All Things Photonics

Paul Prucnal, professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of the Center for Network Security and Access (CNSA) at Princeton, and Bhavin Shastri, assistant professor in the Queen’s University Department of Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy, discuss the neuromorphic photonics roadmap and the technology area’s prospects for success. "All Things Photonics"® is produced by...

As an endowed professor at The University of Central Florida College of Optics and Photonics (UCF CREOL), Andrea Blanco-Redondo focuses on some of the most exciting topics in photonics research. While some of her research interests are just beginning to emerge in commercial and consumer applications, others stand very solidly in the realm of R&D, eagerly awaited by industry. Our conversation s...

Silicon photonics’ evolution from application shrouded in uncertainty to discipline harboring vast application potential has commanded the attention of those in and beyond the fields of optics and photonics. Mario Paniccia, CEO of ANELLO Photonics, recounts his own journey through the budding sector, with recollections from his 20-plus-year career at Intel and insights from his latest undertaking:...

Zubin Jacob, Purdue University Elmore Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, discusses the convergence of thermal imaging and artificial intelligence. The recently developed heat-assisted detection and ranging (HADAR) technique offers performance advantages in low-light environments, in which other modalities face drawbacks. Also, we speak with TRAQC’s Mariia Zhuldybina and Be...

The conceptualization, development, and rollout of Thorlabs’ Mobile Photonics Lab Experience is the ultimate story in optics and photonics accessibility. Thorlabs’ vice president for global sales and business development, Michael Mohammadi, and director of photonics education, Bill Warger, share insights into Thorlabs’ industry-acclaimed mobile resource as a vehicle for photonics education and tec...

Integrated Photonics luminary Joyce Poon caps Season 8 of "All Things Photonics" with a discussion and status update on the ascent of integrated photonics. From sustained high-level R&D to commercial prospects, 2024 is poised to be the year of the PIC. Poon offers insight into optical computing, integrated sensing, and datacenter AI. "All Things Photonics"® is produced by Photonics Media and a...

True understanding is accomplished only through precise measurement. Though practitioners in the field deploy numerous modalities to obtain this essential information, remote sensing incorporates a spectrum of photonics technologies that is as broad and diverse as it is ubiquitous and effective. Joseph Shaw, director of the Optical Technology Center at Montana State University, overviews remote se...

The almighty nanoparticle known as the quantum dot is enjoying its moment in the sun — after innovations involving its discovery and development earned three photochemists a share of the Nobel Prize in chemistry earlier this fall. Peter Lodahl, head of the Quantum Photonics Group at the University of Copenhagen/NielsBohr Institute, director of the Danish National Research Foundation Center for Hyb...

About 20 years ago, Hongxing Jiang and Jingyu Lin published a paper describing the microLED. Since the publishing of that seminal work, microLEDs have seen commercialization in automotive and industrial lighting applications, but for much of that time, Jiang and Lin’s envisioned application in display technology had been simmering on the backburner. Now, the technology is becoming a household name...

Peter O’Brien, director of the PIXAPP Photonics Packaging Pilot Line and head of the photonics packaging group at the Tyndall Institute, overviews the current state of integrated photonics technologies, as well as core considerations in the sector. Focus is given to packaging, heterogeneous integration, and dynamic collaboration. David McGovern, senior business development manager with the Irish P...

“All Things Photonics” broadcasts from SPIE Optifab 2023 in Rochester, N.Y. In this episode from the heart of the optics industry, we speak with Chunlei Guo, from the University of Rochster’s Institute of Optics, and Carolyn McMorran, from central Florida’s Valencia College. Guo and his collaborators recently advanced their acclaimed fano-resonant optical coating technology, and our conversation s...

Photonic technologies like lab-on-a-chip are taking out a lot of the head-scratching and tedium that goes along with traditional diagnostic methods, giving patients and clinicians access to technology that is cheaper, quicker, and often more reliable. Andrea Armani, the Ray Irani Chair in Engineering and Materials Science at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, is working at the forefront of thi...

Longtime photonics market analyst and current industry adviser Tom Hausken delivers his expert insights into top-of-mind trends and drivers for the photonics sector. The prevalence of AI in and for photonics technologies permeates a conversation that also explores integrated photonics workforce development, government and policy perspectives, and technological competitiveness. Sponsored by: Teledy...

