/ 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. Imagine a whirlpool spinning in a river, or a tornado swirling through the sky. They don't just spin on the spot: they travel forward while maintaining that spiraling motion inside them. These twisting motions, called vortices, are powerful and organized spirals. Now, imagine light that behaves the same way: a beam of light that spins as it moves forward. This "twisted" light, known as an optical vortex, can carry more information than normal light, opening the door to faster internet and ultra-secure communications. /news/2025-08-ultra-thin-materials-optical-vortices.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 19 Aug 2025 15:27:03 EDT news674836021 An evaporating colloidal particle–laden droplet leaves behind a ring-like residue after drying. We routinely observe this ubiquitous phenomenon for dried coffee drops; thus, it is known as the "coffee-ring effect." As a droplet evaporates, the edges dry faster than the center, pulling fluid—and suspended particles—outward. This creates a dense ring of material at the periphery of the droplet. It's a familiar sight to anyone who's spilled tea or coffee, but for scientists working on coatings and inks, this effect can be frustrating. In many applications, a uniform deposit is far more useful than a ring. /news/2025-07-coffee-saucer-patterns-graphene-oxide.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Thu, 17 Jul 2025 08:25:04 EDT news671959492 A multinational research team, including engineers from the University of Cambridge and Zhejiang University, has developed a breakthrough in miniaturized spectrometer technology that could dramatically expand the accessibility and functionality of spectral imaging in everyday devices. /news/2025-07-plastic-based-spectrometers-compact-solution.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 11 Jul 2025 09:15:51 EDT news671444135 A team of researchers has developed a novel method for using cholesteric liquid crystals in optical microcavities. The platform created by the researchers enables the formation and dynamic tuning of photonic crystals with integrated spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and controlled laser emission. The results of this research have been published in the journal Laser & Photonics Reviews. The team is from the Faculty of Â鶹ÒùÔºics at the University of Warsaw, the Military University of Technology, and the Institut Pascal at Université Clermont Auvergne. /news/2025-07-platform-enables-tunable-photonic-crystals.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 01 Jul 2025 13:21:48 EDT news670594900 Scientists at the University of Oxford have unveiled a pioneering method for capturing the full structure of ultra-intense laser pulses in a single measurement. The breakthrough, published in close collaboration with Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich and the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, could revolutionize our ability to control light-matter interactions. /news/2025-06-scientists-technique-capturing-ultra-intense.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 26 Jun 2025 05:00:02 EDT news670068479 Infrared optoelectronic functional materials are essential for applications in lasers, photodetectors, and infrared imaging, forming the technological backbone of modern optoelectronics. Traditionally, the development of new infrared materials has relied heavily on trial-and-error experimental methods. However, these approaches can be inefficient within the extensive chemical landscape, as only a limited number of compounds can achieve a balance of several critical properties simultaneously. /news/2025-05-machine-approach-discovery-high-infrared.html Condensed Matter Optics & Photonics Fri, 09 May 2025 12:51:02 EDT news666013861 The Field Museum in Chicago and the Foundation for Scientific Advancement reported that sediment-encased maturation of pine resin produces a hardened, translucent substance that closely mimics natural copal and amber in appearance, texture, and chemical signature. /news/2025-03-scientists-lab-grown-amber-resin.html Biotechnology Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 26 Mar 2025 10:20:01 EDT news662202619 Long-wave infrared birefringent crystals are essential materials in infrared optical applications in fields such as infrared imaging, laser technology, and optical communications. Due to limitations in birefringence, infrared transmission, and crystal growth, high-performance long-wave infrared birefringent crystals have rarely been reported. /news/2025-03-oxygenation-strategy-facile-route-infrared.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Tue, 25 Mar 2025 14:48:02 EDT news662132881 Birefringent crystalline materials are essential in advanced optical technologies such as isolators and modulators due to their ability to manipulate light polarization. However, designing high-performance birefringent materials with a birefringence value (Δn > 0.3) is challenging. Achieving superior optical anisotropy requires identifying functional groups with strong polarizability anisotropy and optimizing their arrangement in the crystal lattice. /news/2025-03-hydrogen-bonding-strategy-yields-high.