w w w. l a s e r f o c u s wo r l d .c o m
J u n e 2016
Photonics Technologies & Solutions for Technical Professionals Worldwide
Vibration control aids microfabrication PAGE 29
Diode lasers go deep in the UV PAGE 39 Photonic crystal fibers advance the supercontinuum PAGE 45 Multiband coated filters suit scientific applications PAGE 50 ®
OCT’s economic impact, PIX4life consortium targets biophotonics PAGE 22
Rajasundaram Rajasekaran, Sales
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Photonics Technologies & Solutions for Technical Professionals Worldwide
JUNE 2016 VOL. 52, NO. 6 ■
29 COVER STORY A colorized SEM image is shown of a complex 3D microstructure created by carefully overlapping polymer voxels to form a continuous polymeric network capable of sustaining itself. (Courtesy
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Technical Digests dig into technology topics Laser Focus World offers free downloadable technical digests that provide an in-depth resource on photonics and optoelectronics topics, including highpower fiber lasers and silicon photonics.
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Webcasts let you make new discoveries from your desktop
MetaAir metamaterial film protects pilots from cockpit laser strikes Nanopowder-sintered materials challenge crystalgrown laser glass
Whether you are looking to learn about high-speed laser printing or numerical simulation of laserbased manufacturing processes, we’ve got webcasts aplenty to meet your educational needs.
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Planar visible-region metalens is practical enough for real use in microscopy
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Modified laser cutter prints 3D objects for biomaterials fabrication
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Our library of technical white papers delves into performance attributes of several optics and photonics products available on the market, including thin-film optical components and optical power meters and detectors.
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Terahertz Optics Widefield terahertz lens is made via additive manufacturing
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Mid-IR Lasers Two lasers in one: ‘Yin-yang’ mid-
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IR laser has two synchronized channels Ruggedized Components Tunable OPO source is
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columns 5 THE EDITOR’S DESK Everything plus lasers Conard Holton Associate Publisher/Chief Editor
64 BUSINESS FORUM A photonics stock market index—ready or not
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OPTICS
June 2016
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INDEX
63 SALES OFFICES
PRODUCT SHOWCASE
62 BUSINESS
Reaping the rewards of photonics in the lab and in business: Interview with Alex Cable
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63 ADVERTISING/WEB
60 MANUFACTURERS’
Conard Holton
25 FUTURE OPTICS
LASERS
58 NEW PRODUCTS
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IMAGING
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features 29
50
Vibration Control
Photonics Products: Optical Filters
Effective vibration control expands spatial resolution boundaries As the scale of scientific and engineering processes and products shrink, the demand for higher-performance, vibration-free platforms is growing. Specific applications in silicon photonics, micromachining, and superresolution microscopy highlight the need for application-specific vibration control platforms.
Multiband coated filters redefine performance standards for scientific applications Advances in thin-film technology have given rise to a new class of multiband coatings that task manufacturers to offer improved performance at competitive prices, enabling multiband filters that redefine the performance standards and drive innovation across a variety of disciplines.
Sylvia Tan
Alannah Johansen, Rance Fortenberry, Peter Egerton, Mike Scobey, and Amber Czajkowski
39
Novel Lasers
Short, shorter, shortest: Diode lasers in the deep ultraviolet Frequency-converted diode lasers provide continuous-wave light down to below 200 nm in the vacuum UV. Ulrich Eismann, Matthias Scholz,
54
FRET optofluidic microlasers enhance biological sensing The marriage of liquid-based optical microcavities with engineered biological gain media using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) creates unique miniature lasers capable of ultra-sensitive biochemical detection.
Tim Paasch-Colberg, and Jürgen Stuhler
45
Optofluidics
Microstructured Fiber
Yasin Karadag, Alexandr Jonáš, and Alper Kiraz
Photonic crystal fibers advance supercontinuum generation Development of supercontinuum sources has been intertwined with advances in PCF designs; future supercontinuum sources will display high temporal coherence, extended bandwidth in silica fibers, and spectra reaching far into the infrared. James Stone, William Wadsworth, and Tim Gerke
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Biophotonics PIX4life targets biophotonics
with visible-range PICs, development capacity build
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Optical Coherence Tomography
Beyond better clinical care: OCT’s economic impact The optical coherence tomography (OCT) industry has grown dramatically in its first 25 years, and while the positive effects on patient clinical care are the most important measure of OCT’s success, its contributions to the economy in jobs, tax receipts, and healthcare savings are also noteworthy. Eric A. Swanson
June 2016
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editor’s desk
Conard Holton Associate Publisher/ Editor in Chief
[email protected]
Everything plus lasers Given the name of our magazine, we are often called on to explain what other technologies we cover. Our reply is the logic behind our cover tagline: Photonics Technologies & Solutions for Technical Professionals Worldwide. In our magazine editorial calendar for the year and on our website, we divide our coverage into seven broad topic categories since we know our engineering audience thinks first of technologies and related products: Detectors & Imaging, Lasers & Sources, Optics, Fiber Optics, Bio-Optics (our BioOptics World site), Software & Accessories (including positioning and support), and Test & Measurement (including spectroscopy and research). It’s a simplified and accessible way of presenting information and covering the ever-growing number of applications, including those that may involve multiple photonics technologies. Our cover story illustrates my point—effective vibration control (a positioning technology) is critical to photonics applications such as fabrication of silicon photonics components, two-photon polymerization of 3D structures, and super-resolution microscopy (see page 29). Other features in this issue center on optics (multiband coated filters; see page 50), bio-optics (optical coherence tomography; see page 35), fiber optics and sources (supercontinuum generation; see page 45), and lasers (deep-UV diode lasers; see page 39). We also keep our eye on photonics markets. Although most of our business coverage appears on our website, we continue our series of OSA interviews this issue with entrepreneur and head of Thorlabs, Alex Cable (see page 25). And in the Business Forum on the last page (see page 64), I introduce our updated LFW Photonics Market Financials, which can be found on our website. I hope this photonics stock market index proves useful for tracking photonics-related public companies. So far this year, the index is beating both NASDAQ and the Technology sector.
