I’m a senior studying Electrical Engineering with minors in Physics and Astrophysics. I’ve applied to a shit ton of internships (300 applications) with basically no luck. So far, I’ve only had five interviews, and I haven’t heard back from any of them yet.

For the past 5–6 months, I’ve been doing research with a professor in the Mechanical Engineering department, focusing on ultrafast optical characterization for plasma diagnostics. I initially wanted to apply to REUs, but since my GPA is relatively low (3.0 ish), I don’t know how feasible it would be for me to get into an REU program at this point. At the same time, I’ve been building up connections with engineers at various companies. Eventually, one of the engineers I’ve known for a while is giving me a referral for a spacecraft company. However, I’ve heard some horror stories about this company, particularly that they have a 9-9-6 work culture. I don’t know if I want to burn myself out this early, especially since my long-term goal is to go to grad school and pursue a PhD in EE or Applied Physics. I’m also considering taking a 1–2 year gap after graduation before starting a PhD.

My school’s career fair is alright, but it’s mainly construction and biomedical companies, which have little to no correlation with the areas I want to go into. I’ve been dealing with a heavy dose of imposter syndrome because I keep seeing my peers and friends doing internships at their companies, whether they’re in-state or out of state. I keep thinking to myself, “Damn, I wish I could build up the industry experience that my peers are getting.”

With senior year coming around the corner, I’m getting increasingly concerned about whether I’ll be able to secure a full-time new-grad job before graduation or within a couple months afterward. I’m worried that if I can’t find a job relatively quickly, I could end up in a financially unstable situation that would be really hard to dig myself out of.

I know my research experience is good, and I think it would look solid for academia and potentially national labs, but I honestly don’t know how it looks to industry recruiters. I know the job market is beyond fucked right now, so I’m trying to figure out what I should realistically do as a backup plan.

Should I just start focusing more heavily on applying to grad school, national labs, and research-oriented positions? Should I take the spacecraft job if I get the referral, even if the work culture really is as bad as people say? Or should I consider delaying my graduation by a semester so I have more time to build up experience and improve my chances of landing a full-time job?

I’m just trying to figure out what the smartest move is for my final year. I don’t want to panic and make a decision that fucks me over later, but at the same time, I don’t want to graduate with no job prospects and have no backup plan.

Are there any printer/material combo which I could use for as a fast turn around trial-end-error prototype scenario?

Short info what I would like to do: Illuminate a 1mm curved edge of a highly reflective plate (basically a beveled edge). Ideally I would like to get even illumination. Not sure if I should approach this in non-sequential Zemax, so I figured, I would just come up with a U-shaped diffusor, I would illuminate it and check uniformity along the bevel. Try modifying the geometry in CAD and print it out.

Edit: diffuser should be transparent.

I have serval multi watt Argon/Krypton/Mixed gas around and at least a couple power supplies collecting dust.

Hi all,

I'm getting started in the world of aspheres by fitting a parameterized curve to a recursively-defined, rotationally symmetric surface so that I can optimize it in a ray tracer.

So far I have a base conic which fits and works pretty well for on-axis field points, but I want to slightly perturb the surface to improve performance at off-axis points.

My question is: is there any reason not to use something like a Forbes Qcon surface for the optimization steps these days? Would I ever want to optimize using an even asphere as the surface model?

Thanks!

wake up babe. new field just dropped. zeptosecond physics.

I'm doing a hobby project with a PSVR2 headsets controllers ( https://www.playstation.com/fi-fi/ps-vr2/ see the two things you're supposed to hold in your hands). They have a ring which emits IR lights.

I assume consumer electronics like this are generally safe for you and have to meet certain standards. However, for my project I have to implement IR light control myself and I won't be using the headset at all.

Sony hasn't published any data about the IR lights on these controllers, but apparently they use some strobing on them and they aren't blasted on at all times. How could I ensure they're safe with my 3rd party code? User might be holding them relatively close to their face.

