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.
An international team of researchers from École Polytechnique, Collège de France and Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) has achieved a world first: the experimental realization of an all-optical photonic time crystal ...
Optics & Photonics
Jul 30, 2026
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233
There's a nice kind of irony buried in this story: One of the most sensitive instruments ever built, capable of measuring distortions smaller than the width of a proton, has been quietly held back by something as mundane ...
Astronomy
Jul 30, 2026
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44
What if glowing molecules could synchronize, much like fireflies flashing in unison? Researchers have discovered that molecules confined within tiny gold nanostructures can behave collectively, coordinating their interactions ...
Nanophysics
Jul 30, 2026
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34
Resolving a long-standing problem in semiconductor physics and optoelectronics, a team of researchers from Skoltech—a VEB.RF group institution—and their colleagues from ITMO University and HSE University have for the first ...
Condensed Matter
Jul 29, 2026
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75
For most theories in physics, the order of operations has little impact on the result. When setting a dial to a certain position, for example, it doesn't matter whether it's turned clockwise or counterclockwise—the result ...
A shape that captured worldwide attention for solving a decades-old mathematical puzzle has returned to the spotlight. While the shape's properties allowed it to solve previous puzzles, little is known about its other associated ...
General Physics
Jul 29, 2026
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167
From planning transportation networks to organizing massive datasets, many of society's most important challenges boil down to an optimization problem: finding the best solution among an enormous number of possibilities. ...
Optics & Photonics
Jul 29, 2026
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38
Imagine a smart bandage that could continuously monitor an infected wound, alerting doctors when bacteria spread or when treatment begins to work. That vision is one step closer to reality with new research from Virginia ...
Bio & Medicine
Jul 28, 2026
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7
Researchers at The University of Manchester have revealed how intense electronic excitation can trigger rapid structural changes in metals—without heating the atomic lattice—offering new insight into ultrafast materials behavior.
Condensed Matter
Jul 28, 2026
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151
Laser dicing, a technique that uses focused laser pulses to separate individual chips from a semiconductor wafer, is increasingly favored over mechanical blade cutting because it can process delicate, low-strength materials ...
Optics & Photonics
Jul 27, 2026
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