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[email protected] Lee Dubay Associate Editor, (603) 891-9116;
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Stephen G. Anderson, SPIE; Dan Botez, University of WisconsinMadison; Walter Burgess, Power Technology; Connie Chang-Hasnain, UC Berkeley Center for Opto-electronic Nanostructured Semiconductor Technologies; Pat Edsell, PLE Consultants; Jason Eichenholz, Open Photonics; Thomas Giallorenzi, Naval Research Laboratory; Ron Gibbs, Ron Gibbs Associates; Anthony M. Johnson, Center for Advanced Studies in Photonics Research, University of Maryland Baltimore County; Kenneth Kaufmann, Hamamatsu Corp.; Larry Marshall, CSIRO; Jan Melles, Photonics Investments; Masahiro Joe Nagasawa, TEM Co. Ltd.; David Richardson, University of Southampton; Ralph A. Rotolante, Vicon Infrared; Jeremy Govier, Edmund Optics; Toby Strite, IPG Photonics.
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DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY
newsbreaks MetaAir metamaterial film protects pilots from cockpit laser strikes Working with Airbus since 2014, Metamaterial Technologies (MTI; Dartmouth, NS, Canada) is close to commercializing a patented, metamaterial-based, laser-protection film called Lamda Guard metaAIR designed to protect pilots against cockpit laser strikes. The flexible, paper-thin, nearly transparent film is applied directly to any glass or plastic surface, like the inner surface of a cockpit windscreen, and selectively deflects specific wavelengths of light before they reach the interior of the aircraft. Created from metamaterial polymer materials using lithographic and holographic nanopatterned designs with features as small as 5 nm, metaAIR materials can also incorporate silver nanoparticles, for example, to enhance plasmonic resonance and further control the electric and magnetic fields of a new structure. A multiphysics approach of patterning, stacking, and choosing the right background materials is used to create films in a scalable manufacturing process that deflect, block, enhance, or absorb electromagnetic radiation of a particular waveband. MTI’s platform metamaterial technology can also be applied to protective
eyewear, retractable visors, optical sensors, and even to enhance the accuracy of noninvasive medical devices at millimeter wavelengths (see www.gluco-wise.com). Reference: www.google. com/patents/WO2013054115A1?cl=en.
Nanopowder-sintered materials challenge crystal-grown laser glass Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) contractor nGimat (Lexington, KY), taking advantage of the successful completion of Phase I and Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs, has developed yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) nanopowder materials with high purity from which laser weapon systems and transparent missile domes can be manufactured. These nanopowder materials improve over past suppliers so that polycrystalline ceramic methods can directly
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challenge the incumbent single-crystal growth process. nGimat CEO Andrew Hunt says that YAG powders are available from a number of commercial sources. However, one such source sells 5 g of 99.5% purity powder for $250—too expensive and with inadequate purity. YAG powder is used most commonly as a phosphor to achieve a yellow color upon irradiation by blue light (for example, in lighting LEDs), but phosphors are too large in grain size to achieve the required purity levels that are possible with the nGimat NanoSpray combustion process. This process maintains the tight stoichiometry required to achieve phase purity for the nanopowder mixture. Hunt notes that the same material absorption in a smaller laser medium actually has higher total absorption in a larger, longer-path laser. In addition, as the laser gets larger, it is harder to get the resulting heat out of the laser because of its increased size. While a large, high-power, nanopowderbased laser has yet to be built for defense applications, experience with small- to medium-power lasers will enable scaling to high-power lasers as material purity levels improve with the NanoSpray process and dedicated processing equipment. Reference: http://science.dodlive.mil/2016/03/06/air-forcefunds-efforts-to-mature-nanopowders-for-enabling-lasers. June 2016
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newsbreaks Planar visible-region metalens is practical enough for real use in microscopy The development of metalenses—lenses based on metamaterials, either 2D or 3D, rather than on bulk glass—has been pursued in the lab for years. The resulting devices have largely been interesting curiosities, having the advantages of extreme thinness and lightness, and sometimes the ability to image objects at somewhat beyond the diffraction limit because of their inclusion of evanescent electromagnetic waves in the imaging process. They also have the disadvantages of high loss, difficulty in fabrication, and, in many cases, poor imaging from even slight imperfections. The optics industry, which is based on practicality (not only must things work, but they must also be reasonably
Focal spot FWHM, metalens
1.0 0.8 Normalized 0.6 intensity 0.4 0.2 0.0 y (µm) -3 -2 -1 0 1.0
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fabricable), will very carefully vet any new technology before putting it on the production line. Now, researchers at Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) and the University of Waterloo (Waterloo, ON, Canada) have developed a metalens that may get more than a first or second glance from the optics world.