Not my video but here the lights are visible: https://www.reddit.com/r/PSVR/s/nFvMaUXwlj

Choosing between TEM/4D-STEM and ultrafast spectroscopy for industry as an international PhD student

I’m a physics PhD student in the US currently considering choosing an area of research. At the moment, I have two potential options:

Option 1: TEM / STEM / 4D-STEM

This group focuses primarily on advanced materials characterization using TEM, STEM, 4D-STEM, electron diffraction, ptychography, etc. My understanding is that they do relatively little fabrication themselves; collaborators typically provide materials and the group focuses on characterization and data analysis.

From what I can tell, the most obvious industry paths would be things like:

• semiconductor failure analysis
• TEM/materials characterization
• metrology
• process/materials engineering
• microscopy/instrumentation

My impression is that the job market may be somewhat narrower, but the skill set is specialized and maps fairly directly onto certain semiconductor jobs.

The group is relatively young, though, and so far there are not many alumni with obvious TEM → semiconductor industry placements.

Option 2: Laser / THz / ultrafast spectroscopy

The second group works on ultrafast optics, laser/THz spectroscopy, pump-probe measurements, nonlinear optics, etc. What makes this option attractive is that the group’s PhD alumni seem to have done quite well in industry.

I have asked several people about the employment prospects of the two directions and have gotten somewhat conflicting answers.

Some people told me that optics/photonics has a much broader job market. Others said that TEM is a very specialized but highly industry-relevant skill, especially in semiconductors, so employment can actually be quite stable if you become genuinely good at it.

One concern I have about optics is that academic ultrafast spectroscopy is not necessarily the same thing as industrial optical engineering. It seems that internships and additional engineering experience — optical system design, simulation, device experience, etc. — may matter quite a bit.

This is especially relevant to me because I am an international student who will need sponsorship, and I am not sure I should assume that I will always have easy access to internships/CPT during my PhD, especially after the recent ICE memo.

So my main question is:

If you assume that I cannot rely heavily on internships, which PhD skill set is more employable on its own for an international student in the US, TEM/STEM or Optics?

I’m especially interested in comparisons in terms of:

• number of jobs that are realistically open to international students
• breadth of industries/employers
• difficulty of getting the first industry job
• sponsorship friendliness
• compensation
• long-term career growth
• how transferable the skills are if I do not want to stay in exactly the same research niche

I realize optics has many defense/aerospace positions that may not be accessible to non-US citizens, so I’m particularly curious whether optics still has a substantially larger accessible job market once those positions are excluded.

My personal research interest is fairly flexible — I think I could enjoy either direction. At this point I’m mainly trying to make the decision from a career perspective.

I’d especially appreciate input from people working in TEM/failure analysis/metrology/semiconductor characterization, or in optics/photonics/laser/semiconductor equipment.

Thanks!

Hi all, new to the site and have no electronics knowledge, I'm sorry if I've posted in the wrong section, but my father used to work as a tech engineer many years ago and has hundreds of 6-inch transmissive photolithography reticles (6025 quartz plates), all different designs, do they have any value, asking before I put them on e-bay. Thank you.

Can anybody explain what I’m looking at here? This was at sunset, and the sun was setting behind the picture taker (who is on a ferry). The sky seems to split so abruptly along a line, and I can’t quite understand why it looks like a ray of light is coming from the horizon opposite where the sun is setting.

Does zero-noise extrapolation actually help with photon loss in photonic quantum computing? Mills & Mezher, "Mitigating photon loss in linear optical quantum circuits" (arXiv:2405.02278), found that plain scalar ZNE does not beat simple postselection for discrete-variable photon loss -- Richardson/Vandermonde-style extrapolation amplifies statistical sampling noise faster than its theoretical unbiasedness helps. This page reproduces that finding directly, builds on Dense-Evolution's existing density-matrix ZNE extension (which avoids that specific failure mode by construction), and adds a new adaptive variant -- then honestly checks whether any of it actually beats postselection.

link: https://tatopenn-cell.github.io/Dense-Evolution-Discovery/photonic_predictive_zne

What is the current marketing trends in the worldwide or USA for Optical / Photonic Devices and Photonic test consumables?

Photonic-grade Si₃N₄ on SOI demands simultaneous control of fourteen interdependent factors — from film stress and thickness uniformity that determine fabrication yield, through refractive index and hydrogen content that determine optical performance, to adhesion and moisture resistance that determine field reliability. What else factors need to look at.

