Tiny Space Probes Using “Laser Sails” Could Speed to Outer Planets and Beyond
Space travel can be agonizingly slow: For example, the New Horizons probe took almost 10 years to reach Pluto. Traveling to Proxima Centauri b, the…
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Space travel can be agonizingly slow: For example, the New Horizons probe took almost 10 years to reach Pluto. Traveling to Proxima Centauri b, the…
First experimental realization of energetic ions driven by intense laser irradiating the world’s thinnest and strongest target. Laser-driven ion acceleration has been studied to develop…
New approach expands the application of powerful, ultrafast laser pulses. Quick bursts of laser light, lasting less than a trillionth of a second, are used…
The UK Space Agency has awarded almost £650,000 to Northumbria University to continue world-leading work to develop the first commercially available laser-based inter-satellite communications system….
Controlling nanolasers with magnets lays the groundwork for more robust optical signaling. A magnetic field can be used to switch nanolasers on and off, shows…
Imagine windows that can easily transform into mirrors, or super high-speed computers that run not on electrons but light. These are just some of the…
The transmission electron microscope (TEM) can image molecular structures at the atomic scale by using electrons instead of light, and has revolutionized materials science and…
High-precision 3D supercomputer simulations reveal the 3D structure of theoretically predicted micron-scale megatesla magnetic fields, optimizing engineering design of laser conditions and micron-size target structures…
Cooled to almost absolute zero, atoms not only move in waves like light but also can be focused into shapes called caustics, similar to the…
NASA launches satellites, rovers, and orbiters to investigate humanity’s place in the Milky Way. When these missions reach their destinations, their science instruments capture images,…
Columbia Engineers invent software-controlled robotic lasers that cook food with unparalleled precision, retaining more moisture, and creating an entirely new, customized way to cook a…
An international research team demonstrates how to generate extremely short pulses of visible light using an industrial-grade laser system. Visible light is extremely important in…
Ultrashort flashes of light lasting less than a quadrillionth of a second are fast growing in technological importance. In laser sources, pairs and groups of…
NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) is gearing up for launch this fall, no earlier than November 22. The payload arrived in Florida in May,…
Tiny lasers acting together as one: Topological vertical cavity laser arrays Israeli and German researchers have developed a way to force an array of vertical…
Scientists focus on cone targets to enhance temperature of electron beams. Intense short-pulse laser-driven production of bright high-energy sources, such as X-rays, neutrons and protons,…
While laser-based 3D printing techniques have revolutionized the production of metal parts by greatly expanding design complexity, the laser beams traditionally used in metal printing…
Physicists at the University of Bath in the UK observe a new physical effect in chiral (twisted) nanoparticles. Physics researchers at the University of Bath…