be useful in ring-filter arrays. At the OFC 2013 inter-chip data links. postdeadline session, UCSB described a 400 Gbit/s WDM receiver made Defining silicon photonics with that approach. They fabricated for the future a low-loss silicon nitride strip wave- Many challenges remain for silicon phoguide sandwiched between silica layers tonics. The tradeoffs between silicon to make an array waveguide capable and III-V components are still being exMetal contacts on silicon dioxide
plored. Although CMOS-based silicon fabrication technology is far more mature and economical, III-V materials offer better speed and performance in components including modulators and detectors. How well can the silicon components meet the high performance requirements of telecommunications? Current silicon photonics is limited by temperature sensitivity of components such as resonators or filters. Developers are exploring how to reduce their temperature sensitivity, and to reduce power consumption of the silicon components that generate much of the troublesome heat. The heat generation that led to multicore chips may limit the use of silicon photonics to link cores or chips. Nonetheless, silicon photonics are being written into standards aimed at data centers, where they can deliver muchneeded high-speed interconnections. The technology is a serious contender for future telecommunications systems and for other low-power applications in sensing and beam direction.
REFERENCES 1. Y. A. Vlasov, Silicon CMOS-integrated nano-photonics for computer and data communications beyond 100G, IEEE Communications Magazine, 567572 (Feb. 2012). 2. S. Assefa et al., A 90nm CMOS integrated nano-photonics technology for 25Gbps WDM optical communications applications, IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), postdeadline session 33.8, (December 1012, 2012). 3 M. J. R. Heck et al., Hybrid silicon photonic integrated circuit technology, IEEE J. Sel. Topics Quant. Electron. V, 19, 6100117 (Jul./Aug. 2013); doi:10.1109/ JSTQE.2012.2235413. 4. B. R. Koch et al., Integrated silicon photonic laser sources for telecom and datacom, OFC/ NFOEC 2013, postdeadline paper PDP5C.8. 5. E. Marchena et al., Integrated tunable CMOS laser for Si photonics, OFC/NFOEC 2013, postdeadline paper PDP5C.7. 6. M. L. Davenport et al., A 400 Gb/s WDM receiver using a low loss silicon nitride AWG integrated with hybrid silicon photodetectors, OFC/NFOEC 2013, postdeadline paper PDP5C.5. 7. M. J. R. Heck, M. L. Davenport, and J. E. Bowers, Progress in hybrid-silicon photonic integrated circuit technology, SPIE Newsroom, doi:10.1117/2.1201302.004730 (2013).
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Femtolasers Produktions GmbH
First portable ultrafast Ti:Sapphire laser for biomedical applications
For the development of the INTEGRALTM CoreTM, the smallest commercially available sub-8 fs ultrafast Ti:Sapphire laser delivering 200 mW average power with 300 MHz pulse repetition rate for Terahertz, multiphoton microscopy, OCT, and spectroscopy applications.
Princeton Instruments
IsoPlane next-generation, aberration-free spectrograph
For the development of the IsoPlane SCT 320 Schmidt-Czerny-Turner spectrograph that overcomes the limitations of traditional Czerny-Turner designs by totally eliminating eld astigmatism and greatly reducing coma and spherical aberration.
TAG Optics
TAG Lens 2.0: Using sound to shape light
For the development of an ultra-high-speed varifocal lens that can extend the depth-of-eld of conventional optical systems and enable user-selected focal lengths in micro-seconds through acoustic refractive-index changes.
FEATURED AT
CLEO:2O13
San Jose, California, USA
SPONSORED BY:
Exhibition: 1113 June 2013
CLEO:2O13
B I O M E D I CA L I M AG I N G
3D digital holograms visualize biomedical applications

