Curiosity to Earth: the photonics have landed!

As we all know by now, the Mars Curiosity rover has landed -- congrats, NASA! I, along with millions of others, will be eagerly awaiting what Curiosity has to say.

Here is just a brief mention of some of the photonics companies and organizations that produced the lasers, sensors, and optics essential to Curiosity's misson.

One of the most important instruments carried by Curiosity is the ChemCam, originally developed by the Los Alamos National Laboratory (Los Alamos, NM); this instrument contains a laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) system that will spectroscopically analyze Mars' surface.

An early image taken by one of Curiosity's hazard avoidance cameras (NASA)

The spectrometers in ChemCam were produced by Ocean Optics (Dunedin, FL), while the plasma-producing Q-switched, diode-pumped solid-state laser at the heart of the instrument was developed by Thales Laser (Orsay, France). The Chemcam also contains laser diodes from 3S Photonics (Nozay, France).

Curiosity contains 17 cameras; some of these were developed by Malin Space Science Systems (San Diego, CA), a company specializing in systems for unmanned spacecraft. CCD cameras from Truesense Imaging (Rochester, NY; a former division of Eastman Kodak) will be used for high-resolution (up to 14.4 μm per pixel) photos of rocks and other surface material, while CCD cameras from Teledyne Dalsa (Waterloo, ON, Canada) will be used for navigation and hazard avoidance.

Many of the camera optics for Curiosity were provided by Optimax (Ontario, NY).

It should also be mentioned that radiation-hardened photovoltaic cells from Emcore (Albuquerque, NM) powered the spacecraft as it headed toward Mars (the Curiosity rover itself is powered by radioisotope thermal generators).

I'd like to thank these innovative photonics outfits, along with the many that I have not mentioned here, for a job well done! And I look forward to seeing the science results that Curiosity will be producing in abundance -- along with the sweeping vistas that make many of us want to put our own footprints into the surface of Mars.

Persistent surveillance pays off

During the SPIE Defense, Security + Sensing show in Baltimore, I had a very interesting conversation with John Marion, who is director of persistent surveillance at Logos Technologies, based in Fairfax, VA. Our talk was about surveillance imaging from aerostat balloons tethered to the ground to continuously observe what Marion said could be a “small-city size area”.
Aerostats made news in May with a New York Times article describing life in Afghanistan under the eye of the many spy balloons tethered at military bases and in cities. At a relatively low cost, such balloons provide the military with an unblinking, long-term view of important areas, helping to catch insurgents planting bombs and deterring ambushes.
In 2010, General David Petraeus, commander of allied forces in Afghanistan, had asked for help from all available intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) assets. In partial response, a 300-ft-long, untethered hybrid airship called LEMV (long-endurance multi-intelligence vehicle) was developed by Northrop Grumman for the US Army. Its first flight has been repeatedly delayed and now may be scheduled for November, according to one report.
To enhance the imaging capabilities of the much smaller aerostats, Logos Technologies developed its Kestrel system, which is a wide-area persistent surveillance system for forward operating bases. Its development includes novel imaging and stabilization capability for day/night operation.

To date such aerostats have relied on narrow field-of-view ball gimbal sensors to identify targets of interest. The Kestrel sensor enables 360° coverage out to extended ranges at moderate resolution, while cueing a narrow field of view camera to provide high resolution imagery of targets of interest.
The ground station system enables operators to monitor multiple regions of interest in real time, and allows for backtracking through the recorded imagery while monitoring ongoing activity (see video). This backtracking capability allows operators to detect and understand threat networks and operations. Since July, ten of the full day/night surveillance systems have been deployed to Afghanistan, with six more available as spares.

This spring the US Department of Homeland Security tested the Kestrel system for border security around Nogales, Arizona. A Raven Aerostar aerostat was fitted out with a Wescam MX-15 hi-res, narrow-field camera from L-3 Communications and a Kestrel day/night medium-res, wide-area persistent surveillance system. Thanks to the system, authorities apprehended 30 suspects on the first night of the demonstration and made a total of 80 arrests over the course of the week.

