Optical materials and elements, considered as a physical system, comprise engineered media and components that manipulate electromagnetic radiation in the optical frequency range through controlled refraction, reflection, diffraction, absorption, and emission. This system includes bulk and nanostructured dielectrics, semiconductors, and metals configured as lenses, mirrors, prisms, gratings, filters, waveplates, and coatings, characterized by parameters such as complex refractive index, dispersion, nonlinear susceptibilities, and anisotropy. Their collective behavior determines wavefront shaping, spectral and polarization control, and spatiotemporal light propagation, underpinning the performance of optical assemblies in imaging, beam delivery, photonic integration, and laser systems.
Nanocrystals are so useful that they formed the basis of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. But despite their usefulness, scientists have so far been able to make these microscopic crystals from only a limited palette of ...
Nanomaterials
Jul 16, 2026
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417
Quantum materials could transform technologies ranging from powerful computers and ultrasecure communications to advanced energy systems. But there has always been one major obstacle.
Quantum Physics
Jul 15, 2026
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417
Korean researchers have developed, for the first time in Korea, a 200Gbps-class photodetector device for use in hyperscale AI data centers and 5G/6G mobile communications infrastructure. The technology enables ultrahigh-speed ...
Optics & Photonics
Jul 13, 2026
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31
The explosive growth of data generated by artificial intelligence, cloud computing and modern digital infrastructure is placing increasing pressure on existing information storage technologies. Although magnetic storage systems ...
Optics & Photonics
Jul 8, 2026
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67
Light can carry enormous amounts of information at extreme speeds, making photonic technologies promising for the development of faster communications, more powerful computing systems and more sensitive sensors. But for light ...
Nanophysics
Jul 7, 2026
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113
Researchers have created a special flat lens that shapes light into an optical needle—a thin beam that stays tightly focused over a long distance. Combining this lens, which is about 7 microns thick, with optical coherence ...
Optics & Photonics
Jul 7, 2026
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58
Normally, a material absorbs and emits heat in a linked way: A surface that absorbs heat well at a certain wavelength and direction will also emit heat in the same way. This fundamental relationship, known as reciprocity, ...
General Physics
Jul 7, 2026
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192
Achieving the blackest of blacks has been one of humanity's enduring challenges. It is a frontier that unites modern nanotechnologists with nature's ancient color palette.
Nanomaterials
Jul 6, 2026
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16
The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) has developed a room-temperature single-photon source built into a compact 19-inch rack-mounted device that operates without cryogenic cooling. Designed as a plug-and-play ...
Optics & Photonics
Jul 3, 2026
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47
The transmission of optical information through random scattering media is a major challenge in optics, biomedical imaging, telecommunications and remote sensing. When light passes through a turbid or diffusive medium, such ...
Optics & Photonics
Jul 2, 2026
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12