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3 -3 -2 -1 0
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The metalens design, which is monochromatic and thus suited for laser light, is based on the conversion of right-handed, circularly polarized incident light to lefthanded, circularly polarized light. Therefore, the nanostructure on the lens actually operates as a half-wave plate. The researchers fabricated an array of
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newsbreaks high-aspect-ratio titanium dioxide nanofins on a glass substrate, giving the nanofins a spatially varying rotation angle to produce the proper output phase profile. They created three metalenses with operating wavelengths of 660, 532, and 405 nm, respectively—all the lenses had a 240 µm diameter and a numerical aperture of 0.8 (focal length of 90 µm), resulting in three 170X objective lenses at the three respective wavelengths. When tested at their design wavelengths, all three metalenses produced diffraction-limited spots. Their full-width half-maximum (FWHM) focal spots were also compared to those produced by a state-ofthe-art Nikon microscope objective; the metalens FWHMs were all smaller. Efficiencies of the metalenses at 405, 532, and 660 nm were high—86%, 73%, and 66%, respectively. Reference: M. Khorasaninejad et al., arXiv:1605.02248v1 [physics.optics] (May 7, 2016).
Modified laser cutter prints 3D objects for biomaterials fabrication Bioengineering researchers at Rice University (Houston, TX) have modified a commercial-grade carbon dioxide (CO2) laser cutter to create OpenSLS, an open-source, selective laser-sintering (SLS) platform that can print intricate 3D objects from powdered plastics and biomaterials. The system costs at least 40 times less than its commercial counterparts, and allows researchers to work with their own specialized powdered materials. OpenSLS, which was built using low-cost, opensource microcontrollers, cost less than $10,000 to build—commercial SLS platforms typically start around $400,000 and can cost up to $1 million. The team showed that the machine could print a series of intricate objects from both nylon powder and from polycaprolactone (PCL), a nontoxic polymer commonly used to make templates for studies on engineered bone. In a post-sintering step, the rough surfaces of PCL objects that come out of the printer are exposed to solvent vapor for short time periods (around 5 minutes), resulting in a very smooth surface because of surface-tension effects. In tests using human bone marrow stromal cells (the type of adult stem cells that can differentiate to form bone, skin, blood vessels, and other tissues), the vapor-smoothed PCL structures worked well as templates for engineered tissues that have some of the same properties as natural bone. All the hardware designs and software modifications for the SLS platform are open-sourced and shared via Github. Reference: I. S. Kinstlinger et al., PLoS ONE (2016); http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0147399. Laser Focus World
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Yin-yang laser See page 14
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TERAHERTZ OPTICS
Widefield terahertz lens is made via additive manufacturing Refractive lenses for imaging with terahertz produced a quasiconformal transradiation can be made of Teflon, stacked formation of the Luneburg lens that metal plates, or even paper. In addition, reconfigured the spherical image metamaterial optics are being developed for surface to the flat one, with the terahertz imaging (one reason being that limits of the transformation leading because of the long wavelengths of terato a maximum angular imaging hertz radiation, metamaterial optics are far range for the lens of ±41.4º. The easier to experiment with in the terahertz refractive index within the lens varies than, say, infrared or visible spectral regions). from 0.451 to 1.719 as a function of When its structure is varied as a function position (metamaterials can have a of position within an optic, a metamaterial refractive index of less than 1, and A Luneberg lens is spherically symmetric, with a can serve as the basis for a gradient-index even less than 0 in some cases). refractive index that is highest at its center (top left; (GRIN) lens. Because terahertz metamateThe PµSL system, which used a shown as a variation in color). The lens images a rials have unit cell sizes on the order of 100 programmable liquid-crystal-on-siliplane wave incident from one direction onto the opposite surface of the lens, resulting in a spherical µm in size, they are relatively easy to fabcon (LCoS) display chip as the mask, imaging surface (top center and right). A modified ricate precisely. Therefore, very interesthad a pixel size at the fabrication version has been transformed so that its refractiveing types of GRIN lenses can be made. For plane of about 7 × 7 µm and a fabindex distribution is no longer spherically symmetric example, the Luneburg lens is a well-known rication area of about 1 × 0.75 cm. (bottom left). The result is a flat imaging surface GRIN lens design that takes the shape of Vertical stepping precision was 0.5 (bottom center and right). a sphere and can image objects at infinite µm using a stage made by Aerotech conjugates onto an image surface coincident with the surface of (Boxford, MA). The refractive index of each 82.5 µm unit cell was the Luneburg lens, with no aberrations. Because the Luneburg adjusted by varying the volume-fill ratio of polymer to air within lens itself is spherically symmetric, the lens has a 360° field of view the cell. To make a 4.27-mm-thick lens, 100 layers were fabri(although adding an imaging-detection surface restricts to field of cated, resulting in more than 120,000 defect-free unit cells. The view of less than that). lens’ imaging performance was determined by using a fiber-based, One big flaw of the Luneburg lens stems from its spherical angular-resolved terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) symmetry: the image surface itself is a sphere, eliminating easy technique in which a laser-micromachined metallic mask contained use of the lens with common imagers, including terahertz imagers. an object such as a single 200 µm slit or double 200 µm slits with Taking the design as a starting point, researchers at Northwestern an edge-to-edge distance of 300 µm (to determine lens resolution). University (Evanston, IL) and Oklahoma State University (StillwaSimulation and experiment agreed: the double slit was easily ter, OK) developed a non-spherically symmetric terahertz lens that resolved over a spectral range of 0.4–0.6 THz. In comparison, keeps the wide field of view of the Luneburg lens while allowing a terahertz spherical lens made of a uniform dielectric with a for a flat image surface (see figure).1 The lens is made of polymer refractive index of 1.64 could not resolve the double slit at frevia an additive-manufacturing technique called projection microquencies below 0.5 THz. The use of the PµSL technique should stereolithography (PµSL). enable the conception and fabrication of new types of terahertz optical elements.—John Wallace
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REFERENCE 1. F. Zhou et al., Adv. Opt. Mater. (2016); doi:10.1002/adom.201600033.
