News

The next issue of our newsletter has just been published. Its aim is to present and promote the latest developments and achievements of our projects, key events and news that will be useful to all those interested in the area of Photonics.

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Like a flame speeding along the length of a lit fuse, a powerful wave of energy can be created by using a laser to ignite a reactive-fuel-coated carbon nanotube. It could lead to a new way of producing electricity, said the MIT team that discovered the previously unknown phenomenon.

Described as thermopower waves, the phenomenon "opens up a new area of energy research, which is rare," said Michael Strano, MIT's Charles and Hilda Roddey associate professor of chemical engineering. 

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The largest lenses ever produced for a fusion research facility are being used to measure plasma density and temperatures up to 23 million degrees C at 130 different locations inside the MegaAmp Spherical Tokomak (MAST) experiment at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE) in Oxfordshire. Supplied by Fife-based Spanoptic, the six giant lenses collect light scattered from laser beams fired into the tokamak, a technique known as Thomson scattering.

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A tiny device capable of converting ultrafast laser pulses into bursts of radio frequency signals using innovative "microring resonators."

Such an advance could enable all communications, from high-definition television broadcasts to secure computer connections, to be transmitted from a single base station, said Minghao Qi, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University.

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Energy: The idea of recycling paper, glass, metal and plastics has become commonplace. New technologies allow heat to be recycled, too

“WATER, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink,” lamented the becalmed Ancient Mariner. Oddly, the same is true of energy. As with the water that surrounds a desert island, there is abundant energy right under people’s noses, in the form of wind, sun, tides and heat. The trouble is that, like saltwater, none of these sources is easily tapped. Wind turbines, solar panels and devices that extract energy from wave and tide have become more common in recent years.

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Energy: Turbines equipped with sensors can now "see" the wind before it arrives, and then take appropriate action

Air whips past the blades of a turbine, forcing it to spin. The turbine turns a generator. The generator produces electricity. Yet in practice things are not so simple. Wind generators are, necessarily, erected in places where powerful winds are common. If they are not properly angled towards the more howling of these gales, they can be damaged or destroyed.

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A lab-on-a-chip-type system employs optical tweezers to study changes in the response of single yeast cells to variations in the immediate environment.

A cell lives in a dynamically changing environment and adapts to a new one by changing its behavior and the expression of various proteins that are needed at certain times. Traditional studies of cell behavior are carried out using ensemble-averaging techniques that study entire populations of cells at the same time.

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During the upcoming Photonics Europe Conference in Brussels, Photonics21 will be very active. In the frame of the conference opening ceremony on the 12 April 2010, the second Photonics21 Student InnovationAward will be handed over to this year’s winner. The Student Innovation Award 2010 is sponsored by SPIE Europe, Thales and the European project Accord. Photonics21 thanks all sponsors for their support.
Following this event, Photonics21 Vice President Giorgio Anania will give a presentation entitled Illuminating the Path to Growth: The European Research Strategy in Photonics.
In the afternoon, Photonics21 will conduct an industry session in cooperaton with SPIE Europe which will take place from 13.00 - 17.30 in room 204. The session will concentrate on the European photonics industry and the Photonics21 Strategic Research Agenda as well as on entrepreneurship & venture capital.You can find the draft agenda for the industry session here.

Photonics21 also will be present with a booth in the main exhibition hall located at position 207. The exhibition will start on Tuesday, 13 April 2010. We welcome you to have a look at the Photonics21 booth and to have some interesting discussions.

On Friday, 16 April 2010, Photonics21 members from work group 3 life science & health are invited to attend a common workshop which will take place from 10.00am-13.00pm in room 314/316 (third floor). You can have a closer look at the planned agenda for the meeting here.

You can find further information about the programme of the Photonics Europe conference here.

You can find any further information about the conference here.

We look forward to meeting you during the Photonics Europe Conference!

A new optical clock that is twice as accurate as any other has been unveiled by physicists in the US. The clock, which is based on a single aluminium ion, could remain accurate to within one second over 3.7 billion years. The previous record was held by a clock with one mercury ion, which was good to one second in 1.7 billion years.

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Consumer electronics: Tiny semiconductor crystals, called quantum dots, enable new forms of energy-efficient lighting

HOW many inventions does it take to change a light bulb? More than you might think. Around the world, many people are switching from traditional incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs, which require less energy to produce a given amount of light, and therefore save money and reduce carbon emissions.

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