Latest Content

Information Acquisition, Processing, and Display

  • Spotlight Summary by Simone Lolli

    • Design of a monolithic Michelson interferometer for fringe imaging in a near-field, UV, direct-detection Doppler wind lidar
    • Cleared for takeoff!

      Measurements that provide vertically-resolved wind profile information globally are critical for climate studies and for improving numerical weather prediction. But high temporal resolution...
    • Appl. Opt. 55(25) 6910-6929 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Bernhard Schmauss

    • Multi-wavelength coherent transmission using an optical frequency comb as a local oscillator
    • Multi-wavelength coherent optical transmission using higher order modulation formats is an important focus area in optical communication systems research and development. To fulfill the ever increasing demand for higher...
    • Opt. Express 24(22) 25432-25445 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Brad Deutsch

    • Application of range migration algorithms to imaging with a dynamic metasurface antenna
    • Microwave radiation is used to form images of buried objects, which is crucial in security screening and medical settings. But traditionally, the hardware needed for such imaging is cumbersome, including large arrays of...
    • J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 33(10) 2082-2092 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Roarke Horstmeyer

    • Metacoatings for wavelength-scale, high-numerical-aperture plano–concave focusing lenses
    • Advances in nanotechnology have led to many new achievements in fields ranging from electronics to medicine. The general trend of “smaller is better” also applies to the world of optics, where optical elements designed...
    • J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 33(10) 2120-2128 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Shalin Mehta

    • Exploring the potential of tailored spectral focusing
    • The inelastic scattering of light, during which a molecule either absorbs energy from or adds energy to the incident photon, provides a unique probe to study the chemical nature of materials. The discovery by C. V....
    • J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 33(7) 1482-1491 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Roarke Horstmeyer

    • Beyond the diffraction limit via optical amplification
    • One way to get a better glimpse of the stars is to build a bigger telescope. Astronomers are now planning to construct several telescopes with apertures that exceed 30 meters in diameter, which will improve our ability...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(14) 3181-3184 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Roarke Horstmeyer

    • Effects of surface materials on polarimetric-thermal measurements: applications to face recognition
    • If you’re in the mood for a makeover, you might want to try cutting your hair, buying some new clothes, or maybe testing out a different color of lipstick or blush. Even after making some dramatic changes though, you...
    • Appl. Opt. 55(19) 5226-5233 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Julien Réhault

    • Fourier transform two-dimensional electronic-vibrational spectroscopy using an octave-spanning mid-IR probe
    • Mixed electronic-vibrational (EV) two-dimensional (2D) spectroscopies have a large potential for revealing the coupling between electronic and vibrational states. Most chemical reactions are triggered by ultraviolet or...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(12) 2895-2898 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Tetsuya Ido

    • Measuring absolute frequencies beyond the GPS limit via long-haul optical frequency dissemination
    • SI-traceable measurement of optical frequencies is no longer the privilege of national metrological institutes. In this recently published article in Optics Express by Clivati et al., high-speed optical frequency...
    • Opt. Express 24(11) 11865-11875 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Roarke Horstmeyer

    • Rank-based camera spectral sensitivity estimation
    • Should I filter that picture using the “noir” or the “instant” look? It is increasingly important to get the color just right in our digital images — or at least it appears to be so for most Instagram users. However, it...
    • J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 33(4) 589-599 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Francesco Morichetti

    • Freeform three-dimensional embedded polymer waveguides enabled by external-diffusion assisted two-photon lithography
    • High-index contrast waveguides now go 3D on a photonic chip.
      One of the main limits of planar lightwave circuits is that they are… planar indeed! Giving optical waveguides a third dimension would offer more...
    • Appl. Opt. 55(8) 1906-1912 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Jürgen Röpcke

    • Fiber-coupled diode-laser sensors for calibration-free stand-off measurements of gas temperature, pressure, and composition
    • The methods of tunable diode-laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) in combination with newly developed sensor configurations have been proven capable of providing non-intrusive, in situ, species-specific measurements of...
    • Appl. Opt. 55(3) 479-484 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Siddharth Sivankutty

    • Two-photon imaging through a multimode fiber
    • Development of fiber based nonlinear endoscopes is of significant interest in the bio-imaging community for its ability to perform in-depth, label-free and optically sectioned in-vivo imaging. Conventional fiber-based...
    • Opt. Express 23(25) 32158-32170 (2015) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Enrique J. Galvez

    • Experimental demonstration of 20 Gbit/s data encoding and 2 ns channel hopping using orbital angular momentum modes
    • Optical spatial modes were used as carriers for the repeated switching of communication channels, the optical-mode counterpart of frequency hopping in spread-spectrum radio communications. Instead of frequency hopping...
    • Opt. Lett. 40(24) 5810-5813 (2015) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

Light–Matter Interactions

  • Spotlight Summary by Filippo Miatto

    • Extended phase-matching properties of periodically poled potassium niobate crystals for mid-infrared polarization-entangled photon-pair generation
    • A short light pulse must have a broad bandwidth. This is a consequence of the Fourier relation between time and frequency.

