/ 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. Â鶹ÒùÔºicists at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have created a compact laser that emits extremely bright, short pulses of light in a useful but difficult-to-achieve wavelength range, packing the performance of larger photonic devices onto a single chip. /news/2025-04-physicists-compact-mid-infrared-pulse.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 16 Apr 2025 11:00:11 EDT news663936961 Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is a state-of-the-art technique that captures and processes information across a given electromagnetic spectrum. Unlike traditional imaging techniques that capture light intensity at specific wavelengths, HSI collects a full spectrum at each pixel in an image. This rich spectral data enables the distinction between different materials and substances based on their unique spectral signatures. /news/2024-04-tech-enables-deep-tissue-imaging.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 29 Apr 2024 11:32:21 EDT news633609137 Scientists are making significant strides in the development of ultrabroadband white laser sources, covering a wide spectrum from ultraviolet to far infrared. These lasers find applications in diverse fields such as large-scale imaging, femto-chemistry, telecommunications, laser spectroscopy, sensing, and ultrafast sciences. /news/2024-01-team-nonlinear-medium-ultra-broadband.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 16 Jan 2024 16:54:02 EST news624646441 Scientists from the University of Ottawa and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light are proposing a breakthrough approach that will facilitate discoveries in materials science by combining terahertz (THz) spectroscopy and real-time monitoring. /news/2023-06-unveiling-invisible-breakthrough-spectroscopy-discoveries.html Condensed Matter Optics & Photonics Mon, 12 Jun 2023 16:16:13 EDT news605805370 Optical fibers are the backbone of our modern information networks. From long-range communication over the internet to high-speed information transfer within data centers and stock exchanges, optical fiber remains critical in our globalized world. /news/2023-01-optical-fiber-safe-bent.html Optics & Photonics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Tue, 10 Jan 2023 11:33:04 EST news592572781 Researchers at Tampere University have successfully developed a novel optical fiber design allowing the generation of rainbow laser light in the molecular fingerprint electromagnetic region. This new optical fiber with a self-cleaned beam can help in developing applications for, for example, pollutant tagging, cancer diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and food control. The finding was published in the journal Nature Communications. /news/2022-04-self-cleaning-optical-fiber-environment-cancer.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 26 Apr 2022 07:39:17 EDT news570177550 In optics, when a collection of nonlinear processes act together on a pump beam, the resulting spectral broadening of the original pump beam gives rise to a supercontinuum. Supercontinuum sources for optical coherence tomography are of great interest since they provide a broad bandwidth for high resolution and high-power imaging sensitivity. For commercial fiber-based supercontinuum systems, researchers use high pump powers to generate a broad bandwidth and customized optical filters to modulate the spectra. In a new report now published on Science Advances, Xingchen Ji and a research team in electrical engineering, biomedical engineering and applied physics at the Columbia University, New York, U.S., introduced a supercontinuum platform based on a 1 mm2 silicon nitride photonic chip for optical coherence tomography (OCT). The researchers directly pumped and efficiently generated a supercontinuum near 1300 nm and used the setup to image biological tissues and show the strong imaging performance of the device. The new chip will facilitate portable OCTs and integrated photonics during optical imaging studies. /news/2021-09-millimeter-scale-chip-based-supercontinuum.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 27 Sep 2021 09:20:01 EDT news551950038 Researchers have developed an advanced spectrometer that can acquire data with exceptionally high speed. The new spectrometer could be useful for a variety of applications including remote sensing, real-time biological imaging and machine vision. /news/2020-09-advanced-spectroscopy-technique.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 16 Sep 2020 12:35:20 EDT news519478514 Nanolight sources based on resonant excitons of plasmons near a sharp metallic nanostructure have attracted great interest in optical nanoimaging. However, the resonant phenomenon only works for one type of wavelength that resonates with plasmons. Compared to plasmonic resonance, the alternative plasmon nanofocusing method can generate a source of nanolight by propagating and compressing plasmons on a tapered metallic nanostructure, independent of wavelength, due to its reliance on propagation. In a new report on Science Advances, Takayuki Umakoshi and a research team in applied physics and chemistry in Japan generated a white nanolight source spanning across the entire visible light range through plasmon nanofocusing. Using the process, they demonstrated spectral bandgap nanoimaging of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The experimental demonstration of the source of white nanolight will enable diverse research fields to progress toward next-generation, nanophotonic technologies. /news/2020-06-white-nanolight-source-optical-nanoimaging.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 17 Jun 2020 09:30:02 EDT news511520956 Researchers have generated a wide range of colors from a single laser after discovering a new process for achieving so-called "supercontinuum generation." /news/2020-03-crystal-supercontinuum-breakthrough.