June 2016
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world news MID-IR LASERS
manufacture. But an alternative design using a yin-yang configuration and a single-wall carbon nanotube (SWNT) saturable absorber overcomes the fundamental limits of conventional fiber lasers, and provides scaling to higher output powers and/or pulse energies. The laser uses thulium-doped fiber as the gain medium (see figure). Two standard fused couplers form hybrid
Two lasers in one: ‘Yin-yang’ mid-IR laser has two synchronized channels
Fiber lasers have an increasing advanYin-yang tage over other laser types because of their Fiber-optic components such as optical highly integrated design and, as a conisolators that operate in the mid-IR sequence, compact size, lower cost, and region are expensive and complicated to excellent robustness against environLaser mental exposure. Pulsed operation of diode EDFA TDF fiber lasers at 2 μm and other mid-infraOutput 2 red (mid-IR) wavelengths is desirable Coupler for various applications, including lidar, WDM molecular studies, optical communication, atmospheric monitoring, medical PC diagnostics, and surgical applications. Researchers from Aston University (Birmingham, England) and Shanghai University (China) have recently demonstrated a modified ring fiber laser in a Coupler SWCNT “yin-yang” configuration that boasts an Output 1 1 PC isolator-free design.
A fiber laser built in a yin-yang cavity configuration includes highconcentration, thulium-doped fiber (TDF), polarization controllers (PCs), a 1550/2000 nm wavelength-division multiplexer (WDM), a single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) saturable absorber sandwiched between two optical connectors, two output couplers with variable coupling ratios, and a 1550 nm Fabry-Perot laser diode amplified by an erbiumdoped fiber amplifier (EDFA) to the maximum pump power of 1.2 W. (Image credit: Aston University)
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world news nonlinear loop mirrors when spliced together. When incorporating a carbon nanotube polymer composite as a saturable absorber, the laser can operate in the Q-switched regime, generating submicrosecond pulses with maximum output power of 197 mW and pulse energy of 1.7 µJ. The researchers say this is the highest power yet from a thulium-doped fiber laser Q-switched with a CNT polymer (sandwiched between fiber ferrules). The application of polymer-embedded CNT saturable absorbers was originally thought to be detrimental to a fiber laser design because of its low thermal damage threshold when it interacts with the most-intensive central part of the optical field. However, the laser setup was constructed in such a way that the nonlinear loop mirrors act as additional saturable absorbers based on the nonlinear optical Kerr effect, therefore stabilizing pulsed operation at high powers.
The yin-yang cavity consists of two coupled nonlinear fiber loop mirrors, in which one fiber loop acts as a feedback mechanism for the second fiber loop. In the experiment, the researchers used a set of fiber couplers to form the nonlinear mirrors. Varying the coupling ratios directly alters the total power distribution within the cavity, and modifies its gain and pulse dynamics behavior. As a result, the design allows for the opportunity to predefine the operation direction. By tailoring the proper coupling ratios, selfmaintaining laser propagation occurs in a single direction. This effectively eliminates the need for a high-cost optical isolator device in the mid-IR region. Moreover, the yin-yang configuration is easily extended to other wavelengths for which optical isolators are complicated and expensive. The other value of adjustable coupling ratios is that the design allows generation of two synchronized outputs. By essentially switching between two directions,
a single laser is simultaneously operating as two different femtosecond lasers. The researchers predict that the power ratio from two outputs can be continuously tuned by replacing standard fiber couplers with a variable coupler. “Our technique can be applied to imaging and sensing applications, allowing two different types of measurement simultaneously, which dramatically reduces the cost for the overall measurement system,” says Maria Chernysheva, a Marie S.-Curie Fellow at Aston University. “In brief, the proposed yin-yang novel laser not only offers a cost-effective design, but more importantly shows an enhanced multipurpose laser capability with better tunability, improved light-beam quality, and easier power scaling.”—Gail Overton REFERENCE 1. M. Chernysheva et al., Sci. Rep., 6, 24220 (Apr. 11, 2016).
