News tagged with optical laser

Scientists examine possibility of a phonon laser, or 'phaser'

(PhysOrg.com) -- While the optical laser celebrated its 50th anniversary earlier this year, some scientists have been working on a new type of coherent beam amplifier for sound rather than light. Scientists ...

Physics / General Physics

created Sep 07, 2010 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (29) | comments 25 | with audio podcast feature

Carbon nanotubes show the ability to amplify light, could lead to new photonic applications

(PhysOrg.com) -- "Carbon nanotubes have a lot of really nice properties that make them good for photonics," Laurent Vivien tells PhysOrg.com. Ever since the discovery that carbon nanotubes have photoluminescence when encaps ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Jun 23, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (38) | comments 0 | with audio podcast feature

Using lasers to cool and manipulate molecules

(PhysOrg.com) -- "For years, we have been using laser cooling to trap and manipulate atoms," David DeMille tells PhysOrg.com. "This has been very useful for both basic science and many applications. Recent ...

Physics / General Physics

created Dec 07, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (14) | comments 0 feature

Bouncing atoms may be the key to the future of gravimetry

(PhysOrg.com) -- When studying cold atoms, scientists often use magnetic or optical traps to keep the atoms in place. However, in some cases experimentalists want to study free atoms, avoiding the effects of a trap. "One ...

Physics / General Physics

created Apr 27, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (15) | comments 1 feature

New Research Promises Better Atomic Clocks

(PhysOrg.com) -- The most accurate timekeepers in the world are atomic clocks, which tell time based on the absorption of a very specific and unchanging microwave frequency, which induces electrons in an atom to “jump” from ...

Physics / General Physics

created Apr 22, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (9) | comments 1 feature

Quantum dots as midinfrared emitters

(PhysOrg.com) -- “People are interested in the mid-infrared,” Dan Wasserman tells PhysOrg.com. Infrared light has a wavelength longer than visible light, and many molecules have numerous very strong optical resonances in the ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Feb 23, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (10) | comments 1 feature

The Power of Light: Moving Macroscopic Amounts of Matter

(PhysOrg.com) -- Since 1970, scientists have been working with “optical tweezers” - lasers that move microscopic amounts of matter using forces originating from the light matter interaction. Now, for the first ...

Physics / General Physics

created Jan 29, 2009 | popularity 3.3 / 5 (12) | comments 17 feature

Physicists mix two lasers to create light at many frequencies

A team of physicists at UC Santa Barbara has seen the light, and it comes in many different colors. By aiming high- and low-frequency laser beams at a semiconductor, the researchers caused electrons to be ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Mar 28, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (14) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

A traffic jam of quantum particles

(PhysOrg.com) -- German scientists discover surprising transport phenomena in ultracold quantum many body systems.

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Mar 05, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Exotic new matter expected in ultracold atoms

(PhysOrg.com) -- Just as NASA engineers test new rocket designs in computer studies before committing themselves to full prototypes, so physicists will often model matter under various circumstances to see whether something ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Feb 29, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (8) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Atomtronics: A new phase

Just as NASA engineers test new rocket designs in computer studies before committing themselves to full prototypes, so physicists will often model matter under various circumstances to see whether something ...

Physics / General Physics

created Feb 19, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Physicists build highly efficient 'no-waste' laser

A team of University of California, San Diego researchers has built the smallest room-temperature nanolaser to date, as well as an even more startling device: a highly efficient, "thresholdless" laser that ...

Physics / General Physics

created Feb 08, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (23) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Flipping an egg carton of light traps giant atoms

(PhysOrg.com) -- In an egg carton of laser light, University of Michigan physicists can trap giant Rydberg atoms with up to 90 percent efficiency, an achievement that could advance quantum computing and terahertz ...

Physics / General Physics

created Dec 23, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Engineers at Yale develop new type of mechanical memory

(PhysOrg.com) -- Research engineers at Yale University have succeeded in building a mechanical memory switch that is controlled and then read by lasers. In their paper published in Nature Nanotechnology, the te ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Oct 25, 2011 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 1 | with audio podcast report

'Microring' device could aid in future optical technologies

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Purdue University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have created a device small enough to fit on a computer chip that converts continuous laser light ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Oct 19, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast