Corning unveils improved green laser

Corning believes that its new G-2000 green laser demonstrates the industry's highest commercially available performance in terms of optical power, efficiency and bandwidth. As a result, the company says that the laser is well suited to meet the demands of the growing market for portable microprojection devices.

read more at optics.org.




LED emits entangled photons

By embedding a quantum dot within a semiconductor LED structure, researchers in the UK believe that they have created the first electrically driven source of entangled light. Although the most likely beneficiary is quantum computing, entangled light can also be used for quantum imaging, which improves resolution, and for secure communications using quantum cryptography (Nature 465 594).

read more at optics.org.




HoloWorld

HoloWorld, Frank DeFreitas’ website on holography, lasers, and art.




Darpa’s Super Sniper Scopes

The “One Shot” program originally aimed to give snipers the power to hit a target from 2000 meters away in winds as high as 40 miles per hour. In the first phases of the 3-year-old program, shooters used prototype rifles dressed with lasers and fancy computer hardware to do damage from 1,100 meters away in 18-mile-an-hour winds. The scope-mounted lasers can “see” wind turbulence in the path of the bullet and feed the data to computers, enabling real-time calculation of — and compensation for — the wind-blown trajectory.

read more at Danger Room | Wired.com.

Lund researchers’ physics and laser show at World Expo

The physics and laser show at Lund University will be taking to the stage at the World Expo in Shanghai. The European Commission has invited the physics researchers, who are now packing the three tons of equipment for the flight to China.

The popular physics and laser show in Lund has been performed just over 1 100 times for more than 220 000 people over the 15 years of its existence. Now it is going on a long-distance trip to the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

read more at Lund University.

‘Space laser tech needed’ to measure volcanic ash

Europe requires space-borne laser instruments that can provide information on the vertical scale of volcanic ash clouds.

Read more at

BBC News – ‘Space laser tech needed’ to measure volcanic ash.

Kaai, Inc. Releases Blue Laser Diode Product

GOLETA, Calif.–BUSINESS WIRE–Kaai, Inc., a world leader in commercialization of green and blue laser diodes, announced shipments of its new blue laser diode product for display and specialty applications. The company will present a product introduction for the blue laser and an update on its green laser commercialization at Projection Summit 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 7, 2010.

Kaai’s new blue laser diode is designed for integration into portable applications such as embedded and companion pico projectors and features 60 mW of 445 nm single mode output power in a compact TO‐38 package. The lasers operate with high efficiency and require minimal power consumption over a broad temperature range, meeting the demanding requirements of consumer projection displays, defense pointers and illuminators, biomedical instrumentation and therapeutics, and industrial imaging applications. Kaai’s blue lasers are based on the company’s patented and proprietary InGaN semiconductor technology and are fabricated on innovative GaN substrates.

Kaai’s presentation at Projection Summit 2010 is entitled “The Emergence of Direct Emitting Green and Blue Semiconductor Lasers for Display Applications.” For additional information, see http://www.projectionsummit.com.

via Business Wire.

Massive Maya City Revealed by Lasers

Airborne lasers have “stripped” away thick rain forests to reveal new images of an ancient Maya metropolis that's far bigger than anyone had thought.

An April 2009 flyover of the Maya city of Caracol used Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) equipment—which bounces laser beams off the ground—to help scientists construct a 3-D map of the settlement in western Belize. The survey revealed previously unknown buildings, roads, and other features in just four days,

via Pictures: Massive Maya City Revealed by Lasers.

Japanese Researchers Achieve World’s First 25Gbps Data Communication Using Quantum Dot Laser

Quantum dot laser featuring an active layer containing high-density arrays of quantum dots

Fujitsu and the University of Tokyo today announced the world’s first quantum dot laser -based 25 Gbps high-speed data transmission.

via Physorg

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Conservation team creates 3D laser map of Mount Rushmore

A team of conservation experts today began a project to digitally record Mount Rushmore.

The team, from Historic Scotland and Glasgow School of Art, are using a laser scanner to capture in 3D the rock carvings of four US presidents in South Dakota.

They are firing the laser at the rockface millions of times a second. It bounces back and measures the distance to provide a precise record of the sculpture.

It is the first international site to be recorded as part of a project to create virtual models of 10 World Heritage sites.

via ThisIsLondon.