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Thu, 20 Mar 2025 16:11:03 EDT news661705862 A study led by the University of Portsmouth has achieved unprecedented precision in detecting tiny shifts in light displacements at the nanoscale. This is relevant in the characterization of birefringent materials and in high-precision measurements of rotations. /news/2025-03-quantum-unprecedented-precision-displacement.html Optics & Photonics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 20 Mar 2025 14:14:04 EDT news661698840 The ultrafast dynamics and interactions of electrons in molecules and solids have long remained hidden from direct observation. For some time now, it has been possible to study these quantum-physical processes—for example, during chemical reactions, the conversion of sunlight into electricity in solar cells and elementary processes in quantum computers—in real time with a temporal resolution of a few femtoseconds (quadrillionths of a second) using two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (2DES). /news/2025-03-method-electron-motion-solids-unveiled.html Condensed Matter Optics & Photonics Tue, 11 Mar 2025 12:31:04 EDT news660915061 Terahertz (THz) waves, situated between the microwave and infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, have drawn considerable attention over the past two decades. /news/2025-01-scientists-device-modulate-polarization-thz.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 23 Jan 2025 11:03:03 EST news656852581 In the world of modern optics, frequency combs are invaluable tools. These devices act as rulers for measuring light, enabling breakthroughs in telecommunications, environmental monitoring, and even astrophysics. But building compact and efficient frequency combs has been a challenge—until now. /news/2025-01-compact-gen-photonics.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 22 Jan 2025 11:00:01 EST news656756627 Copper-oxide (CuO2) superconductors, such as Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ (Bi2212), have unusually high critical temperatures. Optical reflectivity measurements of Bi2212 have shown that it exhibits strong optical anisotropy. However, this has not been studied through optical transmittance measurements, which can offer more direct insights into bulk properties. /news/2024-12-room-temperature-superconductivity-uncover-optical.html Optics & Photonics Superconductivity Thu, 12 Dec 2024 11:41:03 EST news653226061 Researchers at MIT recently published the first results of an experiment aimed at searching for axion dark matter by probing the axion-induced birefringence of electromagnetic waves. While these findings, published in Â鶹ÒùÔºical Review Letters, did not lead to the observation of signals associated with these hypothetical dark matter particles, they established a new technique to search for axions using a tunable optical cavity. /news/2024-10-results-axion-dark-birefringent-cavity.html Astronomy Fri, 18 Oct 2024 06:40:01 EDT news648301156 Advancements in quantum information technology are paving the way for faster and more efficient data transfer. A key challenge has been ensuring that qubits, the fundamental units of quantum information, can be transferred between different wavelengths without losing their essential properties, such as coherence and entanglement. /news/2024-10-wavelength-conversion-paves-efficient-quantum.html Optics & Photonics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Tue, 15 Oct 2024 16:25:03 EDT news648228301 In the field of nonlinear optics (NLO), deep-ultraviolet (DUV) NLO crystals have garnered attention due to their crucial role in all-solid-state lasers. With ongoing research, the demand for these DUV NLO crystals continues to grow. /news/2024-09-highest-harmonic-generation-response-deep.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Wed, 18 Sep 2024 12:33:25 EDT news645881600 The fine and efficient control of the properties of light at ultrafast speed down to the picosecond timescale is a challenging task, crucial for many scientific applications and technologies. For instance, in free-space optical links, manipulating on demand the attributes of light can be exploited to encode and transfer digital information robustly, over long distances and without optical fibers. /news/2024-09-giant-ultrafast-dichroism-birefringence-nonlocal.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 03 Sep 2024 16:45:20 EDT news644600717 An article in Opto-Electronic Advances, discusses complete-basis-reprogrammable coding metasurface for generating dynamically-controlled holograms under arbitrary polarization states. /news/2024-08-basis-reprogrammable-coding-metasurface-generating.