      Imagine now feeding a short pulse to a process that is efficient only in a narrow...
    • Appl. Opt. 55(34) 9791-9796 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Ilya Shadrivov

    • Terahertz saturable absorption in superconducting metamaterials
    • Terahertz frequency range still remains the least explored part of the electromagnetic spectrum; however, this is being rapidly rectified by the research community. As an example, in the past several years we have seen...
    • J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 33(12) 2649-2655 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Andrey Kuzmin

    • Analytical model of tunable Alexandrite lasing under diode end-pumping with experimental comparison
    • The scope of laser technologies in dermatology has expanded dramatically in recent years. Dermatology laser procedures, including the removal of vascular and pigmented lesions, tattoos, scars, and undesired hairs, are...
    • J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 33(12) 2525-2534 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Jean-Baptiste Masson

    • Simple and distortion-free optical sampling of terahertz pulses via heterodyne detection schemes
    • Even though Terahertz (THz) optics is becoming more accessible, detecting and characterizing THz radiation remains a technical challenge. In this JOSAB paper Degert et al. introduce two new methods to detect THz...
    • J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 33(10) 2045-2050 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Bryn Bell

    • Decoherence of orbital angular momentum tangled photons in non-Kolmogorov turbulence
    • Single photons in orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes have attracted attention largely because of their potential use in free-space quantum communication. While traditional quantum communication protocols encode...
    • J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 33(9) 1831-1835 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Paul Hamilton

    • Phase shift formulation for N-light-pulse atom interferometers: application to inertial sensing
    • Tailoring the geometry of atom interferometers is simple, requiring only a change in the sequence of light pulses that act as beamsplitters and mirrors. This versatility allows atom interferometry to be used for an...
    • J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 33(8) 1777-1788 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Filippo Miatto

    • A certification scheme for the boson sampler
    • Boson sampling is one of those tricky problems that can bog down an ordinary computer but is a breeze for a quantum computer to solve. Suppose I sold you a black box with the promise that it is a quantum computer that...
    • J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 33(9) 1835-1841 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by William Okell

    • Attosecond photoelectron streaking with enhanced energy resolution for small-bandgap materials
    • A new multilayer mirror has enabled the generation of light pulses suitable for studying extremely fast charge dynamics in semiconductors. Electrons move around in matter on incredibly short timescales of hundreds of...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(16) 3714-3717 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Andrey Kuzmin

    • Near perfect mode overlap between independently seeded, gain-switched lasers
    • Photon-based quantum cryptography, communication, and computation schemes have increased the need for light sources that produce indistinguishable coherent pulses at a high rate. Ideally a single-photon source, such as...
    • Opt. Express 24(16) 17849-17859 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Taek Yong Hwang

    • High power multi-color OPCPA source with simultaneous femtosecond deep-UV to mid-IR outputs
    • Optical pump-probe spectroscopic techniques have been for many decades essential tools to understand various ultrafast dynamic phenomena such as photo-induced dissociation of molecules and exciton dynamics in...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(15) 3583-3586 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Alessandro Restelli

    • High-voltage integrated active quenching circuit for single photon count rate up to 80 Mcounts/s
    • Single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) are a workhorse in a growing number of cutting edge applications and they are gradually phasing out photomultipliers for their ruggedness, reduced size and cost and enhanced...
    • Opt. Express 24(16) 17819-17831 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Mariia Sorokina

    • High-speed all-optical NAND/AND logic gates using four-wave mixing Bragg scattering
    • There is an ever-increasing demand for ultrafast signal processing. As opto-electronic conversion and digital signal processing are now a backbone of signal processing, its all-optical equivalent promises dramatic...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(14) 3320-3323 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Kathleen Adelsberger

    • Simple method for determination of parameters of cemented doublet
    • Reverse engineering the inner parameters of a cemented doublet has always presented a significant challenge to optical engineers. However, new advances in technology have enabled a greatly simplified method to...
    • Appl. Opt. 55(20) 5456-5458 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by James Cryan

    • High-repetition-rate and high-photon-flux 70 eV high-harmonic source for coincidence ion imaging of gas-phase molecules
    • High flux extreme ultraviolet laser sources are well suited for studying photo-induced chemical reactions. The motion of the atomic constituents of a molecule during a chemical reaction is extremely fast, less than one...
    • Opt. Express 24(16) 18133-18147 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Taek Yong Hwang

