News tagged with optical energy

Researchers efficiently couple light from a plane wave into a surface plasmon mode

Researchers from the NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology have made a grating coupler that transmits over 45 % of the incident optical energy from a plane wave into a single surface plasmon polariton (SPP) mode ...

Physics / General Physics

created Feb 02, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

How long do electrons live in graphene?

Together with international colleagues, scientists from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) have added another important component towards understanding the material graphene; a material that is ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Dec 12, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Revolutionary new camera reveals the dark side of the Universe

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new camera that will revolutionise the field of submillimetre astronomy has been unveiled on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in Hawaii SCUBA-2 is far more sensitive and powerful ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 06, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (16) | comments 17

A single polymer can be used to fabricate both thin-film transistors and solar cells

Polymers are the material of choice for making thin-film transistors and solar cells. They are also potentially suitable for manufacture using economical, high-throughput techniques, such as roll-to-roll and inkjet printing ...

Chemistry / Polymers

created Nov 17, 2011 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Using nanophotonics to reshape on-chip computer data transmission

A team at Stanford's School of Engineering has demonstrated an ultrafast nanoscale light emitting diode (LED) that is orders of magnitude lower in power consumption than today's laser-based systems and able ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Nov 15, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (11) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Novel nanocrystals with advanced optical properties developed for use as luminescent biomarkers

Upconversion emission materials are ideal for bioimaging due to its effectiveness as contrast agents for the detection of cancer cells, more so when the background emission of non-cancerous tissues can be minimised. These ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Nov 14, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Researchers adapt classic antennas to harness more power from the sun

Some solar devices, like calculators, only need a small panel of solar cells to function. But supplying enough power to meet all our daily needs would require enormous solar panels. And solar-powered energy collected by panels ...

Physics / General Physics

created Nov 10, 2011 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Putting artificial atoms on the clock

Around the turn of the century, scientists began to understand that atoms have discrete energy levels. Within the field of quantum physics, this sparked the development of quantum optics in which light is ...

Physics / General Physics

created Nov 07, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

World's first tunable broadband RF device emerges

A team of researchers from the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia's iTEAM in Spain has created the first, tunable broadband radio frequency (RF) photonic phase shifter. Because it is based on a single semiconductor element, ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Oct 04, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Optofluidics could improve energy applications

(PhysOrg.com) -- The ability to manipulate light and fluids on a single chip, broadly called "optofluidics," has led to such technologies as liquid-crystal displays and liquid-filled optical fibers for fast ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Sep 13, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Controlling Chemistry Improves Potential of Carbon Nanotubes

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of University of Maryland nanotechnology researchers has solved one of the most vexing challenges hindering the use of carbon nanomaterials for better electrical energy storage or ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Jul 13, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Lightwave electronics at sharp metal tips

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics control for the first time the emission of electrons from metal tips with femtosecond lasers alone.

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Jul 07, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (4) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Vertical cavity quantum switch could lead us away from electronics-based computing

(PhysOrg.com) -- Right now, many researchers around the world are working on ways to move away from electronics-dominated computing systems. There are a number of ideas about how this can be accomplished. "We are trying to ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Jun 30, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (27) | comments 5 | with audio podcast feature

Near infrared fluorescence lights up hidden blood clots

Research presented at SNM's 58th Annual Meeting may mark the expansion of a novel imaging agent for an optical technique called near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF), which uses light energy to glean information about cells and ...

Medicine & Health / Cardiology

created Jun 06, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Powerful optical centrifuge created to study dynamics of fast spinning molecules

(PhysOrg.com) -- High-energy molecules play a major role in the chemistry of combustion, plasmas and the atmosphere. Scientists have been able to generate and investigate molecules with large amounts of vibrational, ...

Chemistry / Analytical Chemistry

created Apr 11, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast