A team of physicists at UC Santa Barbara has seen the light, and it comes in many different colors. By aiming high- and low-frequency laser beams at a semiconductor, the researchers caused electrons to be ripped from their ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 28, 2012
5
0
Fifteen years ago, UC Santa Barbara electrical and materials professor John Bowers pioneered a method for integrating a laser onto a silicon wafer. The technology has since been widely deployed in combination with other silicon ...
General Physics
Jul 1, 2021
4
181
Unlike the jumble of frequencies produced by the light that surrounds us in daily life, each frequency of light in a specialized light source known as a "soliton" frequency comb oscillates in unison, generating solitary pulses ...
Optics & Photonics
Dec 16, 2021
0
684
Terahertz spectroscopy, which uses the band of electromagnetic radiation between microwaves and infrared light, is a promising security technology because it can extract the spectroscopic "fingerprints" of a wide range of ...
Optics & Photonics
May 23, 2016
1
1195
(PhysOrg.com) -- "For years, we have been using laser cooling to trap and manipulate atoms," David DeMille tells PhysOrg.com. "This has been very useful for both basic science and many applications. Recently there has been ...
Chip-based devices known as frequency combs, which measure the frequency of light waves with unparalleled precision, have revolutionized timekeeping, the detection of planets outside of our solar system and high-speed optical ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 14, 2024
0
163
Optical frequency combs are widely-used, high-precision tools for measuring and detecting different frequencies—a.k.a. colors—of light. Unlike conventional lasers, which emit a single frequency, these lasers emit multiple ...
Optics & Photonics
Oct 17, 2017
0
804
Physicists at JILA have demonstrated a novel "superradiant" laser design, which has the potential to be 100 to 1,000 times more stable than the best conventional visible lasers. This type of laser could boost the performance ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 4, 2012
7
0
You're going at the speed limit down a two-lane road when a car barrels out of a driveway on your right. You slam on the brakes, and within a fraction of a second of the impact an airbag inflates, saving you from serious ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 8, 2021
1
3958
Nature has a way of finding optimal solutions to complex problems. For example, despite the billions of ways for a single protein to fold, proteins always fold in a way that minimizes potential energy. Slime mold, a brainless ...
General Physics
Jun 26, 2019
0
1
