Metamaterials don't exist in nature, but their ability to make ultra-thin lenses and ultra-efficient cell phone antennas, bend light to keep satellites cooler and let photovoltaics absorb more energy mean they offer a world ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 9, 2017
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12
Inspired by the hair of blue tarantulas, researchers from The University of Akron lead a team that made a structural-colored material that shows consistent color from all viewing directions. This finding overturns the conventional ...
Nanomaterials
Feb 7, 2017
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156
Colors are produced in a variety of ways. The best known colors are pigments. However, the very bright colors of the blue tarantula or peacock feathers do not result from pigments, but from nanostructures that cause the reflected ...
Nanomaterials
Nov 17, 2016
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12
Working with physicists from the University of Rome, a team led by Professor Cordt Zollfrank from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) built the first controllable random laser based on cellulose paper in Straubing. The ...
Optics & Photonics
Nov 10, 2016
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4
Researchers at the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw, using the liquid crystal elastomer technology originally developed in the LENS Institute in Florence, demonstrated a bio-inspired micro-robot capable of mimicking ...
Robotics
Aug 22, 2016
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3
With a surface resembling that of plants, solar cells improve light-harvesting and thus generate more power. Scientists of KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) reproduced the epidermal cells of rose petals that have particularly ...
Energy & Green Tech
Jun 24, 2016
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895
Masdar Institute faculty are part of a collaborative team of researchers that has discovered a novel way to significantly increase the amount of sunlight that a solar absorber can convert into heat. By converting more of ...
Energy & Green Tech
Jun 10, 2016
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46
Australian researchers at the University of Adelaide have developed a method for embedding light-emitting nanoparticles into glass without losing any of their unique properties – a major step towards 'smart glass' applications ...
Nanomaterials
Jun 7, 2016
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346
From visible light to radio waves, most people are familiar with the different sections of the electromagnetic spectrum. But one wavelength is often forgotten, little understood, and, until recently, rarely studied. It's ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 29, 2016
123
1156
If you've ever blown up a balloon or pulled at a pair of pantyhose, you may have noticed that the more the material stretches, the more transparent it becomes. It's a simple enough observation: the thinner a material, the ...
Optics & Photonics
Jan 21, 2016
0
12
