/ 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. 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 Barcodes are commonly used to track items like groceries or clothing, but University of Central Florida researchers have developed a special "barcode" to identify much smaller objects: molecules. /news/2024-10-unique-barcodes-molecules-medical-advancements.html Biochemistry Analytical Chemistry Tue, 15 Oct 2024 12:15:03 EDT news648213301 Researchers at the University of Ottawa have made a discovery that changes what we know about light and materials. They found that engineered achiral (symmetric) materials, called achiral plasmonic metasurfaces, can absorb light differently depending on the handedness of the wavefront of light. This was surprising because, for years, such materials were found to be indifferent to any optical probes and do not show such selective absorption. /news/2024-09-scientists-uncover-absorbing-properties-achiral.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Mon, 30 Sep 2024 12:09:03 EDT news646916941 When chiral gold nanoparticles are irradiated with near-infrared femtosecond pulses, visible emission of luminescence is observed. In a study published in Advanced Optical Materials, this luminescence was found to yield high selectivity for left- or right-handed circularly polarized light, depending on the chirality of the nanoparticles, with a dissymmetry factor of approximately 0.7. This finding suggests the potential to elevate various applications using circularly polarized light to practical levels. /news/2024-06-gold-nanoparticles-emit-left.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 05 Jun 2024 09:39:39 EDT news636799177 Skyrmions are topologically protected quasiparticles with sophisticated spin textures, widely studied in condensed-matter systems, magnets and recently in photonics, which predicts great potential in ultra-high-capacity information storage, due to their diversified and stable topological spin textures in ultrasmall particle-like region. /news/2024-04-topologically-multiskyrmions-family-quasiparticles.html Condensed Matter Optics & Photonics Mon, 29 Apr 2024 10:21:34 EDT news633604889 A new research study from Opto-Electronic Advances discusses tailoring electron vortex beams with customizable intensity patterns by electron diffraction holography. /news/2024-04-tailoring-electron-vortex-customizable-intensity.html Optics & Photonics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Tue, 23 Apr 2024 15:57:06 EDT news633106623 A new fabrication process for helical metal nanoparticles provides a simpler, cheaper way to rapidly produce a material essential for biomedical and optical devices, according to a study by University of Michigan researchers. /news/2024-03-simple-scalable-method-3d-helical.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Mon, 18 Mar 2024 16:43:04 EDT news629998982 Researchers have successfully manipulated distinct exciton species within a hybrid monolayer WSe2-Ag nanowire structure. By exploiting the unique valley-spin locked band structures and electron-hole configurations of TMDs, the team, led by Professor Hongxing Xu, Prof. Xiaoze Liu and Dr. Ti Wang from School of Â鶹ÒùÔºics and Technology, has taken a significant step toward practical photonic applications for optical information processing and quantum optics. /news/2024-02-versatile-wse.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 08 Feb 2024 11:07:25 EST news626612843 Plasmonics are special optical phenomena that are understood as interactions between light and matter and possess diverse shapes, material compositions, and symmetry-related behavior. The design of such plasmonic structures at the nanoscale level can pave the way for optical materials that respond to the orientation of light (polarization), which is not easily achievable in bulk size and existing materials. /news/2024-01-showcase-breakthroughs-potential-plasmonics.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Tue, 30 Jan 2024 14:49:45 EST news625848582 Chirality is an intrinsic property of an object that cannot coincide with its mirror image by translation or rotation. In order to realize strong chiral light-matter interactions which are usually weak in natural materials for practical applications, artificial sub-wavelength structures such as metamaterials, metasurfaces, and plasmonic nanostructures have attracted increasing attentions. /news/2023-10-anisotropic-lattice-high-q-chiroptical-responses.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 27 Oct 2023 09:20:03 EDT news617617201 Artificially-engineered chiral materials with exceptional light-manipulating capabilities show significantly-enhanced chiroptical response and capability of light manipulation, which have emerged as a promising chiral platform for applications in biosensing, catalysis, and photonics. /news/2023-10-chiral-aucu-heterostructures-site-specific-geometric.