by stephen | Dec 17, 2021 | Blog
Laser: a tool that emits an intense beam of light energy that’s created by a stimulated emission of photons from excited atoms and molecules. My Dearest Laser, On May 16, 1960, you started life as a low-powered ruby laser in Ted Maiman’s lab. Today,...
by stephen | Dec 17, 2021 | Blog
What are Optical Homogenizers, and What Applications do they Serve? Homogenizers, also known as ‘light pipes’, are examples of optical waveguides that are designed to combine and integrate a number of sources – and power levels – of light, including lasers; even out a...
by stephen | Dec 17, 2021 | Blog
It all started in the 1800’s. (Optical coatings have been around for a while.) Scientists of that century developed chemical processes for depositing silver on either the front or back surface of a piece of glass. “Silvering” the back of the glass improved the quality...
by stephen | Dec 17, 2021 | Blog
One of the first Earth science facts that most people learn is how a diamond forms when carbon is placed under high pressure. While they may have learned the lesson from a superhero squeezing a lump of coal rather than in the classroom, the fact that materials change...
by stephen | Dec 17, 2021 | Blog
The materials we work with last for a really, really long time. Sapphire, hard ceramics, glass. So it’s no surprise that scientists are finding ways to use them to store information that could be vital to future generations, from our scientific discoveries to...
by stephen | Dec 17, 2021 | Blog
Elon Musk, the madman-genius-engineer behind Palo Alto-based automaker Tesla, made big waves when he declared that “Anyone relying on lidar [for self-driving cars] is doomed. Doomed.” Tesla’s current vehicles use radar, GPS, maps, ultrasonic...
