/ en-us Â鶹ÒùÔº internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Â鶹ÒùÔºics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. In nanophotonics, tiny structures are used to control light at the nanoscale and render it useful for technological applications. A key element here is optical resonators, which trap and amplify light of a certain color (wavelength). /news/2025-08-ultrafast-asymmetric-silicon-metasurfaces-nanophotonics.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 06 Aug 2025 11:00:04 EDT news673626408 Refraction—the bending of light as it passes through different media—has long been constrained by physical laws that prevent independent control over how light waves along different directions bend. Now, UCLA researchers have developed a new class of passive materials that can be structurally engineered to "program" refraction, enabling arbitrary control over the bending of light waves. /news/2025-07-ai-3d-materials-enable-custom.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 28 Jul 2025 10:20:02 EDT news672916543 In the race toward practical quantum computers and networks, photons—fundamental particles of light—hold intriguing possibilities as fast carriers of information at room temperature. /news/2025-07-metasurfaces-quantum-processors.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 24 Jul 2025 15:17:38 EDT news672589049 A new material platform has enabled scientists to create photon pairs whose entanglement can be tuned from a layer thinner than a human hair. /news/2025-07-asymmetric-metasurface-precise-photon-entanglement.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Fri, 18 Jul 2025 08:46:38 EDT news672047194 By leveraging the concept of chirality, or the difference of a shape from its mirror image, EPFL scientists have engineered an optical metasurface that controls light to yield a simple and versatile technique for secure encryption, sensing, and computing. /news/2025-07-chiral-metasurfaces-encode-images-visible.html Optics & Photonics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Wed, 16 Jul 2025 09:50:10 EDT news671877679 How does a cloud stay cool under direct sunlight—or seem to vanish in infrared? In nature, phenomena like white cumulus clouds, gray storm systems, and even the hollow hairs of polar bears offer remarkable lessons in balancing temperature, color and invisibility. Inspired by these atmospheric marvels, researchers have now created a nanoscale "cloud" metasurface capable of dynamically switching between white and gray states—cooling or heating on demand—all while evading thermal detection. /news/2025-06-nano-clouds-temperature-outwit-sensors.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Mon, 30 Jun 2025 13:05:03 EDT news670507501 Optical biosensors use light waves as a probe to detect molecules, and are essential for precise medical diagnostics, personalized medicine, and environmental monitoring. /news/2025-06-scientists-illuminating-biosensor.html Optics & Photonics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 26 Jun 2025 07:05:18 EDT news670140313 Color, as the way light's wavelength is perceived by the human eye, goes beyond a simple aesthetic element, containing important scientific information like a substance's composition or state. /news/2025-06-high-resolution-spectrometer-smartphones.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 13 Jun 2025 08:32:08 EDT news669022321 Â鶹ÒùÔºicists at ETH Zurich have developed a lens that can transform infrared light into visible light by halving the wavelength of incident light. The study is published in Advanced Materials. /news/2025-06-ultra-thin-lenses-halve-incident.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 02 Jun 2025 10:20:33 EDT news668078429 In the nanometer range (billionth of a meter), interactions occur between light and matter that do not happen on larger scales. As such, so-called nanophotonic materials have unique optical properties that open up a whole range of technical possibilities. /news/2025-05-ultrathin-resonators-standard-efficient.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Thu, 29 May 2025 12:09:11 EDT news667739344 Metalenses represent a revolutionary advancement in optical technology. Unlike conventional microscope objectives that rely on curved glass surfaces, metalenses employ nanoscale structures to manipulate light at the subwavelength level. Thanks to their ultrathin, lightweight, and flat architectures, metalenses can overcome the bulkiness of traditional lenses, making them ideal candidates for integration in electronic devices and compact imaging systems. /news/2025-05-high-resolution-metalens-doublet-microscope.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 28 May 2025 15:27:06 EDT news667664814 Augmented reality (AR), the technology that overlays digital content onto what users see around them in real-time, is now widely used in the retail, gaming and entertainment industries, as well as in some educational settings and learning environments. A key component of AR systems are so-called waveguide displays, transparent optical layers that guide light from a projector to the eyes of users, allowing them to see projected images integrated on top of their surrounding environment. /news/2025-05-layer-waveguide-display-achromatic-metagratings.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 28 May 2025 07:30:01 EDT news667560148 By carefully placing nanostructures on a flat surface, researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, have significantly improved the performance of so-called optical metasurfaces in conductive plastics. This is a major step for controllable flat optics, with future applications such as video holograms, invisibility materials, and sensors, as well as in biomedical imaging. /news/2025-05-flat-optical-metasurfaces-plastics-boost.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 21 May 2025 12:41:03 EDT news667050061 Molding the flow of light—whether confined to localized regions or propagating in free space—remains crucial for modern integrated photonics. The advancement of the multi-channel, programmable optical waveguide and coupler arrays has enabled us to develop photonic integrated circuits (PICs) as a viable alternative to electronic ones, overcoming limitations in processing speed, bandwidth, and efficiency across the optical-to-microwave spectrum. /news/2025-05-topological-polycrystal-approach-configurable-multiband.html Condensed Matter Optics & Photonics Thu, 08 May 2025 11:20:01 EDT news665914846 Converting sunlight into electricity is the task of photovoltaic solar cells, but nearly half the light that reaches a flat silicon solar cell surface is lost to reflection. While traditional antireflective coatings help, they only work within a narrow range of light frequency and incidence angles. A new study may have overcome this limit. /news/2025-05-precision-surface-silicon-solar-cell.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Thu, 01 May 2025 15:03:24 EDT news665330600 Polarization, along with intensity, wavelength, and phase, is a fundamental property of light. It enhances contrast and resolution in imaging compared to traditional intensity-based methods. On-chip polarization devices rely on complex four-pixel arrays or external polarizers. /news/2025-04-torsion-unipolar-barrier-heterojunction-device.