http://www.physorg.com/physics-news/optics-photonics/ en-us PhysOrg.com provides the latest news on Optics and Photonics (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 use sculptured thin films. http://www.physorg.com/news177086474.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:42:05 EST news177086474 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 short bursts of light with complex waveforms needed to control chemistry and physics experiments where changes are induced by light.. http://www.physorg.com/news176486984.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:00:01 EST news176486984 (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. http://www.physorg.com/news175702057.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:08:17 EST news175702057 (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. http://www.physorg.com/news175240202.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:51:12 EST news175240202 (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, China created the tiny black hole in their laboratory, in an experiment that aimed to simulate a black hole. http://www.physorg.com/news174893601.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:40:01 EST news174893601 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 of light, MIT researchers have implemented for the first time a one-way structure in which microwave light flows losslessly around obstacles or defects. This concept, when used in lightwave circuits, might one day reduce their internal connections to simple one-way conduits with much improved capacity and efficiency. http://www.physorg.com/news174240031.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:03:28 EST news174240031 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 symptoms, they can't spread the disease to others and the bug remains dormant in their lungs -- often for years. http://www.physorg.com/news174226180.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:30:01 EST news174226180 (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 even undertaking work toward achieving exawatt (10^18 watts) levels. http://www.physorg.com/news173638318.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:52:26 EST news173638318 (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 directions to create, among other tricks of the light, the illusion of invisibility. http://www.physorg.com/news173421185.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Tue, 29 Sep 2009 05:33:33 EST news173421185 (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 coil, laser, and nanoscale-patterned silicon waveguide. http://www.physorg.com/news173362735.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:19:51 EST news173362735 Physicists at UC San Diego have successfully created speedy integrated circuits with particles called "excitons" that operate at commercially cold temperatures, bringing the possibility of a new type of extremely fast computer based on excitons closer to reality. http://www.physorg.com/news173280934.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Sun, 27 Sep 2009 14:36:05 EST news173280934 A team of researchers from the University of Zaragoza (UNIZAR, Spain) and the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS, in France) has developed a "scintillating bolometer", a device that the scientists will use in efforts to detect the dark matter of the Universe, and which has been tested at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory in Huesca, Spain. http://www.physorg.com/news173099370.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:20:01 EST news173099370 (PhysOrg.com) -- Tomorrow's lasers may come with a bit of bling, thanks to a new technology that uses man-made diamonds to enhance the power and capabilities of lasers. Researchers in Australia have now demonstrated the first laser built with diamonds that has comparable efficiency to lasers built with other materials. http://www.physorg.com/news172497349.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:56:20 EST news172497349 (PhysOrg.com) -- Dr. Dentcho Genov, an assistant professor of physics and electrical engineering at Louisiana Tech University and a Louisiana Optical Network Initiative (LONI) Institute fellow, is featured on the cover of the most recent issue of Nature Physics. http://www.physorg.com/news171805185.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:40:27 EST news171805185 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have reached a new milestone in laser physics by creating the world's smallest semiconductor laser, capable of generating visible light in a space smaller than a single protein molecule. http://www.physorg.com/news170862487.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Sun, 30 Aug 2009 14:48:46 EST news170862487 A group of researchers in Australia and Taiwan has developed a new way to analyze the health of human teeth using lasers. As described in the latest issue of Optics Express,, by measuring how the surface of a tooth responds to laser-generated ultrasound, they can evaluate the mineral content of tooth enamel -- the semi-translucent outer layer of a tooth that protects the underlying dentin. http://www.physorg.com/news169813870.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:50:02 EST news169813870 (PhysOrg.com) -- Because the new device, called a "spaser," is the first of its kind to emit visible light, it represents a critical component for possible future technologies based on "nanophotonic" circuitry, said Vladimir Shalaev, the Robert and Anne Burnett Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. http://www.physorg.com/news169649724.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Sun, 16 Aug 2009 13:56:15 EST news169649724 (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 limited. What we have done is develop a different set up that is simpler.` Snigirev is a scientist at ESRF in Grenoble France. Along with scientists at the Russian Kurchatov Research Center in Moscow, and at IMT RAS in Chernogolovka, Russia, Snigirev proposes that refractive bilenses made from silicon can be used in place of crystals. http://www.physorg.com/news169383826.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:06:21 EST news169383826 University of Central Florida researchers have shown for the first time that light energy can gently guide and change the orientation of living cells within lab cultures. That ability to optically steer cells could be a major step in harnessing the healing power of stem cells and guiding them to areas of the body that need help. http://www.physorg.com/news169223722.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:50:01 EST news169223722 (PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) in Vienna and Innsbruck, Austria, have created an interaction between light and a micromechanical resonator that is strong enough to transfer quantum effects. This is an important step towards quantum physics experiments in the macroscopic domain. They report about their result in the latest issue of the scientific journal Nature. http://www.physorg.com/news168771383.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:57:26 EST news168771383 Using a composite metamaterial to deliver a complex set of instructions to a beam of light, Boston College physicists have created a device to guide electromagnetic waves around objects such as the corner of a building or the profile of the eastern seaboard. http://www.physorg.com/news168263666.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Fri, 31 Jul 2009 12:55:25 EST news168263666 (PhysOrg.com) -- We could soon see the potential of laser technology expand dramatically. http://www.physorg.com/news168012151.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:03:21 EST news168012151 Physicists at New York University have developed a technique to record three-dimensional movies of microscopic systems, such as biological molecules, through holographic video. The work, which is reported in Optics Express, has potential to improve medical diagnostics and drug discovery. http://www.physorg.com/news167309125.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Mon, 20 Jul 2009 11:45:55 EST news167309125 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of Yale University researchers has discovered a "repulsive" light force that can be used to control components on silicon microchips, meaning future nanodevices could be controlled by light rather than electricity. http://www.physorg.com/news166711942.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:52:50 EST news166711942 (PhysOrg.com) -- In recent years scientists have explored the impossible by developing invisibility or 'cloaking' devices, but can the same technology also help make things more visible? http://www.physorg.com/news165589714.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:09:06 EST news165589714 In the past, even modern technologies have failed to produce high-resolution fluorescence images from this depth because of the strong scattering of light. In the Nature Photonics journal, the Munich researchers describe how they can reveal genetic expression within live fly larvae and fish by "listening to light". In the future this technology may facilitate the examination of tumors or coronary vessels in humans. http://www.physorg.com/news165578271.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:58:52 EST news165578271 A massive European effort to develop high-brightness semiconductor lasers could transform healthcare, telecoms and display applications and make Europe an undisputed leader in the field. http://www.physorg.com/news164549707.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:50:02 EST news164549707 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 every one of those pairs is collected at the cell's electrodes. http://www.physorg.com/news164458857.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:01:52 EST news164458857 It was an idea born out of curiosity in the physics lab, but now a new type of ‘laser` for generating ultra-high frequency sound waves instead of light has taken a major step towards becoming a unique and highly useful 21st century technology. http://www.physorg.com/news164454318.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:20:01 EST news164454318 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of physicists and engineers at Bristol University has demonstrated exquisite control of single particles of light - photons - on a silicon chip to make a major advance towards long-sought-after quantum technologies, including super-powerful quantum computers and ultra-precise measurements. http://www.physorg.com/news163427868.html Physics - Optics & Photonics Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:39:06 EST news163427868