There’s an old adage that “size doesn’t matter,” but you wouldn’t know that from walking the show floor at LASER World of PHOTONICS 2019 in Munich, Germany.

MUNICH, GERMANY — One of the big events on opening day at LASER World of PHOTONICS 2019 was a press conference held to announce the findings of a unique study conducted jointly by SPECTARIS, the German high-tech industry association, and LASER World of PHOTONICS.

Called “Light as the key to global sustainability,” the study focused on how photonics can be used in the fight to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thereby meet the goals set forth in the Paris Agreement.

The bi-annual Laser World of Photonics exhibition and its accompanying tech conference, World of Photonics Congress 2019, opened on Monday, June 24, at Messe Munchen in Munich, Germany, and as in years past it filled five large exhibition halls, with the Congress occupying another hall and the conference center.

On the battlefield, you need to know as much as possible.

Argonne National Laboratory and the Air Force Research Laboratory developed a new numerical modeling tool that allows for a better understanding of rotating detonation engines (RDEs). Unlike conventional gas turbine engines, RDEs leverage high-intensity, self-sustaining detonation to rapidly consume the fuel-air mixture, typically in a ring-shaped, cylindrical chamber.

Landing multi-rotor drones smoothly is difficult. Complex turbulence is created by the airflow from each rotor bouncing off the ground as the ground grows closer during descent. Drones typically wobble and inch slowly toward a landing until power is finally cut and they drop the remaining distance to the ground.

Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment Alex Beehler doesn't need proof of threats to military and government installations. He is reminded every day. His office sits next to the point of impact where American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the western side of the Pentagon nearly 18 years ago during the 9/11 attacks. As the variety and complexity of threats continue to increase, security at U.S. military installations has taken increased importance in the years since 9/11.

Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) discovered a new method to passivate defects in next generation optical materials to improve optical quality and enable the miniaturization of light emitting diodes and other optical elements.

The Air Force Research Laboratory, along with research partners at Los Alamos National Laboratory, are working to change the shape of materials technology with a breakthrough development that could open up a new range of possibilities for the military and beyond. The collaborative team has developed a 3-D printed polymer-based foam structure that responds to the force of a shock wave to act as a one-way switch, a long sought-after goal in shock research.

The University of Illinois is leading a NASA-funded project to develop an all-electric aircraft. The project, called the Center for Cryogenic High-Efficiency Electrical Technology for Aircraft (CHEETA), focuses on electrically driven propulsion systems for commercial aircraft.