Breakthrough Towards Lasers Powerful Enough to Investigate a New Kind of Physics
An international team of researchers has demonstrated an innovative technique for increasing the intensity of lasers. In a paper that made the cover of the…
Optics
Rice Physics Lab’s Bright Idea Is Pure Gold
Physicists see surprisingly strong light, high heat from nanogaps between plasmonic electrodes. Seeing light emerge from a nanoscale experiment didn’t come as a big…
Quantum Entanglement Demonstrated Aboard Orbiting CubeSat – Step Toward Space-Based Global Quantum Network
Advance poised to enable cost-effective space-based global quantum network for secure communications and more. In a critical step toward creating a global quantum communications network,…
New Research on Optomechanical Technology That Can Enhance Gravitational-Wave Detectors
Gravitational wave detectors are extremely complex instruments of precision measurement. They use interference as the physical mechanism to measure passing gravitational waves (GWs)—ripples in space-time—from…
Physicist’s 50-Year-Old Magnetic Structure Prediction Evidenced at Surprisingly Large Scales
Imaging Magnetic Instabilities Using Laser Accelerated Protons An international team of researchers highlighted two variants of Weibel’s instability. The magnetic structures resulting from a plasma…
Solid-State Laser Refrigeration of Nanoscale Sensors Achieved – Could Revolutionize Bio-Imaging and Quantum Communication
To the general public, lasers heat objects. And generally, that would be correct. But lasers also show promise to do quite the opposite — to…
Speeding-Up Quantum Computing Using Giant Atomic Ions – 100 Million Times Larger Than Normal Atoms
Trapped Rydberg ions can be the next step towards scaling up quantum computers to sizes where they can be practically usable, a new study in…
Pathbreaking Platform for Quantum Simulation: A Metal-Like Quantum Gas
Electronic properties of condensed matter are often determined by an intricate competition between kinetic energy that aims to overlap and delocalize electronic wave functions across…
Quantum Rings in the Hold of Laser Light: Ultracold Atoms Trapped in Surprisingly Complex Structures
Ultracold atoms trapped in appropriately prepared optical traps can arrange themselves in surprisingly complex, hitherto unobserved structures, according to scientists from the Institute of Nuclear…
A New Law in Laser Physics Could Make Eye Surgery Simpler – High Energy Pulses in a Trillionth of a Second
New soliton laser pulses deliver high energy in a trillionth of a second. By revisiting a simple type of laser, scientists have discovered a way…
Plasmon Nanojet: Superlens Squeezes Light Into Nanospace
Plasmon nanojet: Physicists implement efficient mechanism for subwavelength focusing of plasmons. Russian and Danish researchers have made a first-ever experimental observation of a plasmon nanojet….
Order From Disorder: Harnessing Turbulence in Light to Create a High-Precision Laser
Using Turbulence to Generate Frequency Combs From Small Ring Lasers We’ve all experienced turbulent air and water, but did you know light can be turbulent…
Intricate Beauty, Quasiperiodic Structures, and the Cascade to Criticality
Combined theoretical and experimental work unveils a novel mechanism through which criticality emerges in quasiperiodic structures — a finding that provides unique insight into the…
Multi-Watt Terahertz Semiconductor “Quantum-Cascade” Laser Breakthrough
Researchers at Lehigh’s Center for Photonics and Nanoelectronics use new phase-locking technique to achieve record-high output power for terahertz lasers, report highest radiative efficiency for…
Efficient Generation of Relativistic Near-Single-Cycle Mid-Infrared Pulses in Plasmas
The invention of chirped pulse amplification technique by Strickland and Mourou in 1985 has boosted the peak power of ultrashort laser pulses to an unprecedented…
Hollow-Core Fiber Raises Prospects for Next-Generation Scientific Instruments
The novel fibers’ latest advances, published recently in Nature Photonics, have underlined the technology’s potential for next-generation optical interferometric systems and sensors. Hollow-core optical fibers…
Biochemical Quantitative Phase Imaging Delivers Unprecedented 3D Images of Live Cells Plus Details of Molecules Inside
No damage caused by strong light, no artificial dyes or fluorescent tags needed. The insides of living cells can be seen in their natural state…
Light, Fantastic: The Path Ahead for Faster, Nanoscale Photonic Computer Processors
Australian and German researchers build modular bridge design for nanoscale photonic chip. Photonic chips have huge potential for the future of computers and telecommunications. Australian…