Day 3: Applied Industrial Optics
Sogol Borjian, Ph.D
Today started with the AIO/IS joint session, “Imaging Close to Heart”, opened by Brain Pogue (Dartmouth College, USA; DoseOptics LLC, USA) with his talk on “Imaging Radiation Dose and Molecules in Human Radiation Therapy for Cancer”. He talked about Cherenkov light and some of the technical applications such as Time-gated amplified imaging and single photon imaging in room lighting conditions. Next, Xianlin Wei (Hualoha Medical Inc., China) presented “A Low Cost Optical Imaging Device based on a single Moving Detector for Breast Cancer Detection”. Mini Das (University of Houston, USA) closed the session with her talk on “Spectral Imaging for Quantitative Phase Contrast”. Mini talked about the advantages of X-ray application in imaging and the reasons why there is need for more advanced technologies. She talked about all the ongoing research in their lab to develop a fast and multi-parametric X-ray microscope and the potential for molecular imaging with X-ray under low dose imaging with enhanced signals.
After the morning coffee break, the AIO Meeting reconvened and Andrew Mullen (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, USA) presented “Adventures in Underwater Microscopy”. Andrew showed some of the images taken with their microscope and continued by explaining why it is important to have an efficient in-situ microscopic method to monitor ocean environments and micro-organisms. The microscopic subjects are effected by and interact with their natural surroundings. He further described the specifications of Scripps Plankton Camera (SPC) and their microscopes. Andrew also spoke on the recent results obtained using their instruments in tracking fish spawning, in-situ competition of Platygyra vs. Stylophora and coral bleaching and Algae overgrowth. We closed the session with a talk on “Planar Beam-steering Optics for Solar Concentration” by Chris Gladden (Glint Photonics Inc., USA). Chris described the stationary building integrated CPV and explained why it is important to have a stationary solar concentrator. He also explained how it is possible to obtain high efficiency by optimization of the stationary concentrators. These new stationary solar concentrators are cost effective as well. He further talked about the various design limitation which led them to catadioptric concentrator design.
After the lunch break, we started the first afternoon session, “Sense This, Optical Fiber!” on Day 3. Denis Donlagic (Univerza v Mariboru, Slovenia) introduced “Thermo-optic devices based on highly absorbing optical fibers”. Denis talked about the Vanadium doped fibers as a building block for the thermo-optic devices. These fibers are cost-effective and they have high absorption at short wavelengths and low absorption at long wavelengths. Moreover relatively large OPL modulation is possible in optically heated optical fibers at decent dynamic performance. Gary Miller (US Naval Research Laboratory, USA) continued the session and talked on “Selected Applications of Fiber Optic Sensor Technology”. Gary talked about acoustic emission fiber sensors, Brillouin based distributed sensing and shockwave diagnostics in sensing. Next, Scott Bickham (Corning Research & Development Corp, USA) talked about “Multimode Fibers for Sensing and other Non-Telecom Applications”. Scott summarized the advantages of optical fiber-based sensors such as lightweight with a small form factor, resistance to electromagnetic interference. He further described multimode fiber vs. Single-mode and the optimization of MMF or SMF component in single-mode/multimode/single-mode (SMS) fiber sensors. Scott suggested that reducing the cladding diameter of the MMF component of the sensor will increase the microbending and increases the sensitivity to changes in the environment such as strain and temperature. Jaeyoun Kim (Iowa State University, USA) closed the session. His talk title was “On-demand Drawing of High Aspect-ratio, Microsphere-tipped Elastomeric Micropillars”.
After the coffee break, Laura Smoliar (Berkeley Catalyst Fund, USA) opened the final session of the day, “Ventures in Photonics” with her talk on “Perspectives as an Entrepreneur and Investor, a View from Both Sides of the Table”. Laura gave a brief introduction about the importance of customer traction for entrepreneurs and investors. She further talked about the purpose of the Berkeley Catalyst Fund.
Laura then joined John Brewer (Amorphyx, USA) and Mark Wade (Ayar Labs, USA) for a panel discussion on the topic “Start-ups, Incubators, Accelerators, Oh My!”.
The AIO committee and some attendees gathered for a late dinner in San Francisco, marking our last evening together at this meeting.
