Laserati

It's a rare case of all light and no heat: A new study reports that a laser can be used to switch a film of vanadium dioxide back and forth between reflective and transparent states without heating or cooling it.

It is one of the first cases that scientists have found where light can directly produce such a physical transition without changing the material's temperature.

It is also among the most recent examples of "coherent control," the use of coherent radiation like laser light to affect the behavior of atomic, molecular or electronic systems. The technique has been used to control photosynthesis and is being used in efforts to create quantum computers and other novel electronic and optical devices. The new discovery opens the possibility of a new generation of ultra-fast optical switches for communications.

The study, which was published in the Sept. 14 issue of Physical Review Letters, was conducted by a team of physicists from Vanderbilt University and the University of Konstanz in Germany headed by Richard Haglund of Vanderbilt and Alfred Leitenstorfer from Konstanz.

Vanadium dioxide's uncanny ability to switch back and forth between transparent and reflective states is well known. At temperatures below 154 degrees Fahrenheit, vanadium dioxide film is a transparent semiconductor. Heat it to just a few degrees higher, however, and it becomes a reflective metal. The semiconducting and metallic states actually have different crystalline structures. Among a number of possible applications, people have experimented with using vanadium dioxide film as the active ingredient in "thermochromic windows" that can block sunlight when the temperature soars and as microscopic thermometers that could be injected into the body.

www.strategies-u.com - Fiber laser sales are on track to pass $240 million this year, a
growth of 39% over 2006, with robust growth continuing through 2011 at
a rate of 26%, which will more than double the 2007 sales value. The
industrial laser market in which fiber lasers play will grow at nearly
10% per year over the same period. This is one of the conclusions of a
new report from Strategies Unlimited, the leading market research firm
covering optoelectronics markets. It should be good news to the nearly
40 suppliers of fiber lasers, as well as to the many suppliers of gain
blocks and laser components.

While much of the gain of fiber lasers come at the expense of
suppliers of solid-state lasers, suppliers of the other laser types
will see steady growth as well, amounting to about 7% per year through
the period. The strongest gains for fiber lasers will be in high-power
metals processing and in micro materials processing, a diverse set of
mid-power and pulsed applications.

This year several prominent laser suppliers announced fiber laser
products, including GSI, Newport, Rofin-Sinar, and Trumpf. These
announcements add credibility to the new technology, which is currently
dominated in the market by IPG Photonics. Discussions have now moved
from open skepticism to more nuanced specifics. Many key questions
remain, however. In particular, how fast and how much market share can
kilowatt fiber lasers gain from carbon dioxide lasers in sheet metal
cutting? And, how much vertical integration is necessary to succeed in
the fiber laser market?

Fastest growing diode laser company will expand product offering with leading fiber products from LIEKKI

Vancouver, WA, USA/Lohja, Finland October 8, 2007— nLIGHT Corporation, a leading manufacturer of high power
semiconductor lasers today announced the signing of a definitive
agreement to acquire leading specialty fiber manufacturer LIEKKI
Corporation, based in Lohja, Finland. Further terms of the acquisition
were not disclosed.

“This is a very important acquisition that integrates critical
technology for the rapidly expanding markets for diode and fiber
lasers,” stated Scott Keeney, nLIGHT’s President and CEO. “Combining
the nLIGHT and LIEKKI product portfolios will bring compelling
solutions to our industry. We highly value the LIEKKI team and their
operational excellence. Our plan is to invest in the Lohja, Finland
operation as our fiber center of excellence.”

“The combination of our technology and teams will provide customers
with a complete supply chain from laser diodes and fibers to optical
modules,” commented William Willson, Managing Director of the Fiber
Division. “nLIGHT is the fastest-growing company in the diode laser
market and LIEKKI will bring its experience in fibers and modules, a
unique, patented Direct Nanoparticle Deposition (DND) fiber technology
process and a specialized manufacturing facility which scales
efficiently in this growing market.”

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2007.


About nLIGHT

Firma/Institution: Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik
Land: Germany
Position: Public Sector
eingegangen am: 26/09/2007
Beschreibung:
The “Advanced Study Group” (ASG) funded by the Max Planck Society (MPG) is part of the “Centre for Free Electron Laser Science” (CFEL) presently being established in Hamburg (http://hasylab.desy.de/science/cfel/index_eng.html). The ASG shall support research activities of groups within the Max-Planck-Society at 4th generation Free Electron Laser (FEL) light sources such as FLASH in Hamburg and LCLS in Stanford.

