Optics

New Technique Takes Cues From Astronomy And Ophthalmology To Sharpen Microscope Images

The complexity of biology can befuddle even the most sophisticated light microscopes because biological samples bend light in unpredictable ways, returning difficult-to-interpret information to the microscope and distorting the resulting image. New imagin ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 14 2014 - 6:43pm

Metasurface Lens: Flat Surface Becomes A Spherical Antenna

An array of tiny, metallic, U-shaped structures deposited onto a dielectric material creates a new artificial surface that can bend and focus electromagnetic waves the same way an antenna does. ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 14 2014 - 6:47pm

Downside To LED Bulbs- Like HDTV, It Makes Some Things Look Worse

If you have ever seen set pieces from a science-fiction show, you have probably been amazed at how cheap and silly the whole things looks. That was the initial concern with high-definition television too. Standard definition hid a lot of cosmetic defects ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 18 2014 - 2:22pm

Deformable Mirror Corrects Its Own Laser Beam Errors

The high power needed to cut or weld using a laser beam creates its own problem: the beam’s energy deforms the mirrors that focus it. When that happens, the beam expands and loses intensity. A new type of mirror is being presented at the Optatec trade fair ...

Article - News Staff - May 14 2014 - 9:29pm

Compact Laser Systems A Million Times Better

Lasers are ubiquitous but there are still wavelengths for which only large and expensive ones exist, or none at all. Remote sensing and medical applications call for compact laser systems, for example with wavelengths from the near infrared to the Teraher ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 6 2014 - 1:00pm

How To Takes Pictures At Distances Smaller Than The Wavelength Of Light

We all understand light has a wide electromagnetic spectrum and we only see a small band of that. In physics terms, that is between 400- 700 nanometers and they show up as colors,from violet to red. We can't see in the ultraviolet radiation spectrum ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 18 2014 - 3:33pm

Everything You Want To Know About On-Chip Topological Light

Topological transport of light is the photonic analog of topological electron flow in certain semiconductors. In the electron case, the current flows around the edge of the material but not through the bulk. It is "topological" in that even if e ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 1 2014 - 4:13pm

Bioinspired Peptides: Biological Microstructures Light Up After Heating

Physicists investigating tubular biological microstructures that showed unexpected luminescence after heating. Bioinspired peptides, like the ones investigated, could be useful for applications in optical fibers, biolasers and future quantum computers. The ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 3 2014 - 1:52am

Scientists Control Mouse Brains Using Lasers

It’s hard to focus after a bad night’s sleep and by using mice and flashes of light, scientists have found why; just a few nerve cells in the brain may control the switch between internal thoughts and external distractions. The study  may be a breakthroug ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 14 2014 - 1:30pm

Photonic Circuits? Nano-Optical Cables 10X Smaller Than Copper Wiring On Chips

The invention of fiber optics revolutionized the way we share information, allowing us to transmit data at volumes and speeds we'd only previously dreamed of, and now are breaking another barrier, designing nano-optical cables small enough to replace ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 19 2014 - 5:00pm