Optics & Photonics news

First germanium laser brings us closer to 'optical computers'

Physics / Optics & Photonics

Feb 04, 2010 | 4.8 / 5 (26) | 7 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- MIT researchers have demonstrated the first laser built from germanium that can produce wavelengths of light useful for optical communication. It’s also the first germanium laser to operate ...

Stacking the deck: Single photons observed at seemingly faster-than-light speeds

Physics / Optics & Photonics

Jan 26, 2010 | 3.7 / 5 (18) | 2 |

Researchers at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), a collaboration of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Maryland at College Park, can speed up photons (particles of light) ...

Optical Refrigeration: Researchers Achieve Milestone in Laser Cooling

Physics / Optics & Photonics

Jan 19, 2010 | 4.6 / 5 (8) | 5 |

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of New Mexico have established a new low in temperature cooling through laser cooling of solids to cryogenic temperatures. Under an AFOSR, MURI grant, a team ...

Physicists lay the groundwork for cooler, faster computing

Physics / Optics & Photonics

Dec 14, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (25) | 5

University of Toronto quantum optics researchers Sajeev John and Xun Ma have discovered new behaviours of light within photonic crystals that could lead to faster optical information processing and compact computers that ...

Sparkly Spiders and Photonic Fish

Physics / Optics & Photonics

Dec 09, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (2) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists in Israel and the UK have uncovered the details of how certain fish and spiders create their iridescent scales and silvery skins.

Research is shattering traditioinal notions of laser limits

Physics / Optics & Photonics

Dec 07, 2009 | 5 / 5 (3) | 1

Air Force Office of Scientific Research and National Science Foundation-funded professor, Dr. Xiang Zhang has demonstrated at the University of California, Berkeley the world's smallest semiconductor laser, ...

Fine-tuned: A wholly new approach to tuning a laser's frequency

Physics / Optics & Photonics

Dec 04, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (10) | 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- For more than 30 years, scientists have been trying to harness the power of terahertz radiation. Tucked between microwaves and infrared rays on the electromagnetic spectrum, terahertz rays ...

Building a more versatile laser

Physics / Optics & Photonics

Nov 16, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (19) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the drawbacks associated with using semiconductor lasers is that many of them can only produce a beam of a single wavelength, and can only send that beam in one direction at a time. ...

Invisibility visualized: German team unveils new software for rendering cloaked objects

Physics / Optics & Photonics

Nov 13, 2009 | 4 / 5 (5) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists and curiosity seekers who want to know what a partially or completely cloaked object would look like in real life can now get their wish -- virtually. A team of researchers at the ...

Pushing light beyond its known limits

Physics / Optics & Photonics

Nov 12, 2009 | 3.9 / 5 (19) | 6

Scientists at the University of Adelaide have made a breakthrough that could change the world's thinking on what light is capable of.

Sculptured materials allow multiple channel plasmonic sensors

Physics / Optics & Photonics

Nov 10, 2009 | 5 / 5 (3) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Sensors, communications devices and imaging equipment that use a prism and a special form of light -- a surface plasmon-polariton -- may incorporate multiple channels or redundant applications if manufacturers ...

Compressing photonic signals for greater bandwidth

Physics / Optics & Photonics

Nov 03, 2009 | 4.4 / 5 (8) | 3

Cornell researchers have developed an ingenious method to time-compress optical signals. The process could enable optical communication systems to carry many more bits per second or could also be used to generate ...

Flipping a photonic shock wave

Physics / Optics & Photonics

Nov 02, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (4) | 2

A team of physicists has directly observed a reverse shock wave of light in a specially tailored structure known as a left-handed metamaterial. Although it was first predicted over forty years ago, this is ...

Mantis shrimps could show us the way to a better DVD

Physics / Optics & Photonics

Oct 25, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (19) | 5

(PhysOrg.com) -- The remarkable eyes of a marine crustacean could inspire the next generation of DVD and CD players, according to a new study from the University of Bristol published today in Nature Photonics.

Breakthrough with light could help viral research

Physics / Optics & Photonics

Oct 20, 2009 | 5 / 5 (3) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have developed a method using the force of light to gently trap, manipulate and study tiny, active objects as miniscule as viruses -- opening doors to expanded viral research.

Chinese scientists create metamaterial black hole

Physics / Optics & Photonics

Oct 16, 2009 | 4 / 5 (57) | 20

(PhysOrg.com) -- Two physicists in China have used metamaterials to create the first artificial electromagnetic black hole. The scientists, Qiang Cheng and Tie Jun Cui from the Southeast University in Nanjing, ...

A road of no return: Team implements the first '1-way roads' for light

Physics / Optics & Photonics

Oct 08, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (21) | 2

Light readily bounces off obstacles in its path. Some of these reflections are captured by our eyes, thus participating in the visual perception of the objects around us. In contrast to this usual behavior ...

Scientists take step toward simple and portable tuberculosis tests for developing world

Physics / Optics & Photonics

Oct 08, 2009 | 5 / 5 (1) | 0

Two billion people worldwide carry the pathogen that causes tuberculosis (TB), and most of them do not even know they are infected. This is because some 90 percent of people with TB have "latent" infections. They have no ...