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.
Photonic microchips can process data at extremely high speeds and are embedded in a wide variety of today's technologies. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) and Harvard University have ...
Nanophysics
Jul 24, 2026
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57
In a promising development for cancer treatment, a collaborative research team has overcome two issues that have prevented photothermal therapy, a much less invasive treatment option than surgery and/or radiation, from becoming ...
Bio & Medicine
Jul 22, 2026
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11
Researchers have developed a new type of optical fiber by freezing a glass capillary filled with liquid. It guides light and sound waves simultaneously and enables highly efficient coupling between them. The high coupling ...
Optics & Photonics
Jul 21, 2026
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610
Seoul National University College of Engineering announced that a joint research team led by Professor Namkyoo Park and Professor Sunkyu Yu of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at SNU, in collaboration ...
Optics & Photonics
Jul 17, 2026
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177
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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423
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
2
431
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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34
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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70
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
0
116
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
1
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