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.
Scientists from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw, in collaboration with teams from the National University of Singapore and Radboud University in the Netherlands, have observed single-photon emission from ...
Nanophysics
Jun 30, 2026
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When a high-intensity laser interacts with plasma, the charged particles typically oscillate back and forth like waves on the ocean. But what if the laser itself could twist like a whirlpool? Researchers have now demonstrated ...
Optics & Photonics
Jun 29, 2026
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152
Closing wounds, burns and deep cuts isn't enough to kick-start healing. A wound needs a clean environment, free of bacterial infection and interruption. That calls for three components working together—one to kill bacteria, ...
Nonlinear optical materials are essential for advanced photonics and laser technologies, but researchers are still searching for ways to optimize organic, carbon-based alternatives. Using computational modeling, scientists ...
Nanophysics
Jun 27, 2026
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37
In an international experiment, researchers observed Jahn–Teller polarons—quasiparticles that could play an important role in future ultrafast spintronic devices. These polarons emerged within the crystal lattice of cobalt ...
Condensed Matter
Jun 25, 2026
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It's one thing to design a pharmaceutical drug. It's another to know if and why it actually works; not on paper or in a computer model, but inside the chaotic world of living systems, where proteins twist into shape, atoms ...
Quantum Physics
Jun 25, 2026
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41
Scientists have developed a new type of "virtual" metasurface—capable of controlling light in ways traditional lenses and optics can't—which they say is superior to the current approach, which relies on ultrathin engineered ...
Optics & Photonics
Jun 25, 2026
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Scientists at NPL have demonstrated the best-reported laser frequency stability achieved with an optical reference cavity operating at room temperature, marking a major advance in ultrastable laser technology. The team's ...
Optics & Photonics
Jun 24, 2026
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15
Since the 1980s, researchers have sought to use laser light to control chemical reactions relevant to photochemistry, catalysis and light-responsive materials. But this technique, known as coherent control, has a blind spot: ...
Optics & Photonics
Jun 24, 2026
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9
In a laboratory in Broomfield, Colorado, 98 atoms are suspended in midair, held in place by electric fields and cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero.
Quantum Physics
Jun 24, 2026
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