Optics and photonics

The latest publications in this offer are:

• July 10, 2026

  E6517

  High-Power Fiber Laser Technologies

  This article reviews fiber-based technologies enabling high-power laser sources in continuous-wave and pulsed regimes. After recalling guidance principles and the properties of double-clad and microstructured fibers, we describe key high-power components such as pump diodes, pump and signal combiners, fiber Bragg gratings, CPS and QBH terminations. Architectures of oscillators and MOPA systems, including tandem pumping and beam combining, are then discussed for nanosecond and ultrashort regimes, with emphasis on physical limitations and current power-scaling trends.

• July 10, 2026

  BM7900

  Selective laser melting of metallic powder bed

  Selective laser melting of a metal powder bed is an additive manufacturing technique that allows the production of complex parts up to medium runs for various industries such as medical or aerospace. To make the most of this technology, it has to be integrated into a complete value chain from upstream design conception to downstream post- treatment. This article deals with this complete value chain. After nearly a decade of commercial life, this technology is evolving toward a standard framework that is under construction worldwide.

• May 26, 2026

  E4311 Reviewed

  Atmospheric and Meteorological Lidar Backscatter lidar for aerosols and clouds

  Backscatter lidars for aerosols and clouds are widely used in surface network for atmospheric applications i.e. pollution, meteorology, climate. Instrument simulators are presented as tool required for instrument design and realization. Then, the main characteristics of the atmospheric medium and the standard techniques for backscatter lidar signal inversion are described in sight for the applications.

• May 26, 2026

  E4310 Reviewed

  Atmospheric and Meteorological Lidars Basic principles

  This article presents the lidar, with reference to instrument techniques, atmospheric spectroscopy and signals. These are presented in a reader-friendly way to define actual needs and meet objectives. While maintaining an innovative research activity, since the 2000s the lidar community has broadened out to embrace new activities in networking and space missions.

• May 10, 2026

  TE7576

  Quantum Satellite Telecommunications

  Our ability to manipulate individual particles over the past 20 years has enabled a new quantum revolution. This new revolution, known as the “second quantum revolution,” is characterized by the ability to exploit quantum effects for engineering purposes.

• April 10, 2026

  RE413

  Active optofluidics - Setting fluids in motion by light

  A microfluidic device assembles different modules, each designed to perform a specific task, effectively fixing the entire structure and its functions. By exchanging momentum and/or energy with liquids, light can represent an attractive ‘actuator’ because the interaction with the light field is contactless and dynamically reconfigurable. Drawing inspiration from the concept of ‘optical chip’ derived from suspension manipulation, this article proposes new avenues for extending this concept to two-phase microfluidic flows by suggesting the use of various photoinduced mechanisms to design a multifunctional optofluidic toolkit.

• April 10, 2026

  E2660

  Semiconductor lasers - Devices and applications

  Laser diodes are a leading laser technology due to their compactness, scalability, and versatile performance. This article presents their operating principles, gain media types, and main architectures. Key applications span telecommunications, industry, sensing, and medicine. Beyond mature commercial markets, current research focuses on spectral extension toward deep UV and far-infrared wavelengths, alongside integration into emerging quantum technologies, opening new application frontiers.

• March 10, 2026

  R6470 Reviewed

  Optical activity: optical dichroism

  The use of optical activity, and in particular via circular dichroism, belongs to the most widely used physico-chemical approaches in chemistry and above all life science laboratories, to date. The knowledge of this parameter allows for a better understanding of the fundamental phenomena of living organisms. After introducing the various forms of light polarization, this article presents the main characteristics of optical activity. It then proceeds to describing two essential and strongly linked phenomena, namely the optical rotation and especially the circular dichroism. Various applications of the circular dichroism are presented for the study of small molecules and biomolecules.

• March 9, 2026

  R6733 Reviewed

  Ultra High Speed Digital Imaging

  High-speed imaging records images at much higher rates than the human eye. This allows the prompt analysis of phenomena in the laboratory or the industrial plant. Since the advent of digital onboard memory cameras (CCD and CMOS), recording rates of up to 75 000 FPS have been reached for megapixel format. Decimating* resolution allows one million frames per second. These stupendous rates are permitted at full resolution using storage sites close to the active image, but only for a few hundred images. The response of the sensors to light must be very high, and thus permits very short shutter time.

• March 9, 2026

  R6410 Reviewed

  Radiometry. Photometry

  This article deals only with the metrological aspects of characterizing optical radiation, sources, propagation in media, properties of samples and passive objects, and detectors. For a description of the structure and properties of sources, media and detectors, the reader will find several references in the bibliography of the fact sheet. . As we shall see, photometry, taken in its broadest sense, is a difficult art, due to the complexity of the spatial and spectral distribution of radiation. For this reason, metrologists have been led to define a relatively large number of quantities that can be measured without too much difficulty, as we shall see.

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