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 30 Aug 2024 12:33:02 EDT news644239981 The negative impact of human activity on Earth doesn't just affect our planet's atmosphere—it goes much deeper, into its soils. For instance, excessive application of manure or sewage sludge can increase heavy metal concentrations in agricultural land where vital crops are grown. One of these heavy metals is zinc, a micronutrient necessary for plant and animal health. In excess, however, zinc can be extremely damaging to sensitive plant species. /news/2024-07-reveals-key-gene-metals-soil.html Molecular & Computational biology Agriculture Thu, 18 Jul 2024 16:04:59 EDT news640537495 While taking snapshots with the high-speed electron camera at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Acceleratory Laboratory, researchers discovered new behavior in an ultrathin material that offers a promising approach to manipulating light that will be useful for devices that detect, control or emit light, collectively known as optoelectronic devices, and investigating how light is polarized within a material. Optoelectronic devices are used in many technologies that touch our daily lives, including light-emitting diodes (LEDs), optical fibers and medical imaging. /news/2024-07-high-electron-camera-uncovers-behavior.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 10 Jul 2024 14:38:02 EDT news639841081 Over the past decade, metasurfaces deploying two-dimensional artificial nanostructures have emerged as a groundbreaking platform to manipulate light across various degrees of freedom. These metasurfaces exhibit significant potential in foundational scientific research and industrial applications. /news/2024-04-gigahertz-switchable-wavefront-lnoi-empowered.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 16 Apr 2024 15:20:03 EDT news632499601 The diffraction of light is a ubiquitous phenomenon in nature where waves spread out as they propagate. This spreading of light beams during propagation limits the efficient transmission of energy and information. Therefore, scientists have endeavored to suppress diffraction effects to better maintain the shape and direction of light beams. /news/2024-04-propagating-dimensions-deforming-versatile-diffractive.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 08 Apr 2024 11:03:23 EDT news631792999 Mulberry silk is a natural protein fiber that is light, soft and fine in nature, known as the "second skin of the human body" and "Queen of fibers." China is the origin of the world's sericulture industry. /news/2024-04-chinese-scientists-reveal-mechanism-silkworm.html Plants & Animals Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 04 Apr 2024 12:00:51 EDT news631450847 Quantum imaging is a growing field that takes advantage of the counterintuitive and "spooky" ability of light particles, or photons, to become linked, or entangled, under specialized circumstances. If the state of one photon in the entangled duo gets tweaked, so does the other, regardless of how far apart the two photons might be. /news/2024-03-polarization-quantum-imaging.html Optics & Photonics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Wed, 20 Mar 2024 09:52:23 EDT news630147139 For a long time, it was thought that amorphous solids do not selectively absorb light because of their disordered atomic structure. However, a new uOttawa study disproves this theory and shows that amorphous solids actually exhibit dichroism, meaning that they selectively absorb light of different polarizations. /news/2024-02-scientists-reveal-formless-solids.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 29 Feb 2024 10:51:49 EST news628426306 Absolutely empty—that is how most of us envision the vacuum. Yet, in reality, it is filled with an energetic flickering: the quantum fluctuations. /news/2023-11-tracking-quantum-fluctuations-vacuum-explore.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Mon, 13 Nov 2023 10:25:03 EST news619093501 The convergence of digital technology and the internet has led to the emergence of complex digital networks utilizing ubiquitous electronic devices such as mobile phones and smart home appliances. As a result, we can access and exchange information from anywhere using technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and cloud computing. /news/2023-11-random-wrinkles-opto-physical-unclonable-functions.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 02 Nov 2023 16:44:03 EDT news618162242 Future missions will be able to find signatures of violating the parity-symmetry in the cosmic microwave background polarization more accurately after a pair of researchers has managed to take into account the gravitational lensing effect, reports a new study in Â鶹ÒùÔºical Review D, selected as an Editors' Suggestion. /news/2023-11-gravitational-lensing-significant-effect-cosmic.html Astronomy Thu, 02 Nov 2023 09:31:03 EDT news618136261 An ideal infrared (IR) nonlinear optical (NLO) crystal must have the advantages of a wide transmittance range, impressive laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT), sufficient birefringence index, bulk single-crystal form, and physicochemical stability. /news/2023-10-nonlinear-optical-crystals-unusual-cationic.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Mon, 09 Oct 2023 13:23:02 EDT news616076581