Opportunities For Optics Research Articles

3D and 4D printing for optics and metaphotonics

Abstract Three-dimensional (3D) printing is a new paradigm in customized manufacturing and allows the fabrication of complex optical components and metaphotonic structures that are difficult to realize via traditional methods. Conventional lithography techniques are usually limited to planar patterning, but 3D printing can allow the fabrication and integration of complex shapes or multiple parts along the out-of-plane direction. Additionally, 3D printing can allow printing on curved surfaces. Four-dimensional (4D) printing adds active, responsive functions to 3D-printed structures and provides new avenues for active, reconfigurable optical and microwave structures. This review introduces recent developments in 3D and 4D printing, with emphasis on topics that are interesting for the nanophotonics and metaphotonics communities. In this article, we have first discussed functional materials for 3D and 4D printing. Then, we have presented the various designs and applications of 3D and 4D printing in the optical, terahertz, and microwave domains. 3D printing can be ideal for customized, nonconventional optical components and complex metaphotonic structures. Furthermore, with various printable smart materials, 4D printing might provide a unique platform for active and reconfigurable structures. Therefore, 3D and 4D printing can introduce unprecedented opportunities in optics and metaphotonics and may have applications in freeform optics, integrated optical and optoelectronic devices, displays, optical sensors, antennas, active and tunable photonic devices, and biomedicine. Abundant new opportunities exist for exploration.

Geometry-controllable micro-optics with laser catapulting

Individual or arrayed microlenses offer remarkable opportunities in optics and photonics. However, their usage is currently limited by the lack of manufacturing technologies capable of tailoring the lens geometry to target devices. Here, we demonstrate how laser catapulting (LCP), a recent laser-based additive manufacturing technique, enables the preparation of microlenses with controlled geometry and curvature. LCP exploits single laser pulses to catapult polymeric microdisks into user-selectable positions on a substrate, which are converted into microlenses following a thermal reflow treatment. By shaping the irradiance distribution of the incident laser beam, we obtained arrays of circular, triangular, and cylindrical microlenses with a radius between 50-250 µm and 100% fill-factor. The good quantitative agreement between beam shape and microlens geometry, combined with the in-situ fabrication capabilities and high-throughput of LCP, can help the consolidation of laser additive methods for micro-optics in scientific and industrial applications.

Intraoperative hyperspectral determination of human tissue properties.

We address the automatic differentiation of human tissue using multispectral imaging with promising potential for automatic visualization during surgery. Currently, tissue types have to be continuously differentiated based on the surgeon's knowledge only. Further, automatic methods based on optical in vivo properties of human tissue do not yet exist, as these properties have not been sufficiently examined. To overcome this, we developed a hyperspectral camera setup to monitor the different optical behavior of tissue types in vivo. The aim of this work is to collect and analyze these behaviors to open up optical opportunities during surgery. Our setup uses a digital camera and several bandpass filters in front of the light source to illuminate different tissue types with 16 specific wavelength ranges. We analyzed the different intensities of eight healthy tissue types over the visible spectrum (400 to 700nm). Using our setup and sophisticated postprocessing in order to handle motion during capturing, we are able to find tissue characteristics not visible for the human eye to differentiate tissue types in the 16-dimensional wavelength domain. Our analysis shows that this approach has the potential to support the surgeon's decisions during treatment.

Recent progress in semiconductor excitable lasers for photonic spike processing

Recently, there has been tremendous interest in excitable optoelectronic devices and in particular excitable semiconductor lasers that could potentially enable unconventional processing approaches beyond conventional binary-logic-based approaches. In parallel, there has been renewed investigation of non-von Neumann architectures driven in part by incipient limitations in aspects of Moore’s law. These neuromorphic architectures attempt to decentralize processing by interweaving interconnection with computing while simultaneously incorporating time-resolved dynamics, loosely classified as spiking (a.k.a. excitability). The rapid and efficient advances in CMOS-compatible photonic interconnect technologies have led to opportunities in optics and photonics for unconventional circuits and systems. Effort in the budding research field of photonic spike processing aims to synergistically integrate the underlying physics of photonics with bio-inspired processing. Lasers operating in the excitable regime are dynamically analogous with the spiking dynamics observed in neuron biophysics but roughly 8 orders of magnitude faster. The field is reaching a critical juncture at which there is a shift from studying single devices to studying an interconnected network of lasers. In this paper, we review the recent research in the information processing abilities of such lasers, dubbed “photonic neurons,” “laser neurons,” or “optical neurons.” An integrated network of such lasers on a chip could potentially grant the capacity for complex, ultrafast categorization and decision making to provide a range of computing and signal processing applications, such as sensing and manipulating the radio frequency spectrum and for hypersonic aircraft control.

Disposable Plasmonics: Plastic Templated Plasmonic Metamaterials with Tunable Chirality.

Development of low-cost disposable plasmonic substrates is vital for the applicability of plasmonic sensing. Such devices can be made using injection-molded templates to create plasmonic films. The elements of these plasmonic films are hybrid nanostructures composed of inverse and solid structures. Tuning the modal coupling between the two allows optimization of the optical properties for nanophotonic applications.

