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 w w w.laser focuswor ld.com Januar y 2022

Photonics Technologies & Solutions for Technical Professionals Worldwide

ULTRAFAST
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enable frequency
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 Visit us at

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 Photonics Technologies
& Solutions for Technical
Professionals Worldwide JANUARY 2022 VOL. 58, NO. 1
■

42 Optical Materials
21 COVER STORY Graphene: The ‘wonder material’
SARS-CoV-2
Mid-IR hybrid
Innovative discoveries have helped
lasers enable the
Laser to
Ramanimplementation of
to overcome existing challenges
compact and reliable when using graphene.
optical frequency Justine Murphy
Spike protein 2D phonon process
combs for real-world
applications. (Courtesy
47
 Robotics 
of IPG Photonics) Antibody
 Improved
 automated fiber
p-doping placement
 with a fully
reflective top-hat shaper
features
Graphene
PBASE p-doping Laser manufactures composite
materials via robotic automation.
CLPF
Julien Bayol
21 Test & Measurement
Mid-IR frequency combs 50 Ultrafast Lasers
open new avenues The next generation of
New developments in ultrafast mid-infrared femtosecond workhorses
(mid-IR) hybrid lasers enable the implementation A novel ultrastable femtosecond laser
of compact and reliable optical frequency
Synchrotron targets a variety of different applications:
combs for real-world applications. gigahertz scopes, communication
BlackSergey
bodyVasilyev,
at 1500Mike
K Mirov, and Sergey Mirov
lines, and precision radar.
8 10 12 Florian Emaury and Andreas Thoss
velength (µm) 27 Annual Market Review and Forecast 2022
COVID-19 Year 2: A photonics story 54 Nanotechnology
of growth, shortages, and innovation Nanoimprinting gains momentum—
This year’s Annual Market Review and An interview with Badre Kerzabi
Forecast includes an in-depth analysis of In this interview, Carlos Lee, EPIC’s
the current semiconductor chip shortage Director General, talks to Badre Kerzabi,
and its impact on the photonics industry. co-founder and CEO of SOLNIL, a
Peter Fretty startup developing techniques for
nanoimprinting on sol-gel materials.
33 Photonics West Preview Carlos Lee
SPIE Photonics West 2022:
Full steam ahead 56 Bioimaging
Following a pandemic-prompted The rapid advance of bioimaging
hiatus, SPIE Photonics West is back in With an aging ‘Baby Boomer’ population
2022, in person, and in full force. and increasing incidences of disease and
Justine Murphy
viruses, including COVID-19, the need
®

for strong, more effective bioimaging

37 Healthcare techniques and technologies is evident.
Current trends in photoacoustic imaging Justine Murphy
New developments in photoacoustic imaging
(PAI) for clinical applications include the 59 Future Focus
use of pulsed LEDs to replace Q -switched The age of the laser has
®

lasers and the integration of PAI with only just begun

optical coherence tomography (OCT). How Europe’s largest center for applied
Robert V. Chimenti laser research is morphing from laser
engineering to systems engineering.
Andreas Thoss and Constantin Haefner

LASERS ■ OPTICS ■ DETECTORS ■ IMAGING ■ FIBER OPTICS ■ INSTRUMENTATION

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 Photonics Technologies
& Solutions for Technical
Professionals Worldwide JANUARY 2022 VOL. 58, NO. 1
■

LFW on the Web

Visit www.laserfocusworld.com for breaking news
and Web-exclusive articles world news
7 Microscopy New optical source
On Topic reports dig into design simplifies CARS microscopy

technology topics 10 Metamaterials Metasurface-based

Laser Focus World offers free downloadable devices driving security initiatives
on-topic reports that provide an in-depth 12 3D Imaging Extremely thin optical
resource on photonics and optoelectronics fiber prompts next-gen imaging
topics, including how lasers are poised to
spark the next healthcare revolution. 14 Molecular Imaging From

laserfocusworld.com/white-papers infrared to the visible

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columns departments
5
THE EDITOR’S DESK 70 BUSINESS FORUM 63 NEW PRODUCTS 72 ADVERTISING/
Set goals, not resolutions Record global M&As WEB INDEX
Peter Fretty benefit photonics 67 MANUFACTURERS’
Editor in Chief Linda Smith PRODUCT 72 SALES OFFICES
President, Ceres SHOWCASE
Technology Advisors

LASERS ■ OPTICS ■ DETECTORS ■ IMAGING ■ FIBER OPTICS ■ INSTRUMENTATION

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 editor’s desk Set goals, not resolutions
Happy New Year! Are resolutions part of your annual routine? In last month’s Editor’s Desk, I talked
about the significance of reflection and forecasting. While important, this popular year-end process
often results in creating resolutions. It’s an easy to do when those around you are sharing their lofty
expectations for the coming year. But the unfortunate reality is few people are ever able to stick to
their resolutions, which often results in disappointment.
The problem is that resolutions by nature lack substance. They lack clear goals and a means of
achieving those goals such as a structured process with realistic milestones designed to maintain
momentum. This is something that most of us can learn a good bit by watching how researchers
work. In research, there is always an end goal that usually centers around a complex problem to solve.
Getting there does not happen by chance. Instead, realizing our goals takes hard work and
many times means suffering through setbacks, which forces further investigation and sometimes
results in starting over from scratch.
Also, the finished product might be quite different from what the researcher initially envisioned.
And that is perfectly fine—it really isn’t about the finished product. It is more about the path, the
process, and the evolution that transpires throughout. After all, it is the process and the lessons
learned that ultimately lead to innovation. And it is continued innovation that sets products and
companies apart from the competition.
Senior Editor Justine Murphy provides a prime example in her feature article on the wonder
material we now know as graphene (see page 42). None of the creative uses for this wonder mate-
rial would exist today without the efforts of researchers and engineers focused on achieving goals.
It should be exciting to see how researchers build upon the latest graphene discoveries currently
Peter Fretty taking place at Purdue University.
Editor in Chief This industry’s success is steeped in innovation—we need to keep it going. Rather than sharing
[email protected] your resolutions, let’s hear your goals. I’d love to learn about them.

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 world news Technical advances from around the globe
Extremely
thin fiber
See page 12

Got News? Please send articles to [email protected]

MICROSCOPY
®

New optical source design

simplifies CARS microscopy
Coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectros- energy, it’s a shorter-wavelength and coupling with scanning microscope
copy (CARS) enhances what are typ- “anti-Stokes” signal. The signal fre- optics producing an image whose inten-
ically small Raman signals so they’re quencies depend on molecular struc- sity variations map the presence of a
detectable above the noise background. ture, so Raman signals provide molec- particular vibrational mode. Repeat-
Coupled with appropriate optomechan- ular signatures with no labeling. This ing the scan at different energies in the
ics, CARS provides images
a) b) c) d) e)
of the microscopic chemical
distribution within a sample.
It requires two simultane-
ous, overlapping pulsed
laser beams, traditionally
provided by picosecond
optical parametric oscilla- A new simplified source can produce images of specific molecules using CARS microscopy, as in the
tors (OPOs), which perform images of polystyrene microspheres (a) and adipose tissue (b). The same source can also produce
well as CARS sources, but second-harmonic generation images and two-photon autofluorescence images, as in the micrographs
of rat tendon and bone (c, d, and e).
are expensive and require
a dedicated optics lab.
Research Fellow Konstantinos Bourda- is desirable because attaching reporter “fingerprint region”—a spectral spread
kos and his colleagues at the Univer- molecules is both time-consuming and around 2845 cm-1—produces a micro-
sity of Southampton (UK) have now expensive and it can potentially modify scopic map of molecular distribution
replaced the picosecond OPO with a the native molecular configuration. without any external labeling.
laser diode-seeded optical parametric But Raman signals are much The conceptual simplicity hides some
amplifier (OPA)—a simpler, smaller, less smaller than other scattering and challenges. CARS is a third-order non-
expensive alternative.1 background effects. CARS over- linear effect that requires high peak
comes the problem by sending two power, which pushes toward the use
Label-free molecular beams through the sample simulta- of ultrafast lasers. But shorter pulses
identification neously. When the energy difference have wider spectral width, which
When a photon interacts with a between the two beams—the pump reduces the spectral resolution and can
molecule, most commonly it scatters and Stokes beams—matches the energy increase the undesirable non-resonant
without changing wavelength. In of a molecular vibration, a significant background. Standard CARS micros-
Raman scattering, the outgoing light fraction of the population of molecules copy meets these requirements by
changes wavelength in an exchange is elevated to that excited vibrational using a picosecond OPO as a source.
of energy that leaves the molecule in state. The pump beam then elevates However, OPOs are large, expen-
a different final vibrational state. If those excited molecules to another sive, and require a dedicated optics
the final vibrational state has higher virtual state, and when they return to lab to remain at peak performance.
energy than the initial, the scattered the ground state, they emit a much Other groups have demonstrated
light is a longer-wavelength “Stokes” larger anti-Stokes signal. Spectral fil- some simplification to CARS micros-
signal; if the final state has lower tering further reduces the background copy optical design;2 now, Bourdakos

Laser Focus World www.laserfocusworld.com January 2022 7

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 world news

and his colleagues have taken that sim- 1031 nm picosecond laser provides the frequencies with a system that’s much
plicity a step further, replacing the Stokes beam. Together, they access cheaper, more stable, requires no
OPO with a picosecond OPA—essen- a spectral range between 3056 cm-1 spectral compression, and takes up
tially a single nonlinear crystal—seeded and 3105 cm-1. Equally important, the one-quarter or even one-fifth of the
by a communications-wavelength resulting anti-Stokes beam is around space,” says Bourdakos. The team dem-
laser diode. 630 nm, well within their detector sen- onstrated both second-harmonic gen-
sitivity. The researchers demonstrated eration and two-photon excited auto-
Simple design, their simplified source design capable of fluorescence imaging with the source,
powerful imaging producing images of polystyrene beads and are working on extending to other
Temperature control allows the laser and of adipose tissue. refinements of CARS microscopy.
diode to be tuned from 1562 to To access the fingerprint region, the “This is an incremental advance,”
1568 nm. A 1031 nm, 80 MHz, 2 ps researchers replaced only one source of Bourdakos adds, “but these kinds of
pulsed laser is aligned with the diode an existing CARS microscope with the results using a straightforward pico-
beam seed and the two are coupled continuous-wave laser diode-seeded second laser and a very simple laser
into the OPA, where energy from OPA. This configuration halves cost diode-seeded source will significantly
the pulsed laser is downconverted and complexity, while still access- reduce cost and optical expertise
into the seed wavelength, spectrally ing a wide spectral range, putting the required to perform CARS microscopy
filtered, then frequency-doubled with anti-Stokes wavelength around 730 and consequently open it up to new
a second-harmonic generation crystal. nm, again suitable for their detector. users.”—Richard Gaughan
The output beam has linewidth of about They demonstrated the effective-
5 cm-1, peak power of 2.1 kW, and a ness of this configuration by imaging REFERENCES
1. K. N. Bourdakos, Proc. SPIE, 11879, 1187903
tunable range from 781 to 784 nm. animal bone.
(2021); doi:10.1117/12.2601570.
That’s the pump for the CARS micro- “We’ve demonstrated the ability to 2. T. Steinle et al., Light Sci. Appl., 5, e16149
scope. A small portion of the original perform CARS imaging at standard (2016); doi:10.1038/lsa.2016.149.

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 world news

M ETA M AT ER I A LS

Metasurface-based devices
driving security initiatives
Researchers in South Korea are working to aid anticounter-
feiting and security applications, with the help of devices
driven by optics.
A team at Pohang University of Science and Technology
(POSTECH) has found that metasurfaces—2D arrays of sub- Optical conditions Metasurface-driven OVD Decrypted
(decoding key) + (encrypted device) information
wavelength structures known as meta-atoms, which allows
light to be freely controlled by arranging nanostructures in a
A schematic diagram of a security function using the interaction of
desired shape—can assist with the international problem of
meta-atoms (information storage device) and light that acts as the
anticounterfeiting (see figure). According to the researchers, key. (Courtesy of POSTECH)
optical indicators such as optically variable devices (OVDs)
“are in tremendous demand” to combat this growing threat. Unlike traditional OVDs—which are more commonly sub-
In their study, the team found that metasurfaces have the jected to security dangers (including fraudulent replication
potential to lead a new generation of OVDs, “as they exhibit of money, documents, etc.) thanks to advances in printing
exceptional behaviors that can provide a more robust solution technology and widespread copying methods of security
for optical anticounterfeiting.”1 Metasurface-based optical features—metasurface-driven OVDs can have multiple
devices can store more than 100X more information than optical responses in a single device, “making them difficult
conventional methods, such as a rainbow hologram sticker, to be reverse-engineered” or replicated. In addition, such
and subsequently “selectively display a desired image based a device is favored given its very small size; it can also be
on angle, color, and polarization.” mass-produced at low cost, according to the researchers.

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 More Results. More Publications.

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2:27 PM
 world news

3D I M AGI NG
“Security labels made using meta-
surfaces are difficult to replicate and
are highly secure since they cannot be Extremely thin optical fiber
decrypted without specific settings,”
says researcher Junsuk Rho, an asso-
prompts next-gen imaging
ciate professor at POSTECH. He adds
that “encrypted information can never The next generation of imaging tech- that can produce 3D images of remote
be decrypted without the correct nology could be right around the scenes,” says Miles Padgett, a Royal
optical decryption.” Encrypting infor- corner … led by a single optical fiber Society research professor at the Uni-
mation in a specific order, the study that is about the width of a human hair. versity of Glasgow and principal inves-
notes, makes it possible to separately An international team led by the Uni- tigator for QuantIC, the UK Hub for
store images and see them without versity of Glasgow (Scotland) has devel- Quantum Enhanced Imaging.
special equipment, including that oped a new imaging technique that can Communication exchanges between
which allows images to be viewed only create video images via a single mul- light modes typically scramble any light
with “specific analysis equipment by timode optical fiber. It also employs shining through a single optical fiber
security professionals.” time-of-flight 3D imaging, which touts when imaging, rendering the image
Metasurface OVDs have been applications such as environmental mon- unrecognizable. The Glasgow-led
used in ultrahigh-resolution struc- itoring and motion tracking—accord- team—which includes physicists from
tural color printing, various types ing to the study, “depth is recovered by the University of Exeter, Fraunhofer
of holography, and polarization measuring the round-trip flight time of Centre for Applied Photonics (Glasgow),
encoding.—Justine Murphy laser pulses, typically using collection Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technol-
optics several centimeters in diameter.”1 ogy (Germany), and Brno University
REFERENCE
1. C. Jung et al., Chem. Rev., 121, 21, 13013–
“Our ambition is to create a new gen- of Technology (Czech Republic)—has
13050 (2021). eration of single-fiber imaging devices been able to resolve this, thanks to

12 January 2022 www.laserfocusworld.com Laser Focus World

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 world news

Holographic endscope (spatial/lateral resolution) This new-generation imaging system

a) Digital employs single multimode optical fiber
micromirror
device as well as time-of-flight 3D imaging and
advanced beam shaping techniques to
Illumination create 3D video images of remote scenes.
(Courtesy of University of Glasgow)
Collection

“In applications like endoscopy

Multimode fiber
Photodiode and boroscopy, imaging is tradition-

photodiode
Avalanche
ally achieved by using a bundle of
optical fibers—one fiber for every
Pulsed laser Beamsplitter Reference Signal
pixel in the image, resulting in devices
Time-of-flight (temporal/axial resolution)
the thickness of a finger,” Padgett
b) c)
says. In their study, he and fellow
t=0s t=2s t=4s t=6s 40 researchers essentially demonstrated

Depth (cm)
“near-video-rate 3D imaging through
multimode fibers with a total aperture
25 of several hundred micrometers.”
Direct camera image Frame 0 Frame 10 Frame 20 Frame 30
The researchers used a pulsed laser
in part of their work, allowing them to
advanced beam shaping techniques. turn, can scan the scene as the system measure the light’s time of flight as well
According to the researchers, it allowed measures the intensity of the back- as the range of every pixel in the image.
them to “pattern the input laser light scattered light into another fiber; this They also implemented aberration cor-
to the fiber to create a single spot provides brightness for each pixel in rection via wavefront shaping synchro-
at the output.” That spot of light, in the image. nized with a pulsed source to scan the

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 world news

MOL ECU L A R I M AGI NG

scene at ~23,000 points per second. They
note in the study that they were able to
image “moving objects several meters From infrared to the visible
beyond the end of a ~40-cm-long fiber
of 50-µm core diameter at frame rates of Work by an international group of thanks to continuous-wave frequency
~5 Hz.” In their prototype system, each researchers is fine-tuning the way our upconversion.1 With the development
frame contains up to “approximately eyes detect and ultimately see light of a new device, they have discov-
4000 independently resolvable features, via frequency upconversion. They say ered it’s possible to detect IR light—by
with a depth resolution of ~5 mm.” it could advance several technolo- changing its frequency to that of
Specifically, the team recorded the gies, including spectroscopy, imaging, visible light, subsequently extending
3D images at distances ranging from “a and sensing. the sight of common, very sensitive
few tens of millimeters to several meters According to the team, we are able light detectors.
away from the fiber end with millimet- to see well in the visible spectrum: “So far, however, the device’s
ric distance resolution and frame rates between 400 and 750 trillion Hertz. light-conversion efficiency is still very
high enough to perceive motion at At lower frequencies, “energy trans- low,” says Dr. Wen Chen, a scien-
close-to-video quality.” ported by light isn’t enough to trigger tist at École Polytechnique Fédérale
The researchers will next aim to photoreceptors in our eyes and in many de Lausanne (EPFL) and first author
reduce the calibration time and manage other sensors.” This presents a problem, of the study, noting that the team
“the dynamic nature of bending given the “rich information” within fre- is now working on ways to improve
fibers.”—Justine Murphy quencies below 100 THz—mid- and it. Increasing the efficiency of the
REFERENCE
far-infrared (mid- and far-IR) spectrum. new device’s light conversion will
1. D. Stellinga et al., Science, 374, 6573, 1395– In their study, the researchers have be key in developing any commer-
1399 (Dec. 9, 2021). exhibited a way around that problem, cial applications.

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 world news

As noted in the study, “molecules have rich signa-

tures in their spectra at infrared wavelengths and are typ-
ically accessed with dedicated spectroscopic instrumenta-
tion.” The team “demonstrated optomechanical frequency
upconversion from the mid-IR to the visible domain using
molecular vibrations, coupled to a plasmonic nanocavity at
ambient conditions.”
Their work involved using a mediator—tiny vibrating mol-
ecules—to add energy to IR light. That light is then directed
to the molecules; there, it is transformed into vibrational
energy. The researchers found that a higher-frequency laser
beam interrupts those same molecules for extra energy,
allowing the vibration to be converted from IR to visible Artistic rendering of the nanoparticle-in-groove plasmonic cavities.
Molecules cover the gold film and are sandwiched between the
light (see figure). The molecules are “sandwiched between
groove and the 150 nm large nanoparticle. The IR signal of interest
metallic nanostructures,” which perform as optical antennas, comes from below the substrate, while the pump laser providing
to boost the frequency conversion process—in all of this, energy for upconversion comes from the top. Both are focused
the IR light as well as the laser energy are concentrated at by the cavity onto the molecules and interact with their internal
the molecules. vibrations to generate an upconverted copy of the IR signal at
“The new device has a number of appealing features,” says visible frequencies (bright spot). (Courtesy of Nicolas Antille)
lead researcher Christophe Galland, a professor in EPFL’s
School of Basic Sciences. “First, the conversion process is light.” He notes that this allows high-resolution IR spec-
coherent, meaning that all information present in the original troscopy to be performed with standard detectors, such as
IR light is faithfully mapped onto the newly created visible those found in cell phone cameras. “Each device is about a

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 world news

few micrometers in length and width, which means it can be

incorporated into large pixel arrays.” More Productivity for
Galland adds that the method is “highly versatile and can
be adapted to different frequencies by simply choosing mol-
Micro Machining and
ecules with different vibrational modes.” 3D Printing
The research team was comprised of scientists from
EPFL (Switzerland), Wuhan Institute of Technology (China),
Valencia Polytechnic University (Spain), and AMOLF, a
research institute in the Netherlands.—Justine Murphy

REFERENCE
1. W. Chen et al., Science, 374, 6572, 1264–1267 (Dec. 2, 2021).