8/7/2007
North Sutton, New Hampshire — Lamp and diode pumped lasers and dye lasers rely on the efficiency of their laser pump reflectors for optimum performance. With greater than 99 percent reflectance, Labsphere�s Spectralon� Laser Pump Reflectors provide the highest level of diffusion efficiency for peak laser output power. This efficiency, coupled with economical machined part flexibility, is an ideal choice for laser original equipment manufacturers.
Spectralon�s greater than 99 percent reflectance and near-Lambertian diffuseness deliver more watts per square meter with greater beam stability and uniformity. This more predictable beam profile has reduced susceptibility to parasitic oscillations compared to metal, ceramic, or powder-based reflectors. Spectralon�s long term optical stability ensures consistent and reliable laser performance over time.

WEST POINT, Pa., Aug. 1, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Colorcon, a world leader in solid-dose design, formulation and tablet identification technologies, announces the intent of its Brand Enhancement Services Team to commercialize a new method to help pharmaceutical and nutritional supplement companies protect their brands from counterfeiting, prevent medication error, improve tablet traceability, and ultimately protect patients. The method incorporates a new on-tablet laser inscription technique, DataLase Pharmamark(TM), licensed from DataLase, to be used on film coated tablets. The film coatings will include a proprietary additive that induces a color change in the film coating precisely at locations on the tablet surface exposed to a low-power, DataLase-approved CO2 laser. The technique can facilitate identification control of every single tablet, from the time it leaves the manufacturing plant to the time the patient takes it.

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SIGGRAPH officials announced details for the world’s first known use of a state-of-the-art laser projection system designed to show real-time vector graphics in vibrant, non-pixelated color to play several classic arcade games on a giant projection screen nightly at the San Diego Civic Center from 6-8 August 2007. The classic arcade games of “Asteroids®” and “Tempest™” (courtesy of Atari Interactive, Inc.), and “Star Wars” (courtesy of LucasArts) are three of the ten most popular arcade games of all time, and the only three to use vector graphics, drawn with lines instead of pixels.

REDONDO BEACH, Calif., June 25, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has entered the integration and test phase for the Joint High Power Solid State Laser (JHPSSL) Phase 3 program after exceeding all demonstration requirements for the first gain module, or building block, that forms the core of its 100 kW solid-state laser system.
The achievement came as the company successfully completed a Critical Design Review conducted by Department of Defense representatives at the company's new Directed Energy Production Facility.
Manufacturing has begun in the new facility, which was designed specifically to produce high-power gain modules beginning with the JHPSSL Phase 3 program. Altogether, there will be 32 gain modules in the company's 100 kW JHPSSL Phase 3 demonstrator.

The ingenious system called adaptive optics, known for its computer control of subdivided, individually angled mirrors, is an efficient but expensive way to correct distortions in laser beams. The mirrors automatically adjust until an undistorted beam is obtained in a way formerly thought unachievable by a single large mirror.

Now a Sandia National Laboratories’ tool that efficiently but inexpensively uses a single mirror to achieve some of the same effects has received a U.S. patent, issued June 12.

The Sandia device, which resembles an inexpensive vise similar to those bolted to many home workshop benches, functions as a kind of poor man’s adaptive optics. It corrects optical distortions simply through pressure that changes the convexity or concavity of a single reflecting surface.

“We can’t compensate for small-scale aberrations,” says principal investigator Jens Schwarz, “but certain large-scale beam distortions are correctable with this tool.”

The VIRGO laser interferometer, a Franco-Italian instrument, has started scientific operations. This powerful piece of scientific infrastructure is expected to enable scientists to put to the test Albert Einstein's theory on the existence of gravitational waves.



Located in Pisa, Italy, VIRGO is said to be one of Europe's largest scientific infrastructures, consisting of two perpendicular arms, each three kilometres long. Multiple reflections between a series of high quality mirrors extend the optical length of each arm to 120 kilometres, enabling the detector to pick up a gravitational signal. The project is co-funded by French National Scientific Research Centre (CNRS) and the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN).