Optics & Photonics news

Tiny whispering gallery

Tiny whispering gallery: Sensor can detect a single nanoparticle and take its measurement

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Dec 18, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (16) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Nanotechnology has already made it to the shelves of your local pharmacy and grocery: nanoparticles are found in anti-odor socks, makeup, makeup remover, sunscreen, anti-graffiti paint, home ...


Physicists lay the groundwork for cooler, faster computing

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (25) | comments 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 ...


Fine-tuned

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

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Dec 04, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (10) | comments 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

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. ...


Sparkly Spiders and Photonic Fish

Sparkly Spiders and Photonic Fish

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Dec 09, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 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.


A Polymer Solar Cell with Near-Perfect Internal Efficiency

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Jun 17, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (42) | comments 13

An international group of scientists has developed a polymer-based solar cell with an ability not yet seen in similar cells: almost every single photon it absorbs is converted into a pair of electric-charge carriers, and ...


HoloTV Images Jump off the Screen, into Tomorrow's Homes

HoloTV Images Jump off the Screen, into Tomorrow's Homes (w/Video)

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Mar 12, 2009 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (19) | comments 10

(PhysOrg.com) -- Unlike today’s biggest and most realistic LCD and plasma TVs, 3D TV screens can project images that seem to float in mid-air beyond the screen. That means, for instance, that viewers could ...


New interferometer could simplify materials research

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Aug 13, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (13) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- “Most current hard x-ray interferometers are based on crystals, which require their high quality and high mechanical stability,” Anatoly Snigirev tells PhysOrg.com. “This can make x-ray interferometry quite ...


Research is shattering traditioinal notions of laser limits

Research is shattering traditioinal notions of laser limits

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Dec 07, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 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, ...


Quantum dots as midinfrared emitters

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Feb 23, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (10) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- “People are interested in the mid-infrared,” Dan Wasserman tells PhysOrg.com. Infrared light has a wavelength longer than visible light, and many molecules have numerous very strong optical resonances in the ...


'Voltage Patterning' could be next step in nanostructure lithography

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Mar 02, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (15) | comments 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- "What you want these days is to have precise control of nanostructures. Using masks and optical techniques, it is possible to control how nanostructures grow for use in practical applications," David Field ...


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 (19) | 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.


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 ...


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, ...


Time Lens

Time Lens Speeds Up Optical Data Transmission

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Sep 28, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (15) | comments 7

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Cornell University have developed a device called a "time lens" which is a silicon device for speeding up optical data. The basic components of this device are an optical-fiber ...