Optics & Photonics News

Optics & Photonics News Magazine
June 2013 Issue

Feature Articles

Unraveling Bessel Beams

Since their discovery in the late 1980s, Bessel beams have found their way into many disciplines, including optical tweezing and precision drilling. Researchers are now looking to these light beams as a means of transferring data. But first they must load them with information and then unravel the encoded messages they carry.

by Angela Dudley, Martin Lavery, Miles Padgett and Andrew Forbes

Accelerating Optical Beams

Thanks to their unique interference, accelerating beams appear to curve as they travel. They require no waveguiding structures or external potentials and appear even in free space. This beautiful phenomenon has led to many intriguing ideas and exciting new applications.

by Miguel A. Bandres, Ido Kaminer, Matthew Mills, B.M. Rodríguez-Lara, Elad Greenfield, Morderchai Segev and Demetrios N. Christodoulides

Louis de Broglie and the Wave Nature of the Electron

Louis de Broglie was a Frenchman of noble birth who many believed would become a great statesman or diplomat. Instead, he changed our understanding of how the universe works by developing a theory for the wave-particle duality of electrons.

by Barry R. Masters

Departments and Columns

Scatterings

Headliners, policy news and industry updates.

Optics Innovations

U.S. Patent Reform and Photonics Companies

A new law represents the most significant patent reform that the United States has seen in over 50 years. Joseph Gortych explains what optical entrepreneurs need to know about the America Invents Act.

Engineering

New Resources for Educating Precision Optics Technicians

The National Center for Optics and Photonics Education (OP-TEC), a National Science Foundation Center of Excellence, has always been committed to building the capacity of U.S. community colleges in order to provide more highly skilled photonics technicians—and in 2012 it expanded that mission to include precision optics technicians.

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