April 2009 Vol. 23, No. 2 www.PhotonicsSociety.org NEWS Switching IEEE NEWS to PHOTONICS NEWS April 2009 Volume 23, Number 2 FEATURES Research Highlights: .........................................................................4 – “Switching to Photonics,” by Scott Hinton, Photonics Society (formerly LEOS) Past President 2004–2005 DEPARTMENTS News ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 10 • Call for Nominations: – 2009 IEEE PHOTONICS SOCIETY Award Reminders: William Streifer Scientific Achievement Award, Engineering Achievement Award, Aron Kressel Award, Distinguished Service Award – 2009 IEEE PHOTONICS SOCIETY Graduate Student Fellowship Program – 2010 John Tyndall Award • Petition for candidates for Election to the Board of Governors • IEEE Nominations & Appointments Committee seeks recommen- dations for Officers and Standing Committee members • Nomination Forms Membership . 16 • IEEE PHOTONICS SOCIETY Distinguished Lecturer Experience by Silvano Donati, 2007/08 – 2008/09 Distinguished Lecturer • Celebrating Fifty Years of Quantum Electronics, by Robert L. Byer IEEE • Chapter Highlights IEEE PHOTONICS SOCIETY Benelux Student Chapter, by Phillippe Tassin LASERS & ELECTRO-OPTICS SOCIETY NEWSLETTER • Benefits of IEEE Senior Membership • New Senior Members Conferences. 23 • 20th Annual Workshop on Interconnections Within High Speed Digital Systems – 2009 • The Optical Data Storage Topical Meeting – 2009 • IPRM – 2009 • IEEE PHOTONICS SOCIETY Summer Topicals – 2009 • IEEE PHOTONICS SOCIETY International Conference on Optical MEMS & Nanophotonics – 2009 • GFP – 2009 • AVFOP – 2009 IEEE • PHOTONICS SOCIETY 22nd Annual Meeting – 2009 NEWS • NUSOD 2009 Conference Highlight, by Yong-Tak Lee and THE SOCIETY FOR PHOTONICS Joachim Piprek Publications ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 31 • Call for Papers: – IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics (JSTQE) – IEEE Sensors Journal COLUMNS Editor’s Column . 2 President’s Column . 3 April 2009 IEEE PHOTONICS SOCieTY NEWSLETTER 1 Editor’s IEEE Photonics Society Column KRISHNAN Parameswaran President Membership & Regional Activities - John H. Marsh A. Helmy Welcome to the first issue of the Photonics Society Dept of E & E Engineering Publications - R. Tucker Newsletter! I think that we will quickly get used to this Rankine Building Technical Affairs - A. Seeds University of Glasgow new name, as it clearly identifies our field to both mem- Glasgow G12 8LT, Scotland, UK. Newsletter Staff bers and the outside community. To commemorate the Tel: +44 141 330 4901 Fax: +44 141 330 4907 Executive Editor change, we present a reprint of a 1992 article in IEEE E-mail: [email protected] Krishnan R. Parameswaran Spectrum aptly titled “Switching to Photonics” by LEOS Physical Sciences Inc. 20 New England Business Center President-Elect Andover, MA 01810 Past President Prof. Scott Hinton. The term Photonics James Coleman Tel: +1 978 738 8187 Dept. of E & C Engineering began to be widely used at that time. Now that both the Email: [email protected] name and the technology are used throughout the world, University of Illinois 208 N Wright Street Associate Editor of Asia & Pacific Scott has written a column to accompany the article, re- Urbana, IL 61801-2355 Hon Tsang viewing how the field has evolved since he first wrote it. Tel: +1 217 333 2555 Dept. of Electronic Engineering E-mail: [email protected] The Chinese University of Hong Kong We also have a contribution from Prof. Silvano Donati, Shatin, Hong Kong a longtime member of the Society Board of Governors, Past-President Tel: +852 260 98254 Alan Willner Fax: +852 260 35558 about his work as a Distinguished Lecturer. As part of University of Southern California Email: [email protected] our ongoing series of columns by Society Leaders, Past Dept. of EE-Systems/Rm EEB 538 Los Angeles, CA 90089-2565 Associate Editor of Canada President Robert Byer has written about Celebrating Tel: +1 213 740 4664 Lawrence R. Chen Fifty Years of Quantum Electronics, which is particularly Fax: +1 213 740 8729 Department of Electrical & Email: [email protected] Computer Engineering appropriate during this 125th anniversary of IEEE. Our McConnell Engineering Building, Rm 633 Secretary-Treasurer Society and its members have been a big part of IEEE McGill University Jerry Meyer 3480 University St. and will undoubtedly continue to play prominent roles Naval Research Laboratory Montreal, Quebec Code 5613 going forward. Membership highlights include activities Canada H3A-2A7 in the Benelux chapter, summarized nicely by past and Washington, DC 20375-0001 Tel: +514 398 1879 Tel: +1 202 767 3276 Fax: 514-398-3127 current student chapter presidents Philippe Tassin and