Ultrafast fiber lasers? We have a webcast for that

I am really liking the way the Laser Focus World webcast schedule is shaping up this year. We've already had many very interesting presenters, the latest being Claire Gmachl, the director of MIRTHE (the Center for Mid-InfraRed Technologies for Health and the Environment), who spoke on quantum-cascade lasers earlier this month (the webcast is still available on-demand and can be found on our homepage).

And the trend continues! Next up on July 27 is Almantas Galvanauskas, professor at the University of Michigan and cofounder of Arbor Photonics, Inc., who will be speaking on ultrafast fiber lasers. Over a period of 20 years, he has been prominent in the field of fiber lasers; he has pushed the performance of ultrafast fiber lasers to new highs and has also pioneered ultrashort-pulse fiber chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) systems.

In addition, no one can tell you better what's to come in ultrafast fiber lasers, because Dr. Galvanauskas' research is at the leading edge.

So come join us on July 27 at 1 p.m. Eastern, 10 a.m. Pacific time (the "early bird special" for this pay-per-view webcast lasts until July 20). You can sign up at http://www.laserfocusworld.com/webcasts/2012/07/ultrafast-fiber-lasers.html .

Harnessing Light study can make a difference

The release of the Harnessing Light report, due in late summer, will be an opportunity to describe to the public and policy makers the critical roles that optics and photonics play in our economy, security, and personal lives. If the companies, universities, and professional societies in the photonics community work to advance its findings, then real progress could be made in priorities such as competitive advantage, workforce needs, and manufacturing infrastructure.

As Paul McManamon, past president of SPIE and cochair of the study committee, notes in this SPIE video, the European community took note of the findings in the original 1998 report to develop its vision and policy--and has benefited ever since. More information and additional links may be found here on the SPIE website.

 

SPIE and OSA cooperate on optics education

In the April print issue of Laser Focus World, our feature article entitled "How to begin a career in photonics" erroneously stated that the Optics and Photonics Education Directory at www.opticseducation.org was from the Optical Society (OSA; Washington, DC). Unfortunately, that information was not correct (my apologies again for the error); indeed, the Optics and Photonics Education Directory--as corrected in the online version of the magazine article--is a joint public service effort by both SPIE (Bellingham, WA) and OSA. In fact, as I learned in the weeks following the release of our April issue from Krisinda Plenkovich, SPIE Education and Community Service director, SPIE actually initiated the directory back in the mid 1980s.

SPIE staff member Rich Donnelly--who still works for SPIE as SPIE Newsroom managing editor--used to get many inquiries about optics programs, so he decided to start publishing a list in the Optics in Education portion of SPIE's then tabloid Optical Engineering Reports. The first edition of the list was printed in 1985-86 and had 26 listings across North America. In 1990, the list became global and evolved into the booklet format that is used today.

But in 2001, SPIE's Education Committee and OSA's Membership & Education Services (MES) Council determined that education was one of the areas where cooperation between the two societies could benefit the entire community and the Optics Education Directory was seen as a vehicle where that cooperation could be especially productive. Consequently, it was decided at the time that SPIE would provide OSA with the content it had been using to produce a print version of the directory and OSA would utilize that information t to create an online version.

This cooperation resulted in the co-branding of the Optics and Photonics Education Directory with OSA. Today, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) exists between SPIE and OSA to define the joint collaboration and sponsorship of the Optics and Photonics Education Directory. In short, SPIE is responsible for managing the print version of the Directory--4500 copies of which were distributed in 2011 to libraries and academic institutions throughout the world (in more than 220 different countries). And OSA is responsible for updating the online version of the Directory, from which the print version content is generated. According to Kathryn Amatrudo, OSA's deputy senior director of Membership and Education, the online Directory receives thousands of visits each month.