    • Angle-resolved multioctave supercontinua from mid-infrared laser filaments
    • Since its first demonstration by Alfano and Shapiro, supercontinuum generation has been one of the most interesting topics in laser physics for more than four decades, due to its unique capability of dramatically...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(15) 3479-3482 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Michael Frosz

    • Mid-infrared supercontinuum generation spanning 2.0 to 15.1  μm in a chalcogenide step-index fiber
    • There is a fierce, but unofficial, competition in the nonlinear fiber optics community to produce the widest optical spectrum with high spatial coherence, also called a supercontinuum. The record has now been broken, at...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(9) 2117-2120 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Andrey N. Kuzmin

    • GaSb-based vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with an emission wavelength at 3 μm
    • Tunable diode lasers (TDL) that emit in the middle infrared (MIR) wavelength range are widely used sources of coherent light in absorption spectroscopy techniques, such as high-resolution molecular spectroscopy and...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(12) 2799-2802 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Gianluca Galzerano

    • Thermally controlled comb generation and soliton modelocking in microresonators
    • The availability of optical frequency comb devices with extreme temporal coherence allowed the development of spectroscopic instruments with unprecedented ultrabroad band and high-speed capabilities. Recently,...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(11) 2565-2568 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Bryn Bell

    • Single-mode squeezing in arbitrary spatial modes
    • Squeezed states of light, exhibiting reduced quantum noise in one field quadrature at the expense of increased noise in another, have long been a subject of interest in quantum optics. Squeezed states have applications...
    • Opt. Express 24(7) 7633-7642 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Shakil Rehman

    • Ultraviolet femtosecond Kerr-gated wide-field fluorescence microscopy
    • Observing ultrafast processes requires techniques that are capable of simultaneously resolving spatial features at the nanometer scale and femtosecond time resolution. A time-resolved fluorescence microscopic method is...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(11) 2462-2465 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Prashant K. Jain

    • Shape-induced optical activity of chiral nanocrystals
    • Otherwise ordinary semiconductor nanocrystals can exhibit strong optical signatures of chirality, as Rukhlenko et al. demonstrate in this interesting theoretical study in Optics Letters. A chiral object is an object...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(11) 2438-2441 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Parinda Vasa

    • Broadband efficient directional coupling to short-range plasmons: towards hybrid fiber nanotips
    • Metal nanostructures supporting surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) carry significant potential for guiding and manipulating light on the nanoscale. SPPs are spatially confined electromagnetic field modes at a...
    • Opt. Express 24(7) 7507-7524 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Paul Kuzmenko

    • Vacuum and cryogenic compatible black surface for large optical baffles in advanced gravitational-wave telescopes
    • What can one use when an optical black coating is required for stray light suppression but black paint is not suitable? This paper describes a niche application where a black coating is needed for a laser interferometer...
    • Opt. Mater. Express 6(5) 1613-1626 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Shakil Rehman

    • High refractive index immersion liquid for superresolution 3D imaging using sapphire-based aplanatic numerical aperture increasing lens optics
    • Sapphire is one of the hardest substances available, and optical elements made from it have extreme surface hardness, scratch resistance, and a high refractive index of 1.76. Sapphire is used to improve the resolving...
    • Appl. Opt. 55(12) 3165-3169 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Omri Gat

    • Critical fluctuations in an optical parametric oscillator: when light behaves like magnetism
    • Quantum light exhibits pattern formation and non-equilibrium fluctuations. Non-equilibrium phase transitions and pattern formation are paradigms of complexity theory, and have been vigorously studied for several...
    • J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 33(5) 871-883 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Taek Yong Hwang

    • 100 W average power femtosecond laser at 343 nm
    • Due to their superior performance and low maintenance cost at high average power, Yb-doped fiber lasers are one of the preferred choices for highly productive laser materials processing. To make use of their benefits in...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(8) 1885-1888 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by James R. Taylor

    • Versatile and widely tunable mid-infrared erbium doped ZBLAN fiber laser
    • This simple CW fiber laser using a commercially available erbium doped ZBLAN fiber allows over 450 nm of narrow-line, tunable radiation centered around 3500 nm using a dual wavelength pump technique, providing a...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(7) 1676-1679 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Andrey N. Kuzmin

    • Optically pumped 1.3 μm room-temperature InAs quantum-dot micro-disk lasers directly grown on (001) silicon
    • This work is one of the exciting studies aimed at the integration of III-V semiconductor optical devices onto silicon, to fuse efficient photonic circuits with advanced silicon technology. The progress in high...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(7) 1664-1667 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Ilya Shadrivov

