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(PhysOrg.com) -- Engineers and physicists at Harvard have managed to capture light in tiny diamond pillars embedded in silver, releasing a stream of single photons at a controllable rate. http://phys.org/news237446707.html Physics Mon, 10 Oct 2011 06:25:40 EST news237446707 Boosting up microprocessors -the heart of modern computers- at the speed of light, reducing consumptions and costs, may now be a reality thanks to the development of a new high-performance chip, the results of which have been published in Nature Photonics. http://phys.org/news235910800.html Physics Thu, 22 Sep 2011 11:46:56 EST news235910800 Researchers have developed two new components that could help Europe meet some of its most pressing communication challenges in optical amplifier research. http://phys.org/news235315156.html Physics Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:19:43 EST news235315156 (PhysOrg.com) -- The ability to manipulate light and fluids on a single chip, broadly called "optofluidics," has led to such technologies as liquid-crystal displays and liquid-filled optical fibers for fast data transfer. Optofluidics is now also on the cusp of improving such green technologies as solar-powered bioreactors, say Cornell researchers. http://phys.org/news235110451.html Physics Tue, 13 Sep 2011 05:29:01 EST news235110451 University of Florida researchers may help resolve the public debate over America's future light source of choice: Edison's incandescent bulb or the more energy efficient compact fluorescent lamp. It could be neither. http://phys.org/news234018380.html Physics Wed, 31 Aug 2011 14:07:07 EST news234018380 (PhysOrg.com) -- A revolutionary new chip that uses little energy and operates at ultrafast speeds for telecommunications and computing is set to replace the power-hungry, expensive and bulky equipment that currently resides at the core of the internet. http://phys.org/news233223663.html Physics Mon, 22 Aug 2011 09:22:56 EST news233223663 In a paper published in the latest issue of Nature Photonics, an international team of researchers takes an important step toward giving physicists the ability to effectively make movies of individual electrons. If the approach pans out, it would provide a way to gather data of unprecedented detail about how individual molecules interact during chemical reactions, with ramifications for not only the basic sciences but chemical engineering and pharmaceutical research as well. http://phys.org/news232616278.html Physics Mon, 15 Aug 2011 08:39:59 EST news232616278 Researchers at Columbia Engineering School have demonstrated that light can travel on an artificial material without leaving a trace under certain conditions, technology that would have many applications from the military to telecommunications. http://phys.org/news230799111.html Physics Mon, 25 Jul 2011 07:52:09 EST news230799111 Researchers at Columbia Engineering School have built optical nanostructures that enable them to engineer the index of refraction and fully control light dispersion. They have shown that it is possible for light (electromagnetic waves) to propagate from point A to point B without accumulating any phase, spreading through the artificial medium as if the medium is completely missing in space. This is the first time simultaneous phase and zero-index observations have been made on the chip-scale and at the infrared wavelength. http://phys.org/news229515836.html Physics Sun, 10 Jul 2011 13:01:11 EST news229515836 Researchers in Sweden have succeeded in delivering an optical amplifier capable of amplifying light with extremely low noise. The study is published in the journal Nature Photonics. http://phys.org/news229341290.html Physics Fri, 08 Jul 2011 10:55:23 EST news229341290 By combining advanced laser technologies in a new way, physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have generated microwave signals that are more pure and stable than those from conventional electronic sources. The apparatus could improve signal stability and resolution in radar, communications and navigation systems, and certain types of atomic clocks. http://phys.org/news228412321.html Physics Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:52:22 EST news228412321 In a paper published in Nature Photonics, U of T Engineering researchers report a new solar cell that may pave the way to inexpensive coatings that efficiently convert the sun's rays to electricity. http://phys.org/news228324795.html Physics Sun, 26 Jun 2011 16:33:46 EST news228324795 A new generation of high speed, silicon-based information technology has been brought a step closer by researchers in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at UCL and the London Centre for Nanotechnology. The team's research, published in next week's Nature Photonics journal, provides the first demonstration of an electrically driven, quantum dot laser grown directly on a silicon substrate (Si) with a wavelength (1300-nm) suitable for use in telecommunications. http://phys.org/news227176441.html Physics Mon, 13 Jun 2011 09:34:48 EST news227176441 (PhysOrg.com) -- It sounds like something out of a comic book or a science fiction movie – a living laser – but that is exactly what two investigators at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital have developed. In a report that will appear in the journal Nature Photonics and is receiving advance online release, Wellman researchers Malte Gather, PhD, and Seok Hyun Yun, PhD, describe how a single cell genetically engineered to express green fluorescent protein (GFP) can be used to amplify the light particles called photons into nanosecond-long pulses of laser light. http://phys.org/news227073254.html Physics Sun, 12 Jun 2011 13:00:01 EST news227073254 Researchers at the National University of Singapore have invented a graphene-based polarizer that can broaden the bandwidth of prevailing optical fiber-based telecommunication systems. http://phys.org/news226573285.html Physics Mon, 06 Jun 2011 10:01:39 EST news226573285 German scientists