Physics – Optics
Scientific paper
Jun 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007jopta...9.....j&link_type=abstract
Journal of Optics A: Pure and Applied Optics, Volume 9, Issue 6, pp. (2007).
Physics
Optics
Scientific paper
Photon06 is the fourth in a biennial series of events that began in 2000 and has grown to become the UK's largest optics research meeting. Photon06 is a set of co-located meetings, including the Institute of Physics conferences Optics and Photonics and Quantum Electronics and Photonics QEP-17, plus an exhibition, and the Industry Technology Programme. Photon06 is organized by the UK Consortium for Photonics and Optics (UKCPO), whose members comprise all organizations that represent the UK's optics community, whether learned societies, professional institutions, trade associations or regional special interest groups. In hosting the Photon series it has been the objective of the UKCPO to provide a single forum for UK optics.
Photon06 was held at the University of Manchester, 4 7 September 2006, and was attended by around 500 people. Attendance was predominantly from the UK, although international representation is growing steadily. Within the science programme, over 300 papers were presented. The purpose of this special issue is to present a representative selection of the research reported at Photon06. On behalf of the conference, I am grateful to the editors of Journal of Optics A for the opportunity to provide an archival record of a sample of Photon06, as they did for Photon04.
Once again, it turns out that the majority of the papers in the special issue follow the theme of measurement and instrumentation. These are subjects where the conference and the UK community have been traditionally strong, and continue to be so, spanning the interests of the Optical Group and the Instrument Science and Technology Group of the Institute of Physics, and the Fringe Analysis Special Interest Group. There can be few areas of physics so diverse in application, and of such immediate value in the wider world. The range of applications covered in this issue is illustrated by two of the papers, that by Blazej et al dealing with photon counting for altimetry in planetary exploration, and that by Sheridan et al on spectral techniques for measuring fading in sliced, cured ham.
Applied spectroscopy features strongly, partly driven by the needs of society for more intensive environmental monitoring, e.g. in vehicle emissions (Dooly et al). Imaging has always been an intrinsic and natural theme in applied optics, and I recommend the article `The optics of microscopy' by Sheppard as a comprehensive treatment of an important subject. Fibre optic sensors continue to be a strong theme, with a notable emphasis on in-fibre gratings for in situ monitoring (Ogin et al and Buggy et al). An established feature of the Photon conference is a meeting of the Fringe Analysis Special Interest Group, concentrating on full-field measurement techniques such as speckle pattern interferometry and shape measurement by structured light. A representative sample of contributions in this issue are on that subject (Rajoub et al, Zhang et al and Somers et al).
In addition to the papers on optical instrumentation, there are others on laser material processing. One is struck by how sophisticated the subject has become, with one paper concerned with using surface modification by ps pulses (Gakovic et al), and another with two-photon ablation techniques (Fischer et al).
This issue is a small sample, but a very worthwhile example of what Photon06 had to offer. As well as its intrinsic interest, I hope that it will inspire readers to attend Photon08, an event for which provisional plans are in hand, to be held in Edinburgh at the end of August 2008.
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