B I O I M A G I N G
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Imaging method
detects damaged blood
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Mechanical devices such as artificial hearts and systems that
assist blood flow are certainly medical marvels, but they are
known to overstretch and even tear red blood cells. Now,
researchers in Japan and Australia are working to prevent
this currently unavoidable issue.
In their study, the team, comprised of researchers from the
Shibaura Institute of Technology (Japan) and Griffith Uni-
versity (Australia), notes that red blood cells (called erythro-
cytes) are regularly exposed to “shearing stress”—described
as a force that causes layers or parts of a material/object to
slide along each other in opposite directions—while circulat-
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diagnose that damage earlier and more effectively treat it.
(Courtesy of Dr. Antony P. McNamee, Griffith University)

Laser Focus World www.laserfocusworld.com

2201LFW_7-20.indd 17 1/11/22 12:51 PM

 world news

damage currently involves imaging the The researchers note in their study advance that much-needed real-time
blood cells that are already damaged, that “given the need to minimize blood study, and make the entire process
according to the researchers, making it trauma within artificial organs, we more effective (see figure).
basically impossible to examine them in observed [red blood cells] in supraphys- “Conventional image analysis
real time and (ideally) fix them. Doing so iological shear through direct visualiza- methods are ill-equipped to detect
could help researchers to “better under- tion to gain understanding of processes subtle shape changes associated with
stand the process and aid in the devel- leading to blood damage.” morphological alterations observed
opment of markers to detect the onset So, they’ve developed a new tech- in supraphysiological flow,” says
of blood damage at a sublethal stage.” nique that could make it possible to researcher Nobuo Watanabe, an asso-
ciate professor at Shibaura. “With
our technique, it becomes possible to
assess and detect these shape changes
and damage.”
simulation case study Essentially, the team’s method could
allow for the early detection of the

Ray optics onset of such damage and potentially

reverse it.
In their study, the researchers
simulation for created a shear chamber and mounted
it onto a microscope. To achieve this

inertial navigation feat, the team used a custom-built

shear chamber mounted on a
high-speed camera-mounted micro-
Aircraft and spacecraft require highly accurate tools for attitude scope to image the onset of red blood
detection and control. Many modern inertial navigation cells. Blood samples from two healthy
systems include ring laser gyroscopes. To better understand
how ring laser gyros work, you can study the fundamental adult males were exposed to shear
operating principle of these devices: the Sagnac effect. This loads ranging from 10 to 60 pascals
effect can be demonstrated using ray optics simulation. (Pa). This allowed them to detect
learn more comsol.blog/ring-laser-gyros abnormalities and subsequently adjust
the imaging system they created “to
improve asymmetry detection.” The
researchers discovered that prolonged
exposure to the larger stress load made
the red blood cells “unstable, [they]
changed shape, and even disintegrated
into smaller fragments.”
“With our technique,” Watanabe
says, “it becomes possible to assess
and detect these shape changes and
damage. Our proposed strategy
focuses on early onsetting functional
markers, when blood damage may still
be reversible. Integration of such func-
tional assessment markers into the
deployment of cardiovascular medical
devices could help guide future clinical
practice of artificial organs to enhance
blood compatibility and improve
patient outcomes.”—Justine Murphy

REFERENCE
1. A. P. McNamee et al., Sci. Rep., 11, 23566
The COMSOL Multiphysics® software is used for (2021).
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 world news

OP T ICA L M AT ER I A LS

More-stable materials could

create better solar cells
Rivaling silicon-based materials, perovskite has thrown its
proverbial hat into the ring to ultimately develop more effi-
cient solar cells. However, one issue persists: the material’s
chemical instability.
In a study by a team at Queen Mary University of
London (UK), researchers have developed a new process
for creating perovskite materials that are more stable, and
potentially exhibit more efficiency for solar cells. The
instability of perovskite—a mineral consisting largely of Photo credit: PublicDomainPictures/Pixabay
calcium titanate—materials stems from its extreme sen-
sitivity to light, moisture, and oxygen, which can prompt more proficient at absorbing light rather than being
rapid degradation. damaged by it. And scientists have found this specific
There is hope in a particular type of perovskite material: type of perovskite—particularly the black, stable form of
formamidinium perovskite (FAPbI3). According to the this material—can produce electricity more efficiently in
researchers, its “pure, black-colored crystal structure … solar cells.
is more chemically stable than many other perovskites.” But actually creating this material for solar cell use has
Additionally, the optical properties of FAPbI3 make it been a challenge, regardless of its stability, as it can often

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 world news

instead produce a “yellow phase that isn’t suitable for “Pure [FAPbI3] could produce perovskite solar cells that
solar cells.” are more efficient and stable than those made with other
As noted in the study, another challenge is that “crys- commonly used hybrid perovskites based on methylam-
tallization of phase-pure FAPbI3 conventionally requires monium,” says researcher Dr. Joe Briscoe, Reader in Energy
high-temperature thermal annealing” (around 300°F), Materials and Devices and program director for Sustainable
which can strain those crystals within the
material—this tends to favor that unsuit- The new process “uses an ‘inverted’ perovskite solar
able yellow phase. Including small amounts
of various additives have been explored in cell structure and lower annealing temperature
forming FAPbI3 material in other studies, [that] also makes it very suitable for making flexible
according to the researchers, but “it can
be very hard to control the uniformity and solar cells on plastic.”
amounts of these additives when making
solar cells at a very large scale.” The team notes, too, that Energy Engineering at Queen Mary, citing the currently most
scientists have yet to identify long-term impacts. widely used material for solar cells: crystalline silicon.
The Queen Mary University team is working to under- He adds that the team’s new process “uses an ‘inverted’
stand such impacts and alleviate those challenges. In their perovskite solar cell structure and lower annealing tempera-
study, they found that aerosol-assisted crystallization can ture [that] also makes it very suitable for making flexible solar
convert the unstable yellow into the more stable black at cells on plastic.” Other potential applications include manu-
just over 200°F, “using precursor solutions containing only facturing clothing and vehicles.—Justine Murphy
lead iodide and formamidinium iodide with no chemical
REFERENCE
additives.” The lower temperature was also shown to “help 1. T. Du et al., Adv. Mater. (Dec. 11, 2021); https://doi.org/10.1002/
relax the crystals within the material.”1 adma.202107850.

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 TEST & MEASUREMENT

Mid-IR frequency combs

open new avenues
SERGEY VASILYEV, MIKE MIROV, and SERGEY MIROV

New developments in ultrafast mid-infrared (mid-IR) hybrid available visible and near-IR femtosec-
lasers enable the implementation of compact and reliable ond lasers in optical parametric oscil-
lators and difference frequency gener-
optical frequency combs for real-world applications.
ators. The significant gap between the
Optical spectroscopy in the mid-infrared and laser-based sources very appeal- initial near-IR wavelengths and the de-
(IR) region of the electromagnetic spec- ing. Furthermore, some femtosecond sired mid-IR wavelengths results in low
trum (mid-IR, 2–20 µm, 500–5000 cm-1) lasers are configurable as optical fre- efficiency of the downconversion process,
is a powerful tool for the detection, char- quency combs with ultrahigh spatial which in turn increases the overall system
acterization, and quantification of mol- and temporal coherence of the pulse complexity and imposes limitations on the
ecules, compounds, and complex mo- trains. Frequency combs enable FTS achievable average power in the mid-IR.
lecular systems. In combination with with significantly lower detection lim- Starting with a femtosecond source di-
Fourier-transform spectroscopy (FTS), its, improved precision and sensitivity, rectly in the mid-IR is much more effi-
broadband mid-IR sources provide par- as well as various regimes of dual-comb cient, enabling a much simpler, compact,
allel access to the entire molecular con- spectroscopy. Notable examples of FTS and robust high-performance device at a
tent of a sample under study, enabling a with laser-based IR sources include mi- fraction of legacy near-IR solution cost.
plethora of applications in medicine, in- cro- and nanoscale IR spectroscopy,1 FTS
dustry, and fundamental research. with sub-nominal resolution beyond the Emerging technologies
Conventional Fourier-transform Voigt profile,2 and fingerprinting of trace Quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) are
spectrometers, widely deployed as molecules with IR frequency combs.3,4 another emerging and rapidly evolving
laboratory workhorses, have a limita- The conventional approach to mid-IR mid-IR laser technology, offering many
tion that arises from the low bright- femtosecond laser radiation is based advantages of semiconductor lasers in-
ness of incoherent thermal radiation on the downconversion of radiation of cluding compactness and ease of use.
sources used for illumination. A typi-
cal Fourier-transform spectrometer is CLPF
equipped with an electrically heated 1021
silicon carbide rod (globar) emitting
Brilliance (a.u.)

a black body spectrum. For optically 1019

dense samples or instances where a long
sample path is required, not enough 1017
Synchrotron
signal reaches the detector.
1015
Conversely, a coherent source of- Black body at 1500 K
fers laser-like brightness and provides 2 4 6 8 10 12
a tremendous advantage for measure- Wavelength (µm)
ments that are normally signal-limited.
The brilliance of ultrabroadband FIGURE 1. The brightness of the IPG Photonics CLPF femtosecond supercontinuum
mid-IR femtosecond laser sourc- laser source is compared with that of a third-generation synchrotron and a
es now exceeds the brilliance of thermal source (reproduced from T. P. Butler et al., J. Phys.: Photonics, 1, 044066
third-generation synchrotrons, [2019]); the inset shows the laser beam profile at the wavelengths above 6.7 µm.
making the combination of FTS

Laser Focus World www.laserfocusworld.com January 2022 21

2201LFW_21-26.indd 21 1/11/22 12:51 PM

 Test & Measurement c o nt i n u e d

15
However, QCLs still suffer from the limited spectral band-

σ a, e × 10-19 cm2
Ti:sapphire Cr:ZnS
width and low spatial coherence of the output beam. They 10 EDFL
also lack compatibility with the femtosecond laser regime. Nd:YAG+SHG Femtosecond
Transition metal (TM)-doped II-VI (TM:II-VI) semiconduc- 5 oscillator

tors directly access the 2–6 µm spectral range and represent a e a e

0
an appealing alternative to downconversion of near-IR lasers. 532 800 1567 2350
Zinc sulfide (ZnS) and zinc selenide (ZnSe) doped with chromi- Wavelength (nm)
um (Cr2+) are typical representatives of a large TM:II-VI fam-
FIGURE 2. Absorption (a) and emission (e) cross-sections of
ily. These materials are often referred to as the titanium sap- Ti:sapphire (left) and Cr:ZnS (right). Vertical arrows show popular
phires (Ti:sapphires) of the mid-IR due to their broad tuning wavelengths for the optical pumping of these laser materials. The
range, from 1.8 to 3.4 µm, and room-temperature operation dashed line illustrates a typical spectrum of a commercial three-
with high quantum efficiency. For example, Figure 2 illustrates optical-cycle (22 fs), mode-locked Cr:ZnS oscillator presented in a
that compared to Ti:sapphire, Cr:ZnS features higher absorp- log scale. Fluctuations in the oscillator’s optical spectrum are due
tion and emission cross-sections at a 3X longer central wave- to intracavity water vapor absorption.
length. Another convenient feature of Cr:ZnS is optical pump-
ing by low-cost and reliable near-IR fiber lasers—for example, dopant concentrations are difficult to grow. Most recent
continuous-wave (CW) erbium (Er)-doped fiber lasers (EDFLs). progress in Cr-based laser technology has relied on ceram-
A unique blend of optical, physical, and laser parame- ic materials fabricated with the post-growth thermal diffu-
ters of Cr:ZnS attracts constant attention from the ultra- sion doping.6 This technology enabled mass production of
fast laser community. Many important pioneering results on large-size laser gain elements with pre-assigned parameters.
the generation of femtosecond pulses and optical frequen- Commercially available turnkey, compact femtosecond
cy combs with single-crystal Cr:ZnS and Cr:ZnSe lasers Cr:ZnS lasers feature few-cycle output pulse trains with
were achieved in the early 2000s.5 Single-crystal Cr:ZnS watt-level power in a broad range of pulse repetition rates.
and Cr:ZnSe of high optical quality and sufficiently high For instance, Figure 3 shows that the instantaneous spectrum

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 Test & Measurement c o nt i n u e d

of a commercial mode-locked Cr:ZnS laser oscillator ap- are illustrated in Figure 4. Depending on the application,
proaches and even exceeds the limits imposed by the gain one can utilize a milliwatt-level longwave-infrared (LWIR)
bandwidth of the laser medium.7 signal generated directly in the Cr:ZnS or couple the out-
Another set of exciting opportunities arises from a com- put of the Cr:ZnS laser to an external nonlinear medium.
bination of superb ultrafast laser capabilities of Cr:ZnS In the latter case, the LWIR power and spectral span can
with high second- and third-order nonlinearities of II–VI be extended to 0.25 W and 18 µm, respectively.
semiconductors. Recent studies demonstrate that optically Importantly, all of the necessary optical signals for convert-
pumped polycrystalline Cr:ZnS supports the generation of ing the supercontinuum source to the optical frequency comb
supercontinua with exceptionally broad instantaneous spec- are generated directly inside polycrystalline Cr:ZnS medium.
tra spanning the entire transparency window of the materi- The combs’ carrier-envelope offset frequency (f0) is measured
al, from the bandgap edge at 0.35 µm to the phonon cutoff
at about 14 µm. Notably, the supercontinuum generation a) Lens
occurs in a bulk medium with a remarkably low threshold CW
EDFL
and at a high multi-megahertz repetition rate of femtosec-
ond pulses. The schematic of ultrabroadband supercontin- Femtosecond
Lens

uum source that is also configurable as an optical frequen-

Femtosecond
cy comb is illustrated in Figure 3. oscillator
The pulse train from a three-cycle Cr:ZnS oscillator is Lens
Dichroic Cr:ZnS
mirror
superimposed with a CW EDFL radiation and coupled to
a bulk polycrystalline Cr:ZnS gain element with optimized
b) 2.4 µm Optical referencing
microstructure. The supercontinuum generation in polycrys- (125 THz) at 1.06 µm (282 THz)
talline Cr:ZnS is complemented by the generation of optical Spectroscopy
2f–3f self-referencing
harmonics (2f, 3f) and optical rectification (0f). The avail- 10 µm
at 0.87 µm (340 THz)
(30 THz)
able optical spectra of the Cr:ZnS-based ultrafast sources
0f f 2f 3f

P = 0.3 W
Fiber Lasers P up to 0.25 W P = 3.3 W
Δτ = 22 fs
Δτ = 500 fs

Wavelength: 0.5 µm (Green), 1 µm, 1.5 µm, 2µm

FIGURE 3. Ultrabroadband supercontinuum generation in Cr:ZnS
(a; also see reference 8); for simplicity, only the transmissive imaging
Pulsed: ns, ps, fs components are shown. The supercontinuum spectrum consists of a
- Green (515 nm): 5 ns or 50 ps, 50W fundamental mid-IR band (f), optical harmonics (2f, 3f), and the LWIR
- 1 µm: 5 ns or 50 ps, 150W band (0f). The near-IR (2f, 3f) signals are used for self-referencing of
- 1.5 µm: 5 ns to 300 ns Options the optical frequency comb via comb’s stabilization to an external
- 2 µm: 350 fs to 300 ns Options narrowband laser or to an optical frequency standard (b).

Single Frequency 102

f* 0f (0.3 mW) a) poly-Cr:ZnS
- Single Frequency, Transform Limited 100
10-2
- High Pulse Energy > 1 mJ 10-4 f

Highest Peak Power Fiber Lasers f* 0f (20 mW) b) GaSe

PSD (a.u.)

100
All-Fiber Structure, M2 < 1.3 10-2
f

100 f* 0f (250 mW) c) ZGP

10-2 f
1.2 2.4 3 5 10 15
www.advaluephotonics.com
Wavelength (µm)
+1-520-790-5468, [email protected]
FIGURE 4. Optical spectra of Cr:ZnS-based supercontinuum
generators and frequency combs presented in a log scale: direct
intrapulse difference frequency generation (IDFG) in polycrystalline
Cr:ZnS (a) and IDFG in Cr:ZnS-GaSe and Cr:ZnS-ZGP tandems,
respectively (b, c). The spectra consist of the fundamental band
(f), the red-shifted fundamental band (f*), and the LWIR band (0f).
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 TesT & MeasureMenT c o nt i n u e d

in the 2f to 3f band of the continuum, components of the LWIR part of the a complex, yet well-controllable inter-
while the 2f band of the comb with 0.3 frequency comb are stabilized with the play between laser and nonlinear inter-
W power is used for the measurement of large “lever arm,” allowing it to achieve actions in the polycrystalline Cr:ZnS
a beating (fB) between a narrowband CW ultralow, attosecond-level timing jitter medium. The key advantage of the
laser—for example, a standard 1.064 of the pulse train. Cr:ZnS ultrafast laser technology is a
µm laser—and a spectral component Femtosecond Cr:ZnS lasers generate high conversion efficiency of low-cost
of the comb. The f0 and f B signals are broad instantaneous spectra spanning CW EDFL lasers to few-cycle femto-
then phase-locked to a radio frequen- several optical octaves from 1 to 20 µm. second pulses in the mid-IR: 20% and
cy (RF) standard. Thus, the spectral This new laser regime is governed by 2% optical-to-optical conversion from
1.5 to 2.4 µm and 10 µm, respectively.
Because of this advantage, Cr:ZnS fem-
tosecond lasers and combs are compact
(125 × 225 × 425 mm3) and lightweight.
Historically, the size and complexi-
ty of traditional femtosecond mid-IR
laser systems confined them to laser lab-
oratories and required constant atten-
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tional Fourier-transform spectroscopy
4x4xover
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and dual-comb spectroscopy.
designs
designs
• • Ideal
Idealfor
forhigh-speed
high-speed REFERENCES
andhigh-precision
and high-precision 1. F. Huth et al., Nano Lett., 12, 3973–3978 (2012).
micromachining
micromachining 2. L Rutkowski, P. Maslowski, A. C. Johansson, A
Khodabakhsh, and A. Foltynowicz, J. Quant.
Spectrosc. Radiat. Transfer, 204, 63–73 (2018).
3. A. Kowligy et al., Sci. Adv., 5, eaaw8794 (2019).
4. A. Muraviev, V. Smolski, Z. Loparo, and K. L.
Vodopyanov, Nat. Photonics, 12, 209–214 (2018).
5. I. T. Sorokina and E. Sorokin, IEEE J. Sel. Top.
Quantum Electron., 21, 1601519 (2015).
6. S. Mirov et al., IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum
AGV5D
AGV5D Electron., 24, 5, 1601829, 1–29 (Sep/Oct. 2018).
5-axisscanner
5-axis scanner
7. S. Vasilyev et al., Opt. Express, 29, 2458–
AGV-HP(0)
AGV-HP(0) 2465 (2021).
2-axisscanner
2-axis scanner
8. S. Vasilyev et al., J. Opt. Soc. Am. B, 38, 1625–
1633 (2021).
9. S. Vasilyev et al., Optica, 6, 111–114 (2019).
10. S. Vasilyev et al., Optica (memorandum), 6, 2,
126–127 (2019).

