Open Access
Add to BibSonomyAbstract
The annual symposium of Applied Industrial Optics has since its inception in 2010 attracted a large number of industrial researchers, as well as academic researchers who are considering commercialization of their work. To make their work more accessible, the past participants of the symposium were invited to contribute to this special issue of Applied Optics. This current issue therefore focuses on optical techniques and measurements that are either already applied in an industrial setting, have the strong potential to be commercially viable, or have been developed by industrial researchers to address their specific problems.
© 2013 Optical Society of America
We are happy and proud to introduce this special issue of Applied Industrial Optics. The idea of dedicating an entire issue of Applied Optics to industrial applications of optics arose after the third annual symposium on Applied Industrial Optics in Monterey, California. This symposium attracts a large fraction, maybe 50%–70%, of its attendees from nonacademic environments, and to all participants the difference to other optics symposia is striking. Presentations center on the commercial use of optics, and while some of the techniques appear to be familiar, considerable innovation is needed to meet the industrial demands of ruggedness, accuracy, and repeatability. In addition, the symposium features reports on optical techniques that have not yet been applied in industrial settings but have great promise to make a commercial impact.
For this special issue we selected articles that follow the same spirit. For example, in this issue the reader will find reports on Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopic measurements of in farmer’s fields (Haugholt et al.), polystyrene nanoparticle size analysis using fiber-optic photon-density wave measurements (Hass et al.), classification of explosive residues using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (Gottfried), as well as articles on terahertz polarization conversion (Kaveev et al.) and application of terahertz spectroscopy to the characterization to boron nitride (Naftaly et al.). Of course, there are many more articles, both experimental and theoretical, that focus on making industrial optical devices more reliable and accurate.
We sincerely thank all authors for their contributions and especially all reviewers for their time. We hope that you will find this collection of articles interesting and consider participating in the symposium on Applied Industrial Optics in the future.