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OLEOct06COVERp01

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Page 1

October 2006 Issue 143

The European magazine for photonics professionals

SURFACE TREATMENT

SILICON PHOTONICS

BEAM SHAPING

Switchable lotus
effect creates selfcleaning surfaces

Intel and UCSB
team comes up
with hybrid laser

DOEs offer big
benefits thanks to
unique properties

OPTICAL MONITORING

IN-SITU METHOD
ENSURES PRECISE
OPTICAL LAYERS

optics.org

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OLEOct06CONTENTSp03

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EDITORIAL
Editor Jacqueline Hewett
Tel: +44 (0)117 930 1194
jacqueline.hewett@iop.org
News editor James Tyrrell
Tel: +44 (0)117 930 1256
james.tyrrell@iop.org
Science/technology reporter Darius Nikbin
Tel: +44 (0)117 930 1247
darius.nikbin@iop.org
Production editor Alison Gardiner
Technical illustrator Alison Tovey
EUROPE/ROW SALES
Group advertisement manager Adrian Chance
Tel: +44 (0)117 930 1193
adrian.chance@iop.org
Group advertisement manager Rob Fisher
Tel: +44 (0)117 930 1260
robert.fisher@iop.org
Deputy advertisement manager Cadi Jones
Tel: +44 (0) 117 930 1090
cadi.jones@iop.org
Senior sales executive Katrina Davis
Tel: +44 (0) 117 930 1284
katrina.davis@iop.org

Issue 143 O c t o b e r 2 0 0 6

NEWS
5
Business Intel and UCSB scientists claim hybrid silicon laser
revolution • Consortium wins funding to tackle LCD recycling
• Photonex focuses on interaction

IMEC installs ASML’s EUV
Alpha Demo Tool. p5

Patents UK imaging firm AST receives US patent for its
infrared camera • Kodak signs up Tohoku of Japan as licensee of
OLED technology

Lasers meet fluids: an integrated approach
An optical manipulation and analysis platform that can fit onto
a fingernail could significantly change the field of microfluidics.

Chip combines microfluidics
and integrated optics. p23

ZnO-based LEDs begin to show full-colour
potential
Start-up MOXtronics has recently produced the first coloured
ZnO-based LEDs. Although the efficiency of these LEDs is not
high, the emitters have the potential to outperform GaN rivals.

PUBLISHER
Geraldine Pounsford
Tel: +44 (0)117 930 1022
geraldine.pounsford@iop.org

SUBSCRIPTIONS
Complimentary copies are sent to qualifying
individuals. For readers outside registration
requirements: £116/7168 ($208 US and Canada)
per year. Single issue £11/715 ($19 US, Canada
and Mexico). CONTACT: IOPP Magazines, WDIS Ltd,
Units 12 & 13, Cranleigh Gardens Industrial Estate,
Southall, Middlesex UB1 2DB, UK.
Tel: +44 (0)20 8606 7518. Fax: +44 (0)20 8606 7303

Doubled VECSEL emits light in the ultraviolet
‘See-through’
silver boosts LEDs
•

FEATURES
19 Eye scan shows first sign of Alzheimer’s disease

ART DIRECTOR
Andrew Giaquinto

OPTICS & LASER EUROPE
Dirac House, Temple Back, Bristol BS1 6BE, UK
Tel: +44 (0)117 929 7481
Editorial fax: +44 (0)117 925 1942
Advertising fax: +44 (0)117 930 1178
Internet: optics.org/ole
ISSN 0966-9809 CODEN OL EEEV

R&D

Scanning the lens of a human eye with infrared laser light can
reveal the earliest signs of Alzheimer’s disease in a matter of
seconds, according to US start-up Neuroptix.

ADVERTISING PRODUCTION
Advertising production coordinator Rachel Sermon
Tel: +44 (0)117 930 1277
rachel.sermon@iop.org
Advertising production editors Jo Derrick/Mark Trimnell
CIRCULATION AND MARKETING
Subscription and circulation manager Jenny Brown
Tel: +44 (0)117 930 1034
jenny.brown@iop.org

New technology galore

robot helps choose wine • Laser-etched silicon delivers a response
in the near-infrared

UK researchers’ doubled
VECSEL emits UV light. p16

Editorial

T E C H N O LO GY
11 Applications Embedded LEDs light up clothing • Sommelier
16

US SALES
US sales executive Meghan Cavanaugh
IOP Publishing Inc, Suite 929, 150 South
Independence Mall West, Philadelphia PA 19106, USA
Tel: +1 215 627 0880. Fax: +1 215 627 0879
cavanaugh@ioppubusa.com
CHINA SALES
Ann Hou
Shenzhen Yongge Advertising Co Ltd, Rm 1106,
Xinwen Building, No. 2 Shennan Zhong Road,
Shenzhen, Guangdong, PRC
Tel: +86 755 82091822. Fax: +86 755 82090566
ann@indus-sources.com

Contents

29
ZnO-based LEDs look set to
challenge GaN devices. p26

33
October 2006 Issue 143

The European magazine for photonics professionals

SURFACE TREATMENT

SILICON PHOTONICS

BEAM SHAPING

Switchable lotus
effect creates selfcleaning surfaces

Intel and UCSB
team comes up
with hybrid laser

DOEs offer big
benefits thanks to
unique properties

optics.org

OPTICAL MONITORING

IN-SITU METHOD
ENSURES PRECISE
OPTICAL LAYERS

© 2006 IOP Publishing Ltd. The contents of OLE do
not represent the views or policies of the Institute of
Physics, its council or its officers unless so identified.
Printed by Warners (Midlands) plc, The Maltings,
West Street, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH, UK.
Cover (Evatec) Optical

In situ method drives up yields and reduces costs
There is a lot more to making an optical filter than meets the eye.
Dominik Goessi looks at the role of in situ monitoring in the
production process and reviews the technology.

Hybrid diffractive optics offer an elegant solution
Thanks to a set of unique properties, diffractive optical elements
have the potential to transform light into almost any desired
distribution. Joshika Akhil gives the low-down on the technology.

PRODUCT S
37 Oscilloscope• Chromatic confocal sensors • Colour CCD camera
REGUL ARS
50 People/Sudoku

monitoring systems give
manufacturers a high level
of process control. p29

For the latest news on optics and photonics don’t forget to visit optics.org

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OLEOct06NEWSp5-9

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NEWS

BUSINESS 5 EDITORIAL 9
SILICON PHOTONICS

Intel and UCSB scientists claim
hybrid silicon laser revolution
mass production, it ought to solve
the cost issue with current photonic
chip manufacturing. Presently, the
cost of a laser chip for communications can be up to 100 times that of
a silicon chip.
Infinera, the Sunnyvale, CA, US,
company that has developed an
integrated approach for current
telecommunications applications,
says that Intel’s work is a “great
endorsement” of the photonic
integration concept.
However, it disagrees with Intel’s
conjecture that InP is an “exotic”
material that is inherently expensive. Infinera believes that the cost
of manufacturing devices is dictated more by the level of volume
production required.
Intel has previously claimed silicon photonics breakthroughs,
such as last year’s optically excited
Raman laser. However, this latest
research is the first to detail a chip
that can be powered electrically.
The company says that its vision is
to produce chips containing hundreds of hybrid silicon lasers using
established high-volume, low-cost
manufacturing methods.

Intel

By Michael Hatcher
A huge increase in speed for highend computing applications could
be on the cards after a US team
announced that it had created the
world’s first electrically pumped
“hybrid” silicon laser. In making
the device, researchers at Intel and
the University of California Santa
Barbara (UCSB) claim to have
combined the light-emitting properties of indium phosphide (InP)
with the manufacturability of silicon for the first time.
“This could bring low-cost, terabit-level optical ‘data pipes’ inside
future computers and help make
possible a new era of high-performance computing applications,”
said Mario Paniccia, director of
Intel’s Photonics Technology Lab.
In the hybrid structure, InP material generates and amplifies light
to create the laser, while the silicon
structure acts as a laser cavity and
is used to route and control the
emission. Light enters into the silicon through a physical effect
known as evanescent coupling.
The initial laser made by Intel emits
at 1.58 µm, although this wavelength can be adjusted by modifying the silicon waveguides used.
According to Intel, the key to
making the device is the use of a

Hybrid laser: when a voltage is applied to the bonded chip, light generated from
InP-based material couples directly into a silicon waveguide. Intel hopes that the
device will drive a new era of high-performance computing applications.

low-temperature oxygen plasma.
This creates a thin oxide layer on
the surface of both materials.
When heated and pressed together,
this oxide layer acts like a glue and
fuses the two different materials
into a single chip. Intel claims that
unlike other methods that have
been tried, this eliminates any
problems due to lattice mismatch

between the two materials.
UCSB’s Jon Bowers says that
this bonding method can be used
at the die, partial-wafer and fullwafer level, and could become a
solution for large-scale optical
integration on a silicon platform.
Intel’s chief technical officer Michael Hatcher is editor of
Justin Rattner says that if the latest Compound Semiconductor
development can be scaled up for (www.compoundsemiconductor.net).

LITHOGRAPHY

IMEC installs full-field EUV system

OLE • October 2006 • op tics.org/ole

been busy building up the photoresist know-how necessary for EUV
lithography, which can now be
exploited using the new tool.
“We are convinced that we will
be able to make EUV available for
production at the 32 nm half-pitch
node,” said Luc van den Hove, vicepresident of Silicon Process and
Device Technology at IMEC.
Along with more than 30 litho-

graphy programme partners,
including nine of the world’s leading IC manufacturers or foundries
– Infineon, Intel, Matsushita/
Panasonic, Micron, Philips Semiconductor, Samsung, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and
TSMC – IMEC leads the world’s
largest research and development
effort on lithography targeting the ASML’s Alpha Demo Tool will be put
(sub-)32 nm node.
through its paces at IMEC.
ASML

IMEC of Leuven, Belgium, which is
Europe’s leading independent
nanoelectronics and nanotechnology research institute, has taken
delivery of an extreme ultraviolet
(EUV) Alpha Demo Tool, developed
by Dutch firm ASML.
EUV is the most likely candidate
technology for the 32 nm halfpitch node. Over the past two
years, IMEC and its partners have

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NEWS
BUSINESS

LASERS
nLight, US, a manufacturer of highpower semiconductor lasers, has
acquired the assets of Flextronics
Photonics, a US subsidiary of
Singapore-based Flextronics
International. The acquisition adds
an array of new fibre-coupled and
hybrid microelectronics to nLight’s
existing range of products.
IMAGING
Infrared-camera developer Cedip
Infrared Systems, France, has
reported that its turnover for the
first half of 2006 totalled 77.7 m,
representing growth of 19% on the
same period last year. Exports
accounted for 86% of sales, with
strong growth in Asia–Pacific. The
firm has also announced the
signing of a new million-dollar
contract with the US Army.
LASERS
Sony has blamed delays in the
production of GaN-based laser
diodes as it put back the European
launch of its PLAYSTATION 3
console from autumn 2006 to
March 2007.
SPECTROSCOPY
PerkinElmer, a developer of
photonics and health science testing
systems, has acquired Avalon
Instruments, Belfast, UK. The
acquisition will add a range of benchtop dispersive Raman spectrometers
to PerkinElmer’s portfolio.
For more business news from the
world of lasers, optics and
photonics, please visit
optics.org/optics/Business.do.

DISPLAYS

Consortium wins funding
to tackle LCD recycling
Scientists from the University of
York, UK, have won a competition,
organized by the UK government’s
Department of Trade and Industry
(DTI), to investigate ways of extracting and recycling liquid crystals
from waste LCD devices.
Researchers estimate that the
value of recycled LCD material from
the UK alone could be as much as
$60 m (747.3 m) per year.
Some 40 million LCD television
sets were sold worldwide in 2005
with expected sales likely to exceed
100 million by 2009. However, the
chemicals they contain are potentially hazardous, and technological advances are so rapid that
society is already discarding millions of LCD screens each year.
The York team is part of a consortium of nine partners and is
supported by both the Resource
Efficiency and the Displays and

Lighting Knowledge Transfer Networks. The DTI is funding 50% of
the total project development bid
worth £1.7 m (72.5 m).
LCD screens usually comprise
two glass sheets, with a thin film of
viscous liquid-crystal material
deposited between them. The material is made up of a combination
of up to 20 different compounds,

typically polar organic compounds
that are often fluorinated. EU legislation now prevents disposal of
electronic materials in landfill.
Incineration, the other disposal
route, has also been banned.
“We have developed a technology
that offers a clean, efficient way to
recover the mixture of liquid crystals from waste LCDs,” said Avtar
Matharu, of York’s Department of
Chemistry. “Once recovered, the
liquid-crystal mixture will be recycled into LCDs or separated into individual components for resale.”
So-called active disassembly, is
an important feature of the project.
To aid recycling, liquid-crystal material stuck between the glass layers
needs to be isolated easily. For
example, this could be achieved by
inserting intelligent polymers in
between display panels to pop them
apart for dismantling.

details of the anticipated timing
and value of the IPO, its S-1 registration statement with the SEC does
contain plenty of information.
IPG’s high-power, diodes are key
components in the company’s
fibre laser systems, which are used
in materials processing applications, and provide a much smaller,
more convenient alternative to traditional carbon dioxide and solidstate lasers.
Currently with 900 employees
and 300 customers, IPG posted

sales of $64.9 m (750.6 m)and a
net profit of $6.1 m in the first half
of 2006. Its chief executive officer
and founder Valentin Gapontsev is
the majority shareholder, owning
62.6% of shares prior to the IPO.
Valentin’s son Denis Gapontsev
acts as vice-president of research
and development at the firm.
On its balance sheet, IPG lists
total assets worth $132 m, with
cash and cash equivalents
totalling $11.3 m and long-term
debt of $22.7 m.

University of York

IN BRIEF

LCD recycling know-how: (left to right)
Avtar Matharu and his colleague John
Goodby from the University of York’s
Department of Chemistry, UK.

FIBRE LASERS

IPG Photonics files
for public offering
Fibre laser specialist IPG Photonics
is looking to float on the US stock
market to raise cash that will be
partly used to fund its diode manufacturing expansion. The firm has
filed a registration statement with
the US government’s Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC)
for a proposed initial public offering (IPO) of its common stock.
Although the firm is yet to reveal

OLE • October 2006 • op tics.org/ole

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NEWS
BUSINESS
EXHIBITIONS

Photonex focuses on interaction

The 15th annual Photonex exhibition returns to Stoneleigh Park
near Coventry in the UK on 18–19
October. With 125 exhibitors and
more than 1500 visitors expected,
a dedicated demonstration area
and packed programme of supporting seminars, the event will
certainly offer something for everyone with an interest in photonics.
“This year’s Photonex will be an
interactive and educational opportunity,” organizer Laurence Devereux told OLE. “It is only face to
face that you can truly have a
dynamic discussion, and by seeing
live demonstrations you can make
a real evaluation of the technologies available to you. We have
arranged to bring more technologies than ever to this year’s event.”
One of the new additions this
year is the “Wonder of Photonics”
demonstration area, which is being
managed by Photonics Cluster, UK.
According to Devereux, visitors
will be able to see how users in
areas such as healthcare, automotive and aerospace are applying
photonics technologies.
“There will be 10 demonstrations
running throughout both days in a
separate area on the exhibition
floor,” said Devereux. “Photonics
Cluster has invited people to demonstrate in areas such as laser scanning, optical sensing, thermal
imaging and personal projection.
All attendees can visit this area free
of charge.” Companies demonstrating their technologies include TRW
Conekt, Light Blue Optics, Faro,
Rofin Baasel and FLIR Systems.

