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.
A new material platform has enabled scientists to create photon pairs whose entanglement can be tuned from a layer thinner than a human hair.
Quantum Physics
Jul 18, 2025
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248
In the race to develop faster and more flexible wireless communication technologies, researchers are turning to an unexpected source: the same organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) found in smartphone screens and TVs.
Optics & Photonics
Jul 18, 2025
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61
By leveraging the concept of chirality, or the difference of a shape from its mirror image, EPFL scientists have engineered an optical metasurface that controls light to yield a simple and versatile technique for secure encryption, ...
Optics & Photonics
Jul 16, 2025
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58
Researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) School of Engineering have cracked a major challenge in display technology by inventing the world's brightest and most energy efficient quantum rod ...
Optics & Photonics
Jul 15, 2025
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114
Artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT are notorious for being power-hungry. To tackle this challenge, a team from the Center for Optics, Photonics and Lasers (COPL) has come up with an optical chip that can transfer ...
Optics & Photonics
Jul 11, 2025
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224
Imagine a space telescope with a mirror stretching 50 meters across! That's larger than the width of a U.K. soccer field and nearly eight times wider than the James Webb Space Telescope. Now imagine that this enormous mirror ...
Astronomy
Jul 10, 2025
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60
For over two decades, physicists have been working toward implementing quantum light storage—also known as quantum memory—in various matter systems. These techniques allow for the controlled and reversible mapping of light ...
Optics & Photonics
Jul 9, 2025
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133
European researchers are developing quantum computers using light and glass, in a collaboration that promises breakthroughs in computing power, battery technology and scientific discovery.
Optics & Photonics
Jul 7, 2025
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130
A team of researchers has developed a novel method for using cholesteric liquid crystals in optical microcavities. The platform created by the researchers enables the formation and dynamic tuning of photonic crystals with ...
Optics & Photonics
Jul 1, 2025
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29
How does a cloud stay cool under direct sunlight—or seem to vanish in infrared? In nature, phenomena like white cumulus clouds, gray storm systems, and even the hollow hairs of polar bears offer remarkable lessons in balancing ...
Nanophysics
Jun 30, 2025
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