JAVID KHAN
Digital hologramswhether of DNA, cells, full-sized organs, or even the life-sized human body itselfcan be holographically printed for a range of 3D analysis applications in the biomedical industry.
After 15 years of R&D, holographic technology is ready to re-emerge. Digital holograms are now mature enough for commercialization in all sorts of fields including biomedical imaging, scientific visualization, engineering design, art, and advertising. In particular, three-dimensional (3D) digital holograms can be created from almost any type of biomedical datasets from protein database files to medical scans. Next-generation holographic displays are being designed for medical imaging to depict volume data from computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and ultrasound scans. A holographic timeline Scientific literature says that the best way of making 3D images is to recreate the light field of the scene.1 This can be achieved through holography
and similar approaches such as integral imaging. Unfortunately, true holography has not lived up to its expectations, which were largely driven by the realms of science-fiction fantasy following the iconic Star Wars movie in 1977. While static analog holograms were popular for a while during the 1980s and 1990s, it soon became clear that making static holograms needed to move beyond the laboratory and that dynamic holographic displays were in a land far, far away. Hence, holography went underground in the 1990s with just a few European companies, some Japanese groups, and the U.S. military developing digital hologram printing technology. Holographic display research was performed only by high-end reLasers R Beamsplitter G B Combiner Reference beam Hologram plate Hogel Mirror
search facilities like MIT Media Lab (Cambridge, MA). The recent proliferation of 3D content has created a resurgence of interest in this fielda revival due to the explosion of 3D data from many sources including geographical data, medical scans, CAD design, simulations, low-cost depth scanners, cinema/TV, and 3D printing. Holoprinter technology Digital holograms are fabricated using holoprinter or holographic printing devices. These are industrial-scale machines that can manufacture fullcolor, purely digital-reflection holograms in a manner that is repeatable and reliable. Available from a handful of manufacturers such as Geola (Vilnius, Lithuania), View Holographics (St Asaph, Wales) and Zebra Imaging (Austin, TX),
Object beam
Mirror
Diffuser
FIGURE 1. The experimental setup for a digital hologram includes RGB lasers, a microdisplay, beam-steering optics, and a computer to show the images on the microdisplay as well as control the whole system.
Mirror SLM x-y stage
Rendered images
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B I O M E D I CA L I M AG I N G co ntinued
ing to submillimeter diameterscurto produce multiplexed stereographic rently around 0.8 mmand trending holograms from computer graphics or even smaller to 0.5 mm or even 0.25 real-world scenes. mm. At such small dimensions, the hoThe digital hologram comprises a ma- lopixels are no longer visible with the trix of holographic pixels, also known human eye, making it possible to creas holopixels or hogels. The holopix- ate photo-realistic digital holograms.2 A els are created by the interference of digital hologram fabricated in this manred, green, and blue (RGB) lasers in a ner typically takes several hours for a holographic medium such as a photo- page-sized print. polymer (by Bayer or DuPont) or silFor replay (viewing) of the 3D image, ver halide film (see Fig. 1). A holoprint- digital holograms only require a simple, er includes RGB lasers, a spatial light bright point light source for illumination. modulator (SLM), beam-steering op- The holograms produced in this manner tics, and a computer to show the im- are high-quality, full-color reflection hoages on the SLM as well as control the lograms, and it is even possible to prowhole system. The laser-writing scheme duce digital holograms that can lie flat, uses an object and reference beam pair. allowing the viewer to walk 360 around The object beam is modulated via the the image. A small page-sized digital SLM with 2D information synthesized hologram costs a few hundred dollars from the scene. Optics are held station- to produce, with larger images up to a ary whereas the holographic medium square meter scaling in price accordingis mounted on an x-y translation stage ly. The price can be reduced further via and moved relative to the lasers, which holographic replication technology that are usually arranged vertically in-line works like a holographic photocopier, and operate on different holopixels in with RGB lasers to make analog copies parallel. The stage is moved continu- of digital holograms in seconds. ously in a raster-scan fashion. Although current holoprinters are Holopixels are written with RGB somewhat bulky devices with large and pulsed lasers with pulse widths around powerful lasers as well as mechanics, 40 ns and energies up to 10 mJ. The portable devices are not far off. Pioneer RGB holopixels are spatially overlaid, (Kawasaki, Japan) has announced a with holopixel dimensions now shrink- desktop unit using RGB laser diodes
holoprinters use a variety of techniques
that can produce small card-sized holograms. There is every reason to expect desktop-sized holoprinters no larger than a standard laser printer within the next few years. Digital holograms Any type of 3D dataset can be converted to a digital hologram. This could be a physical scan of an object, a mathematical description, molecular data, map/contour data, point cloud, volume data, CAD model data, or even a series of stills or video. First, the view of a 3D scene has to be computed for each holopixel as seen through its submillimeter aperture by following a precise set of rules depending on the holoprinter. For example, a 200 300 mm page-sized hologram with 0.8 mm holopixels requires the generation of more than 90,000 2D images. This is achieved using a combination of commercial computer modeling software with graphics rendering as well as proprietary algorithms or custom hardware engines to perform a series of mathematical transformations to generate the image data for presentation to the SLM.2 Since it is possible to control the light rays emitted from each holopixel, it is feasible to include some limited anima-
FIGURE 2. Using any 3D data file, accurate and to-scale 3D holographic models can span the gamut from green fluorescent protein to human organs to a full anatomical model of the human body.