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 09 Mar 2020 10:41:16 EDT news502969274 A new imaging technique developed by Biwei Yin and interdisciplinary researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in the U.S., provides resolution at the subcellular-level to image the heart's vascular system. As a result, heart researchers can study and diagnose human coronary artery disease with greater precision. Conventionally, cardiologists employ intravascular optical coherence tomography (OCT) to assess the buildup of coronary plaque, which can narrow arteries to cause coronary artery disease. /news/2019-11-cardiac-imaging-d-cellular-resolution.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 02 Dec 2019 09:30:01 EST news494244172 Hailed as a pioneer by Photonics Media for his previous discoveries of supercontinuum and Cr tunable lasers, City College of New York Distinguished Professor of Science and Engineering Robert R. Alfano and his research team are claiming another breakthrough with a new super-class of photons dubbed "Majorana photons." They could lead to enhanced information on quantum-level transition and imaging of the brain and its working. /news/2019-07-majorana-photons-super-class-wavefronts.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Tue, 16 Jul 2019 08:31:47 EDT news482484699 Researchers at EPFL have come up with a new middle infrared light source that can detect greenhouse and other gases, as well as molecules in a person's breath. The compact system, which resembles a tiny suitcase, contains just two parts: a standard laser together with a photonic chip measuring a few millimeters across. The research is detailed in an article published in Nature Communications. /news/2019-04-pollution-compact-laser-source.html Analytical Chemistry Thu, 04 Apr 2019 09:35:16 EDT news473589308 Light driven movement is challenging in nonliquid environments as micro-sized objects can experience strong dry adhesion to contact surfaces and resist movement. In a recent study, Jinsheng Lu and co-workers at the College of Optical Science and Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, School of Engineering and the Institute of Advanced Technology in China and Singapore, developed a vacuum system and achieved rotary locomotion where a micrometer-sized, metal hexagonal plate approximately 30 nm in thickness revolved around a microfiber. They powered the motor (plate-fiber) using a pulsed light, which was guided on the fiber by an optically excited Lamb wave. The procedure enabled a plate-fiber geometry motor favorable for optomechanical applications in practice; results of the study are now published on Science Advances. /news/2019-03-nanoscale-lamb-wave-driven-motors-nonliquid.html Nanophysics Tue, 19 Mar 2019 09:30:03 EDT news472113419 Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a light-based imaging technique currently used in clinical diagnostics to examine organs in vivo. The technique uses interferometry; in which light reflected from an examined object combines with reference light that does not encounter the object to generate interference patterns that form 2-D and 3-D OCT images. It is possible to use longer wavelengths of light in the imaging technique for deeper penetration in light scattering materials. Such features offer possibilities for OCT in non-destructive testing (NDT) of samples, and improved non-invasive biomedical imaging. In a recent study, Niels M. Israelsen and co-workers at the Technical University of Denmark, together with collaborators in Austria and the U.K., developed a new method to overcome the technical challenges of OCT imaging. /news/2019-02-optical-coherence-tomography-oct-longer.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 04 Feb 2019 09:50:02 EST news468496001 Using machine-learning and an integrated photonic chip, researchers from INRS (Canada) and the University of Sussex (UK) can now customize the properties of broadband light sources. Also called "supercontinuum", these sources are at the core of new imaging technologies and the approach proposed by the researchers will bring further insight into fundamental aspects of light-matter interactions and ultrafast nonlinear optics. The work is published in the journal Nature Communications on November 20, 2018. /news/2018-11-ai-optoelectronics-properties.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 20 Nov 2018 09:40:16 EST news461929208 An international team of researchers has used an unconventional imaging technique known as ghost imaging to make spectroscopic measurements of a gas molecule. The new approach by scientists at Tampere University of Technology in Finland, the University of Eastern Finland and the University of Burgundy Franche-Comté in France, works over a wide range of wavelengths and could improve measurements of atmospheric greenhouse gases such as methane. /news/2018-10-technique-greenhouse-gas-analysis.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 10 Oct 2018 12:09:30 EDT news458392163 Rice University scientists have developed a novel technique to view a field of plasmonic nanoparticles simultaneously to learn how their differences change their reactivity. /news/2018-03-imaging-technique-plasmon.html Nanophysics Fri, 16 Mar 2018 09:50:03 EDT news440412237 Researchers have developed a new flexible sensor with high sensitivity that is designed to perform variety of chemical and biological analyses in very small spaces. The sensor's small size means that it could potentially be used inside blood vessels. With additional development, the sensor might be used to detect specific chemicals, DNA molecules or viruses. /news/2018-03-compact-fiber-optic-sensor-sensitive.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 15 Mar 2018 14:39:34 EDT news440343565 Chemical compounds all carry distinctive absorption "fingerprints" within the mid-infrared spectral region of 2 to 12 microns. This offers an opportunity to measure and study chemicals at extremely sensitive levels but researchers lack the tools, like lasers and detectors, needed to operate within the mid-infrared. Recently, there's been a push to develop new tools to help see and measure these chemical compounds in greater detail. /news/2018-03-frequency-id-chemicals-mid-infrared-spectral.