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Optics & Photonics news
Megawatt structured light arrives with 3,070 optical vortices in one array
Optical vortices—light beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM)—are characterized by helical wavefronts and phase singularities. While they have been widely studied in recent decades, two fundamental limitations have ...
Optics & Photonics
3 minutes ago
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Single-shot imaging captures more information about ultrafast microscopic processes than previously possible
Researchers have developed a new imaging technique that captures more information about ultrafast processes in the microscopic world than was previously possible. The technique offers scientists a powerful new tool to observe ...
Optics & Photonics
8 hours ago
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Electron–atom scattering encodes the quantum state of electron wave packets
A new analysis reveals what happens when very short or narrow electron beams encounter a particle. The research is published in the New Journal of Physics. Scientists should be able to achieve a new level of control over ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 8, 2026
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Optical control of nuclear spins in molecules points to new paths for quantum technologies
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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A layered approach sharpens brain signals in optical imaging
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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Mechanical inputs boost diamond quantum sensor states as Q factor tops one million
Most people think of diamonds as high-end adornments. Not Ania Bleszynski Jayich. The UC Santa Barbara physicist sees diamonds, which she grows in the UC Quantum Foundry, as a potentially powerful foundation for quantum sensors. ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 6, 2026
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Quantum ground state of rotation achieved for the first time in two dimensions
Quantum mechanics tells us that a particle can never be perfectly still. But how precisely can it be oriented? A research team at the University of Vienna, together with colleagues at TU Wien and Ulm University, has now cooled ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 6, 2026
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New detector triples the speed of electron camera, enabling higher sensitivity
An instrument that uses high-energy electrons to take "snapshots" of ultrafast chemical processes at the atomic and molecular level just got a major upgrade. Researchers have conducted the first experiment using a new detector, ...
General Physics
Apr 6, 2026
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A tiny detector for microwave photons could advance quantum tech
Detecting a single particle of light is hard; detecting a single microwave photon is even harder. Microwave photons, the tiny packets of electromagnetic radiation used in current technologies like Wi-Fi and radar, carry far ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 3, 2026
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Compact flat-lens system can generate nondiffracting bottle beams
Most laser sources produce Gaussian beams that diverge as they propagate. This natural spreading limits their effectiveness in applications that require light to remain concentrated over long distances. To overcome this challenge, ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 2, 2026
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Ytterbium atomic clock could open a new window on fundamental physics
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 ...
Hidden features in X-rays could radically change how we measure and understand them
Hidden features uncovered in X-ray signals are set to overturn a key scientific theory and fundamentally change how X-rays are interpreted across fields of physics, chemistry, biology and materials science, new research reveals. ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 1, 2026
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Helical liquid crystals can flip light's chirality under ultralow electric fields
The direction in which the electromagnetic field of circularly polarized light rotates can be easily reversed by applying a voltage, RIKEN researchers have demonstrated. This could enable a new generation of optical devices ...
Condensed Matter
Apr 1, 2026
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Ultrafast quantum light pulses measured for the first time
Researchers at the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology have, for the first time, measured the temporal duration of individual pulses of an extraordinary form of quantum light known as bright squeezed vacuum (BSV). Their ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 1, 2026
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Building desktop particle accelerators to unlock new realms of research
Using high-intensity lasers, researchers have taken an important step toward miniaturization of particle accelerators by demonstrating free-electron laser amplification at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths (27–50 nm), with ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 1, 2026
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Racetrack-shaped lasers developed for bright, stable frequency combs
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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Chiral metasurfaces guide twisted light into free space
Light can carry angular momentum in two distinct ways. One comes from polarization, which describes how the electric field rotates. The other comes from the shape of the wavefront itself, which can twist like a corkscrew ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 31, 2026
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Next-generation optical sensor can read photon spin across UV-to-infrared wavelengths
A research team led by Professor Jiwoong Yang of the Department of Energy Science and Engineering at DGIST has developed next-generation optical sensor technology capable of precisely detecting not only the intensity and ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 30, 2026
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Stabilized laser components could shrink quantum computers from room- to chip-scale
Scientists in the Riccio College of Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University of California Santa Barbara have demonstrated key laser and ion trap components necessary to help drastically shrink ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 30, 2026
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Quantum researchers engineer extremely precise phonon lasers
When lasers were invented in the 1960s, they opened new avenues for scientific discovery and everyday applications, from scanners at the grocery store to corrective eye surgery. Conventional lasers control photons—individual ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 30, 2026
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