All Things Photonics

The episode begins with on-site interviews from EPIC’s Technology Meeting for Photonics in XR, held in Helsinki, Finland. Guests include Stefan Steiner, CEO of LightTrans International; Erhan Ercan, head of global business development at Morphotonics; and Bharath Rajagopalan, director of strategic marketing at STMicroelectronics. EPIC’s Jérémy Picot-Clémente leads these chats. In our feature interview, news editor Joel Williams speaks with Jason Sorger, senior field service and applications engineer at DRS Daylight Solutions, about market opportunities for durable quantum cascade laser technology in sectors including optical communications, quantum, and infrared spectroscopy.

Optics and photonics luminary Paul McManamon is our guest for a discussion on advanced ranging and detection capabilities across environments and applications areas. McManamon, a past president of SPIE, is current president and CTO of Exciting Technology, and a fellow of the Directed Energy Professional Society. Also in this episode, a discussion with Alasdair Pentland and Andy Bell of terahertz solutions firm TeraView.

Photonics Media comes to you from onsite at the 2024 Annual General Meeting of the European Photonics Industry Consortium (EPIC). The episode features fireside chats with Elizabeth Illy and Beate Sauter, head of marketing at HÜBNER Photonics and CEO of diode laser components manufacturer Lumics, respectively. EPIC’s Carlos Lee hosts. Later, our Joel Williams discusses all things lasers for cinema with the acclaimed and award-winning Gregory Niven.

"All Things Photonics"® is produced by Photonics Media and airs biweekly, on Tuesdays.

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Paul Prucnal, professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of the Center for Network Security and Access (CNSA) at Princeton, and Bhavin Shastri, assistant professor in the Queen’s University Department of Physics, Engineering Physics & Astronomy, discuss the neuromorphic photonics roadmap and the technology area’s prospects for success.

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As an endowed professor at The University of Central Florida College of Optics and Photonics (UCF CREOL), Andrea Blanco-Redondo focuses on some of the most exciting topics in photonics research. While some of her research interests are just beginning to emerge in commercial and consumer applications, others stand very solidly in the realm of R&D, eagerly awaited by industry. Our conversation spans topics in soliton photonics, slow light, and quantum topology. Also, Torsten Vahrenkamp and Matthias Trinker of the management team at ficonTEC, discuss ELAS Technologies Investment — a capital firm spurring high-tech business success at global scale.

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Silicon photonics’ evolution from application shrouded in uncertainty to discipline harboring vast application potential has commanded the attention of those in and beyond the fields of optics and photonics. Mario Paniccia, CEO of ANELLO Photonics, recounts his own journey through the budding sector, with recollections from his 20-plus-year career at Intel and insights from his latest undertaking: ANELLO Photonics’ silicon photonics optical gyroscope.

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Zubin Jacob, Purdue University Elmore Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, discusses the convergence of thermal imaging and artificial intelligence. The recently developed heat-assisted detection and ranging (HADAR) technique offers performance advantages in low-light environments, in which other modalities face drawbacks. Also, we speak with TRAQC’s Mariia Zhuldybina and Benjamin Dringoli. The company recently took first place in the 2024 SPIE Startup Challenge. TRAQC’s solution leverages THz light, offering real-time inspection capabilities for printed and additive electronics.

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The conceptualization, development, and rollout of Thorlabs’ Mobile Photonics Lab Experience is the ultimate story in optics and photonics accessibility. Thorlabs’ vice president for global sales and business development, Michael Mohammadi, and director of photonics education, Bill Warger, share insights into Thorlabs’ industry-acclaimed mobile resource as a vehicle for photonics education and technology outreach.

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Integrated Photonics luminary Joyce Poon caps Season 8 of "All Things Photonics" with a discussion and status update on the ascent of integrated photonics. From sustained high-level R&D to commercial prospects, 2024 is poised to be the year of the PIC. Poon offers insight into optical computing, integrated sensing, and datacenter AI.

True understanding is accomplished only through precise measurement. Though practitioners in the field deploy numerous modalities to obtain this essential information, remote sensing incorporates a spectrum of photonics technologies that is as broad and diverse as it is ubiquitous and effective. Joseph Shaw, director of the Optical Technology Center at Montana State University, overviews remote sensing technology, with a focus on core and novel applications, as well as core methods. In a bonus segment, Sanathana Konugolu Venkata Sekar, cofounder of BioPixS, discusses the company’s biophotonics phantom technology platform.