Optical techniques are experimental and analytical methods that exploit the generation, manipulation, and detection of electromagnetic radiation in the ultraviolet, visible, and infrared ranges to probe material properties, structures, and dynamics. They encompass approaches such as absorption, fluorescence, Raman and elastic scattering measurements, interferometry, and imaging modalities that rely on well-defined light–matter interactions. These techniques enable quantitative characterization of refractive indices, absorption coefficients, energy level structures, molecular conformations, and nanoscale morphology, often with high spatial and temporal resolution. Optical techniques are widely integrated with spectroscopy, microscopy, and metrology platforms and can be implemented in both far-field and near-field configurations.
Researchers at AIST have directly observed magnetic flux quanta generated in a superconductor by photon absorption and demonstrated a new principle of photon detection that identifies the number of photons based on the number ...
Optics & Photonics
15 hours ago
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23
Do cosmic radiation doses near the moon differ significantly from those received by astronauts in low Earth orbit? Experimental lithium fluoride detectors, installed aboard the Orion spacecraft during the Artemis I mission, ...
Space Exploration
21 hours ago
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31
Researchers have observed a molecule in the first instants after it has absorbed light and tracked the coordinated motion of electrons and nuclei with a temporal resolution of three femtoseconds. This is the result achieved ...
Optics & Photonics
Oct 22, 2026
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30
Researchers from Ruhr University Bochum have partnered with colleagues in Göttingen, Berlin, Paris and Essen to develop new optogenetic tools that can selectively inhibit cellular activity through light. These tools could ...
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 21, 2026
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31
Scientists have proposed what they believe is the first method for detecting "mirror life"—a hypothetical form of life made from molecular building blocks that are the mirror image of those found naturally on Earth. Researchers ...
Biotechnology
Oct 21, 2026
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170
Most conventional methods of ultrafast photography use evenly spaced intervals in which images are taken, but new developments have shown how much can be left out of the story, especially when multiple timescales are involved.
Optics & Photonics
Oct 20, 2026
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11
The aurora is among nature's most visually striking phenomena. It occurs when charged particles from the sun are funneled by Earth's magnetic field into the upper atmosphere, where they collide with atoms and molecules and ...
Planetary Sciences
Oct 19, 2026
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20
Penicillin has cured syphilis cases since 1943, but symptoms of the sexually transmitted infection, known as "the great imitator," mimic many other diseases and can come and go without treatment while the infection keeps ...
Bio & Medicine
Oct 16, 2026
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15
Physicists at Auburn University have used flashes of laser light to bring order to tiny electrically charged "islands" inside a crystal. The discovery helps answer a decades-old question about how the material organizes itself ...
Condensed Matter
Oct 15, 2026
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26
The team, led by professors Simon Lewis and Tony James and Dr. Dan Pantos in the university's Department of Chemistry, has transformed azulene, a naturally occurring blue compound found in certain mushrooms and corals, into ...
Biotechnology
Oct 14, 2026
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