ToptiCalc, a (free) Photonic Scientific Calculator

Few days ago I crossed the way of this "photonic scientific calculator" from Toptica. It is a small calculator but containing interesting and helpful features for our work, small things which saves a lot of time ;). My favorite is the short pulses properties and chirp feature. Other features are:

• spectral unit conversion
• calculating spot sizes for focussed gaussian beams
• Fabry-Perot calculations
• reflection and diffraction at plane glass surfaces
• pulse train calculations
• short pulse properties and chirp
• conversion between linear and decibel scale

The calculator is made by the laser and optics company called Toptica and can be downloaded for free. However, you have to register (for free of course) but this should not keep you away. More detailed information about the calculator features can be found on their homepage, or click ToptiCal page. It is also interesting to watch their homepage, especially the applications page. Toptica is a well-known company in optics and offers many products and special solutions to research in optics (i am not sponsored by Toptica ;) )

free download (registration page)

ResearchGATE

ResearchGATE is a scientific networking platform, founded in 2008 in Hannover, Germany. Today, over 300´000 thousands scientists have joined from all over the world and from every topic. The access/ registration is free (contrary to its competitions) and the site works like facebook. You can create groups, asking questions, upload your publications, networking, finding people from your field, semantic abstract search, etc.

ResearchGATE

Have a look at their video, where they introduce their network.



What i like on this network is that you can ask a specific questions (most questions seems to be about sample preparation) and in most cases you get even a good answer. Furthermore, you can create groups on your topics...building your own network, staying in contact with others (perhaps once there will be a OSA student chapter group) However, i havent joined to researchgate as there seems to be no real optic group. More detailed information you can find in the articles below and on wikipedia. If you have some experience with this network, please write a comment!


articles:

• in TechCrunch (english):Professional Network ResearchGate Is A LinkedIn For Scientists

• in "DER SPIEGEL" (only german): "Facebook für Forscher"

• wikipedia entry

Student chapters

This might be the first time you hear these words: "Student Chapters".
So, let's start by the beginning...

• What is a Student Chapter?

A student chapter is a group of students with a common interest, in our case Optics. They usually promote the discipline among young students and general public through outreach activities.

• Who sponsors them?

Several proffesional societies (OSA, SPIE, EPS...) have a worldwide network of student chapters and offer grants for them (activity grants, educational grants, start-up funding, classroom materials...).

• What kind of activities are made in the frame of student chapters?

There is a huge variety of activities! Here are some examples:

- Student networking: IONS conferences

- Educational outreach projects; for example: "Day of the Light" (ICONS), "Curso de iniciación a la investigación en óptica" (IOSA), "The Optics Adventure" (OSAL)...

- Workshops for teachers in Africa (I really love this one!): NUTS project by Naples Student Chapter.

- Lab tours during conferences (such as, OSASG during CLEO).

- Cross-chapter activities (meetings with other chapters...).

- Professional development activities (visit to companies, seminars...).

- Social events to promote interaction between members (beer&pizza, dinner, trip...).

• Benefits of becoming a member

Apart from the benefits of joining a professional society (travelling and student grants, Leadership Meetings, suscriptions to reviews...), it is a good way to build technical and leadership skills. You will learn many things that wouldn't be possible in any other case (for example, seek for funding, manage a group...).

• What do I have to do if I want to establish a student chapter at my Uni?

Usually, you have to recruit at least five students, join a/several society(ies) and decide who is who (elect a president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer). Depending on the society, the process can be slighty different; for further information, I would advise you to visit their website:

Optical Society of America (OSA): www.osa.org

SPIE: http://spie.org

European Physical Society (EPS): http://epsyoungminds.com

Photonics Spectra

It is free, and even not so bad. Actually it is quite good and interesting. I am talking from

"Photonics Spectra".

A monthly published magazine for researcher and engineers who are working in the optic/ photonics field. It provides news and featured articles and gives a good overview about new developments in science as well as in industry. Articles are about technical and practical information covering all parts of photonics like "optics, lasers, imaging, fiber optics and electro-optics as well as photonic component manufacturing, solar cell improvements, LED lighting for cars and offices, THz, EHz, UV, IR, and visible light imaging and test equipment." (quoted from the homepage)
A second, smaller magazine exists too for the new bio-photonics field: "Bio Photonics". Photonics Spectra has been published since 1967 by Laurin Publishing Company.
What I like on these magazines too, are the technology updates, new producs and literature, application reports, business reports and calendars of conferences. Sometimes you see by chance some tools or techniques which you can use too for your experiment.

