Laser light alone can open, close world's fastest optical shutter without heating or cooling

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Carl Kbler stands behind his 12 femtosecond ultrabroadband herahertz laser setup at Konstanz University with summer student Vanessa Knittel barely visible on the left. (Courtesy of Alfred Leitenstorfer)
Carl Kübler stands behind his 12 femtosecond ultrabroadband herahertz laser setup at Konstanz University with summer student Vanessa Knittel, barely visible on the left. (Courtesy of Alfred Leitenstorfer)

It’s a rare case of all light and no heat: A new study reports that a laser can be used to switch a film of vanadium dioxide back and forth between reflective and transparent states without heating or cooling it.


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All News summaries for December 06, 2007

Surface tension drives segregation within cell mixtures

8 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
What does a mixture of two different kinds of cells have in common with a mixture of oil and water? The same basic force causes both mixtures to separate into two distinct regions.

Fuzziness on the road to physics' grand unification theory

8 hours ago | User rating: not rated yet
Leave it to hypothesized gravity to weigh down what physicists have thought for 30 years. If theoretical physicists, led by the University of Oregon's Stephen Hsu, are right, the idea that nature's forces ...

In quantum channels, zero plus zero can equal non-zero

Oct 06, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists have discovered a strange characteristic of quantum communication channels. If two quantum channels each have a transmission capacity of zero, they may still have a nonzero capacity ...

Brilliantly bright light source is one step closer to reality, says scientist

Oct 03, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
(PhysOrg.com) -- A brilliantly bright light source that can examine the detail of atoms at a microscopic level is one step closer, thanks to the adoption of a Europe-wide convention, says a leading scientist ...

Coastlines could be protected by 'invisibility cloak'

Oct 02, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
Scientists at the University of Liverpool have tested an 'invisibility cloak' that could reduce the risk of large water waves overtopping coastal defences.
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