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tion within the digital hologram such as stripping away layers as the viewer moves around the hologram, thus revealing hidden aspects of the image. As most of our images are synthetic, it is also possible to include opacity and fading to highlight features that would otherwise be obscured. From molecules to anatomical models Primarily targeted at public dissemination, outreach, training, and education, Holoxicas digital holograms span the entire spectrum of biomedical science from the atomic scale up to a full anatomical figure (see Fig. 2). A protein data base (PBD) file containing all the necessary atomic (strucFIGURE 3. A digital hologram of the Rhind mummy allows viewers to peel off the outer wrapping and observe interior details of the face and skull.
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B I O M E D I CA L I M AG I N G con tin ued
ture usually derived from x-ray crystal- Our most complex hologram to date to make the mythical Star Wars dislography) and positional information is a full-length human anatomy holo- play, weve taken a more pragmatic apto describe the structure of atoms, mol- gram created from a synthetic 3D mod- proach by asking, what is the simplest ecules, and proteins can be used to re- el of a female. This hologram contains holographic display you can make? The construct a geometrically accurate and three layers of information on the mus- answer: a single pixel, or voxel, in 3D to-scale 3D model. Working in collab- cle structures, skeleton complete with space, that can be switched on or off. oration with Manchester University, arteries plus nervous system, and the One voxel is not particularly interestour first digital hologram in this area internal organs. One of the challenges ing, so we move on to two voxels and was a green fluorescent protein (GFP). facing medical education is teaching the work up from there to 4, 9, 16 voxels, We recently fabricated a digital holo- 3D structure of the body since most of and so on. gram of the well-known DNA double the material is currently in 2D. Our first-generation proof-of-conhelix structure to celebrate the 50th Digital 3D holograms can also aid ar- cept holographic display demonstraanniversary of its discovery. chaelogy. In 1857, the Rhind Mummy tor in 2010 was based on a proprietary On a larger scale, Holoxica worked was excavated from a tomb in Thebes holographic screen containing spatially with the Clinical Research Imaging by the archaeologist Alexandar Rhind. multiplexed interference patterns that Centre (CRIC) at Edinburgh University Despite remaining in its original wrap- are easily switched by structured ilon a full-color digital hologram of a ping at the National Museum of lumination of the light source. 3 The pair of lungs from a CT scan. The in- Scotland, the mummys secrets were second-generation display made earlitricate detail of the structure is visual- finally revealed 155 years later via CT er this year is based on a holographic ized, including the bronchial tree and scans. The scans revealed that the Rhind optical element (HOE), enabling freelung sacks (pleura) surrounding the air- Mummy was an Egyptian female in her space imaging with arbitrary 3D imagways (alveoli). We have also imaged the late twenties, 1.58 m tall, and dating to es floating in mid-air that can change liver (from ultrasound scans) and brain. around 10 B.C. Holoxica managed to in real time (see Fig. 4).4 produce an animated holoInteractivity is added with a Kinect a) gram of the head and upper motion sensor that allows people to torso that reveals different touch icons in space and draw objects layers of information as the in mid-air. Immediate applications inviewer moves from left to clude head-up displays and novel user right. The first layer is the interfaces with an added dimension. sarcophagus, or wrapping, The images are bright and visible unpeeling away to reveal the der indoor lighting conditions, and the face followed by the skull approach is scalable, leveraging exist(see Fig. 3). This color-an- ing manufacturing techniques and usimated, life-sized holo- ing high-end components with some gram is currently on dis- modifications. play at the MIT Museum b) REFERENCES in Boston. The future: dynamic, real-time displays Although the holographic displays research community has been making significant advances in recent years, the prospect of a true holographic display still remains elusive. Holographic displays are still at the basic research stage and require significant technological advances before they become commercially feasible.1 Instead of trying
1. V. M. Bove, Display Holographys Digital Second Act, Proc. IEEE, 100, 4, 918928 (2012). 2. H. I. Bjelkhagen and D. Brotherton-Ratcliffe, Ultra-Realistic Imaging: Advanced Techniques in Analogue and Digital Colour Holography, Taylor & Francis Group, London, England (2013). 3. J. Khan et al., A low-resolution 3D holographic volumetric display, Proc. SPIE, 7723, 77231B-7 (2010). 4. J. Khan et al., A real-space interactive holographic display based on a large-aperture HOE, Proc. SPIE, 8644, 86440M (2013).
FIGURE 4. Holoxicas second-generation holographic display (a) enables free-space imaging with 3D images floating in mid-air that can change in real time (b). A Kinect motion sensor allows people to touch and interact with the objects.
Javid Khan is founder and managing director of Holoxica in the Scottish Microelectronics Centre, The Kings Buildings, West Mains Rd., Edinburgh EH9 3JF, Scotland; e-mail: jk@ holoxica.com; www.holoxica.com. Laser Focus World
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LASERS
OPTICS
DETECTORS
IMAGING
FIBER OPTICS
I N S T R U M E N TAT I O N
New products
Would you like to be included? Please send your product description with high-resolution digital image to: lfwnewproducts@pennwell.com
M2 module
The Beamage-M2 uses Fabry-Perot optics to allow M2 factor measurement in less than a second with no moving parts. Standard features include OD 4 attenuation, ISO 11136- and 13694-compliant calculations, a complete software package, and a Rayleigh range of 50 m6 mm. Gentec-EO Quebec, Canada info@gentec-eo.com
Picosecond laser
BrixX ps universal diode lasers feature completely integrated driver electronics, precision temperature regulation, and beam-shaping optics to emit pulses down to 50 ps, pulses in the nanosecond range, and up to 100 MHz digital and up to 1 MHz fast analogmodulated continuous-wave emission. Diodes with up to 1500 mW optical output power and wavelengths between 375 and 2300 nm can be used. Omicron Frankfurt, Germany www.omicron-laser.de
Freeform micro-optics rapid fabrication service

