News tagged with optical
Using lasers to cool and manipulate molecules
Dec 07, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (13) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- "For years, we have been using laser cooling to trap and manipulate atoms," David DeMille tells PhysOrg.com. "This has been very useful for both basic science and many applications. Recent ...
Nanoimaging in 3-D
Dec 01, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (14) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- As technology shrinks ever smaller, interest in objects and devices on the nanoscale becomes more apparent. However, visualizing these objects in three dimensions comes with special challenges. ...
Atomtronic transistor and diode could advance quantum computing
Oct 09, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (24) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- What if atoms could be used to perform the functions currently the province of electronic devices? The goal of atomtronics is to do just that by creating analogues to the common items found in electronic ...
Researchers Set New Distance Record for Quantum Key Distribution
Jul 21, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (14) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Quantum key distribution (QKD) could be the next commercial success of quantum physics, and a recent study has taken the field a step closer to this reality. Researchers from the University ...
Transform a ball into a rock -- or make it invisible -- using transformation optics
Jul 09, 2009 |
3.2 / 5 (13) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Science fiction and fantasy tales are full of the ability to "cloak" characters with invisibility. Whether it is a spaceship with a cloaking device, or a young wizard with an invisibility ...
Bouncing atoms may be the key to the future of gravimetry
Apr 27, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (14) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- When studying cold atoms, scientists often use magnetic or optical traps to keep the atoms in place. However, in some cases experimentalists want to study free atoms, avoiding the effects of a trap. "One ...
New Research Promises Better Atomic Clocks
Apr 22, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (9) |
1
(PhysOrg.com) -- The most accurate timekeepers in the world are atomic clocks, which tell time based on the absorption of a very specific and unchanging microwave frequency, which induces electrons in an atom to “jump” from ...
Entangled Light in Bose-Einstein Condensates
Apr 08, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (16) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- When physicists entangle light, they usually use nonlinear crystals as the source. However, it’s difficult to control the entanglement generation process in a bulk crystal, and so scientists ...
Exerting better control over matter waves
Mar 27, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (29) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- “The concept of matter waves is at the heart of quantum mechanics,” Oliver Morsch tells PhysOrg.com. “At the beginning of the last century, scientists discovered that solid particles could exhibit proper ...
Infrared Nanotube Films Offer Advantages for Solar Cells and More
Mar 11, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (11) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have already known that carbon nanotube thin films have mechanical and conductive advantages that could make them useful as electrodes in solar cells, solid state lighting, and ...
Scientists Create Light-Bending Nanoparticles
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Mar 03, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (20) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Metallic nanoparticles and other structures can manipulate light in ways that are not possible with conventional optical materials. In a recent example of this, Rice University researchers ...
Quantum dots as midinfrared emitters
Feb 23, 2009 |
4.1 / 5 (10) |
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(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 ...
The Power of Light: Moving Macroscopic Amounts of Matter
Jan 29, 2009 |
3.3 / 5 (12) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Since 1970, scientists have been working with “optical tweezers” - lasers that move microscopic amounts of matter using forces originating from the light matter interaction. Now, for the first ...
A New Method of Estimating Stellar Distances
Dec 21, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (14) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The star Chi Cygni is located about 550 light-years away, in the direction of the constellation of Cygnus the Swan. It is a notable star because, unlike the sun which still burns hydrogen ...
Computing with a wave of the hand (w/ Video)
Dec 11, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (14) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The iPhone’s familiar touch screen display uses capacitive sensing, where the proximity of a finger disrupts the electrical connection between sensors in the screen. A competing approach, ...
