• Credit: EPFL
    Scanning electron microscope image of the team’s chiral metasurface. Credit: EPFL
    Optical metasurfaces can control light by leveraging chirality—difference of a shape from its mirror image or its ‘handedness’—and it can be tuned via polarized light as a simple...
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    AR glasses enable seamless shopping experiences by automatically recognizing selected items and completing payments—no cash register required. Personalized recommendations and targeted advertisements are displayed in real time for each customer.
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    Learning Resources

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    Sponsored
    Read on to learn how certain motion technologies solve precision alignment requirements in photonic device assembly and testing.
    Aug. 11, 2025
    Courtesy of Avantier Inc
    Case Study Wide Field Space Imaging
    Wide Field Space Imaging Project Overview Meeting the growing demand for large-area Earth observation requires optical systems that combine wide field of view, high...
    Aug. 4, 2025
    Courtesy of Avantier Inc
    Telescope Design Optimization for Performance and Manufacturability
    Case Study: Telescope Design Optimization for Performance and Manufacturability Key Takeaways Design optimizations enhanced telescope manufacturability and performance. ...
    July 28, 2025
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    Key Takeaways: The 50X long working distance microscope objective lens offers high magnification for clear visualization in biomedical and precision testing applications. ...
    July 21, 2025

    Lasers/Sources

    Credit: Scintil Photonics
    scintil_photonics
    The LEAF Light single-chip multiwavelength laser source has use in dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM).
    Aug. 13, 2025
    Credit: University of Colorado Denver
    Aakash Sahai in the laser lab with their setup at the University of Colorado Denver. Credit: University of Colorado Denver
    Yes—a new silicon-based material survives high-energy particle beams, manages energy flow, and enables access to extreme electromagnetic fields created via quantum electron gas...
    Aug. 4, 2025
    Credit: Chromasens
    chromasens
    A combined tube-light LED linescan illumination system for machine vision acquires images of the same object in three diverse illumination scenarios in a single pass.
    Aug. 3, 2025
    Credit: Hi-D Imaging
    Dr. Utku Guelan and Dr. Caroline Smid performing in vitro measurements (left). The aquarium used for performing the measurements is placed on a Newport optical table. The Spectra-Physics Millennia laser is used to excite the tracer particles in the silicon replica inside the aquarium (right).
    Hi-D Imaging uses MKS technology for optical hemodynamics measurements.
    Aug. 1, 2025

    Optics

    Credit: Santec
    santec
    The SLM-310 spatial light modulator features liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCOS) technology for supporting 1-kW near-infrared lasers at 1064 nm.
    Aug. 11, 2025
    Credit: SABIC and Tyndall National Institute
    FIGURE 1. Surface grating coupler demonstrator developed by SABIC and Tyndall National Institute.
    To reach their potential at scale for copackaged optics, microlens arrays require mass production and assembly of thermally resilient micro-optical components. The key? Thermoplastic...
    July 31, 2025
    Credit: Mady Elbahri/Aalto University
    Aalto University researchers create bioinspired metasurfaces that act like real clouds to enable daytime cooling, heating, and thermal cloaking.
    White plasmonic metasurface “nanoclouds” shift color, temperature, and stay hidden from infrared sensors.
    July 30, 2025
    Credit: BU
    Optical micrograph of quantum light source electronic-photonic circuits sites, with four visible out of the total 12 on the fabricated silicon chips. Credit: BU
    In a leap forward for quantum scaling, scientists from Boston University, UC Berkeley, and Northwestern University fabricated the first electronic-photonic-quantum system on a...
    July 29, 2025

    Quantum

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    July 31, 2025
    Credit: Hutzler Lab
    In Hutzler's laboratory at Caltech, the Matisse Ti:sapphire laser, coupled with the Mixtrain SFG system, performs spectroscopy and laser control of cold atoms and molecules used to search for new fundamental particles and forces. Above, a graduate student adjusts locking electronics on the IR Ti:sapphire seed to excite an optical transition to a metastable triplet state of neutral radium-226 atoms, which induces accelerated formation of new radium-containing molecules.
    Case study: MKS Inc. shares how some of its gear is used by three different quantum research labs within the U.S., and expert advice to avoid lab pitfalls.
    July 23, 2025
    Credit: RMIT
    The team’s experimental device under a microscope.
    Stamp-sized microcavity devices filled with triplet acceptor molecules have been used for the first time to prevent fast radiative emission of Dicke quantum batteries, while retaining...
    July 16, 2025
    Credit: Zixin “Lily” Zhang
    Photon-photon scattering effects within the lab: When two green petawatt lasers’ beams collide at the focus of a third red beam to polarize the quantum vacuum, it enables a fourth blue laser beam to be generated—with a unique direction and color. Credit: Zixin “Lily” Zhang
    Simulations via advanced computational modeling recreate vacuum four-wave mixing—a quirky quantum phenomenon—and now this “solver” is poised to unleash new physics at extremely...
    July 9, 2025

    Test/Measurement

    Credit: FISBA
    fisba
    The READYFlow beam shaping module supports standard cytometry wavelengths, including 488, 561, and 640 nm.
    Aug. 5, 2025
    Credit: Gamma Scientific
    gamma_scientific
    The SpectralLED RS-9 Series tunable light source platform offers an expanded spectral range from 360 to 1000 nm.
    July 16, 2025
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    Episode 59 of Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast features Matthew E. L. Jungwirth, manager of technical content & scientific publishing at SPIE.
    July 8, 2025
    Credit: Tunoptix
    FIGURE 1. Tunoptix computational meta-optics.
    Meta-optical spectral imaging is transforming hyperspectral imaging from bulky lab systems into scalable, real-world solutions.
    July 7, 2025

    Detectors/Imaging

    Credit: Hamamatsu Photonics
    hamamatsu
    The ORCA-Halo C17440-20U scientific CMOS (sCMOS) camera features a back-illuminated sensor with a peak quantum efficiency of 86%.
    Aug. 9, 2025
    Credit: Pixelink
    pixelink
    PL-D USB 3.0 cameras use a Gpixel GMAX4002 sensor with a 1/1.7 in. optical format.
    July 30, 2025
    Credit: NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory
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    Members Only
    First-look imagery captured by the world's largest astronomical camera reveals over 2,000 never-before-seen asteroids.
    July 21, 2025
    Credit: XIMEA
    ximea
    The compact MX1276 high-resolution cameras offer 127.6 Mpixels, with an effective resolution of 13,400 × 9,528 pixels.
    July 18, 2025

    Executive Forum

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    Aug. 4, 2025
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    July 29, 2025
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    July 15, 2025
    Credit: Yole Group
    The 2024–2030 Quantum Technologies Market Forecast in US$M.
    July 8, 2025