Optics & lasers as a research area encompasses the fundamental and applied study of the generation, propagation, manipulation, and detection of light, with a particular emphasis on coherent and monochromatic radiation from lasers. It includes laser physics (gain media, optical cavities, nonlinear and quantum optical effects), beam shaping and guiding (waveguides, fibers, integrated photonics), optical materials and devices (mirrors, modulators, detectors), and advanced techniques such as ultrafast optics, high-power and high-intensity laser systems, laser spectroscopy, and laser-based metrology. This field underpins technologies in precision measurement, optical communication, imaging, microfabrication, and control of matter with light.
As quantum computers continue to advance, many of today's encryption systems face the risk of becoming obsolete. A powerful alternative—quantum cryptography—offers security based on the laws of physics instead of computational ...
Optics & Photonics
Feb 9, 2026
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179
Modern technologies increasingly rely on light sources that can be reconfigured on demand. Think of microlasers that can quickly switch between different operating states—much like a car shifting gears—so that an optical ...
Optics & Photonics
Feb 9, 2026
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26
An advance from Monash University could pave the way for faster, smaller, and more energy-efficient lasers and other light-based technologies. Engineers have developed a new type of perovskite material arranged into an ordered ...
Condensed Matter
Feb 8, 2026
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71
A team of researchers at Queen's University has developed a powerful new kind of computing machine that uses light to take on complex problems such as protein folding (for drug discovery) and number partitioning (for cryptography). ...
Optics & Photonics
Feb 7, 2026
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437
Concerns that quantum computers may start easily hacking into previously secure communications has motivated researchers to work on innovative new ways to encrypt information. One such method is quantum key distribution (QKD), ...
A new theoretical study led by researchers at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory has identified the microscopic mechanisms by which diamond surfaces affect the quantum coherence of nitrogen-vacancy ...
Quantum Physics
Feb 6, 2026
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61
Measuring conditions in volatile clouds of superheated gases known as plasmas is central to pursuing greater scientific understanding of how stars, nuclear detonations and fusion energy work. For decades, scientists have ...
Plasma Physics
Feb 5, 2026
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120
Watching proteins move as they drive the chemical reactions that sustain life is one of the grand challenges of modern biology. In recent years, X-ray free-electron lasers, or XFELs, have begun to meet that challenge, capturing ...
Biotechnology
Feb 5, 2026
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25
A research team from the Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics (XIOPM) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with collaborators from the Institute National de la Recherche Scientifique, Canada, and Northwest ...
Optics & Photonics
Feb 5, 2026
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21
The invention of tiny devices capable of precisely controlling the direction and behavior of light is essential to the development of advanced technologies. Researchers at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY ...
Optics & Photonics
Feb 3, 2026
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