October 2006, page 72

Photomultiplier tube

Hamamatsu Corp has introduced the R9110 photomultiplier tube (PMT), which offers high sensitivity and low dark current over a wide spectral range. The 28-mm diameter, side-on PMT has a minimum effective area of 8 mm × 6 mm and a spectral response from the UV to near-IR (185–900 nm). The R9110 has a peak sensitivity at 450 nm, at which wavelength the detector's multialkali photocathode has a radiant sensitivity of 90 mA/W, a luminous sensitivity of 525 µA/lm, and a high quantum efficiency of 24.8%. Dark current is typically 5 nA after 30 min storage. The PMT's nine electron-multiplier stages yield a maximum gain of 1.9 × 10⁷ electrons per photon, a rise time of 2.2 ns, an electron transit time of 22 ns, and a transit time spread of 1.2 ns. The R9110 is directly interchangeable with the company's R3896 PMT. Hamamatsu Corporation, 360 Foothill Road, Bridgewater, NJ 08807, http://www.hamamatsu.com

Uncooled IR camera module

JENOPTIK Laser's IR-TCM 640 is a new thermographic camera module that provides IR image resolution of 640 × 480 pixels (with an option up to 1.2 megapixels), virtually on a level with that of digital photographs. The uncooled microbolometer module operates in the 7.5–14 µm spectral range and offers an excellent clarity of detail with no perceivable pixel structure. The IR-TCM 640 can handle frame rates up to 60 Hz and records sequences in real-time mode for output to an external image-processing system. The module has been designed as an OEM integration tool with such applications as thermal inspection systems, machine vision environments, property monitoring, and aerial photography and security purposes, including integration in space technology systems and military equipment. JENOPTIK Laser, Optik, Systeme GmbH, Göschwitzer Strasse 25, 07745 Jena, Germany, http://www.jenoptik-los.com

Teaching modern interferometry

TeachSpin has announced the MI1-A, a research-grade interferometry kit designed specifically for advanced student laboratory instruction. It has all the necessary components to create versions of three different types of interferometers—Michelson, Mach-Zehnder, and Sagnac. The kit includes beam-steering mirrors, several translational stages, a motor-driven precision flexure stage, various beamsplitters, polarizers, and optical detectors. For light sources, the MI1-A offers a helium– neon laser, a variable-temperature red diode-laser, a bicolored LED, and a halogen lamp. The unit comes with a custom vibration isolation support system, a collection of samples, a gas cell with a pressure transducer monitor, electro-optical crystals, and a solenoid. TeachSpin Inc, Tri-Main Center, Suite 409, 2495 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14214, http://www.teachspin.com

Ultrafast laser oscillator

Coherent claims that its Mira HP is the world's most powerful, commercial ultrafast titanium:sapphire oscillator. It delivers more than 3 W of output power at 800 nm. Designed to be pumped by the company's V18 Verdi laser, the new source provides higher power across the entire Ti:sapphire tuning curve, with dramatic increases toward the edges at so-called difficult wavelengths. The increase in power is even more significant when the Mira HP is used to pump a synchronous optical parametric oscillator to obtain widely tunable visible and IR wavelengths. The new oscillator includes the company's Optima control and diagnostics package, X-Wave optics, pump-steering optics for ease of pump alignment, integrated CW alignment cavity, and numerous ultrafast accessories. Coherent Inc, 5100 Patrick Henry Drive, Santa Clara, CA 95054, http://www.coherent.com

Ambient light sensor

Osram Opto Semiconductors has produced the SFH 5711, an ambient light sensor that precisely matches the sensitivity curve of the human eye, with a maximum at 560 nm wavelength. The device is suitable for adjusting the brightness of displays and other similar components for optimum readability in the available light. A standard silicon photodetector will produce signals that are much higher for incandescent light bulbs than they are for fluorescent lamps, even though both light sources appear equally bright to the human eye. The SFH 5711 uses a new material system instead of silicon to solve the problem. The sensor consists of a light-detecting photodiode and an integrated circuit that provides amplification, temperature correction, and a logarithmic converter; the converter enables a brightness range of 3 lx to more than 30 000 lx. Osram Opto Semiconductors Inc, 3870 North First Street, San Jose, CA 95134, http://www.osram-os.com

