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Microscopic algae and low-cost forms of solar cell could have more in common than meets the eye. Both could prove important in the quest to produce cleaner, greener fuels.
Photolithography at a wavelength of 193 nm in the deep UV with water immersion lenses can now produce microelectronics containing features with a half-pitch as small as 40 nm. The big question is how much further can the technology be pushed?
For the past 20 years, Takeharu Etoh from Kinki University, Japan, has been developing high-speed video imaging systems. Adarsh Sandhu spoke to him about his latest creation, the one-million-frame-per-second In-Situ Storage Image Sensor camera.
Optical coherence tomography is rapidly becoming an important clinical tool, which provides high-resolution images that cannot be obtained by other means. Duncan Graham-Rowe spoke to a few of the companies developing the technology.
An electro–optic scheme for sampling the electric field of laser pulses without the need for any synchronization could become a valuable tool for characterizing sources that emit in the infrared and terahertz regions.
An innovative approach to making silicon solar cells more cost-effective and robust has now entered mass production. Nature Photonics took a trip to Kyoto, Japan, to find out more.
Chinese investment in high-intensity ultrashort-pulse generation seems to be paying off with several groups reporting their latest breakthroughs at CLEO/Pacific Rim 2007.
A group at Caltech have used an optical microcavity to perform label-free detection of single molecules for the first time. The work represents a milestone in the application of optical cavities in sensing, and could lead to the realization of ultrasensitive lab-on-a-chip systems.
Analysing the spectral and temporal performance of lasers operating in the mid- and far-infrared is challenging. Now, electro–optic sampling appears to be a convenient solution. Nature Photonics spoke to Klaus Reimann from the Max-Born-Institut in Berlin about the technique.