Sergey Vasilyev is a laser scientist and

AGV3D AGV-SPO Mike Mirov is general manager, both at
AGV3D AGV-SPO
3-axisscanner
3-axis scanner 2-axissingle-pivot
2-axis single-pivotscanner
scanner the IPG Photonics Southeast Technology
Center (Birmingham, AL), while Sergey
Mirov is a faculty member and profes-
sor in the Department of Physics of the
University of Alabama at Birmingham
and a consultant for IPG Photonics;
See how we solve
laser the toughest
Learn how we solve the toughest processing e-mail: [email protected];
laser processing applications.
applications at aerotech.com/laser ipgphotonics.com.

Laser Focus World

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 ANNUAL MARKET REVIEW AND FORECAST 2022

COVID-19Year 2: A photonics story

of growth, shortages, and innovation
PETER FRETTY, Editor in Chief

This year’s Annual Market Review and Forecast includes McKinsey expects to see 8% growth
an in-depth analysis of the current semiconductor chip across precision optics sector, as well
as 9% growth for photonics sensors.
shortage and its impact on the photonics industry.
The automotive use of photonic sensors
Few markets have sustained the steady US$589.82 billion in 2020, and it is ex- in particular is an area where the firm
and healthy growth numbers the pho- pected to reach US$1019.77 billion by predicts especially strong growth num-
tonics market has enjoyed since the 2026. This accounts for an estimated bers (21% per annum), attributable to
1970s. However, when the COVID-19 compound annual growth rate (CAGR) the trend towards autonomy.
pandemic hit, it threatened to put an of approximately 7.14% during the pe- The key takeaway from the available
end to the market’s 50-year boom. riod of 2021-2026. numbers? The pandemic remarkably
Fortunately, the photonics market saw Additionally, in June 2021, McKinsey doesn’t seem to have had much effect
far less instability than many anticipat- & Co. released its “The Next Wave of on the industry, explains Tom Hausken,
ed throughout the pandemic. Although Innovation in Photonics” report, which senior industry advisor with Optica (for-
the market may not have seen the same also demonstrated how the track re- merly OSA). “Whereas you hear about
growth rates it has enjoyed in previ- cord of dedication to innovation across downtown office buildings remaining
ous years, it remained pleasantly stable. the photonics markets has enabled the empty and devastating the nearby busi-
According to recent numbers by laser-device market to achieve a value nesses that serve them, and other lasting
Mordor Intelligence, the anticipated of $17 billion by 2020.2 This same re- impacts from the pandemic, our industry
growth for the photonics market re- port anticipates a continued growth seems surprisingly unscathed,” he says.
mains impressive.1 Specifically, Mordor rate of 10%, yielding market valuation “The year 2020 underperformed from
valued the global photonics market at of $28 billion by 2025. Additionally, what it would have been without the
pandemic, and 2021 outperformed as
disruptions faded, and pent-up demand
drove revenues. Now supply chain is-
sues are restricting growth, but the in-
dustry appears to be on track to ap-
proximately where it would have been
if the pandemic hadn’t happened,” says
Hausken. “Looking ahead to 2022, we
can expect more of the same. It should
be a ‘normal’ year, apart of course from

FIGURE 1. On a silicon wafer, each square is

a chip with microscopic transistors and circuits.
Ordinarily, wafers like these are diced into their
individual chips and the chips go into the processors
that power our smart technology devices.
(Laura Ockel/Unsplash)

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 Annual Market Review and Forecast 2022

SLX!

*Fabs producing on 10 nm nodes and below. Grayed-out capacity represents a leading-edge memory fab; percentages
may not resolve due to rounding.
» 1W Single Line Emission
FIGURE 2. The global semiconductor value chain relies on just a few regions to provide
» Compact & Lightweight leading-edge fab capacity. (SEMI 2020 Q2 and 2021 Q2 update/Kearney analysis)

» Closed-Loop Wavelength whatever new external disruptions may to the issue. For instance, automakers
and Power Stabilization come our way. But our industry has consume roughly 10% of the current
» 9.2 - 10.6µm been strong through two of the most
challenging years of our generation.”
chip production with cars containing a
range of 100 (internal combustion en-
Wavelength Selection One key note: Unlike previous market gine) to as high as 3000 (autonomous
» Advanced GUI and review articles appearing in Laser Focus
World’s January issues, this year’s focus
battery electric). Smartphones, appli-
ances, Industrial Internet of Things
Controller for operation
is much broader, looking at the photon- (IIoT) devices, and even toys are all chip
and integration ics market as a whole rather than nar- hogs rapidly using up the global supply.
rowing in on the laser subset. The ratio- According to a December 2021 re-
nale for this shift is significant. Although port by Kearney, “the demand for lead-
lasers will continue to serve as a mean- ing edge semiconductors will increase
ingful component of the larger photon- with an annual growth rate of 15%.”3
IDEAL FOR ics industry, the market has hit a matu- Kearney sites AI, high-performance
spectroscopy, rity level where it is now important to computing, edge computing, and wire-
look at the market in its entirety. less communications as the key driv-
remote sensing, ers (see Fig. 2), while also estimating
trace gas analysis The chip conundrum these products will account for “more
in demanding industrial It may feel like everyone is “blaming” than 80% of leading-edge semiconduc-
and scientific environments. the chip shortage for current frustra- tor consumption by 2030.”
tions. After all, it has become a com- Ultimately, the current trend does not
mon sticking point across just about paint a rosy picture—and, unfortunate-
Let’s Talk: every industry today—but for good ly, there is not an immediate fix. For in-
reason, the number of semiconductor stance, Deloitte predicts that many types
chips in today’s manufactured goods of semiconductor chips will continue to
SPIE is mind-boggling. Adding fuel to the exhibit supply constraints throughout
fire, the need for more chips is inten- 2022, and with some component lead
Photonics West
25-27 January sifying as smart technology becomes times pushing into 2023.4 As such, the
the norm (see Fig. 1). Specifically, the shortage will have lasted 24 months be-
persistent drive to leverage artificial in- fore it recedes, a similar parallel to the
telligence (AI), machine learning, au- 2008-2009 chip shortage—the differ-
tonomy, and electronification of mo- ence being the hunger for smart goods
bility solutions will only add to the continues to multiply (see Fig. 3).
demand expectations. Part of the solution has been to in-
Simply considering how many chips crease production capabilities—which
Booth #339 one product can contain adds context is both cost-intensive and very much a

 www.laserfocusworld.com Laser Focus World

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 DBR-
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 Annual Market Re view and Forecast 2022

Duration of slowdown Global IC unit shipments per quarter (in billions)

Trade war
Japanese tsunami

Channel
inventory build COVID-19 pandemic

Asia crisis Sub-prime crisis

and global recession

Dot-com/
internet bubble
Global oil-led
economic crisis

1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
FIGURE 3. Global integrated circuit (IC) shipments across various downturns, shown
quarterly from 1990 through Q2 2021 (log scale). (Source: Deloitte)

long-term component to addressing the products (optics, instrumentation, ac-

ongoing shortage. “To be clear, growth cessories, etc.) sold into the semicon-
in 200 mm is mainly from increasing ductor manufacturing market are not
capacity in existing fabs, rather than only expansive, but also growing as the
the construction of entirely new plants, demand for chips continues to escalate.
which account for nearly US$12 bil- Extending this further, photonics
lion of capital equipment spending be- and semiconductor chip usage often
tween 2020 and 2022,” write the au- goes hand-in-hand, not only with the
thors of the Deloitte study. “From a leading-edge semiconductor chip man-
technology perspec-
tive, capacity at main- U.S. labor force participation rate
stream nodes and the
63%
more advanced 300
mm process nodes (un- 62.5%
der 10 nm, mainly at 62%
3 nm, 5 nm and 7 nm) 61.5% 61.6%
will grow more rapidly 61%
than more mature pro-
60.5%
cess nodes. It is worth
noting that demand is
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
growing for both wa-
fer sizes, and at all pro- FIGURE 4. As of October 2021, the labor force participation
cess nodes, not just the rate is unchanged at 61.6%, which is about 1.7 percentage
most advanced.” points lower than in February 2020. (Source: Fortune)

What’s the relevance? ufacturing process, but also (and per-

Beyond all the grumbling, there is a le- haps more importantly) with the re-
gitimate reason why the semiconductor sulting products. Even if players within
supply issue plays such an important the photonics market are able to deliv-
part of understanding the challenges er on existing orders, the lack of ac-
and opportunities within photonics. cess to affordable chips often means
There is no doubt the semiconductor the end product producer is unable to
market is a growing user of lasers, es- complete its goods.
pecially near-infrared (near-IR) and How did this chip shortage be-
green lasers. In addition, the photonics come such an issue? The answer is

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 Annual Market Review and Forecast 2022 c o nt i n u e d

multifaceted. Demand spikes have U.S. patents filed for laser technologies Share of U.S. patents filed for laser technologies (%)
proven to be a serious component
30,000 100 Solid-state
from the seemingly unquenchable Optically pumped
thirst for smart, automated goods semiconductor
75 Carbon dioxide
to the pandemic-based, work from
20,000 Excimer
home-induced need for considerably Diode
more consumer electronics (comput- 50
Quantum cascade
ers, monitors, webcams, conference 10,000 Fiber
speakers, etc.) than the market antic- 25
ipated, so semiconductor chips took
center stage. Just looking at global 0 0
personal computer shipments in the
70

80

90

00

10

20

70

80

90

00

10

20
-19

-19

-19

-20

-20

-20

-19

-19

-19

-20

-20

-20
fourth quarter of 2020, the industry 61

71

81

91

01

11

61

71

81

91

01

11
enjoyed a 10.7% increase from the
19

19

19

19

20

20

19

19

19

19

20

20
fourth quarter of 2019, according FIGURE 5. The number of new patents is dropping, and the focus of technology continues to
to Gartner. For the year, shipments shift. (Source: McKinsey)
reached 275 million units in 2020,
representing the highest growth for an already steady in- shortages,” he says. “Basically, demand exceeds the manu-
dustry in over a decade. facturing capacity right now. But it’s mostly short-term, and
However, increased demand is only part of the equation. you can say it’s the good kind of problem to have.”
Supply issues have also contributed significantly to the on-
going chip crisis. Most notably, disasters impacted semicon- Future-focused
ductor production throughout the pandemic. Specifically, Innovation is a crucial component to carrying the photonics
the blizzard that crippled Texas in 2021 created power market’s ongoing success into the next generation. Although
outages and facility damage, resulting in downtime with
a notable impact on the supply chain. Big producers like
NXP and Samsung each experienced capacity crunches over
25%. Likewise, the facility fire in Japan eliminated an en-
tire quarter’s production capabilities, stopping global au-
tomotive users in their tracks.
Global workforce shortages are also factoring in on the
supply side. These shortages have impacted the photonics
industry as well. In addition, the workforce shortage was
intensified as the pandemic ushered in a flurry of employ-
ment challenges. And the employment issue everyone loves
to talk about is actually quite complex.
Burnout, health concerns, and stimulus payments all enter
the picture. Yet, it is equally important to consider the prior-
ity realignment that has occurred throughout the pandem-
ic. According to this Fortune article by Megan Leonhardt,
retirement and career breaks are both meaningful con-
tributors (see Fig. 4).5 “Of the over 5 million Americans
Goldman Sachs estimates have left the workforce since the
pandemic kicked off, about 3.4 million were over the age
of 55—about 1.5 million of whom were early retirees and
about 1 million of whom retired on time, according to a re-
cent analysis,”6 writes Leonhardt. “Meanwhile, nearly half,
or 42%, of working Americans surveyed by LinkedIn have
considered taking a break from their career.”
When addressing the ongoing labor issues and supply
shortages, Hausken addresses it well by essentially lump-
ing the issues into one larger category of shortages. “It’s all
related, because the parts are slow in part due to worker

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 Annual Market Review and Forecast 2022

the speed of innovation in laser tech- the pandemic has ignited a new flame,
nology has been dropping, the creation encouraging research and development
of integrated devices combining lasers, groups to focus on ways the industry
sensors, and optics could usher in a new can play a meaningful role in providing
age of opportunity. Companies that better solutions to the world’s problems.
develop such devices now could have While pandemic was crippling to
a first-mover advantage, since end cus- many industries, the outbreak has
tomers are likely to seek strategic part- actually expanded the scope of pho-
nerships to explore new applications tonic devices in the healthcare indus-
and build product offerings. The move try. Hausken provides a perfect exam-
to integrated devices might require new ple—the role of optics in addressing not
capabilities, but opportunities abound just the pandemic, but possibly advanc-
for rapidly sourcing them within the ing the big picture fight against virus-
fragmented industry landscape. es altogether.
And innovation opportunities are not “The pandemic seemed to come out
limited the big players within the in- of nowhere, but pandemics are not new,
dustry. Consider for instance the argu- and the experts say they will become
ments in this New York Times article increasingly frequent. At the same time,
discussing how the ongoing shortage is today’s capability of optics-based tech-
responsible for a significant boom for nology to identify the virus and help to
many manufacturers best described as prove out vaccines is really phenom-
niche players within the broader semi- enal,” says Hausken. “That technol-
conductor supply chain.7 These oppor- ogy has advanced in throughput and
tunities are not limited to semiconduc- cost enormously in the last few years.
tor companies. We should never take this for grant-
Unfortunately, this is also where the ed: what if we were a decade or two
industry maturity level, mentioned behind when COVID-19 took off? As
early, comes into play. Routinely as bad as it has been, it would have been
industries mature, the rate of pure far worse.”
innovation begins to tail off. And ac- There is reason for optimism look-
cording to the McKinsey report there ing forward, explains Hausken. “With
is real evidence this trend is occurring all the investment in this crisis, we
across the laser and photonics market. now have the opportunity to prepare
McKinsey points to the rate of patent for future pandemics and even to mit-
filings as a key indicator. Specifically, igate much better other viruses, such
from 2001 through 2010, research- as influenza and even the common
ers filed more than 29,000 US appli- cold,” he says. “That is an opportu-
cations for laser-related patents, ac- nity that cannot be wasted, and it’s
counting for more than double the not possible without optics and pho-
patent applications from the previous tonics. If we’re successful, it’s likely
decade (see Fig. 5). However, For the that we’ll all take it for granted, but
years from 2011 through 2020, how- it’s one of the positive things that can
ever, only about 24,000 applications come out of the pandemic.”
were filed. This drop was an aberra-
tion in an industry where patent filings REFERENCES
have traditionally doubled each decade. 1. See https://bit.ly/MarketRev22-Ref1.
2. See https://mck.co/31YJ9YB.
While there is no denying the patent 3. See https://bit.ly/MarketRev22-Ref3.
trend, anyone paying attention to what 4. See https://bit.ly/MarketRev22-Ref4.
is happening across the photonics mar- 5. See https://bit.ly/MarketRev22-Ref5.
ket on a daily basis knows the level of 6. See https://bit.ly/MarketRev22-Ref6.
7. See https://nyti.ms/3q3gfhT.
innovation, even when its iterative in
nature, remains quite strong. If any- Tell us what you think about this article. Send
thing, there are many instances where an e-mail to [email protected].

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 PHOTONICS WEST PREVIEW

SPIE PhotonicsWest 2022:

Full steam ahead
JUSTINE MURPHY, Senior Editor

Following a pandemic-prompted hiatus, SPIE Photonics are Wei Min from Columbia University,
West is back in 2022, in person, and in full force. who will present Color Revolution:
Super-Multiplexed Optical Microscopy;
“SPIE Photonics West 2022 will be a re- • Molecular imaging with near-infra- Osamu Matoba, of Kobe University
warding and welcoming event for the red in microscopy (Japan), speaking about holographic im-
global photonics community to kick • Optical coherence tomography (OCT) aging and its bio applications; Dan Zhu
off the new year and re-engage in per- angiography from Huazhong University of Science
son,” says SPIE CEO Kent Rochford. • Microscopy techniques for skin can- and Technology (China) will discuss
Touted the world’s largest annual op- cer detection tissue optical clearing imaging—from
tics and photonics conference and ex- • Machine learning-based biomedi- in vitro to in vivo; Irina Larina, of
hibition, the event this year—which cal imaging Baylor College of Medicine, will pres-
will run January 22-27 at the Moscone • Real-time intraoperative imaging ent “live biophotonic analysis of em-
Center in San Francisco, CA—promis- The annual BiOS Hot Topics pro- bryonic development;” Aydogan Ozcan
es to be the most innovative, impact- gram will take place on January from the University of California, Los
ful, informative one yet. 22nd. This event focuses on highly Angeles (UCLA) will present how deep
engaged, world-renowned speakers learning enables optics; speaking to
BiOS who reveal some of the latest innova- “cerebral health in a heartbeat” will
The Biomedical Optics Symposium tions in their areas of expertise. BiOS be Maria Angela Franceschini from
(BiOS) expo and conference, slated for Symposium Chair, Jennifer Barton Massachusetts General Hospital,
January 22nd and 23rd, kicks off the from the University of Arizona, will Harvard Medical School; and Lihong
larger Photonics West event. With a fo- lead this program. Scheduled to speak Wang, of the California Institute of
cus specifically on technologies such as
biomedical optics components, prod-
ucts, instrumentation, and applica-
tions; molecular imaging, therapeutic
lasers; nano/biophotonics; biosensors;
and spectroscopic/microscopic imaging,
this is the largest biomedical optics and
biophotonics exhibition in the world.
Here, attendees can see and explore
the latest research and studies, as well
as technologies from suppliers of bio-
medical research systems and solutions.
Research topics to be presented
include:
(Image credit: SPIE)

• Photonics in dermatology
• Enhanced thermal imaging
• Deep-imaging instrumentation
and research

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 Photonics West Preview c o nt i n u e d

Technology, will discuss functional by Hiroshi Amano from Nagoya Also featured at Photonics West will
photoacoustic tomography of the hu- University (Japan), as well as Jelena be the AR | VR | MR conference. This
man brain. Vuckovic from Stanford University, and focuses on augmented, virtual, and
January 22nd will also see the Andrea Blanco-Redondo, of Nokia mixed reality (AR/VR/MR), as well
Healthcare Startups Panel, which is “an Bell Labs. Also on January 24th will as the vital role optics and photonics
informative panel composed of mem- be LASE — a subconference that fo- are playing in cross-reality (XR) hard-
bers of the healthcare startup ecosys- cuses on industrial lasers, laser sourc- ware development. SPIE notes that this
tem” who will discuss trends in growth es, and laser applications. A Nano/ event “incorporates more than 40 invit-
and funding. Biophotonics plenary (January 25th) ed industry talks, keynotes, and panels;
A networking reception will be held will feature a discussion with Hongjie a two-day exhibition; and, new in 2022,
on January 23rd, followed by the BiOS Dai of Stanford University. an XR-specific job fair.” Leading and
publications reception later in the day. This year, the exhibition includes upcoming consumer electronics com-
more than 4000 technical presenta- panies, such as Sony, Schott, Microsoft,
General conference tions—among them are: VividQ, Kura, and Lynx, will be there
Once the BiOS weekend wraps up on • Nonlinear optomechanics as well, in addition to courses, academ-
January 23rd, attendees and compa- • Quantum interferometry ic tracks, and a poster session.
nies will hit the Photonics West con- • Optomechanical sensing
ference and expo floors. • Plasmonic-enhanced quantum sensing Startup Challenge
Several plenary talks will be fea- • Precision spectroscopy Several Startup Challenge events prom-
tured at the beginning of the week. • Super-resolution imaging ise to be exciting. According to SPIE,
At OPTO, which highlights all fac- • Second- and third-harmonic genera- mergers and acquisitions are the pri-
ets of optoelectronics, photonic ma- tion microscopy mary drivers of exits among technology
terials, and devices, the January 24th • Wearable devices startups. A small community of experts
plenary will feature presentations • Photoluminescence exists, who track activity in the optics

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2:58 PM
 Photonics West Preview c o nt i n u e d

and photonics technical domain. “Through a series of pre- • Rockley Photonics

sentations and discussion, they will map out trends in the • Santec
mergers and acquisitions of photonics-enabled companies.” • Schott
These events will include the Healthcare Startups Panel. • Stuttgart Instruments
Information from SPIE notes that founders of healthcare • Spectra-Physics (MKS Instruments)
startups have the potential to bring new life-changing tech- • Sydor Optics
nology to patients, but must navigate a complex landscape • Thorlabs
of prototyping, partnerships, funding, and regulation. This • Zemax
panel will include founders and investors in the healthcare • Vermont Photonics Technologies
realm, discussing best practices, trends in growth, and fund- • Xenics
ing in the ecosystem. • Zygo
M&A Activity in Photonics is another of the Startup “We are very excited to be hosting our in-person return
Challenge events, featuring Linda Smith, president of Ceres to San Francisco, kicking off the calendar for the global
Technology Advisors and a partner at GLAS Capital, a ded- photonics community’s year,” says Photonics West Event
icated photonics investment fund. Manager Marilyn Gorsuch, who is senior director of tech-
Another focuses on photonics startups and fundraising. nical programs for SPIE. “Each year, Photonics West, as
Specifically, this features companies raising funding in both the first global photonics event of the year, shapes the fu-
the healthcare and deep tech spaces; they will pitch their ture for academic, industry, and government communities.
ideas, with the intent of improving “deal flow from valu- Photonics West 2022 promises to be an illuminating, en-
able, high-tech companies.” SPIE notes this is “ideal for all gaging, and thought-provoking week with many network-
investors looking for opportunities to invest in companies ing and socializing opportunities planned to complement
with market traction using technologies like imaging, semi- the strong technical program. We can’t wait to welcome our
conductors, lasers, displays, telecommunications, AR/VR, community back face-to-face, and once again show the val-
and healthcare from around the world.” ue of live, in-person events.”
Investing in Photonics will include a panel discussion that
brings together active investors in the photonics space to dis-
cuss emerging trends, common problems, and how found-
ers can build successful companies. Laura Smoliar, founding
partner of the Berkeley Catalyst Fund, will be a panelist here,
joined by moderator Ian Tracey, founder of Anchored In Ltd.

