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.
A few years ago, researchers in Michal Lipson's lab noticed something remarkable. They were working on a project to improve LiDAR, a technology that uses lightwaves to measure distance. The lab was designing high-power chips ...
Optics & Photonics
Oct 7, 2025
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In a recent Nature study, scientists have demonstrated an electrically driven perovskite laser using a dual-cavity design, addressing a challenge that has persisted in the field for over a decade.
Gravitational-wave detection technology is poised to make a big leap forward thanks to an instrumentation advance led by physicist Jonathan Richardson of the University of California, Riverside. A paper detailing the invention, ...
Optics & Photonics
Sep 27, 2025
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244
Recently, the research groups led by Prof. Zhang Qingli and Prof. Jiang Haihe from Hefei institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have jointly developed a high-symmetry gradient-doped Nd:YAG ...
Optics & Photonics
Sep 25, 2025
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20
NASA's Deep Space Optical Communications technology has successfully shown that data encoded in lasers can be reliably transmitted, received, and decoded after traveling millions of miles from Earth at distances comparable ...
Space Exploration
Sep 18, 2025
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169
Plasma, ionized gas and the fourth state of matter, makes up over 99% of the ordinary matter in the universe. Understanding its properties is critical for developing fusion energy sources, modeling astrophysical objects like ...
Optics & Photonics
Sep 17, 2025
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Lasers aren't just useful for entertaining cats or pointing out features of PowerPoint slides. They can also drill holes on icy extraterrestrial bodies from comets to Mars polar caps—at least, according to a new paper published ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 15, 2025
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39
Focused laser-like light that covers a wide range of frequencies is highly desirable for many scientific studies and for many applications, for instance, quality control of manufacturing semiconductor electronic chips. But ...
Optics & Photonics
Sep 12, 2025
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106
A record-breaking development in laser technology could help support the development of smaller, cheaper, more easily-fabricated optical and quantum technologies, its inventors say.
Optics & Photonics
Sep 11, 2025
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75
LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, has been called the most precise ruler in the world for its ability to measure motions more than 10,000 times smaller than the width of a proton. By making these ...
Astronomy
Sep 4, 2025
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