/ 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. The neutral atom array architecture for quantum computing has been rapidly advancing over the last several years, and a recent study published in Nature has just revealed another step forward for this technology. The team of Harvard researchers involved in this study have engineered a 3,000-qubit neutral atom array system capable of operating continuously for more than two hours, which goes far beyond typical trap lifetimes of only about 60 seconds. /news/2025-09-qubit-neutral-atom-array-reloads.html Optics & Photonics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Mon, 22 Sep 2025 11:54:31 EDT news677760866 A nanoscale optical device has been developed that allows independent control over the intensity and phase of light. By applying voltage, this innovative device can freely manipulate the phase and magnitude of second-harmonic (SH) light, opening new avenues for advanced quantum communication and information processing technologies. The research is published in Science Advances. /news/2025-09-nanoscale-optical-device-enables-independent.html Nanophysics Nanomaterials Wed, 17 Sep 2025 11:42:02 EDT news677328121 A new approach to manufacturing multicolor lenses could inspire a new generation of tiny, cheap, and powerful optics for portable devices such as phones and drones. /news/2025-09-tiny-metamaterial-lenses-imaging-smartphones.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 09 Sep 2025 11:20:07 EDT news676635601 The iridescent blue of butterfly wings has inspired researchers to find a solution to a challenge previously considered insurmountable—dynamically tuning advanced optical processes at visible wavelengths. /news/2025-09-butterfly-wings-solution-impossible-optics.html Optics & Photonics Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Tue, 09 Sep 2025 09:19:06 EDT news676628341 New research from the University of St Andrews paves the way for holographic technology, with the potential to transform smart devices, communication, gaming and entertainment. /news/2025-08-optoelectronics-holograms-smartphone-closer-everyday.html Condensed Matter Optics & Photonics Fri, 29 Aug 2025 12:40:03 EDT news675688168 Holography—the science of recording and reconstructing light fields—has long been central to imaging, data storage, and encryption. Traditional holographic systems, however, rely on bulky optical setups and interference experiments, making them impractical for compact or integrated devices. Computational methods such as the Gerchberg–Saxton (GS) algorithm have simplified hologram design by eliminating the need for physical interference patterns, but these approaches typically produce scalar holograms with uniform polarization, limiting the amount of information that can be encoded. /news/2025-08-ultrathin-metasurface-enables-high-efficiency.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 21 Aug 2025 12:53:07 EDT news674999577 Topological spin textures, spatially organized patterns linked to the intrinsic angular momentum of particles, have proved to be highly advantageous for the development of spintronics and quantum technologies. One of the most studied among these textures are skyrmionic textures, which are two-dimensional and stable patterns of spin orientation. Recently, the study of skyrmionic textures has gained significant attention in the field of optics and photonics, revealing novel physical properties and promising potential applications. /news/2025-08-topological-textures-scientists-micro-materials.html Optics & Photonics Sat, 16 Aug 2025 07:30:02 EDT news674392450 Researchers at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, in collaboration with the Optical Systems Division at Broadcom Inc., report a broadband, polarization-insensitive unidirectional imager that operates in the visible spectrum, capable of high-efficiency image transmission in one direction while effectively suppressing image formation in the reverse direction. /news/2025-08-wafer-scale-nano-fabrication-multi.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 11 Aug 2025 16:27:02 EDT news674148421 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 Blink and you might miss it, but if you keep your eye on the monitors in professor Sebastian Will's lab, you'll catch a series of single-second flashes that light up the screen. Each flash is an atom of strontium, a naturally occurring alkaline-earth metal, being briefly captured and held in place by "tweezers" made of laser light. "We can see single atoms," says graduate student Aaron Holman. "Seeing those never gets old." /news/2025-06-discusses-atoms-emerging-quantum-technologies.html Quantum Â鶹ÒùÔºics Thu, 26 Jun 2025 09:50:03 EDT news670148871 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 A new filter for infrared light could see scanning and screening technology tumble in price and size. Built on nanotechnology, the new heat-tunable filter promises hand-held, robust technology to replace current desktop infrared spectroscopy setups that are bulky, heavy and cost from $10,000 up to more than $100,000. /news/2025-06-nano-based-filter-infrared-cheap.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 16 Jun 2025 12:27:53 EDT news669295666 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