Exhibitors
Thousands of exhibitors spend the week showcasing their
products and intriguing work, as well as connecting with
potential buyers and others.
Those attending this year include:
• Advanced Photonics Sciences
• Agilent Technologies
• AIM Photonics
• DataRay
• European Photonics Industry Consortium (EPIC)
• Excelitas Technologies
• Hamamatsu
• Headwall Photonics
• Innovative Photonic Solutions
• IPG Photonics
• LaCroix Precision Optics
• Lambda Research Corp.
• Novanta
• Nuvu Cameras
• Ocean Insight
• Ophir (MKS Instruments)
• Reynard Corp.

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 H E A LT H C A R E
®

Current trends in
photoacoustic imaging
ROBERT V. CHIMENTI

New developments in photoacoustic UK) published a critical re- imaging system (see Fig. 1) from Seno
imaging (PAI) for clinical applications view of PAI in 2011, 2 he Medical (San Antonio, TX) became the
pointed out that, “This early first PAI system to cross the “valley of
include the use of pulsed LEDs
work, undertaken by a hand- death” as the United States Food and
to replace Q-switched lasers and ful of researchers, progressed Drug Administration (FDA) granted
the integration of PAI with optical steadily, if not with any no- premarket approval.
coherence tomography (OCT). table degree of rapidity.” He
further explained it was not Photoacoustic imaging
It is impossible to understate the impor- “until the early- to mid-2000s when the foundation
tance of noninvasive soft tissue imaging first truly compelling in vivo images be- To understand the potential impacts of
in modern medicine, with ultrasound gan to be obtained.” PAI in healthcare, it is essential first to
and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) While some early clinical work had take a step back and understand the
currently being the two most popular been performed by that time, PAI was fundamentals of the technique. PAI
techniques. However, while these tech- still primarily used as a tool for ba- relies on optically induced acoustic
niques provide excellent depth pene- sic biological research. Over the subse- waves in soft tissue, which can then
tration, typically 1 to 10 cm, the long quent decade, PAI continued to evolve be recorded using one or more ultra-
wavelengths of acoustic and radio waves and has now been successfully demon- sound transducers. Typical PAI sys-
limit the image resolution to a roughly strated in a wide range of clinical ap- tems utilize a nanosecond pulse width
1 mm voxel. By contrast, optical imag- plications—including breast, derma- Q-switched laser for exciting various
ing techniques such as optical coherence tological, and vascular imaging.3 2021 chromophores in the tissue, creating
tomography (OCT) offer micron-scale marked perhaps the most significant localized heating. Assuming the laser
voxels along with molecular specifici- milestone when the Imagio breast fluence is below the ionization thresh-
ty. But the high scattering cross-section old of the chromophore
of biological tissue limits most optical and the thermal damage
detection methods to a maximum of 1 threshold of the surround-
mm depth penetration. ing tissue, the resultant heat
In the mid-1990s, radiologists at will be quickly dissipated
the Indiana University Medical Center through the tissue, resulting
(Indianapolis, IN) proposed a new meth- in a propagating pressure
od called photoacoustic ultrasound re- differential. This pressure
construction tomography to provide gradient generates acoustic
optical imaging with ultrasonic pen- waves in the tissue upon re-
etration depth.1 While promising, the peated laser pulses, which
technique now known more broadly as are easily detected with an
photoacoustic imaging (PAI) remained ultrasonic transducer.
fairly under the radar for the follow- FIGURE 1. Imagio breast imaging system from Seno In addition to the in-
ing decade. When Paul Beard from Medical (San Antonio, TX). (Courtesy of Seno Medical) creased resolution com-
University College London (London, pared to conventional

Laser Focus World www.laserfocusworld.com January 2022 37

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 H e a lt h c a r e c o nt i n u e d

ultrasound imaging, PAI has the ad- Current clinical applications HHb in red and HbO2 in green (im-
vantage that chromophore absorp- The most common endogenous chro- ages 2 and 5). For the first time, this
tion is wavelength-dependent. This mophores used in PAI application are system provides clinicians with an
means that using multiple excitation oxyhemoglobin (HbO2) and deoxy- FDA-approved real-time noninvasive
wavelengths, PAI can provide a degree hemoglobin (HHb). These are partic- means of identifying cancers without
of chemical discrimination. When ularly interesting for tumor screening the need for ionizing radiation.
combined with a broadly tunable la- due to the increased metabolic activity
ser source, it is possible to produce within cancer cells. The Imagio breast
full hyperspectral subdermal imag- imaging system was explicitly designed PAI offers a significant
es. For example, the Acuity family for that exact purpose, combining improvement over MRI
of multispectral optical tomography dual-wavelength PAI with tradition-
(MSOT) PAI systems from iThera al ultrasound to produce a false-color for vascular imaging.
Medical (Munich, Germany) utiliz- overlay of blood content over a gray-
es a tunable laser from 660 to 1300 scale ultrasound image. This system
nm, allowing for the differentiation of utilizes dual 757 nm and 1064 nm ex- In addition to cancer screenings,
most endogenous biological chromo- citation lasers to take advantage of the PAI’s affinity for hemoglobin detec-
phores. While complete spectral infor- relatively high absorption of HHb com- tion also makes it attractive for vascular
mation is helpful in clinical research pared to HbO2 at 757 nm, as opposed imaging. One striking example can be
applications, the long scan time cur- to 1064 nm where the relative absorp- seen in Figure 3, where researchers at
rently makes this approach prohibitive tion flips. From Figure 2, we can see Kyoto University (Kyoto, Japan) used
for mass deployment. However, since the traditional grayscale ultrasound PAI to create three-dimensional maps
most PAI applications are targeted image of the mass in the first image, of blood vessels inside human palms.4
at specific chromophores, full spec- along with a map of the total blood in In their work published in Nature’s
tra imaging is generally unnecessary. yellow (image 4) and the differentiated Scientific Reports, the group used the

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 H e a lt h c a r e c o nt i n u e d

FIGURE 2. Six-panel display of the dual-

(1) (2) (3)
mode PAI-ultrasound scan of a breast
cancer tumor. Image (1) displays the
grayscale ultrasound, (2) the grayscale
ultrasound with the combined 757 nm (red)
and 1064 nm (green) photoacoustic (PA)
signals, (3) grayscale 757 nm PA signal, (4)
grayscale ultrasound with the combined
PA signal, (5) grayscale ultrasound with
(4) (5) (6) the combines 757 nm (red) and 1064 nm
(green) PA signals filtered to reduce aliasing,
and (6) grayscale 1064 nm PA signal.
(Courtesy of Seno Medical)

vascular architecture, nor can it moni-

tor oxygenation. That said, it should be
noted that the speed and non-contact
PAI-03 system jointly developed by absorption coefficients of HHb and nature of LSCI compared to PAI make
Canon (Tokyo, Japan) and Optosonics HbO2 are equivalent. it attractive for specific applications
(Oriental, NC) containing a hemispher- PAI offers a significant improvement such as real-time interoperative blood
ical ultrasound detector array and dual over MRI for vascular imaging since flow monitoring.
755 nm and 795 nm excitation lasers. it does not require external contrast
Since the research team was only in- agents. Laser speckle contrast imag- The next generation
terested in measuring total blood con- ing (LSCI) can also detect subdermal of PAI systems
centration, they chose to exclusive- blood flow,5 but it does not provide the While most PAI systems still rely on
ly use the 795 nm signal, where the spatial resolution needed to map the Q-switched laser excitation, there is a

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Laser Focus World www.laserfocusworld.com January 2022 39

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 H e a lt h c a r e c o nt i n u e d

(a) (b) Another exciting development in

PAI is the development of dual-mode
PAI-OCT platforms. First demonstrat-
ed in 2009 by Lihong Wang’s group
at Washington University in St Louis
(St. Louis, MO),7 this technique com-
bines the high resolution of OCT with
the chemical specificity of PAI. To date,
most of the research involving PAI-OCT
has focused on microscopy-based sys-
tems, but there has also been some
up-and-coming research into photo-
acoustic endoscopes (PAE).
It’s important to note that while ex-
(c) (d) tremely promising, there is still much
work to be done before endoscopic
PAE-OCT systems are ready for de-
ployment. As Zohreh Hosseinaee et
al. explained in a review of dual-mode
PAI-OCT, “In general, future direc-
tion for multimodal PAE-OCT studies
can be focused on improving scanning
speed, miniaturizing the probe size,
and enhancing detection mechanism.”8
It seems clear that the FDA approval
of the Imagio breast imaging system is
likely only to be the tip of the iceberg.
FIGURE 3. PAI blood vessel image of a palm taken at a wavelength of 795 nm. (a) Total With PAI gaining acceptance and re-
grayscale PA signal; (b) false-color PA image representing the depth; (c) PA image after
searchers continuing to push the limits
removing surface veins; (d) binarized and labeled final image.4 (Image was reprinted under
creative commons licensing guidelines)
of the technology in the lab, it is more
evident than ever that PAI is poised
growing trend towards the use of laser (500 Hz).” The authors also made to revolutionize noninvasive imaging
diodes and even LEDs. LEDs are the sure to point out the limitations of across the healthcare industry.
most attractive of these two options due LED-based PAI, including the lack of
to their extremely low cost, complexi- tunability across chromophores, lon- REFERENCES
ty, and power consumption. While it is ger pulses reducing acoustic efficien- 1. R. A. Kruger, P. Liu, Y. Fang, and C. R. Appledorn,
Med. Phys., 22, 10, 1605–1609 (1995).
true that LEDs can in no way match the cy, and lower optical power reducing 2. P. Beard, Interface Focus, 1, 602–631 (2011).
performance of Q-switched lasers, they depth penetration. Still, LED-based PAI 3. A. B. E. Attia et al., Photoacoustics, 16,
are still suitable for certain applications. systems show great potential for use in 100144 (2019).
Yunhao Zhu et al. point out in their future low-cost point-of-care or wear- 4. Y. Matsumoto et al., Sci. Rep., 8, 786 (2018).
5. See https://bit.ly/3F8xBjK.
2020 review of LED-based PAI, 6 able instrumentation. 6. Y. Zhu et al., Sensors, 20, 9, 2484 (2020).
“[i]n the span of 10 years, there has been While most well known for their ro- 7. L. Li, K. Maslov, G. Ku, and L. V. Wang, Opt.
significant growth in this field, espe- botic hybrid assistive limb (HAL) tech- Express, 17, 19, 16450–16455 (2009).
cially with the improvement of pulse nologies, Cyberdyne (Ibaraki, Japan) 8. Z. Hosseinaee, J. A. Tummon Simmons, and P.
H. Reza, Front. Phys., 8, 635 (2021).
energy (nJ [nanojoules] to hundreds has also become one of the first compa-
of µJ [microjoules]) and PRR [pulse nies to offer a commercial LED-based Robert V. Chimenti is the Director of
repletion rate] (200 Hz to 16,000 Hz) PAI system called the Acoustic X. RVC Photonics LLC (Pitman, NJ), as well
of LEDs.” They further explain “that While the Acoustic X is currently only as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the
LED-PAI is now capable of functional approved for medical research purpos- Department of Physics and Astronomy at
Rowan University (Glassboro, NJ); e-mail:
imaging (oxygenation and blood flow es and is limited to a maximum depth [email protected].
imaging) of superficial and sub-surface penetration of 40 mm, it clearly shows
tissue (more than 1 cm) at frame rates the potential for future of LED-based Tell us what you think about this article. Send an
unachievable for laser-based systems PAI technology. e-mail to [email protected].

40 January 2022 www.laserfocusworld.com Laser Focus World

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 OPTICAL M ATE R IA L S

Graphene:The ‘wonder material’

JUSTINE MURPHY, Senior Editor

Innovative discoveries have helped to overcome or acceptors of Published in ACS Nano, the research
existing challenges when using graphene. electrons. The involved “modification of the dop-
benchmarked ant density and the phononic energy
Graphene has been hailed a “wonder parameters of graphene sensors in- of antibody-coupled graphene when
material,” given its potential in a grow- clude sensitivity, selectivity, response it interfaces with SARS-CoV-2 spike
ing pool of applications and indus- and recovery time, and detection limit. protein.”1
tries, from quantum computing (also According to the Graphene Council, Researchers created the sensor by
see “Getting edgy with graphene”) to scientists have found that the material combining sheets of graphene and
healthcare. But it’s also a bit unassum- can measure quantum-scale changes an antibody developed to target the
ing. While it’s the thinnest material in conduction. It “boasts the benefit of spike protein. Using a Raman spec-
in the world at just one atom-thick, being an extremely low-noise materi- trometer, they measured the sheets’
graphene is among the strongest at al. Because of this, even at the limit of atomic-level vibrations after expos-
roughly 200X stronger than steel. no carriers and a few extra electrons, ing them to samples of artificial sali-
A monolayer of carbon atoms graphene’s carrier concentration is able va that were COVID-positive and oth-
arranged in a hexagonal lattice, to change considerably.” Additionally, ers that were COVID-negative. Those
graphene’s most common use has been graphene enables the creation of vibrations changed when they treat-
to form graphite, which is comprised four-probe devices on monocrystals, ed it with the positive sample; there
of stacked graphene layers held togeth- basically guaranteeing eradication of was no change with the negative sam-
er by van der Waals forces—essential- “any influence of the contact resistance ple—the changes became evident in
ly the backbone of pencils and lubri- in limiting sensitivity.” less than 5 minutes.
cants. Moving beyond those historical According to the study, the graphene
uses, graphene is advancing into a jack Healthcare, biomedical chemeo-phononic system identified the
of all trades. research SARS-CoV-2 spike protein at a detec-
Let’s take a look at how researchers Promising results from lab experiments tion limit of about 3.75 fg (force ex-
are finding exciting new uses for this at the University of Illinois Chicago erted by gravitation) per milliliter in
wonder material. show that a graphene-based sensor can artificial saliva, and about 1 fg (force
quickly spot COVID-19 (see figure). exerted by gravitation) per milliliter in
Gas sensors
As its potential applica-
An illustration of the
tions escalate, graphene
graphene-based COVID-19
is playing a pivotal role spike protein detection process
in enhancing chemi- SARS-CoV-2
developed at the University
cal sensors and imag- of Illinois. The white rectangle
Laser to
ers. Graphene-based represents the substrate with Raman
sensors work by mea- graphene functionalized with
suring alterations in SARS-CoV-2 antibody (shown Spike protein 2D phonon process
in yellow). When this graphene
the electrical conduc-
detector interacts with the  
tivity of the material, virus’ spike protein in a COVID- Antibody
and also by absorb-  
positive sample, its atomic p-doping
ing a gas molecule on 
vibration frequency changes. Graphene
the graphene’s surface, (Illustration: Vikas Berry)
PBASE p-doping
which acts as donors

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 phosphate-buffered saline. “It also ex- Getting edgy with graphene
hibited selectivity over proteins in sali-
The next generation of devices is right around the corner—and we have a
va and MERS-CoV spike protein. Since
new phase of graphene to thank.
the change in graphene phononics is
A team at Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN) has demonstrated
monitored instead of the phononic sig-
that graphene’s viscous fluid can boost unidirectional electromagnetic
nature of the analyte, this optical plat-
“edge waves,” which are “linked to a new topological phase of matter and
form can be replicated for other COVID
symbolize a phase transition in the material. With this, light travels in only
variants and specific-binding-based one direction along the edge of the graphene material, making it “robust
bio-detection applications.” to disorder, imperfections, and deformation.”
The researchers note that carbon at- The researchers used graphene because of its electrical conduction
oms in graphene are bound by chem- properties.
ical bonds, the elasticity and move- All of this has the potential to boost all-optical processing, as well as
ment of which can produce resonant quantum information processing, computing, and networking, and intercon-
vibrations (phonons—the “collec- nects between quantum and classical computing systems.
tive excitation in a periodic, elastic “There is a lot of interest
arrangement of atoms or molecules right now in trying to build
in condensed matter”). This leads to interconnections between
very accurate measurements. When our quantum systems and
the SARS-CoV-2 molecule interacted classical systems,” says re-
with graphene, those resonant vibra- searcher Zubin Jacob, the
tions changed “in a quantifiable way.” Elmore associate professor
The promising takeaway is that the of electrical and comput-
potential for early detection of future er engineering at Purdue;
variants could lead to earlier, quick- he worked alongside post-
er administration of treatments and doctoral researcher Todd
Van Mechelen and grad-
a higher rate of successful recovery.
uate research assistant
Wenbo Sun on this study. Using a new phase of graphene that they
Dentistry
“[Quantum systems] are ba- discovered, Purdue University researchers have
Graphene is also employed in developed a “topological circulator” that may
sically information process-
dentistry-related studies, as well as improve how information is routed and processed
ing nodes that can beat
some procedures. In research published on a chip. (Purdue University/Zubin Jacob)
classical systems. These
in Applied Materials Today, a team at [quantum systems] are the
Okayama University in Japan has found next generation of devices we are going to have.”
that graphene oxide (GO, a graphene He notes, however, that quantum systems are very complex and may
nanomaterial) and functionalized GO not be able to stand on their own. “They will need to be interfaced with
“has provided outstanding results in an- existing supercomputers and hardware systems to communicate informa-
timicrobial action, regenerative den- tion in one direction back and forth.” Basically, “you want the information
tistry, bone tissue engineering, drug to preferentially flow in whichever direction you want.” Interconnects and a
delivery, physicomechanical property topological circulator device (cylindrical one-way signal routers developed
enhancement of dental biomaterials, by the Purdue team) allow this (see figure), unlike an isolator, which iso-
and oral cancer treatment.”2 Graphene lates the signal in one direction but not the other.
nanomaterials have exhibited unique “Instead of just two systems, like A and B, just think of three ports: one,
optical, mechanical, and physiochemi- two, and three,” Jacob says. “So, you’re interfacing three signals in your
cal properties that are specifically ben- cell phone or three antennas, for example, and so forth. That’s our circu-
efitting dental research. Overall, the lator. You want information to go from one to two, two to three, and three
researchers note, GO has a number of to one, but not the other way around. The information circulates between
“chemically reactive functional groups whichever routes you choose, but not the other way around.”
on its surface, which facilitate inter- Topological circulators are crucial devices for a variety of systems, and
action with DNA, proteins, polymers, show potential for on-chip, all-optical processing because they are “a fun-
damental building block in integrated optical circuits.” However, they are
and biomolecules” and shows great
large and bulky, whereas the processing chip is very small. This presents
promise for biomedicine.
a problem, according to the researchers. continued on page 45
Across multiple studies, the research-
ers have developed GO for “biofilm

