Optics & Photonics News

Optics & Photonics News Magazine
June 2003 Issue

Feature Articles

One Boy’s Auroral Expedition

Take a high school student with a fascination for the sciences, a yen for travel and some sophisticated equipment on loan from a professional photographer. Transport to Iceland, one of the best sites for viewing the aurora borealis.

by Dennis W. Fantone

Optical Metrology Enables New Generation of Fuel Injectors

The auto industry has long been driven by demands for better fuel economy and lower emissions. In Europe, these forces have led to the renaissance of the diesel engine. The latest generation of passenger car diesels is clean, efficient and powerful. These improvements have been enabled in part by advances in optical metrology.

by Thomas J. Dunn

The Telescopes of Seventeenth-Century Italy

The seventeenth century was an important period of development for optical instruments. In 1600, the field was in its infancy. Fewer than 50 years later, a handful of inventors had created devices that were as perfectly optimized as available technologies would allow.

by Giuseppe Molesini

Nonlinear Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging of Structural Proteins in Living Tissues

Traditional nonlinear optical tools, such as second harmonic generation, third harmonic generation and coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy, are being used to image the morphology and organization of protein arrays in live cells and tissues.

by Paul Campagnola and William A. Mohler

A Quasiperiodic Approach to Ultrashort Pulses

To optically control atomic and molecular processes, it must be possible to shape the optical waveform with a high level of precision. This involves maximizing the number of phase-adjustable frequencies. The authors demonstrate a technique to multiplicatively increase the number of generated frequencies through the use of modulators in series.

by David R. Walker, Deniz D. Yavuz, Miroslav Y. Shverdin, Guang-Yu Yin and Stephen E. Harris

Departments and Columns

OSA Today

Who's Who on OSA's Board of Directors

OPN talks to Tingye Li.

Scatterings

The space shuttle's lost experiment, imaging fetal brains, a map of the sky

The History of OSA

Early Meetings of the International Commission on Optics

Representatives of the international optics community joined together in the wake of World War II to further the study of optics. OPN Contributing Editor John N. Howard traces the historical trends that led, in 1947, to the formation of the International Commission for Optics.

OFC/NFOEC Preview

OFC 2003: The Technology Marches On

Despite war and a sluggish economy, approximately 15,000 people attended the 2003 Optical Fiber Communication Conference & Exposition (OFC) in Atlanta, Ga. This was down from 32,000 in 2002. Still, the meeting was vibrant testimony to the fact that progress on the fiber optics technology front continues.