Reports from the Valley

1. Download a high quality image from here: Best of Hubble Large Images.
2. Cut the picture into 1800×1200 pixel chunks (this will look good printed out on standard 4×6 photos). There are probably many ways to do this, the easiest (free) method I have found so far is to use Irfanview. Use “Edit->Create Custom Crop Selection(Shift+C)”. This will let you select an exact rectangle of pixels. Then cut and paste your selection into a separate image file and save that one. Work your way across the image 1800 pixels at a time till you reach the end, then go 1200 pixels down and repeat.
3. Upload the set of smaller images to a professional photo printer. The best I have found so far is Clark Color. Printing the photos shouldn’t cost more than $0.08 each plus shipping.
4. Tape the photos up to a flat, clean wall. (Or you could get fancy with glue and frames, but I promised this would be under $5).

I went to a talk put on by IEEE on Tuesday.
Abstract
Research Group Info

That has a lot of information, but assumes you are already basically familiar with the field. Here is a layman’s summary: using lithographic techniques, one can carve laser devices out of a thin dielectric (non-conducting) surface. The reason this is possible is that modern lithography technology can etch features smaller than visible light wavelengths.

Image Credit USC Viterbi School of Engineering

If the structure is carved out in just the right shape, then sort of like a pendulum it will have a natural oscillation frequency. If the film is excited with energy, it will radiate coherent light at a frequency determined by its geometry. Currently, that energy is in the form of light but hopefully in the future it will be an electric current.

The complicated part is figuring out what geometry will get the light to come out efficiently. That is, in the desired direction and frequency. This takes super computer simulations and intuition to determine.

Fascinating stuff, some of the people in the audience asked some great questions. Dr. O’Brien was mostly interested in getting the technology to the point of being able to integrate with semiconductors.

Hello anyone who is actually reading this right now.

I’m not sure if I’m going to use this for anything, but it was neat to set up.

Hello friends and family that would actually be reading this.