Spectroscopy is an analytical technique that measures the interaction between electromagnetic radiation (or other energetic probes, such as electrons or ions) and matter as a function of wavelength, frequency, or energy to obtain information about a system’s composition, structure, and dynamics. By monitoring absorption, emission, scattering, or reflection, spectroscopy reveals quantized energy levels associated with electronic, vibrational, and rotational states. Variants such as UV–Vis, infrared, Raman, nuclear magnetic resonance, and X-ray spectroscopy exploit distinct interaction mechanisms and selection rules, enabling determination of molecular identity, chemical environment, bonding characteristics, and in some cases spatial or temporal evolution of materials and biochemical systems.
Conventional spontaneous Raman spectroscopy of interfacial molecules typically requires plasmonic or electronic enhancement, limiting accessible systems. A nonlinear coherent Raman method now enables direct, high sensitivity ...
Nanomaterials
Apr 30, 2026
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Laser sail propulsion is an idea that won't go away. By aiming powerful Earth-based lasers at tiny spacecraft with light sails, tiny spacecraft can be accelerated to near-relativistic speeds without carrying fuel or an energy ...
Space Exploration
Apr 30, 2026
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61
Recent research led by the University of Trento reveals that fundamental atomic vibrations remain unchanged also in ultra-stable glasses. This discovery advances the decade-long debate on the physics of disorder and opens ...
Soft Matter
Apr 28, 2026
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Astronomers can use telescopes to find specific molecules in the atmospheres of neighboring planets, in nebulae—clouds of interstellar dust and gas—hundreds or thousands of light-years away, or in galaxies beyond the far ...
Astronomy
Apr 27, 2026
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46
Thirty-four years after Cornell University scientists first conceived it, the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST) now rises above the Atacama Desert, near the summit of Cerro Chajnantor in Chile. FYST will help answer ...
Astronomy
Apr 10, 2026
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116
Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have reported important progress in quantum physics and materials science by optically initializing, controlling, and reading out nuclear spin states in a molecular ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 8, 2026
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63
Near-infrared spectroscopy, or fNIRS, offers a way to monitor brain activity without surgery or radiation by tracking changes in blood flow and oxygenation. Light sources placed on the scalp send near-infrared light into ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 7, 2026
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For the first time, an international team of physicists has successfully harnessed a rare orbital transition in atoms of ytterbium to create a new type of atomic clock that is both highly precise and extremely sensitive to ...
A new, miniature laser source developed by applied physicists in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Technical University of Vienna (TU Wien) could soon pack the power of ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 31, 2026
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25
Finding life beyond our solar system goes beyond measuring an exoplanet's size, as rocky, Earth-sized worlds might not have the conditions for life as we know it. While exoplanets can be directly imaged by blocking their ...
Astrobiology
Mar 30, 2026
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