E-mail: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Milan Marell. We also have a preview of the NUSOD Executive Director Associate Editor of Europe/ conference to be held in South Korea in September. Richard Linke Mid East/Africa As always, please send any comments and suggestions IEEE Photonics Society Kevin A. Williams 445 Hoes Lane Eindhoven University of Technology to [email protected]. Feel free to contact me or Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331 Inter-University Research Institute the other editors about promoting upcoming events or Tel: +1 732 562 3891 COBRA on Communication Fax: +1 732 562 8434 Technology summarizing past activities. The Newsletter is your best Email: [email protected] Department of Electrical Engineering vehicle for sharing your information with all Photonics PO Box 513 Board of Governors 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands Email: [email protected] Society members! S. L. Chuang C. Gmachl K. Hotate J. Jackel Staff Editor J. Kash T. Koonen Giselle Blandin Regards, M. Lipson J. Meyer IEEE Photonics Society Krishnan Parameswaran D. Plant A. Seeds 445 Hoes Lane P. Winzer I. White Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331 Tel: +1 732 981 3405 Vice Presidents Fax: +1 732 562 8434 Correction: Conferences - D. Rabus Email: [email protected] Finance & Administration - F. Bartoli On pages 9 and 10 of the February 2009 Newsletter, References numbered 13–43 should be numbered 14–44, and the paper above reference 13 should be numbered Photonics Society Newsletter (USPS 014-023) is published bimonth- ly by the Photonics Society of the Institute of Electrical and 13. The online version has been corrected. We apologize Electronics Engineers, Inc., Corporate Office: 3 Park Avenue, 17th for the typesetting error. Floor, New York, NY 10017-2394. Printed in the USA. One dollar per member per year is included in the Society fee for each member of the Photonics Society. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Photonics Society Newsletter, IEEE, 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854. Copyright © 2009 by IEEE: Permission to copy without fee all or part of any material without a copyright notice is granted pro- vided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct com- mercial advantage, and the title of the publication and its date appear on each copy. To copy material with a copyright notice requires specific permission. Please direct all inquiries or requests to IEEE Copyrights Office. 2 IEEE PHOTONICS SOCieTY NEWSLETTER April 2009 President’s Column JOHN H. MARSH Welcome to the first newsletter of the IEEE Photonics Society! detection and utilization of electromagnetic radiation, span- Our new name was formally approved by the IEEE Board of ning frequencies from terahertz to x-rays. Directors at the February IEEE Meeting series. A hard hitting A key benefit of the IEEE Photonics Journal is that it offers publicity campaign is planned, with major announcements at rapid publication on IEEE Xplore, making use of a new stream- OFC and CLEO, and promotional materials will be made avail- lined production process within IEEE. The expanded capabili- able to Chapters and for general use in due course. In addition, ties supported by online publication will allow open-access and subject to budget (of which more later), the web portal is being multimedia options for authors, while providing significantly completely redeveloped with an optimized feel and updated increased value to readers. The Journal will maintain the high- material. est standards of editorial quality and fair-minded rigorous re- The URL for the Photonics Society will be http://www. view processes, characteristic of all IEEE journals. PhotonicsSociety.org In recognition of the wide impact of photonic science and technology, the IEEE Nanotechnology Council and the Anten- New Society Journals nas and Propagation, Consumer Electronics, Electron Devices, Along with a new name, we are also launching the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology, and Nuclear and Plasma Photonics Journal. Papers are being accepted from 1st Sciences Societies are technically co-sponsoring the Journal. March. I can do no better than quote from the letter of I invite you to submit your original research results to this welcome from Carmen Menoni, the founding Editor exciting new Journal. I expect the first issue to be posted online in Chief: in May/June. With your help and the support of an outstanding “The new IEEE Photonics Journal reflects the full breadth of the technical community engaged in the generation, control, (continued on page 9) Prototype April 2009 IEEE PHOTONICS SOCieTY NEWSLETTER 3 Research Highlights Special Reprint from IEEE Spectrum, February 1992,