CLEO Innovation Award deadline draws near

If your company has an innovative product or service and will be exhibiting at The Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) in San Jose, May 6-11, then now is the time to enter the Innovation Awards.

Again this year, CLEO and Laser Focus World have put out the call for submissions to their annual Innovation Awards, which honor exhibiting companies that have demonstrated outstanding leadership and made significant contributions in advancing optics and photonics. 

The winning entry will be presented during the Plenary & Awards Session on May 8. The winner and all finalists will be highlighted in pre- and post-show promotions and official onsite conference materials, including the Conference Program, Exhibit Buyers’ Guide, CLEO press release, and conference signage.

Last year the top award went to Applied Research and Photonics (Harrisburg, PA) for its terahertz scanning reflectometer. Honorable mentions went to AdValue Photonics (Tucson, AZ) for its 2-micron Q-switched fiber laser and ID Quantique (Geneva, Switzerland) for its advanced system for single photon detection.

Submissions must be received by Monday, March 5; please submit entries online at: www.cleoconference.org/InnovationAwards.

From the 2011 Innovation Awards:

Spectroscopy for everybody else

I've just come across a tangle of connected websites that have to do with do-it-yourself spectroscopy -- meaning REALLY do-it-yourself, like building your own video spectrometer from a DVD-R (as the grating), a USB webcam, and an old VHS box or some such.

This interested me, especially as someone named Adam Hasler has been using one of these homemade spectrometers to test different types of wine. I am one of those people who have no doubt that wine is the nectar of the gods; in fact, my idle (very idle) websurfing was how I ran across this wine/DIY/spectroscopy thing in the first place.

The sites I found are mostly part of the Public Laboratory for Open technology and Science (publiclaboratory.org), which describes other fascinating open science projects as well, such as balloon aerial mapping, air-quality measurements, and others, all for which you can build your own equipment from commonly found items.

Anyhow, Adam and his friends tested wines, including (with URLs for their spectra):

2009 santa barbara pinot noir: http://spectralworkbench.org/spectrums/68
2009 clos de vaulicheres epineuil: http://spectralworkbench.org/spectrums/69
2010 simfebvre_sauvblanc: http://spectralworkbench.org/spectrums/70
2010 talmardchardonnay: http://spectralworkbench.org/spectrums/71
2010 honig sauvblanc: http://spectralworkbench.org/spectrums/72
2010 riffualt sancerre: http://spectralworkbench.org/spectrums/73

According to the website (see http://publiclaboratory.org/notes/warren/1-19-2012/wine-spectroscopy-adam-hasler), at the wine testing (no, I didn't misspell that), Adam described the background of each wine and its place of origin, and "we spent some time discussing how to improve readings and sample prep for this early stage prototype instrument."

These DIY spectrometers have also been used to make other measurements that, although not necessary for one's survival, are interesting (to me, anyway), such as an Android phone / iPhone LCD spectral comparison (maybe a little hard to see here):


(from publiclaboratory.org)

Along with plans for a DIY spectrometer (or a $30 kit, if you're so inclined), there is open-source software called Spectral Bench (http://publiclaboratory.org/wiki/spectral-workbench) that is described as being "in alpha, though with some configuration it should run on Linux, Mac, or Windows."

Specs for the spectrometer:
-- around 400-900 nm range, maybe wider (what you can see with the naked eye, plus some infrared)
-- 5-10 nm spectral resolution
--20-30 samples per second
-- ~ $10 in materials
-- < 1 hour construction time

Because I didn't come across any sort of conclusion for the wine experiment, my assumption is that the researchers are still in a very early phase and have many years of experimentation left.

High-contrast gratings bring new meaning to "integrated" optics

Gail Overton Senior Editor Laser Focus World gailo@pennwell.com

Photonics West is such a condensed week of awesome photonics technology that it is next to impossible to describe even a fraction of the best presentations and papers. But I was particularly impressed by the Tuesday, 24 January OPTO Plenary presentation by Connie J. Chang-Hasnain, UC Berkeley research professor (and incidentally, an editorial advisory board member for Laser Focus World), entitled "High-Contrast Metastructures for Integrated Optics."

Chang-Hasnain presents her work with such enthusiasm! I found myself, along with the audience of several hundred, paying close attention as she described the incredible science behind how a periodic structure of lines can act as a highly reflective mirror, a high-Q resonator, a focusing element or lens, a vertical in-plane coupler, and even be used to fabricate a slow-light waveguide--no kidding.