The LightForge micro-optics fabrication service allows optical designers to create a wide range of optical elements and have the fabricated part shipped in as little as two weeks. Freeform surfaces can be created, ideas can be tested, and designs for production can be verified without incurring upfront engineering charges and prototyping lead times. PowerPhotonic Dalgety Bay, Scotland www.powerphotonic. co.uk
MEMS mirrors
Off-the-shelf, 4.2-mm-diameter MEMS mirrors are now available in any quantity with either gold or aluminum coatings. The bonded, modular mirror can be mounted on a variety of the companys actuators, and may be ordered in packages ranging from large 24-pin dual-in-line (DIP24) to LCCs of different sizes. Mirrorcle Technologies Richmond, CA www.mirrorcletech.com
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New products
Piezoelectric actuating stage
The Scan XY40 piezoelectric actuating stage offers a travel range of 40 m per axis. Designed primarily for 2D scanning applications, it has a resonant frequency of >800 Hz per axis and is include patented optical position detector technology and are available with either two- or three-axis heads. Designed for a full range of optical scanning requirements, these highspeed, low-drift galvanometers are used for industrial, medical, printing, and life science applications. Nutfield Technology Hudson, NH info@nutfieldtech.com and slope efficiency of >40%, singleemitter 1350 nm sub-mounts with 6 W CW power, and fiber-coupled products that provide 4.8 W CW power. They are designed for medical and communications applications. SemiNex Peabody, MA www.seminex.com
emICCD camera
The PI-MAX4 series of emICCD cameras includes the 512EM version, which provides single-photon sensitivity;
Fusion splicer
The FSM-100P+ fusion splicer for optical fibers includes an end-view fiber observation system. It is capable of splicing extra-large-diameter fiber up to 1200 m using Plasma Zone Path Modulation. It also has
suited for nanometer positioning of lightweight optical components. The xand y-axes can be controlled separately. Piezosystem Jena Jena, Germany info@piezojena.com
UV lasers
The NANIO 355-6-V-80 offers 6 W of laser power at 355 nm. It is designed for micromachining applications like glass cutting, ceramic drilling, sapphire scribing, or via hole drilling. The NANIO 1342-8-V laser provides 8 W of Q-switched 1342 nm laser power for semiconductor and solar cell applications. InnoLas Laser Krailling, Germany info@innolas-laser.de
the 1024i for double-image featuring; and the 1024 256 for spectroscopy. Capabilities include <500 ps gating, >30 frames/s, RF modulation, and complete control via a LightField software platform with an oscilloscope-like user interface. Princeton Instruments Acton, MA www.emiccd.com Split V-groove clamping systems, enhanced sweep ARC technology, and other features for glass processing and fiber tapering. Fujikura Europe Chessington, England www.fujikura.co.uk
Optical fiber
DTG-LBL-1550-AGF is a low-bend-loss fiber with densely spaced draw-tower gratings (DTGs) over the full length of the fiber. It is designed for use with an optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) system that allows measurements over a wide strain or temperature range with spatial resolution down to a few millimeters over the entire fiber length. FBGS Geel, Belgium www.fbgs.com
Galvanometers
The QS-5 OPD, QS-7 OPD, and QS-12 OPD scanning galvanometers
1350 nm lasers
1350 nm lasers are now available in standard 19-emitter bars with total power >40 W continuous-wave (CW)
EMCCD camera
The Falcon Blue 1 Mpixel electron-multiplying CCD camera offers UV transmission using a MgF2 window, which will pick up signals as low as 180 nm.
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New products
with a clear graphical user interface for miniature spectrometers. Customizable software includes a schematic view that provides a visual roadmap of data flow from spectral inputs to processed results. It integrates temperature, voltage, and other input data, allowing users to capture and visualize data from multiple sources. Ocean Optics Dunedin, FL info@oceanoptics.com
For Illumination
Highest Efficiency >62%
9&6(/V
Surface Mount
Low cost-High volume
www.princetonoptronics.com
Our VCSEL Key Differentiators: High power (10~1000W) from a single chip, 6kW from a module LED like surface mount packaging High temperature operation to 950C 650, 680,780, 808, 830, 976, 1064, 1550nm- other custom wavelengths
It is sensitive from the 180 to 1100 nm range with QE of 24% at 200 nm. At 35 Hz full frame, it has readout noise <1 e- with EM gain on. Raptor Photonics Larne, Northern Ireland www.raptorphotonics.com
Laser diode driver