Photonex events

Jam packed: the 2006 show features a demonstration area and a seminar programme.

In addition, visitors can expect to
see a range of demonstrations at
exhibitors’ booths. For example,
Pro-Lite Technology will be showing
off the ProMetric imaging sphere
developed by Radiant Imaging of
the US. Pro-Lite says that the product is the only non-moving-part
goniophotometer on the market,
measuring the luminous intensity
distribution from an LED over 2 / sr
in a couple of seconds. Various spectroscopic techniques will also be on
show, such as fluorescence imaging
at LOT Oriel’s booth and single photon counting at Alrad’s stand.
According to Devereux, two
other opportunities that delegates
should take advantage of at Photonex are speaking to the newly
launched UK photonics knowledge
transfer network (KTN) and meeting representatives of delegations
from Singapore and Switzerland.
“The KTN will have a stand at
Photonex and they are very keen
for people to come and talk and be

involved,” said Devereux. “The
Singapore delegation has expertise
in silicon photonics and wants to
build links with UK companies.”
Running alongside Photonex is a
comprehensive programme of seminars, all of which are free to attend
(see box). Just one of the events on
offer is the one-day “Innovations in
Imaging” seminar, which has been
put together by SPIE Europe.
Delegates attending the seminar
will be treated to a mixture of speakers working in diverse applications.
Richard Duddley from NPL, UK, for
example, will share his thoughts on
optical coherence tomography.
Nigel Allinson from the University of
Sheffield, UK, will discuss the future
imaging need in academia. Bill
Proud from the University of Cambridge, UK, will present work on
high-speed photography of explosives and ballistics. Finally, Grant
Hall from Wide Blue will round off
the day by offering advice on how to
commercialize imaging systems.

Wednesday only
G Photonics in Medicine,
Healthcare and Life Sciences –
Making Light Work
Organized by Photonics Cluster,
UK, this one-day seminar will
feature a series of talks focusing
on biophotonics.
G Innovations in Imaging –
Analysis, Insights and Ideas for
Imaging Applications
This one-day event has been put
together by SPIE Europe and
looks at high-speed imaging in
industries such as medicine,
automotive and defence.
Wednesday and Thursday
Imaging for Science and
Industry
This one-day seminar, organized
by UKIVA, is free to attend,
although advance booking is
requested. Topics will range from
extracting 3D information from 2D
images to the use of infrared
images for machine vision.

Thursday only
Applied Photonics in Hightechnology Engineering
This one-day seminar is organized
by Photonics Cluster, UK.

For more information on all
aspects of Photonex, including
the series of seminars running
alongside the main event, please
see www.photonex.org.

OPTICAL FILTERS
UV Filters, NBP
LWP, SWP, BP, Custom
Fluorescence
Colour Imaging
Raman Spectroscopy
Microscopy
www.lasercomponents.co.uk

OLE • October 2006 • op tics.org/ole

Project10

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ASAP
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4AKING ,IGHT
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OLEOct06NEWSp5-9

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NEWS
EDITORIAL

New technology galore

“Optical
technology
is becoming
increasingly
prevalent in
society
today .”
Jacqueline
Hewett

Welcome to the October issue of OLE. Looking
through the contents page of this issue, it is
clear that a lot has happened in the world of
optics and photonics this month. New technologies, applications and milestones all highlight the benefits that optics can bring to society
today and in the future.
Take Intel’s announcement of the first
electrically pumped indium phosphide–
silicon laser, for example. According to the
development team, a huge increase in speed
for high-end computing applications could be
on the cards, all thanks to this hybrid laser.
Mario Paniccia, the director of Intel’s
Photonics Technology Lab, is upbeat in saying
that “this [device] could bring low-cost,
terabit-level optical ‘data pipes’ inside future
computers and help to make possible a new
era of high-performance computing
applications”. For more information, see p5.
From one success to another, details of a US
start-up pioneering an optics-based system
that probes for early signs of Alzheimer’s
disease can be found on p19. With ageing
populations, Neuroptix says that the ability to
catch this degenerative illness early and begin
treatment is enormously significant.
The Neuroptix system combines infrared
excitation, fluorescence imaging and lightscattering analysis. It uses infrared light to
detect any build-up of “amyloid protein” in
the lens of the eye – a sign that the patient
could be at increased risk of developing
Alzheimer’s.
On p23, researchers from the University of
St Andrews in Scotland, UK, present details of
a device that monolithically integrates lasers
and microfluidic channels. “We believe that
any research group with access to
semiconductor processing facilities could
replicate the device at a cost of just a few
pounds in materials,” says the team. “We hope
that this technology can be spread rapidly
amongst the biophotonics community.”
The technology section, starting on p11,
also offers our regular round-up of
applications and R&D news. This time, we
feature fabrics with integrated LED displays,
a material that emulates the lotus effect to
produce self-cleaning surfaces and a robot
that uses infrared spectroscopy to help you to
choose a bottle of wine. I wonder how long it
will be before we see all three of these ideas
in everyday society?

ALL-METAL

LASER

BARRIERS

EVER-GUARD®
Curtain Systems

Ensure the safety of
your personnel.
Designed for high power
laser applications,
Kentek’s EVER-GUARD®
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curtain commercially
available.
This retractable curtain
system glides easily
along a ceiling mounted
track and folds compactly
when not in use.
Available in any width and
heights up to 8 feet

Jacqueline Hewett, editor
E-mail: jacqueline.hewett@iop.org
Shop kentek.com or Call +1 603 435 5580
OLE • October 2006 • op tics.org/ole

T
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A
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T
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T E C H N O LO GY

APPLICATIONS 1 1 R&D 1 6 PATENT S 1 7
DISPLAYS

Embedded LEDs light up clothing
ably compact batteries. Fitting all
that into a comfortable, lightweight garment is a considerable
engineering success.”
“Last year Philips Research displayed its research prototypes. This
year the jackets and furniture represent versions that are ready to go
into commercial production and
they include integrated power
sources and control electronics,”
added Zeper.
Lumalive fabrics use flexible
arrays of coloured LEDs that are
integrated into the fabric without
compromising the softness and
flexibility of the cloth. The lightemitting textiles can then carry
dynamic messages and graphics.
According to Philips Research, fabrics such as curtains, cushions and
sofa coverings can even contain
the light-emitting technology.
Philips Research says that the
jackets are comfortable to wear

Philips Research

Last month, Philips Research of the
Netherlands impressed visitors at
the Internationale Funkausstellung
(IFA) show in Germany by demonstrating promotional jackets and
furniture featuring the company’s
Lumalive technology.
Lumalive textiles allow fabrics to
carry dynamic advertisements and
graphics and feature constantly
changing colour surfaces. Since
exhibiting early prototypes at IFA
2005, Philips Research has managed to fully integrate Lumalive fabrics into garments. First-generation
jackets are now ready for commercialization by companies partnering with Philips Research. The
textiles are of particular interest to
those in the promotions industry
looking for a high-impact medium.
“Taking the Lumalive fabrics
from prototypes to integrated
products has been a major challenge,” said Bas Zeper, managing

Lumalive jackets contain panels up to
200 × 200 mm2 that can display logos
and messages. Philips Research says
that it is now ready to be commercialized.

director of Photonic Textiles at
Philips Research. “The light-emitting textiles have to be flexible,
durable and operated by reason-

and that the electronics, batteries
and LED arrays are fully integrated
and invisible to the observer and
wearer. The Lumalive fabrics are
said to become obvious only when
they light up to display various
vivid coloured patterns, logos,
short text messages or even fullcolour animations.
The jackets feature panels of up
to 200 × 200 mm2, although the
active sections can be scaled up to
cover larger areas such as a sofa.
The products include features
that make them practical for daily
use. For example, when integrating
the Lumalive fabrics into a garment, Philips Research has made
the parts that cannot be easily
washed – such as the batteries and
control electronics – simple to disconnect and reconnect after the
garment has been cleaned. Even the
light-emitting layer can be easily
removed and refitted into the jacket.

SOLAR CELLS

A solar-grade (SoG) silicon derived
by metallurgical silicon purification will increase the availability
of feedstock to the ever-hungry
photovoltaic (PV) industry, according to its developer Dow Corning
Solar Solutions (DCSS). When the
SoG silicon is blended with traditional polysilicon feedstock, the
resulting material is said to exhibit
performance characteristics similar to polycrystalline silicon.
The new silicon feedstock material is called PV 1101 SoG Silicon.
Its production method from quartz
(sand) can be likened to the refining process of iron ore into steel. A
key advantage of the novel (and
confidential) process is that it
enables economical, volume production of high-quality silicon.
PV 1101 can then be blended
with lower-grade polysilicon to
produce material of sufficient quality for photovoltaic cells. DCSS says
OLE • October 2006 • op tics.org/ole

that this is the first commercially
available feedstock produced from
such technology using large-scale
manufacturing processes.
A major obstacle facing the
growth of solar energy in recent
years has been the availability of
silicon. To date, the solar industry
has relied on the supply of polycrystalline silicon, a high-grade
purity product, originally developed for the semiconductor industry. However, this has meant that
the industry has in turn been subject to resource restraint.
DCSS believes that PV 1101,
produced by a different route, will
alleviate this restraint and will
offer a new source and new technical and business options for the
solar industry.
“PV 1101 is certainly one of the
most innovative technologies to
come along in the solar-energy
industry since the manufacture of

Dow Corning Solar Solutions

Purified silicon eases solar-grade supply issues

Bags more: high-quality silicon in bulk.

the first silicon solar cells,” said Gaetan Borgers, director of DCSS. “For
years now, the solar industry has
hoped to be supplied by new sources
of silicon designed and dedicated to
them. PV 1101 is a step in that
direction, which gives a means of
growth for the solar industry.”
The PV 1101 blend material has
already been tested in independent

institutes and at several of DCSS’
customer production sites worldwide. The testing showed that the
blended feedstock exhibits performance characteristics on a par
with polysilicon in terms of solarcell manufacturing and efficiency.
The typical power conversion efficiency of a silicon photovoltaic cell
remains just 15–16%.
“Dow Corning has worked
closely with several customers to
test and qualify our material,” said
Rudy Miller, marketing manager of
DCSS. “The results are very positive and we have recorded a high
interest in our product. Orders
have already been placed.”
DCSS began production of
PV 1101 earlier this summer and
bulk customer shipments began in
August. The company is now progressively ramping up its PV 1101
SoG silicon production facility in
Santos Dumont, Brazil.

OLEOct06TECHNOLOGYp11-17

25/9/06

16:19

Page 12

T E C H N O LO GY
APPLICATIONS
SPECTROSCOPY

Choosing a bottle of wine is often a
tough task revolving around questions such as price, grape variety
and the product’s origin. Now,
thanks to a sommelier robot developed by NEC System Technologies
and Mie University in Japan, help
could be at hand to take the uncertainty out of the decision.
“The robot contains a wine database,” Yukie Endo of NEC System
Technologies told OLE. “The database includes various attributes,
such as country, winery, colour,
taste and price. The robot automatically generates questions using the
attributes of the database.”
The wine-tasting robot builds on
research by NEC and Mie University. The team’s first robot used
infrared spectroscopy to analyse

NEC System Technologies

Sommelier robot helps choose wine

The infrared sommelier uses spectroscopic analysis to taste red or white wine.

Some foods are easy to distinguish;
others are difficult. Wine is a typical
example of the latter.”
Keen to take up the challenge,
Endo and his colleagues modified
their food-tasting robot to create a
sommelier robot. One of the key

food and estimate the quantities of
components such as sugar and fat.
“The robot can identify the food
by referring to characteristics in the
database,” said Endo. “It uses continuous-wave infrared light and produces almost a real-time response.

modifications was extending the
spectroscopy system.
“The sommelier robot uses midinfrared spectroscopic information,” said Endo. “Red or white wine
is simply poured onto the sensor.
The robot is also equipped with the
ability to ask questions to determine
a customer’s wine preference.”
The team is now developing the
spectroscopic “tasting” technology. “We plan to improve the tasting technology and wish to
commercialize it as a component,”
concluded Endo. “It may be used
for various applications, such as
quality-control, games, dieting
and health applications. We hope
that the wine robot or wine-tasting
machine will be commercialized
by someone in the near future.”

Switchable lotus effect
creates clean surfaces
Scientists in Japan have developed a
material that becomes water repellent when it is illuminated with
ultraviolet (UV) light. The properties of the material mimic those of
the lotus blossom – a flower that is
renowned for being immaculately
clean. What’s more, the effect is
reversible because the material can
be switched back to its original
state using visible light (Angewandte Chemie International Edition
10.1002/anie.200602126).
The secret behind the lotus effect
is a special microstructure on the

plant’s leaves. This forces water
droplets to form beads that roll off
the surface, picking up any dirt particles that they encounter.
To date, scientists have not been
able to duplicate this natural phenomenon, but now this synthesized material could find uses
wherever a self-cleaning surface is
required. Windows and car bodywork are just two examples.
Kingo Uchida and Shinichiro
Nakamura from Ryukoku University synthesized their material from
a family of compounds known as

Kingo Uchida, Ryukoku University

MATERIALS

The starting point is a 20–40 µm thick film synthesized from a family of compounds
known as diarylethenes (left). When the researchers shine UV light on the surface,
small fibres approximately 1 µm in diameter begin to grow. This creates a superwater-repellent surface exhibiting the same properties as the lotus blossom (right).

diarylethenes. “The thickness of
the film is between 20 and 40 µm,”
Uchida told OLE. “When we illuminate the surface with UV light at
254 nm from a mercury lamp, fibrils start to grow within five minutes, but one day later is enough to

observe superhydrophoboicity.”
Uchida and his colleagues switch
the material back to its original
form by illuminating it with light in
the 450–600 nm range. “It takes
only 10 minutes for the material to
return,” commented Uchida.

OLE • October 2006 • op tics.org/ole

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OLEOct06TECHNOLOGYp11-17

25/9/06

16:19

Page 14

T E C H N O LO GY
APPLICATIONS
DETECTORS

Researchers are using the same
microstructuring approach that
enhances the efficiency of silicon
solar cells to widen the spectral
response of photodetectors (Appl.
Phys. Lett. 89 033506).
“The challenges lay in understanding the material’s physical
properties and how they can be
controlled and used to improve
device performance,” Jim Carey of
Harvard University, US, told OLE.
Conventionally, silicon is transparent to wavelengths longer than
1µm, which makes it unsuitable for
use in many near-infrared applications. However, the researchers
have found a way of modifying the
material’s bandgap to make it
absorb at longer wavelengths.
Using a Ti:sapphire laser, Carey

Harvard University

Laser-etched silicon delivers a
response in the near-infrared
Textured silicon: this scanning electron
micrograph shows the photodetector’s
laser etched surface. The microstructures are 2–3 µm in height and are
spaced at intervals of roughly 2–3 µm.

and colleagues irradiated an
n-doped silicon wafer with a 1 kHz
train of 100 fs pulses in a sulphurrich atmosphere to generate a surface covered with 2–3 µm-sized
structures. According to the team,

the laser causes ablation and melting of the silicon surface, which
evolves and interacts with the gas
before re-solidifying with an
altered morphology.
The detector’s microstructured
surface encourages multiple reflections, which promote the absorption of light. However, this is only
part of the picture. “It is a combination of increased absorption in
the infrared [region] and large gain
that leads to the extension of the
operating wavelength,” said Carey.
“The incorporation of large
amounts of sulphur during laser
irradiation is responsible for significant absorption beyond 1100nm.”
Photodetectors made from the
textured silicon were found to have
a responsivity of 92A/W at 850nm

and 119 A/W at 960 nm (3 V
reverse bias in both cases). What’s
more, the devices continued to
exhibit a photoresponse at 1.31
and 1.55 µm.
The group, which also includes
scientists from the University of
Texas and the University of Virginia, both US, is now looking to
commercialize its new technology.
Carey expects that the first big
market will be in specialized imaging applications such as security
and surveillance. He thinks that it
is unlikely that devices will make
their way into consumer items
such as camera phones.
“Margins are too low and the
end customer doesn’t care enough
about the infrared to drive a premium,” he commented.