    • Optical Fano resonances in a nonconcentric nanoshell
    • An undergraduate textbook on electromagnetism tells us that a small subwavelength spherical particle scatters light as a dipole. Present work shows us that this simple picture changes completely if an even smaller...
    • Appl. Opt. 55(10) 2611-2618 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Brad Deutsch

    • Electrical excitation of waveguided surface plasmons by a light-emitting tunneling optical gap antenna
    • The field of plasmonics promises to revolutionize computing by using coupled optical-electronic excitations to speed up logical operations by many orders of magnitude. While researchers have become skilled at...
    • Opt. Express 24(4) 3873-3884 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Filippo Miatto

    • Coupled orbital angular momentum conversions in a quasi-periodically poled LiTaO3 crystal
    • The orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light is a tool that has numerous promising applications, ranging from quantum sensing, quantum communication and realizations of quantum information protocols. In order to produce...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(6) 1169-1172 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Brynmor Davis

    • Ptychographic reconstruction of attosecond pulses
    • The fastest pulses of light can be painfully slow to measure, but a new technique promises to make it easier. Over the last decade it has become increasingly common to generate and measure optical pulses lasting only...
    • Opt. Express 23(23) 29502-29513 (2015) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Jean-Baptiste Masson

    • Carrier envelope phase shifter for broadband terahertz pulses
    • Recent developments in terahertz (THz) generation technologies allow high-energy beams to be generated and thus the study of terahertz-matter interactions for high-fields. A key element of these interactions is the...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(5) 986-989 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Filippo Miatto

    • Bright source of polarization-entangled photons using a PPKTP pumped by a broadband multi-mode diode laser
    • We sure like down-converted photons; they are highly entangled and relatively easy to produce: just pump a nonlinear crystal with a laser and voila, job done! Nevertheless, there is a continuous push to obtain brighter...
    • Opt. Express 24(2) 1165-1174 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Gianluca Gagliardi

    • Shock-tube measurements of excited oxygen atoms using cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy
    • Cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy (CEAS) allows the accurate study of non-equilibrium, high temperature gas processes (typical, for example, of the environment near hypersonic vehicles). The combination between a...
    • Appl. Opt. 54(29) 8766-8775 (2015) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Parinda Vasa

    • Properties of near-field photoluminescence in green emitting single and multiple semipolar (2021) plane InGaN/GaN quantum wells
    • Quantum wells (QWs) are at the heart of opto-electronic devices. Therefore comprehensive characterization of their optical properties is an essential step in device fabrication. Photoluminescence (PL) is a process of...
    • Opt. Mater. Express 6(1) 39-45 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

Optical Design and Instrumentation

  • Spotlight Summary by Roarke Horstmeyer

    • Transparent optical fingerprint capture system based on subwavelength metallic grating couplers
    • As many of us already know, the age of the touch screen is here. Today’s sleek smartphones have come a long way since the big, boxy mobile phones of the 1980’s. Even though they no longer require buttons, our new and...
    • Opt. Mater. Express 6(12) 3899-3907 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Ralf Reulke

    • Monochromatic measurements of the JPSS-1 VIIRS polarization sensitivity
    • The sensitivity of remote sensors to polarized light is often referred to as the “self-polarization”. If the self-polarization is not negligible, polarized radiation is interpreted in a direction-dependent manner. Thus,...
    • Appl. Opt. 55(27) 7444-7454 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Alessandro Restelli

    • High-voltage integrated active quenching circuit for single photon count rate up to 80 Mcounts/s
    • Single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) are a workhorse in a growing number of cutting edge applications and they are gradually phasing out photomultipliers for their ruggedness, reduced size and cost and enhanced...
    • Opt. Express 24(16) 17819-17831 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Kathleen Adelsberger

    • Simple method for determination of parameters of cemented doublet
    • Reverse engineering the inner parameters of a cemented doublet has always presented a significant challenge to optical engineers. However, new advances in technology have enabled a greatly simplified method to...
    • Appl. Opt. 55(20) 5456-5458 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Filippo Miatto

    • Ultra-precise holographic beam shaping for microscopic quantum control
    • The more complex a quantum system is, the harder it is to control it because with more degrees of freedom there are just more things that could go wrong. That is why scientists have learned to arrange their atoms in...
    • Opt. Express 24(13) 13881-13893 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Richard Bowman

    • Varied-line-spacing switchable holographic grating using polymer-dispersed liquid crystal
    • Wang and co-workers have created switchable holographic diffraction gratings with a line spacing that changes from one side of the grating to the other, using polymer-dispersed liquid crystals. Such gratings (known as...
    • Appl. Opt. 55(18) 4952-4957 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Maria Losurdo