The iC-HT two-channel CW laser diode driver with a microcontroller interface for medical and industrial
Laser rangefinder
The MLR 4K laser rangefinder is a SWaPoptimized, military-grade ER:glass solidstate laser device that can fire continuously at up to 3 ranges/s. It measures 34 54 89 mm, weighs 118 grams (without cover), and consumes less than applications. Using this device, laser diodes may be driven by the optical output power, laser diode current, or a full, controller-based power control unit. Maximum laser diode current per channel is 750 mA. With supply voltages of 2.88V, it can drive both blue and green laser diodes. iC-Haus Langenpreising, Germany www.ichaus.com/ic-Ht
A 15W VCSEL Red Laser Array
2kW-808nm VCSEL side pumping module

1kW power VCSEL Illuminator
2 W when ranging, making it useful for handheld systems, weapon platforms, and stabilized turrets. FLIR Wilsonville, OR www.fir.com
Spectroscopy software
OceanView spectroscopy software combines data processing capabilities
Photodetector
The BPDV3120R is a balanced photodetector offering a 3 dB bandwidth of 70 GHz. The optical front end consists of a monolithic balanced photode-
Applications: Red VCSELs for pointing and illumination applications IR Illumination (works like LEDs, but with very high efficiency at high temperature)- for short to long range imaging Solid-state laser pumping (chips, high power modules for end and side pumping) Sensor applications, single mode devices (1 to >100mW) and arrays high volume available
www.princetonoptronics.com sales@princetonoptronics.com (609) 584-9696 ext. 107

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New products
tector chip with on-chip biasing. The coaxial single-ended output can detect up to 64 GBaud polarization diversity x-QAM signals. The device supports systems for next-generation networks using 400 Gbit/s or 1 Tbit/s coherent detection-based optical transmission. u2t Photonics Berlin, Germany www.u2t.de and requires no sample preparation, consumables, or cleaning between tests. Applications include RoHS/ REACH compliance, forensics, explosive materials identification, mineral exploration, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and research. Lasersec Jarvas, Finland www.lasersec-systems.com materials for high abrasion resistance and chemical stability. Optics Balzers Balzers, Germany www.opticsbalzers.com
Spectrophotometer
The PHOTON RT UV-VIS-NIR scanning spectrophotometer is a universal instrument designed specifically for unat-
Optical muzzle flash detector

Optical detector technology is capable of perceiving muzzle flash from
Wavelength extension unit

The new SuperK EXTEND-UV wavelength extension unit provides tunable light in the entire 270400 nm range with power levels on the order of 10100 W. The collimated output enables tight focusing and fast pulses, down to 20 ps in length with variable megahertz-range repetition rate, tended measurement of optical parts with coatings. The instrument can be produced in six configurations relative to the effective spectral range from 3801700 nm up to 1904500 nm. EssentOptics Minsk, Belarus www.essentoptics.com
over 100 m away, while minimizing false alarms. Operating at the speed of light, the system provides an almost instantaneous response to a gunfire event, providing real-time detection capabilities. The detectors can be designed to reject any optical signals that are outside the desired detection bandwidth. Cal Sensors Santa Rosa, CA info@calsensors.com
making the unit suited for lifetime measurements and studies of ultrafast photochemical processes. NKT Photonics Birkerd, Denmark www.nktphotonics.com
Flat-top stage
The H101F flat-top stage incorporates a completely flat top plate, which eliminates any obstacle to objective rotation, while low-profile sample
Broadband mirrors
The Diflex 1100 and 2000 broadband mirrors feature an absolute reflectance >99% and an average reflectance >99.5% for all polarizations over the wavelength ranges of 3501100 nm and 3202000 nm, respectively. The angle of incidence can vary between 0 and 45. Coatings are composed of metal-oxide coating
Handheld LIBS elemental analyzer

The LEA is a handheld elemental analyzer based on laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). It can identify all elements, analyze both conducting and nonconducting samples,
holders allow the use of high NA objectives. Embedded x- and y-axis encoders provide closed-loop control, and miniature high-torque motors allow for access to the condenser and other microscope adjustments. Prior Scientific Rockland, MA info@prior.com
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BUSINESS FORUM continued from page 68
industrial control service business. It is definitely the technical nature of my dads business, as well as his example of starting a self-sustaining independent business that gave me the confidence to start a business.
MC: What is your vision of applications outside of discovery and development? HK/MM: Our business has primarily been supplying advanced lasers for research, but we see this broadening to other uses. By focusing an intense femtosecond pulse into a gas to hit an atom very hard before it even has a chance to ionize, one can generate extremely high-order harmonics to wavelengths less than 8 . This is the only practical way to make essentially a table-top coherent x-ray laser, which is useful for everything from imaging for nanotechnology to metrology of thin films as well as for basic science studies. Just recently we received some good newsa notice of allowance for our patent on methods for extending the highharmonic coherent x-ray generation technique to shorter wavelengths into the x-ray region of the spectrum of interest for ultrahigh-resolution x-ray imaging and other nano applications, which is another potential market. Equivalently, femtosecond lasers are increasingly being used for precision industrial machining because they ablate away material before it has a chance to conduct heat away and cause collateral damage. The result is a clean and precise cut. Another application is precision spectroscopy using ultrashort pulses to generate frequency combs. MC: Customer handholding must be a challenge. HK/MM: Much of what we have accomplished has been
MC: Ever thought about being part of an established company? HK/MM: There has been considerable consolidation in the laser market, and the time may come when being acquired is appropriate. In the shorter term, our lasers and x-ray lasers are seeing increasing potential use, for example, for metrology in the semiconductor industry. Finding a larger strategic partner to help develop our lasers for industrial application is something we have an active interest in. We feel that with the right partner, we could do much more, accelerate the development of novel, game-changing technologies, and gain greater market penetration. MC: I have found Boulder has been a good place for Precision Photonics and MBio Diagnostics. What are the pros and cons being in Boulder? HK/MM: Boulder is an exceptional place to establish an advanced R&D intensive company. There are great universities and institutes to collaborate with and hire students from such as the University of Colorado, NIST, the Colorado School of Mines, and Colorado State University. The cost of living is reasonable and the views, hiking, biking, and skiing are spectacular. Moreover, there are many local optics companies, with a very supportive local government.
through developing new technologies that are needed by customers to tackle hard scientific problems. Our customers are our source of fulfillment, but can also easily get us into trouble by tempting us with exciting challenges that push the limit! We are now able to make sure we can realistically evaluate the cost of taking on such interesting projects.
MC: Any issue working as a wife-husband team? HK/MM: Being a husband-and-wife team in research is an ex-
ceptional advantagetwo smart people who trust each other completely can vet ideas quite quickly. We very frequently dont see eye to eye on issues, but the issues where we dont tend much more to be real, substantive ones without a clear answer; i.e., the ones that deserve a good argument. Regarding family and work issues, we dont really segregate the two. We always feel fortunate that at least we see each other a lot, even when we are working way too hard. This is a generic problem with academe more so, I believe, than in the entrepreneurial world. The tenure clock and academic politics get in the way of family considerations, and ultimately there needs to be a better way.
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Manufacturers Product Showcase

