/ 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 Since the invention of the laser in 1960, nonlinear optics has aimed to broaden light's spectral range and create new frequency components. Among the various techniques, supercontinuum (SC) generation stands out for its ability to produce light across a wide portion of the visible and infrared spectrum. /news/2025-01-nano-rainbows-spectrum-smallest-scale.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 13 Jan 2025 17:04:02 EST news656010241 Terahertz (THz) waves and THz technologies have gradually opened a new style for communications, cloud-based storage/computing, information contest, and medical tools. With the advancement of THz technologies, studies on THz nonlinear optics have emerged, achieving considerable breakthroughs in both physics and technology. /news/2024-09-scientists-giant-thz-kerr-effect.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 02 Sep 2024 14:51:23 EDT news644507480 High-power ultrafast laser with an operation wavelength extending to the 2.0 μm range has been attracting increasing research interest, mostly driven by its applications in various fields such as remote sensing, material processing, medical care, and mid-infrared broadband supercontinuum generation. /news/2024-06-coherent-combining-alternative-scheme-high.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 28 Jun 2024 08:54:52 EDT news638783689 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 Supercontinuum (SC) white light (the spectrum stretching from the near ultraviolet to the infrared wavelengths) has advanced ultrafast laser spectroscopy in condensed matter science, biology, physics and chemistry. Compared with the frequently-used photonic crystal fibers and bulk materials, femtosecond laser filamentation in gases is damage-immune for SC generation. /news/2024-02-stable-intense-supercontinuum-generation-1khz.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 08 Feb 2024 10:00:03 EST news626608802 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 The birth of spatiotemporal mode-locking (STML) can date back to the report of Wright and colleagues in 2017. Following this breakthrough, research on STML has thrived. However, our comprehension and control of spatiotemporal dissipative solitons (STDSs) and STML in multi-mode fiber (MMF) lasers are not as mature as those in single-mode fiber lasers. /news/2023-11-spatiotemporal-mode-locking-dissipative-solitons-multimode.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 01 Nov 2023 14:04:03 EDT news618066241 Recently, the introduction of nonlinear optical functions in integrated optics has sparked significant enthusiasm. Demonstrations have shown the potential for integrated photonic platforms. Furthermore, large-scale manufacturing capability and affordability have motivated the development of fully integrated, nonlinear optical devices, aiming at various applications, such as all on-chip spectroscopy, on-chip quantum computations and communications, efficient multiplexing for data communications, on-chip metrology, bio-sensing, or LIDARs. /news/2023-09-2d-materials-on-chip-photonics.html Optics & Photonics Thu, 28 Sep 2023 10:19:50 EDT news615115187 A high-brightness ultrabroadband supercontinuum white laser has attracted more and more attention in physics, chemistry, biology, materials science, and other disciplines of science and technology. Over the past decades, many different approaches have been developed for supercontinuum white laser generation. /news/2023-08-scientists-intense-ultraviolet-visible-infrared-full-spectrum-laser.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 23 Aug 2023 12:26:03 EDT news612012361 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 A team of researchers from the University of Twente has made a breakthrough in ultraefficient on-chip supercontinuum generation. The findings, published in the journal Advanced Photonics Research, represent a major step forward in the field of integrated photonics and enable applications in portable medical imaging devices, chemical sensing and LiDAR. /news/2023-03-ultraefficient-white-laser-chip.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 13 Mar 2023 13:55:18 EDT news597934516 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 have developed a very bright light source that covers seven optical octaves—from ultraviolet (UV) to terahertz (THz) wavelengths. The tabletop coherent source features a spectral brightness up to five orders of magnitude higher than the brightest synchrotrons, which are large facilities. /news/2022-12-extremely-broadband-source-bright-spanning.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 13 Dec 2022 09:43:02 EST news590146981 Researchers have developed an analytical instrument that uses an ultrafast laser for precise temperature and concentration measurements of hydrogen. Their new approach could help advance the study of greener hydrogen-based fuels for use in spacecraft and airplanes. /news/2022-09-laser-based-instrument-boost-hydrogen.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 13 Sep 2022 13:58:39 EDT news582296316 Researchers have developed a label-free and non-invasive Raman spectroscopy approach that can acquire microscopic images of biological samples and identify a wide range of biomolecules with unprecedented speed and sensitivity. /news/2022-08-boost-sensitivity-raman-microscopy-technique.html Optics & Photonics Wed, 17 Aug 2022 15:06:03 EDT news579967561 One of the main objectives of optics is the control of light propagation and confinement. Progress in optics historically started with the development of bulky lenses and mirrors, then prisms and gratings, and so on. The improvement of these devices slew down as the diffraction limit was approached. Nanophotonics aims at manipulating electromagnetic waves at sub-wavelength scale to go beyond this limit. The recent evolution of fabrication technologies, numerical tools and theoretical models opened the way to novel devices with unprecedented performances. /news/2022-07-future-nonlinear-optical-metasurfaces.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 25 Jul 2022 09:49:04 EDT news577961342 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 Providing light with tailored properties through ultrafast supercontinuum generation represents an active field of nonlinear science research. A German-Australian research collaboration has presented a new concept that includes a longitudinally varying thickness nano-films in microstructured exposed core fibers. This offers low input energy, broadband and spectrally flattened spectra in the near infrared with high pulse-to-pulse stability, establishing a novel class of light sources for fields such as biophotonics, medical diagnostics, environmental sciences, or metrology. /news/2021-11-flattening-nano-film-supercontinuum.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 12 Nov 2021 12:00:23 EST news555940819 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 Using long wavelength near-infrared light, scientists at UC Davis developed a label-free microscopy approach that achieves a unique combination of deep, high resolution, and minimally invasive brain imaging. The technique images neurons and axonal myelination across the mouse neocortex and some sub-cortical regions, through the thinned skull. Now studies of brain disease can be conducted deep in the mouse brain through a minimally invasive and simple surgical preparation. /news/2021-07-noninvasive-label-free-optical-method-visualizes.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 16 Jul 2021 11:19:26 EDT news545653163 Generating intense ultrashort pulses with high spatial quality has opened up possibilities for ultrafast and strong-field science. It is so important that the Nobel Prize in Â鶹ÒùÔºics 2018 was given to Dr. Strickland and Dr. Mourou for inventing a technique called chirped pulse amplification, which drives numerous ultrafast lasers worldwide. With the great advancement in the last decade, Yb-based ultrafast lasers have become highly popular, because they exhibit exceptional thermal efficiency, are low in cost and are highly flexible in adjusting pulse energies and repetition rates. /news/2021-03-high-efficiency-pulse-compression-solitons-nonlinear.html Optics & Photonics Fri, 19 Mar 2021 11:27:04 EDT news535372021 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 Power-scalable ultrafast laser sources in the midwave-infrared (MWIR) are a key element for basic research and applications in material processing and medicine. Optical amplifiers based on chirped pulse amplification (CPA) are used to generate high intensity pulses, a technique awarded with the Nobel Prize in physics in 2018. In the CPA scheme, a weak temporally stretched seed pulse is amplified to high energy in a laser amplifier and finally re-compressed resulting in an ultrashort pulse of very high intensity. Applying this concept a new system was developed at MBI delivering few-ps pulses at 2 μm wavelength with peak power beyond 10 GW (10 billion watt) at a 1 kHz repetition rate. The emitted pulses are characterized by excellent stability and brilliant beam quality. The results are reported in the latest issue of Optics Letters. /news/2020-07-highest-peak-power-excellent-stability.html Optics & Photonics Mon, 06 Jul 2020 13:04:41 EDT news513259479 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