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The April 2010 issue of Photonics Spectra [2010-05-24] |
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The April 2010 issue
of Photonics Spectra is
now archived on Photonics.com | |
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| Seeing Better To Shoot Better |
With better eyes in the sky and on the ground, soldiers soon will see the battlefield more clearly than ever. Thanks to sensor innovations, screen improvements, faster digital processing and other advances, military imaging systems will capture and reveal critical information that cannot be caught or displayed today.
FULL ARTICLE >> | |
| Efficient and Uniform Illumination with Microlens-Based Band-Limited Diffusers |
Uniform illumination over a certain target area is a common requirement in many applications, and oftentimes schemes must be devised to ensure that this requirement is achieved. In display systems, for example, light that illuminates a viewing interface such as a screen must appear uniform and devoid of any distracting image artifacts. Depending on the particularities of the system, different approaches must be developed to provide uniform illumination without sacrificing efficiency.
FULL ARTICLE >> | |
| Advantages of Polymer and Hybrid Glass-Polymer Optics |
Polymer materials with optical properties are being thrust into the design forefront for new, sophisticated electro-optical applications, enabling commercial markets and applications including medical disposables, bar-code scan/recognition, security and fingerprint scanners, motion and presence sensors, CCD cameras and laser collimation. Current advancements in polymer technology and injection molding capabilities have increased the manufacturability and precision of polymer optics.
FULL ARTICLE >> | |
| Quantum Dots Are Finding Their Place in the World |
There has been a panoply of research into the next big thing in quantum dots - those semiconducting artificial atoms that are ubiquitous in fluorescence imaging, biological and chemical sensing, and display applications. Quantum dots of more (or less) exotic materials and with more (or less) interesting shapes are demonstrated on almost a weekly basis. It is the heyday for the field. But getting less attention are the practical issues of handling quantum dots in such a way that their functionality can be maximized and their use more broadly commercialized.
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| Judging ARPA-E |
Created under the Bush administration, the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) actually set up shop only last year, when it received $400 million in funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Its director and staff must feel a bit beleaguered already, though, with critics questioning whether it is an appropriate avenue for government funding of technology development.
FULL ARTICLE >> | |
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