News tagged with optical transitions

Reversible doping: Hydrogen flips switch on vanadium oxide

If you are not a condensed matter physicist, vanadium oxide (VO2) may be the coolest material you've never heard of. It's a metal. It's an insulator. It's a window coating and an optical switch. And thanks ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created May 21, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

A microscopic view on quantum fluctuations

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics achieve direct imaging of quantum fluctuations at absolute zero temperature.

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Oct 14, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (9) | comments 12 | with audio podcast

Researchers demystify glasses by studying crystals

Glass is something we all know about. It's what we sip our drinks from, what we look out of to see what the weather is like before going outside and it is the backbone to our high speed communications infrastructure (optical ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Nov 30, 2010 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (10) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

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

Exerting better control over matter waves

(PhysOrg.com) -- “The concept of matter waves is at the heart of quantum mechanics,” Oliver Morsch tells PhysOrg.com. “At the beginning of the last century, scientists discovered that solid particles could exhibit proper ...

Physics / General Physics

created Mar 27, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (29) | comments 15 feature

Engineers ride 'rogue' laser waves to build better light sources

A freak wave at sea is a terrifying sight. Seven stories tall, wildly unpredictable, and incredibly destructive, such waves have been known to emerge from calm waters and swallow ships whole. But rogue waves ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Mar 05, 2009 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (12) | comments 2

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