Laser Focus World www.laserfocusworld.com January 2022 43

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 Optical M ate r ia l s c o nt i n u e d

and caries prevention as well as im- must be prevented. When graphene as diseases and conditions that affect
plant surface modification and as a is coated with titanium substrate, them), fluoride graphene boosts the
quorum sensing inhibitor,” thanks to its hydrophobic character imparts mechanical and antibacterial proper-
graphene’s antibiofilm and antiadhe-
sion properties. There’s promise for dental implants as well with
Specifically, graphene has prov-
en beneficial for tissue engineering graphene helping address the issue of leaking seals at
for treatments such as restoration of the hard and soft tissue interfaces, which often leads
missing teeth. While most artificial
biomaterials such as collagen lack to bacterial infections.
“tissue-inductive activities,” scaffolds
created using GO have prompted bone a self-cleaning effect on its surfaces, ties of glass ionomers, which are com-
formation five times faster than has which enables a reduction in the ad- monly used in restorative dentistry. It
been possible with collagen scaffolds. hesion of dental pathogens.”3 also “decreases microcracks in the in-
There’s promise for dental implants Endodontic procedures such as root ternal structure and protects it from
as well with graphene helping address canals involve bioactive cement for the erosion and disintegration by micro-
the issue of leaking seals at the hard management of perforation, pulp cap- bial invasion.”
and soft tissue interfaces, which of- ping, and retrograde root filling. Bose
ten leads to bacterial infections. In an notes that graphene nanosheets im- Quantum computing
AZO Materials contribution, biotech- prove the mechanical property of the A team at Nagoya University in Japan
nology researcher Dr. Priyom Bose bioactive cement. For restorative den- has been dabbling in graphene, with
said, “the healing process must be ac- tistry and periodontology (the study a biomedical tie but for the purpose
celerated and bacterial colonization of teeth’s supporting structures as well of potentially advancing the next

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44 January 2022
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 Optical M ate r ia l s c o nt i n u e d

continued from page 43 “We can’t fit hundreds of thousands of them on a

small chip,” Jacob says. “We are trying to really miniaturize all of this. And
the idea is we need signals to go from one port to another, but not back-
ward. But this is very difficult to achieve if your system is really small. If
DC-DC CONVERTERS
you wanted a future device where you needed these circulators jam- 2V to 10,000 VDC Outputs
packed on the chip, you want to make it really small. This is not possible
because these devices require a magnetic field, a large and bulky magnet,
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Regulated/Proportional/Programmable
and large cables to be routing the signal. And these signals are generally
Isolated/Single/Dual Outputs
electromagnetic signals.”
He adds that his team, in searching for new approaches to shrinking High Reliability
the topological circulators, realized that the secret is charge plus elec- Greater than 1,000,000 hrs.
Mil Hbk 217F
tron fluid plus Hall viscosity—it is the electron fluid and graphene that are •
charged. This presents a special (new) viscosity that is not related to fric- Military Upgrades
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“What we have shown is that it is indeed possible to rethink how these Environmental Screening
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YOUR PROVEN SOURCE.
tical pulses. They were also found to REFERENCES Over 50 years providing
exhibit other basic brain functions, in- 1. N. H. L. Nguyen, S. Kim, G. Lindemann, and V. reliable products.
Berry, ACS Nano, 15, 7, 11743–11752 (2021). Over 2,500 Standard Modules.
cluding the transition from short-term 2. M. Z. I. Nizami, S. Takashiba, and Y. Nishina,
to long-term memory. Appl. Mater., 19, 100576 (Jun. 2020). 800-431-1064
“Our brains are well equipped to 3. P. Bose, AZO Materials (Nov. 15, 2021);
sieve through the information avail- https://bit.ly/3s9oeMS.
PICO ELECTRONICS, Inc.
143 Sparks Ave., Pelham, New York 10803
4. Y. Mizuno, Y. Ito, and K. Ueda, Carbon, 182,
able and store what’s important,” says 669–676 (Sep. 2021).
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E Mail: [email protected]
Dr. Kenji Ueda, a researcher in the
Department of Materials Physics at Tell us what you think about this article. Send
Nagoya who led this study. “We tried an e-mail to [email protected].

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 ROBOTICS

Improved automated fiber placement

with a fully reflective top-hat shaper
LASER MANUFACTURES COMPOSITE MATERIALS

VIA ROBOTIC AUTOMATION

JULIEN BAYOL

FIGURE 1. An
AFP machine for
manufacturing
curved parts.
In recent years, environmental consid-
erations, and the need to reduce fuel
consumption, have led the aeronautical
industry to include increasingly more
composite material assemblies in air-
craft. Composite materials provide the
benefit of having a lighter weight for
the same mechanical strength as com-
pared to metallic materials.
The Airbus A350 is a typical and
pioneering example, with more than
half its primary structure composed of
composite materials. As a result, the
need for a process to manufacture
large, complex geometry composite placement of fiber tapes on a mold to fibers are cured directly on the mold,
parts in an efficient and repeatable generate a composite part (see Fig. 1). and the dry fibers can be infused or
manner has emerged. To a lesser ex- The tapes are then fed from a spool via injected with resin using low pressure
tent, this need has also emerged in oth- a robot arm and applied to the mold transfer.1, 2
er industries such as the manufacture cavity, or to the plies already placed, This technique offers certain advan-
of wind turbine blades. with enough consolidation force to en- tages over conventional methods. With
One process that meets this need is sure bonding between the layups. It is small radius of curvature, the robot
automated fiber placement (AFP). With often necessary to heat the tape and by arm can lay out tapes on molds of com-
this in mind, Cailabs has developed an extension the substrate during applica- plex geometrical shapes within the ma-
ultracompact laser fiber placement head tion. Some machines can simultaneous- chine build volume. Automating the
in accordance with the bill of specifica- ly lay out several tapes, which can be process makes it repeatable and helps
tions of Coriolis Composites, which has cut independently in various positions. reduce material losses, for example,
been integrated into AFP machines. It There are also different types of by optimizing the length of the depos-
enables manufacturing composite parts molds: male or female. The process ited layups.
with complex geometries while ensur- is compatible with different types of
ing their good quality. materials—thermosetting or thermo- Laser: a relevant tool for
plastic resin prepreg fibers, as well as heating composites
What is AFP? dry fibers. Also, unlike the more con- When using thermosetting resins with a
AFP is a sub-family of additive man- ventional techniques, this method does polymerization temperature of 200°C,
ufacturing involving the successive not require an autoclave; the prepreg it is possible to heat the composite tape

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 Robotics c o nt i n u e d

the inertia of the robot arm. The laser

head is therefore ultracompact with
an overall size of 127 × 94 × 70 mm3
and a weight of 1 kg, of which about
half comes from the standard Precitec
connector. This makes the head com-
patible with female molds with small
radius of curvature, often preferred
to male molds for certain aeronauti-
cal applications.
The low power specification allows
measuring the beam stiffness accord-
ing to the two dimensions of the rect-
angle. This measure is defined as the
ratio of the transition zone from 10%
to 90% of the maximum intensity over
the tray width at 90% of the maximum
intensity. Thus, the module generated
a shape with a stiffness equal to 0.14.
Measurements have also shown the high
FIGURE 2. A Coriolis C-solo robot arm with the Cailabs fiber placement head (shown at left).
homogeneity of the top-hat tray in both
dimensions, a variation of 3.6% RMS
using infrared lamps. However, they Composites is a French company spe- on the small dimension, and 2.7% RMS
are not powerful enough for thermo- cializing in automated manufactur- on the large dimension.
plastic resins, which require higher ing processes for composite materi- The high-power stability was also
processing temperatures (between 300° als, particularly through the design confirmed, with the cooling system
and 400°C). The use of thermoplastic and manufacture of AFP machines. A bringing the optics to an acceptable
resins is growing since it offers somelaser head, based on Cailabs’ Multi- steady-state temperature in 3 minutes
advantages: they are recyclable and Plane Light Conversion
can be reworked during the process, (MPLC) technology, was Temperature (°C)
designed to generate a 50
at the cost of a higher glass transition
temperature. The laser is therefore a rectangular beam of the 45
suitable solution for heating the tapes.
confidential dimensions
40
It can deliver high power on a limitedrequired by Coriolis
surface and in a directional way. ThisComposites. The beam 35
provides all necessary power densitiesis shaped to provide a ho- 30
for processing thermoplastic resins atmogeneous energy pro-
25
a suitable application speed. file, like a top-hat pro-
The shaping of the laser beam heat-file in both dimensions 20
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
(length and width).
ing the fiber allows it to adapt to the Time (s)
geometry of the area to be heated, and In addition to this need P = 6 kW T_Optic-1 P = 6 kW T_Prism

to improve the quality of the bond be-for shaping, the laser

FIGURE 3. Evolution of the temperature of the lens as a
tween the layups. Indeed, Mazumdar head had to satisfy strong function of time in transient regime (laser turn-on).
and Hoa showed a predominant ef- requirements in terms of
fect of laser power (79%) on the size and mass. The com-
bond quality.3 pactness of the module makes it pos- (see Fig. 3). The optical module also
sible to reduce the size of the robot provides a large depth of field, over
Developing a laser fiber arm and thus the layup of more curved ±15 mm. The shape remains rectan-
placement head parts. The mass constraint is also im- gular with a top-hat profile through-
Cailabs developed a laser beam shap- portant because the module is mount- out this range, and even beyond, with
ing solution for Coriolis Composites, ed on moving parts of the machine. an increase in shape dimensions of only
designed specifically for its C-Solo A lower mass allows for a more pre- ±3%. High power tests were also con-
AFP machine (see Fig. 2). Coriolis cise and faster positioning by reducing ducted at different working distances

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 Robotics c o nt i n u e d

(up to 295 mm, compared to 240 mm integration on the C-Solo machine. thermoplastic resin prepreg tapes, at a
under nominal conditions). The shaping module was connected layup speed of up to 1.2 m/s at a tem-
via an LLK-D connector to a Laserline perature of 380°C on 2D surfaces, pav-
Results LDM 6000-100 diode laser (900–1080 ing the way to concave or convex pan-
Therefore, the solution provided by nm) delivering a continuous power of 6 els with double curvature. This module
Cailabs meets the specifications sub- kW, and integrated to the mechanical allows delivering a stable, robust, flex-
mitted by Coriolis Composites for interface of the machine and its cooling ible, and precise heating process, while
system (see Fig. 4). maintaining a small footprint. The ho-
In order to satisfy mogeneity of the intensity profile also
the space restric- preserves the quality of the parts, en-
tions, a thick opti- suring a better adhesion and cohesion
cal prism deviating between the layers. Moreover, the high
the beam by a 17.5° quality of shaping prevented the for-
angle was added to mation of any resin drips. ✺
the module output.
This resulted to an REFERENCES
output beam tilted 1. O. Baho, G. Ausias, Y. Grohens, and J. Férec,
Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Technol., 110, 7–8, 2105–
with respect to the 2117 (2020).
system, making the 2. See https://bit.ly/3yvuOyF.
machine/shaping 3. S. K. Mazumdar and S. V. Hoa, Composites,
system assembly 26, 9, 669–673 (1995).

even more compact.

Julien Bayol is assistant product manager at Cailabs,
FIGURE 4. The optical module mounted on the arm of the This allowed the Rennes, France; e-mail: [email protected];
C-solo, ready to lay up. layup of 1.5 in. wide www.cailabs.com.

Two Part EP38CL

• For bonding, sealing, coating & encapsulating

• Outstanding toughness

• Resists thermal cycling

Hackensack, NJ 07601, USA ∙ +1.201.343.8983 ∙ [email protected]

www.masterbond.com

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 U LT R A FA S T LASERS

The next generation of

femtosecond workhorses
FLORIAN EMAURY and ANDREAS THOSS

A novel ultrastable femtosecond laser actual strength of new- Particle accelerators use these precise
targets a variety of different applications: er ultrafast lasers is the timing signals to trigger their systems
extreme stability of at the exact right moment. Just imagine
gigahertz scopes, communication
their laser pulses. The particles circling in an accelerator tube
lines, and precision radar. application-relevant at almost the speed of light (300,000
The development of femtosecond la- timing jitter for these lasers is much km/s)—in the span of a femtosecond,
sers took several decades, and for much smaller than 1 fs, which is critical for they will move 0.3 µm. Low-jitter laser
of that time they have been the work- the very challenging application of dis- signals can be distributed via fibers to
horse of scientific research. Those sys- tributing timing information. For ex- any accelerator stage and to any mea-
tems were most often based on titanium ample, these lasers are used at several surement device, giving the right sig-
sapphire (Ti:sapphire) crystals. They large telescope sites where signals must nal at the right moment.
were rather sensitive devices, but have
also enabled groundbreaking research
since the 1980s, earning Nobel Prizes
in 1999 and 2018.
Within the last 20 years, we saw the
advent of industry-grade systems with
turnkey operation. Many of these rely
on fiber technology—which can pro-
vide stable operation for long periods
of time, but still has limitations. More
recently, monolithic oscillators were in-
troduced by Menhir Photonics, a Swiss
company that is a spinoff from ETH
FIGURE 1. In the near future,
Zurich. The company’s monolithic os-
tiny, rugged femtosecond lasers
cillators offer unprecedented stability could serve as a time standard or
and performance and currently come in source for a radio-frequency (RF)
a shoebox-sized case, but have the po- signal on satellites and airplanes.
tential to reach matchbox size or small- (Photo 48582746 © Andrey
er. And these lasers offer another nov- Armyagov | Dreamstime.com)
el quality: They can be delivered via be coupled from different telescopes
a regular mail service and run turn- with precise timing into a single im-
key afterwards. age. The same holds for radar applica- So far, so good, but these are all niche
tions: Using a precise timing signal dis- markets. What about larger ambitions?
‘A solution seeking a problem?’ tributed via a conventional commercial
While this quote from Ted Maiman optical fiber, these systems can couple Analog-to-digital conversion
might have been right for the first signals from different sources together, Throughout the last 60 years, the
generation of lasers, it certainly does allowing them to either look further or laser has seen several technologi-
not hold for the most recent one. The with more detail. cal pushes. The biggest came from

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 U lt r a fa s t Lasers c o nt i n u e d

Analog signal Electrical ink Computer or electro-optical modulator (EOM). The

input digital board
Optical ink EOM attenuates a laser signal with a
t
high repetition rate, which turns the
continuous analog signal into a set of
t Electro-optical t High-speed optical t Electronic
well-separated peaks. These peaks are
modulator to RF converter ADC converted into digital signals by a fast
electronic analog-to-digital converter
Master clock on optical link Low-jitter clock
for ADC (ADC). Because the ADC is triggered
by the original laser signal, it is inher-
FIGURE 2. Example of a photonic analog-to-digital converter (ADC) in which the passively ently perfectly timed with regard to the
mode-locked laser (MENHIR-1550) is used to optically sample the incoming signal and signal that needs to be converted. The
distribute an ultralow-timing-jitter clock signal to the electronic ADC converter. The intensity laser signal typically has a jitter of less
of each laser pulse (in blue) is modulated by the analog signal. The optoelectronic converter than 1 fs, which is much smaller than
produces voltage pulses, which are the sampled image of the input signal. An electronic
the distance between two peaks (two
ADC then digitizes the incoming electrical pulses to a computer board.
measurement points).
The duration of each peak is defined
telecommunication. Here, by the duration of the laser pulse (which
0
the introduction of la- is well below 1 ps). This is much small-
ser diodes, low-loss op- -20 er than the length of time between two
tical fibers, and, later, pulses. Therefore, the measuring time
-40
Power (dBc)

erbium-doped fiber am- of the ADC is less important as long

plifiers has led to two ef- -60 as it does not cut away parts of the
fects. The first was a rev- pulse. In such a way, the laser improves
-80
olution in society through the signal quality because the aper-
the advent of the internet. -100 ture jitter no longer depends on elec-
The second was a push in 0 10 20 30 40 50
tronic properties, but on the length of
electronic and photonic Frequency (GHz) the laser pulse. The amplitude stabil-
technologies beyond the ity of a MENHIR-1550 laser is better
imaginable. The demand FIGURE 3. The laser modes form a very stable frequency than 0.01% over 109 subsequent puls-
comb in the spectral (frequency) domain. Every tone is
of this huge market accel- es, which improves the signal quali-
phase-coherent to all the others.
erated the development of ty as well.
lasers and optical compo- For high sampling rates, time-division
nents. Giga- and terabit transmission means turning a detector on at a pre- multiplexing can be applied via a single
lines are a major result. Kilowatt fi- cise moment and turning it off after 1 GHz laser clocking multiple ADCs,
ber lasers, which have taken the lead a defined time—within a 10 ps win- with all ADCs receiving time-shifted
in materials processing, are actually a dow. As such, both detector operations trigger signals. Using 100 ADCs, one
nice byproduct of this trend. should happen with a precision much can get the equivalent of a 100 GHz
Telecom is a big market, and demand better than 10 ps. sampling rate, allowing the measure-
for ever more bandwidth is acute. In re- Such a precision is achievable with ment of signals up to 50 GHz. While
sponse, transmission rates have grown a properly timed laser signal (see this is the simple explanation for a
beyond gigahertz rates—which is a Fig. 2). A high-frequency signal that simple photonic ADC, there are many
problem for testing technology, as it needs to be digitized is used to drive an techniques for more complex photonic
is based on electronics. And
electronic testing becomes Low-noise photonic RF generator Electrical link
expensive or simply impos- Laser Optical link
Optical-to-RF
RF out
sible if timing goes deep into converter
Long distant optical transmission line
the picosecond range. A 1 Optical out
Optical-to-RF
converter
RF out

GHz oscillation has 1000 Frequency

standard
ps to complete a cycle. To
measure this cycle with a res-
FIGURE 4. Schematic of the photonic low-noise RF generator (blue box) using the MENHIR-1550
olution of 100 points per cy- laser as a photonic source. The output RF frequencies are defined by two factors: the oscillator (laser)
cle requires a resolution of fundamental frequency, and the optical-to-RF converter bandwidth. The optical output can serve to
10 ps. Measuring this signal disseminate the RF signal to a distant location from the local oscillator.