LEDS

Kyma aims to plug ‘green gap’ through DoE project
Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute (RPI), US, will develop
high-brightness LEDs based on
native GaN substrates from materials firm Kyma Technologies in a bid
to plug the so-called “green gap”.
While highly efficient blue and
red emitters based on GaN or AlInGaP are routinely made using sapphire, SiC or GaAs substrates, the
development of green LEDs has
not been quite so successful.
Now, under the US Department
of Energy’s solid-state lighting core

technologies programme, RPI and
Kyma will work together to produce
improved materials and develop
better processes that should lead to
higher-performance green emitters. The improvement should
result from the use of Kyma’s lowdefect-density native GaN substrates. Both polar and cutting-edge
non-polar materials will feature in
the development programme.
Because they do not suffer from
electric fields in the crystal lattice
that can degrade device perfor-

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mance, non-polar LEDs should
have much better performance
characteristics than the conventional polar GaN devices that are
the mainstay of today’s highbrightness LED industry.
However, initial results with
devices grown on r-plane sapphire
substrates have suffered from a relatively low power output that is
thought to result from high defect
densities in the crystal lattice.
“The use of Kyma’s native GaN
substrates should enable a reduc-

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tion of such defects by a factor of
over 10 000 compared with such
non-native approaches,” claimed
the US-based firm.
Kyma’s CTO and co-founder
Drew Hanser will work closely with
Christian Wetzel and Fred Schubert
from RPI’s Future Chips Constellation on the new programme. They
will focus on developing improved,
commercially viable green emitters
that should help to fulfil the promise
of solid-state lighting for general
lighting applications.

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OLEOct06TECHNOLOGYp11-17

25/9/06

16:19

Page 16

T E C H N O LO GY
R&D

SPECTROSCOPY
Using Fourier transform infrared
(FTIR) spectroscopy in tandem with
pattern-recognition techniques is an
ideal way to obtain the
geographical origin of the Chinese
medicine danshen, according to
Ning Li, Yan Wang and Kexin Xu at
Tianjin University in China (Optics
Express 14 7630).
In Chinese medicine, danshen is
used to promote coronary circulation.
The problem is that the quality of
danshen varies with the growing
conditions in different geographical
regions.“Infrared spectroscopy can
be an excellent candidate for the
determination of danshen origins
because it is fast, accurate, nondestructive and completely
dependable,” said the authors.
Li and colleagues collected 53
samples from four regions in China.
The samples were pressed into a
tablet, scanned 16 times and
spectra were collected between 400
and 4000 cm–1.
“The results showed that it is
feasible to discriminate [between
samples] using FTIR spectroscopy
ascertained by principal components
analysis [PCA],” concluded the
authors. “An effective model was
built by employing the Soft
Independent Modeling of Class
Analogy and PCA, and 82% of the
samples were discriminated
correctly. Through the use of an
artificial neural network, the origins of
danshen were completely classified.”

SOURCES

Doubled VECSEL emits
light in the ultraviolet
Researchers in the UK have intracavity frequency doubled a 675 nm
vertical external-cavity surfaceemitting laser (VECSEL) to produce
120 mW of ultraviolet (UV) light
at 338 nm. Also boasting a tuning
range of 5 nm, the team believes
that its all-solid-state system shows
promise as a continuous-wave
(CW) rival to nitrogen lasers emitting at 337 nm (Applied Physics Letters 89 061114).
“The advantage of the VECSEL
over conventional solid-state lasers
is that the gain region can be
designed for a specific wavelength
within the constraints of the semiconductor material,” researcher
Jennifer Hastie from Strathclyde
University explained to OLE. “Using
AlGaInP quantum wells, it should
be possible to demonstrate red
VESCELs in the 640–690 nm
range, translating to 320–345 nm
via frequency doubling.”
Hastie says that the UV VECSEL
has been made possible thanks to
the availability of watt-level CW
power at 675 nm.
The initial red-emitting VECSEL
structure was grown by MOCVD
on a GaAs substrate. It consisted of
a gain region of 20 compressively
strained GaInP quantum wells

put power of 120 mW at 338 nm.
Rotating a birefringent filter
within the cavity tuned this output
wavelength over 5 nm centred on
338 nm. “Here we have an allsolid-state laser with the advantage
of broad gain from the semiconductor gain region,” said Hastie.
“Our 5 nm tuning range is at least
an order of magnitude larger than
that of a trebled Nd:YAG. Also,
most practical UV lasers, including
all-solid-state lasers, are by necessity, pulsed.”
According to Hastie, the current
set-up measures approximately
400 × 150 mm excluding the commercial pump laser. “There is no
reason why it couldn’t be more compact,” she commented. “It should be
possible to diode-pump the VECSEL
once high-power GaN diode lasers
are more readily available.”
The Strathclyde team and its
collaborators are now looking to
improve the efficiency of the second
harmonic generation. “We have no
plans for commercialization at present,” concluded Hastie. “This technology will lead to very practical
sources in application-rich areas so
there are likely to be real opportunities for commercialization as the
technology matures.”

Jennifer Hastie, Strathclyde University

JOURNAL WATC H

The intracavity frequency-doubled
VECSEL produces 120 mW at 338 nm
and has a tuning range of 5 nm. The
team believes that the source shows
promise as a CW rival to nitrogen lasers.

separated by AlInGaP pumpabsorbing barriers all grown on
top of an AlGaAs-based distributed Bragg reflector.
Hastie and colleagues used their
VESCEL structure as the end mirror
in a three-mirror cavity alongside a
spherical folding mirror and a plane
output coupler. The structure was
optically pumped with up to 7 W of
green light at 532 nm yielding
1.1 W of output power at 675 nm.
Inserting a BBO crystal into the cavity produced a maximum UV out-

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OLE • October 2006 • op tics.org/ole

OLEOct06TECHNOLOGYp11-17

25/9/06

16:20

Page 17

T E C H N O LO GY
R&D/PATENT S
LEDS

Scientists have discovered that thin
films of silver – a normally opaque
material – can be made highly
transparent by sandwiching them
between zinc-sulphide-coated glass
blocks. Ian Hooper and colleagues
at the University of Exeter, UK,
said that light passes through the
silver in a way that is similar to
how particles tunnel through barriers. The work could help to
improve the efficiency of OLEDs
and enable a new generation of
semiconductor devices (Phys. Rev.
Lett. 97 053902).
It is well known that light traveling through a solid block will
undergo total internal reflection if
it strikes the surface at a very shallow angle. Some of the electromagnetic field, however, strays into the
air – a so-called evanescent wave.
This can form a beam of lower

Ian Hooper, University of Exeter

‘See-through’ silver boosts LEDs

Silver lining: light can penetrate silver
metal that is sandwiched between thin,
transparent layers of zinc sulphide and
a pair of prisms (left and right with the
vertical boundary in the centre).

intensity if it passes into another
solid block placed nearby. Hooper
and colleagues then wondered
what would happen if each block
was coated with another material.
According to their calculations,
light would be transmitted with
perfect efficiency.

In practice, the researchers
coated the surface of a silica prism
with a film of zinc sulphide just
200 nm thick. They then clamped
two such prisms together, leaving a
very thin air gap sandwiched
between them. When light at the
correct wavelength was used, it
passed through the sandwich with
about 85% efficiency.
The physicists then replaced the
air gap with a 40 nm thick layer of
silver. On its own, silver of this
thickness is almost opaque to light.
But when sandwiched between
the two coated prisms in this way,
the silver was found to transmit
light with an efficiency as high as
35% at certain wavelengths.
According to the researchers,
the light is transmitted because the
reflections from the silica/zinc sulphide and the zinc sulphide/silver

interfaces are 180º out of phase
with each other and of equal
amplitude. Therefore they cancel
out to give no net reflection – that
is, all the light is transmitted.
“The reflection from the front
interface combined with the multiple reflections from the subsequent
interfaces also interfere such that
they cancel,” said Hooper. “With
no net reflection and with a nonabsorbing system all the light must
be transmitted.”
The researchers say that their
technique could be used to
improve the efficiency of a new
generation of top-emitting OLEDs,
whose performance is limited by
the light passing through a metal
cathode. It could also be used to
improve semiconductor devices,
where an analogous quantum
effect should be seen.

PATENT S
INFRINGEMENT
Toyoda Gosei issues warning over
its blue and white LED portfolio
Toyoda Gosei, the Japanese LED manufacturer,
has advised its competitors to exercise caution to
avoid infringement of its patents covering GaNbased LEDs. To date, Toyoda Gosei has signed
agreements with its rivals Nichia and Philips
Lumileds that allow the parties to use each other’s
LED-related patents.
The press release goes on to say that “because
the manufacture, sale or use of GaN-based
semiconductor LEDs by any entity other than these
may constitute infringement of Toyoda Gosei’s
patents, Toyoda Gosei advises the fullest caution
to avoid infringement.” The firm says that it has
filed more than 2000 patent applications related
to GaN-based semiconductor LEDs and has
acquired patent rights on 600 of these.
In the same press release, Toyoda Gosei also
issued a warning regarding white-light emitters
that use blue LEDs in tandem with yellow silicate
phosphors. “Toyoda Gosei has recently received
information that companies other than licensees
have been manufacturing and selling white LEDs
using silicate phosphors,” said the firm.

Toyoda Gosei says that there are roughly 20
licensees of this technology worldwide. Again the
firm advised “fullest caution” as non-licensed
entities producing white LEDs using silicate
phosphors may constitute infringement.

APPLICATION
US firm Finisar unveils integrated
source and detector in application
Finisar of the US has integrated a light source
(either a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser or a
resonant-cavity LED) and a photodiode into a single
device. The invention is detailed in international
patent application WO 2006/073958.

AWARD
UK imaging firm AST receives US
patent for its infrared camera
UK-based Applied Scintillation Technologies (AST)
has been granted US patent number 7075576 for
its compact, low-cost infrared camera
CamIR1550. The product is now protected by both
European and US patents.
“The CamIR1550 uses our specialized
knowledge of phosphor selection and coating
techniques to offer a highly cost-effective

alternative to infrared cameras with specially
processed detectors,” said Stuart Quinn of AST.
“This lightweight portable system has high
sensitivity to 0.2 µJ/cm2 and is optimized between
1500 and 1600 nm.”
Typical applications are listed by the firm as
being on- and off-site beam-finding from
communications band emitters; laser alignment of
positioning machines; imaging optical outputs of
high-speed fibre-optics; and device alignment.

LICENSING
Kodak signs up Tohoku of Japan
as licensee of OLED technology
Kodak of the US has signed a licensing
agreement with Tohoku Device of Japan. The
deal will allow Tohoku to incorporate Kodak’s
organic display technology into white OLED
modules for use as backlights in flat-paneldisplay applications.
The royalty-bearing licence also includes a
cross-licence to Tohoku’s patent portfolio. It also
gives Tohoku the opportunity to purchase Kodak’s
patented OLED materials. Tohoku joins more than
15 companies that have licensed this organic
technology from Kodak.

To search for recently published applications, visit http://www.wipo.int/pct/en/ and http://ep.espacenet.com.

OLE • October 2006 • op tics.org/ole

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OLEOct06INTERVIEWp19-21

25/9/06

15:48

Page 19

INTERVIEW

Eye scan shows first sign
of Alzheimer’s disease
Scanning the lens of a human eye with infrared laser light can reveal the earliest signs of
Alzheimer’s disease in a matter of seconds, according to US start-up Neuroptix. Matthew
Peach speaks to the firm’s chief executive officer, Paul Hartung, about the technology.

are visible in the supranucleus of the lens.
Our technique is essentially a molecular
diagnostic technique, with the ability to take
measurements on a clear lens. Pre-clinical
testing has shown that it is sensitive enough
to pick up amyloids in the eye before plaque
forms in the brain.

What is the test timescale?
The test takes a matter of seconds; it is done
within the timeframe of a normal physical
exam. It is similar to, but much less invasive
than, a retinal scan and the equipment is
similar to a laser-scanning ophthalmoscope.

Neuroptix

Neuroptix has developed an optical technique
for early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD)
– the degenerative illness that is becoming a
growing problem as the population is always
getting older as people are living longer.
Instead of having to wait until a patient shows
signs of mental degeneration, Neuroptix’s
optical technique can indicate the likely onset
of the disease many years earlier, giving a
patient time to make adjustments to lifestyle,
diet and exercise, which could improve their
chances of avoiding the worst aspects of this
currently incurable disease.
The Neuroptix system, known as the QEL
2400, measures the presence of telltale
amyloids in the lens of the eye with a combination of dye treatment and scanning by an
infrared laser. OLE interviews Paul Hartung,
president and chief executive officer of Neuroptix, about the technology.

How do you differentiate AD from
other diseases detected this way?
Our dye agent provides the biochemical
specificity of indication for AD. In addition,
there is anatomical specificity based on the
location of the aggregates in the supranucleus of the lens. We are focused on AD but
we believe that it could be applied to prion
diseases. For example, the US Department of
Agriculture is testing this technique to assess
prion-affected deer, sheep etc, using Neuroptix’s dyes to achieve rapid screening.

PH: Neuroptix was founded in 2001 following the breakthrough discovery by our company founder Lee Goldstein at Harvard
Medical School. He discovered that beta
amyloid proteins, which create plaque in the
brain of patients suffering from AD, can also
be identified in the lens of the eye. Our objective is to develop and commercialize a noninvasive eye test for early diagnosis of AD.

Why are you focusing on AD?

OLE • October 2006 • optics.org/ole

Above: the test, which could be part of a medical
exam, takes a few seconds. Bottom: Paul Hartung,
Neuroptix’s chief executive officer.

What is Neuroptix’s test set-up?
Eye drops are applied that contain a fluorescent ligand (dye), which is temporarily
absorbed by the lens and binds to amyloid proteins. A low-power class I laser scans the lens,
exciting the fluorescent dye and scattering off
the protein aggregates. The fluorescent dye
provides the biochemical specificity, identifying the type of protein. Using a technique
called quasi-elastic light scattering, we are able
to quantify the size of the protein aggregates.
We can make a judgment on the likelihood of
the patient becoming an AD sufferer based on
the light measurements and post-processing
that data using our software.
In the late stages of the disease, the aggregates in the lens become so dense that they

What are the limitations of other AD
diagnosis methods?
Clinical diagnosis generally occurs in the
later stages of the disease, based on psychoanalysis and other factors. The new tests that
are in development include:
Cerebrospinal fluid tests. This requires an
invasive and complication-prone spinal tap
and is not sensitive enough to detect AD;
Brain scans (MRI and PET). These are
expensive and are only of use in the later
stages of the disease. Neuroptix’s technique
will be a feeder technology for these more
expensive tests;
Blood tests. These can only determine
genetic predisposition in some cases;
Urine tests. These have been rejected by
the Food and Drug Administration. They are
not sensitive enough and have highly variable results.