Subscription for Photonics Spectra can be found here: Subscription, and for biophotonics here.
Have a look at Photonics.com too, the "general page" of the magazines. It contains news, blogs, videos and a lot more. By the way, all articles etc. of the magazines can be found too on the page.

Enjoy reading, you will get a good overview about what is going on in the different fields of optics!

Los quintos.

Para los que dicosian moléculas,
Para los que calibran espectrometros,
Para los que buscan estados vestidos,
Para los que buscan bombear laseres XUV.
Para todos ellos.
El quinto hamrónico

The European X-Ray Free Electron Laser

The European X-Ray Free Electron Laser is a new (in construction) research facility in Germany near Hamburg, using an free electron laser which produces high intensity, coherent x-ray pulses at kHz repetition rate. Their intensities are several magnitudes brighter than those achieved today by conventional synchrotron light source. The XFEL and its unique characteristic will open new reasearch opportunities for scientists.

Page: European XFEL

The video is in german, I am sorry. The english version can be download here or directly watched on the XFEL homepage (right upper side)


(from European XFEL)


The construction time has already started in 2009 and will lead until 2014. Users can operate the facility and beamline in 2015. The project costs are around 1082 million euros (price level 2005) whereas Germany covers 54% and Russia 23%. The rest is split among the other members. Currently 13 countries are participating, all from europe except China. The facility has a total length of 3.4km (including accelerator), starting from DESY in Hamburg.

Characteristics of the European X-Ray Laser:

• wavelength: 0.1 - 6nm
• repetition rate: 27kHz!
• pulse duration: < 100fs
  
• average [peak] brilliance: 1.6*10^25 [5*10^33]
• coherence: yes

The average brilliance is around 10 000 better as the best conventional X-Ray sources, the peak brilliance even a billion times. As the X-Ray flashes are coherent, they can even make 3D images at the atomic level! A short but good description how the X-Ray flashes are generated you can find here.

The XFEL allows researcher to enter new areas which were inaccessible so far. Tiny structures, ultrafast processes and extreme states of matter will be explored. Let me quote from their homepage:
"Using the X-ray flashes of the European XFEL, scientists will be able to map the atomic details of viruses, decipher the molecular composition of cells, take three-dimensional images of the nanoworld, film chemical reactions and study the processes in the interior of planets."
The XFEL opens a lot of new research possibilites, have a look at their research page.

Take time and enjoy the XFEL homepage. It is seriously done and contains a lot of interesting information. Have fun.

additional information: wikipedia -XFEL

"Your Own Laser Experiments"

Doing laser experiments at home are in most cases challenging due missing tools. Nevertheless some easy but still very interesting experiments can be done demonstrating fundamental phenomena. By chance I found a homepage which describes in detail and well explained some very interesting and easy to do experiments.

The page is the EU-HOU project: “Hands on Universe, Europe. Bringing frontline interactive astronomy to the classroom” and has the goal of renewing the teaching of science and awaking the interest of science to the young generation. The page covers mainly experiments from astronomy but some nice optics experiments (important for astronomy) are presented too.

EU-HOU, startpage

Four easy laser optics experiments can be found here:

EU-HOU, Laser Experiments
EU-HOU, home-made spectroscope

They handle of the:

• “Refraction , or bent light”
• “Determination of the index of refraction by a laser pointer”
• “Eureka, Light is a wave”
• "A home-made spectroscope"
  

My favorite is the third one but all of them are great. The easiest one to perform is the first one and very interesting for many peoples will be the last one. But let me show you some more pictures:

(bent light)

(measuring the refraction index)

(halogen bulb and its spectrum)

All the pictures are taken from the EU-HOU page. Note that the EU-HOU page is addressed for teachers but every pupil (high school) can do it too. And please,

never never look into a laser beam!

It can cause serious irreparable eye damage! Hence, take care even with a laser pointer. Enjoy the experiments!