    • Use of optical spacers to enhance infrared Mueller ellipsometry sensitivity: application to the characterization of organic thin films
    • What can light-based techniques do ever better? Although it is not widely known, recently Mueller matrix ellipsometry (MME) is being applied as a powerful tool for the characterization of depolarization effects,...
    • Appl. Opt. 55(12) 3323-3332 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Kedar Khare

    • Open-geometry Fourier modal method: modeling nanophotonic structures in infinite domains
    • Nanophotonics refers to the study of interaction of nano-scale material structures with light. Compared to the usual bulk materials, the interaction of light with sub-wavelength structures offers several new properties...
    • J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 33(7) 1298-1306 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Paul Kuzmenko

    • Vacuum and cryogenic compatible black surface for large optical baffles in advanced gravitational-wave telescopes
    • What can one use when an optical black coating is required for stray light suppression but black paint is not suitable? This paper describes a niche application where a black coating is needed for a laser interferometer...
    • Opt. Mater. Express 6(5) 1613-1626 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Shakil Rehman

    • High refractive index immersion liquid for superresolution 3D imaging using sapphire-based aplanatic numerical aperture increasing lens optics
    • Sapphire is one of the hardest substances available, and optical elements made from it have extreme surface hardness, scratch resistance, and a high refractive index of 1.76. Sapphire is used to improve the resolving...
    • Appl. Opt. 55(12) 3165-3169 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Ilya Shadrivov

    • Omnidirectional transformation-optics cloak made from lenses and glenses
    • Geometric optics is the most developed and the most intuitive part of optics. At least this is the impression you are likely to have before you read this manuscript. The authors of this work go beyond conventional...
    • J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 33(6) 1032-1040 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Jean-Baptiste Masson

    • Probing low-density carriers in a single atomic layer using terahertz parallel-plate waveguides
    • 2D materials such as graphene, a planar sheet of carbon molecules arranged in a honeycomb lattice, exhibit interesting properties that open new applications in electronics and optoelectronics. Probing the electronic...
    • Opt. Express 24(4) 3885-3893 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Richard Bownman

    • Nanoparticle-polymer composite volume holographic gratings dispersed with ultrahigh-refractive-index hyperbranched polymer as organic nanoparticles
    • Volume holograms are tremendously versatile optical components, with uses as diverse as head-mounted displays, narrowband filters, and high density data storage. They are made by exposing a thick film of material to an...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(6) 1281-1284 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Kedar Khare

    • Nondiffracting Bessel beams with polarization state that varies with propagation distance
    • The term “non-diffracting Bessel beam” refers to a specially engineered optical beam that does not change its intensity profile on propagation. This idea is somewhat counterintuitive as most optical beams are expected...
    • Opt. Lett. 40(23) 5451-5454 (2015) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Brad Deutsch

    • Effective light absorption and its enhancement factor for silicon nanowire-based solar cell
    • Practically every solar cell has an anti-reflective coating, since the fewer photons that bounce off of the surface, the more of them can be converted into stored electrical charges. Scientists have recently found that...
    • Appl. Opt. 55(1) 117-121 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Sun-Kyu Lee

    • High luminous flux from single crystal phosphor-converted laser-based white lighting system
    • With the rapid development of GaN-based blue LDs in recent years, laser-based white lighting systems are expected to become the next-generation illumination systems, in order to make up for the weak points of LEDs, such...
    • Opt. Express 24(2) A215-A221 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Gianluca Gagliardi

    • Shock-tube measurements of excited oxygen atoms using cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy
    • Cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy (CEAS) allows the accurate study of non-equilibrium, high temperature gas processes (typical, for example, of the environment near hypersonic vehicles). The combination between a...
    • Appl. Opt. 54(29) 8766-8775 (2015) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by M.E. Thomas and T.R. Clark

    • Surface losses in the visible governed by Rayleigh scattering in synthetic diamonds
    • Normally laser calorimetry isn’t used to measure scatter in a material, but rather low level absorption. However, in the Optical Materials Express article by Chen et al. entitled ‘Surface losses in the visible governed...
    • Opt. Mater. Express 5(11) 2443-2447 (2015) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Kedar Khare

    • Efficient and versatile surface integral approach to light scattering in stratified media
    • “Nano-optics” broadly refers to the study of interaction of light with material structures having sub-wavelength features and the associated exotic (and often counter-intuitive) effects that allow us to probe nature...
    • Opt. Express 23(17) 21741-21760 (2015) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

Optics in Biology and Medicine

  • Spotlight Summary by Summer Gibbs

    • Functional imaging of the human brain using a modular, fibre-less, high-density diffuse optical tomography system
    • Although the human brain determines all aspects of our life, signaling and signal transduction are still poorly understood. Imaging tools have been developed that facilitate real-time monitoring of changes in the brain...
    • Biomed. Opt. Express 7(10) 4275-4288 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by David Paganin