Shortwave-IR windowing camera

Sensors Unlimited, Goodrich Corporation, has developed the SU640SDWH-1.7RT, a high-frame-rate, high-resolution, shortwave-IR camera. The new indium gallium arsenide instrument has high-speed and regions-of-interest (ROI) windowing capabilities with an SWIR spectral response of 900–1700 nm. The all-solid-state camera features a room temperature 640 × 512 pixel focal plane array on a 25-µm pitch and can capture full-size images at 109 frames per second or image smaller ROI at more than 15 000 fps with a 100% fill factor. The SU640SDWH-1.7RT includes the company's single 14-bit digital Camera Link–compatible output and a simultaneous analog video output. Sensors Unlimited's image analysis software provides options for full control of four preset ROI, or windows, or variable windows. Sensors Unlimited, Goodrich Corporation, 3490 Route 1, Building 12, Princeton, NJ 08540-5914, http://www.oss.goodrich.com

White LEDs

Cree Inc has demonstrated a white LED efficacy of 131 lumens per watt—confirmed by NIST—meaning that bright light can be obtained from relatively little power. Tests were performed using prototype devices with the company's EZBright LED chips operating at 20 mA and a correlated color temperature of 6027 K. Lumens per watt is the standard used by the lighting industry to measure the conversion of electrical energy to light; typically, incandescent light bulbs are in the 10 to 20 lm/W range, while fluorescent lamps vary from 50 to 60 lm/W. Cree's LEDs combine efficient indium gallium nitride materials with silicon carbide substrates for high-intensity devices that feature low forward voltage, exceptional thinness, low heat generation, and long life. Cree Inc, 4600 Silicon Drive, Durham, NC 27703, http://www.cree.com

FireWire EMCCD camera

QImaging has introduced the Rolera-MGi, a camera that combines electron-multiplying CCD technology—enabling charge to be multiplied before readout—and FireWire connectivity for ultralow light dynamic fluorescence imaging. The new camera incorporates a back-illuminated 512 × 512 pixel EMCCD from e2v Technologies that features a quantum efficiency of better than 90%. It can capture more than 300 frames per second with binning and region-of-interest readout from 1 × 1 pixels up to full resolution. The Rolera-MGi can also be used to acquire high-resolution still images for dynamic ratio imaging, fluorescence recovery after photobleaching, and live-cell fluorescent protein imaging. The camera's FireWire IEEE 1394 interface provides excellent connectivity and portability with laptop computers. QImaging, 4190 Still Creek Drive, Suite 110, Burnaby, BC, Canada V5C 6C6, http://www.qimaging.com

Wideband sources

Precision Photonics has announced ultrawideband supercontinuum sources that offer high power and an excellent long-term spectral stability of less than 0.15 dB. They cover a 1200–2000 nm optical spectrum, with a spectral uniformity of less than 13 dB. The high-power version provides an average output power of greater than 25 mW, with an optical power density of –17 dBm/nm; the corresponding figures for the low-power model are greater than 4 mW of output power and a power density of greater than –25 dBm/nm. The sources are based on the company's 40 MHz repetition-rate, sub-100 femtosecond fiber lasers and use an all-fiber-integrated solution comprising robust telecommunication components and a management scheme that enables nearly transform-limited pulses. Precision Photonics, 3180 Sterling Circle, Boulder, CO 80301, http://www.precisionphotonics.com

Photonics-based fluorometer

The MultiFrequency Phase Fluorometer from Ocean Optics (developed by TauTheta Instruments LLC) is a frequency-domain monitor for measuring luminescence lifetime, phase, and intensity. Because it uses phase-shift technology, the MFPF is invariant to fiber bending and stray light and generates very little optical and electronic crosstalk. It can be configured with one- or two-channel LED excitation and avalanche photodiode detection with modulation frequencies to 100 kHz; luminescence lifetime measurements are possible from 200 µs to 0.3 µs. The instrument, with a filter-based wavelength selection, can be used with the company's oxygen sensors to help mitigate index effects, eliminate ambient light, and improve system stability in dissolved oxygen applications. Ocean Optics Inc, 830 Douglas Avenue, Dunedin, FL 34698, http://www.oceanoptics.com

