Natural Science Forum / Physics / Optics / April 2005

Is there a comparative analysis/recommendation of the various detectors (at
the different frequencies) when compated to the average Human Eye?

I can't remember who it was but someone was asking recently about single
line fonts for use in laser shows. I have discovered that a line font comes
with Medialas Mamba Black software - its not a true type font and is called
stick.mlf (i guess the extension stands for medialas font. ...

I need some advice from you optic gurus...
I need to mesure the daylight to drive brightness of a led display.
Basically the display must be brigther when in direct sunlight and
dimmed

Which vendors out there sell a duplex SC receptacle dust cover,
for protecting the SC entrance on the equipment side?   I have
contacted the obvious sources like Tyco / Amp, with no luck.   I
prefer to get a rubber-style dust cover with some kind of pull

I would like to be strictly correct in my usage of the terms
"birefringence" and "optical activity".
Are optically active materials a subset of birefringent materials?
i.e. Quartz and calcite are uniaxially or biaxially birefringent but not

Hi all, I am working as a contractor for the Department of Energy.  I
help companies that are developing new technologies using DoE funding
attempt to commercialize their innovations.  Anyways, the company I am
working with now is in the process of developing a new Tm-doped

I recently found a cache of LaB6 cathodes for an IBM ETEC scope. I
haven't bought any yet and don't have full details, but each comes in a
container pressurized with dry N2. They have large (3-4") flanges about
1/8" thick. They seem to have Wehnelts attached.

please look at this eBay auction:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4660&item=7503504676&rd=1
Do you believe it is suitable for laser application?
-Mario-

I would like to have some advice on small laser diode drivers.
I'm looking for NS102 from NVG (www.nvginc.com) and for WK1D from iC-Haus
(www.laserdrivers.com)
It's for driving cw operation of an Hitachi 10 mW laser diode (HL6320G).

Does the company Inspex (www.inspex.com) still exist or is it closed ?
Spectra-Physics has an OEM-agreement with Inspex, so we can't get the cable
direct from  Spectra-Physics on the cable connections for a MG532C system
with out Inspex's accept.

hi all,my first post here so be gentle with me!.just feeling my way
back into microscopy after about 25 years away from it so im a bit
rusty.ive just bought a watson microsystem 70 microscope(any good?)
and it has these objectives with it:-

    I need to buy or build an very small optical chopper cheap
enough to be embedded in a product, $10-$20.  The cheapest suitable
motor I can find, a very fast stepper, is more like $60.  
    Any one have any ideas?  I'm about out.

http://www.akrobiz.com/laserboy/
I made major improvements in the operation of my Y scanner. It's not quite
perfect yet, but it's much better!
Right now I am playing with the timing difference between the PCAOM and the

(1)I have a grating spectrogrpah whose f/# is 4 and focal length is
300mm, which means the size of certain optics is 75mm?? It is the
grating or collimating mirror?
(2)The grating is supposed to be illuminated fully by the collimated

After working for 3 years as optical engineer, I found my interest in
optics and want to be more professional. So, can anyone suggest me
which university I should attend if I want to major in optical
design(especially lens design) in USA or CANADA?