Funding opportunities in optics and photonics

Funding opportunities in optics and photonics

Funding opportunities in optics and photonics

Funding opportunities in optics and photonics

Funding opportunities in optics and photonics

Funding opportunities in optics and photonics

Funding Opportunities in Optics and Photonics

Funding Opportunities in Optics and Photonics

Funding Opportunities in Optics and Photonics

Funding Opportunities in Optics and Photonics

Funding Opportunities in Optics and Photonics

Funding Opportunities in Optics and Photonics

Funding Opportunities in Optics and Photonics

Funding Opportunities in Optics and Photonics

Funding Opportunities in Optics and Photonics

Funding Opportunities in Optics and Photonics

Funding Opportunities in Optics and Photonics

Funding Opportunities in Optics and Photonics

Investigation of Al-doped silicon nitride-based semiconductor and its shrinkage mechanism

An Al-doped silicon nitride-based semiconductor is successfully synthesized by the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique. Optical, electrical and electronic properties are investigated in detail which reveal that Al-doped α-Si3N4 presents a typical semi-conductive character with a band-gap of 2.65 eV and an electrical conductivity of ∼6.11 × 10−2 S cm−1. Al-doping complex (substitutional accompanied with interstitial Al ions in the (102) plane) in α-Si3N4 lattice and its resulting abnormal crystal growth property are discussed. Experimental and theoretical calculation results indicate that this peculiar Al-doping complex in the (102) plane is responsible for the shrinkage of the band-gap for Al-doped α-Si3N4. The presented results demonstrate that this Al-doped α-Si3N4 may open up many applications opportunities in optics, electronics and photoelectronics fields.

Funding Opportunities in Optics and Photonics

Funding Opportunities in Optics and Photonics

Funding Opportunities in Optics and Photonics

Funding Opportunities in Optics and Photonics

Funding Opportunities in Optics, Photonics

Funding Opportunities in Optics, Photonics

Careers for Physicists

Most of us became physicists because we found physics fascinating. We assumed somehow that, when our formal studies ended, we would find jobs in physics that would continue to reward us intellectually and, unlike our graduate work, would also reward us financially. Depending on what year we started job hunting, our expectations might have been fulfilled easily or might have been redefined drastically. Physics Today has covered careers in physics for many years. During the last downturn in employment, we launched a series, Career Choices, which ran from 1993 to 1998 (see http://www.physicstoday.org and visit the related articles archives). More recently, as the employment picture began to change again, two Reference Frame columnists conveyed their concerns about careers: Philip W. Anderson in “Why Do They Leave Physics?” (Physics Today, September 1999, page 11, and Leo P. Kadanoff in “Changing” (December 1999, page 11). “Physicists in Finance” by Joseph M. Pimbley (January 1997, page 42) and “Career Opportunities in Optics” by Anthony M. Johnson and C. Breck Hitz (May 2000, page 25) were published as feature articles.This special issue presents four feature articles that take a broad look at careers for physicists. Young physicists and other scientists and engineers had a tough time finding jobs eight years ago (see the article by Kate Kirby and Roman Czujko, Physics Today, December 1993, page 22), but since then the picture has changed dramatically. In “The Physics Job Market: From Bear to Bull in a Decade” (page 36), Kirby, Czujko, and Patrick Mulvey provide employment statistics showing that nearly twice as many physicists are working outside of academia as in it. The authors observe that a large majority of new physics PhDs do find their jobs professionally challenging.Although the job situation has improved, Barrett Ripin makes a case in “Preparing Physicists for Life’s Work” (page 43) that colleges and universities need to provide a broader range of courses and find ways to better prepare students for a variety of careers. Some departments are doing business as usual, he says; others are changing in an evolutionary fashion; and some have even introduced career-skills courses.Many recent PhDs still hope to make a career in academia, and currently these prospects are better than they’ve been for the past decade. Matt Anderson wanted to be in academia, and tells us how he succeeded in “So You Want to Be a Professor!” (page 50). Now on the physics faculty at San Diego State University, Anderson gives pointers on improving aspects of one’s job hunt, ranging from the curriculum vitae to interviews to etiquette.Many job opportunities exist in defense, including private defense contractors, US Department of Defense research labs, Department of Energy-sponsored national security labs, and colleges and universities. John F. Holzrichter, in “Attracting and Retaining R&D Talent for Defense” (page 56), stresses the importance to the US of continued high-quality defense R&D. But he is concerned that many bureaucratic obstacles are making it difficult to keep scientists happy and productive.Below is a list of additional resources available through a number of organizations, and we hope you will find it useful.This special issue is hardly the final word on careers for physicists. For example, many career opportunities are available in the software industry, in large industrial labs, and in small startup companies. “Physics,” it has been said, “is whatever physicists are doing.” It is in that spirit that Physics Today will continue to cover the ever-changing job picture for physicists. © 2001 American Institute of Physics.

Career Opportunities in Optics

It's the bandwidth, stupid! That's the most concise explanation of the explosive growth in interest in optical communications. This year's Optical Fiber Communications conference drew a record 17 300 people, an astounding 70% increase over an already robust attendance last year. The number of exhibitors at the meeting, which was held in Baltimore in March, was up by 25%. More than 3400 jobs were posted for consideration by a record 300 job seekers—11 jobs per seeker. Similarly, the Photonics West conference, held in San Jose in January, drew a record attendance of 12 141, surpassing the previous year's attendance by nearly a thousand.