Bright Ideas — UCF Wins A Major Award, SPIE Names Startup Challenge Finalists, Designing An Ultra-Powerful X-Ray System, And More

By John Oncea, Editor

Bright Ideas presents the most captivating news and innovations in optics and photonics. This week, we look at a couple of research-related breakthroughs, the latest on SPIE’s Startup Challenge, 6D!, and writing with ultrashort light pulses.

Faculty researchers from The College of Optics and Photonics and The University of Central Florida (go Knights!) physics department – won the National Security Innovation Network (NSIN)-sponsored Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Quantum-inspired Efficient Information Extraction for Electro-optic Systems Grand Challenge — earning $125,000 to fund their research, according to UCF. The team will use its winnings to develop a system that uses photonics to more accurately visualize space debris — an increasing problem since the start of the space age. “Our team’s advanced techniques and photonic lantern hardware expertise enables us to use new solutions which can approach the quantum resolution limit,” says CREOL professor Rodrigo Amezcua-Correa. “In other words, our system will produce clear images using new technology we will create at UCF.”

UC Santa Barbara (go Gauchos) announced a finding that promises to make circuits smaller and more powerful. UCSB teamed up with Nexus Photonics and Caltech to develop the technique to enable photonic chips to operate in the visible-to-near-infrared spectrum. The technique also takes advantage of methods common in electronic manufacturing, making it easy to produce inexpensively at scale. “This is the kind of breakthrough that could open up possibilities no one has thought of before,” said co-lead author Ted Morin, a doctoral candidate at UC Santa Barbara. The technology will take high-performance photonics into new markets and applications, such as augmented and virtual reality, healthcare, and atomic clocks at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. What’s more, large-scale production will slash the price of lasers and photonic circuits. “It will be like getting a yacht for the cost of a surfboard,” added Morin.

With Photonics West just around the corner, SPIE has named the 10 Startup Challenge finalists according to Optics.org. The SPIE Startup Challenge is an entrepreneurial pitch competition for new businesses that utilize optics and photonics to create innovative products, applications, and technologies with a top prize of $10,000. The ten 2023 SPIE Startup Challenge finalists are:

• Actoprobe, with a non-spectroscopy probe for advanced manufacturing and life science.
• FlulDect GmbH, with sensor technology combining the effects of whispering-gallery-modes (WGM) with functionalized fluorescent beads to detect pathogens in applications including food safety.
• KostaCLOUD Inc., with a cloud-based optical design and simulation tool enabling real-time, optical-mechanical design collaboration, dramatically improving design-optimization times.
• Lighthanded Enterprises, with LasEar Laser Otoscope, to improve diagnosis of common causes of childhood-hearing loss.
• PatenSee, with an innovative combination of machine learning and imaging technology for dialysis patients.
• PhoMedics Limited, with a histological imaging microscope offering real-time status during cancer surgery.
• Phosio, with nanoimprintable, high-refractive index transparent coatings, is a critical tool for expanding optical designs in AR.
• PhosPrint P.C., with a novel technology that repairs in vivo human tissue during surgery.
• QART Medical, utilizing biophotonics and data for 3D analysis of sperm cells during IVF.
• Swave Photonics, enabling display-makers and content creators with immersive holographic displays.

Researchers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have pushed the capabilities of the lab's Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) to design a new, ultra-powerful X-ray system according to Photonics Online. By adapting a technique for modern, superpowerful optical laser pulses called chirped pulse amplification (CPA), the SLAC team has designed a system capable of producing X-ray pulses 10 times more powerful than before – all while staying within the LCLS's existing free-electron laser infrastructure. “Current X-ray laser pulses from free-electron lasers have a peak power of roughly 100 gigawatts, and usually with a complex and stochastic structure,” said Haoyuan Li, a postdoctoral scholar at SLAC and Stanford University and lead author of the new study. With chirped pulse amplification for X-rays, “we’ve shown that we can achieve very impactful beam parameters of greater than 1 terawatt peak power and a pulse duration of about 1 femtosecond at the same time.”

Nature Photonics published an article detailing a technique that uses mirror segments to sort and gather light on a microscopic scale and take three-dimensional images of molecules in position and orientation. Using the James Webb Space Telescope as inspiration, the microscope views in 6D and was created by Oumeng Zhang, associate professor of electrical and systems engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis.

“Due to the ever-increasing growth of our data consumption, researchers are looking for faster, more efficient, and more energy-conscious data storage techniques,” writes Phys.org. SWaP-C, right? Well, Eindhoven University of Technology Youri van Hees is now using ultrashort light pulses that enable him to write information, combining the advantages of light and magnetic storage. Van Hees says that the technology of writing data with light at the laboratory level is becoming mainstream and that the chip industry is following this kind of research closely. But he adds, “The size of our current laser pulse generator is 60x30x30 cm. It will take some time before it can fit in your pocket.”

A Coherent Market Insights report – Global Biophotonics Market Size, Share, Price, Trends, Growth, Report, and Forecast 2022-2028 – expects drastic growth and huge investments according to Digital Journal. “The report evaluates the market based on demand, application information, price trends, historical and projected market data, and company shares of the top industries by geography,” notes Digital Journal.