When writing the April photonics education article, the Optics and Photonics Education Directory was indispensable for my research on just how many academic institutions exist for our students, what the entry criteria are, how large the student population is at the various institutions, what type of curriculum is offered, and of primary importance, a personal contact at the institution that is available to answer any questions students may pose. With more than 350 international listings, students considering a career in photonics have an excellent photonics education resource at their fingertips, or at the click of a mouse. Courtesy SPIE and OSA, the Optics and Photonics Education Directory is the go-to resource for aspiring photonics students and graduates of the future.

Looking for a laser market analyst

Strategies Unlimited is seeking a senior analyst to cover the laser, LED, and photonics markets. This demanding position will be responsible for collecting data on all critical market areas, and developing market forecasts that will be published in industry reports and presented to private clients and at industry events. Familiarity with the photonics industry is highly desirable because the position requires insight into the overall global market for lasers and photonics, including market trends, supplier market shares, and market breakout by application segments and geographic regions. Strategies Unlimited is the research group of PennWell, which is the parent company of Laser Focus World. If you are interested in being considered for this position and have questions, please contact Ashley Pile in PennWell's Human Resources department: ashleyp@pennwell.com or 918-832-9357. You can find the application on our HR website.

Wearable photonics you can create and live by

Featured in our April issue of Laser Focus World is an article from Philips Research (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) entitled "WEARABLE PHOTONICS: Smart photonic textiles begin to weave their magic" that shows, among other fiber-optic and photonic-based textile styles, Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie wearing an illuminating jumpsuit.

FIGURE: Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas wows in an illuminating jumpsuit. (Courtesy Studio XO)

So what's next beyond temporary, short-lived glow-in-the-dark fashions? The evidence points to wearable photonics that illuminate for long periods of time and offer unique and one-of-a-kind design capabilities, thanks to the advent of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and other flexible display technologies that can be woven into (or somehow incorporated) into wearable fabrics.

Case in point is a new stretchable optoelectronic panel from researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). The stretchable polymer OLED device uses carbon nanotubes as the conductor and can be reversibly stretched by up to 50% strain without damage. The polymer light-emitting electrochemical cells (PLECs) were spin-cast on glass, laminated, and then peeled off. The blue emissive fluorene luminescent layer was sandwiched between two single-walled carbon-nanotube polymer electrodes. The sky-blue device has shape-memory capability and maintains stretchability for wearable photonic applications.

And just when you thought wearable photonics was limited to what designers hand you, how about a Lazer Shirt that lets you design your own glowing message or custom work of art?


VIDEO: How to create wearable art with the Lazer Shirt. (Courtesy Lazer Shirts)

Here is how the Lazer Shirt is described on the thinkgeek website: "Lazer Shirts are interactive white t-shirts that let you design your own creation with the power of UV light. Simply touch the ultraviolet Lazer to the shirt, press the button, and draw or write whatever you want. Step into the darkness and your shirt will glow, displaying your creative genius. When the design finally fades, you can use your UV light to draw something totally new. And even though your Lazer Shirt is magical, you can still toss it in the washing machine like every other t-shirt." The secret to Lazer Shirt is probably a UV-to-visible phosphor, although I was unable to find out exactly how it works.

Personally, I don't think I’ll be ordering a Lazer Shirt anytime soon. While fashion may be somewhat important to me, I'd rather see an increase in research activity surrounding the use of wearable photonics in soldier suits or medical monitoring applications. Embedded sensors that monitor heart rate, blood flow, and even monitor wound-healing progress while automatically (and wirelessly) reporting data back to a remote station seem like a much more admirable use of "wearable photonics". Fortunately, programs such as OFSETH, or Optical Fiber Sensors Embedded into technical Textile for Healthcare monitoring, is an EU-funded project that weaves sensors--based on Fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs), optical-time domain reflectometry, and macrobending effects--for patients undergoing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to monitor spontaneous respiration, which is constantly at risk of being impaired by anesthetic drugs or upper-airway obstruction.

There is also research at Eindhoven University of Technology on smart jackets for neonatal monitoring that use a combination of photonics such as reflectance pulse oximeters and embedded optical fibers. I have no doubt that these wearable photonics will save lives and improve healthcare for the next generation--photonics we can live by!