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Thu, 12 Oct 2023 16:10:05 EDT news616345801 Polarization, as a primary physical quantity of light, is of great interest to almost all optical sciences and technologies. Along with linear polarization detection, circular polarization (or light ellipticity) detection is essential for chiral molecule distinguishing, vision dehazing, magnetic field sensing, quantum communication, and cryptography. Traditional solutions rely on external optical systems containing polarizers and wave plates, unfavorably increasing the complexity and sizes of light ellipticity detectors. /news/2023-07-on-chip-infrared-circular-polarization-detector.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 24 Jul 2023 15:34:04 EDT news609431642 A research group from Kobe University in Japan have proposed and tested a nano-antenna that uses the specific optical resonance of dielectric nanoparticles to form a near field of circularly polarized light. This technique bolsters the circularly polarized light-selective response of chiral molecules. The results of this study should provide applications in chirality analysis and asymmetric photochemical reactions for biomolecules, chemical substances, and pharmaceuticals. /news/2023-06-nano-antenna-field-circularly-polarized.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 28 Jun 2023 12:20:03 EDT news607173601 Chiral molecules can present different chemical properties. For applications like drug delivery and diagnosis, it is important to detect chiral signals in mixtures. Although electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectroscopy has been reported many times for sensing chiral molecules, it is still difficult to operate in chiral mixtures, as the dimensionality of the signals is limited. /news/2023-06-surface-enhanced-vibrational-circular-dichroism-chiral.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 27 Jun 2023 16:30:03 EDT news607102201 Resonant optical phenomena in metals and dielectrics have profound applications in many fields. The nanoscale confinement allows for unpreceded control of light-matter interaction at surfaces and interfaces, manipulating and controlling the light flow. Resonant phenomena are usually associated with radiative and intrinsic loss channels, which are detrimental in many systems. Metals show strong intrinsic losses. Thus, dielectric systems have recently become the focus of attention as they promise lower loss, higher degrees of flexibility with respect to tuning the interplay of different resonances, and fabrication strategies closer to industrial standards. /news/2023-01-mie-voids-air.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 30 Jan 2023 14:43:03 EST news594312181 Molecular chirality refers to the geometrical property of molecules with broken mirror symmetry. Characterizing molecular chirality and understanding their roles in physiochemical situations has been important in broad research scope such as, biology, chemistry, and pharmaceutics. /news/2022-12-circular-dichroism-chiral-plasmonic-nanoparticles.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Thu, 22 Dec 2022 09:49:18 EST news590924953 Topological nontrivial spin textures are intriguing in various physical systems, ranging from high energy to condensed matter physics. The magnetic Skyrmions formed by a swirling magnetization in magnetic materials have potential applications in high-density magnetic information storage and transfer. /news/2022-11-photonics-anapole-probe.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 04 Nov 2022 13:20:02 EDT news586786512 Researchers at LSU, in collaboration with Zuse Institute in Berlin, Germany, have developed an ultraviolet metasurface that discriminates between left- and right-handed amino acids with attomolar sensitivity. /news/2022-10-ultraviolet-metasurfaces-discriminate-handedness-biomolecules.html Nanomaterials Tue, 04 Oct 2022 08:37:02 EDT news584091421 Tetrahedron-shaped nanoparticles are interesting enough by themselves, but under the right circumstances, Rice University scientists have discovered they do something remarkable. /news/2022-07-bottom-up-2d-yield-materials.html Nanomaterials Mon, 25 Jul 2022 11:01:13 EDT news577965670 Metamaterial interface waveguides can confine and guide electromagnetic (EM) waves, which has attractive potential in integrated photonics physics and wireless devices, from radio frequencies to optical bands. The energy flow in waveguides can be fully controlled by sorting the near-field light waves according to their handedness (chirality), which determines the direction of energy transmission. Chirality sorting is an important process to develop in the field of chiral photonics. In the future, chiral-sorting metadevices may be fully digitized and programmable, so that reconfigurable unidirectional transmission routes and scattering performance of the artificial structures can be controlled simultaneously. /news/2022-07-chiral-sources-metamaterial-interface-waveguides.