Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have succeeded for the first time in looking inside materials using the method of transient grating spectroscopy with ultrafast X-rays at SwissFEL. The experiment at PSI is a ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 22, 2021
0
32
New research shows how to measure the super-short bursts of high-frequency light emitted from free electron lasers (FELs). By using the light-induced ionization itself to create a femtosecond optical shutter, the technique ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 14, 2021
0
192
After the optical frequency comb made its debut as a ruler for light, spinoffs followed, including the astrocomb to measure starlight and a radar-like comb system to detect natural gas leaks. And now, researchers have unveiled ...
General Physics
Mar 31, 2021
0
55
Scientists have long been working on improving their ability to use lasers to move small objects without actually touching them. This method of 'optical trapping and manipulation' is already utilized in optics, biological ...
Nanomaterials
Mar 26, 2021
0
7929
As Carl Sagan once said, "The sky calls to us. If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars." And our first emissaries to the stars will be robotic probes. These interstellar probes will be largely ...
Astronomy
Mar 25, 2021
8
319
Many organisms use sunlight to fuel cellular functions. But exactly how does this conversion of solar energy into chemical energy unfold?
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 23, 2021
1
739
Tailoring light is much like tailoring cloth, cutting and snipping to turn a bland fabric into one with a desired pattern. In the case of light, the tailoring is usually done in the spatial degrees of freedom, such as its ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 23, 2021
0
144
Graphene is an exciting new material, which has been characterized as a 'wonder material' because of its excellent properties. Graphene gained widespread attention in 2010 when the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to researchers ...
Nanophysics
Mar 22, 2021
0
12
Electrons in a solid occupy distinct energy bands separated by gaps. Energy band gaps are an electronic "no man's land," an energy range where no electrons are allowed. Now, scientists studying a compound containing iron, ...
Superconductivity
Mar 17, 2021
0
7620
Researchers have toiled for years, unsuccessfully, in pursuit of a silica optical fiber that would cool itself when excited with infrared laser light. Such a fiber would make it possible to use the most ubiquitous type of ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 17, 2021
0
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