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.
If you think of a single atom as a grain of sand, then a wavelength of visible light—which is a thousand times larger than the atom's width—is comparable to an ocean wave. The light wave can dwarf an atom, missing it entirely ...
Optics & Photonics
Oct 22, 2025
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A novel imaging technique used for the first time on a ground-based telescope has helped a UCLA-led team of astronomers to achieve the sharpest-ever measurement of a star's surrounding disk, revealing previously unseen structure.
Astronomy
Oct 22, 2025
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The rapid and energy-efficient synthesis of high-performance catalysts is a critical hurdle in advancing clean energy technologies like hydrogen production. Addressing this challenge, a research team at KAIST has now developed ...
Nanomaterials
Oct 21, 2025
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174
Researchers at Umeå University and the Swedish Defense Research Agency, FOI, have developed new laser methods that can quickly detect chemical weapons and harmful bacteria directly on site—without the need to send samples ...
Optics & Photonics
Oct 20, 2025
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A team from the Faculty of Physics and the Center for Quantum Optical Technologies at the University of Warsaw has developed a new type of all-optical radio receiver based on the fundamental properties of Rydberg atoms. The ...
Optics & Photonics
Oct 16, 2025
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Materials scientists can learn a lot about a sample material by shooting lasers at it. With nonlinear optical microscopy—a specialized imaging technique that looks for a change in the color of intense laser light—researchers ...
Optics & Photonics
Oct 15, 2025
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74
When Darwin Quiroz first started working with optics as an undergraduate, he was developing atomic magnetometers. That experience sparked a growing curiosity about how light interacts with matter, an interest that has now ...
Optics & Photonics
Oct 15, 2025
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Professor Edmund Lam, Dr. Ni Chen and their research team from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering under the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) have developed a novel uncertainty-aware ...
Optics & Photonics
Oct 13, 2025
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A research team led by Prof. Xu Pingyong from the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed an innovative approach to visualize and rapidly screen small peptide knockins. The new approach, termed ...
Biotechnology
Oct 13, 2025
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30
The bandgap, i.e. the energy gap between the highest lying valence and the lowest lying conduction band, is a defining property of insulating solids, governing how they absorb light and conduct electricity. Tracking how a ...
Optics & Photonics
Oct 9, 2025
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