The European Technology Platform Photonics21 and some of Europe’s largest companies – including Bosch, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Nokia Bell Labs, Zeiss, Trumpf, and EssilorLuxottica – have united to urge the European Commission to prioritise photonics in the upcoming EU Framework Programme (FP10).

In the September issue of Holography & Optical Technology News™, Guri Dhillon wrote about why UV resin is widely used in security holograms, diffractive optical elements (DOEs), and high-resolution embossing applications. In this article, he examines how the curing wavelength influences dimensional stability and discusses formulation and process strategies that allow optical and micro-structured surfaces to be replicated with sub-micron precision.

A project at Duke University has demonstrated how commercial AI models could accelerate microscopic examination of 2D materials and analysis of the results.

The demand for high-security document features has driven research into optical technologies capable of producing effects that are both visually striking and extremely difficult to counterfeit.

A new advance in optoelectronics from the University of St Andrews could accelerate the arrival of holographic technology in consumer devices, including smartphones, wearables, and entertainment platforms.

According to researchers at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, polarisation is key for future technologies, ranging from quantum computers to secure communication and holographic displays.

UV resin is the preferred material for hologram casting because of its high precision, fast curing, and excellent optical properties. Here’s why UV resin is widely used in security holograms, diffractive optical elements (DOEs), and high-resolution embossing applications.

Photonic crystals (PCs) are optical nanostructures that affect the propagation of light by the periodic variation in their refractive index. As counterfeiting techniques become ever more sophisticated, PCs offer physically unclonable functions (PUFs) due to their defect-sensitive optical behaviour and structural colours that cannot be reproduced accurately by traditional printing or scanning techniques.

New technology from US-based startup SMS, called ‘Nanocoining’, is helping to bring nano- and microscale patterns to the industrial scale. The technology creates seamless cylindrical drum moulds for roll-to-roll nanoimprint processes with a patterning rate of up to 2 square inches (2,500mm2) per second – more than 500 times faster than typical electron-beam tools.

In the January and February 2025 issues of Holography & Optical Technology News™, we covered banknotes featuring optical innovations from Argentina, Mauritius, Romania, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, Kenya, China, the Falklands, and Belize.