Traditional lenses and mirrors focus light using curved surfaces. Metasurfaces can achieve similar functions with a flat layer of nanoscale structures that locally control the phase of light. Extending these flat optics into ...
Optics & Photonics
Nov 6, 2026
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503
Researchers have developed a chip-scale optical ring-laser gyroscope that can measure rotation as slow as 37 degrees per hour. This record sensitivity, approaching Earth's rotation rate of 15 degrees per hour, could eventually ...
General Physics
Oct 14, 2026
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222
Stanford engineers and colleagues designed a chip that can take a muddled mixture of light from multiple lasers and output clean beams of light. It's the first time researchers have demonstrated a device that can take in ...
General Physics
Nov 3, 2026
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189
Quantum networks could one day connect quantum computers into more powerful systems and enable new forms of secure communication. But a fundamental obstacle stands in the way: Quantum information is extraordinarily fragile, ...
Optics & Photonics
Oct 30, 2026
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175
Quantum networks, systems that connect devices and allow them to exchange information encoded in the quantum states of particles, could enable more secure communications. To build these networks, physicists need to devise ...
Quantum computers rely on qubits as their units of information. To connect them into a larger network across long distances, they need to transmit quantum information using light.
Typically, after a physical system is disturbed, it can gradually return toward a state of thermal equilibrium by exchanging heat with its surroundings. Thermal equilibrium is a state in which there is no net transfer of ...
A major software advance could aid the creation of bigger, more reliable quantum computers, a study suggests. Researchers have developed an algorithm that enables off-the-shelf computers to run quantum simulations previously ...
Optics & Photonics
Oct 14, 2026
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115
Researchers used the European XFEL to create X-ray flashes that were not only extremely short but also reached record intensity for this type of pulse. The researchers focused the X-rays to an area roughly 100,000 times smaller ...
Optics & Photonics
Oct 16, 2026
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110
Envision a material whose magnetic properties and electronic topology can be toggled by exposure to light, paving the way for future electronic devices that do not rely on traditional electrical switching, which wastes energy ...