The Precise Advanced Technologies and Health Systems for Underserved Populations initiative, or PATHS-UP, aims to integrate engineering research and education with technological innovation to transform national prosperity, health, and security. The National Science Foundation-funded collaboration also extends into industry, to ensure that positive R&D outcomes ascend into use in the wider comm...

Microelectronics technology innovation and, more notably, recent legislation have brought to the fore the need for a unified strategy to ensure sustained positive outcomes in today’s semiconductor environment. Walter Burgess, co-CEO, Sales & Engineering at Power Technology Inc., is helping to spearhead many of the efforts that business and technology leaders in Arkansas are commencing to ensur...

As separate disciplines, quantum science and integrated photonics are pushing the bounds of possibility in communication science, compute, data processing, and more. In tandem, the two realms are highly complementary. Matt Eichenfield, the SPIE Endowed Chair in Optical Sciences and associate professor of optical sciences at the University of Arizona Wyant College of Optical Sciences, spotlights qu...

The changing nature of the "optics shop" — and, more broadly, its role in the optics and photonics industry today — is an effective gauge for tracking how optics workforce development is aligned to the ever-evolving needs of the industry. Recounting his own 40-plus-year professional journey, Paul Melone, global optics manufacturing director at Thorlabs, discusses his company’s ties to AmeriCOM (Am...

The brain trust of holographic extended reality startup Swave Photonics discusses the company’s scalable holographic chip technology. Company founder and chief product officer Theodore Marescaux and CEO Mike Noonen outline Swave’s diffractive photonics technology and inform on the company’s future plans following its first-place finish in the 2023 SPIE Startup Challenge at Photonics West 2023.   “...

With its goal to cultivate and foster photonics-driven progress in the Netherlands, PhotonDelta today is a burgeoning cross-border ecosystem of photonic chip technology organizations. Around the central technology area of integrated photonics, the ecosystem's current aim is to leverage decades of expertise and dozens of strategic partnerships to create a production capacity of 100,000+ wafer per y...

Three-and-a-half months after December 2022's breakthrough experimental result that yielded fusion ignition, Jean-Michel Di Nicola, chief engineer of laser systems at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) and acting program co-director for laser science and system engineering at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, provides an update on sustained progress in fusion science. Di Nicola takes liste...

Rohit Bhargava, director of the Cancer Center at Illinois, follows his Photonics West 2023 Optical Biopsy Conference keynote with a discussion on increased utility in infrared spectroscopic imaging. Discussion points include the advent of the quantum cascade laser, the role of artificial intelligence and machine learning for optimized workflows, and optimizations in instrumentation leading to impr...

In a world characterized by massive quantities of (often unusable) information sources, many facets of society have great need to turn raw data into an actionable tool. Bruno Sanguinetti, co-founder of Dotphoton, discusses his company’s solution that aims to harness the full potential of image data, taking data in its raw form and transforming it for the benefit of the medical, aerospace and defen...

Isiah Warner, Boyd Professor and Emeritus Philip W. West Professor, Analytical & Environmental Chemistry, and former vice president for strategic initiatives at Louisiana State University (LSU), reflects on 20th- and 21st-century milestones in fluorescence science, as well as his own contributions to academic mentorship. The acclaimed spectroscopist has helped bring LSU’s total of African Amer...

Metalenz co-founder and CEO Rob Devlin recounts a decade of progress in the field of meta-optics, culminating in his company’s rollout of commercial products and technology offerings. Devlin’s insights span the growth of the market, current and forthcoming applications, and recollections of his time working in the group of photonics luminary Federico Capasso. “All Things Photonics”® is produced by...

Two lidar imaging use cases are explored. In segment one, the Texas Water Development Board’s Joey Thomas and Saul Nuccitelli explain how the organization uses topobathymetric lidar to help prevent flooding along the South Llano River. Later, the collaborative team of Kathryn Reese-Taylor, Felix Kupprat, and Juan Carlos Fernandez Diaz employs the method to investigate beneath the Calakmul biospher...