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.
Superconducting qubits—bits of quantum information—have been widely considered a promising technology for moving quantum computing forward. But there's still much work to be done before they can be brought out of a near absolute ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 20, 2026
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Light does more than illuminate the world—it can also push and twist matter. It was back in the 1870s that James Clerk Maxwell first predicted that light carries momentum and can exert pressure on objects. Nearly a century ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 20, 2026
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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 new Bar-Ilan University study points to a major advance in quantum information processing, demonstrating a way to send, manipulate, and measure quantum information across many frequency channels simultaneously, rather than ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 16, 2026
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Thin films might not come up in conversation every day, but they are all around us. Take the metallic plastic films of chip bags, for example, or the anti-reflective coatings on eyeglasses. Even the coatings on pills that ...
Superconductivity
Apr 16, 2026
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42
Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have developed a new approach to secure optical communication that hides information in the physical structure of light, making it difficult for unauthorized parties to intercept ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 15, 2026
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Adelaide University researchers have successfully tested a new type of portable atomic clock at sea for the first time, using technology that could help power the next generation of navigation, communications and scientific ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 14, 2026
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A key factor for the performance of sensors is the speed at which the system returns to its initial state after a disturbance or measurement, similar to the taring of a balance. In the quantum sensor under investigation, ...
Condensed Matter
Apr 13, 2026
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Justus Ndukaife, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and Chancellor Faculty Fellow, and his team have developed next generation nanotweezers that better analyze extracellular vesicles and aid in unraveling ...
Bio & Medicine
Apr 13, 2026
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Tiny robots—around 50 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair—open up fascinating possibilities: they enable the controlled manipulation of objects far too small for human hands. This brings us closer to a long-standing ...
Bio & Medicine
Apr 11, 2026
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