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 U lt r a fa s t Lasers c o nt i n u e d

ADCs. These will support the next gen- Photonic ADCs could significantly re-
sources in the range of megahertz to
eration of telecom platforms targeting gigahertz frequencies have widespread
duce the difficulties of signal process-
800 Gbit/s, or even 1.2 Tbit/s. ing in space. uses. There is radar, of course, but also
This is an attractive approach for fu- GPS and many wireless communication
Microwave signal generation
ture sampling scopes used for testing methods such as 4G and 5G.
in telecom and datacenter networks.
Measuring precisely is one thing, These applications receive their
Since this technology is space-tested,
but these laser systems can generate clock signals from electronic oscilla-
it may also be an attractive solution
radio-frequency (RF) signals with tors, mainly relying on quartz crys-
for future satellite communications.
low noise and low jitter as well. RF tals. Mode-locked lasers producing
10–100 fs optical pulses can serve as
sampling clocks that can be 1000–
10,000X lower in jitter compared to
their microwave-driven counterparts

Flexible beyond
that have a typical period of 100 ps and
otherwise similar parameters.1 There
are tricks such as cryogenic cooling to

expectations
make the quartz clock more precise, but
they come at the price of cost and size.
Behind all of that is a nice piece of
laser physics. The ultrashort-pulsed la-
ser is mode-locked, which means all
Discover the incredible versatility modes are locked in a way that the
of CARBIDE femtosecond lasers sum of all the modes in the laser res-
onator produces that short pulse. The
modes are standing waves; the one with
the smallest frequency or largest wave-
length is exactly as long as the resona-
tor. All other modes are integer mul-
tiples of this basic mode frequency. If
we look at this in the frequency space,
these modes are equally spaced peaks
with a distance of that basic mode fre-
quency—which, quite nicely, equals
the repetition rate of the laser resona-
tor. And, because of this efficient pro-
cess of mode-locking, all these modes
are coherent, so they have a fixed phase
relation. If we look at this in the spec-
tral or frequency space, then we see
what has become well known as a fre-
quency comb.
While the distance between the lines
is defined by the laser cavity length,
#637 the actual spectral position of such a
frequency comb is mainly defined by
the laser gain medium. So, there will
be a center frequency (or center wave-
length) around which the modes will
be strongest.
If the different modes are brought to
interference on a photodiode, they form
a pattern in the frequency domain with
Do you have a femtosecond? all the multiples (or harmonics) of the

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 U lt r a fa s t Lasers c o nt i n u e d

0 use the X-band delivers very stable pulses from a rug-

Phase noise at 10 GHz carrier
-20 for communica- ged box. It is promising for a number
Integrated timing jitter
102
Power spectral density (dBc/Hz)

-40 tion. Some of its of applications where its low jitter and

Integrated timing jitter (fs)

-60 101 sub-bands are re- high phase stability can be exploited.
-80 served for military These may be in timing distribution,
-100 100 satellites. Regular precision radar, or in communication
-120 communications technology, where photonics replac-
-140 10-1 satellites make es electronics in more and more func-
-160 Detection limit more use of the tions. This technology will also be used
-180 10 -2 so-called Ku (“K in space applications, for which many
100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107
Frequency (Hz) under”) band at 12 related tests on this laser source have
to 18 GHz, while been completed successfully.
FIGURE 5. Phase noise (blue) and timing-jitter (red) of the
SpaceX’s Starlink
MENHIR-1550 laser, measured on the 10th harmonic signal (10
GHz). The black dashed line represents the detection limit of the
satellites operate REFERENCE
1. A. Khilo et al., Opt. Express, 20, 4, 4454–
characterization setup and does not represent the intrinsic limit of at around 24 GHz. 4469 (2012); https://doi.org/10.1364/
the laser. Whatever RF fre- oe.20.004454.
quency is needed
Florian Emaury is CEO of Menhir Photonics
fundamental frequency. We get a sig- can be produced from a laser source (Glattbrugg, Switzerland) and Andreas
nal that includes all multiples of the at an unprecedented quality. Thoss is contributing editor, Germany, and
repetition rate, with each RF tone be- president of THOSS Media (Berlin, Germany);
e-mail: [email protected]; http://www.
ing phase coherent to each other. With Outlook
thoss-media.de.
electronic filtering, a desired multiple A new generation of ultrashort-pulsed
of the basic frequency can be derived. lasers is coming to the market. With its Tell us what you think about this article. Send an
While the laser source could generate monolithic resonator, this type of laser e-mail to [email protected].
frequencies up 650 GHz or more, the
bandwidth of the detector acts as a filter
with a high-frequency cutoff at around
50 to 100 GHz (see Fig. 3).
Now, what can be done with that?
It is important to mention that the RF
signal created with the laser source is
inherently very stable. An RF signal
can be created on one point, and a co- We see your
FUTUR
FUTURE
herent copy of that signal can be creat-
ed at a very different point that is con-
nected with the original source by an
optical fiber, which is much easier to
handle and less lossy than an RF wave-
differently.
guide. The optical output can be sent
over hundreds of meters, even in harsh
environments, allowing the RF signal
to be generated where it is needed (see
Fig. 4). Both RF signals carry the high
quality of the laser signal—that is, ex-
tremely low jitter and a high phase sta-
bility (see Fig. 5). PRECISION POLYMER OPTICS
The RF signal could be selected in Improve Performance • Reduce Costs
the X-band, which spans 8 to 12 GHz. Simplify Design • Trim Weight
This band is used not only for radar,
but also in a variety of communication
systems. Deep-space missions such as (909) 480-3800 | DIVERSEOPTICS.COM
the old Voyager missions as well as cur-
rent Mars missions such as Curiosity,

Laser Focus World www.laserfocusworld.com January 2022 53

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 NANOTECHNOLOGY

Nanoimprinting gains
momentum—An interview
with Badre Kerzabi
CARLOS LEE

In this interview, Carlos Lee, EPIC’s became innovation pro- CL: How are you different from your
Director General, talks to Badre Kerzabi, gram manager. competitors?
At that time, I was BK: While nanoimprinting has been
co-founder and CEO of SOLNIL, a
looking for a cheap way gaining momentum for many appli-
startup developing techniques for to fabricate colored so- cations, it’s mainly used for polymers.
nanoimprinting on sol-gel materials. lar panels either by us- But many applications require mate-
ing some kind of simple rials with better properties. For this
Carlos Lee: What’s the background inks or some kind of interference lay- reason, we are developing a new nano-
to you founding SOLNIL as CEO? ers. In the process of scouting for ap- manufacturing technology that makes
Badre Kerzabi: Having always been in- propriate technologies, I met my fu-
terested in technology, I studied a B.S., ture co-founders, who were developing Our technology is
then an M.S. in physics with a ma- a nanoimprinting technology to make
suitable for applications
jor in photonics at the Institut d’Op- structural colors. It was not mature
tique Graduate School in France. I enough for PV applications, but we requiring miniaturized
had originally thought about doing a identified other, more relevant applica-
and engineered optical
Ph.D., but instead took the opportu- tions for the technology, such as spec-
nity offered by my double degree to tral sensing. Two years later, Sunpartner functions.
go to Singapore to study an M.S. in Technologies went into liquidation and
photonics at Nanyang Technological was bought by the U.S. multinational, possible the direct nanoimprinting of
University. Upon graduating in 2006, Garmin, where I stayed as a technolo- metal oxides through advanced sol-gel
I stayed on in Singapore as an optical gy leader, helping to optimize solar en- chemistry. Compared with polymers,
design engineer for Qioptiq, working ergy harvesting for smartwatches and metal oxides offer much better opti-
on defense and high-end applications. other wearables. cal, thermal, and mechanical perfor-
In 2008, I came back to France and But over the next 12 months, I be- mances, so our technology is suitable
for the next four years worked as an came increasingly frustrated. Although for applications requiring miniaturized
R&D systems engineer for DEAM SAS, I was aware that nanoimprinting and and engineered optical functions, such
a startup developing innovative dis- nanophononics technology had a wide as multispectral imaging, 3D sensing,
play applications for automotive. Then, variety of applications, it would be im- laser optics, augmented reality, meta-
in 2012, as a result of DEAM relo- possible to explore them because it was surfaces, and gas sensing.
cating to China, I joined Sunpartner beyond the scope of my job and out- Additionally, unlike the traditional
Technologies, a French photovolta- side the company’s business remit. As methods of etching using deep UV pho-
ic (PV) glass technology company. I a result, in May 2020, I co-founded tolithography, with our technology we
started as an optical engineer work- SOLNIL (Marseille, France) with the can mold directly onto materials such
ing on solar modules and later on aim of developing the nanoimprinting as silica or any kind of metal oxides.
nanoimprint lithography and display of sol-gel materials for a variety of pho- As an example, in the case of mul-
technologies, and finally in 2017, I tonics applications. tispectral, instead of making optical

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 multiple layer stacks, we can imprint Développement who have proved very CL: How do you see the future?
nano patterns in a one-step process, useful in moving us forward. BK: Over the past 18 months, we’ve devel-
imprinting all of the color filters at Similarly, it’s been difficult deciding oped some really nice proof-of-concepts
the same time, which is a much faster when to ask for help or get coaching for and we’ve identified the markets where
and cheaper process. some aspects of the business. Luckily, we will have a strong value proposition.
one of our co-founders has been in- Although we have potential customers
CL: What are the advantages and volved previously in two startups and who are really interested in what we are
disadvantages of being a CEO com- knows a lot about the pitfalls to avoid. doing, the next step is to show we can
pared to an employee? We’ve also been able to get help from scale up to CMOS manufacturing en-
BK: The main advantage is that because Impulse Incubator, which provides help vironments. For example, if we want
you make the decisions, you can move and advice for French high-tech start- to go into high-volume markets for
faster, as you only need to convince the ups in Marseille’s area on all aspects multispectral sensors used in smart-
customer and you don’t need to spend of business, including the legal side, ac- phones, the filters will have to be de-
time trying to persuade your boss or counting, and finance. posited directly on top of the photo-
other departments within the compa- Another challenge has been choosing diode, which means we will have to
ny, which saves a lot of time and energy. the right applications to focus on. When be compatible with CMOS process
Being a CEO, you need to have a we started out, we saw dozens of appli- flow on 200 mm wafers.
larger picture of the company and get cations for our technology. Some, in-
involved in all of the aspects of run- cluding augmented reality displays, were Carlos Lee is director general of the
European Photonics Industry Consortium
ning a business. In my previous jobs, very exciting from a technical point of (EPIC), Brussels, Belgium; e-mail:
there were quite a lot of arguments view, but for commercial reasons we de- [email protected]; epic-assoc.com.
between R&D, marketing, and ac- cided to focus on laser optics and sens-
counting, but now I have a better un- ing because they had a clearer route to Tell us what you think about this article. Send an
derstanding of the position of my for- e-mail to [email protected].
market and were more achievable.
mer colleagues. Paradoxically, if things
don’t work and I have to go back to
being an employee, it will be less of
a drama because I now have a much
better understanding of what other ssioptics.com
departments are trying to do.

CL: What have been your main

challenges? High Precision Replicated
BK: Being a technical person and a bit
on the shy side, I’ve had to work on my
Aspheric Mirrors, Retroreflectors &
soft skills—particularly being a better Holographic Gratings
communicator in convincing custom-
ers about the value of our technology. Did you know that replicated mirrors
We’ve also tended to underestimate all
of the administrative tasks that con- allow you to incorporate mounting
sume a lot of time. features and fiducials onto the mirror
But the biggest challenge has been
understanding our limits and decid- substrate for easy alignment, giving
ing when to outsource certain tasks additional design and cost benefits?
and then finding the right partners to
provide the service. At first, you only
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Cost effective solutions for volume requirements
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Laser Focus World www.laserfocusworld.com January 2022 55

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 BIOIMAGING
®

The rapid advance of bioimaging

JUSTINE MURPHY, Senior Editor

With an aging ‘Baby Boomer’ population Advancing the It can be switched with 405/488 nm
and increasing incidences of disease and technology light and can describe the molecular
Researchers are find- mechanisms at the structural level.1
viruses, including COVID-19, the need
ing new ways—from According to the researchers, “the
for strong, more effective bioimaging more efficient and light switchable signal enables us to vi-
techniques and technologies is evident. sensitive systems to sualize small numbers of cells against
more effective deploy- a strong background of other signals
Medical and biological diagnosis tech- ment—to get the most out of bioimag- by making the label blink. The ability
niques and systems are advancing at a ing techniques and to advance them. to visualize few cells in a live organ-
rapid pace. Bioimaging is among those A team led by the Institute of ism is important because many biolog-
at the forefront; some experts say this Biological and Medical Imaging ical phenomena, especially in the im-
technology could become the “diag- (IBMI) at Helmholtz Zentrum
nostic pillar that will lead to a lot of München (Munich, Germany)
new breakthroughs.” has long been studying bioim-
The state of the global market sup- aging, including with opto-
ports that, as the bioimaging sector hit acoustics. A method that “re-
more than $56 billion in 2020. And an- lies on reading out ultrasound
alysts at Research & Markets expect signals generated by light,” op-
(conservatively) that between now and toacoustic bioimaging is able to
2026, this market will grow steadily deliver a combination of high
at a compound annual growth rate penetration depth and reso-
(CAGR) of about 10% annually. Such lution as well as large fields
growth can be attributed, in part, to of view.
the “increasing prevalence of chronic Optoacoustics relies
medical ailments” as well as a rising el- on genetically encoded
derly population with the aging “Baby reporters and sensors, FIGURE 1. Model
Boomer” generation. This is driving among other tools, to be of a switchable sensor. mune system, rely on a
the need for more advanced and effi- effective. It also relies on (Courtesy of Andre C. small number of cells.”
Stiel, Helmholtz Munich)
cient bioimaging systems for disease reversibly photoswitch- The IBMI team is
diagnosis. Bioimaging’s use for test- able proteins. However, working to eventual-
ing chemicals, toxins, and microbial traditionally, the two ha- ly be able “to track
materials for environmental monitor- ven’t come together—such proteins single-labeled cells in a living or-
ing—with the push to combat climate “have yet to be used as sensors that ganism and visualize their function”
change—is also playing a role in this measure the distribution of specific and thus better understand areas
market’s growth. analytes at the nanoscale or in the tis- such as the immune system and tu-
The COVID-19 pandemic has also sues of live animals.” Now, in a study mor development.
been having a direct impact on the published in Nature Biotechnology, Researchers from the Beijing National
bioimaging market, as researchers the IBMI team has found a way to Laboratory for Molecular Sciences
worldwide continue studying the vi- get past that—a photoswitchable cal- (China) are forwarding the use of flu-
rus and its variants to ultimately de- cium ion sensor they’ve developed (see orescence in bioimaging. With emis-
velop/enhance vaccines and other ef- Fig. 1), based on a 5G genetically en- sion wavelengths in the near-infrared
fective treatments. coded calcium indicator (GCaMP5G). (near-IR) range (700–1400 nm),

56 January 2022 www.laserfocusworld.com Laser Focus World

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 fluorescent dyes allow tissue imaging than inorganic materials, but they are In a 2017 study published in Nature,
from deep within a sample. While dyes also soluble, which has the potential Adachi and Ryota Kabe, a professor
in the near-IR-II range (1000–1700 nm) to diversify and expand the use of who leads the Organic Optoelectronics
could also boost bioimaging, they are glow-in-the-dark objects” for appli- Unit at OIST, demonstrated (for the first
hindered in their lack of brightness. cations including bioimaging, accord- time) that two organic materials could
Now, the Beijing team has developed ing to researcher Chihaya Adachi, a create a glow-in-the-dark effect.3 At that
new dyes that strongly fluoresce in the professor and director of the Center time, however, its performance with two
near-IR-II. The new xanthene-based for Organic Photonics and Electronics materials was about 100 times weaker
family of dyes has exhibited “the best Research at Kyushu University. than systems that employed inorganic
performance with fluorescence emis-
sion at 1210 nm and high brightness.”
In their study—published in the
—the researchers demonstrated their

Go deeper
findings in the blood circulation of
mice.2 After injecting the dye, the team
observed the animal’s circulatory sys-
tem lighting up as the dye progressed
through its body. “The dye was bright
enough that clear images could be ob- Explore new depths with microscopy-dedicated
tained with exposure times as low as CRONUS femtosecond lasers
5 ms,” according to the study, which
allowed the researchers to calculate
blood-flow velocities and achieve “spa-
tial resolution that was good enough
to differentiate between closely spaced
femoral arteries and veins.”
The researchers say this is “an effec-
tive tool for high spatial and temporal
resolution bioimaging.”
Researchers from Okinawa Institute
of Science and Technology Graduate
University (OIST), in conjunction with
a team from Kyushu University, both
in Japan, are also taking steps toward
advancing bioimaging. They have been
able to generate a glow-in-the-dark
light using organic materials, rath-
er than inorganic crystals, which are
needed to ensure a high level of bioim-
aging system performance. The inor-
ganic route used currently requires the
implementation of rare-earth metals
that are not easily found, as well as fab-
rication temperatures of over 1800°F.
The organic materials are more read-
ily available, making them ideal. The
OIST and Kyushu researchers say bio-
imaging is a strong application candi-
date for their organic-based light and
could produce a myriad of benefits for
#8021
the health sciences realm.
“Not only are organic materials much
more available and easier to work with Do you have a femtosecond?
Laser Focus World

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AM
 B i o i m a g i n g c on t i n u e d

Optical
®

Beam
materials. Now, these researchers have by practitioners, biologists, and oth-
found that advancing to three organic er scientists.” CZI notes that this is
materials as well as a change in mole- essential to biomedical science and

Combining
cules boost the strength (see Fig. 2). The its advancement.
team notes “a tenfold improvement from The remaining funds will sup-
the previous work.” port Expanding Global Access to

System
“With organics, we have a great Bioimaging projects that will in-
opportunity to reduce the cost of crease access to imaging instrumen-
glow-in-the-dark materials, Adachi tation and expertise for biomedical
says, adding that exploiting the versatil- researchers in Africa, Latin America
ity of organic materials could
Easy to change the
lead to technologies such as
spectral output “bio-compatible probes for
1s 10 s 1 min.

of the light source medical imaging.”

