Sensors Archives

Manufacturing on the nanoscale: Optomechanical sensors with multiphoton polymerization

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Hengky Chandrahalim and Jeremiah Williams have developed a new approach to manufacturing truly 3D sensors on optical fiber tips.

Sensors are the eyes, ears, and noses of autonomous devices. Whether it’s designed to operate on land, in the air or on ground, any autonomous device needs a huge array of sensors to provide real-time information to maneuver or perform more complex tasks. The challenge is making sensors small and light enough that they do not add bulk to the […]

Two-photon polymerization for advanced sensor manufacturing

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Sensors built from microscopic optical components could offer numerous benefits, but so far their reach has been limited by shortcomings in 3D manufacturing techniques on non-conventional platforms. In their research, Dr Hengky Chandrahalim, Capt Jeremiah Williams, and colleagues at the US Air Force Institute of Technology, have overcome this challenge through the technique of ‘two-photon polymerization’, which allows them to […]

Providing better radiation monitoring for nuclear waste

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Supported by EU funding, Paolo Finocchiaro has developed a novel method for radiation monitoring for nuclear waste

Despite the immense potential benefits of nuclear power, many people are understandably concerned about the dangerous radioactive waste (or radwaste) it generates. To provide reassurance that nuclear waste is being safely stored, Dr Paolo Finocchiaro and colleagues at Italy’s National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) have developed an advanced new system for monitoring the material’s radioactivity in real-time. Using distributed […]

Listening across the oceans: Distributed acoustic sensing

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A yellow fibre optic cable is lying across the bottom of the sea floor. These cables are useful as sensors for distributed acoustic sensing for sea life surveillance and protection

Fibre optic cables have become the backbone of digital communication across the oceans. These cables are not just useful for transmitting information from one location to another – they can also be used as an incredibly long sensor array in themselves. Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) is a powerful way of measuring sound and vibrations in the sea floor. Dr Ole […]

Quantum light for biomedical imaging

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Normally, when we photograph an object, we rely on visible light from the sun that is captured directly by the camera sensor. When it comes to looking at cells and tissue samples though, it is often better to use infrared light. Inna Kviatkovsky and Dr Sven Ramelow at the Humboldt University Berlin, together with their collaborators at Max Delbruck Center […]