DIY Optical Coherence Tomography System Basics

A DIY optical coherence tomography setup or system can be fun to build, but requires multiple optical and mechanical components, an understanding of signal and image processing, some programming expertise, and a significant investment of time. Using a prebuilt, off-the-shelf SD-OCT spectrometer as one of the starting components can speed […]

Hale Telescope’s Cosmic Web Imager

Landmark telescope with a modern upgrade >> At 5.1 m, the Hale Telescope became the largest effective telescope in the world when it was engineered in 1948, and it remained so for more than 25 years after. As such, it has played a pivotal role in our understanding of our […]

Sers-substrate-spectroscopy

Evaluating a Novel SERS Substrate

Sers-substrate-spectroscopy

Colloidal SERS meets dry substrate for convenient, reproducible results Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), first discovered in the 1970’s, has long offered the promise of sensitive detection of trace analytes using Raman spectroscopy. In practice, however, no SERS approach has found quite the right balance between reproducibility, cost, ease of […]

First Ever Single-shot Measurement of an Ultrafast EUV Laser

Custom grisms help ‘see’ individual ~70 fs, 32 nm laser pulses A creative group of researchers has performed single-shot measurements of ultrafast extreme ultraviolet (EUV) pulses for the first time ever at the FERMI Free Electron Laser (FEL) source in Italy – and these sources aren’t easy to measure. FELs […]

Monitoring-Microplastics

Monitoring Microplastics in our Oceans

Monitoring-Microplastics

Integrating Raman Spectroscopy & Holography for In-situ Detection of Microplastics Microplastics in our ocean waters are a growing problem – but how do you collect quick and effective measurements in-situ, and at the depths needed to properly understand distribution, flow, and uptake by ocean life? Filtration-based methods using FTIR and […]

La-Silla-Observatory-WINERED

The Travels of WINERED Spectrograph

La-Silla-Observatory-WINERED

Japan to Chile >> WINERED is a Warm INfrared Echelle spectrograph to Realize Extreme Dispersion and sensitivity, developed by the Laboratory of Infrared High-resolution spectroscopy (LiH) at Kyoto Sangyo University for initial use at the 1.3 m Araki Telescope at Koyama Astronomical Observatory. It was relocated to the New Technology […]

SD-oCT is used in ophthalmology to probe the eye non-destructively

Spectral-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography: Ultra-High Resolution Ophthalmic Imaging

SD-oCT is used in ophthalmology to probe the eye non-destructively

Ophthalmic imaging is an integral part of diagnostic procedures evaluating eye conditions. It enables ophthalmologists to image actual living tissue deep in the human eye at microscopic resolution and thus provides the basis for treatments of eye diseases. Optical coherence tomography, or OCT, is the method of choice for ophthalmologists […]

Astronomical Spectrographs

Wasatch Photonics VPH Gratings Look to the Stars >> Nightly, all over the world, observatories open their domes to collect light from the far reaches of the universe. The telescopes within diligently condense these precious photons for careful analysis by instruments like spectrographs, which further break down that light into […]

Advantages of UV Raman

Exciting options for fluorescence suppression The trade off between signal strength and fluorescence background often dominates the choice of excitation wavelength for Raman spectroscopy. But what if fluorescence background could be eliminated entirely? UV Raman allows just that. In this application note, we’ll explore its advantages, the technical challenges it […]

What is OCTA?

OCTA Tutorial: How does OCT Angiography Work? OCTA, also known as OCT angiography, is a non-invasive and dye-free imaging technique that can be used to visualize blood flow in tissues in 3D. It is a variant of optical coherence tomography (OCT), an optical imaging modality first applied in ophthalmology. OCT […]