November 2003 Issue
Feature Articles
Plenty to Smile About in Ireland
A major government commitment to biotechnology and information technology is drawing top optics researchers to Ireland.
by Kim DouglassUsing Near-Infrared Light to Detect Breast Cancer
Frequency-domain optical mammography is a safe and painless technique that may one day become a valuable tool for the detection and diagnosis of breast cancer.
by Sergio Fantini, Erica L. Heffer, Horst Siebold and Oliver SchützModeling Receivers in Optical Communication Systems With Polarization Effects
The authors use a new receiver model to demonstrate that, in optical communication systems, the bit-error rate depends not only on the optical signal-to-noise ratio but also on the polarization states of the signal and the noise.
by John Zweck, Ivan T. Lima Jr., Yu Sun, Aurenice O. Lima, Curtis R. Menyuk and Gary M. CarterOptical Performance Comparison of Argon-Ion and Solid-State Cyan Lasers
Recent advances in biotechnology have created a need for compact, efficient and reliable 488-nm cyan lasers, a trend which has hastened the development of technologies to replace air-cooled argon-ion lasers in biomedical instrumentation applications.
by Edward H. Wahl, Bruce A. Richman, Chris W. Rella, Guido M. H. Knippels and Barbara A. PaldusOptical Slow Wave Structures
Nonlinear processes are enhanced in slow wave structures that consist of a cascade of directly coupled optical resonators. Although slow wave propagation has not yet been deployed at optical frequencies, new research could make slow wave structures the cornerstone of switches and other wideband devices for all-optical processing.
by Andrea Melloni, Francesco Morichetti and Mario MartinelliDepartments and Columns
Electronic Delivery of Articles in OSA Journals
The electronic availability of journal articles means that OSA journals are now as close as your computer desktop, whether at work or in a home office. Just a few keystrokes or mouse clicks are all that is required to download an article.
Impressions of Kyrgyzstan
OSA’s International Council partially funded an 11-day trip to the Kyrgyz Republic by Akhlesh Lakhtakia, a professor of engineering science and mechanics at Pennsylvania State University. Lakhtakia toured the country, lecturing on sculptured thin films, observing the culture and sampling kabobs.
The Phantom Laser
In most cases, laser alignment is a delicate, time-consuming process. That’s why I was really annoyed when I found that an unstable resonator system I was working on had spontaneously “decided” to become a perfectly aligned stable resonator. The power concentration at the end mirror had become so great that it had blown the coating off the multilayer stack.
An Optical Scientist Has the President's Ear
It sounds odd coming from the mouth of a presidential advisor, but John H. Marburger III insists he’s not much interested in government.What does interest him is science—optical science, to be precise.
Who’s Who on OSA’s Board of Directors
OPN talks with Keren Bergman.
OFC 2004: On the Leading Edge
The Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition (OFC) 2004 will take place Feb. 22-27 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, Calif. This marks OFC’s 29th anniversary. The conference has evolved into the key forum for the presentation of the most significant optical communications plications and research available.
