Optics & Photonics News - February 2003

Optics & Photonics News Magazine
February 2003 Issue

Feature Articles

Optoelectronic Microsystems Integration

In the quest to boost performance and shorten processing times, optical functions are being integrated into system-on-a-package and system-on-a-chip applications.

by Nan Marie Jokerst, Martin A. Brooke, Sang-Yeon Cho, Dae-Ik Kim, Mikkel Thomas and Suzanne Fike

Femtosecond-Laser-Assisted Microstructuring of Silicon Surfaces

Femtosecond-laser-assisted chemical etching is being used to microstructure silicon surfaces. The technique offers new opportunities in areas including photodetector, sensor and display applications.

by James E. Carey, Catherine H. Crouch and Eric Mazur

Structural Colors in Nature and Butterfly-Wing Modeling

Periodic structures, such as those found in photonic crystals, can generate iridescent colors. They allow some objects in nature, including opals, to display gleaming colors, even in the absence of pigment. Electromagnetic theory allows the phenomenon to be investigated through modeling.

by Gérard Tayeb, Boris Gralak and Stefan Enoch

Nematicons: Optical Spatial Solitons in Nematic Liquid Crystals

Nematicons are self-trapped light beams in nematic liquid crystalline systems. Thanks to their optically nonlinear, saturable, nonlocal and nonresonant response, they enable light to self-confine and guide additional optical signals, making them an ideal testbed for applications in all-optical information processing.

by Gaetano Assanto, Marco Peccianti and Claudio Conti

Departments and Columns

Scatterings

Tracking cats with cameras, fighting fraud with optics, helping the blind see colors of the universe

Profiles in Optics

From Optics to Outer Space: OSA Fellow Ellen Ochoa

OSA Fellow Ellen Ochoa is the first Hispanic woman astronaut, which means she is a very public figure. Originally from rolling hills just east of San Diego, she has spent nearly 1,000 hours in space.

Career Focus

A Career as a Consultant: Making the Change

In the first of a two-part series, consultant Jennifer D.T. Kruschwitz, an engineer specialized in optical coatings, offers advice on how to set up your own consulting business.

Education

A High School Optics Lab Offers Lessons in Learning

The Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a magnet school in the Virginia suburbs ofWashington, D.C., offers one of the only optics and modern physics laboratories for high school students in the United States.

Electronic Information

How to Use OASIS

The submissions process for OSA conferences was revamped in August 2002 with the launch of OASIS, the Online Abstract Submission and Invitation System. OASIS is an abstract service provider that can be used in several stages of the electronic paper submission and review process.

Profiles in Optics

George Ellery Hale: Master Builder for Astrophysics

This is the third in a series of articles highlighting outstanding personalities in the history of optical science. Astrophysicist George Ellery Hale (1868-1938) was one of OSA’s first honorary members.

Light Touch

Fun with Photonics: An Experiment with Polariscopes

OSA Fellow Keigo Iizuka developed the hands-on learning program, “Fun with Photonics,” to spark interest in optics among members of the general public. The series was first presented to automotive engineers at Omron Corporation, Komaki City, Japan. In the fourth installment, Iizuka describes how to improvise a polariscope.

Optical Entrepreneur