Photonics for a Better World

Allison Barto "'Where did we come from?' and 'Are we alone?' are two of the most fundamental questions humans have been asking throughout history. I get to be involved in supporting astrophysics research at a time when we have the technology to take meaningful steps toward answering those questions." Allison Barto is a force to be reckoned with in the astrophysics community — she graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Physics and has worked at Ball Aerospace for 21 years. Currently, she is the Senior Program Manager for both the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, Camera Optics. "The James Webb Space Telescope will be able to observe the first generation of luminous objects after the Big Bang," she says, "and detect possible signatures of life in the atmospheres of extra-solar planets." Allison has also been an active member of the SPIE community for many years, including being Symposium ...

Who knew … until last year: Three African-American women working — in obscurity — for NASA as mathematicians played a vital role in the mission that sent astronaut John Glenn into orbit around Earth and brought him back again, in 1962. Publication of Margot Lee Shetterly 's book Hidden Figures and the subsequent release of the acclaimed 2016 film brought the story of the important roles played by Katherine Johnson , Dorothy Vaughan , and Mary Jackson to light for the first time for many. Among key findings in a 2017 photonics industry survey, respondents cited higher percentages of men in management and senior academic positions, with the largest gaps in later career. While their story may have been little known for decades, struggles for opportunity and inclusion are familiar to many women and to members of under-represented minorities or other groups working to make a career in a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) field. Findings on ...

CubeSat in space. Image courtesy of NASA. It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a … CubeSat? Small, boxy, cost-effective nanosatellites are helping to change the way we explore space. Not only are they making low Earth orbit (LEO) space exploration more accessible due to cheap production, but they can be used in both commercial and amateur projects, making applications versatile. Originally, CubeSats were invented by researchers at California Polytechnic State University and Stanford University to “enable graduate students to design, build, test and operate limited capabilities of artificial satellites within the time and financial constraints of a graduate degree program,” Space Daily reported recently . This was accomplished by establishing a standard CubeSat dimension of 10x10x11 cubic units — small enough to speed up the process and ensure low costs. (A search on CubeSats literature in the SPIE Digital Library provides insights into how the technology has developed...

Among the #FacesofPhotonics: Student Leadership Workshop participants at SPIE Optics + Photonics Guest blogger: Emily Power is a 2016 graduate in communications from Western Washington University, and most recently social media intern for SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. She blogged on responses to the SPIE #FacesofPhotonics campaign, to share the stories of SPIE students around the globe. This is the second of four posts. One of the many perquisites of being a student in the optics and photonics field is being able to pass along knowledge to those who will follow your footsteps in the future. Throughout the #FacesofPhotonics campaign, it became clear that current SPIE students thrive on educating a younger generation while simultaneously working diligently on their own academic careers. In this post, we feature students who have educated others as well as themselves. Teboho Bell Teboho Bell is from the Republic of South Africa, and is...

Prior to sealing up the chamber and pumping the vacuum system down, a LIGO optics technician inspects one of LIGO’s core optics (mirrors) by illuminating its surface with light at a glancing angle. It is critical to LIGO's operation that there is no contamination on any of its optical surfaces. Credit: Matt Heintze/Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab Update, 11 February: A hundred years after Einstein predicted them, gravitational waves from a cataclysmic event a billion years ago have been observed. For the first time, scientists have observed gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of spacetime arriving at Earth from a cataclysmic event in the distant universe. This confirms a major prediction of Albert Einstein's 1915 general theory of relativity and opens an unprecedented new window to the cosmos. The discovery was announced on 11 February at a press conference in Washington, DC, hosted by the National Science Foundation, the primary funder of the Laser Interferom...

The first 60 years of SPIE's history have seen amazing advances, but what will photonics enable in the next 60 years? SPIE Student Chapter leaders will be among those creating the future. Several shared their visions recently at SPIE Optics + Photonics. Sixty years ago, in 1955, the world had not yet seen the first laser -- it had not yet been invented. Fiber optics were brand new, there were no artificial satellites circling the Earth, no humans had been in space, and the first solar cell was in early stages of development as was the first video recording machine. Smartphone? How can a phone be "smart"? In that environment, a group of engineers working in optics and optoelectronics to build the first scientific cameras gathered in a restaurant in Hollywood, California, to discuss a shared challenge. They needed to use high-speed photography to solve design issues and create capabilities in industries from aerospace to communications and to advance research. ...

Humans have been improving photography since Aristotle ’s first observation of a pinhole camera in 350 BC, with milestones such as the introduction of the Lumière brothers' panchromatic plate in 1894 and Willard Boyle and George Smith ’s invention of the charge-coupled device (CCD) in 1969. Today, improvements to digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras, which combine optics with digital imaging sensors, have introduced astrophotography to the wider public. Since its establishment in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has used astrophotography to render inspiring images of planets, stars, and solar systems. In the photo above, Alexander Stepanenko has used astrophotography techniques to capture the aurora borealis -- the northern lights. The fascinating phenomenon is caused by the collision of solar wind and magnetospheric-charged particles in high-altitude atmosphere. Using a DSLR camera (Nikon D-800), Stepanenko captured the photons and thermal noise of the north...

It seems only yesterday that the magnificent Hubble Space Telescope (HST) launched. But in reality, it was April 24, 1990. Since then, it’s been consistently the most visible science story in the mass media – there’s something about gorgeous astrophotography that engages the public. But behind the beautiful photos, there are important discoveries the Hubble has enabled. Learning about dark energy and the rate of the expansion of the universe, the first direct image of a planet outside our solar system, and the Hubble Deep Field Shot (see below), the most magnified picture of a spot of the sky ever taken with optical light -- all are among HST’s long list of accomplishments.  The Deep Field Shot (NASA). Click to enlarge.                                           ...