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 team of NASA researchers is developing new types of optical masks that could help enable the many orders of magnitude of starlight suppression needed for future space observatories to pick out very faint habitable exoplanets ...
Astrobiology
Mar 25, 2026
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21
An international research team led by scientists from Skoltech has developed a method to position molecules on the surface of ultrathin materials with unprecedented precision using molecular DNA self-assembly, enabling the ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 25, 2026
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22
Controlling light at the micro- and nanoscale opens up opportunities for a better understanding of the world and the development of technology. As modern electronics approaches the limits of its capabilities, photonics comes ...
Nanophysics
Mar 19, 2026
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From GPS satellites to mobile networks, modern technology relies on ultra-precise radio signals. Engineers have long tried to generate them on chips using interactions between light and sound, but the effect was too weak. ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 19, 2026
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51
Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) have created a new and unusual state of matter—known as a supersolid—by engineering how light and matter interact inside a nanoscale device. The work, published in Nature ...
Nanophysics
Mar 17, 2026
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215
For the first time, researchers have demonstrated that the properties of the perovskite family of materials can be used to create so-called quantum bits. The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, pave ...
Condensed Matter
Mar 17, 2026
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131
The controlled generation of single photons is an essential element of numerous quantum technology applications, such as quantum networks and quantum computing. A research team has now demonstrated the successful application ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 17, 2026
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83
Optical frequency combs—laser sources that emit evenly spaced colors of light—are foundational, ubiquitous tools for precision measurement, found in optical clocks, gas-sensing spectrometers, and instruments that detect the ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 16, 2026
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45
Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have created a chip-scale device that can dynamically control the "handedness" of light as it passes through—also known as its optical ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 11, 2026
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73
Photonic chips use light to process data instead of electricity, enabling faster communication speeds and greater bandwidth. Most of that light typically stays on the chip, trapped in optical wires, and is difficult to transmit ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 11, 2026
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