of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have succeeded in encoding data at a rate of 26 terabits per second on a single laser beam, transmitting them over a distance of 50 km, and decoding them successfully. This is the largest data volume ever transported on a laser beam. The process developed by KIT allows to transmit the contents of 700 DVDs in one second only. http://phys.org/news225368159.html Physics Mon, 23 May 2011 11:16:21 EST news225368159 When it comes to dreaming about diamonds, energy efficiency and powerful information processing aren't normally the thoughts that spring to mind. Unless, of course, you are a quantum physicist looking to create the most secure and powerful networks around. http://phys.org/news223043609.html Physics Tue, 26 Apr 2011 13:34:46 EST news223043609 A joint cooperation between three research groups at nanoGUNE reports an innovative method to focus infrared light with tapered transmission lines to nanometer-size dimensions. This device could trigger the development of novel chemical and biological sensing tools, including ultra-small infrared spectrometers and lab-on-a-chip integrated biosensors. http://phys.org/news221134286.html Physics Mon, 04 Apr 2011 11:11:48 EST news221134286 As fiber optic technology continues to advance, it faces challenges from both its physical properties and its use of infrastructure. One emerging high-speed solution being developed at Stevens Institute of Technology uses lasers to transmit data through readily available open space, with the potential of expanding past the limitation of fibers into a system known as optical free space communications. Dr. Rainer Martini has overcome a number of free space challenges to develop a high-speed communications technology that is not limited by a physical conductor. With an optical system that is stable enough, satellites may one day convert to laser technology, resulting in a more mobile military and super-sensitive scanners, as well as faster Internet for the masses. http://phys.org/news220531160.html Physics Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:40:18 EST news220531160 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers from Swinburne University and the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology have for the first time ever demonstrated a reversal of the optical ‘Doppler Effect’ – an advance that could one day lead to the development of 'invisibility cloak' technology. http://phys.org/news218704925.html Physics Mon, 07 Mar 2011 07:22:33 EST news218704925 (PhysOrg.com) -- For more than a decade, researchers have been trying to make TV displays out of quantum dots. Theoretically, quantum dot displays could provide extremely high-resolution images and higher energy efficiencies than current TVs. Now in a new study, researchers have presented the first large-area, full-color quantum dot display that could lead to the development of displays for the next-generation TVs, mobile phones, digital cameras, and portable game systems. http://phys.org/news217484799.html Physics Mon, 21 Feb 2011 04:53:04 EST news217484799 Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have found a way to grow nanolasers directly onto a silicon surface, an achievement that could lead to a new class of faster, more efficient microprocessors, as well as to powerful biochemical sensors that use optoelectronic chips. http://phys.org/news216219966.html Physics Sun, 06 Feb 2011 13:06:21 EST news216219966 Biopsies in the future may be painless and noninvasive, thanks to smart laser technology being developed at Michigan State University. http://phys.org/news215713607.html Physics Mon, 31 Jan 2011 17:00:11 EST news215713607 (PhysOrg.com) -- The Cambridge Research Laboratory of Toshiba Research Europe announced today that it has discovered a simple method to prevent detector blinding attacks on quantum cryptography. http://phys.org/news210402289.html Physics Wed, 01 Dec 2010 05:05:52 EST news210402289 (PhysOrg.com) -- University of Pittsburgh researchers have created a nanoscale light sensor that can be combined with near-atomic-size electronic circuitry to produce hybrid optic and electronic devices with new functionality. The team, which also involved researchers from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, reports in Nature Photonics that the development overcomes one of nanotechnology's most daunting challenges. http://phys.org/news208963914.html Nanotechnology Sun, 14 Nov 2010 13:32:20 EST news208963914 (PhysOrg.com) -- A simple device measures the quantum noise of vacuum fluctuations and generates true random numbers. http://phys.org/news203258201.html Physics Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:37:06 EST news203258201 Researchers have developed a new data transmission system that could substantially improve the transmission capacity and energy efficiency of the world's optical communication networks. http://phys.org/news203078617.html Technology Tue, 07 Sep 2010 12:00:01 EST news203078617 A tiny optical device built into a silicon chip has achieved the slowest light propagation on a chip to date, reducing the speed of light by a factor of 1,200 in a study reported in Nature Photonics (published online September 5 and in the November print issue). http://phys.org/news202911983.html Physics Sun, 05 Sep 2010 13:26:55 EST news202911983 The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and the University of Erlangen-Nurnberg together with the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen have recently developed and tested a technique exploiting imperfections in quantum cryptography systems to implement an attack. http://phys.org/news202139419.html Physics Sun, 29 Aug 2010 13:00:01 EST news202139419 Love, exercise and, new research shows, an infrared laser can make a heart beat faster. Scientists at Case Western Reserve University and Vanderbilt University found that pulsed light can pace contractions in an avian embryonic heart, with no apparent damage to the tissue. http://phys.org/news201095343.html Physics Sun, 15 Aug 2010 13:10:02 EST news201095343