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world news RUGGEDIZED COMPON ENTS
Tunable OPO source is shippable via FedEx Beginning decades ago with the dye laser, tunable coherent sources have been a critical enabling technology for performing high-sensitivity spectroscopic measurements across a variety of applications,
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including photochemistry, life sciences, and remote sensing. The advent of optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) provided a more-reliable solid-state alternative to dye lasers, offering a wider
tuning range and greater reliability. However, first-generation OPOs were physically large, relatively expensive, and somewhat temperamental. As a result, laser developers have sought to simplify these systems to make them more readily usable to the widest spectrum of engineers and scientists—that is, to end users who are not “laser jocks.” Ultimately, the goal has been to reduce the laser’s true cost of data (the time, labor, and materials required to acquire a given data set when running an experiment). This makes the laser a more economically attractive tool for a larger number of applications, and is an especially important factor for life-science applications that scientists are aiming to move from the laboratory to clinical use. Another important design goal has been to improve the reliability and ruggedness of these systems.
Shipping OPOs by standard methods In pursuit of this goal, Opotek (Carlsbad, CA), a manufacturer of tunable nanosecond sources, set out to produce an easy-to-use, highly reliable OPO, and to offer rapid worldwide service for it. However, the company didn’t have the resources to set up numerous fully equipped service centers around the world, and so developed a novel design approach to their latest OPO series (the Opolette). “We wanted to build a better self-contained OPO, including its own pump laser. And, we wanted to take full advantage of the new generation of miniaturized Nd:YAG pump lasers from Quantel to build the most compact nanosecond OPO ever—about the size of a shoebox,” says Lam Nguyen of Opotek. By making a small, ruggedized OPO, the company aimed for a product that could be safely and economically shipped by standard methods (such as postal services or FedEx) to anywhere in the
world news world. The customer would then turn it on with no need to wait for on-site “commissioning” by company personnel, and then run the OPO for years without technical service or repairs. This would enable a fast-service model, where any problems that do occur are solved by express shipping the OPO back to the factory, followed by a rapid fix, and then express shipping back again. “An unusual business model for a complex scientific laser, yes, but much faster than waiting for a service visit, particularly in remote locales,” says Nguyen. The challenge was that OPOs are nonlinear devices that are extremely sensitive to misalignment. Because this particular OPO incorporates its own pump laser, it includes numerous adjustable optical mounts, both intracavity and between the pump and OPO. These must be immune to thermal drifts and to typical shipping and handling
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a)
b) Average (pitch & yaw) deflection (µrad) 25 Supplier 2 kinematic mount
20
15 High-stability flexure mounts were crucial to Opotek’s miniaturized, shippable OPO with its shipping-based technical support model (a). Thermal stability (averaged over both x and y axes) is shown for a Siskiyou IXF1.0i monolithic flexure mount and for high-stability kinematic mounts from two other manufacturers (b). Thermal performance data for the latter two are from manufacturers’ published literature. (Courtesy of Siskiyou)
physical disturbances, as well as stable under operating conditions. Even slight movement of a mount and Opotek’s
Supplier 1 kinematic mount
10
5 Siskiyou flexure mount 0 20
25 30 35 Temperature (°C)
40
approach to shipping and remote service would be in trouble. To get the required stability, Opotek’s engineers chose novel monolithic flexure mounts from Siskiyou (Grants Pass, OR). These flexures are each machined from a single piece of metal, in contrast to traditional assembled flexure mounts, which include at least two plates, two leaf springs, and so on. While traditional designs usually contain two or three different metals, each having different thermal expansion coefficients (causing drift and thermal cycling), a monolithic flexure avoids such thermal-mismatch problems. Opotek reports that of the hundreds of these OPOs shipped, only three have not worked fine out of the box. In accordance with the company’s intent, these were immediately shipped back, factory re-aligned, and returned to the customers, where the three are now working perfectly. By ruggedizing tunable OPOs to the point that they become shippable components, the company claims the result is a much broader user base, particularly in applications like life sciences and analytical measurements, rather than just traditional OPO applications such as spectroscopy and photochemistry.—John Wallace
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Laser Focus World
world news BIOPHOTONICS ®
PIX4life targets biophotonics with visible-range PICs, development capacity build Photonics has become critical to life sciences. However, the field is far from benefiting fully from photonics’ capabilities, says the PIX4life consortium, a European partnership involving academic and research institutes, foundries, fabless small- and mediumsize enterprises (SMEs) including technology suppliers and life sciences end users, and larger product/systems developers. The project is funded through the European Union’s Photonics21 program and contributions from partners. Today, bulky and expensive optical systems dominate biomedical photonics, even though robust optical functionality can be realized cost-effectively on single chips. Such chips are available
commercially only for applications such as telecom, and at infrared wavelengths. Although proof-of-concept demonstrations for photonic integrated circuits (PICs) in life sciences are abundant, the gating factor for wider adoption is limited in resource capacity. PIX4life, launched in February 2016, was established to facilitate European R&D in biophotonics by helping European companies and universities bridge the gap between technological research and industrial development. Through creation of an open-access model to enable the production of lowcost, highly reproducible, and scalable products, the project aims to lower barriers to entry for testing and validating biophotonics concepts.
Enabling volume manufacturing of visible-range photonic ICs Open-access multi-platform wafer service, including:
Demonstrating benefits for life science applications:
System specification Multispectral sources Photonic design Biosensors Design aggregation Bridge valley of death
Design iterations
Optical coherence tomography
Fabrication
Application cases provide evidence for the need for volume manufacturing of visible PICs
Cytometry Packaging ... and many more Testing
European partnership PIX4life will design and produce state-of-the-art photonic integrated circuits (PICs) that target life-science applications, helping nascent commercial products through the famed “valley of death” that claims many innovations before they attract funding.