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 30 Apr 2025 16:30:03 EDT news665249402 Beams of light that can be guided into corkscrew-like shapes called optical vortices are used today in a range of applications. Pushing the limits of structured light, Harvard applied physicists in the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) report a new type of optical vortex beam that not only twists as it travels but also changes in different parts at different rates to create unique patterns. The way the light behaves resembles spiral shapes common in nature. /news/2025-04-spirals-nautilus-shell.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 11 Apr 2025 14:13:03 EDT news663599581 Researchers from ICMAB are revolutionizing how we manipulate light at the nanoscale using chiral plasmonic structures—nanomaterials designed to interact with polarized light in extraordinary ways. /news/2025-04-chiral-plasmonic-nanostructures-limits-nanoscale.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Thu, 10 Apr 2025 11:58:03 EDT news663505081 Almost a decade ago, Harvard engineers unveiled the world's first visible-spectrum metasurfaces—ultra-thin, flat devices patterned with nanoscale structures that could precisely control the behavior of light. A powerful alternative to traditional, bulky optical components, metasurfaces today enable compact, lightweight, multifunctional applications ranging from imaging systems and augmented reality to spectroscopy and communications. /news/2025-04-metasurfaces-bilayer-device-polarized.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Tue, 01 Apr 2025 15:09:09 EDT news662738944 Capturing precise 3D details with a single camera has long been a challenge. Traditional methods often require complex dual-camera setups or specialized lighting conditions that are impractical for real-world applications. However, a groundbreaking approach developed at Nanjing University is set to redefine 3D imaging. /news/2025-03-revolutionizing-3d-vision-miniaturized-snapshot.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 01 Apr 2025 07:20:02 EDT news662633824 Photonic circuits, which manipulate light to perform various computational tasks, have become essential tools for a range of advanced technologies—from quantum simulations to artificial intelligence. These circuits offer a promising way to process information with minimal energy loss, especially in fields like quantum computing where complex systems are simulated to test theories of quantum mechanics. /news/2025-03-liquid-crystal-platform-optical-losses.html Optics & Photonics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 27 Mar 2025 15:02:03 EDT news662306521 A flower-shaped structure only a few micrometers in size made of a nickel-iron alloy can concentrate and locally enhance magnetic fields. The size of the effect can be controlled by varying the geometry and number of "petals." /news/2025-03-magnetic-microflowers-local-fields.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Tue, 25 Mar 2025 13:21:03 EDT news662127662 Quantum entanglement is a fundamental phenomenon in nature and one of the most intriguing aspects of quantum mechanics. It describes a correlation between two particles, such that measuring the properties of one instantly reveals those of the other, no matter how far apart they are. This unique property has been harnessed in applications such as quantum computing and quantum communication. /news/2025-03-quantum-holograms-metasurfaces-entangle.html Optics & Photonics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Wed, 12 Mar 2025 16:52:09 EDT news661017124 Quantum information processing is a field that relies on the entanglement of multiple photons to process vast amounts of information. However, creating multiphoton entanglement is a challenging task. Traditional methods either use quantum nonlinear optical processes, which are inefficient for large numbers of photons, or linear beam-splitting and quantum interference, which require complex setups prone to issues like loss and crosstalk. /news/2025-03-metasurface-technology-compact-generate-multiphoton.html Optics & Photonics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Mon, 10 Mar 2025 10:16:03 EDT news660820561 Antennas receive and transmit electromagnetic waves, delivering information to our radios, televisions, cellphones and more. Researchers in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis imagines a future where antennas reshape even more applications. /news/2025-02-tiny-antennas-amplify-polarized.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Thu, 20 Feb 2025 13:25:24 EST news659280315 Collaboration can be a beautiful thing, especially when people work together to create something new. Take, for example, a longstanding collaboration between Arka Majumdar, a University of Washington (UW) professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics, and Felix Heide, an assistant professor of computer science at Princeton University. /news/2025-02-compact-camera.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 05 Feb 2025 10:33:35 EST news657974006 A research team at POSTECH has developed a novel multidimensional sampling theory to overcome the limitations of flat optics. Their study not only identifies the constraints of conventional sampling theories in metasurface design but also presents an innovative anti-aliasing strategy that significantly enhances optical performance. Their findings were published in Nature Communications. /news/2025-02-multidimensional-sampling-theory-noise-flat.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 04 Feb 2025 13:05:03 EST news657896701 Microscale light-emitting diodes (micro-LEDs) are emerging as a next-generation display technology for optical communications, augmented and virtual reality, and wearable devices. Metal-halide perovskites show great potential for efficient light emission, long-range carrier transport, and scalable manufacturing, making them potentially ideal candidates for bright LED displays. /news/2025-01-perovskite-growth-method-ultrahigh-resolution.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Tue, 21 Jan 2025 14:46:03 EST news656693161 Left and right circularly polarized light, where the electromagnetic waves spiral in a clockwise and counterclockwise manner as they travel, plays a crucial role in a wide range of applications, from enhancing medical imaging techniques to enabling advanced communication technologies. However, generating circularly polarized light often requires complex and bulky optical set-ups, which hinders its use in systems with space constraints. /news/2025-01-metasurface-compact-solution-circularly-polarized.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 17 Jan 2025 12:14:04 EST news656338442 Reliably measuring the polarization state of light is crucial for various technological applications, ranging from optical communication to biomedical imaging. Yet conventional polarimeters are made of bulky components, which makes them difficult to reduce in size and limits their widespread adoption. /news/2024-12-compact-chip-polarimeter-polarization-high.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 20 Dec 2024 07:20:01 EST news653760670