AD is now the eighth most common cause of
death (in the US). But this does not represent
the true scale of the problem because AD sufferers often die from other causes. It is also
believed that as we get older the likelihood of
getting this disease increases. It is a devastating illness not only for the victims, but also for
their families. There is a great need for diagnostics to detect the disease at an early stage
and to enable effective treatment. Pharmaceutical companies need more sensitive diagnostics to striate subjects in clinical trials and
to measure the efficacy of their new therapies.

Neuroptix

OLE: What are the origins and
objectives of Neuroptix’s work into
early diagnosis of AD?

Project1

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OLEOct06INTERVIEWp19-21

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INTERVIEW
How is the Neuroptix’s technique an from what is available today. At Neuroptix, R&D funds and “angel” investors. We are seekimprovement on existing methods? we believe that in the next three years or so ing to raise series A equity financing in 2006.
To date there has been no in vivo commercial
biomarker for AD. The “gold standard” so far
has been the mental analysis of a patient, but
by the time that diagnosis is made, the patient
has typically lost 50% neural function – an
irreversible state of brain damage. We can
identify the disease prior to any cognitive
signs developing. Therefore, our aim is to
diagnose the condition prior to any brain
damage occurring.
The potential applications of our technique will be as an early confirmation test for
AD in those who present with mental problems and eventually as a preventative AD
check-up technique.

there will be better drugs available.

We are developing partnerships with large
pharmaceutical companies interested in using
the technology as a drug-development tool.
What are the next stages of
We are also developing partnerships with
development and are there any
medical-equipment and diagnostics compantechnical or financial barriers?
The next stage of development will be the cre- ies to support development, manufacturing
I
ation of instruments for clinical trials and the and worldwide commercialization.
safety testing of the fluorescent ligands for
human use. Neuroptix has already raised $1m Matthew Peach is a contributing editor to OLE and
through non-exclusive big pharmaceutical optics.org.

How can an optics-based
assessment help in this endeavour?

www.bfioptilas.com

Optics-based techniques are suitable for
non-invasive measurement of biophysical
changes to the eye. The methods that we are
developing are non-contact, sensitive, fast
and relatively inexpensive.

The
Pan-European
Distributor

Initial work has been done using human
cadavers. A preclinical version of the system
has been developed and results show that
the technology is sensitive and can identify
amyloid pathology in the eye at a very early
stage in the disease. Clinical prototypes have
been developed, which are safe for human
use, and it has been proven that in vivo measurements can be performed.

How is this a significant medical
breakthrough and will it save lives?
This is a major medical breakthrough.
Around 4.5 million people in the US are
already diagnosed with AD, with care costs
alone estimated to be $100 bn per year. The
number of sufferers is growing as people are
living longer. The opportunity to catch the
disease prior to cognitive loss, and to enable
early treatment, is enormously significant.

www.bfioptilas.com/
instrumentation.htm
■ Spectroscopy
■ Photometry, Colour Measurement
■ Laser Beam Characterisation

Laurent PHILIPPE - 01 60 82 17 88

What have you achieved in terms of
developing this method?

[Wavefront, Wavelength, Spectral Profile, Spectrum]

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cvi.htm
■ Lenses, Mirrors, Prisms, Beamsplitters
■ Prototype Optics at Catalog Prices
■ Opto-Mechanical Mounts
www.bfioptilas.com/
ophir.htm
■ Laser Power/Energy Meters
■ Beam Profile
■ Spectrum, Temporal Profile

Are there any existing medical
techniques to counter AD?
There are drugs available today that work for
some patients but they are prescribed at a
much later stage in the disease than that
which we are identifying. There are also recommended lifestyle changes, including better diet and physical and intellectual exercise.
On the drug development front, I have to
say that AD therapeutic development is a
high priority for large pharmaceutical companies. There are more than 500 possible
solutions currently under development that
are expected to be fundamentally different
OLE • October 2006 • optics.org/ole

BFi OPTiLAS European Offices :
> Belgium: info.be@bfioptilas.com
> Denmark: info.dk@bfioptilas.com
> France: info.fr@bfioptilas.com
> Germany: info.de@bfioptilas.com
> Italy: info.it@bfioptilas.com
> Spain: info.es@bfioptilas.com
> The Netherlands: info.nl@bfioptilas.com
> Sweden: info.se@bfioptilas.com
> UK: info.uk@bfioptilas.com

www.bfioptilas.com/
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Laser Safety

OLEOct06INTEGRATEDp23-25

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OPTICAL TRAPPING

Lasers meet fluids: an
integrated approach
The 21st century could herald a revolution
in the way we perform biological science. Our
aim is to produce microfluidic systems that
analogously provide scientists with the ability to perform large-scale and parallel automated studies in the physical sciences –
notably in biology.
Light is the cornerstone for such studies. It
offers a powerful, non-invasive and reconfigurable way in which to image cellular
samples; induce fluorescence and scattering; and move and manipulate objects at the
cellular level and below. For lab-on-a-chip
and microfluidic applications, we need to
explore ways to actuate, move and study
small volumes of analyte in extremely small
and confined volumes.
The motivation behind our approach is
simple. To date, physicists have relied on
external macroscopic laser systems and discrete optical components to couple light into
microfluidic platforms to manipulate and
sense micro- and nanoparticles. This introduces problems of alignment and coupling
losses, as well as placing a lower limit on the
size of the apparatus – typically a bench top
is needed for a conventional system.
However, recent work between the Optical
Trapping and Photonic Crystal groups at the
University of St Andrews, UK, bypasses these
issues by combining microfluidics and integrated optics. In our monolithic optical micromanipulation and particle sensors, the lasers
are integrated right next to the microfluidic
flows in channels that are less than the width
of a strand of human hair.

Chip layout
Each laser is defined, lithographically, in a
single piece of GaAs-based laser material giving perfect intrinsic alignment. Microfluidic
channels are then fabricated directly on top
of the laser material, allowing the light to
couple directly into the sample without the
need for additional optics. This drastically
reduces the size of the system, making it
portable and simple to incorporate into existing microscope systems.
OLE • October 2006 • optics.org/ole

University of St Andrews

An optical manipulation and analysis platform that can fit onto a fingernail could signal a
significant change in the field of microfluidics. Simon Cran-McGreehin, Thomas Krauss
and Kishan Dholakia from the University of St Andrews reveal what’s on offer.

Miniature manipulator: the entire system, including fluid injection and electrical connections can fit into
the palm of a hand. At the heart of the device is a GaAs chip (inset) that measures only 6 × 6 mm.

Both the concept and device design are
fairly simple. We believe that any research
group with access to semiconductor processing facilities could replicate the device
using materials costing just a few pounds.
Indeed, we hope that this technology can be
spread rapidly among the biophotonics
community, giving access to the advantages
of optical methods without the need for specific optics knowledge.
The aim is to make the device as userfriendly and robust as possible. Care has also
been taken to avoid any problems arising
from sending lasers in and out of the ports of
a microscope system. To this end, the device is
mounted onto a circuit board and the lasers
are wire-bonded to copper tracks, which in
turn are connected to a power supply.
The optical power of each laser is controlled
by varying the applied voltage (and hence current), up to a maximum of around 20 mW at
about 3 V (approximately 200 mA). Such

electrical powers can be provided by a computer interface board, opening up the way for
automated operation.

Fabricating the device
The starting point is a GaAs chip, typically
6 × 6 mm. The actual device is dominated by
2 mm-long lasers that determine the surface
area of the chip.
At the heart of each laser is an AlGaAs/
GaAs singlemode heterostructure, centred
1 µm beneath the chip’s surface. Grown epitaxially by German firm Nanosemiconductor
of Dortmund, the structure provides vertical
waveguiding and contains InAs quantum
dots that emit at 1290 nm.
Horizontal waveguiding is provided by
etching away the GaAs to leave a ridge 3 µm
wide and 750 nm deep that supports only a
single vertical transverse mode. An electrical current is injected into the ridges via gold
contact pads and SU8-2000 polymer insu-

OLEOct06INTEGRATEDp23-25

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Page 24

lation on the etched GaAs confines the current to the ridges where a useful optical
mode is generated.
The length of the laser cavity is defined by
facets that are etched to a depth of at least
2 µm. The tight vertical confinement of the
heterostructure leads to large vertical divergence of the output beam, up to as much as
40˚, so the optical power density falls off
quickly with distance from the facet.
Of greatest interest is the interface between
the lasers and the fluids. The microfluidic
channel is etched into the GaAs at right
angles to the lasers and passes between pairs
of facing lasers. This allows the laser beams to
enter from both sides of the channel to give a
dual-beam trap configuration.
The electrical activity of the lasers is insulated from the fluid by lining the microfluidic
channels with SU8-2000 polymer. A thin
layer covers the base and a thicker layer lines
the walls, essentially determining the depth of
the channel. A glass lid is then adhered to the
top of the chip and sealed with adhesive to create a watertight microfluidic channel that can
be fabricated in any desired configuration.
The size and position of the features can be
tailored to the application. The facet spacing
determines the optical power at the centre of
the microfluidic channel where facing
beams overlap. Closer facet spacings give
higher power densities resulting in stronger
trapping and larger detection signals.
Meaningful optical forces are exerted up to
around 200 µm from the facets, placing an
upper limit on their spacing. The lower limit
on the facet spacing is determined by the
resolution of the current photolithographic
techniques that define the SU8-2000 lining
on the walls. This places a lower limit of

University of St Andrews

OPTICAL TRAPPING

Trapping trio: (from left to right) Kishan Dholakia, Simon Cran-McGreehin and Thomas Krauss
demonstrate their versatile optical manipulation and analysis platform. The integrated module’s 50 µmwide trapping channel can be seen on the monitor as a bright stripe running across the middle of the
screen. Lasers located at either side of the channel are used to push and trap particles.

about 20 µm on the facet spacing.
Typical microfluidic channels measuring
30 µm high and 40 µm wide, with a facet
spacing of 75 µm, allow the passage of biological cells. The channels can be arranged in
various configurations, ranging from straight
channels to junctions for sorting and chambers for mixing. Using water or biological
buffer solutions in the microfluidic channels
provides a medium in which particles can
flow into the paths of the laser beams.

optical axis and the radiation pressure
pushes them away from the facet.
Pairs of facing lasers have been used to create dual-beam traps, in which the objects are
held at the equilibrium point between the
two facets. Once trapped, particles can be
interrogated. We have demonstrated fluorescence spectroscopy in this configuration
and Raman spectroscopy is an obvious candidate for future studies.
Useful operations are possible even when
the optical powers are insufficient to trap
particles. This has led to the development of
Applications
Using a single laser, we have guided particles two detection methods, both of which make
over ranges of around 200 µm. Essentially, use of the fact that facing lasers feed light
the gradient force draws objects onto the into one another.

GWU-Lasertechnik
+49 . (0) 22 35 . 9 55 22-0
info@gwu-group.de
www.gwu-group.de/laser

OLE • October 2006 • optics.org/ole

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OPTICAL TRAPPING
trapping lasers

trapping lasers

Speed Freaks

guide laser

Concept diagram showing particles being pushed
and trapped by integrated lasers.

In the first method, the output power of
one laser is found to decrease when a particle
passes between the facets. In the second, one
laser is reverse-biased to create a photodetector whose photocurrent decreases
when a particle passes by.
These methods use the intrinsic properties
of the semiconductor lasers and require no
external light source – the second method
requires no external optics whatsoever. We
now plan to combine these operations into
more complex arrangements in which the
particles are moved around a device, either by
optical forces or by an externally generated
fluid flow, to different interrogation sites.

A look to the future
As a first step, this new technology makes the
power and versatility of optical manipulation more widely available by simplifying the
operation and reducing the cost. We believe
that this technology lends itself to the world
of lab-on-a-chip, in which miniaturized test
and measurement systems are integrated
into microfluidic circuits.
By configuring the lasers and channels in
order to usefully combine the functions of
guiding, trapping and detection, a wide variety
of multiplexed processes could be conducted,
in parallel, on a single chip. This range could be
extended further by using external analysis
techniques such as Raman spectroscopy.
A more compact approach would modify
the laser material to allow the direct, on-chip
excitation and detection of fluorescence in
particles, such as violet-emitting GaN-based
material in conjunction with green fluorescent protein. The technology could also
have a use in the realm of atom optics, creating dipole traps that could hold Bose–Einstein condensates.
I
Thomas Krauss heads the Microphotonics and
Photonic Crystals group and Kishan Dholakia
leads the Optical Trapping group at St Andrews
University, UK. Simon Cran-McGreehin is a
research assistant working in both groups. For
more information, including links to optical
trapping groups worldwide, please see www.standrews.ac.uk/~atomtrap/.
OLE • October 2006 • optics.org/ole

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OLEOct06ZNOLEDSp26-27

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OPTOELECTRONICS

ZnO-based LEDs begin to s
Start-up company MOXtronics has recently produced the
first coloured ZnO-based LEDs. Although the efficiency of
these LEDs is not high, improvements are rapid and the
emitters have the potential to outperform their GaN rivals,
say Henry White and Yungryel Ryu from MOXtronics.

Finding the right dopant
However, ZnO is yet to fulfill all of its promise
because of the delay in developing p-doped
material. Early progress throughout the
community was hampered by focusing
efforts on using nitrogen as a p-type dopant.
Nitrogen was the first choice because it was
an effective dopant in ZnSe, and also because
it was deemed, erroneously, to be of a suitable size to sit on an oxygen lattice site.
Although we also tried to obtain p-type
doping using nitrogen, a switch to arsenic
enabled us to report the first successful
p-type doping of ZnO in 1997. By 2000 we
could produce hole concentrations into the
1017 cm–3 range with this approach.
Later in 2000 we reported our hybrid

beam deposition (HBD) process that offers a
viable approach to growing doped and
undoped ZnO films, alloys and devices. The
HBD process is comparable to MBE. However,
it uses a ZnO plasma source, which is produced by illuminating a polycrystalline ZnO
target with either a pulsed laser or an electron beam, and a high-pressure oxygen
plasma created by a radio-frequency oxygen
generator. Additional sources for either doping or ZnO-based alloy growth can be added
to the growth chamber by conventional
evaporation or injection methods.
We used the HBD process to fabricate the
first ZnO-based UV detectors (see box “Highly
efficient detectors” p27), UV LEDs, FETs, and
red, green, blue and white phosphor-coated
LEDs. Our LEDs incorporate BeZnO, an alloy
that allows bandgap engineering into the UV
and the formation of multiple quantum
wells and other heterostructures.
MOXtronics has recently produced the first-ever ZnO-based LEDs emit
MOXtronics

The attractiveness of zinc oxide (ZnO) LEDs
stems from the potential for phosphor-free
spectral coverage from the deep ultraviolet
(UV) to the red, coupled with a quantum efficiency that could approach 90% and a compatibility with high-yield low-cost volume
production. One day these LEDs could even
outperform their GaN-based cousins (which
offer a narrower spectral range) thanks to
three key characteristics – superior material
quality, an effective dopant and the availability of better alloys.
The superior material quality is seen in the
low defect densities of ZnO layers. At MOXtronics, our development of a viable p-type
dopant has provided hole-conducting layers
for ZnO-based devices. And our growth of
BeZnO layers has shown that it is possible to
fabricate ZnO-based high-quality heterostructures (see box “The advantages of ZnO
over GaN” p27).
ZnO also promises very high quantum efficiencies, and UV detectors based on this material have produced external quantum
efficiencies (EQE) of 90%, three times that of
equivalent GaN-based detectors. The physical
processes associated with detection suggest
that similarly high efficiency values should be
possible for the conversion of electrical carriers to photons. So it is plausible that ZnO LEDs
will have an EQE upper limit that is three
times higher than that of GaN-based devices.