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 15 Mar 2018 11:59:13 EDT news440333904 A chemical sensor prototype developed at the University of Michigan will be able to detect "single-fingerprint quantities" of substances from a distance of more than 100 feet away, and its developers are working to shrink it to the size of a shoebox. /news/2017-12-shoe-box-sized-chemical-detector.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 15 Dec 2017 12:10:20 EST news432562196 An international research group, led by Macquarie University scientists, has developed a world-first optical fiber technology which can help detect a wide range of gases with unprecedented sensitivity, with potential applications ranging from breath analysis to air-quality monitoring. The discovery, which has been published in the journal Optica, outlines the development of an optical fiber device which encompasses an invisible infrared laser coupled to an ultra-broadband supercontinuum generator – two elements that researchers have never managed to combine to a single optical system before. /news/2017-09-world-first-optical-fiber-laser-revolutionise.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 29 Sep 2017 06:40:18 EDT news425886002 Research scientists from Jena have produced broadband laser light in the mid-infrared range with the help of liquid-filled optical fibers. The experiment produced proof of a new dynamics of hybrid solitons—temporally and spectrally stationary light waves resulting from the unique characteristics of the liquid core. /news/2017-07-broadband-sources-liquid-core.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 31 Jul 2017 06:40:03 EDT news420701402 Sending information with the help of light is the future. It requires 'light chips', made of a special glass. Scientists from the UT research institute MESA+ have now managed to equip these light chips - which were already known for their extremely low losses - with new 'active' functionalities, such as generating, strengthening, and modulating light. Their chip is capable of creating a very wide light spectrum that runs from blue to infrared, spanning wavelengths of 470 to 2130 nanometres. By doing so they have made a light chip with the largest frequency range ever. The research has been published in the scientific journal Optics Express this summer. /news/2015-09-team-photonic-chip.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 14 Sep 2015 09:21:18 EDT news361441192 The light generated by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen is more colourful than a rainbow. The scientists couple a low-energy, infrared laser pulse into a photonic crystal fibre (PCF) which is tailor-made so that the spectrum of the pulse broadens significantly to become white light: the generated spectrum spans from the deep-ultraviolet region to the mid-infrared region – a world record at such low input energy. The researchers from MPL in Erlangen are the first to produce microstructured glass fibres from a material that is particularly resistant to ultraviolet light, unlike conventional quartz glass. This material (ZBLAN) is actually extremely difficult to draw fibres from, and up until now it was regarded as impossible to draw photonic crystal fibres from it. In such fibres, a 2D periodic structure of hollow channels surrounds the fibre core, and runs along the entire length the fibre. The light produced with the world-record spectrum, could facilitate many investigations in biomedical research, in physics and chemistry, or even make new ones possible in the first place. /news/2015-03-photonic-crystal-fibre-ultraviolet-mid-infrared.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 16 Mar 2015 05:52:45 EDT news345703957 A research team from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has developed a novel, tunable nanoantenna that paves the way for new kinds of plasmonic-based optomechanical systems, whereby plasmonic field enhancement can actuate mechanical motion. /news/2014-07-tunable-nanoantennas.html Nanophysics Mon, 14 Jul 2014 13:06:41 EDT news324561970 (Â鶹ÒùÔº) —Despite their almost incomprehensibly small size – a diameter about one ten-thousandth the thickness of a human hair – single-walled carbon nanotubes come in a plethora of different "species," each with its own structure and unique combination of electronic and optical properties. Characterizing the structure and properties of an individual carbon nanotube has involved a lot of guesswork – until now. /news/2013-11-technique-imaging-individual-carbon-nanotubes.html Nanophysics Tue, 12 Nov 2013 12:46:24 EST news303482766 A new laser that can show what objects are made of could help military aircraft identify hidden dangers such as weapons arsenals far below. /news/2013-06-laser-substances-eyes-military-video.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 25 Jun 2013 11:42:54 EDT news291379366 (Â鶹ÒùÔº) -- A simple longitudinal twist converts certain microstructured optical fibres into filters. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen have measured this effect in detail in photonic crystal fibres and found a theory to explain it. The results of their research will allow new applications in optical communications and the construction of lasers, sensors and light amplifiers. /news/2012-08-photonic-crystal-fibres-suppress-specific.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 07 Aug 2012 04:36:27 EDT news263532970 A freak wave at sea is a terrifying sight. Seven stories tall, wildly unpredictable, and incredibly destructive, such waves have been known to emerge from calm waters and swallow ships whole. But rogue waves of light -- rare and explosive flare-ups that are mathematically similar to their oceanic counterparts -- have recently been tamed by a group of researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). /news/2009-03-rogue-laser-sources.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:22:15 EST news155478110