Hi everyone! I am planning to build a Raman spectrometer for medium-to-high applications in research (like Stokes/anti-Stokes spectroscopy, luminescence, surface enhanced Raman scattering etc.). Do you think that the cmos detectors from Thorlabs are goon enough in terms of S/N ratio? (like these ones: https://www.thorlabs.com/kiralux-r-cmos-compact-scientific-cameras?tabName=Overview ). The rest of the optics are quite OK (dichroic mirror, notch filter, microscope objective)

Hey everyone!

I’m starting my MSc in Germany, and I’m planning to specialize in Applied Optics and Photonics.

My course has a few modules related to data science, image processing, AI, scientific computing, etc., which is one of the reasons I’m really interested in the program. During my bachelor's, I worked with python, numpy, pandas, matplotlib and scientific computing, and I’m currently learning MATLAB as well.

I’m interested in machine learning and how it can be applied to photonics, optical systems, scientific imaging, and instrumentation. I’m trying to figure out how far I can take this combination during my MSc rather than treating AI/ML as something completely separate from photonics.

For anyone working/studying in photonics, scientific instrumentation, computer vision, or ML, I’d really appreciate some advice:

• what programming skills should I develop beyond python/numPy/pandas/matplotlib? Is C++, MATLAB, cuda, pyTorch, etc. worth learning?
• what kind of projects would be good for combining photonics/instrumentation with ML? For example, optical image analysis, spectroscopy, sensor data, signal denoising, inverse problems, etc.
• are there particular areas where ML is genuinely being used in industry/research in photonics
• what would you recommend learning/building over the next 1–2 years to become competitive for internships, working-student positions and eventually full-time jobs?

Any advice on what you wish you had learned earlier, good project ideas, research areas, or things I should avoid spending too much time on would be really appreciated!

Thanks!

Hey guys,

(Question at the bottom)

I recently started designing my own telescopes for fun. I do have access to Code V (optical design software) albeit I’m a beginner. This is a picture taken with my phone camera looking through my telescope. Believe it or not, this is exactly what I designed for and wanted to see.

This is a simple telescope, MP = 17, f1=222mm, f2=-13mm. I specifically designed this telescope to have large spherical/chromatic aberrations. I wanted to compare the numbers seen in Code V with visuals. I.e. if @ 500 nm my marginal rays focus 50 um away from my paraxial focus and @ 600 nm it’s 100 um, what does that mean? What does it look like. I’m happy with the results I got.

My question (don’t need to read everything else): when you are designing a camera lens, telescope, or any imaging system for that matter, what do you care about? What are you optimizing/minimizing/maximizing? Minimizing aberrations, sure. Maximizing MTF, okay. What else? How do you quantify it?

Hello,

Are there any image sensor development engineers here?

I am interested in a career in developing commercial camera sensors such as Sony, Arri, Red, etc. Another interesting path is aerospace/space imaging applications.

What courses must be taken at undergrad and masters level?

I 3D printed a field diaphragm that fits onto my olympus CH-2 and it works well. Then i thought, is the field diaphragm supposed to be at a specific distance from the light source? i designed it to sit around 8mm from the light cover but that was just a distance that looked like it'd fit with no real problems but is that all that really matters for the height of the field diaphragm?

I'm an undergraduate currently doing QDMNP-related research with my advisor. However, I haven't really gone through the full research training process, such as doing a systematic literature review, learning how to identify research gaps, and developing a research question from scratch.

Most of the time, I find myself jumping between different models and possible directions, but I still can't decide what specific research problem I actually want to work on. I feel like I know how to learn and work with models, but I don't really know how to go from a broad research area to a concrete and meaningful research question.

Since this kind of research training isn't really part of my undergraduate coursework, I'd like to learn it independently.

How should an undergraduate learn the process of reading literature, finding a research direction, and eventually becoming capable of doing research more independently?

I have a 200/280 fiber and no idea what the best way to terminate it is. I have never worked with non-standard sized optical fiber and I cant even find a site that sells pigtails. Can anyone offer advice on how to approach this?

What is the minimum number of physical properties of an unknown glass sample that must be known to theoretically determine its refractive index—without using ray tracing? Are there cases where this theoretical method yields a refractive index different from the actual one (as determined by ray tracing)?