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Laser Focus World
Dr. Wilhelm Kaenders, Founder
Create Your Own Star In next-generation telescopes, adaptive optics provides sharp images using laser guide stars as a reference. Sodium atoms in the atmosphere are excited by a narrow band, diffraction limited cw laser beam at 589 nm. Similar requirements apply also for cooling and BEC of Sodium. TOPTICAís tunable diode lasers are now available to create cool atoms in the lab and guide stars in the sky.
589 nm @ TOPTICA SodiumStar 20 W guide stars for astronomy in cooperation with ESO TA-SHG pro 1 W for sodium cooling and BEC
www.toptica.com
world news Project objectives The cornerstone of PIX4life’s work (see figure) is development of a pilot line— encompassing system integrators, design houses, foundries, and packaging providers—for producing state-of-the-art photonic integrated circuits (PICs) that target life-science applications in the visible (400–1000 nm) wavelength range. The project is undertaking to develop PIC-based technology that will leverage both multiproject wafer (MPW) and generic photonic building blocks and interfaces to address a broad range of optical functionalities, and achieve the accuracy and yield of microelectronic CMOS fabrication processes. Taking advantage of earlier investments made by consortium partners, the project will build passive components based on ultralow-loss silicon nitride (SiN) material with best-in-class performance and very low propagation losses. These
components will include a low-autofluorescence waveguide platform, splitters, filters, multiplexers, and couplers. One outcome will be better state-of-the-art active modulators with optimized tuning options, including thermo-optic, electrooptic, and piezoelectric. PIX4life aims to improve accessibility to resources, not only for photonic end users, but also for system houses and pioneering life-science instrumentation developers willing to try out photonic components. Building on a cost-sharing model developed for application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and silicon photonics, the project will complete several MPW runs, each of which will make available an increasing number of capabilities expected from a stable and mature pilot line. Efforts will go into aligning and extending existing expertise in design tools and kits; integrating multitype laser
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Exotic complex optical assemblies Adhesive free assemblies
Solid, air spaced and piezo tunable etalons with a total thickness variation of < 3nm
LightMachinery 24
June 2016
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sources including gallium nitride (GaN)and gallium arsenide (GaAs)-based edgeemitting laser diodes and vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs); detectors (CMOS imagers); and fluidics— creating and validating standards to enable a complete platform. An end-to-end supply chain will be established, reaching from design to packaged and characterized chip components. This work will be guided by select applications, including biosensors, optical coherence tomography (OCT) imagers, and multispectral sources for microscopy and point-of-care cytometry. Further, the project will develop and test a business model and a legal framework, and will offer support through targeted training, websites, and business and IP models.
Progress and members “Currently, the pilot line is gearing up towards offering open access in 2017, and all the partners are working on internal technology developments for that,” says Iñigo Artundo, CEO of member company VLC Photonics (València, Spain). The consortium held its launch meeting in January 2016 at the offices of IMEC (Leuven, Belgium), which is serving as project coordinator. The other member organizations are: Bosch (Stuttgart, Germany), CMOSIS Image Sensors (Antwerp, Belgium), Chalmers University of Technology (Göteborg, Sweden), Luceda Photonics (Dendermonde, Belgium), medical device startup MedLumics (Madrid, Spain), RWTH Aachen University (Aachen, Germany), Toptica Photonics (Graefelfing, Germany), Tyndall National Institute (Cork, Ireland), and biomedical tools supplier Miltenyi Biotec (Bergisch Gladbach, Germany), along with four companies from Enschede, The Netherlands: OEM supplier LioniX, software tools and libraries supplier PhoeniX B, PICs supplier Xio Photonics, and deposition equipment supplier Solmates. To find out more about PIX4life, email
[email protected].—Barbara Gefvert
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Laser Focus World
FutureOptics OSA INTERVIEWS LEADERS IN PHOTONICS
Reaping the rewards of photonics in the lab and in business: Interview with Alex Cable OSA: What got you interested
in optics? Alex Cable: It was purely accidental. I
My parents were beatniks who encouraged intellectual pursuits, but practiced benign neglect. We had few rules, no structure, and near-total self-reliance, which provided me with a unique approach to business. I left school at 16 and spent six months hitchhiking around the country. Then, I started working and learning about life. Oleg told me to dress appropriately and polish my shoes. I’ve always enjoyed hard work, so I worked at a restaurant as well, starting as a dishwasher and working up to sous ALEX CABLE is president and chief executive chef under the guidance of head officer of Thorlabs, which he founded in the chef Joe Scrudato. In my mid-20s, basement of his Newton, NJ home in 1989. He named the company after a Labrador retriever I thought of opening a restaurant, named Thor, and still paints “edgy” dogs for but had an intellectual awakencompany promotions. Thorlabs now has 1500 employees, annual sales of about $350 million a ing and went back to school to year, and divisions around the globe. Cable is a educate myself. I learned a lot at fellow of The Optical Society. Bell Labs, and Steve encouraged me to move to Stanford with him, but the attraction of starting my own business was just too strong.
