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by Rays and Waves
Rays and Waves, a passion project of two optical engineers, Daniel and Steve, who moonlight as podcast hosts. Join them as they explore the beautiful world of optics and photonics. The topics will span across the whole optical universe, demonstrating the versatile applications of optical engineering and feature prominent characters from the community. Ready to dive into the captivating world of photonics?
Latest Episodes
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- Oct 6, 20262h 12m
The Truth-Teller of Near-Eye Displays and Semiconductor Pioneer Karl Guttag - Ep 19
Virtual, augmented, mixed, and extended reality form a proverbial alphabet soup of near-eye display technologies, each offering varying degrees of immersion and unique optical challenges. Before these futuristic displays reach our eyes, they rely on decades of foundational semiconductor history, precision microdisplays, and rigorous optical engineering.In this episode of Rays and Waves, Daniel and Steven sit down with Karl Guttag, a living legend in semiconductor design and the voice behind KGOnTech, the premier blog for near-eye technology analysis. Recognized as Texas Instruments’ youngest-ever TI Fellow, an inventor on over 150 U.S. patents, and a founder of multiple tech companies, Karl is widely known today as the "Truth-Teller of AR Displays."Karl’s engineering fingerprints are all over computing history. We explore his remarkable hard pivot from building foundational graphics hardware to mastering optics and microdisplays, as well as his perspective as one of the industry's most rigorous and pragmatic watchdogs.This conversation dives into the past, present, and future of near-eye tech, hardware engineering, and what it really takes to bring functional AR and VR displays to life.If you enjoy the show, share it with your colleagues, subscribe, and leave us a review! Got thoughts or questions? Reach out at rays.and.waves.podcast@gmail.comMusic is Good Vibe by Twisterium. Thanks for the great tunes!
- Sep 1, 20261h 33m
Metaoptics, OCT, and the Future of Lung Biopsies with Reza Khorasani - Ep 18
During a lung biopsy, physicians must navigate a needle to a suspected lesion deep within the body, often with limited visibility of the tissue directly in front of the needle tip. What if they could see exactly where they were before taking the sample?In this episode of Rays and Waves, Daniel and Steven sit down with Reza Khorasani, Founder and CEO of LEADOPTIK. During his postdoctoral work in Federico Capasso's group at Harvard, Reza helped pioneer metaoptics and metalenses through several influential research contributions. Today, he is bringing those innovations into the clinic through needle-based optical imaging systems that combine Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and advanced metaoptics to provide real-time visualization during lung biopsies.We explore the optical engineering behind this remarkable technology, the challenges of translating cutting-edge research into medical devices, and Reza's journey from academia to building a fast-growing medtech startup with the potential to improve cancer diagnostics and patient outcomes.If you enjoy the show, share it with your colleagues, subscribe, and leave us a review! Got thoughts or questions? Reach out at rays.and.waves.podcast@gmail.comMusic is Good Vibe by Twisterium. Thanks for the great tunes!
- Jul 21, 20261h 34m
Interferometry for Precision Metrology with Zygo’s Xavier Colonna de Lega - Ep 17
While massive interferometers orbit the earth or span kilometers to detect gravitational waves, the real workhorses of optical metrology live quietly on the benches of optical labs and manufacturing floors worldwide. These instruments are not measuring black hole mergers, but they are the reason the high-performance optics inside our semiconductors, aerospace systems, and consumer electronics actually work.In this episode of Rays and Waves, Daniel and Steven sit down with Xavier Colonna De Lega, Director of the Innovations Group at Zygo. Since the early 1970s, Zygo has been so central to the field of optical metrology that its name has become practically synonymous with interferometry itself.Xavier has spent his career shaping the instruments that verify the modern world’s most precise components. We explore the evolution of industrial metrology, how Zygo has scaled specialized research into essential production tools, and what it takes to measure surface flatness down to a fraction of a wavelength. It is a deep dive into the practical engineering that bridges the gap between theoretical optical design and large-scale manufacturing.If you enjoy the show, share it with your colleagues, subscribe, and leave us a review! Got thoughts or questions? Reach out at rays.and.waves.podcast@gmail.comMusic is Good Vibe by Twisterium. Thanks for the great tunes!
- Jun 16, 202641 min
Binoculars, an optical superpower through engineering - Ep 16
A pair of binoculars might be the closest thing to a superpower you can buy. That is how a friend once described them while gifting a pair to his wife, and it is easy to see why.In this episode of Rays and Waves, Daniel and Steven explore the surprisingly rich optical engineering behind binoculars. From magnification and aperture to prisms, coatings, and color performance, we follow the history of binoculars.What seems simple is full of clever design trade‑offs. This episode connects everyday optics to fundamental engineering principles, revealing why small choices make a big difference in how we see the world.If you enjoy the show, share it with your colleagues, subscribe, and leave us a review. Got thoughts or questions? Reach out at rays.and.waves.podcast@gmail.comIntro music is Good Vibe by Twisterium. Thanks for the great tunes!