The website for Chang-Hasnain's CCH Optoelectronics Group at UC Berkeley at http://light.eecs.berkeley.edu/cch/HCSWG.html explains the functionality of high-contrast subwavelength gratings in much detail. But in brief, high-contrast gratings (HCGs) have alternating stripes of semiconductor materials and air (or silicon) with subwavelength periodicity. And unlike distributed Bragg reflectors with narrowband operation, HCGs can be as much as two orders of magnitude thinner and are both broadband and sensitive to the incident polarization state of the input.



IMAGE: Unlike conventional diffraction gratings, the high-contrast gratings (HCGs) developed by Connie Chang-Hasnain's group at UC Berkeley have a grating period that is nearly one wavelength; that is, between the incident wavelength in air and that divided by the high refractive index of the grating material. (Courtesy Weimin Zhou, U.S. Army Research Laboratory)

She describes how mathematical simulations can be used to analyze the behavior of light as it passes through the HCG device; rigorous coupled wave analysis (RCWA) and other modeling software can determine the physical parameters of an HCG (length and width of the line structure and line separation or period) and how those parameters can translate into a user-desired light-guiding function. For example, the versatility of HCGs is proving critical in the development of lower-cost, better-performing vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) in a single epitaxial step, which is a major area of study for Chang-Hasnain's group.

There is even an ABC News report on the HCG work as shown in the YouTube video below:



Imagine replacing bulky optoelectronic devices with thin, smart layers that are engineered to perform particular functions. As the number of research papers and "integrated", silicon-photonics-compatible components continues to grow based on this architecture, HCGs--"a new platform for integrated optics" in the words of Chang-Hasnain--will become commonplace in (and critical for) the photonics engineering community.

And the Oscar winner is--a laser film recorder

On February 11 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Award of Merit will go to ARRI, which makes professional motion picture equipment, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Physical Measurement Techniques (IPM). They are winning for their jointly developed ARRILASER film recorder.



The Academy Award of Merit honors personalities who are responsible for a technical achievement that “has demonstrably contributed to improving filmmaking processes in a significant way.” Franz Kraus and Johannes Steurer from ARRI (Munich Germany) and Wolfgang Riedel from the Fraunhofer IPM (Freiburg, Germany) have each been awarded an Oscar for the design and development of the ARRILASER.

The jury declared that this laser film recorder "demonstrates a high level of engineering resulting in a compact, user-friendly, low-maintenance device, while at the same time maintaining outstanding speed, exposure ratings and image quality." Extracts from the Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation should appear during the "main" Oscar ceremony on February 26.

The ARRILASER uses three solid-state lasers. For each color channel one acousto-optical modulator modulates the laser output according to the color information of each pixel of every digital image.



Although the ARRILASER wasn't credited by any of the Best Picture or Best Cinematography nominees, the majority of films were shot with other ARRI cameras. Now the ARRILASER won’t be such a silent partner.

Photonics West: SPIE's awesome conference smartphone app

..John Wallace ..Senior Editor ..Laser Focus World ..johnw@pennwell.com

So I'm here at SPIE's Photonics West 2012 in San Francisco (and will be here until next Thursday), and I'm as overwhelmed as everyone else by the number and variety of events and sessions at the show. However, I am armed with a secret weapon -- SPIE's free "SPIE Conferences" app, which I have on my Android phone (it's available for the iPhone too).

It has made all the difference. Yes, I still have the bulky print versions of the Technical Program and the Exhibition Guide. But they're staying put in my backpack while I use the SPIE app.

The app first opens to the "Conference Calendar," which lists current and upcoming SPIE conferences for the next few months, starting with Photonics West and ending (for now -- I'm sure it will be continually updated) with Defense, Security, and Sensing (DSS) in April. I select Photonics West and find the following simple menu under "Program":

--Technical Program
--People
--Exhibition

As you can see, the app replaces the print program and guide. But it has more: a list of the Photonics West attendees (all 13,023 of them), as well as additional info on the attendees if they're speakers.

But the most valuable feature of this app (to me) is at the bottom of the screen - the "What's Happening?" button. Hit that button and you get a list of every event, session, etc. going on at the show, all ordered based on the time they begin.

This means that at any time in the conference, without having to grope my way through a fat and unwieldy catalog, I can find just what I need. Nice indeed.

(The app can be found both in the Android Market and the iPhone App Store.)