Why BeZnO beats MgZnO
BeZnO alloys of varying composition have
significantly boosted the development of our
deep UV high-power LEDs. These alloys do
not phase-segregate, because BeO and ZnO
have the same hexagonal crystal structures,
and the extremely high-energy bandgap of
BeO could potentially lead to devices emitting
at just 117 nm. UV LEDs containing BeZnO
alloys produce a narrow spectral profile, with
very little emission in the visible, suggesting
that the alloy is of high crystal quality.
Until we had produced BeZnO films, the primary choice for a compatible higher bandgap
alloy was ZnMgO, a material developed by a
group at Tohoku University, Toyo University,
Tokyo Institute of Technology and Japan’s
Institute of Physical and Chemical Research.
In 1997 this team reported that crystal phase
separation occurs between MgO and ZnO
when the atomic fraction of magnesium
exceeds 0.33, which corresponds to a bandgap
of 3.99 eV. The separation is driven by different crystalline structures; MgO is a cubic
structure with a lattice spacing of 0.422 nm,
while ZnO is a hexagonal wurtzite structure
with a lattice spacing of 0.325 nm.
We recently produced and characterized the

to its devices. Further development of ZnO-based materials could lea

first UV LEDs made from ZnO and BeZnO. The
device’s emission can be tuned from the deep
UV to around 380nm, the wavelength associated with ZnO. Our devices have been built
with several different active layer structures,
including double heterostructures and single
or multiple quantum wells, to try to improve
efficiencies and optical output powers.
Our latest UV LEDs have a typical wallplug efficiency of 0.1%, which would equate
to an efficacy of 0.6 lm/W if the emission
were in the visible spectrum. Although the
efficiency is far lower than that of GaN LEDs,
we are making rapid progress by addressing
the various phenomena that degrade device
performance. If progress continues at the
same rate we will produce LEDs with a 1%
wall-plug efficiency within one year, 1–5%
within two years and about 10% or more
within three years.
Our ZnO LED development programme
has used various substrates manufactured
by several vendors and has shown that the
LED’s performance is directly dependent on
the substrate’s material type and crystalline
quality. Single-crystal ZnO produces the best
devices. This material has been available for
OLE • October 2006 • optics.org/ole

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show full-colour potential
The advantages of ZnO over GaN

The three major benefits of ZnO over GaN are:
superior material quality, which has been
demonstrated by the growth of high-purity ZnO
with defect densities below 105 cm–2, a value
typically associated with the best GaN films;
improved doping performance, which results
from the arsenic p-type dopant that has an
activation energy of 119 meV in ZnO films, far
less than the 215 meV for magnesium-doped
p-type GaN. This lower activation energy
produces a 10-fold increase in the proportion
of activated acceptor atoms that are needed for
electrical conduction (assuming the same
atomic dopant concentrations are used) and
also reduces the number of defects for a given
hole carrier density;

the availability of better alloys, due to our

recent development of high-quality BeZnO films.
These layers have driven the fabrication of LEDs,
lasers and transistors that have less disorder
than the structures produced using the
AlGaN/GaN material system. The reduced
disorder is a consequence of the large
difference in bandgap between ZnO and BeO,
and enables only small changes in the alloy’s
composition to produce relatively large changes
in bandgap. In comparison, a much larger shift
in aluminium composition is required to
produce the equivalent changes in AlGaN and
this leads to greater disorder. The ZnO-based
material system could also be extended into the
visible using alloys such as CdO, CdSe and CdS.

Highly efficient detectors

many years and interest is rapidly increasing
for the growth of high-quality single-crystal
ZnO with a diameter of 50 mm or more or
ZnO-based LEDs and other devices.

What’s needed
Major improvements in the efficiency and
power output of ZnO UV and visible LEDs are
still needed to enable these devices to compete
in the market-place. Advances will depend on
the availability of higher-quality single-crystal substrates and improved processes for producing reliable and highly ohmic electrical
contacts to various different layers. Additional bandgap engineering development is
needed for the UV C-band (100–280 nm) and
visible region, along with optimization of the
multiple quantum well and related structures
in the device’s active region.

Looking ahead
With the output power of our ZnO LEDs
increasing rapidly, these devices appear to
have a promising future. We expect them to
first be deployed in white-light lamps and
replace incandescent sources in applications
such as liquid-crystal display backlights. The
OLE • October 2006 • optics.org/ole

promise of emission from the UV through
the visible will then allow ZnO LEDs to target
applications where no other single semiconductor material can operate today. At this
time, for example, red–green–blue sources
that are fabricated on a single wafer will offer
unique advantages for the development of
bright, compact displays and projectors.
Laser diodes built from ZnO-based materials
could also be produced that emit in the visible and UV and offer compact alternatives
for larger tube-type laser sources, ushering
in a new era for colour printing.
I

100
responsivity (A/W)

s emitting in the white, red, blue and green, by attaching phosphors
ld lead to phosphor-free ZnO LEDs serving all these colours.

MOXtronics has also developed the first UV
detectors based on ZnO. The sensitivity of
these devices is three times higher than that
of any other UV solid-state detector and they
have a responsivity of 0.27 A/W at 372 nm
(see figure, right). The detector’s noise floor at
visible wavelengths is four orders of
magnitude lower than its response in the UV,
making it an attractive option for visible-blind
applications. The device’s temporal response
is typically 50 µs, but it can be shortened
considerably and approach the theoretical
limit of 10 ns by optimizing the structure and
the electrodes’ dimensions.
MOXtronics expects to develop high-speed
focal-plane arrays, with pixel dimensions of
typically 128 × 128, by the end of next year.
These arrays, and single-element detectors,
should become important components in both

10–1
10–2
10–3
10–4
200

UV
300

visible
400
500
600
wavelength (nm)

700

MOXtronics’ highly sensitive UV detectors have a
very fast response time and can analyse the change
in fluorescence spectra over very short timescales.

portable UV spectrometers and in the ultrafast
UV spectrometers designed for the analysis and
temporal de-convolution of fluorescence spectra.

Yungryel Ryu (ryuy@moxtronics.com) is
president and CEO of MOXtronics. Henry White
(whiteh@ moxtronics.com) is chair of the
MOXtronics board and a professor at the University
of Missouri, MO, US. Both were members of the
company’s original start-up team. MOXtronics Inc
was formed in December 2000 as a spin-out
company of the University of Missouri. The firm
has obtained funding from both the Office of Naval
Research and NASA, and also through equity sales.
This article originally appeared in the August issue of
Compound Semiconductor magazine.

20/9/06

50 years

OLEOctAdverts28

www.evatecnet.com

09:02

Page 1

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Industry standard Balzers BAK platforms
Complete range of deposition processes –
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Evatec – delivering new components, new
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OLEOct06EVATECp29-30

25/9/06

14:39

Page 29

OPTICAL MONITORING

In situ method drives up
yields and reduces costs
There is a lot more to making an optical filter than meets the eye. Dominik Goessi looks
at the role of in situ monitoring in the production process and reviews the technology.

Evatec

The humble interference filter often plays a
critical role in optical experiments. Made up of
tens of layers, each one precisely deposited and
monitored, there is certainly a lot more to this
standard component than meets the eye. Its
manufacture typically involves in situ monitoring and control systems to minimize production time and cost, and to maximize yields.
Enhanced electron-beam deposition processes such as reactive low-voltage ion plating
(RLVIP) are ideal for producing complex optical filters with 50 layers or more. These techniques can generate thin films with high
density, high-temperature stability and a minimum of absorption. However, expensive coating materials, long process times and costly
substrates, that cannot always be reworked in Production benefits: optical monitoring systems give manufacturers a high level of process control.
the event of an error in the coating process,
itoring systems, 15 samples, each having an tify their higher initial investment and set-up
mean that monitoring is essential.
identical two-layer sequence of high and low costs through better process control and
refractive index materials, were coated in an higher yields.
Monitoring techniques
An optical monitoring system has two
Thin-film deposition processes are typically Evatec BAP800 evaporating system.
The reproducibility of the layer density senders: one for transmission and another for
controlled by one of two techniques: quartz
using RLVIP on a BAP800 system is very reflection measurements. The receiver is the
or optical monitoring.
Quartz crystal is the most commonly used good, so one would expect the quartz crystal same for both modes of operation. White
monitoring system. Here, an oscillator to give the same thickness result for each light reflected from, or transmitted through,
excites a quartz crystal to high frequencies of sample. However, results varied between a test glass passes through a monochromator
around 5 MHz. When the crystal is coated, its 24.1 and 25.2 nm for the first layer and before being focused onto a detector. The sigfrequency decreases and this change gives a between 54.0 and 56.2 nm for the second nal from the detector is then fed into a lock-in
layer. This highlights the reduced control of amplifier where it is processed and digitized.
measure of the film’s thickness.
Consider a test glass with a refractive index
On the plus side, the hardware is relatively quartz monitoring.
In practice, it is possible to correct coating of nG that has already been coated with a film
inexpensive and easy to operate, and is used
successfully in many semiconductor and opti- errors with crystal monitoring for designs of thickness d and refractive index nL. In
cal applications. However, the monitoring sys- with approximately 10 layers. However, for reflection mode, for example, a light beam
tem is not optimal for complex optical coatings coatings with 20, 30 and 50 layers or more, from the sender (R) hits the coated test glass
because the layer thickness on the substrate or the error within each layer is unacceptably and is refracted and partially reflected (R1)
large with insufficient reproducibility to when it enters the optically thicker medium.
on a test glass is not measured directly.
Optical film-thickness measurements rely achieve the highest yields. A more precise
The refracted light reaches the interface
on the fact that the intensity of a mono- monitoring system is required.
between the film and the test glass after it has
chromatic light beam reflected by a film
passed through the optical film thickness nLd.
changes periodically with increasing film Optical approach
One part of the light is reflected (R2) and the
thickness. The technique has the advantage Deposition processes such as RLVIP in com- other part penetrates the test glass. The
that a film’s optical properties are measured bination with optical monitoring systems are reflected light passes back through the film
directly using test glasses, which can then therefore ideal for manufacturing complex again and multiple reflections occur at the
be kept and checked for process and quality interference filters with high accuracy and interfaces. The intensity of the reflected light
control. However, the initial hardware reproducibility. The theory and practice are decreases continuously but the intensity of
investment and set-up costs are higher than well matched. The actual spectral curves the individual reflected light beams add
that of crystal monitoring.
achieved are identical to the calculated ones, together to give the total intensity.
To compare quartz crystal and optical mon- proving that optical monitoring systems jusWhen monochromatic light with the waveOLE • October 2006 • optics.org/ole

OLEOct06EVATECp29-30

25/9/06

14:40

Page 30

OPTICAL MONITORING
In practice, as the film thickness increases
continuously during the coating process
itself, the turning point condition is fulfilled
at regular intervals and the intensity of the
reflected light beam detected at the receiver
reaches various maxima and minima with a
periodic structure. The distance between the
turning points depends on standard variables including evaporation rate r. If the
evaporation rate and the refractive index of
the film material are known, then it is possible to monitor film thickness using the

T1
test glass nG
film nL

vacuum chamber nv

R1 R2 R3

Principle of operation: a light beam from the
sender (R) hits the coated test glass and is
refracted and partially reflected (R1). Multiple
reflections occur at the interfaces. The intensity of
individual, reflected light beams add together to
give the total intensity (Rtotal = R1 + R2 + R3 = ...).

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intensity curve measured at the receiver. A
special cut-off algorithm is used to control
the coater and terminate evaporation when
the desired film thickness is reached.
Successive manufacturing runs for a typical edge filter consisting of 24 optimized layers in an Evatec BAK760 with the optical
monitoring system GSM1100 demonstrate
the level of production control that can be
achieved with optical monitoring. The spectral transmission curves for three batches
with 50% transmission values of 653.5,
651.5 and 652.8 nm respectively show an
excellent reproducibility of ±1nm.

The future of optical monitoring
A new generation of fast CCD image sensors
specifically designed for low-light-level detection in combination with an imaging spectrograph enables the precise monitoring of a
whole spectral range (broadband monitoring). The coating process can be controlled by
direct measurement on the substrate and the
whole optical spectrum of each layer is
known and can be controlled. This means
that even in the event of a coating error midprocess, the remaining layers can be recalculated in situ to give the correct end result.
Currently, the sampling frequency of these
set-ups is lower than those used in monochromatic monitoring. As a result, special
algorithms are required to terminate a coating process precisely between two measurements. However, given the rapid progress in
the quality and speed of CCD sensors, the
future of optical monitoring systems looks
set to become broadband.
I
Dominik Goessi is a physicist with a special
interest in the development of optical monitoring
systems. He works in Evatec’s development
laboratory at the company’s manufacturing facility
in Flums, Switzerland. See: www.evatecnet.com.
OLE • October 2006 • optics.org/ole

Evatec

length h crosses the interface from optically
thinner to thicker material, the reflection is
also accompanied by a phase shift of h/2. The
phase difference of reflected or transmitted
light is determined by the difference in optical
path lengths 2nLd and the phase shift that
occurs at the interfaces. We can therefore see
a turning point in the total intensity curve of
superimposed, reflected monochromatic light
beams depending on the light wavelength, the
refractive index and the instantaneous thickness of the coated material.

Project1

25/9/06

09:02

Page 1

LASER 2007
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OLEOctAdverts32

26/9/06

08:41

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OLEOct06PRODUCTGUIDEp33-35

25/9/06

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Page 33

PRODUCT GUIDE

Hybrid diffractive optics
offer an elegant solution

Thanks to a set of unique properties, diffractive optical elements have the potential to
transform light into almost any desired distribution. Joshika Akhil gives the low-down on
the technology that can benefit laser marking, material processing, heat treatment,
sensing, non-contact testing and optical metrology, to name just a few applications.
plano-convex lens
incident beam intensity distribution
collimated Gaussian
incident beam from
laser and expander

output profile – after transformation

diffractive pattern
top-hat spot

Dout
2

Dinc, 1/e

Fig. 1: top-hat beam shapers can deliver outstanding results, transforming a near-Gaussian incident laser beam into a uniform-intensity spot.

Diffractive optical elements (DOEs) can modify laser beams in almost all of the same ways
as conventional refractive optics, but with
the added attraction of beam manipulation.
Elements such as beam homogenizers, diffusers, beam samplers, diffractive focal
lenses, beam splitters and various grating
structures can transform light into almost
any desired distribution. Furthermore, the
modulation of light is not limited to laser
beams – DOEs can be used to modulate partially and non-coherent light sources as well.

