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.
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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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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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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A team of NASA researchers is developing new types of optical masks that could help enable the many orders of magnitude of starlight suppression needed for future space observatories to pick out very faint habitable exoplanets ...
Astrobiology
Mar 25, 2026
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You may not be able to hear it, but all solid materials make a sound. In fact, atoms—bound in lattices of chemical bonds—are never silent nor still: Under the placid surface of each and every object in our surroundings, a ...
Condensed Matter
Mar 24, 2026
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Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime produced by violent cosmic events, such as the merging of black holes. So far, direct detections have relied on measuring tiny distance changes over kilometer-scale instruments. ...
Astronomy
Mar 19, 2026
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Cerebral blood flow is essential for normal brain function and often perturbed in neurological disease. If one shines a source of coherent light on perfused tissue, the detected speckles, or "grains" of light fluctuate, or ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 14, 2026
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Ultrashort mid-infrared (mid-IR) laser pulses are essential for applications such as molecular spectroscopy, nonlinear microscopy, and biomedical imaging, but their generation often relies on complex and power-intensive systems ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 11, 2026
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