Photon NanoScan 2 Scanning Slit Laser Beam Profiler
Ophir Photonics, global leader in precision laser measurement equipment and a Newport Corporation brand, introduces NanoScan 2 , the new version of their scanning slit beam profiler. A NISTcalibrated laser beam profiler, NanoScan 2 measures continuous wave (CW) and pulsed beams across the entire spectral range, from UV to far infrared measuring beam sizes from microns to centimeters at beam powers from microwatts to kilowatts, without attenuation.
To Pulse Driver
Nanosecond Laser Diode Drivers With Butterfly Diode Sockets

Output module with a socket-mounted butterfly-packaged diode installed.
To TEC Controller Each of the 19 models in the Avtech AVO-9 series of pulsed laser diode drivers includes a replaceable output module with an ultra-highspeed socket suitable for use with subnanosecond rise time pulses. Models with maximum currents of 0.1A to 10A are available with pulse widths from 400 ps to 1 us. GPIB, RS-232, and Ethernet control available.
Model AVO-9A-B 40 mA/DIV 1 ns/DIV
www.ophiropt.com/photonics (866) 755-5499
Pricing, manuals, datasheets at http://www.avtechpulse.laser More information: info@avtechpulse.com
New FCD561 Laser for Biotechnology

JDSU announces FCD561, the newest addition to the popular frequency converted diode (FCD) family of continuous-wave lasers for lifescience applications. FCD561 is available in 30 mW free-space and fiber-delivered packages to meet the most demanding integration needs. FCD561 uses proven JDSU allin-fiber architecture, providing an extremely rugged device in an energy-efficient, lightweight, and compact package. Fiber-delivered versions incorporate unique end-of-fiber optical power monitoring and polarization correction to eliminate the effects of mechanically- and thermally-induced birefringence. For more information, e-mail James Christian, JDSU senior product manager, at jim.christian@jdsu.com.
One-year subscription to LASER FOCUS WORLD FREE!
Visit us online at www.lfw-subscribe.com or call Customer Service at 847.559.7500
www.jdsu.com/go/fcd
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2 Micron High Power Q-Switched Fiber Laser

The worlds first 2 Micron High Power Q-Switched Fiber Laser from AdValue Photonics is a turn-key system with pulse energy up to 200 J, peak power up to 10 kW, and pulse width as narrow as 20 nanoseconds with single mode beam quality. It is a powerful tool in a compact package for application areas such as nonlinear optics, frequency conversion, spectroscopy, LIDAR, and materials studies. AdValue Photonics is specialized in the spectral region of 2 micron, offering fiber lasers, amplifiers, broadband light sources, and passive components. Contact us for more information at 1-520-790-5468 or sales@ advaluephotonics.com.
919P Series Thermopile Sensors
Newports new 919P Series of Thermopile Detectors provide a full range of sensors to meet the power measurement needs for CW or pulsed lasers. They offer broadband, spectrally flat response, with a maximum power range up to 5000 Watts. These sensors are compatible with Newport power meter models 1936-R/2936-R, 1928-C, 1918-R, and the new 843-R. Each 919P thermopile sensor includes a DB15 connector and internal EEPROM for storing factory calibration data.
www.advaluephotonics.com
(800) 222-6440 www.newport.com
The FISBA Beam Twister

The FISBA Beam Twister (FBT) is an innovative beam shaping element for generating an almost symmetrical beam profile of laser diode bars. The FBT unit consists of a FAC lens with a beam rotating lens array for nearly diffraction limited collimation and best symmetrization. With the corresponding focussing optics (also produced by FISBA) the laser power can be coupled with an efficiency of more than 80% out of a fiber with 400 micron diameter (NA 0.22) and more than 70% out of a fiber with 200 micron diameter (NA 0.22). Customized designs on pitch, fill factor, wavelength etc. are available upon request.
Powerlite Furie the next generation High Energy Nd:YAG laser
Built on the proven Powerlite laser platform and using our energy through efficiency approach, the Furie delivers 7J of IR and 4J of green ensuring excellent beam profile and overall performance thats best-in-class in all aspects of stability. This compact and robust laser is designed to operate 24/7 for set-and-forget industrial applications while providing flexibility and versatility required by scientific users, making it ideal for Ti:Sapphire pumping and materials processing applications.
www.fisba.com
Learn more at www.continuumlasers.com/furielp
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Business Resource Center