User benefits
DOEs have the unique ability to transform
the original beam into a variety of shapes,
distributions and numbered spots without
unduly affecting the output intensity of the
entire system. One of their greatest advantages is that a single optical element can often
replace multiple optical systems to customize
the beam profile to the desired shape and
intensity distribution.
Recent developments in design and process
control now allow DOEs to be manufactured
in a compact, reliable and cost-effective way.
Using lithographic techniques, a microrelief
diffraction grating can be etched into the optical element to create a single optical device.
Diffractive optics redistribute the energy
OLE • October 2006 • optics.org/ole

between the centre and the periphery of a
laser beam, making them ideal for beam
shaping (figure 1). Beam homogenizers
smooth out the intensity profile of an incident beam and suit applications such as laser
ablation and heat treatment, where hot spots
within the beam are undesirable.
Traditionally, beam homogenizers have
been restricted to operation within the focal
plane of a lens (spot operation) or have a minimum working distance. If operated outside of
these conditions, undesired peaks can appear
in the distribution. However, there is a new
device on the market that is less sensitive to
positioning, called an HM-type homogenizer.
Beam shapers create specific energy-distribution patterns with sharp edges. The basic
technique involves remapping the intensitydistribution profile of the incident beam into a
uniform spot distribution of a specific size and
shape, and at a specific distance. In principle,
any transverse spot shape can be obtained,
although the most useful geometries are typically round, rectangular and square. Adding
a lens to the diffractive element shifts the location and changes the scale of the distribution,
tailoring it to specific applications.
One great advantage of the so-called diffractive top-hat beam shaper over other uniform illumination systems is that it eliminates

the trade-off between efficiency and spot uniformity by diffractively redistributing the
beam energy. Other techniques can simply
block out a significant part of the energy.
Users should remember that to achieve outstanding results, the incident beam must have
a collimated Gaussian profile and be centred
on the element. Beam expanders and spatial
filters can be used to optimize the input beam.

Important role
Top-hat intensity distributions suit applications where a controlled transfer of energy
at the spot is essential, particularly in processes that have an exposure level and damage threshold for a given power density.
Examples include raster-scan-picture generators and high-power laser treatments in material processing and medical applications.
As a result, DOEs are proving to be an
essential component in industry sectors such
as laser ablation; welding and drilling; medical and aesthetic lasers; and laser displays.
The uniform-intensity spot, steep transition
region and sharp profile offer unmatched
manageability and accuracy.
However, beam shaping is not limited to
simply a top-hat output intensity profile. Custom optical elements can be manufactured to
give various spot shapes and intensity distri-

OLEOct06PRODUCTGUIDEp33-35

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Page 34

PRODUCT GUIDE
throughput and accurate positioning, without leaving any working residual materials
(figure 3, p35). By integrating diffractive
beam splitters into these systems, several perI0
forations can be achieved simultaneously
I
with extremely accurate distances between
the spots, removing the need for a moving
x–y table and improving performance.
S A
z0
Multiple-spot (including double-spot) DOEs
provide a line or an array of identical focal
L0
L
spots located in the focal plane and can be
arranged in a one or two-dimensional patFig. 2: Schematic view of a line contour set-up (left) and the corresponding output pattern (right).
tern. DOE beam splitters offer advantages
butions while maintaining high efficiencies. exist in machinery and microelectronics; the including uniformity in power between the
Conventional lenses generate focused optical heads of scanning laser writers; opti- spots (±1% can be achieved for standard 1 ×
spots, whereas a diffractive focusing ele- cal information processing; and laser surgery. 2 and 2 × 2 splitters and significantly more
for other designs). The positional predictabilment can provide the required caustic line
ity of each beam/spot is also enhanced.
in the focal plane (figure 2). Using a plano- Splitting and multiplication
convex lens as the focusing element with a Recent advances in diffractive optics theory
diffractive microrelief pattern on its plano and technology have made beam splitting/
surface, the DOE directs laser light towards multiplication a valuable resource for optical
the line contour (straight line, ring, poly- designers. Applications range from spot-array
gons etc) instead of at a single focal spot. generation and fibre-optic coupling through to
Thus, a line-contour focal image is achieved laser heat treatment of material surfaces and
from the collimated laser beam without any laser ablation. Other promising opportunities
scanning system.
for the technique include multiple and multiThe line-contour focusing element provides focal imaging, laser-beam mode selection and
novel opportunities in laser marking, drilling simultaneous contour shaping.
and in the welding of plastics and metals
Diffractive beam splitters have been widely
using high-power lasers. Applications also used in laser perforation as they allow high
u

I0,^0

I0,^

“DOEs can
modulate partially
and non-coherent
light sources as
well .”

Beam sampling

Micro-Optics
Solutions
Laser diode collimation
Beam homogenization
Wavefront sensor optics
Fibre collimation
Custom micro-optics

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Phone + 41 41 662 74 74
axetris@leister.com
www.axetris.com

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igh Park
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Another DOE closely related to the beam splitter is the beam sampler, which enables inline
measurements of high-power laser beams to
be made. The device produces two exact
copies (samples) of the input beam with only
a small fraction of the total power, while the
main part of the master beam continues in
the optical train. This allows the sample
beams to be measured and analysed while the
main beam remains unaffected and operational. Beam samplers can be produced to
suit custom angles, wavelengths and various
power fractions of the main beam.
Diffractive beam samplers are being used
in place of conventional optics more and
more, because they offer a clean, non-invasive analytical solution. For example, they
are replacing burn-off modal measurements
for CO2 lasers. Since there are no burning elements in the system, no by-products are produced. Also, the diffractive beam samplers
are not polarization dependent and so measurements can be taken while the laser is
operating online.
Diffractive beam samplers can be used to
monitor high-power CO2, Nd:YAG and other
lasers in materials processing, medical applications and in laser radar systems.
A single diffractive corrected focusing lens
can equal the high performance of a complex
multiple-optical-element objective lens. The
OLE • October 2006 • optics.org/ole

OLEOct06PRODUCTGUIDEp33-35

25/9/06

16:08

PRODUCT GUIDE
lens

rotating web
in focal plane

mask

incident
beam

mask
DOE

Fig. 3: the beam splitter DOE accepts a collimated
beam and produces a number of beams with the
same characteristics as the incident beam except
for angle of propagation and power. By placing a
focusing lens close to the element, all beams can
be focused into spots. A mask is recommended for
blocking higher order diffraction fringes.

diffractive microrelief pattern on the plane
side of the lens gives a diffraction-limited spot
size that demonstrates a sharp focusing effect
and a dramatic increase in power densities,
even for long focal length DOEs.
Diffractive corrected focusing lenses offer
unique properties not matched by conventional optics. “Special effects” include off-axis
sharp focusing; control of the focal spot
shape; controlled introduction of spherical
aberration; longer depth of focus; chromatic
correction; and double (multiple) spot focus.

Page 35

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the evolution of technology

Combining two beams
Many medical CO2 (10.6 µm) laser systems
use a red He:Ne (632.8 nm) laser or laser
diode (635 nm) module (LDM) to generate
an aiming or pilot beam. It is essential that
the visible He:Ne/LDM beam coincides with
the invisible CO2 beam so that the CO2 focal
spot can be easily identified. Conventional
methods often use lens doublets and crystalline optics such as potassium bromide elements, which are hygroscopic and relatively
inconvenient to work with.
An elegant solution to this problem is a single hybrid diffractive element called a dualwavelength beam combiner. This is a zinc
selenide lens with a microrelief diffraction
pattern etched into the plane side. The diffractive pattern can be designed to control
just one wavelength. When placed in the path
of the 10.6 µm and 633 nm laser beams the
DOE superimposes both wavelengths at the
same focal spot, without the need of doublets.
The durability of the diffractive beam
combiner far exceeds the two-lens system
alternative. Also, the integral light transmittance of the diffractive dual wavelength
element outperforms any on-axis reflective
I
systems, with figures exceeding 98%.
Joshika Akhil is technical sales engineer at Laser
Components (UK) Ltd. For more information, see
www.lasercomponents.co.uk.
OLE • October 2006 • optics.org/ole

OLEOctAdverts36

22/9/06

13:29

Page 1

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OLEOct06PRODUCTSp37-49

25/9/06

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Page 37

PRODUCT S

If you would like your company’s products to be featured in this section,
please send press releases and images to James Tyrrell (james.tyrrell@iop.org).

Oscilloscope
Tektronix
Test and measurement
specialist Tektronix has
released the
DPO70000 digital
phosphor oscilloscope
and the DSA70000
digital serial analyser.
According to the firm, these new 4, 6 and 8 GHz
bandwidth instruments provide industry-best
hardware and software for data-acquisition,
debug, validation and compliance testing.
With a sample rate of 25 GS/s on all four
channels simultaneously, the new models are
said to provide the fastest four-channel samplerate performance of any oscilloscope available.
For example, the 8 GHz DPO70804 and
DSA70804 have a typical rise time of 35 ps and
provide a jitter noise floor down to 400 fs rms
(typical) for critical jitter measurements. The
DPO70000 offers 10 million data points as
standard per channel while the DSA70000
offers 20 million as standard per channel.
www.tektronix.com

Tunable filter
Yenista Optics
Yenista Optics of France has unveiled a low-loss
tunable filter. The device is said to tune over
120 nm from 1510 to 1630 nm with a full
spectral sweep time of 200 ms, an
autopositioning wavelength accuracy of 2 pm,
PDL of maximum 0.2 dB and insertion loss of
3 dB. Yensita adds that the 3 dB bandwidth of
the filter is 0.35 nm although other bandwidths
are available on request. The product is offered
in rack-mount and benchtop versions for test
and measurement applications in the laboratory
as well as in the field.
www.yenista.com

weighing up to 50 kg, which it can position with
an accuracy of 10 µm.
ROFIN adds that the TrackMode allows direct
storage of manually controlled paths and can
be used for deposit welding along curved
contours and for semi automatic operations.
The AreaFill option allows several parallel offset
welding seams to be generated for 3D surface
deposit welding.
www.rofin.com

DC current source
Optronic Laboratories
Optronic Laboratories
has introduced the
OL400-C controller,
which it has designed
for use with its OL
series 426 and 455
integrating sphere calibration standards.
According to the firm, the precision-constant
DC current source features microprocessor
control, a lamp-hours monitor, a wide viewing
angle two-line display, USB 2.0 interface and an
adjustable tilt handle. An optional software
development kit is also available.
www.olinet.com

488 nm laser
Coherent
The latest Sapphire
laser from Coherent is a
small-footprint OEM
source delivering
50 mW of continuouswave output power at
488 nm. Primarily
intended for biomedical
instrumentation such
as flow cytometry and drug discovery, the
50 mW power level will deliver increased
sensitivity leading to faster throughput and/or
higher signal-to-noise for these applications,
according to Coherent.
The Sapphire 50 mW is based on the same
optically pumped semiconductor laser
technology as its 10 and 20 mW counterparts
and also shares the same form factor, power
requirements and beam characteristics.
Coherent says that, compared with air-cooled
argon lasers, its all-solid-state Sapphire offers
the advantages of smaller size, greater electrical
efficiency, lower heat dissipation and
substantially longer lifetime.
www.coherent.com

Pulsed Tunable
Dye Laser

Laser welding system
ROFIN Laser Micro
The StarWeld Select
from ROFIN Laser Micro
can be operated as an
ergonomically
optimized manual
welding laser, as a
deposit welding laser
with joystick and as a
high-precision CNC
system. All process
steps are controlled via
a multifunctional joystick and a large
multicolour touch-screen display enabling
semi-automatic laser welding, CNC teach-in or
jogging of heavy workpieces.
The system can cope with workpieces
OLE • October 2006 • op tics.org/ole

Quantel’s TDL90 offers researchers an extremely versatile
nanosecond tunable laser source.
• 200nm to 4.5µm tuning using wavelength extension options
• High Efficiency
• Compact Design
• User-Friendly
• Low ASE Oscillator Design
Quantel provides you with a complete Nd:YAG pump / dye
laser system, for an optimal mechanical stability.
Contact Quantel, Big Sky Laser or your local representative
for more details.

Quantel & Big Sky Laser
quantel@quantel.fr - +33 1 69 29 17 00 / sales@bigskylaser.com-(406) 586 0131

OLEOct06PRODUCTSp37-49

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Page 38

PRODUCT S
Pulsed UV laser
Newport

applications are listed as profilometry,
microtopography, roughness, autofocus
vibrometry, in-line inspection quality control and
thickness measurements.
A modular design allows up to 30 different
configurations for specific depth-of-field, spot
size, working distance, object slope and
photometric efficiency. Five magnifiers with focal
lengths ranging from 3.3 to 29.0 mm and six
chromatic lenses with depths of fields from
130 µm to 27 mm are available. The pens are
said to achieve a maximum axial resolution of
5 nm, an accuracy of 20 nm and a maximum
slope of 87° for diffusive objects.
www.armstrongoptical.co.uk

The Explorer Scientific
from Newport is a lowpower, intracavity,
frequency-tripled and
actively Q-switched
diode-pumped solidstate laser that delivers pulse energies of up to
120 µJ at 349 nm. The source is said to be an
ideal research tool for applications requiring
high pulse energies and peak powers at low
kilohertz repetition rates.
The Explorer can be operated from single shot
up to a 5 kHz pulse repetition rate at variable
pulse energies. Pulse widths are typically less than
5 ns and, with a pulse-to-pulse stability of less
Fibre-coupled diode laser
than 3% rms, the company says that applications Point Source
will benefit from an extremely low signal-to-noise
Point Source has
ratio. A LabView-based GUI allows customers to
launched a higherinterface with the laser via a USB port.
power version of its
www.newport.com
iFLEX2000 fibrecoupled laser. The
latest addition delivers
Chromatic confocal sensors
30 mW at 405 nm in a
Armstrong Optical
TEM00 Gaussian beam.
The latest line of
confocal chromatic
Laser beam
optical pens
conditioning is
manufactured by STIL of France is now available
performed using a
through Armstrong Optical of the UK. Typical
singlemode fibre, which

acts as a spatial filter while also providing a
flexible beam-delivery mechanism.
The company also claims that the laser is
unique in employing forward, closed-loop power
control that is immune to optical feedback, which
in turn provides a long-term ultra-stable output
and low short-term amplitude noise. Target
biomedical applications include flow cytometry
and fluorescence imaging, although the laser is
said to be ideal for optical media applications
where spot size and resolution are critical.
www.point-source.com

Laser barriers
LaserVision
LaserVision says that its
new Laserbarrier
product is a modular
system that meets the
changing needs and
requirements of laser
users. Based on a
patent-pending material
system, the barrier
offers protection from CO2 and Nd:YAG lasers up
to a power density of 10 MW/cm2. LaserVision
says that this equates to protection levels of AL4
at 10600 nm and AL6 at 1064 nm at 100 s of
direct illumination.
The barrier has a specially designed surface,
which is said to make it suitable for applications
in industry, research and even cleanroom and
medical environments. LaserVision adds that the
product can contain different or full segmented
protection modules such as cabin windows.
www.lvg.com

Fizeau interferometer
4D Technology
4D Technology, US,
has introduced the
FizCam 2000. “This is
the first-of-its-kind ‘onaxis’ vibration Fizeau
featuring a short
coherence length source that enables
measurement of transparent samples and
assemblies that are difficult or impossible to
measure with traditional laser
interferometers,” said James Millerd, 4D’s
chief technical officer.
According to 4D, the short coherence feature
eliminates the need for extraneous coatings to
control interfering fringes by isolating and
measuring only the desired surface. In addition
to measuring parallel optical grade surfaces, the
FizCam 2000 is said to be well suited to
separating and measuring surfaces within an
optical assembly, making remote cavity
measurements, testing index homogeneity,
measuring thin optics and environmental
chamber testing.
www.4DTechnology.com

OLE • October 2006 • op tics.org/ole

OLEOctAdverts39

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Page 1

COBRA

LINESCAN ILLUMINATOR

Generates a uniform, bright stripe
of illumination for linescan
• 220,000 lux @ 630 nm
• 395 nm, 470 nm, 630 nm,
740 nm, white
• Frontlight and backlight
configurations
• 125 mm, 250 mm and
500 mm line lengths

