Laser systems, as physical systems, comprise an optical gain medium, an energy pump source, and an optical resonator configured to produce coherent, monochromatic, and highly directional electromagnetic radiation via stimulated emission. The gain medium (solid-state, gas, liquid, or semiconductor) is excited by optical, electrical, or chemical pumping, creating a population inversion between quantized energy levels. The resonator, typically a pair of mirrors or integrated waveguide structures, provides optical feedback and mode selection, defining spatial and spectral properties. System performance is characterized by thresholds, efficiency, beam quality (M²), temporal regime (CW or pulsed), and stability against thermal, mechanical, and nonlinear optical effects.
Adelaide University researchers have successfully tested a new type of portable atomic clock at sea for the first time, using technology that could help power the next generation of navigation, communications and scientific ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 14, 2026
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Optical vortices—light beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM)—are characterized by helical wavefronts and phase singularities. While they have been widely studied in recent decades, two fundamental limitations have ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 9, 2026
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58
Most laser sources produce Gaussian beams that diverge as they propagate. This natural spreading limits their effectiveness in applications that require light to remain concentrated over long distances. To overcome this challenge, ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 2, 2026
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28
A new, miniature laser source developed by applied physicists in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Technical University of Vienna (TU Wien) could soon pack the power of ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 31, 2026
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25
Scientists in the Riccio College of Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University of California Santa Barbara have demonstrated key laser and ion trap components necessary to help drastically shrink ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 30, 2026
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When lasers were invented in the 1960s, they opened new avenues for scientific discovery and everyday applications, from scanners at the grocery store to corrective eye surgery. Conventional lasers control photons—individual ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 30, 2026
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Can light behave like a whirlwind? It turns out it can—and such "optical tornadoes" have now been created in an extremely small structure by scientists from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw, the Military ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 27, 2026
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132
Caltech scientists have developed a new way to produce optical frequency combs—important tools in devices that keep time and measure distances very precisely—at the chip scale, an advance that should make it easier to incorporate ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 25, 2026
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20
Scientists have created the first microlasers capable of detecting individual molecules and even single atomic ions, a breakthrough that could significantly advance early disease diagnosis and molecular-scale medical testing. ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 25, 2026
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91
A laser-based system that can create mesh-like structures in a dish that resemble the cytoskeletons of cells has been developed by two RIKEN researchers. They demonstrated its usefulness for research by exploring how two ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 21, 2026
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