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.
Using finely tuned nanoscale building blocks, researchers from Brown University and the University of Michigan College of Engineering have stabilized a fleeting structural phase of matter that had been predicted theoretically ...
Nanophysics
May 28, 2026
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Approximately 75% of marine organisms are bioluminescent, with specialized light-emitting organs called photophores. They use the light they produce for various purposes, like attracting mates, luring prey, or confusing predators.
Biotechnology
May 26, 2026
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7
In a cramped, windowless room on the University of California, Berkeley, campus, two bespoke microscopes—each a Swiss Army knife for high-resolution imaging—operate around the clock gathering data that will help train a game-changing ...
Biotechnology
May 22, 2026
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A new chip-making technique exploits a material's crystal structure to create nanoscale patterns at room temperature directly onto hard materials used in devices, including silica. The method could make it easier to pattern ...
Nanophysics
May 22, 2026
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62
Complexity may seem subjective, but a quantitative measure of the complexity of nanomaterials was recently developed by a team of researchers from the University of Michigan Engineering, the University of Southern California ...
Nanomaterials
May 21, 2026
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45
Like so much else in nature, the human visual system has both a complex structure and functional efficiency that is difficult for scientists to replicate. The system is both a sensor and a processor, with the eyes and the ...
Condensed Matter
May 20, 2026
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32
In the HiPEQ project, a consortium of industry and research partners has developed new laser-based approaches to enable miniaturized, robust beam sources for quantum technology. Among others, the consortium also used lasers ...
Optics & Photonics
May 19, 2026
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22
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have developed a novel image projection system that delivers super-resolution images over an extended depth of field. By combining a neural network-based digital ...
Optics & Photonics
May 19, 2026
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16
The rapid growth of large language models is placing increasing demands on data centers, where large volumes of data must be transferred efficiently between servers. Optical interconnects are essential for enabling this communication, ...
Optics & Photonics
May 18, 2026
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22
They rank among the darkest and coldest places in the solar system: Hundreds of lunar craters, many of them at the moon's south pole, never receive direct sunlight and lie in permanent shadow. That's exactly why physicist ...
Planetary Sciences
May 18, 2026
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