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.
In the increasingly digital world, the demand for faster, more efficient and miniaturized optical devices is ever-growing. From high-speed internet and secure quantum communications to advanced medical imaging and precision ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 29, 2026
0
8
Researchers at Skoltech have developed an ultra-compact electro-optic modulator based on silicon photonics and plasmonics that enables high-efficiency optical signal control within a small device footprint. The development ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 28, 2026
0
28
A research team from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has successfully used mechanical stretching technology to dynamically control the emission color of gallium nitride (GaN) material from ...
Condensed Matter
Apr 28, 2026
0
28
In materials science, if you can understand the "texture" of a material—how its internal patterns form and shift—you can begin to design how it behaves. That's the focus of the work of Zhenglu Li, assistant professor in the ...
Condensed Matter
Apr 24, 2026
0
41
Reaching the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, would take hundreds of thousands of years using current rocket propulsion technology. Researchers in the J. Mike Walker '66 Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M ...
Space Exploration
Apr 22, 2026
0
112
Researchers from the University of Twente and Harvard University have developed a new way to generate ultraviolet (UV) light on a photonic chip at power levels high enough for real-world use. For the first time, the technique ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 21, 2026
0
69
Have you ever wished to drive microscopic matter along an arbitrarily tailored trajectory instead of just a circle? That's exactly what we set out to achieve.
A collaborative research group has developed a fully automated roll-to-roll manufacturing platform capable of producing large-area visible metalenses at a rate of 300 units per second, marking a major breakthrough in translating ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 18, 2026
0
53
Researchers at The University of Osaka, in collaboration with ULVAC, Inc. and Ritsumeikan University, have developed a new LED structure that generates circularly polarized light from a single chip. By combining a semipolar ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 15, 2026
0
22
Computer chips that cram billions of electronic devices into a few square inches have powered the digital economy and transformed the world. Scientists may be on the cusp of launching a similar technological revolution—this ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 15, 2026
0
90
