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.
The collaboration of TU Wien with research groups in China has resulted in a crucial building block for a new kind of quantum computer: The realization of a novel type of quantum logic gate makes it possible to carry out ...
Optics & Photonics
Feb 23, 2026
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CU Boulder researchers have built high-performing optical microresonators, opening the door for new sensor technologies. At its simplest form, a microresonator is a tiny device that can trap light and build up its intensity. ...
Optics & Photonics
Feb 23, 2026
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49
The laser you see in the photo above may one day enhance images taken by the most powerful microscopes in biology. This advancement, detailed in a paper published in eLife from scientists at Columbia's Zuckerman Institute ...
Biotechnology
Feb 21, 2026
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25
Scientists at Microsoft Research in the United States have demonstrated a system called Silica for writing and reading information in ordinary pieces of glass which can store two million books' worth of data in a thin, palm-sized ...
Optics & Photonics
Feb 19, 2026
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Applied physicists in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have discovered a new way to generate ultra-precise, evenly spaced "combs" of laser light on a photonic chip, a breakthrough ...
Optics & Photonics
Feb 19, 2026
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103
By replacing single atoms with an entangled pair of ions, physicists in Germany have demonstrated unprecedented stability in an optical clock. Publishing their results in Physical Review Letters, a team led by Kai Dietze ...
Lasers, devices that emit intense beams of coherent light in specific directions, are widely used in research settings and are central components of various technologies, including optical clocks (i.e., systems that can keep ...
Forecasting earthquakes presents a serious challenge on land, but in the oceans that cover around 70% of Earth's surface it is all but impossible. However, the vast network of undersea cables that crisscross the world's seas ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 17, 2026
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37
A team of physicists from the University of Ottawa, led by Neda Boroumand, have developed a new theoretical model that shines new light on how scientists understand the way lasers interact with dense matter, such as solids ...
Condensed Matter
Feb 17, 2026
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71
When an electron travels through a polar crystalline solid, its negative charge attracts the positively charged atomic cores, causing the surrounding crystal lattice to deform. The electron and lattice distortion then move ...
Condensed Matter
Feb 17, 2026
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