Applications include:
• Linescan
• Web inspection
• Inspection of currency, lumber,
FPD, foil, paper, plastics,
non-wovens

StockerYale Inc.
Tel: +353-21-4320750
Fax: +353-21-4327451
saleseurope@stockeryale.com

w w w. s t o c k e r y a l e . c o m

OLEOct06PRODUCTSp37-49

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PRODUCT S
(IGH 1 ,ASER 7E 4HINK 5LTRAFAST»

$IODE PUMPED
ULTRAFAST
SOLID STATE LASERS

s 0ASSIVE AND SELF STARTING 3EMICONDUCTOR 3ATURABLE
!BSORBER -ODELOCKING 3%3!s 5SER 2EPLACEABLE $IODE -ODULE 52$s (IGH TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL STABILITY
s #OMPACT AND MODULAR SET UP
s 3EALED OFF TECHNOLOGY
s (ANDS FREE TRUE TURNKEY OPERATION
s 3INGLE PHASE POWER SUPPLY

0RODUCT 2ANGE

PICO42!).»
0ICOSECOND /SCILLATORS
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5P TO M* 7
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NM TO NM
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NM TO NM
5P TO *
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(IGH 1 ,ASER 0RODUCTION 'MB(
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WWWHIGH1 USCOM

Fusion splicer
Sumitomo Electric Industries
The T-39 single fibre
core aligning fusion
splicer from Sumitomo
Electric Industries has
been designed under
the company’s ECO21/2 programme,
which considers the environmental effects of a
product over its lifetime. As such, the company
says that this is the first in a new generation of
splicers that comply with the European Union’s
RoHS regulations.
Sumitomo says that the T-39 has dual
independent heat-shrink ovens that improve
splice throughput and productivity. The device
also features “hands-free” operation, thanks to
the automatic starting of the splice and heatshrink processes.
www.sumielectric.com

Polarization-maintaining fibre
Liekki
Liekki of Finland has added a highly doped,
large-mode-area fibre with a very high cladding
absorption (Yb1200-20/125DC-PM) to its
ytterbium-doped fibre product family. Typical
applications are listed as materials processing
(cutting, marking and drilling), laser ranging,
remote chemical detection and nonlinear
frequency conversion.
The fibre has a highly doped 20 µm diameter
core and a large core-to-cladding ratio. These
features result in a nominal cladding pump
absorption of 7.1 dB/m at 920 nm, rising to
around 30 dB/m for absorption at 976 nm.
According to Liekki, this enables very short
active fibre lengths – less than 1 m for
976 nm pumping.
www.liekki.com

Gigabit Ethernet camera
JAI PULNiX
JAI PULNiX has added a
new member to its line
of gigabit Ethernet
cameras. The
TM-1327GE is a
compact progressive scan CCD camera featuring
a 2/3 inch image sensor and a frame rate of 30 fps
at the full resolution of 1392 × 1040 pixels.
Contained in a 50.8 × 50.8 × 84.8 mm
housing, the camera is said to have a wide
dynamic range with sensitivity in both the visibleand near-infrared. Its interline transfer CCD
permits full vertical and horizontal resolution with
shutter speeds of up to 1/21 000 s.
Asynchronous reset combined with a no-delay
pulse-width-controlled shutter provides flexible
triggering and the exposure control necessary for
machine vision applications.
www.jaipulnix.com
OLE • October 2006 • op tics.org/ole

OLEOctAdverts41

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Page 1

PYSER - SGI

200LP /MM

Centre Detail

New Calibration and
Resolution Standards For
Optical and Vision Systems
High precision multi image
slide.
USAF resolution chart down to
Group 9/3.
High definition ronchi rulings

PYSER - SGI LIMITED
Tel: +44(0)1732 864111
Fax: +44(0)1732 865544
E-mail: sales@pyser-sgi.com

w w w. p y s e r - s g i . c o m

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PRODUCT S
561 nm DPSS laser
Laser Lines

Picosecond
Diode Lasers
EPL 375
EPL 405
EPL 445
EPL 473

EPL 635

10 Pre-set Repetition rates:
20 kHz - 20 MHz

Pulsewidths* down to 75ps
with optimised pulse characteristics
at each repetition rate.

Spectrally Purified Output
Fully Integrated, Compact
Design, No External Controller
Optimised for Time-Resolved
Spectroscopy
Optimised Beam Collimation

Applications include:
• Time Correlated Single Photon
Counting (TCSPC)
• Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging (FLIM)
• Fluorescence Resonance Energy
Transfer (FRET)
• Optical Tomography of Biological
Samples

For more information contact us at:

sales@edinst.com
Edinburgh Instruments Ltd
2 Bain Square, Livingston
EH54 7DQ, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1506 425300
Fax: +44 (0)1506 425320
*Typical value may vary with model.

www.edinst.com
42

Laser Lines of the UK is
now distributing the
561 nm Jive 75 laser
from Cobolt. Emitting
75 mW, the Jive 75 is
said to offer low noise,
excellent beam quality, long lifetime and single
longitudinal mode operation, all in a compact
package. The beam size and divergence match
those of an air-cooled ion or HeNe laser, which
is said to make the Jive a direct drop-in
replacement in flow-cytometry and microscopy
applications. A narrow spectral bandwidth and
long coherence length also make the source
useful for applications such as spectroscopy,
holography and interferometry.
www.laserlines.co.uk

SLEDs
Exalos
Exalos of Switzerland
says that its 750 nm
line of superluminescent
light-emitting diodes is
especially suited to
optical coherence tomography (OCT) and
biomedical applications. The firm claims that
its devices, which combine the spatial
coherence of a laser diode with the temporal
incoherence of an LED, provide high
suppression of second coherence peaks.
Typical values for the EXS7505-1411 are 3 mW
optical output power in a singlemode fibre and
21 nm 3 dB spectral bandwidth.
The EXS7510-1411 is said to achieve 5 mW
optical output power in a singlemode fibre and
14 nm 3 dB spectral bandwidth. Featuring a
built-in thermoelectric cooler and monitor diode,
the standard product is delivered in a 14 PIN DIL
housing. Uncooled devices in TOSA housings are
also available. The firm also offers devices at
850 and 1300 nm, which may be of interest to
developers of biomedical and OCT apparatus.
www.exalos.com

o p t i c a l m e t ro l o g y

Laser Beam
Diagnostics
For Pulsed & CW Lasers

BeamLux II Software
Multiple Camera
Support
Beam Analysis in
Compliance with ISO
High Data Processing
Automation of
Measuring Tasks

Cameras for
Beam Proﬁling
Industry Standard
USB / Fire Wire/
Analog
XUV-VUV-VIS-IR
Highest Resolution

Energy and Power
Measurement
Devices
Wide Range of
Detectors
Implementation
in BeamLux II

Optimized and reliable systems
for industry and research.
Contact us for your individual
application.

VCSELs
Vertilas
German VCSEL expert Vertilas says that its latest
generation of 1310 and 1550 nm sources
enables applications up to 10 Gbit/s, thanks to
a benzocyclobutene-based optimized device
structure. It says that this high performance
coupled with a low threshold current makes the
components valuable for the newest generation
of small-form-factor optical modules, such as
SFP+ and XFP.
The lasers are offered in standard TO-46
packages and are being integrated into
application-specific assemblies, such as pigtails
and receptacles.
www.vertilas.com

Bertha-von-Suttner-Str. 5 · D - 37085 Goettingen
tel. + 49 (0) 5 51 - 79 76 70 · info@metrolux.de

OLE • October 2006 • op tics.org/ole

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Page 44

PRODUCT S

The Power
To Heal

LEDs
Osram Opto Semiconductors
Osram Opto
Semiconductors says
that its new advanced
power TopLED devices
are 50% brighter than
their predecessors,
thanks to thin-film
technology. The company quotes an output of
19 lm for green and amber, 15 lm for white and
red, 14 lm for yellow and 5 lm for blue, all at
140 mA. Osram says that this new range is
positioned between standard and high-power
LEDs and is ideal for area and effect lighting. An
SMT package ensures that the LEDs are
compatible with standard solder processes.
www.osram-os.com

Streak Camera

Microinspection system
Moritex

Eduraguide HOPC™ Fibers

A powerful laser delivery system in a
surgeon’s skilled hand helps cure people.
These medical laser systems are made
possible by utilizing Fiberguide Industries
new Eduraguide HOPC™ fibers.
The Eduraguide HOPC™ line of large
core multi-mode fibers have a numerical
aperture of 0.39 and employ a Hard Optical
Polymer Coating (HOPC™). With increased
beam intensity, this exceptional coating
offers superior fiber strength and reduces
static fatigue in humid environments.
Eduraguide HOPC™ fibers offer excellent
connection alignment and they have a high
core to clad ratio. Eduraguide HOPC™ is
also made available in silica/silica HOPC™
fibers that have a N.A. of 0.22 and an
attenuation of <10dB/km@850nm.
The finest medical laser delivery system
starts with Eduraguide HOPC™ fibers.
Call Fiberguide Industries to discuss your
specific requirements.

Contact Fiberguide today and ask
for our new CD-ROM. It's free!

fiberguide
industries

THE PHOTONICS PACKAGING COMPANY

1 Bay Street
Stirling, NJ 07980
Telephone: 908-647-6601
Fax: 908-647-8464
info@fiberguide.com

www.fiberguide.com
44

Moritex of the UK says
that its MS804
Scopeman is a powerful
and easy-to-use
microinspection system
that is able to
undertake almost any
real-time industrial
inspection or quality-assurance task. The system
is available with a range of zoom lenses
(16–200×); x, y and z stages; camera mounts
and a variety of imaging peripherals.
The company says that a combination of
multi-exposure, high-intensity LED lighting and
intuitive software for fast and simple acquisition
allows the system to deliver high-resolution,
1280 × 960 pixel images. It adds that, by
changing the camera’s shutter speed and
combining “bright” and “dark” images, the
MS804 provides an enlarged dynamic range.
www.moritex.com

UV-LED module

High speed Camera

Photon-counting training
SensL
SensL of Ireland has launched two
complementary training courses for academics,
researchers and engineers who wish to learn
more about the technology and techniques used
in photon detection. The products are called
PCEdu-1: photon counting fundamentals and
PCEdu-1T: photon timing upgrade.
PCEdu-1 is an entry level lecture and
laboratory series that SensL says is ideal for
academics looking to start a low-light sensing or
semiconductor device physics training module.
It is also said to be ideal for OEMs looking to
bring an R&D team up to speed quickly.
PCEdu-1T is an upgrade package that takes
the training to a higher level through a series of
lectures and lab experiments dealing with real
photon-counting scenarios.
www.sensl.com

www.photonlines.com
OLE • October 2006 • op tics.org/ole

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PRODUCT S
Colour CCD camera
Toshiba

Raman workstation
McPherson

The IK-TF9C from
Toshiba’s Imaging
Systems Division is a
three-chip, colour CCD
camera with a resolution
of 2048 × 1536 pixels.
Also incorporating Toshiba’s progressive scan
technology to eliminate image jitter, the camera
is said to be ideal for high-speed industrial
machine vision applications.
Measuring 44 × 44 × 78.3 mm and weighing
165 g, the camera has a frame rate of 20 fps
(full frame) and 40 fps (partial scan). Other
specifications include a C-mount for lenses, an
8-bit RGB digital output and CameraLink
compatibility for ease of operation.
www.cameras.toshiba.com

The McPherson Raman
workstation is available
for the popular laser
lines between 325 and
830 nm. Systems
include a solid-state
laser, speciality filters and a sample chamber
with laser focusing and signal-collection optics.
Sample chambers compatible with cryogenic
sample holders are also available for
photoluminescence work.
All elements in the workstation are mounted,
aligned and integrated with a research grade
350 nm, f4.8 spectrometer with CCD and
software. The user-friendly single-stage
instrument is said to ensure good signal to noise
and ease of use for detecting Raman-shifted
emission above 300 wavenumbers.
www.mcphersoninc.com

Software-development kit
Prosilica
Industrial CCD camera
maker Prosilica has
released Linux and QNX
software-development
kits (SDKs) for its range
of GigE Vision cameras,
complementing the
company’s existing Microsoft Windows SDK.
According to Prosilica, the GigE Vision SDKs
provide programmers with the means to control
and capture images from its gigabit Ethernet
cameras. In addition the Linux SDK works on
both Intel ×86 and PowerPC hardware. The SDK
also includes sample code to help
programmers to use Prosilica’s cameras in their
Linux-based applications.
www.prosilica.com

Deep-cooled CCD
Princeton Instruments/Acton
Princeton Instruments/Acton has added the
2048 series of front- and back-illuminated
cameras to its PIXIS line of CCD cameras. Based
on e2v technologies’ 42-40-2048 × 2048
format sensor with an imaging area of
26.7 × 26.7 mm, PI/Acton says that the
PIXIS:2048 offers deep cooling better than
–70 °C (via a thermoelectric Peltier) with a
vacuum guaranteed for the life of the camera.
The new cameras come with the familiar
traits of the PIXIS line, such as dual
100 kHz/2 MHz digitizers, ultra-low read noise
of 3e– rms read noise (at 100 kHz), all-metal
hermetic seals, USB 2.0 interface and single
optical window design.
Other specifications include flexible binning,
ROI capabilities and WinView software. The
company adds that a toolkit with LabView
examples and its own PVCAM library of function
calls is available.
www.piacton.com
OLE • October 2006 • op tics.org/ole

Imaging spectrometer
HORIBA Jobin Yvon
HORIBA Jobin Yvon has
released the iHR550
imaging spectrometer.
With a focal length of
0.55 m, the device
offers the ability to perform multitrack
experiments with up to 20 fibre inputs. Incorrect
and rediffracted spectra are eliminated using an
asymmetric Czerny–Turner design in conjunction
with an on-axis grating drive system.
The iHR550 has two entrance and two exit
ports. Each exit port can be configured for use
with either an array detector, such as a CCD, or
a slit for use with a PMT. The company can
supply the iHR550 in a variety of configurations
for all spectroscopic measurements, including
Raman, photoluminescence, emission and
imaging or multitrack spectroscopy.
www.jobinyvon.co.uk

Dual-wavelength laser diode
Rohm
The RLD2WMUV2 from
Rohm is a singlemode,
dual-wavelength laser
diode that emits at
both 785 and 655 nm,
making it an ideal source for both DVD-ROM
and DVD players. The firm says that
optimization of a strained quantum well has
allowed a reduction in threshold current and
good temperature characteristics.
Rohm quotes a threshold current of 18 mA for
785 nm and 20 mA at 655 nm, both at 25 °C.
The emission pointing distance is specified at
110 µm. The device can be combined with
Rohm’s high-frequency modulation IC
(BU9369FVM) for reduced noise.
www.rohmelectronics.com

