Optics & Photonics news

Fine-tuned

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

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created 16 hours ago | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 1

(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

Building a more versatile laser

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Nov 16, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (19) | comments 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

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

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Nov 13, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (5) | comments 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

Pushing light beyond its known limits

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Nov 12, 2009 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (18) | comments 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

created Nov 10, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 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

Compressing photonic signals for greater bandwidth

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Nov 03, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (6) | comments 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

Flipping a photonic shock wave

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Nov 02, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 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

Mantis shrimps could show us the way to a better DVD

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Oct 25, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (18) | comments 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

created Oct 20, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 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

Chinese scientists create metamaterial black hole

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Oct 16, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (55) | comments 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

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

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Oct 08, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (21) | comments 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

created Oct 08, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 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 ...


Femtoseconds lasers help formation flying in space

Femtoseconds lasers help formation flying in space

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Oct 02, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) has helped to establish that femtosecond comb lasers can provide accurate measurement of absolute distance in formation flying space missions.


Laser Fusion and Exawatt Lasers

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Oct 01, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (17) | comments 10

(PhysOrg.com) -- In the recent past, producing lasers with terawatt (a trillion watts) beams was impressive. Now petawatt (a thousand trillion watts, or 10^15 watts) lasers are the forefront of laser research. Some labs are ...


Perfect image without metamaterials... and a reprieve for silicon chips (w/ Video)

Perfect image without metamaterials... and a reprieve for silicon chips (w/ Video)

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Sep 29, 2009 | popularity 2.9 / 5 (17) | comments 6

(PhysOrg.com) -- Since 2000, John Pendry's work on metamaterials has been at the van guard of efforts to create a perfect image - images with perfect resolution that can stem from light being moved in odd ...