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 19 Jul 2022 15:18:02 EDT news577462681 The left hand looks like the right hand in the mirror but the left-handed glove does not fit on the right hand. Chirality refers to this property where the object cannot be superimposed on to the mirror image. This property in molecules is an important factor in pharmaceutical research as it can turn drugs toxic. /news/2022-05-metamaterial-significantly-chiral-nanoparticle.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 03 May 2022 10:08:21 EDT news570791299 An international team of scientists from Austria and Germany has launched a new paradigm in magnetism and superconductivity, putting effects of curvature, topology, and 3D geometry into the spotlight of next-decade research. The results are published in Advanced Materials. /news/2021-11-dimension-magnetism-superconductivity.html Superconductivity Wed, 03 Nov 2021 15:04:20 EDT news555170657 Using DNA structures as scaffolds, Tim Liedl, a scientist of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich, has shown that precisely positioned gold nanoparticles can serve as efficient energy transmitters.  /news/2021-04-energy-transmission-gold-nanoparticles-coupled.html Nanomaterials Thu, 08 Apr 2021 14:25:16 EDT news537110710 A plasmonic spin-Hall nanograting structure that simultaneously detects both the polarization and phase singularities of the incident beam is reported. The nanograting is symmetry-breaking with different periods for the upper and lower parts, which enables the unidirectional excitation of the SPP depending on the topological charge of the incident beam. Additionally, spin-Hall meta-slits are integrated onto the grating so that the structure has a chiral response for polarization detection. /news/2020-07-on-chip-spin-hall-nanograting-simultaneously-phase.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 07 Jul 2020 12:47:46 EDT news513344863 Researchers of Tomsk Polytechnic University with colleagues from the Czech Republic have developed supersensitive sensors for detecting enantiomers, known as "mirror molecules," in drugs. These molecules can reduce drug effectiveness or even be harmful to humans. Experiments revealed that the developed sensors have high sensitivity compared to traditional methods. They use organometallic frameworks as traps for enantiomers. The studies are published in Applied Materials Today. /news/2020-06-scientists-supersensitive-sensors-mirror-molecules.html Materials Science Fri, 19 Jun 2020 10:07:01 EDT news511780015 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 Scientists have pioneered a new technique to expose hidden biochemical pathways involving single molecules at the nanoscale. /news/2020-05-eavesdropping-molecules-replaying-chatter.html Biochemistry Fri, 15 May 2020 11:19:19 EDT news508760298 Scientists at Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) with colleagues from Russia, Japan, and Australia have developed a multi-purpose sensor based on a specially designed gold film, the surface of which contains millions of parabolic nanoantennas produced by femtosecond laser printing. The sensor identifies molecules at trace concentrations, detecting them in liquid and gas environments. It can be easily adjusted to provide different modalities, including biological studies, medical and security tasks. The related research is published in Nanomaterials. /news/2019-09-scientists-high-precision-sensor-based-laser-textured.html Nanomaterials Mon, 30 Sep 2019 12:08:11 EDT news489064082 A new nanomaterial developed by scientists at the University of Bath could solve a conundrum faced by scientists probing some of the most promising types of future pharmaceuticals. /news/2019-09-scientists-nanomaterial-untwisted.html Nanomaterials Fri, 13 Sep 2019 10:26:15 EDT news487589165 The nanostructures from Katja Höflich's HZB team are shaped like corkscrews and made of silver. Mathematically, such a nano antenna can be regarded as an one-dimensional line that forms a helix, characterized by parameters such as diameter, length, number of turns per unit length, and handedness. /news/2019-08-maths-analytical-tool-corkscrew-shaped-nano-antennae.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 23 Aug 2019 11:18:49 EDT news485777917