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    • Sally Cole Johnson

    Editor in Chief
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    Sally Cole Johnson, Laser Focus World’s editor in chief, is a science and technology journalist who specializes in physics and semiconductors. She wrote for the American Institute of Physics for more than 15 years, complexity for the Santa Fe Institute, and theoretical physics and neuroscience for the Kavli Foundation.

    (Photo credit: Artiom Skripka)
    Artiom Skripka in front of a fume hood where the scientists synthesize their nanomaterials.
    Optics

    Optically bistable nanocrystals?

    Sally Cole Johnson
    Feb. 20, 2025
    Scientists discover a robust and scalable nanomaterial can act as a binary optical switch or a tiny memory unit—and this all-optical process can be controlled to store information...
    (Photo credit: Mikko Raskinen)
    Professor Hele Savin (left) and her group used the Micronova micro- and nanofabrication center at Aalto University to fabricate their germanium infrared photodiodes.
    Detectors & Imaging

    Black germanium boosts infrared photodiode responsivity

    Sally Cole Johnson
    Feb. 19, 2025
    Researchers create a germanium infrared photodiode that’s 35% more responsive at 1.55 µm—a common wavelength for telecommunications—than its other germanium and indium gallium...
    (Image credit: USGS)
    Estimated net decrease in U.S. gross domestic product at different levels of restrictions of China's net exports of gallium (a) or germanium (b) by industry.
    Optics

    Germanium and gallium supply chain disruption escalates for U.S.

    Sally Cole Johnson
    Jan. 20, 2025
    China bans exports of gallium and germanium, critical materials for optics and photonics, to the U.S.