News tagged with optical physics

Fast photon control brings quantum photonic technologies closer

(PhysOrg.com) -- Using photons instead of electrons to transmit information could lead to faster and more secure ways to communicate, among other advantages. Now a team of physicists has taken another step toward realizing ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created 8 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast feature

Scientists create first free-standing 3-D cloak

Researchers in the US have, for the first time, cloaked a three-dimensional object standing in free space, bringing the much-talked-about invisibility cloak one step closer to reality.

Physics / General Physics

created Jan 26, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (10) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Flipping an egg carton of light traps giant atoms

(PhysOrg.com) -- In an egg carton of laser light, University of Michigan physicists can trap giant Rydberg atoms with up to 90 percent efficiency, an achievement that could advance quantum computing and terahertz ...

Physics / General Physics

created Dec 23, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Twisting molecules by brute force: A top-down approach

Molecules that are twisted are ubiquitous in nature, and have important consequences in biology, chemistry, physics and medicine. Some molecules have unique and technologically useful optical properties; the medicinal properties ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Dec 14, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

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

Butterfly wings inspire design of water-repellent surface

Researchers mimic the many-layered nanostructure of blue mountain swallowtail wings to make a silicon wafer that traps both air and light.

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Nov 21, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New metamaterial allows transmission gain while retaining negative refraction property

A new type of active metamaterial that incorporates semiconductor devices into conventional metamaterial structures is demonstrating an ability to have power gain while retaining its negative refraction property, a first ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Nov 09, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | 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

New way to funnel light could have infrared applications

(PhysOrg.com) -- Taking light control to a new level, scientists have proposed a technique for confining light into an area just 1/500th the size of the light's wavelength. Since funneling light through su ...

Physics / General Physics

created Oct 25, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (7) | comments 1 | with audio podcast feature

A microscopic view on quantum fluctuations

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics achieve direct imaging of quantum fluctuations at absolute zero temperature.

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Oct 14, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (9) | comments 12 | with audio podcast

New way to store light could prove useful for optical communication

(PhysOrg.com) -- Due to its high data carrying capacity and low loss, light can serve as an ideal information carrier. However, due to the high speed at which it travels, light is difficult to store. Because ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Oct 03, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (10) | comments 3 | with audio podcast feature

Exotic quantum states: A new research approach

(PhysOrg.com) -- Theoretical physicists of the University of Innsbruck have formulated a new concept to engineer exotic, so-called topological states of matter in quantum mechanical many-body systems. They ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Oct 03, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Twisted crystals point way toward active optical materials

(PhysOrg.com) -- A nanoscale game of "now you see it, now you don't" may contribute to the creation of metamaterials with useful optical properties that can be actively controlled, according to scientists ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Sep 29, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Physicists map spiraling light to harness untapped data capacity

Physicists with the Institute of Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers (IUSL) at The City College of New York have presented a new way to map spiraling light that could help harness untapped data channels in optical fibers. Increased ...

Physics / General Physics

created Aug 25, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Tunable nano-suspensions for light harvesting

A Syracuse University researcher has developed a patent-pending robust process to manufacture stable suspensions of metal nanoparticles capable of capturing sunlight.

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Aug 22, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 2