    • Unidirectional x-ray output from a crystal waveguide affected by Berry’s phase
    • The famous Berry phase has been described as "the phase that launched a thousand scripts". Aside from its understatement, this phrase neatly embodies the enormity of Berry´s idea and its historical antecedents. ...
    • Opt. Express 24(21) 24544-24550 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Summer Gibbs

    • Sensitive and selective detection of prostate-specific antigen using a photonic crystal nanolaser
    • Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) is a well characterized biomarker for prostate cancer that can be detected in the blood. Studies using PSA for prostate cancer detection have demonstrated varied sensitivity and...
    • Opt. Express 24(12) 12886-12892 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Nathan Doble

    • Dynamic full field optical coherence tomography: subcellular metabolic contrast revealed in tissues by interferometric signals temporal analysis
    • Non-invasive, high resolution optical imaging is constantly opening exciting new possibilities for the study of cellular structure and function, both in-vivo and from excised tissue. Of the many imaging modalities...
    • Biomed. Opt. Express 7(4) 1511-1524 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Summer Gibbs

    • Topical MMP beacon enabled fluorescence-guided resection of oral carcinoma
    • Surgical resection is often the first line of defense against cancers that are locally contained, where long-term control is the result of complete resection with margins negative for tumor tissue. Complete resection is...
    • Biomed. Opt. Express 7(3) 1089-1099 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Mengyang Liu

    • High power visible light emitting diodes as pulsed excitation sources for biomedical photoacoustics
    • To many researchers in the field of photoacoustics, light sources are the bottleneck for this imaging modality. The bulky optical parametric oscillators normally used in photoacoustic tomography systems require not only...
    • Biomed. Opt. Express 7(4) 1260-1270 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Shalin Mehta

    • Deep in vivo two-photon microscopy with a low cost custom built mode-locked 1060 nm fiber laser
    • Optical technologies for non-linear microscopy have transformed neurobiology, cancer biology, and developmental biology by enabling visualization of cellular structures in behaving animals. Two-photon microscopy stands...
    • Biomed. Opt. Express 7(2) 324-334 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

Optoelectronics

  • Spotlight Summary by Franko Küppers

    • Survey of Photonic Switching Architectures and Technologies in Support of Spatially and Spectrally Flexible Optical Networking [Invited]
    • Nowadays capacity of the optical communication lines based on time-division multiplexing (TDM) and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) tends to be restricted only by the nonlinear Shannon limit. Nevertheless,...
    • J. Opt. Commun. Netw. 9(1) 1-26 (2017) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Erik Schartner

    • Fiber-optic electron-spin-resonance thermometry of single laser-activated neurons
    • Temperature is a fundamental process that’s important to a wide array of biological processes, and better understanding of how cells react to changes in temperature on an individual basis is critical to our overall...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(23) 5563-5566 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Andrey Kuzmin

    • Analytical model of tunable Alexandrite lasing under diode end-pumping with experimental comparison
    • The scope of laser technologies in dermatology has expanded dramatically in recent years. Dermatology laser procedures, including the removal of vascular and pigmented lesions, tattoos, scars, and undesired hairs, are...
    • J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 33(12) 2525-2534 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Stephan Pachnicke

    • PON Roadmap [Invited]
    • How will next generation passive optical network (PON) technologies look, and what are the drivers for future PON evolution? In this article, Derek Nesset reviews the existing PON standards and outlines the future...
    • J. Opt. Commun. Netw. 9(1) A71-A76 (2017) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Bernhard Schmauss

    • Multi-wavelength coherent transmission using an optical frequency comb as a local oscillator
    • Multi-wavelength coherent optical transmission using higher order modulation formats is an important focus area in optical communication systems research and development. To fulfill the ever increasing demand for higher...
    • Opt. Express 24(22) 25432-25445 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Thomas Udem

    • Generation of a frequency comb spanning more than 3.6 octaves from ultraviolet to mid infrared
    • Self-referenced frequency combs have been around for almost two decades and have found numerous applications in the physical sciences. Initially, they were designed to measure the frequency of continuous wave (CW)...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(17) 3980-3983 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Paul Steinvurzel

    • An all fiber-optic multi-parameter structure health monitoring system
    • Hu et al. use laser light to ultrasonically shake a metal plate and simultaneously measure the shaking, enabling structural health monitoring for extreme conditions.

