December 2004, Issue #35
Feature Story
OPTICAL ENGINEERING
Optical engineering is a progressive and exciting field. Optical engineers design and develop devices and measurement systems such as lasers and fiber optics that utilize the properties of light.
Chris is an optical engineer with a large communication firm developing miniature solid state lasers. When he first graduated from college, he began working with the firm's scientists' looking for new breakthroughs in optical materials. When new color detection methods were reported at an Optical Society of America conference, he saw an opportunity to improve the quality of glass fibers by measuring minute chemical impurities with the method reported. Working as the leader of a team of mechanical and electrical engineers, Chris's team was able to design experiments to identify impurities as low as two parts per billion in the raw glass material. By improving the quality and production process of glass, the communication distance transmission in optical fibers was improved four-fold and made possible the laying of the transoceanic fiber optical cable link.
Lasers are used in many different kinds of applications. Medical doctors use lasers to cut out birthmarks and cancerous growths. They fix detached retinas, cauterize wounds, and vaporize kidney stones. Your home and car CD players use laser light to play your favorite music. Laser printers and supermarket scanners are other examples of how laser technology has merged into our lives.
Fiber optics is also another expanding branch of optical engineering. Fiber optics are hair-sized strands of glass that carry voice and video information over long distances in the form of pulses of light. Fiber optic systems run all over the world. They run across the country and even underwater to neighboring countries.
As an optical engineer, you will have the opportunity to combine optical theory, which deals with the properties of light, with engineering in the actual design and development of devices, measurement systems and manufacturing processes. You may be designing improvements in light detectors used in fiber optics communications, holograms that store 100,000 fingerprints on a fingernail-sized CD-ROM for criminal justice, a zoom optical lens for a snapshot camera, or a laser that scans blood samples to measure the hemoglobin properties in a microsecond. Many of the latest advances in computers, microelectronics, and measurement science will depend on your knowledge of optical principles.
As an optical engineer, you may...
- Analyze new materials as an optical research engineer to improve the capacity of optical memories like CD-ROMs, quick-switch optical coatings that block polarizing sun glare, and diamond-like hardened coatings for plexiglass aircraft windows.
- Work as an optical systems engineer with other teams of engineers from different fields (mechanical, electrical, chemical, etc.). Design, build and test optical instruments that monitor physical and chemical changes in objects.
- Develop miniature video cameras as an optical device engineer for high-altitude, remotely piloted vehicles that record multiple terrain features like the LANDSAT and SPOT satellites.
Careers
As an optical systems engineer, you will develop unique and specialized products for commercial uses. This could include combining optical devices to display electrical signals from computer-simulated radar beacons to provide teams of airline pilots and air traffic controllers with virtual reality trainers.
As a color engineer, you will test and analyze the variability of color properties and commercial products. This could include matching tinted glass window panels in an all-glass skyscraper as well as testing the variability in baby food products to provide a health safety measurement to the food-testing microbiologist.
As an optical design engineer, you will design the optical components for large and small products; this could include a compact, lightweight carbon-graphite telescope for a star gazing camera, an improved holographic scanning mirror for speedier supermarket checkout, or a distortion-free imaging lens for night vision goggles that is cooled by a reusable milliliter of liquid nitrogen.
Whether you are improving the military use of airborne radar or devising better ways to use fiber optics for diagnosing disease, you will be challenged and rewarded by a career in optical engineering.
