Optical & microwave phenomena as a research area investigates the generation, propagation, interaction, and detection of electromagnetic radiation spanning the optical (visible, ultraviolet, infrared) and microwave spectral ranges, with emphasis on their underlying physical mechanisms and cross-regime analogies. It encompasses coherent and incoherent light–matter interactions, waveguiding, scattering, nonlinear effects, resonances, and quantum electrodynamical aspects, as well as microwave cavity dynamics, dispersion, and near-field behavior. The field supports development of advanced spectroscopies, imaging modalities, communication and sensing technologies, and enables engineered materials and structures (e.g., photonic and microwave metamaterials) that tailor electromagnetic response across these frequency bands.
Controlling light is an important technological challenge—not just at the large scale of optics in microscopes and telescopes, but also at the nanometer scale. Recently, physicists at the University of Amsterdam published ...
Optics & Photonics
Jan 8, 2026
0
111
A breakthrough development in nanofabrication could help support the development of new wireless, flexible, high-performance transparent electronic devices.
Nanophysics
Dec 19, 2025
0
91
Researchers from CIC nanoGUNE, in collaboration with the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) and the Center for Materials Physics (CFM), have experimentally observed and theoretically verified flat-band ultrastrong ...
Nanophysics
Dec 18, 2025
0
29
Metal nanostructures can concentrate light so strongly that they can trigger chemical reactions. The key players in this process are plasmons—collective oscillations of free electrons in the metal that confine energy to extremely ...
Nanophysics
Dec 15, 2025
0
50
Traveling-wave parametric amplifiers (TWPAs) are electronic devices that boost weak microwave signals (i.e., electromagnetic waves with frequencies typically ranging between 1 and 100 GHz). Recently, many engineers have been ...
Scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay have found a way to use light to control and read tiny quantum states inside atom-thin materials. The simple technique could pave the way for computers that are dramatically ...
Optics & Photonics
Dec 9, 2025
0
119
Researchers at the Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI), Kanazawa University, report the successful creation of artificial synaptic vesicles that can be remotely controlled by near-infrared (NIR) light. By embedding ...
Bio & Medicine
Dec 2, 2025
0
42
Nature is brimming with color in almost every season. While the majority of colors are matte, some are shiny. Evolutionary biologist Casper van der Kooi wondered why shiny colors are so rare. He researched how bees perceive ...
Evolution
Nov 26, 2025
0
18
Researchers from the University of Oxford have for the first time discovered an approach to electrically switch organic LEDs (OLEDs) to emit either left- or right-handed circularly polarized light without changing the light-emitting ...
Optics & Photonics
Nov 26, 2025
0
168
In a new study published in Nature Physics, researchers have demonstrated that quantum light, particularly bright squeezed vacuum (BSV), can drive strong-field photoemission at metal needle tips.