      Silica glass has a high melting point and is...
    • Opt. Express 24(18) 20287-20296 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Stefano Palomba

    • CMOS compatible metal-insulator-metal plasmonic perfect absorbers
    • Photonics is becoming an increasingly important platform for the next generation of sensors in Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC) devices. Such devices should be self sufficient, cost effective, extremely portable, sensitive to low...
    • Opt. Mater. Express 6(7) 2389-2396 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Andrey Kuzmin

    • Near perfect mode overlap between independently seeded, gain-switched lasers
    • Photon-based quantum cryptography, communication, and computation schemes have increased the need for light sources that produce indistinguishable coherent pulses at a high rate. Ideally a single-photon source, such as...
    • Opt. Express 24(16) 17849-17859 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Younggyun Jeong

    • Coherent octave-spanning mid-infrared supercontinuum generated in As2S3-silica double-nanospike waveguide pumped by femtosecond Cr:ZnS laser
    • Can we observe the vibration of molecules or distinguish specific components within a gas mixture? Broadband mid-infrared (mid-IR) sources enable us to access this molecular information. Supercontinuum generation is one...
    • Opt. Express 24(11) 12406-12413 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Paul McManamon

    • High power compatible internally sensed optical phased array
    • This article provides a method to combine multiple fiber lasers up to the 100 watt power level, and to electronically steer the combined output. The authors hold out hope of phasing up to kilowatt-class fiber lasers...
    • Opt. Express 24(12) 13467-13479 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by James Cryan

    • High-repetition-rate and high-photon-flux 70 eV high-harmonic source for coincidence ion imaging of gas-phase molecules
    • High flux extreme ultraviolet laser sources are well suited for studying photo-induced chemical reactions. The motion of the atomic constituents of a molecule during a chemical reaction is extremely fast, less than one...
    • Opt. Express 24(16) 18133-18147 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Michael Frosz

    • Polymer-clad silica fibers for tailoring modal area and dispersion
    • Engineering advances are often made by simplifying previous designs, as they turn out to be unnecessarily complicated. In recent years, the development of optical fibers for high-power amplifiers has been going towards...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(15) 3587-3590 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Alexander Pukhov

    • Demonstration of acceleration of relativistic electrons at a dielectric microstructure using femtosecond laser pulses
    • Designing a compact accelerator one would hardly think of a microscale silicon chip and a fiber laser normally used for telecom. Yet, this is exactly what the future might look like. The authors of this Optics Letters...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(12) 2696-2699 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Francesco Morichetti

    • Ultralow crosstalk nanosecond-scale nested 2 × 2 Mach–Zehnder silicon photonic switch
    • Fast switching in silicon photonics gets record performance. High-performance supercomputing and datacentre networks yearns for energy-efficient solutions for fast and high-capacity data switching in high-port-count...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(13) 3002-3005 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Darli Mello

    • Using 25  GbE Client Rates to Access the Gains of Adaptive Bit- and Code-Rate Networking
    • Most commercially available optical transceivers operate at a constant line rate (e.g. 100 Gb/s), regardless of the link length. But this scenario is likely to change soon. In the forthcoming distance-adaptive...
    • J. Opt. Commun. Netw. 8(7) A86-A91 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Andrey N. Kuzmin

    • GaSb-based vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with an emission wavelength at 3 μm
    • Tunable diode lasers (TDL) that emit in the middle infrared (MIR) wavelength range are widely used sources of coherent light in absorption spectroscopy techniques, such as high-resolution molecular spectroscopy and...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(12) 2799-2802 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Stephan Pachnicke

    • Potentialities and Criticalities of Flexible-Rate Transponders in DWDM Networks: A Statistical Approach
    • How can next generation optical core networks be better exploited using already deployed equipment?

      The authors of this JOCN article, M. Cantono et al., propose a new method which allows identifying link...
    • J. Opt. Commun. Netw. 8(7) A76-A85 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Bernhard Schmauss

    • Large-Area Low-Loss Fibers and Advanced Amplifiers for High-Capacity Long-Haul Optical Networks [Invited]
    • Transmission fibers with reduced loss and minimized nonlinear effects as well as advanced optical amplifiers are key components for future optical communication networks. Nonlinear coupling between neighboring...
    • J. Opt. Commun. Netw. 8(7) A55-A63 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Tetsuya Ido

    • Measuring absolute frequencies beyond the GPS limit via long-haul optical frequency dissemination
    • SI-traceable measurement of optical frequencies is no longer the privilege of national metrological institutes. In this recently published article in Optics Express by Clivati et al., high-speed optical frequency...
    • Opt. Express 24(11) 11865-11875 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Taek Yong Hwang

    • 100 W average power femtosecond laser at 343 nm
    • Due to their superior performance and low maintenance cost at high average power, Yb-doped fiber lasers are one of the preferred choices for highly productive laser materials processing. To make use of their benefits in...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(8) 1885-1888 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Francesco Morichetti

    • Broadband on-chip near-infrared spectroscopy based on a plasmonic grating filter array
    • Broadband high-resolution spectroscopy: plasmonics makes it cheap on a chip.

