http://www.physorg.com/physics-news/optics-photonics/ en-us PhysOrg Team PhysOrg.com provides the latest news on Optics and Photonics Scientists at the University of Adelaide have made a breakthrough that could change the world's thinking on what light is capable of. http://www.physorg.com/news177244484.html Physics - Optics & Photonics 2009-11-12T11:00:02-07:00 (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 2009-11-10T14:42:05-07:00 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 2009-11-03T17:00:01-07:00 A team of physicists has directly observed a reverse shock wave of light in a specially tailored structure known as a left-handed metamaterial. Although it was first predicted over forty years ago, this is the first unambiguous experimental demonstration of the effect. The research is reported in Physical Review Letters and highlighted with a Viewpoint in the November 2 issue of Physics. http://www.physorg.com/news176397143.html Physics - Optics & Photonics 2009-11-02T15:14:10-07:00 (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 2009-10-25T15:08:17-07:00 (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 2009-10-20T06:51:12-07:00 (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 2009-10-16T09:40:01-07:00 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 2009-10-08T17:03:28-07:00 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 2009-10-08T13:30:01-07:00 The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) has helped to establish that femtosecond comb lasers can provide accurate measurement of absolute distance in formation flying space missions. http://www.physorg.com/news173696038.html Physics - Optics & Photonics 2009-10-02T09:55:31-07:00 (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 2009-10-01T17:52:26-07:00 (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 2009-09-29T05:33:33-07:00 (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 2009-09-28T13:19:51-07:00 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 2009-09-27T14:36:05-07:00 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 2009-09-25T12:20:01-07:00 (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 2009-09-18T12:56:20-07:00 (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 2009-09-10T12:40:27-07:00 The speed of light, 300 million metres per second, was long thought an immutable constant and has defined our understanding of matter and energy but recent research in the area of optics and photonics is proving that we can manipulate light to some ingenious and hugely lucrative ends. http://www.physorg.com/news171694289.html Physics - Optics & Photonics 2009-09-09T05:55:38-07:00 (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 2009-08-30T14:48:46-07:00 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 2009-08-18T11:50:02-07:00 The University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc. (UGARF) and the University of Puerto Rico have granted an international, non-exclusive license for a portfolio of glow-in-the-dark pigments that can be designed to emit light in any color of the visible spectrum for nearly a day. Performance Indicator, LLC, of Lowell, Mass., acquired the license. http://www.physorg.com/news169751346.html Physics - Optics & Photonics 2009-08-17T18:09:55-07:00 (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 2009-08-16T13:56:15-07:00 (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 2009-08-13T12:06:21-07:00 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 2009-08-11T15:50:01-07:00 (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 2009-08-06T09:57:26-07:00 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 2009-07-31T12:55:25-07:00 (PhysOrg.com) -- We could soon see the potential of laser technology expand dramatically. http://www.physorg.com/news168012151.html Physics - Optics & Photonics 2009-07-28T15:03:21-07:00 Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Space Science Division scientist, Dr. Christoph R. Englert, is awarded patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a more cost effective, rugged and lightweight compression assembly design for spatial heterodyne spectrometer (SHS) interferometer applications. This innovative design approach introduces the flexibility of exchanging optical components while conserving the ruggedness of previous monolithic SHS interferometer designs and reducing their high production costs; a factor that has impeded wide-spread military and commercial application. http://www.physorg.com/news167478918.html Physics - Optics & Photonics 2009-07-22T10:56:20-07:00 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 2009-07-20T11:45:55-07:00 (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 2009-07-13T13:52:50-07:00