Holographic Gratings Optics / Coatings Manufacturing Optics / Filters Manufacturing
Holographic Gratings
Laser tuning Telecommunication Pulse compression/stretching Monochromators Spectroscopy
High efficiency Extremely low stray light Straight grooves with uniform profile, plane and concave/convex Standard sizes 8 15 - 120 140 mm Custom made gratings according to specs
Lattice Electro Optics, Inc.

1324 E. Valencia Dr. Fullerton, CA 92831 www.latticeoptics.com T: 714-449-0532, F: 714-449-0531 latticeoptics@gmail.com
Optical Filters
Infrared, VIS, UV
Bandpass Longwave-pass Shortwave-pass Broad-Bandpass Neutral Density
First quality production over-runs >100,000 filters for immediate delivery Typical size 1 inch dia, most filters can be turned down or diced to smaller dimensions 3 inch dia Si and Ge filter waters available for specific wavelengths Custom design for prototype or OEM
Need optics & coatings?

Quality, quick service & any quantity
24 hrs turnaround on most optics & coatings CUSTOM optics with a lightening quick delivery One of the largest INVENTORIES in the industry
SPECTROGON
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Advertiser & web index

AdValue Photonics ..................................... 65 Alluxa ...................................................38, 46 Argyle International, Inc. ............................57 Avtech Electrosystems, Ltd....................... 64 Bristol Instruments, Inc. .............................18 Cambridge Technology, Inc. ........................ 8 Castech, Inc. ...............................................41 Coherent, Inc. ............................................ C4 Continuum ................................................. 65 Discovery Semiconductors, Inc. ................. 6 DRS Technologies .......................................19 Edmund Optics ...........................................10 Electro-Optics Technology, Inc. .................14 Fermionics Corporation ............................. 36 Fisba Optik AG ........................................... 65 Crystal Systems LLC ................................. 22 Hamamatsu Corporation ............................17 IDEX/Melles Griot ....................................... 11 JDSU ........................................................... 64 LightMachinery, Inc. ............................ 16, 20 Master Bond, Inc. ...................................... 34 Micro Laser Systems, Inc.................... 28, 63 Moxtek Optics .......................................26, 57 Nanoplus GmbH ..........................................24 Newport Corporation ..................... 21, 29, 65 NM Laser Products, Inc. ............................ 28 Ophir-Spiricon, Inc............................... 25, 64 Optical Society of America ........................ 54 Optimax Systems, Inc. .................................4 Opto Diode Corporation ............................. 35 OptoSigma Corporation ..............................12 OSI Optoelectronics ................................... 23 Photonics Consortium ............................... 44 Pico Electronics, Inc. ..................................37 Power Technology Inc. .................................1 Princeton Optronics, Inc. ............................61 Reynard Corporation ..................................47 Santec USA Corp. ...................................... 22 SPIE ...................................................... 30, 50 Stanford Research Systems ..................... C3 Thin Film Center Inc. .............................31, 34 VLOC/Division of II-VI, Inc.......................... 43 Xian Focuslight Technologies Co., Ltd. .... 32 Zygo Corporation ....................................... C2
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INTERNATIONAL France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Russian Federation Holger Gerisch 49-8856-8020228; fax 49-8856-8020231 holgerg@pennwell.com United Kingdom Jim Ajayi 44-0-1992-656657; jima@pennwell.com Hong Kong/China Adonis Mak 852-2-838-6298; fax 852-2-838-2766 adonism@actintl.com.hk India Rajan Sharma 91-11-686-1113; fax 91-11-686-1112 rajan@interadsindia.com Israel (Tel Aviv) Dan Aronovic 972-9-899-5813; aronovic@actcom.co.il Japan Masaki Mori 81-3-6721-9890; masaki.mori@ex-press.jp Taiwan Diana Wei 886-2-2396-5128 ext. 270; fax: 886-2-2396-7816 diana@arco.com.tw For all other international sales, please contact: Christine Shaw, Senior VP & Group Publisher (see contact info. above)
Laser Focus World Copyright 2013 (ISSN 1043-8092) is published 12 times per year, monthly, by PennWell, 1421 S. Sheridan, Tulsa OK 74112. All rights reserved. Periodicals postage paid at Tulsa, OK 74101 and additional mailing offces. Subscription rate in the USA: 1 yr. $162, 2 yr. $310, 3 yr. $443; Canada: 1 yr. $216, 2 yr. $369, 3 yr. $507; International Air: 1 yr. $270, 2 yr. $435, 3 yr. $578. Single copy price: $17 in the USA, $22 in Canada and $27 via International Air. Single copy rate for March issue which contains a Buyers Guide Supplement: $135.00 USA, $168.00 Canada, $200.00 International Air. Digital edition $60.00 yr. Paid subscriptions are accepted prepaid and only in US currency. SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES: phone: (847) 559-7520, fax: (847) 291-4816. (POSTMASTER: Send change of address form to Laser Focus World, POB 3425, Northbrook, IL 60065-3425.) Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to: P.O. Box 122, Niagara Falls, ON L2E 6S4. We make portions of our subscriber list available to carefully screened companies that offer products and services that may be important for your work. If you do not want to receive those offers and/or information, please let us know by contacting us at List Services, Laser Focus World, 98 Spit Brook Road, LL-1, Nashua, NH 03062. GST No. 126813153 Publications Mail Agreement No. 40052420
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Laser Focus World
July 2013
67
BusinessForum
Exploiting an unmet demand is a good model for success