Any LED cube can be Future potential

As the bioimaging market is 5 min. 10 min. 30 min. 60 min.
placed in any of expected to “witness stun-
7 positions ning growth by 2028,” ac-
without concern cording to A2Z Market
Research, the pool of those
for the order exploring new technologies, FIGURE 2. By tweaking the emission mechanism
advancements, and tech- and the molecules used, researchers improved the
Wavelength selection and niques is growing. Not only
performance of organic glow-in-the-dark materials by
tenfold. The resulting emissions lasted for over one
beam reflection using are scientists and other re- hour in air at room temperature. (Courtesy of Okinawa
searchers involved, but now Institute of Science and Technology)
Semrock® STR Filters
outside players as well.
Investors and funding ini-

LAMBDA tiatives are now understanding the and the Caribbean, and former Soviet
benefits of more advanced bioimag- countries. These projects, according
ing systems—in the U.S. and beyond. to CZI, will “expand access to imag-
721 Among those acknowledging the need ing expertise, technologies, and capac-
is the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). ity building for researchers. Teams
The organization recently awarded foster collaborations between im-
$5 million “to advance bioimaging aging scientists and biomedical re-
technologies, increase access to these searchers and increase representation
tools, and build capacity for biomedi- of regional imaging scientists in the
cal researchers.” global community.”
“Expanding imaging capacity for bio- “To cure, prevent, or manage all
medical researchers requires advancing diseases,” says Vladimir Ghukasyan,
imaging software and hardware, ex- Imaging Community Program lead for
panding access to shared tools and re- CZI, “we need to make sure that sci-
sources, and building capacity for im- entists around the world have access
aging scientists and organizations to to top technology and expertise.”
advance research in their home coun-
REFERENCES
tries,” says Stephani Otte, Imaging
1. K. Mishra et al., Nat. Biotechnol. (2021);
Program Officer for CZI. doi:10.1038/s41587-021-01100-5.
Specifically, $1 million of the funds 2. D. Liu et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 143, 41,
will support plugin projects for napa- 17136–17143 (2021).
3. R. Kabe and C. Adachi, Nature, 550, 384–
PHONE: +1.415.883.0128 ri—“a community-built, Python-based,
387 (2017).
FAX: +1.415.883.0572 open-source tool designed for brows-
EMAIL: [email protected] ing, annotating, and analyzing large Tell us what you think about this article. Send an
multidimensional images, utilized e-mail to [email protected].
WWW.SUTTER.COM
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 FUTURE FOCUS

The age of the laser has only just begun

HOW EUROPE’S LARGEST CENTER FOR APPLIED LASER RESEARCH IS

MORPHING FROM LASER ENGINEERING TO SYSTEMS ENGINEERING

ANDREAS THOSS and CONSTANTIN HAEFNER

Two years ago, Constantin Haefner be- is the acquisition and networking of these deviations and anticipating them
came the new director of the Fraunhofer comprehensive and high-quality data, by incorporating them into our pro-
Institute for Laser Technology combined with modern machine learn- cess models is one of the main things
(Fraunhofer ILT), Europe’s largest re- ing and AI. Humans are liberated, and we are interested in. It is about preci-
search center for applied laser tech- production can become more efficient, sion, repeatability, and operability. In
nology. In an interview with Andreas agile, and sustainable. other words, digital photonic produc-
Thoss, Haefner spoke about technolog- That’s one of the advantages of dig- tion should allow you to use the ma-
ical trends and his strategic response. ital production: process design is as- chine the same way regardless of the
sisted by machine intelligence. Digital environment or who operates it.
Andreas Thoss: If we look at cur- Photonic Production targets “first time We achieve this through distributed
rent trends, digital production or the right” when going into production. machine learning. The data lake fed
Internet of Production (IoP) stands Additionally, the performance of pro- from all machines provides increased
out. How to you deal with it at duction machines varies, even within a analytical and predictive capability
Fraunhofer ILT? model, but more often due to the expe- to develop, improve, or manipulate a
Constantin Haefner: The laser is a per- rience of the operator. Understanding process. Numerical simulations build
fect tool; its beam is massless and wear-
free. At the same time, the laser allows
you to observe the processes of produc-
tion much more precisely. As it does
so, a huge amount of data is generated.
Making sense of this ‘data lake’ is one
challenge in digital photonic production.
The second challenge is to com-
prehensively map reality into the vir-
tual world; i.e., the design specifica-
tion, the material properties, and the
physics of laser-material interaction.
The actual process is the third dimen-
sion. In the past, we have mostly devel-
oped processes through human-based
know-how and many trials. This is be-
coming more challenging in an increas-
ingly complex and accelerated world.
However, today we have more compu-
tational capabilities, simulation tools, FIGURE 1. In 1996, Fraunhofer ILT had the process for metallic 3D printing patented;
and a deeper understanding of the un- shown is the laser powder-bed fusion (LPBF) exposure process. (© Fraunhofer ILT, Aachen,
derlying physics, but the real accelerator Germany/Volker Lannert)

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 Future Focus c o nt i n u e d

on the underlying physics and provide rolled out to its sister machines in the structure—this data lake between the
a guiding framework; AI loops then cloud. The time savings are enormous. production technology institutes. We
take those simulations and add learn- That is why digital production is a develop lasers and sensors and we de-
ing from the real data, allowing for very important topic at Fraunhofer ILT, velop machine learning codes and al-
real-time data interpretation and pro- and with the Internet of Production gorithms, which in turn evaluate the
viding recommendations to the ma- Cluster of Excellence—a part of processes. In the end, we can optimize
chine control loops for how to optimize the Excellence Initiative of RWTH value chains faster and more accurately.
the processes. Successful operational Aachen University. And it is precise-
prescriptions are then automatically ly here in Aachen that we have this AT: The next big trend is additive
manufacturing (AM). Your institute
set a real milestone there with the
EHLA technique. What’s coming up
in AM?
CH: We just celebrated the 25th anni-
versary of the Fraunhofer ILT patent
for the metal laser powder-bed fusion
process, filed by three ILT scientists in
Take
Take your
your laser
laser processing
processing to to
thethe next
next level.
level. 1996 (see Fig. 1). 3D laser printing was
and is a big topic for us. It is also a big
Aerotech’s
Aerotech’s family
family of laser
of laser processing
processing scan
scan heads
heads
provide
part of digital photonic production.
provide upupto 5toaxes
5 axes of motion
of motion andand extreme
extreme speeds
speeds
with micrometer-level accuracy. The beauty of 3D printing is cer-
with micrometer-level accuracy.
tainly its design flexibility, materi-
al diversity, and lower material con-
New!
New! AGV-XPO
AGV-XPO 2-axis
2-axis scanner
scanner sumption compared to subtractive
• Highest
• Highest performing
performing 2-axis
2-axis machining processes. However, when
scan
scan head
head on on
thethe market
market we think of a sustainable economy, we
• Dynamic
• Dynamictracking improved
tracking improved also need to consider the resource ef-
4x 4x
over previous
over generation
previous generation ficiency of 3D printing throughout its
designs
designs entire cycle; i.e., from ore to powder,
• Ideal for for
• Ideal high-speed
high-speed from poweder to product, and we are
andand
high-precision
high-precision actively researching this.
micromachining
micromachining Adaptive techniques during pro-
duction are necessary to detect and
correct defects and changes in the
topology of the part. This way, we
reduce scrap and achieve higher
mean-time-to-failure. This pays divi-
dends not only on first-time-right, but
AGV5D
AGV5D
5-axis scanner
5-axis scanner also on 3D printing productivity.
AGV-HP(0)
AGV-HP(0) Predictive analysis is also part of this.
2-axis scanner
2-axis scanner You can make predictions about when
and how a thing will work or fail, or
what response it has. In other words,
you can program the properties into
the part. This opens completely new
design flexibility that is only available
AGV3D AGV-SPO to a very limited extent today. We also
AGV3D AGV-SPO
3-axis scanner
3-axis scanner 2-axis single-pivot
2-axis scanner
single-pivot scanner make use of this in our laser develop-
ment program for aerospace platforms.
AM-specific design is still one of
the biggest problems. Most engineers
we solve the toughest have learned to think in terms of ab-
Learn how we solveSee
the how
toughest laser processing
lative processes. Universities need to
applications at aerotech.com/laser
laser processing applications.
Laser Focus World

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 Future Focus c o nt i n u e d

include the design methods of additive

manufacturing early in the curriculum
of design engineers to let them fully ex-
ploit and apply 3D printing capabilities.
AM is at a very interesting point now,
where we have a whole range of ma-
chines in the market. We certainly must
decrease costs and increase efficiency.
There is still a lot of research and devel-
opment work to be done, and not just
in high-value engineering areas such as
aerospace or medical implants.

AT: Everybody talks about climate

and sustainability. How can laser
technology contribute?
CH: A lot of what I said before contrib-
utes to sustainability, so does efficient FIGURE 2. A photon pair source for quantum imaging is shown. (© Fraunhofer ILT, Aachen,
3D printing and IoP. This is really about Germany/Volker Lannert)
harnessing efficiency gains. It’s not so
much about completely new process- lasers. It’s not just about a simple la- These are the things that drive us,
es, but about working much more effi- ser source, but of course also about the and they all contribute to the sus-
ciently in process chains and thus con- system technology and the know-how tainability we desperately need for
serving resources. on how to do something like this. the future.
The German government is now
pushing technologies that address cli-
mate change or contribute to sustain-
able production. Energy storage tech-
nology such as hydrogen or battery
technology are major topics here at ILT.
The laser plays a major role in all of
these production processes.
For example, it is now a matter of
bringing this hydrogen technology to
the market. A research topic for us
is the bipolar plates for electrolyz-
ers or fuel cells. How can we pro-
duce them with high reliability and
extreme throughput rates? Hydrogen
is a very small atom that diffuses eas-
ily. Therefore, 100% tight welds are
important. Once again, high precision,
first-time-right, and high-quality stan-
dards—this is where the laser really
shows its strength.
Our lasers for Earth observation also
play an important role in climate pro-
tection. For example, we build lasers in
satellites to measure winds from space
very precisely and enable better weath-
er forecasts. Gases that affect the cli-
mate, such as CO2 or methane, can
also be detected from space with our

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 Future Focus c o nt i n u e d

AT: What are the key issues on quantum andscience and technology AT: Finally, where do you see the fu-
Fraunhofer ILT’s bucket list for the in Aachen with our partners for our ture of the laser?
next three years? industrial customers. With our part- CH: The laser in the 21st century is part
CH: Our team of ~600 employees at ner QuTech in Delft, we want to real- of an infinite number of value chains.
Fraunhofer ILT are committed to our ize the first quantum Internet node in And it is the know-how along these val-
core mission: contract research and Germany (see Fig. 2). ue chains that makes targeted use of the
technology transfer. We will contin- But it’s also about opening up other laser to find a win for the manufactur-
ue to fulfill our mission through ex- new areas, such as secondary sources. er or to enable processes that are oth-
cellence, knowledge depth and trend These are high-energy laser applications erwise unthinkable.
scouting. On the technological side, that could pay off in completely new re- Certainly, the focus is increasingly
we will systematically drive forward search markets. High-brilliance x-rays shifting from the development of the
the development of laser processes and or particle beams can be generated by beam source to the process or system
technology for sustainable digital pho- lasers and overcome the limitations of technology. Here, the ILT draws on a
tonic production, particularly in their today’s conventional sources. This is wealth of experience to develop a tai-
applications in mechanical and plant where lasers can break new ground. lored solution to a range of problems
engineering, energy storage, aerospace, Finally, we are seeing increasing de- that arise in industry. The age of the la-
medical technology, or mobility. We are mand for integrated solutions. This re- ser has only just begun, and I am sure it
further strengthening our development quires a high degree of systems engi- will continue for a long time to come. ✺
of high-performance laser systems for neering. In the context of our aerospace ANDREAS THOSS is contributing editor, Germany and
production and increasingly also for projects, we have established rigorous president of THOSS Media (Berlin, Germany); e-mail:
space platforms. In addition, we are system engineering processes that we [email protected], while CONSTANTIN HAEFNER is
director of Fraunhofer ILT (Aachen, Germany).
building new competencies for pho- can now map to other projects. Again,
tonic solutions for quantum technolo- it is about efficacy and efficiency: get- Tell us what you think about this article. Send an
gy and establishing a major center for ting it right the first time. e-mail to [email protected].

Laser Focus World is the leading global

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 LASERS ■ OPTICS ■ DETECTORS ■ IMAGING ■ FIBER OPTICS ■ I N S T R U M E N TAT I O N

New products Would you like to be included? Please send your

product description with high-resolution digital
image to: [email protected]

Multifield TDI
camera
The Linea HS 16k multifield
time delay integration (TDI)
532 nm Q-switched laser
camera captures up to three
The Cobolt Tor XE 532 nm air-cooled, Q-switched
images simultaneously in a single scan using light
laser delivers 0.25 mJ per pulse at up to 1 kHz rep-
sources at different wavelengths. Its charge-domain
etition rate in a compact laser head. Manufactured
CMOS TDI sensor, with 16k (64+128+64) TDI arrays
using proprietary HTCure technology, it is designed
and 5 × 5 μm pixel size, uses advanced wafer-level
to withstand multiple 60G mechanical shocks and
coated dichroic filters with minimal spectral crosstalk
extreme temperatures to >100ºC. Applications are
to spectrally isolate the three images.
laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), lidar,
Teledyne DALSA
and photoacoustic microscopy.
Waterloo, ON, Canada
HÜBNER Photonics
www.teledynedalsa.com
Solna, Sweden
www.hubner-photonics.com

Sensor for laser warning systems

The EXACTD-332 sensor for airborne and land Miniature 6-axis hexapod
vehicle laser warning systems uses a combination of Based on a parallel kinematics design, the H811.
photodiodes with a high-precision optical system to I2V vacuum-compatible miniature 6-axis hexapod
provide angle-of-arrival (AoA) resolution of ±6º. It robotic stage offers 6-DOF, a load capacity of 5 k,
also provides spectral sensitivity from 500 to 1650 linear travel range up to 34 mm, rotary ranges up
nm for the detection of all laser threat applications to 42º, and repeatability of +0.06 µm. It is used in
in a TO-8 package. active optical alignment and photonics applications.
Excelitas Technologies PI (Physik Instrumente)
Waltham, MA Auburn, MA
www.excelitas.com www.pi-usa.us

Laser Focus World www.laserfocusworld.com January 2022 63

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 New products

Mounted off-axis light sources. SampleSafe technology LCD manufacturing

parabolic mirrors protects samples from photochemical technology
A low-profile mounting system pro- effects, such as photobleaching.  Manufacturing technology to mass
vides a stable platform for parallel CRAIC Technologies produce glass microfluidic chips
San Dimas, CA applies microfabrication technology
www.microspectra.com

Green laser diodes

The FERT-525-XW-FC105 525 nm
fiber-coupled laser diodes deliver
output powers of 1 to 4 W. The
or wedge backed off-axis parabolic output fiber is a 105 μm detachable
(OAP) mirrors up to 75 mm diameter. based on photolithography tech-
Designed to facilitate rapid mount- niques cultivated in the manufac-
ing onto an optical table, the OAP ture of LCD color filters with multi-
mirrors are supplied pre-aligned in a imposition on large glass substrates.
stress-free mount. They offer surface Channels with a depth of 50 µm
accuracy of λ/20 and surface micro- can be formed. They are used for in
roughness <1 nm. vitro diagnostics and liquid biopsy,
Optical Surfaces including for cancer diagnosis and
Kenley, UK multimode fiber with an FC or SMA clinical testing.
www.optisurf.com connector. By connecting a beam Toppan
homogenizer, the laser provides a flat- Tokyo, Japan
Broadband illumination kit top beam profile with FWHM of 2 nm. www.toppan.com
The Scorpii advanced illumina- Frankfurt Laser Company
tion system for microspectroscopy Friedrichsdorf, Germany CO2 laser focusing lens
integrates long-lifetime light sources, www.frlaserco.com Laser lenses are offered in 1 to 2 in.
electronics controls, power supplies, O.D. sizes with thicknesses ranging
and software with a unique optical SWIR wide-beam imager from 0.250 to 0.380 in. with focal
layout that extends the useable spec- The Wide Beam Imager SWIR (WB-I
tral range of the company’s UV-visible- SWIR) is a compact, calibrated
NIR microspectrometers, while reduc- optical system for measuring the size
ing maintenance by using long-life and power distribution of large and
divergent beams of VCSELs and LEDs
in the SWIR range (900–1700 nm). It

features a 45-mm-diameter aperture

and can measure beams with an angle lengths from 3 to 10 in., in 0.5 in.
of incidence up to 70º. increments. Suited for 10.6 µm, 200 W
Ophir (MKS Instruments) to 4 kW CO2 lasers used to cut steel
Logan, UT bridge structures, they come in plano-
www.ophiropt.com convex and meniscus configurations,

64 January 2022 www.laserfocusworld.com Laser Focus World

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 New products

either plain or mounted. A/R or propri- 10 µm pitch ROIC devices

etary Cool-Cut coatings are available. The ISC1504, ISC1901, and ISC1902
Laser Research Optics 10 µm pitch readout integrated circuit
Providence, RI
www.laserresearch.net

High-speed long-
range sensor
The AR2700 high-speed long-range
sensor is eye-safe with a measure- (ROIC) devices offer 1920 × 1080,
2048 × 1536, and 2048 × 2048 reso-
lution, respectively. They are designed of -60°C, it offers low read noise
for p-on-n detectors. Probe-tested to detect faint signals. Deep full
and delivered in wafer form with test well depth of 300,000 e- full well
data, they include a user’s guide and a (600,000 e- summing well) allows
mechanical interface database. minimal saturation when imaging.
Teledyne FLIR Applications include chemilumines-
Portland, OR cence, fluorescence, spectroscopy,
www.flir.com microscopy, and bioluminescence.
ment frequency of up to 40 kHz. It Atik Cameras
Two-part epoxy Norwich, UK
measures natural targets up to 70 m
The EP62-1HTMed two-part epoxy
away and retroreflective targets 270 www.atik-cameras.com
meets ISO 10993-5 for non-cytotoxic-
m away with accuracy within +60
ity and can be used in medical device Joysticks for stages
mm. Designed for measurements on
moving targets, its maximum sam- and actuators
pling rate is 40,000 samples/sec. An expanded line of single-handed,
Acuity Laser ergonomic joysticks for 1-, 2-, and
Portland, OR 3-axis stages and actuators provide
www.acuitylaser.com

80 W UV hybrid fiber laser

The Quasar UV80 hybrid fiber sin-
gle-mode laser offers power of >80
W and >400 µJ pulse energy. Its
TimeShift programmable pulse capa-
bility results in adjustable pulse widths applications. It resists repeated ster-
from <2 to >100 ns, adjustable repeti- ilization cycles, including STERRAD
tion rates from single shot to 3.5 MHz, and autoclaving, and withstands
exposure to gamma radiation, ster- proportional control of the x, y, and
ilants, and chemicals. Electrically z axes from one to three actuators.
insulative, it has a tensile strength of Maximum speeds may be set by
10,000–11,000 psi and a glass transi- the user via the supplied graphical
tion temperature of 150°–155°C. user interface.
Master Bond OES (Optimal Engineering Systems)
Hackensack, NJ Van Nuys, CA
as well as burst mode and program- www.masterbond.com www.oesincorp.com
mable pulse shapes for laser microma-
chining process optimization.  CCD sensor Beamsplitter
Spectra-Physics (MKS Instruments) The TE-77 CCD sensor has square optical module
Milpitas, CA pixels of 24 µm2 over a 12.3 mm2 New 8- and 16-channel beamsplitter
www.spectra-physics.com sensor area. With a cooling delta optical modules are designed for SIM

Laser Focus World www.laserfocusworld.com January 2022 65

2201LFW_63-69.indd 65 1/11/22 12:51 PM

 New products

Based on the
SONY STARVIS
IMX462 image
sensor, it is
designed for NIR
performance in
night vision appli-
cations and medical microscopes. An
onboard Image Signal Processor (ISP)
multichannel framing cameras, which facilitates accurate color reproduc- cooler that has a peak power of 400
capture up to 32 images at 1 billion tion with auto exposure and auto W per bar at 8% (400 µs/200 Hz).
frames per second for high-speed white balance functions. Indium-free eutectic bonding tech-
hyperspectral imaging. The compact e-con Systems nology with pre-deposited gold-
module, with user-changeable filters, San Jose, CA tin thin films offers a lifetime of
has a system aperture of f/2.8, pro- www.e-consystems.com 10 9 pulses.
viding up to 16 channels with a 17
Focuslight Technologies
mm viewport on each channel. Sapphire windows Xi’an, China
Resolve Optics Sapphire windows feature Mohs 9 www.focuslight.com
Bucks, UK hardness, flatness to <1/20th wave, ≤
www.resolveoptics.com 3 Å surface roughness, 10-5 scratch- Industrial camera
The µEye XCP (U3-3560XCP)
SWIR imaging package C-mount industrial camera with USB
A SWIR imaging package includes
5 Gbit/s is equipped with a AR0234
the allPIXA SWIR line scan camera,
1/3 in. CMOS sensor, with 1920 ×
with 1 k resolution and 12.5 µm pixel
1200 pixels, 2.30 Mpixels, 3 µm pixel

dig finishes, and < 2 arcsec parallel-

ism. Manufactured to specifications
in sizes from 0.25 to 9.00 in. OD and
varying wall thicknesses, they can
size, and the Corona II dark field include stepped edges, elliptical edge size, and 73 fps. Applications include
illumination system with short-wave shaping, holes, slots, and wedges for machine vision, visualization, bio-
LEDs in 1100, 1350, 1450, or 1550 mounting purposes. technology, small device construction,
nm. It is designed for machine vision, Meller Optics monitoring, and kiosk systems.
surveillance, and remote sensing. Providence, RI IDS Imaging Development Systems
Chromasens www.melleroptics.com Obersulm, Germany
Konstanz, Germany www.ids-imaging.us
www.chromasens.com High power conduction-
cooled stack VIS-SWIR camera
Gen 1 camera The GS20 high-power conduction- The VS20 VIS-SWIR Camera uses an
See3CAM_CU27 is a full HD ultra- cooled stack offers 2.13 mm bar in-house developed nanomaterial-
low light USB 3.1 Gen 1 camera. pitch on a macrochannel water based VGA array with 640 x 512