got a late start academically, and at 28 was finishing my undergraduate degree in physics at Rutgers when Steve Chu visited the campus and mentioned he needed a technician. The years I spent working at Bell Labs for him and later for Mara Prentiss (now at Harvard) made me realize the great impact photonics could have on the world. I have benefited from strong mentors. My first was a Ukranian, Oleg Kreofsky, who taught me drafting and mechanical design. Then a Hungarian, Alex Karoly, taught me machining and rebuilding huge machine tools that were several decades old and had no instructions. I learned to get into the designer’s mind by taking apart a complex machine and fitting it back together. Like them, Steve was a master in his field. Working with him and Mara in a small group that also included Art Ashkin and Leo Hollberg helped shape OSA: How would you compare the rewards of the lab and of business? my life. I learned that I had the capac- AC: It’s the same to me. Working in the lab to assess the scientific, societal, and ity to continually learn, and that gave environmental potential of a new field or updating our business strategy are both me the confidence to introduce an ever- fabulous, good fun. Success in business can have an impact well beyond the direct expanding array of new technologies to contributions of research publications. Each of the roughly 4000 packages we ship Thorlabs (see figure). each day is a tangible reminder of our impact—I can’t imagine a greater reward. OSA: What drew you away from
research? AC: I always wanted to have my own
business. The first inklings came when I was 10 and went door to door selling sketches by my older sister, who was a very skilled artist. It was pretty lucrative for a kid—I kept half the money. Laser Focus World
www.laserfocusworld.com
The Optical Society celebrates a century of innovation Throughout a century of breakthroughs, The Optical Society has brought together the best minds in optics and photonics to light the future. This series reflects on that history and looks to what innovations lie ahead. For more information, please visit http://osa.org/100.
June 2016
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FutureOptics
Ever since my restaurant experience, of good preparation, while still striving It takes a large appetite for risk. Being I have been looking to reproduce the to serve perfection to the customer. It’s privately owned lets us take the long view, intensity and excitement of a Saturday the same in any business. 10 years or more out. Our cash flow limevening with over 100 reservations in its our growth, forcing us to make hard the book. You knew you could never OSA: What has helped Thorlabs scale choices on where we invest—this limprepare as well as you would like to and up and grow so successfully? ited funding ensures we pay due respect that you had to make choices with lim- AC: Amazingly good luck, focus on prof- to each dollar we invest, which I believe ited time. The intensity was invigorat- itable growth to fuel the future, balanc- boosts the performance of the investing—it was full engagement. You had to ing risky projects with safe ones, and re- ments that make the cut. learn not to let perfection get in the way investing essentially all our profits back To keep pace with rapidly changing in the business. markets, I periodically live the life of a Commercializing sci- customer, from ordering products to ence requires deep exper- unpacking and using them. Our customtise throughout Thorlabs. ers are research and industrial scientists Surprisingly, scientific and a broad range of manufacturers, and invention almost takes care we need to know their diverse needs and of itself, as there always expectations. seems to be more potenI also stay tuned in to the research tial opportunities than community at conferences like CLEO bandwidth. The biggest because that’s where tomorrow’s great challenge is to maintain ideas emerge. For my business to remain the proper manufacturing healthy over the long term, we need close infrastructure and scale it contact with the people who are inventThese examples show Thorlabs’ OEM capabilities. as new opportunities arise. ing the future.
FutureOptics
OSA: What stimulates you about op-
opportunities, so we have to stay tuned to tics and photonics? the needs of our core research customers. AC: Photonics has vast opportunities to I also have outside investments. One of contribute to many applications. From them is Boston MicroMachines, whose the potential for early disease detection by micromirror technology is used in adapspectroscopic analysis of human breath to tive optic systems that search for planets down-hole oil-well monitoring and grav- around other stars. Advanced photonics itational wave detection, it’s all amazing- are central to the search for “Goldilocks” ly stimulating. planets just right for life, which is a huge Much of my time now goes into scientific quest. advanced imaging technology for brain The business overall needs to be profresearch and improved cancer treatment. itable, but it’s so much bigger than just We have about 80 people in Sterling, VA, running a profitable business. There’s a developing new imaging platforms and certain multiplier that comes from having participating in the White House BRAIN aspirational goals. The BRAIN Initiative [Brain Research through Advancing is a great example of where there’s so Innovative Neurotechnologies] Initiative. much opportunity for new knowledge, I’m also excited by the prospects of and so much that new knowledge can using mid-infrared spectroscopic anal- bring to us. ysis of breath to spot diseases early on. Other possibilities include robotic vision OSA: Where do you see photonics techsystems, quantum computing, and fre- nology going in the long term? quency-comb based environmental sen- AC: Ultimately, a Dyson Sphere. I’m a sors. Our field constantly spawns new big Star Trek fan, and that’s a far-out
The 1st of its kind
concept of an extremely advanced civilization that captures all the energy from its sun. I say that somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but it is a way of saying how I view our world. The photonics community is comprised of builders who build knowledge that leads to building things. I’d like my life to have meaning, so I strive to contribute to building meaningful technology that enriches all lives. I’m an optimist, and ultimately I believe that we can do good with technology. Talking about a Dyson Sphere implies that we will conquer the megaproblems that challenge our world, from global hunger to environmental disruption that might even threaten to collapse our civilization. We are fast approaching a point where I expect we will have no choice but to rely on massive technological fixes. Photonics can help stave off that day, as well as contribute some of the potential fixes.
