Researchers at the University of Rochester, Institute of Optics have discovered a way to make liquid flow vertically upward along a silicon surface, overcoming the pull of gravity, without pumps or other mechanical devices.
In a paper in the journal Optics Express, professor Chunlei Guo and his assistant Anatoliy Vorobyev demonstrate that by carving intricate patterns in silicon with extremely short, high-powered laser bursts, they can get liquid to climb to the top of a silicon chip like it was being sucked through a straw. Continue Reading »
Bruce Tromberg (right), director of the Beckman Laser Institute, and UCI oncologists John Butler, David Hsiang and Rita Mehta (from left) are evaluating a breast imaging device that produces metabolic “fingerprints.”
In 2003, researchers at UC Irvine’s Beckman Laser Institute received a $7 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to standardize use of a laser imaging device they had created for better detection and diagnosis of breast cancer. The investment is beginning to pay off.
In January, the researchers reported in the journal Radiology that this laser breast scanner can accurately distinguish between malignant and benign growths, possibly offering an easy, noninvasive way to tell whether breast tumors warrant aggressive treatment. The study involved 60 subjects and will be replicated with a larger test group. Continue Reading »
The institute IPHT, in Jena, Germany, has successfully applied the line laser technology from LIMO to crystallization of amorphous silicon solar cells (a-Si). This year LIMO introduced the L³ LIMO Line Laser for processing of thin films (e.g. solar cells).
”With LIMO technology we were able to get 50% higher current in our photovoltaic applications with multi-crystalline silicon thin film solar cells. For the first time we demonstrated an error free production of this new cell type. With this result we have opened the doors for industrial use of this highly efficient solar cell,” said Dr. Fritz Falk from IPHT. Besides the higher efficiency of the solar cells the coating quality was also enhanced.
The L³ LIMO Line Laser technology offers the advantages of laser crystallization without heating the substrate and shorter cycle time per panel (< 30 s).
Chunlei Guo, an associate professor of optics at the University of Rochester, had use ultrafast laser to turn any metal pitch black. Now he has successfuly demonstrate a reverse process, make metal radiate light more effectively!
An ultra-powerful laser can turn regular incandescent light bulbs into power-sippers, say optics researchers at the University of Rochester. The process could make a light as bright as a 100-watt bulb consume less electricity than a 60-watt bulb while remaining far cheaper and radiating a more pleasant light than a fluorescent bulb can.
The laser process creates a unique array of nano- and micro-scale structures on the surface of a regular tungsten filament—the tiny wire inside a light bulb—and theses structures make the tungsten become far more effective at radiating light.
The findings will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Physical Review Letters.
…… Mr. Gates said he would cut from programs for defense against missiles, including halting the increase in the numbers of defensive missiles deployed in Alaska. Defense experts were also expecting that Boeing’s airborne laser system, which would equip a modified 747 jetliner with a laser to shoot down missiles, might be killed…….
American troops in Iraq are reporting a series of incidents in which servicemembers have been blinded or required medical treatment after friendly-fire laser injuries.
Using equipment costing about $80, researchers from Inverse Path were able to point a laser on the reflective surface of a laptop between 50 feet and 100 feet away and determine what letters were typed.
Chief Security Engineer Andrea Barisani and hardware hacker Daniele Bianco used a handmade laser microphone device and a photo diode to measure the vibrations, software for analyzing the spectrograms of frequencies from different keystrokes, as well as technology to apply the data to a dictionary to try to guess the words. They used a technique called dynamic time warping that’s typically used for speech recognition applications, to measure the similarity of signals.
Line-of-sight on the laptop is needed, but it works through a glass window, they said. Using an infrared laser would prevent a victim from knowing they were being spied on.
A quarter-century ago, American rocket scientists proposed the “Star Wars” defense system to knock Soviet missiles from the skies with laser beams. Some of the same scientists are now aiming their lasers at another airborne threat: the mosquito.
In a lab in this Seattle suburb, researchers in long white coats recently stood watching a small glass box of bugs. Every few seconds, a contraption 100 feet away shot a beam that hit the buzzing mosquitoes, one by one, with a spot of red light.
When U.S. troops train, they often use a kind of Laser Tag system, to record simulated kills from rifles and artillery. But these days, American forces face less conventional threats, like suicide bombers. Which is why the Navy has funded a patent, for a simulated suicide bomber vest.