66 January 2022 www.laserfocusworld.com Laser Focus World

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 New products

photodetector elements and 20 m include continuous in-ear Vital Sign offers signal integrity greater than bit
µm pixel pitch. Suited for machine Monitoring (VSM). error (BER) of 1E-11. It is suited for
vision and surveillance applications, ActLight 200 and 400 G optical module solu-
its spectral response is from 400 Lausanne, Switzerland tions in datacom applications.
to 2000 nm with a dynamic range www.act-light.com Trumpf
of 120 dB full analog/80 dB digital Ditzingen, Germany
output range. VCSEL www.trumpf.com
Emberion A 56 Gbit/s per channel VCSEL and
Cambridge, UK photodiode paired with a correspond- Time-of-flight camera
www.emberion.com ing MACOM VCSEL driver and a TIA The Helios 2+ 3D Time-of-Flight (ToF)
for 56 Gbit/s per channel applications camera offers two depth process-
Light sensor technology ing modes: High Dynamic Range
Dynamic photodiode (DPD) technol- Mode (HDR) and High-Speed Mode.
ogy uses pulsed voltages to elimi- Integrating Sony’s DepthSense
nate the need for an analog ampli- IMX556PLR back-illuminated image
fier, offering high signal-to-noise sensor, it uses four 850 nm VCSEL
ratio, for lower power consump- laser diodes for 640 x 480 depth reso-
tion and a DPD sensor array with lution at up to an 8.3 m working dis-
a pixel size below 5 µm. Front-end tance and 30 fps in standard mode.
TDC circuits are implemented on Lucid Vision Labs
the same substrate in standard Richmond, BC, Canada
180 nm CMOS technology. Uses www.thinklucid.com

Manufacturers ’ Product Showcase

T160 Laser Diode Driver

Highland Technology’s T160 picosecond to nanosecond

laser driver features:
• Laser drive pulse widths down to 300 ps FWHM
• Laser current up to 400 mA, 700 mA with heat sinking
• Optical pulse widths from 100 ps to 50 μs
• Easily adjustable current and bias settings
• Compact 2”x2” PCB for OEM use in laser systems

REQUEST A QUOTE TODAY!

HIGHLAND TECHNOLOGY
415-551-1700 | [email protected]

Laser Focus World www.laserfocusworld.com January 2022 67

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 Manufacturers ’ Product Showcase
Diamond Turning
100 to 1000 Volt Lab Pulsers
from Avtech

Avtech offers a full line of

100, 200, 500, 700 and
1000 Volt user-friendly
pulsers capable of driving TR = 42 ns
Reynard Corporation has internal Diamond Point Turning impedances of 50 Ω and
capabilities with a focus on infrared, exotic, and III-V crystal higher. The AVR Series is
materials from prototyping to high volume production. suitable for semiconductor
and laser diode character- 200 V/DIV
Aspheric, spherical, cylindrical, and freeform elements 400 ns/DIV
ization, time-of-flight
are designed, manufactured, coated, and tested all in- applications, attenuator Model AVR-8A-B
house. We also produce and coat reverse axicons with testing, and other
360-degree windows. Other in-house services include thin- applications requiring 10,
20, or 50 ns rise times,
film coatings (UV-IR), optical and mechanical fabrication, pulse widths from 100 ns See additional test results at:
photolithography patterns and MIL-Spec environmental to 100 us, and PRFs up to http://www.avtechpulse.com/medium

testing. ISO 9001:2015 Certified and ITAR Registered. 100 kHz.

Nanosecond Electronics
1020 Calle Sombra, San Clemente CA 92673 Since 1975
Phone: (949) 366-8866 Pricing, manuals, datasheets at
[email protected] • reynardcorp.com http://www.avtechpulse.com/medium

Stay informed
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events, new product launches, and more
with our Newsletters.

CELESTA Select from our list of targeted email offerings

on the topics that matter to you and your business.

Light Engine
7 Bright, Stable Turnkey Lasers

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 Manufacturers ’ Product Showcase
POLARIZATION ANALYSIS
POLSNAP™ - Quantitative polarization data for your
free space or fiber coupled VIS and NIR light sources.

SAMPLING RATE: 2000 samples per second

FREE SPACE APERTURE: 10mm, no additional

alignment tools needed.

POLSnap software
includes real time
reporting of Stokes
Vector values and degree
of polarization along
with a visual Polarization
Ellipse and Poincaré
Sphere.

Call Us at 503.690.2000
[email protected] | www.hindsinstruments.com

1938-R/2938-R
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High Speed Laser Wavelength Meter

The model 871 measures the wavelength of pulsed

and CW lasers to an accuracy as high as ± 0.0001 nm.
Automatic calibration with a built-in wavelength
standard maintains this performance over long periods The all new 1938-R and 2938-R optical power and energy
of time. What’s more, an unsurpassed measurement meters are the next generation models of the popular
rate of 1 kHz enables the wavelength characterization 1936-R and 2936-R benchtop meters. They inherited
of individual laser pulses, and the resulting time most of the advanced functions available in x936-R
resolution of 1 ms provides the most detailed wavelength
series, on top of the up-to-date CPU, touch screen,
analysis of tunable lasers. Operation is available from
Android OS, and high bandwidth electronics design.
375 nm to 2.5 μm.
Beautifully designed user interface allows unprecedent
speed of measurements along with various graphical and
585-924-2620 numerical presentation of the data.
bristol-inst.com • [email protected]

877-835-9620
www.newport.com
[email protected]

Laser Focus World www.laserfocusworld.com January 2022 69

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 BusinessForum
THE INTERSECTION OF BUSINESS AND PHOTONICS TECHNOLOGY

Record global M&As

boost photonics
L I N D A S M I T H , P r e s i d e n t , C e r e s Te c h n o l o g y A d v i s o r s

2021 marks the highest total trans- 241

231 230 240
230
action value in history for mergers
Total transaction value ($USD millions)

35,000 312 217 220

206
and acquisitions (M&A). Year to 200

Number of transactions
30,000
date, global aggregate M&A trans- 189
180 182
180
179
action value is up 40% over 2019. 25,000 35,082 33,803 36,575
160
140
However, the total transaction val- 20,000
185
120
ue for targets employing photonics 20,430
18,005 18,719 100
technologies is still shy of its 2019 15,000
80
high of $87 billion. 10,000
13,962 13,308 13,108 14,252
11,526 60
This difference may be due to an 40
18,041
5000
inherently high concentration of 20
strategic deals. According to Bain 0 0
Q2 2019 Q4 2019 Q2 2020 Q4 2020 Q2 2021 Q4 2021
& Company, “while strategic M&A
is on track to reach its highest val- FIGURE 1. Merger and acquisition (M&A) transaction volume and value by quarter.
ue in six years, it also accounted for
the lowest portion of deal value yet; capability deals to scale deals as companies seek to strengthen their core
sponsor, SPAC [special-purpose ac- business (see Fig. 1).
quisition companies], and VC deals While the overwhelming majority of pure-play photonics market leaders
grew two to five times faster.” Since executed one single transaction*, the deals were large and scaled existing
2018, approximately 80% of acqui- businesses. For example, Teledyne Technologies acquired FLIR Systems,
sitions of photonics-enabled targets a provider of thermal and visible light imaging systems for $7.5 billion on
involve strategic buyers. $1.9 billion revenue. Coherent, a laser supplier, received proposal from
Strategic buyers address the chal- II-VI Incorporated, a supplier of engineered materials and optoelectron-
lenges of slower growth, an abun- ic components, for total consideration of $7.0 billion on $1.9 billion in
dance of investment cap- revenue. Viavi Solutions, a provider of optical networking test
ital, advances in digital equipment, acquired EXFO, a provider of optical networking test
and mobile technologies, equipment, for $478 million on $284 million revenue. Lumentum
and government interven- Holdings, a provider of photonic products for communications,
tion with M&A. They ac- acquired NeoPhotonics, a provider of optical transceivers/re-
quire companies to open ceivers for hyperscale datacenters, for $979 million on $278 mil-
new markets, enhance ca- lion revenue. And Jenoptik acquired BG Medical Applications/
pabilities, and implement SwissOptic AG/SwissOptic (Wuhan), an OEM supplier of med-
new business models. We ical optics for $349 million.
also see more strategic Across all photonics markets served, no single buyer was very
buyers executing vertical LINDA SMITH is acquisitive in 2021. The most active buyer was Thermo Fisher
integration plays, bring- president of Ceres Scientific, which acquired four life sciences instrumentation
ing critical capabilities Technology Advisors, companies and a PCR-based rapid point-of-care testing plat-
in-house. In 2021, how- Needham, MA; form for detecting infectious diseases; and Amphenol, which
ever, M&A appears to e-mail: lindasmith@ acquired four communications connectivity components sup-
have shifted back from cerescom.net. pliers. Halo Technology Group also acquired communications
70 January 2022 www.laserfocusworld.com Laser Focus World

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 connectivity components suppliers. In addition, BICO mergers. It is an attractive go-to-market strategy given the
Group acquired life science instrumentation companies; ability to quickly go to market at high valuations with lower
Desktop Metal acquired materials, machines, and pro- levels of scrutiny relative to traditional IPOs.
cesses for additive manufacturing; Salvo Technologies Rockley and Quantum-Si started publicly trading following
acquired thin film coating, optical component, and spec- the completion of business combinations with SC Health and
troscopy instrumentation capabilities; Snap acquired aug- HighCape Capital Acquisition. As of December 14, 2021, their
mented reality (AR) technology; and The Carlyle Group market capitalizations of $0.7 billion and $0.8 billion are less
acquired providers and a contract manufacturer of life sci- than half of their summer peaks of $2.0 billion and $1.9 bil-
ence tools and analytical instrumentation. lion, respectively. Quantum-Si puts its publicly raised capital to
Consistent with previous years, the biophotonics sector work to secure its supply chain and support scaling commer-
saw the most activity and highest total value of all photon- cialization efforts by acquiring Majelac Technologies, a sup-
ics-enabled sectors. The largest transactions were the Quoin plier of semiconductor and optoelectronic assembly services.
Pharmaceuticals acquisition of Cellect Biotechnology, a devel- In 2021, strategic deals traded at the highest multiples in
oper of a 3D time-sequenced microscopy platform that func- history across the board. With the exception of the biopho-
tionally selects stem cells to enhance the safety of regenera- tonics sector, which historically sees very high multiples,
tive medicine ($9.4 billion); the Quidel acquisition of Ortho this was uniquely true of strategic deals involving photon-
Clinical Diagnostics Holdings, in vitro diagnostics market lead- ics technology targets.
er ($8.4 billion); the DiaSorin acquisition of Luminex, a suppli- Few transactions reported financials because regulations
er of biological testing technologies that integrate microfluid- do not require them when a transaction does not have ma-
ics, optics, and digital signal processing ($2.1 billion); the GE terial near-term impact on financial statements. Of the re-
Healthcare acquisition of BK Medical Holding Company, an searched transactions for majority stake, 20 buyers reported
intraoperative ultrasound imaging equipment provider ($1.5 implied enterprise value (IEV)/EBITDA. Values are in $US
billion); and the Boston Scientific acquisition of Lumenis’s urol- millions at historical rates of exchange. In 2021, valuations
ogy and otolaryngology laser and fiber-optic systems manu- of pure-play photonics companies no longer lag valuations
facturing business ($1.1 billion). of companies in the vertical markets they serve (see Fig. 2).
Also in the biophotonics sector, Rockley Photonics Holdings, Leading the pack on IEV/EBITDA for acquisitions of ma-
a provider of a mobile health monitoring platform based on jority share were: Nanotech Security (152.8x), a high-volume,
silicon photonics, and Quantum-Si, a developer of a protein roll-to-roll lithography producer of nano-optic structures
and genomics sequencing platform, rode the wave of SPAC for authentication applications; Coherent (59.6x*); EXFO

Year of all
transactions
announced date Sector (Ceres)
2021 Photonics 27.2 17.1 7.1 59.7 5
Information technology 16.6 12.3 6.6 31.0 3
Energy 10.1 10.1 5.0 15.2 2
Defense, security, and sensing 59.4 13.5 12.1 152.8 3
Biophotonics 13.3 13.8 5.6 19.8 4
Advanced manufacturing 16.1 15.6 12.0 20.6 3
2020 Photonics 8.6 8.6 5.2 12.0 2
Information technology 14.2 15.2 10.0 17.5 3
Energy 13.3 13.3 13.3 13.3 1
Defense, security, and sensing 10.7 11.7 7.5 13.0 3
Biophotonics 52.5 28.3 9.2 188.2 6
Advanced manufacturing 16.5 10.8 7.8 33.6 7
2019 Photonics 11.0 7.8 2.3 23.0 6
Information technology 15.4 11.0 3.0 39.0 5
Energy 21.4 21.4 15.1 27.7 2
Biophotonics 11.3 9.6 8.0 17.8 4
Advanced manufacturing 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 1
Average IEV/ Median IEV/ Minimum IEV/ Maximum IEV/ Number of
EBITDA (x) EBITDA (x) EBITDA (x) EBITDA (x) transactions
reporting

FIGURE 2. In 2021, valuations of pure-play photonics companies no longer lag valuations of companies in the vertical markets they serve.

Laser Focus World www.laserfocusworld.com January 2022 71

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 Advertiser index
Access Laser.............................................28 Lumencor Inc.............................................68
(31.0x); Zetec (20.6x), a manufacturer
Accumold...................................................36 Lumibird...............................................31, 35
of nondestructive NDE inspection solu- AdValue Photonics..................................... 24 Mad City Labs............................................44
tions; Luminex (19.8x); Teledyne FLIR Aerotech Inc.........................................26, 60 Master Bond Inc........................................49
(17.1x), a provider of thermal and vis- AFL.............................................................25 MKS Spectra-Physics Lasers....................11
ible imaging systems; Ortho Clinical Alluxa...........................................................6 Newport Corp................................19, 69, C4
Diagnostics Holdings (16.0x), provider Avtech Electrosystem Ltd.........................68 NKT Photonics AS...................................... 15
of in vitro diagnostics instruments and Bristol Instruments Inc........................14, 69 Ophir Photonics.........................................39
assays; and Photon Control (15,6x), a BWT Beijing Ltd......................................... 32 Oz Optics Limited........................................ 2
supplier of optical position and temper- Cobolt AB..................................................... 4
Photon Engineering................................... 13
ature sensors. Comsol Inc................................................. 18
PI Physik Instrumente L.P.........................34
Geographically, the most signifi- Diverse Optics...........................................53
Pico Electronics Inc...................................45
cant trend prior to 2018 was an accel- eagleyard Photonics Gmbh.......................29
Precision Laser Scanning, LLC.................49
eration of cross-regional acquisitions. Edmund Optics..........................................C2
QD Laser....................................................30
That trend loses its momentum and Eksma Optics UAB..................................... 61
Quantum Composers Inc...........................69
falls off a cliff in 2019, with increased Excelitas Technologies Corp.....................46
Fermionics Opto Technology....................38 Reynard Corporation.................................68
government intervention on cross-bor- Santec USA Corp.................................12, 22
Hamamatsu Corp........................................8
der deals and trade tensions between the Scanlab GmbH............................................17
Highland Technology, Inc.......................... 67
U.S. and China. In 2021, this downward Seminex Corporation.................................20
Hinds Instruments.....................................69
trend was accelerated by supply chain Spectrogon US Inc.....................................44
IDEX Health & Science...............................41
concerns exposed by the COVID-19 cri- Spectrum Scientific Inc.............................55
Lacroix Optical Company.......................... 10
sis and government scrutiny expanding Lambda Research Corporation................. 67 Stanford Research Systems.......................9
beyond sensitive defense and technolo- LaserPoint SRL.......................................... 16 Sutter Instrument Co.................................58
gy industries. Light Conversion, UAB........................ 52, 57 TeraDiode Inc. ...........................................23
In conclusion, photonics technology
This ad index is published as a service. The publisher does not assume any liability for errors or omissions.
deals did not keep pace with the M&A
market as a whole. Strategic buyers had
the advantage over financial sponsors
such as private equity, in that they could ADVERTISING SALES OFFICES
create proprietary deal flow. However, MAIN OFFICE West & Mountain
most M&A deals today are auction pro- 61 Spit Brook Road, Suite 501 Dean Dimitrieski
cesses with stiff competition from finan- Nashua, NH 03060 (574) 318-0064
(603) 891-0123 [email protected]
cial sponsors, who have more deal-mak-
ing capability and capacity than strategic Vice President/Group Publisher INTERNATIONAL
Paul Andrews
buyers—as well as $2.8 trillion of “dry (240) 595-2352
Europe
Holger Gerisch
powder.” If financial sponsors are more [email protected]
+49-(0)8847-6986656
attracted to photonics deals in the future, Associate Publisher [email protected]
the photonics M&A deal pace will like- Tom Larranaga
China/Hong Kong/Taiwan
(973) 460-9476
ly increase in line with the market as a [email protected]
Floyd Chun
+852 28386298; fax 852-2-838-2766
whole. To compete, successful strategic Executive Sales & Marketing Assistant [email protected]
buyers will have to expand their M&A Julia Campbell
Japan
(603) 891-9174
capabilities and/or instead consider part- Masaki Mori
[email protected]
nerships such as joint ventures or cor- +81-3-3219-3561
Director, List Sales [email protected]
porate venture capital to expand capa- Kelli Berry
For all other international sales, please contact:
bilities and address challenges in talent (918) 831-9782
Paul Andrews, Publisher (see contact info. above)
[email protected]
retention and supply chain.
For assistance with marketing strategy
Ceres Technology Advisors sources NORTH AMERICA or ad creation, please contact:
transaction data from public sources. East/South/Midwest Marketing Solutions
Tom Larranaga Kaci Wheeler
Ceres analysis and data are subject to
(973) 460-9476 (918) 832-9377
errors and omissions. Accuracy of infor- [email protected] [email protected]
mation is responsibility of user.
* Definitive agreement, March 25, 2021; LTM Laser Focus World® (ISSN 1043-8092 print; 2688-3589 digital / USPS 922-380), Volume 58, No.1. Laser Focus World is published 12 times a year, monthly by Endeavor
Business Media, LLC 1233 Janesville Avenue, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538. Periodicals postage paid at Fort Atkinson, WI 53538 and additional mailing offices. SUBSCRIPTION
financial information as of February 10, 2021 PRICES: USA $171 1 yr., $280 2 yr., $17 single copy; Canada $198 1 yr., $320 2 yr., $20 single copy; International $224 1 yr., $360 2 yr., $23 single copy; digital distribution
$60. POSTMASTER: Send address corrections to Laser Focus World, PO Box 3257, Northbrook IL 60065-3257. Laser Focus World is a registered trademark. © Endeavor
Business Media, LLC 2022. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. We make portions of our subscriber list available to carefully
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