Spheres can form squares
Everybody who has tried to stack oranges in a box knows that a regular packing of spheres in a flat layer naturally leads to a hexagonal pattern, where each sphere is surrounded by six neighbours in a honeycomb-like ...
Everybody who has tried to stack oranges in a box knows that a regular packing of spheres in a flat layer naturally leads to a hexagonal pattern, where each sphere is surrounded by six neighbours in a honeycomb-like ...
(Phys.org) —Researchers and physicians in the field could soon run on-the-spot tests for environmental toxins, medical diagnostics, food safety and more with their smartphones.
Millions of years of evolution have molded our eyes into highly sensitive optical detectors, surpassing even many man-made devices. Now, Leonid Krivitsky and his co-workers at the A*STAR Data Storage Institute ...
An unusual wave that does not spread out as it travels could become a key component in speedy computer chips that use beams of light to carry and process data. Jiao Lin, a physicist at the A*STAR Singapore ...
Rice University scientists have unveiled a robust new method for arranging metal nanoparticles in geometric patterns that can act as optical processors that transform incoming light signals into output of ...
(Phys.org) —A team of European researchers working at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland has created an artificial compound eye that is comparable to those in insects such ...
One of the many promising applications of quantum mechanics in the information sciences is quantum key distribution (QKD), in which the counterintuitive behavior of quantum particles guarantees that no one can eavesdrop on ...
Spinning-disk confocal microscopy is an optical imaging technique that can be used to generate detailed three-dimensional fluorescence images of living cells and their contents. Although a powerful tool for ...
Engineering researchers at the University of Michigan have demonstrated a paradigm-shifting "polariton" laser that's fueled not by light, but by electricity.
Chemical compounds that can efficiently capture and convert light energy are in high demand as key components of inexpensive solar cells and advanced optical sensors. Carbon-based organic dyes are particularly ...
(Phys.org) —The mention of a two-dimensional material with excellent electrical and optical properties may first bring to mind graphene. However, this description also fits another class of materials called ...
(Phys.org) —Physicists at ETH Zurich have demonstrated one of the quintessential effects of quantum optics—known as the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect—with microwaves, whose frequency is 100'000 times lower ...
An international team of physicists, including researchers from the Universities of York and St. Andrews, has demonstrated that chaos can beat order - at least as far as light storage is concerned.
(Phys.org) —The new material's artificial "atoms" are designed to work with a broad range of light frequencies. With adjustments, the researchers believe it could lead to perfect microscope lenses or invisibility ...
There is now a way to differentiate between designer clothing and knockoffs. Chalmers researcher Christian Müller has produced a thread with unique optical properties, which can be used to create invisible ...