Photonics

Fiber optical circulators are used to separate optical signals that travel in opposite directions in an optic fiber in order to complete bidirectional transmission. Optical circulators are also known as non-reciprocal optics, which means when the light travels in the opposite direction, changes in the light properties are not reversed. …

Conventional optical fibers are fabulously successful, but they have profound limitations. They contain a glass core at the center of the fiber through which light is transmitted. However, not only does this glass center limit the speed of the light as it passes through, but it also adversely affects other …

Conventional daylighting scheme employing windows and skylights are no longer so useful especially for daylighting of high-rise and intensive buildings. Residential buildings with limited natural lighting are generally lit by fuel-based electricity which contributes to increase of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Alternatively, the concentrated solar energy can be transmitted …

The volume of space between the Earth’s surface out to geosynchronous orbit is enormous—equivalent to 240,000 times all the Earth’s oceans. Yet the number of objects calling that volume home is growing all the time—not just with satellites but with debris of all kinds, natural and manmade. And keeping track …

A U.S.-developed space surveillance telescope has been assembled at a new facility in Western Australia and is expected to start operating in 2022, the U.S. Space Force Space and Missile Systems Center announced April 2020. The telescope, designed to track and identify debris and satellites more than 22,000 miles above Earth, …

Free-space optical communication (FSO) is an optical communication technology that uses light propagating in free space to wirelessly transmit data for telecommunications or computer networking. “Free space” means air, outer space, vacuum, or something similar. FSO operates on the Line-of-Sight phenomenon, consisting of a LASER at source and detector at …

Michelson proposed an interferometric apparatus in 1890 following an earlier suggestion by Fizeau. The invention became the precursor of many important modern optic measurement techniques. The Michelson Interferometer, as it is called, is used to measure small optical path length changes. The classic Michelson Interferometer consists of two mirrors (one forming …

The fiber optic sensors also called as optical fiber sensors use optical fiber or sensing element.  These Sensors can measure a large variety of parameters, such as temperature, pressure, strain, refractive index, vibrations, displacements, bending, loading, and liquid level or concentration of chemical species. Fiber optic sensors have become a …

The need for better radar in World War II drove the development of radio frequency control, and its miniaturization in subsequent decades revolutionized a host of military and consumer applications. The generation of accurate signal frequencies from a single reference oscillator called microwave frequency synthesis, brought about many advanced technologies …