      The development of portable, cost-effective solutions for on-site sensing requires spectroscopy systems that use neither expensive nor...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(9) 1913-1916 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Steven Rogers

    • Design and characterization of integrated components for SiN photonic quantum circuits
    • The field of quantum photonics is making leaps that may bear fruit in the form of practical technologies. In recent years, groups around the globe have intensely focused on solving many of the critical challenges...
    • Opt. Express 24(7) 6843-6860 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by James R. Taylor

    • Versatile and widely tunable mid-infrared erbium doped ZBLAN fiber laser
    • This simple CW fiber laser using a commercially available erbium doped ZBLAN fiber allows over 450 nm of narrow-line, tunable radiation centered around 3500 nm using a dual wavelength pump technique, providing a...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(7) 1676-1679 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by James R. Taylor

    • Mid-IR supercontinuum from 2.4 to 5.4 μm in a low-loss fluoroindate fiber
    • Broadband sources covering the spectral region from 3 μm to 5 μm are of considerable interest for their applications to gas detection, polymer processing and remote sensing, yet for these “real world” applications,...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(8) 1756-1759 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Andrey N. Kuzmin

    • Optically pumped 1.3 μm room-temperature InAs quantum-dot micro-disk lasers directly grown on (001) silicon
    • This work is one of the exciting studies aimed at the integration of III-V semiconductor optical devices onto silicon, to fuse efficient photonic circuits with advanced silicon technology. The progress in high...
    • Opt. Lett. 41(7) 1664-1667 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Val Zwiller

    • Superconducting nanowire single photon detector at 532 nm and demonstration in satellite laser ranging
    • In this Optics Express article, Li et al. report on a new application for superconducting single photon detectors: precise laser ranging measurements on a satellite. The distance to the European satellite LARES,...
    • Opt. Express 24(4) 3535-3542 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Shui-Qing Yu

    • Study of GeSn based heterostructures: towards optimized group IV MQW LEDs
    • Silicon-based lasers have long been desired owing to the possibility of monolithic integration of Si-based photonics with high-speed Si-based electronics. An optically pumped laser based on direct bandgap GeSn grown on...
    • Opt. Express 24(2) 1358-1367 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Stephan Pachnicke

    • Physical Layer Aspects of NG-PON2 Standards—Part 2: System Design and Technology Feasibility [Invited]
    • What will the next generation of passive optical networks look like in order to enable network operators to cope with the exponential growth of traffic?

      In a series of two articles in the Journal of Optical...
    • J. Opt. Commun. Netw. 8(1) 43-52 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Stephan Pachnicke

    • Physical Layer Aspects of NG-PON2 Standards—Part 1: Optical Link Design [Invited]
    • What will the next generation of passive optical networks look like in order to enable network operators to cope with the exponential growth of traffic?

      In a series of two articles in the Journal of Optical...
    • J. Opt. Commun. Netw. 8(1) 33-42 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Enrique J. Galvez

    • Experimental demonstration of 20 Gbit/s data encoding and 2 ns channel hopping using orbital angular momentum modes
    • Optical spatial modes were used as carriers for the repeated switching of communication channels, the optical-mode counterpart of frequency hopping in spread-spectrum radio communications. Instead of frequency hopping...
    • Opt. Lett. 40(24) 5810-5813 (2015) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Alfred U’Ren

    • Electro-optic modulation for high-speed characterization of entangled photon pairs
    • Is it possible to temporally-resolve photon pairs with a resolution beyond the limit imposed by detector temporal jitter? The answer to this question, thanks to the latest research by Lukens et al., is a definite yes....
    • Opt. Lett. 40(22) 5331-5334 (2015) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

Vision and Color

  • Spotlight Summary by Mark Fairchild

    • Method to determine the degrees of consistency in experimental datasets of perceptual color differences
    • All experimental analysis should rely on multiple datasets, but seldom are the consistencies between datasets carefully quantified. Morillas et al. examine this question for color difference perception where there are...
    • J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 33(12) 2289-2296 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

  • Spotlight Summary by Robert Zawadzki

    • Photoreceptor disc shedding in the living human eye
    • The discovery by Kocaoglu et al. of the optical signature associated with photoreceptor disc shedding in the living human eye is a remarkable technical achievement, since it clearly marks the transition of AO-OCT...
    • Biomed. Opt. Express 7(11) 4554-4568 (2016) View: Abstract | HTML | PDF

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