M I LTO N C H A N G
With this column, I am beginning a new series of interviews with interesting scientists and engineers who have become successful entrepreneurs in photonics. My first interview is with Henry Kapteyn and Margaret Murnane of KMLabs (Boulder, CO), which has been named the winner of the CLEO/ Laser Focus World Innovation Award.
Milton Chang: Let us start by briefly describing your core competencies. Henry Kapteyn/Margaret Murnane:
to capture the fastest motions in materials and molecules, even at the level of electrons. KMLabs came into being when other scientists contacted us, because they wanted the same 10 fs lasers for other applications. So there was a clear demand for very short laser pulses that was not met by existing laser companies.
MC: How did you finance the business initially? HK/MM: We invested $10,000 of our savings as
assistant professors into KMLabs to get it startedwe have not to date taken outside investment. That allowed us to get a 10 fs laser oscillator business started. Fortunately, we were also able to have parts made in the machine shop of a company started by another professor. Highpower ultrafast amplifier systems are much more capital-intensive. For those, we used orders on hand to get a line of credit from the bank. Banking relationships are important, given we have to buy parts to build products that are shipped many months later.
MC: It appears you have done an excellent job in leveraging your research funding. You have worked all that out with your university? HK/MM: Yes, we worked hard to either follow or develop correct procedures to handle disclosures and joint work. This also involves disclosing and having proper oversight through a conflict-of-interest compliance officer. The universities own all IP developed by faculty in their area of research, whether developed by us at JILA [a joint institute of the University of Colorado at Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology] or at KMLabs. We really had terrific experiences with all the universities we have been associated with. Both the University of Michigan and the University of Colorado get royalties from the inventions we made that are now sold by KMLabs. MC: You were professors without prior business experience. Was either of your parents in business? HK/MM: Margret grew up in Ireland and her father was an elementary school teacherkindergarten, actually. She had to work to pay for college. My parents emigrated from the Netherlands via Canada and I was born in the Chicago area shortly after they arrived. My father started an continued on page 63
MILTON CHANG of Incubic Management was president of Newport and New Focus. He is currently director of mBio Diagnostics and Aurrion; a trustee of Caltech; a member of the SEC Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies; and serves on advisory boards and mentors entrepreneurs. Chang is a Fellow of IEEE, OSA, and LIA. Direct your business, management, and career questions to him at miltonchang@incubic.com, and check out his book Toward Entrepreneurship at www.miltonchang.com. www.laserfocusworld.com Laser Focus World
We deliver the highest performance ultrafast light. It is light with the shortest pulse widths, with the cleanest, pedestal-free profilelight confined to only a few optical cycles in duration, focusable to near the diffraction limit. Our cryogenic cooling technology enables ultrafast amplifiers with unprecedented high average powers plus high pulse energy, and also allows for wide, computer-controlled tuning of the pulse rep rate. Our second core competency is in using these lasers as the power source for high-order harmonic upconversion, providing what is in essence the first commercial table-top x-ray lasers.
MC: How did the company get started? HK/MM: It started when we, as two young scientists [a husband-and-wife team], made an unexpected discovery funded by NSF Young Investor and AFOSR Awards. The dream was to use ultrafast lasers to create short bursts of x-raysfast enough (<10 fs)
68
July 2013
Programmable
DC Power Supplies to 20 kV
SRS has added four new high voltage power supplies to the PS300 series: 10 kV, +10 kV, 20 kV and +20 kV. All PS300 series supplies offer a wide range of features including programmable current and voltage limits, selectable overload response, short circuit protection, and a GPIB computer interface. The combination of performance, features and price make the PS300 series the right choice. www.thinkSRS.com/products/PS300.htm
0.001 % regulation 0.05 % accuracy 1 volt resolution 0.0015 % output ripple Programmable limits & trips Voltage and current readouts GPIB interface
25 Watt Power Supplies ... $1395 (U.S. list) PS310 1.25 kV PS325 2.5 kV PS350 5 kV 10 Watt Power Supplies ... $2250 (U.S. list) PS355 10 kV PS365 +10 kV PS370 20 kV PS375 +20 kV
Stanford Research Systems

Phone: (408) 744-9040 Fax: (408) 744-9049 info@thinkSRS.com www.thinkSRS.com
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