High-resolution industrial camera

Atmel Corp has developed the AviiVA UM8 12K line scan camera that provides an extremely detailed inspection in a multicamera system. The instrument embeds Atmel's CCD design and process expertise with 12 288 pixels of 5 µm each, eight taps working at 40 MHz, line rates reaching 25 000 lines per second, and higher sensitivity leading to a higher dynamic range (64 dB), even at ultrahigh speed. The AViiVA UM8 is delivered with the company's Camera Link configuration interface, which includes fine-gain and offset settings, an output mode of 8–12 bits, flat-field correction, and automated balancing of the eight taps. The camera is compatible with the fast and powerful frame grabbers currently available on the market and includes the CommCam graphical user interface with its plug-and-play system. Atmel Corporation, 2325 Orchard Parkway, San Jose, CA 95131, http://www.atmel.com

Software for fluorescence modeling

Lambda Research Corp is offering new fluorescence modeling capability in its TracePro Expert illumination design software. The package allows users not only to analyze light distribution and scatter, but to import fluorophore data in solution or biological tissue and analyze fluorescence effects at any point in the optomechanical system. An extensive library of commercially available fluorophores, light sources, and optical components, including fluorescence filters, enables the testing of off-the-shelf products. Fluorescence-based optical systems are used in various life-sciences applications that include biosensing, in-vitro and in-vivo medical diagnostics, spectroscopy, microarrays, flow cytometry, and microscopy. Lambda Research Corporation, 25 Porter Road, Littleton, MA 01460-1434, http://www.lambdares.com

Target signature analysis system

Cedip Infrared Systems, in conjunction with Polytech AB, has introduced the new Flytherm Airborne Target Signature Analysis system to identify and characterize the target signature of threats, regardless of the environment, viewing distance, or relative angular position. Flytherm is a four-axis gimbal system that can host various shortwave-, midwave-, and longwave-IR focal plane array sensors. It combines two or three thermal sensors, collimated along with a visible camera for control purposes, based on user needs. A choice of sensor formats—320 × 256 and 640 × 512 arrays—and lenses can suit different field-of-view and resolution requirements. Flytherm can also host multispectral cameras, including the company's ORION camera. Cedip Infrared Systems, 19 bd Bidault, F-77183 Croissy Beaubourg, France, http://www.cedip-infrared.com

LCD drivers

STMicroelectronics is entering the fast-growing, large-size, liquid crystal display column driver market. The new integrated circuits will add to the company's existing line of plasma, small-size LCD, and organic LED displays. ST has signed a licensing agreement to use National Semiconductor Corp's point-to-point differential signaling display technology to improve visual performance and lower product cost. ST expects that implementing the PPDS process into its drivers will simplify the intrapanel connections and reduce the number of required column driver signals by up to 50%. LCD displays are increasingly being used in flat-screen TVs as earlier plasma-model performance limitations are overcome. STMicroelectronics, 39, Chemin du Champ des Filles, C. P. 21, CH 1228 Plan-Les-Ouates, Geneva, Switzerland, http://www.st.com

New literature

Burle Electro-Optics is offering its Channeltron Electron Multiplier Selection Guide, which includes an extensive cross-reference of detectors, instrument manufacturers, and models. The products are available for most existing and newer design mass spectrometer instruments. Burle Electro-Optics Inc, Sturbridge Business Park, P.O. Box 1159, Sturbridge, MA 01566, http://www.burle.com

Omega Optical has released a new catalog that includes such products as large format filters up to 210 mm o.d., terrestrial and spaceflight compatible materials, narrow-band and imaging quality designs, and filter sets with matching physical attributes. The company supplied all of the optical filters for the two Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, launched in 2003. Shown here is a panorama of the Martian landscape, inset photos of geological targets, and a graphic representation of the filter's spectra. The panorama, part of a 360-degree view comprising 243 images, was taken over several Martian days by Spirit's stereoscopic panoramic camera. Each camera's detector has an eight-position filter wheel that enables narrow-band images in 11 spectral bands. Omega Optical Inc, Delta Campus, Omega Drive, Brattleboro, VT 05301, http://www.omegafilters.com