Harnessing Light Optical Science and Engineering for the 21st Century, Overview (1998) / Chapter Skim
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Overview
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Pages 5-28
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From page 5... ...
Optical science and engineering or, more conveniently, just optics is the diverse body of technologies, together with their scientific underpinnings, that seek to harness light for these and other tasks. This report addresses a broad range of issues pertinent to this field: its status today, the outlook for tomorrow, and what must be done to ensure its future vitality.
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From page 6... ...
Examples include optical lithography systems for making computer chips, high-resolution microscopes, adaptive optics for ground-based astronomy, infrared sensors for a multitude of applications, and highly efficient lighting sources. The sidebar on page 7 suggests some of the ways in which these and other optical technologies affect our everyday lives.
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From page 7... ...
displays energy-saving compact fluorescent lamps infrared remote controls optical fibers for distributing cable television satellite-based optical weather imaging liquid crystal displays (LCDs) temperature-moderating window coatings ph o to typesetting compact disks laser fabric cutting infrared noncontact/'ear/'thermometers infrared automobile security systems; optical monitors for antilock brakes; LED, LCD, and optical fiber dashboard displays; LED taillights optical-fiber sensors to monitor bridge integrity solar power for emergency services LED traffic lights high-reflectivity surfaces for highway signs laser traffic radar optical fiber telephone cables optical scanners and fax machines photolithography for making computer chips optical data storage laser printers photocopiers overhead projectors, slide projectors, laserpointers infrared motion sensors for home security laser range-finders and surveying equipment laser surgery, optical tools for medical diagnosis laser welding and cutting, optical stereolithography for rapid three-dimensional prototyping microscopes, magnifying lenses binoculars cameras, videocameras eyeglasses supermarket bar-code scanners credit card holograms to prevent counterfeiting image recognition forproduce quality control optical inspection to ensure clean bottles optical inspection for labeling and packaging bar-code readers for inventory control videodisks and videodisk players television displays active-matrix displays for computers optical fiber local area networks
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From page 8... ...
In other instances, new materials enabled the emergence of entirely new branches of optics. Nonlinear optical materials, such as lithium niobate and potassium niobate tantalate, and laser hosts such as yttrium aluminum garnet, were "molecularly engineered" through a synergism between optical physicists and engineers on the one hand and, on the other, solid-state chemists and materials scientists with a deep understanding of how chemical bonding and crystallographic structure determine optical properties.
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From page 9... ...
Central advances toward the tera era will involve optical technologies. All elements of information transport are likely to require optical fibers and lasers, including 100-gigabit-per-second access networks, 10gigabit-per-second local area networks, and even 1 gigabit per second to the desktop.
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From page 10... ...
This vision demands hundredfold improvements in many central capabilities. For example, clock speeds for most information processing tasks were measured in hundreds of megahertz in 1997; to achieve the goal of the tera era, they must increase to several gigahertz by 2010.
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From page 11... ...
Flow cytometry, an optically based diagnostic technique, is a critical tool for monitoring viral loads in AIDS patients and for guiding their therapy. Optical techniques are also under active investigation for noninvasive applications ranging from "needleless" glucose monitoring for the control of diabetes to the early detection of breast cancer.
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From page 12... ...
Advances in lighting sources and light distribution systems are poised to bring about a profound change In the way we use energy for lighting. Currently, lighting accounts for almost one-fifth of the electrical power used in the United States each year.
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Optical techniques, applied both directly to manufacturing and as process control and diagnostic tools, have become crucial in such diverse industries as semiconductor manufacturing, civil construction, and chemical production. To cite the most obvious example, every semiconductor chip mass produced in the world today is manufactured using optical lithography.
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From page 14... ...
Optical inspection of finished or intermediate parts for quality control and statistical process control is especially critical in the electronics industry. Much less sophisticated applications- but nonetheless highly useful ones are found in laser guidance systems for the construction industry, where such systems have greatly reduced costs and allowed more rapid and more precise alignments in building, tunneling, and surface grading.
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From page 15... ...
