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.
The shimmering of butterfly wings in bright colors does not emerge from pigments. Rather, photonic crystals are responsible for the play of colors. Their periodic nanostructure allows light at certain wavelengths to pass ...
Nanophysics
May 17, 2024
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211
A joint team of physicists from Skoltech, MIPT, and ITMO developed an optical component that helps manage the properties of a terahertz beam and split it into several channels. The new device can be used as a modulator and ...
Optics & Photonics
May 16, 2024
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327
In a first for communications, researchers in Sweden 3D printed silica glass micro-optics on the tips of optic fibers—surfaces as small as the cross section of a human hair. The advance could enable faster internet and improved ...
Nanophysics
May 15, 2024
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164
To meet the demands of next-generation ultrahigh-definition displays, the organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) industry is actively pursuing the development of narrowband organic light-emitting materials. Within this effort, ...
Optics & Photonics
May 10, 2024
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61
The implementation of integrated optical switches shows promise in the size reduction of ROADMs for greater flexibility and compactness, ultimately leading to robust single-chip solutions. Despite decades of research on switches ...
Optics & Photonics
May 9, 2024
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61
Researchers have delved into the composition of nanocomposites for ultraviolet metasurface fabrication and determined the ideal printing material for crafting them. Their findings are featured in the journal Microsystems ...
Nanophysics
May 9, 2024
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107
Canadian researchers have developed a new 3D printing method called blurred tomography that can rapidly produce microlenses with commercial-level optical quality. The new method may make it easier and faster to design and ...
Optics & Photonics
May 9, 2024
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141
In recent years, the exceptional structure and fascinating electrical and optical properties of two-dimensional (2D) layered crystals have attracted widespread attention. Examples of such crystals include graphene, black ...
Nanomaterials
May 8, 2024
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70
While we usually think of disorder as a bad thing, a team of materials science researchers led by Rohan Mishra, from Washington University in St. Louis, and Jayakanth Ravichandran, from the University of Southern California, ...
Nanophysics
May 7, 2024
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151
Unlike electrons, particles of light are uncharged, so they do not respond to magnetic fields. Despite this, researchers have now experimentally made light effectively "feel" a magnetic field within a complicated structure ...
Condensed Matter
Apr 24, 2024
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299