- May 12, 20261h 51m
A space telescope architect’s odyssey from Hubble to Webb and beyond with Lee Feinberg - Ep 15
From Hubble’s breathtaking images to the deep infrared view of the James Webb Space Telescope, space-based observatories have transformed how we see the universe. They reveal black holes, probe dark energy, trace the birth of stars, and even let us study the atmospheres of distant planets, pushing astronomy into entirely new territory.In this episode of Rays and Waves, Daniel and Steven sit down with Lee Feinberg, a true veteran of space telescope engineering. Lee joined NASA during the Hubble era and played a key role in diagnosing and correcting its original optical flaw, helping restore one of the most important scientific instruments ever built.Lee then went on to spend more than two decades on the James Webb Space Telescope as Optical Telescope Element Manager. We explore the critical decisions that shaped Webb, from selecting beryllium for its segmented primary mirror to developing new ways to test a deployable telescope at cryogenic temperatures, as well as the "cup up" optical test configuration that made full system testing possible on the ground.This conversation dives into the optical engineering behind humanity’s most ambitious telescopes and what it takes to build instruments capable of looking back to the earliest moments of the universe.If you enjoy the show, share it with your colleagues, subscribe, and leave us a review. Got thoughts or questions? Reach out at rays.and.waves.podcast@gmail.comIntro music is Good Vibe by Twisterium. Thanks for the great tunes!Outro music by Lee Feinberg and fellow NASA engineers. Recorded back in the 90s!
- Apr 6, 20261h 33m
Project Silica and the future of data storage with James Clegg - Ep 14 - Rays and Waves
In a quiet laboratory, bursts of ultrafast laser light are etching humanity’s information deep inside glass, layer by layer, voxel by voxel. Long after today’s hard drives and magnetic tapes have failed, this glass may still faithfully preserve our data, readable thousands of years into the future.In this episode of Rays and Waves, Daniel and Steven dive into Microsoft Research’s Project Silica with their Senior Optical Engineer James Clegg. This is an ambitious effort to redefine cold data storage using focused femtosecond lasers. By writing information as sub‑micron, laser‑induced modifications to optical properties in hundreds of stacked layers, Project Silica turns glass into a truly three‑dimensional memory medium. These tiny structures are projected to remain stable for over 10,000 years and can be read out at any time using wide‑field microscopy combined with powerful machine‑learning algorithms.Our conversation explores the physics behind laser‑matter interactions, the optical engineering challenges of writing and reading data in three dimensions, and what it takes to scale such a radical storage technology. We also discuss why long‑term archival storage matters, how this approach compares to traditional media, and what it means to build technology with millennia‑long time horizons.Project Silica has been under development at Microsoft for nearly a decade, and the team recently published a comprehensive open‑access Nature paper detailing this remarkable achievement: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-10042-wIf you enjoy the show, share it with your colleagues, subscribe, and leave us a review! Got thoughts or questions? Reach out at rays.and.waves.podcast@gmail.comIntro music is Good Vibe by Twisterium. Thanks for the great tunes!Outro music is Aranas Ananas with James Clegg on drums!
- Mar 10, 20261h 36m
LIGO and the birth of gravitational-wave astronomy with Gabriele Vajente - Ep 13 - Rays and Waves
1.3 billion years ago, two black holes collided in a distant galaxy, sending ripples through the fabric of spacetime. On September 14, 2015, those ripples finally reached Earth and humanity detected gravitational waves for the very first time.In this episode of Rays and Waves, Daniel and Steven sit down with Dr. Gabriele Vajente, Deputy Head of Systems Science and Engineering at LIGO, who was a postdoc on the project during that historic detection. For more than fifteen years, Gabriele has been at the center of the groundbreaking technologies and discoveries that have opened an entirely new window on the universe.We explore how LIGO’s exquisitely sensitive instruments can measure distortions thousands of times smaller than a proton, the optical engineering innovations that make it possible, and what gravitational-wave astronomy reveals about some of the most violent events in the cosmos. At the heart of it all are the people like Gabriele who’ve dedicated decades to pushing physics and engineering to their limits.If you enjoy the show, share it with your colleagues, subscribe, and leave us a review! Got thoughts or questions? Reach out at rays.and.waves.podcast@gmail.comIntro music is Good Vibe by Twisterium. Thanks for the great tunes!
- Feb 10, 20261h 15m
Optical tweezers with Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop - Ep 12 - Rays and Waves
In this episode of Rays and Waves, Daniel and Steven take a nostalgic dive back into the world where they both began their scientific journeys: optical tweezers. These remarkable tools, using tightly focused laser beams to exert forces and torques on microscopic objects, have transformed how we manipulate cells, DNA, bacteria, and so much more. Their invention by Arthur Ashkin in 1986 ultimately earned him the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics, and today, optical manipulation stands as a thriving field with thousands of active researchers.Our guest is one of its true pioneers. For more than four decades, Halina Rubinsztein‑Dunlop has been at the forefront of exploring how light can push, twist, and guide matter. Her work spans quantum optics, optically driven micromachines, and cutting‑edge applications in biological systems. Her impact has been recognized at the highest levels, including the SPIE Gold Medal (the society’s most prestigious honor), and she will soon serve as an SPIE Director for the 2026–2028 term.Halina is also a powerful advocate for women in science, a topic we excitedly dive into during our conversation.If you enjoy the show, share it with your colleagues, subscribe, and leave us a review! Got thoughts or questions? Reach out at rays.and.waves.podcast@gmail.comIntro music is Good Vibe by Twisterium. Thanks for the great tunes!
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About Rays and Waves
Rays and Waves, a passion project of two optical engineers, Daniel and Steve, who moonlight as podcast hosts. Join them as they explore the beautiful world of optics and photonics. The topics will span across the whole optical universe, demonstrating the versatile applications of optical engineering and feature prominent characters from the community. Ready to dive into the captivating world of photonics?
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