Developments in optics also promise a host of less obvious payoffs for defense many with likely civilian spin-offs as well. For example, Department of Defense investments in new high-leverage optical technologies such as photonics and chemical agent detection will provide a unique military advantage on the battlefield of the future, as well as nondefense payoffs.
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From page 16... ...
This work was driven by the needs of the military, government agencies, and scientific research. Today, as military budgets and lot sizes decrease and the use of optics grows in applications as diverse as optical fibers for communication, large space optics, and high-performance short-wavelength aspheric optics for integrated-circuit fabrication, the demand is growing for cheaper, faster, more flexible optics man ufactu ri ng with i ncreased capabi I ities.
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From page 17... ...
Research on nonlinear optical materials promises to open up new approaches for future optical devices. High-frequency sources and optical components are enabling microscopy and lithography to move into the extreme ultraviolet The momentum distrib| ution of atoms during | Bose condensation of a | laser-cooled dilute gas.
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From page 18... ...
In a few important cases, however, action is needed to overcome barriers that might slow the present pace of rapid progress to ensure consumer access to the dramatically increasing capacity of optical-fiber communications, for example, or to take full advantage of the potential of noninvasive optical methods for medical monitoring and diagnosis. Key recommendations aimed at addressing these concerns are summarized below, along with brief synopses of the arguments that underlie them.
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From page 19... ...
As technological advances reduce the cost of optical components, it is becoming cost-effective to use optical fiber communication systems over shorter and shorter distances. Today's long-distance fiber networks extend only as far as the local telephone office, where signals are transferred to metal wires for transmission to and from individual homes and offices.
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. Particularly in the area of monitoring basic body chemistries, the fundamental science is often incomplete; for example, the optical signatures of some human biological processes and substances have yet to be determined.
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The National Institutes of Health should recognize the importance of optical science in biomedical research aimed at understanding human disease by establishing a study section dedicated to this area. NIH should raise the priority for funding innovative optical technologies for medicine and medical research.
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Optical technologies have played and continue to play an indispensable role in national defense. Post-Cold War Department of Defense (DOD)
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Special attention should also be given to investment in low-cost manufacturing of precision aspheric, diffractive, and conformal optics. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ #A ~ ~~ ~ .~ #R it Jim #, #A ,:,, ~ Optical techniques are used in a wide variety of manufacturing environments, from photolithography for making semiconductor chips to optical sensors for measuring the temperature of molten steel.
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From page 24... ...
Participation in the DARPA-sponsored Precision Laser Machining Consortium should be extended to other optically assisted manufacturing areas by establishing a test facility as a service center. The optical fabrication industry is fractionated, with each company generally being quite specialized.
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From page 25... ...
Materials advances have been an integral part of the progress in optical devices and systems, from the demonstration of the first laser to the invention and installation of low-loss optical fiber. Progress in materials is a recurring theme in this report, from information technologies to the manufacturing of optics and the demand for sensors to withstand extreme environments.
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From page 26... ...
Despite its apparent success, however, th is NSF i n itiative was a short-l ived ventu ret NSF should develop an ongoing, agency-wide, separately funded initiative to support multidisciplinary research and education in optics. Examples of research and education opportunities include fundamental research on atomic, molecular, and quantum optics; femtosecond optics, sources, and applications; solid-state laser sources and applications; and extreme ultraviolet and soft x-ray optics.
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From page 27... ...
Factories will employ optical sensors extensively in the manufacture of everything from textiles to automobiles, and digital cameras will substitute for film in printing and photography. In the electronics industry, which relies on photolithography to create circuit patterns on chips, producing features smaller than 0.1 Em will require optical steppers that use soft x-ray or extreme ultraviolet light; optical components for these machines will have unprecedented optical figure and atomlevel surface smoothness.
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From page 28... ...
weapons targeting to the detection of chemical and biological warfare agents. This omnipresence will depend critically on the availability of low-cost optical systems, many of them developed for commercial use; u n ique m i I itary needs for performance and rel iabi I ity, u nmet by the commercial marketplace, will continue to require targeted investments in optics research.
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