Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
The strong scattering of light in biological tissue impedes the development of light-based biological imaging. Lihong Wang explained to Nature Photonics how the use of ultrasound can aid the deeper and tighter focusing of light in scattering media.
New forms of advanced optical fibres featuring exotic glasses, carefully designed microstructures and cores that are either hollow, fluidic, semiconductor or piezoelectric are giving light guides a new lease of life, reports Duncan Graham-Rowe.
The advent of ophthalmic imaging instruments equipped with adaptive optics technology now makes it possible to visualize the retina at the cellular level, allowing the early detection of eye diseases.
Adaptive optics has a huge range of applications. Nadya Anscombe talks to Robert Tyson, associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in the USA, to find out his views on its future.
When AOptix Technologies was set up in 2000 to exploit adaptive optics in laser communications systems, its future looked bright. But, as Nadya Anscombe finds out, the company has had to adapt to changes in the market and find new applications for its technology.
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology has allowed the realization of cost-effective, high-performance deformable mirrors for adaptive-optics-enhanced imaging.
