Optics and Photonics News

Speckle

Speckle has been a great nuisance in the field of holography. In optical readers and other optical processors, too, we have learned to provide a "smooth" input format or else suffer the disaster of speckle. These limitations have been understood for a number of years. Still there is no simple, direct cure for speckle, and logically, no hope for one. Why then a Topical Meeting on Speckle at Asilomar?

by Nicholas George

Optics for Laser Fusion

The use of high-power, short-pulse lasers in order to achieve fusion conditions in a D-T plasma was suggested as early as 1963 by N.G. Basov and others.1 It was not until nearly a decade later, however, that significant efforts at laser-fusion research were set up in various laboratories around the world.

by Alexander J. Glass