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V IBR ATION
CONTROL
Effective vibration control expands spatial resolution boundaries SYLVIA TAN
As the scale of scientific and engineering processes and products shrink, the demand for higherperformance, vibration-free platforms is growing. Specific applications in silicon photonics, micromachining, and superresolution microscopy highlight the need for application-specific vibration control platforms. Technological advances enable observation, manipulation, and fabrication of extremely detailed objects. Examples of those objects and sizes range from nanometer-scale optical waveguide structures to living cells and protein-molecule scaffolds. Research and technology at such miniature scales require advances in precision and tolerance for the entire system design, including vibration control platforms. Three challenging applications that require ultrahigh spatial resolution during manufacture and test—silicon photonics, micromachining, and super-resolution microscopy—demand vibration control platforms designed to eliminate vibrations that can disturb the end product or process. Silicon photonics: pneumatic and tuned damping Silicon photonics is the study and application of photonic systems that use silicon (Si) as an optical platform. Different from the traditional photonics setup, silicon photonics components are heavily integrated and miniaturized, as Laser Focus World
they are manufactured on a chip with nanometer-scale resolution. Devices such as optical connectors, ring resonators, filters, and modulators are manufactured using various kinds of high-resolution lithography methods, and are subsequently tested and characterized under tight mechanical tolerances. Compared to other types of optical characterizations, test fixtures and light sources are often not located on the same chip. This means that light needs to be guided to and from the chip precisely and without disturbances so that
chip functionality can be properly tested. Given the ultracompact nature of the waveguides and other devices fabricated on the chip, fiber coupling is necessary to maintain tight spatial resolution. “Vibration control is very important to us,” says Rich Grzybowski, director of R&D Integrated Photonic Solutions at MACOM (Lowell, MA), one of the leading providers of silicon photonic chip designs and solutions. “When the resolution is down to around 100 nm, there are a lot of vibration sources around to affect the testing procedure.” Some of MACOM’s test structures involve surface-normal optical coupling with fiber arrays into grating couplers. In this setting, the resolution and vibration control requirements are not
FIGURE 1. Optical fibers ride on finger probes (circled), enabling alignment of multiple fibers with accuracies better than 100 nm.
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June 2016
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V IBR ATION
C O N T R O L con tin ued
critical because there is typically 1 µm spatial tolerance. In other applications, MACOM uses edge couplers with various tapers and fibers coupled on the edge of a chip. This edge coupling reduces the tolerance by a factor of 10 to about 100 nm. For this aspect of testing, reducing micro vibrations from the floor, the stack of equipment on the test bench, people walking by or even talking—in close proximity to the test array—becomes extremely important to be able to maintain overall coupling efficiency (see Fig. 1). For this application, the MACOM team uses Newport S-2000A pneumatic isolators (vibration isolators that require air or gas under pressure) and tuned-massdamped ST-UT2 tabletops. Pneumatic isolators such as Newport’s S-2000A have large chamber volumes and accurate (0.25 mm) auto re-leveling capabilities to isolate floor vibrations. At 10 Hz, approximately 99% of the vibrations
FIGURE 2. Colorized scanning electron microscope (SEM) images show miniature lattice structures manufactured on the SmartTable.
from the floor are eliminated. Alternative choices of traditional rubber/elastomeric isolators and mechanical spring isolators cannot provide enough vibration isolation efficiency to obtain the spatial resolution needed for this type of coupling application.
Communications
Instrumentation Medical
• Analog bandwidth to 8 GHz. • FC, SC, and ST receptacles. • Active diameter from 50 µm to 5 mm. • Standard and custom ceramic submounts. • TO-style packages available with flat
Rubber/elastomeric isolators use the material itself as vibration absorbers and usually start isolating after 25 Hz, compared to 2 Hz for pneumatic isolators. The amount of vibration reduction from tuber/elastomeric isolators is typically not enough for sub-micron positioning requirements. Spring vibration isolators are widely used in machinery applications to reduce transmission of noise, shock, and vibration. The isolation can start as low as 8 Hz through special design, such as Newport’s VIBe isolators. However, compared to pneumatic isolators that work well for low-frequency vibrations caused by surrounding traffic and swaying buildings, VIBe mechanical isolators do not isolate below 8 Hz and are typically not sufficient to maintain the spatial resolution
AR-coated windows, ball lens and dome lens.
• Standard axial pigtail packages and miniature ceramic pigtail packages, all available with low back-reflection fiber.
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10 µm
FIGURE 3. A colorized SEM image is shown of a complex 3D microstructure created by carefully overlapping polymer voxels to form a continuous polymeric network capable of sustaining itself. www.laserfocusworld.com
Laser Focus World
absorb and dissipate a moderate amount of vibration energies across a wide Machinery vibration frequency range, (10 – 100 Hz) but because they Atomic vibrations Microseisms Building vibrations Swaying of tall buildings do not target any (1012 Hz) (0.1 – 1 Hz) (10 – 100 Hz) (0.1– 5 Hz) specific table reso10-7 10-6 10-5 10-4 10-3 10-2 10-1 1 10 100 1000 mm 10-8 nances, they are typ-9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 1 10 Inch ically not adequate for applications 1 Å unit 1 µin. 1 µm 1 ‘thou’ 1 mm 1 in. 1m that require stabil1 ‘mil’ ity