Residential solar PV: a happy customer

Gail Overton Senior Editor Laser Focus World gailo@pennwell.com

There is nothing quite like opening your electric bill for the third month in a row and owing $0 (that’s a zero) dollars. This is the second winter season that our electric bill has been zero since we put in our 3.22 kilowatt solar photovoltaic (PV) system in the summer of 2010.

Now before I launch into a summary of panel output and cost (which are details often lacking in many articles that I read about residential solar energy systems), I'd like to describe a few unique issues that make our system especially cost effective. First of all, it is a ground-mount system--which made it less expensive to install compared to some rooftop systems. Secondly, we live in the desert southwest of California, with abundant sunshine and rarely a cloudy or rainy day, meaning that our solar output is maximized compared to many other locations in the world (and California gives generous rebates for residential systems). And third, we found a very efficient crew and an excellent installer in our area that helped us with rebate paperwork, interfaced with our utility company, and did the job over a 3 day period (including concrete footings and frame in a very rocky caliche soil). The name of that company by the way is "The Sun Works" (http://www.thesunworks.com/) out of Niland, CA.



Our system uses a total of 14 Sharp monocrystalline PV panels rated at 230 W each, bringing it to 3.22 kW and generating roughly 20 kWH (kilowatt hours; often written as KWH) each day. This means that we get roughly 7 hours of full generation out of our panels every day; pretty good considering they are fixed and do not track the sun (solar tracker equipment is fairly expensive).



With 20 KWH of generation per day, we output roughly 600 KWH per month, with the excess feeding into our grid-tied system. And because we typically consume about 300-600 KWH per month in the winter (depending on whether the heater is running or not), our bill is basically zero in the months between November and April. Our monthly consumption in the summer months--when it’s up to 110 degrees outside and the air conditioning is set at 80 degrees inside--is about 1200-1800 KWH, meaning that our highest bill of $230 per month is roughly cut in half. Utility rates at Imperial Irrigation District (IID) are some of the lowest in the country at $0.13/KWH, meaning a month with 600 KWH consumption runs about $80 a month.

So what was the price and what is the "payback" time for our system? The total price was $22,600. Sounds overwhelming and unaffordable for most people, but here is the bottom line: Immediately upon installation, one-third of that price is rebated against the total. The state of California pays the installer about $7500, bringing the amount we owed to $15,100. And then, another one-third of the total price becomes a full tax writeoff, taking the price down to $7600. But reality is harsh; because that tax benefit is not available until later, we financed the $15,100 through our Credit Union, which offers 6.75% fixed rate, 5-year solar loans. Essentially, we think of our solar-energy system as the equivalent of a five-year car payment. Fortunately, unlike a car that is sometimes worthless after five years (or worth just a couple thousand bucks), our solar energy system should continue cranking out the kilowatts for a 25-year lifetime, giving us 20 full years of zero dollar electric bills in the winter, and $100 maximum electric bills in the summer. Each year, we save about $1200 with the system, making it a 6.3 year breakeven point at a total price of $7600.

While making that payment now is not fun, I’ll be smiling broadly in just three more years when the loan is paid and the kilowatts continue to flow for years to come.

Watching real wavefronts in slow motion

..John Wallace ..Senior Editor ..Laser Focus World ..johnw@pennwell.com

A team at the MIT Media Lab, led by Ramash Raskar, has developed the best way yet to visualize the passage of light as it hits and passes around or through objects. They use streak cameras, femtosecond-laser pulses, and a million or more repeated measurements of a stationary scene to capture the actual laser pulse as it passes through a transparent bottle, or is intercepted by an apple or other object.

Two points I’d like to make. First, is that Senior Editor Gail Overton’s news story on this will appear in the February issue of Laser Focus World; don’t miss it, as she has talked to the researchers and describes in detail how the whole thing works.

The second point is -- this is pretty amazing. They’ve created videos of wavefronts as they propagate through an everyday scene . . . and these are no simulations; they are the real thing. The colorized gray-scale photo here shows a couple of wavefronts in passage through a bottle.


(Photo: MIT Media Lab)

The bottle is perpendicular to the camera, and the pulses propagate from left to right (with no toward- or away-from-the-viewer component). I stared at this for a moment before I realized why the wavefronts look tilted -- it’s because the light from the farther-away points on the wavefront take longer to get to the camera, so these spots appear to have not progressed as far as those nearer to the camera.

This realization made me feel strangely relativistic, as if I were flying by the bottle in a spaceship at half lightspeed. (And I won’t even try to explain this.)