Untitled-3

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PRODUCT S
Beam profiler
Photon Inc

intelligent optimization engines, the ability to
import DXF and GDSII mask file formats and a
simulation engine performance boost that the
Photon Inc has
released a 12-bit beam company says allows the software to run 50%
faster than previous versions.
profiler with FireWire
www.optiwave.com
(IEEE 1394)
connectivity and a
large dynamic range.
High-power diode laser
Available in two
LIMO
versions, model 2523 features a 2/3 inch
LIMO has introduced a prototype 25 W diode laser
format (9.0 × 6.7 mm) CCD with 6.45 µm
that emits a 10 × 10 mm beam with a divergence
pixels, whereas model 2512 is based on a 1/2
of 2 × 2 mrad. The company says that the laser,
called LIMO25-C10x10-DL980, has a beaminch format (6.5 × 4.8 mm) CCD with 8.3 µm
parameter-product of 5 mm mrad and yields
pixels. Both profilers have a small form factor
(49 × 62 × 62 mm), making them easy to insert power densities of 5 MW/cm2 in a 25 µm spot. It
into optical paths. According to the firm, the
hopes to double the output power to 50 W in the
beam profiling system does not require a
near future.
frame-grabber card so can be moved easily
LIMO also offers a fibre-coupled version of
between different computers.
this source. The LIMO25-F50-DL980 delivers
The device measures both continuous-wave
25 W via a 50 µm fibre core with a numerical
and pulsed beams over the 190–1100 nm
aperture of 0.22.
wavelength range. The firm claims that by using www.limo.de
extended range imaging, the unit can obtain
profiles with a dynamic range as high as 144 dB Translation stage
(24 bits of digitization). The company adds that PI
very large dynamic range is important in many
PI’s P-652 piezoelectric
applications, especially lens characterization,
linear-motor-driven
where lens aberrations are apparent from faint
translation stage
features around a strong central peak in the
consists of four parts
beam profile.
and, according to the
www.photon-inc.com
firm, can replace
classical drive
elements, such as rotary motor/leadscrew
785 nm laser
assemblies or electromagnetic linear motors in
B&WTek
a microsystem. Measuring only
B&WTek has introduced its Cleanlaze high9.0 × 6.5 × 2.4 mm, the P-652 stage offers a
resolution and wavelength-stabilized laser
technology for Raman spectroscopy. Emitting at travel range of 3.2 mm and can move at
785 nm, multimode models offer 0.2 nm FWHM velocities of up to 80 mm/s. Other
specifications include a resolution of better than
while singlemode versions feature a typical
0.1 µm, a holding force of 20 g and an operating
linewidth of 0.02 nm. Output power options
range from 25 mW to more than 1 W at 785 nm. current of 55 mA. Highly integrated electronics
are available for 3 V control.
Sources emitting at 980 nm and other
www.pi.ws
custom wavelengths are available. The lasers
are said to be ideal for OEM Raman
instrumentation, process, portable and lab
Encapsulant
applications, thanks to their light weight, small Nusil Technology
footprint, high stability, narrow linewidth and
Nusil Technology has added the GEL-9617-30
low maintenance cost.
to its range of Lightspan materials for the
www.bwtek.com
photonics industry. Designed as a protective
encapsulant for LED or other photonic
applications, the gel has a high refractive index
Waveguide optics simulation
of 1.54 to maximize optical efficiency. Nusil
Optiwave Systems
says that the encapsulant resists optical
Optiwave Systems has
degradation when exposed to ultraviolet
released OptiBPM8 –
the latest version of its radiation or extreme temperatures. It adds that
the gel also serves as an effective medium for
waveguide optics
phosphor incorporation. Formulated to cure at
design suite. This has
room temperature, the gel can be cured rapidly
advanced LP and
vector-mode solvers for circular fibres. Optiwave with heat to address issues of substrate and
says that these meshless fibre-mode solvers find lens delamination. The GEL-9617-30 is
available in 50 ml side-by-side kits for
modes using a transfer matrix method in
evaluation purposes.
cylindrical co-ordinates.
www.nusil.com
Other new features in OptiBPM8 include
OLE • October 2006 • op tics.org/ole

ALL FIBER
BEAM
COMBINER
A brand new singlemode fused
ﬁber beam combiner for visible
laser beams.
Blue/Red, Green/Red, Blue/Green
versions available.

www.point-source.com/ole

OLEOct06PRODUCTSp37-49

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Page 48

PRODUCT S

Newport

Power supply
Power-One

Your
One-Source Partner
Partner
Your One-Source
Your Laboratory
Laboratory
To
To Equip
Equip Your
With Newport, you can rely on a partner who has over
40 years of experience in serving the research market to
provide you with the best possible solutions to equip
your laboratory. From the latest instrumentations for
motion control, vibration control, opto-mechanics, light
sources, optics to leading-edge lasers, spectrometers
and many more, Newport is your one-stop source for all
the products and solutions you need to Make, Manage
and Measure LightSM.

Shutters and machine vision
Melles Griot

Motion
Control 䉴

Melles Griot, a provider
of photonic
components, has added
shutters and machine
vision products to its
online catalogue. The
firm’s IES series shutters include an adjustable
iris diaphragm, x synchronization and a manual
actuation lever that allows the device to operate
without an electrical signal. The firm also
supplies UltraThin versions designed to fit into
restricted spaces. Both IES and UltraThin designs
feature spring-steel blades with a Teflon
impregnated, matte-black finish and include a
multiblade shutter mechanism that is said to
give near 100% light extinction.
According to Melles Griot, its range of four
high-performance telecentric lenses suit
machine vision, metrology and precisiongauging applications. The firm claims that the
lenses provide low optical distortion and a high
degree of telecentricity for accurate image
reproduction, particularly when viewing 3D
objects. Lens accessories such as
teleconverters, right-angle attachments, fibrebundle collimators and anodized mounting
brackets are also available from the firm.
www.mellesgriot.com

Vibration
䉳 Control

OptoMechanics 䉴

䉳 Optics

Laser 䉴

䉳 Spectroscopy

䉴

Photonic
䉳 Instruments

Belgium
Tel: +32-(0)16 402927
France
Tel: +33 (0)1.60.91.68.68
Germany
Tel: +49 (0)61 51 / 708-0
Italy
Tel: +39 (0)2/92.90.921
Netherlands
Tel: +31-(0)30 6592111
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1635.521757

Call us to receive a free
copy of the Newport
2006-07 Catalog
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Light

The BLP30-3000G AC–DC power supply is
now available from Power-One. Measuring just
2 × 4 inches, the 30 W unit is quoted as
producing 5 V at 3.5 A (5 A peak), 12 V DC at
2 A and –12 V DC at 0.5 A. The supply is said
to be the ideal power source for spaceconstrained, 1U-high applications, such as
data networking, medical instrumentation and
external disk storage. RoHS compliant, the
unit operates over a wide 90–264 V AC input
range and provides short-circuit and
overvoltage protection.
www.power-one.com

16 × 2 character PLED
One Stop Displays
One Stop Displays has
released its 16 × 2
character PLED in a
new module size of
84 × 44 mm. Dubbed
OSD1602M03-F, the RoHS compatible unit
features 160˚ viewing angles, over 100:1
contrast ratios and a low 20 mA of current draw
at 40 nits of uniform brightness. The display
uses the standard Hitachi HD44780 character
LCD interface and command set, and suits
hand-held products, instrumentation and
security panels to name just a few applications.
www.onestopdisplays.net
OLE • October 2006 • op tics.org/ole

OLEOct06PRODUCTSp37-49

25/9/06

16:14

Page 49

PRODUCT S
Anti-reflective ball lenses
DSI

100 mm and are made primarily from high-index
material with low dispersion. The lenses are
Deposition Sciences Inc manufactured by CNC grinding and polishing
and can be supplied with a choice of three
(DSI) is offering
standard coatings. According to the firm, all
antireflection (AR)
coated ball lenses in a SPAs are available directly from stock.
variety of glass indices www.asphericon.com
and in new larger sizes up to 10 mm diameter.
Highly durable and scratch resistant, the firm’s
UV radiometer
IsoSphere range of AR coated lenses is
Dymax
available with transmission values > 99.5% in
Dymax has added the
indices of up to nd 2.0 at 550 nm. DSI claims
ACCU-CAL 50
radiometer to its range
that its ball lenses are an affordable and
of technical adhesives
mechanically compact way of collimating the
and ultraviolet (UV)
output of an optical fibre or laser diode. Lenses
curing systems. The unit
are resistant to most chemicals and are said to
allows users to monitor
suit aerospace, oil-field exploration, oil refining,
the intensity of a UV
marine and undersea applications.
curing source and assess adhesion
www.depsci.com
performance. Compatible with all types of
DYMAX UV curing systems, such as spot lamps,
Off-the-shelf aspheres
flood lamps and conveyors, the device is said to
Asphericon
Asphericon of Germany has launched a range of be simple to operate. It offers repeatable
measurement in the UVA spectrum
“off the shelf” aspheres. Dubbed Standard
(320–395 nm) from 1 mW/cm2 to 40 W/cm2.
Precision Apsheres (SPAs), the lenses are
available in a number of diameters from 6 to
www.dymax.com

ADVER TISERS’ INDEX
B&W Tek www.bwtek.com
39
BFI Optilas www.bfioptilas.com
21
Breault Research Organization
www.breault.com
IFC, 8
Cambridge Technology
www.cambridgetechnology.com
25
Crystal Systems www.crystalsystems.com
18
CVI Technical Optics www.cvilaser.com
OBC
Duma Optronics www.duma.co.il
35
Edinburgh Instruments www.edinst.com
42
Edmund Optics www.edmundoptics.co.uk
32
EKSPLA www.ekspla.com
38
ELCAN Optical Technologies
www.ELCAN.com/create
4
Electron Tubes www.electrontubes.com
41
Electro-Optical Products www.EOPC.com
32
Esco Products www.escoproducts.com
28
Evatec Process Systems www.evatecnet.com 28
Femto Messtechnik www.femto.de
40
Fiberguide Industries www.fiberguide.com 44
Fuji Magnetics www.polymer-optics.com
15
GPD Optoelectronics www.gpd-ir.com
28
GWU Lasertechnik www.gwu-group.de
24
HC Photonics www.hcphotonics.com
39
High Q Laser www.highqlaser.com
40
Hilger Crystals www.hilger-crystals.co.uk
36
Holo Or www.holoor.co.il
32
IPOT 2007 www.ipot.co.uk
36
Jenoptik Polymer Systems www.jenoptik-ps.de 15
Kentek Corporation www.kentek.com
9
Laser 2007 www.world-of-photonics.net
31
Laser Components (UK) Ltd
www.lasercomponents.co.uk
7
Lasermet www.lasermet.com
39
Laser Quantum www.laserquantum.com
35

Leister Process Technologies www.axetris.com 34
Melles Griot www.mellesgriot.com
13
42
Metrolux Optische www.metrolux.de
Möller-Wedel Optical
www.moeller-wedel-optical.com
18
Multiwave Photonics
www.multiwavephotonics.com
41
New Focus www.newfocus.com
22
Newport Spectra-Physics www.newport.com 48
Ophir Optronics
www.ophiropt.com
6, 14, 50, IBC
Optikos www.optikos.com
32
Opto Taiwan 2007 www.optotaiwan.com
43
PCO AG www.pco.de
45
Photon Energy www.photon-energy.de
36
Photonex 2006 www.photonex.org
12
Photonic Products
www.photonic-products.com
28
Photonics West 2007
www.spie.org/events/pw
46
Photon Lines www.photonlines.com
44
Physik Instrumente www.pi.ws
16
Point Source www.point-source.com
47
Pyser-SGI www.pyser-sgi.com
41
Quantel www.quantel.fr
37
Quintessence Photonics
www.QPClasers.com
10
Scitec Instruments www.scitec.uk.com
32
Spanoptic www.spanoptic.com
48
Stanford Research Systems
www.thinkSRS.com
20
StockerYale Inc www.stockeryale.com
15, 39
Tempo Plastic www.tempo-foam.com
18
Toptica www.toptica.com
49
XeniCs www.xenics.com
30

The index is provided as a service and, while every effort is made to ensure its accuracy, Optics & Laser
Europe accepts no liability for error.

OLE • October 2006 • op tics.org/ole

Tune it to Your
Wavelength
Single-mode, single-frequency,
tunable diode lasers for
industrial applications

· Spectral range 760 .. 2300 nm
·Narrow linewidth (1 .. 4 MHz)
·Up to 1400 GHz
mode-hop free tuning

·Very compact size
(e.g. 58 x 44 x 30 mm3)

· Full computer control
Fields of application

·Gas sensing
· Combustion monitoring
· Drug screening
· Interferometry
· Tunable THz generation
OEM applications are encouraged
TOPTICA - Your Partner for
• Diode laser systems
• Femtosecond fiber lasers
• Industrial lasers
• Optical media testing
Graefelfing, Germany
T (49) 89 85 837-0
sales@toptica.com
www.toptica.com

OLEOct06PEOPLEp50

25/9/06

15:57

Page 50

PEOPLE

To advertise your job vacancies, contact Cadi Jones (tel: +44 (0)117 930 1090; e-mail: cadi.jones@iop.org).
GERMANY

Gretschel takes director
role at QioptiQ GmbH

Optical software expert
adds to developer team

Ingo Gretschel has
been named as the
managing director at
QioptiQ GmbH,
which is based in
Asslar, Germany.
Formerly head of
optoelectronic sales at German firm Docter
Optics, Gretschel has many years’ experience
in optomechanical design and in the
manufacture of products and components
for both military and commercial
applications. Gretschel took up his new role
on 1 August and reports to QioptiQ group
chief executive officer Benoit Bazire.

BRO, US, has
appointed Jianhua
Jiang as a
computational
optical scientist.
Jiang joins the firm
after nearly 10 years
of optical training and research at the
University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH),
most recently as the leader of the
simulation group at the UAH Nano and
Micro Devices Center.
The firm has also recently made additions
to its Technical Customer Service Group
through the appointment of William
Donnelly as senior optical engineer and
Robert Shroder as optical engineer.

FINLAND

Orsila continues as the
chairman at Modulight
Modulight has announced that Seppo Orsila
has been re-elected to the position of
chairman of the board but has withdrawn
from his operational role as chief financial
officer and vice-president of marketing at the
Finnish firm. A founder of Modulight, Orsila
will continue to contribute to the strategic
planning of the firm in his role as chairman.
Modulight was founded in 2000.

FRANCE/US

Liebowitz to lead Teem
Photonics in the US
Teem Photonics of
France, a specialist
in passively
Q-switched
microlasers and ionexchange integrated
optics, has appointed

Jay Liebowitz as president of its wholly
owned US subsidiary. Liebowitz had
previously been executive vice-president.
“Jay has helped to diversify our business
from telecoms and towards a wider breadth
of industries, including biophotonics,
instrumentation, remote sensing and
materials processing,” said Antoine
Kevorkian, chief executive officer of Teem
Photonics SA. “We see a significant growth
opportunity for our Q-switched microlaser
business in North America, so it makes
sense to elevate Jay’s position for leading
our expansion in this continent.”
US

Albe steps into a crucial
sales role at BinOptics
US-based BinOptics, a
maker of integrated
microphotonic
components for
optical
communications
and data-storage
applications, has named Edward Albe as vicepresident (VP) of sales and marketing. Most
recently, as VP of sales and customer service
at Picolight, Albe led the firm’s resurgence in
the fibre-optic transceiver market-place.
Founded in 2000, BinOptics is
headquartered in Ithaca, New York.

SUDOKU PUZZLE
SPONSORED BY

LAST MONTH’S
SOLUTION

We hope you enjoyed September’s Sudoku
puzzle. You can check your answers against last
month’s solution on the left.
If you are new to Sudoku, this is how it works:
each puzzle consists of a 9 × 9 grid that is
subdivided into 9 smaller grids of 3 × 3 squares.
To complete the puzzle, you must ensure that
each row, column and 3 × 3 square contains the
numbers 1–9. All it takes is logic so try not to
guess at the numbers.

OLE • October 2006 • op tics.org/ole

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