Tiny chip provides a big boost in precision optics

By merging two or more sources of light, interferometers create interference patterns that can provide remarkably detailed information about everything they illuminate, from a tiny flaw on a mirror, to the dispersion of pollutants ...

Single molecule can shift the phase of a laser beam

(PhysOrg.com) -- The ability to control light forms the basis of many technologies, from microscopy to optical computing. Now, a team of scientists from ETH in Zurich, Switzerland, has demonstrated that a single organic molecule ...

New phenomenon found in internal waves

(PhysOrg.com) -- Internal waves -- huge but nearly invisible ripples that occur in the oceans, the atmosphere and stars -- can play an important role in climate change and other processes, but there is plenty about them that ...

New interferometer could simplify materials research

(PhysOrg.com) -- “Most current hard x-ray interferometers are based on crystals, which require their high quality and high mechanical stability,” Anatoly Snigirev tells PhysOrg.com. “This can make x-ray interferometry ...

An Intriguing, Glowing Galaxy

A supermassive black hole may be responsible for the glowing appearance of galaxy 3C 305, located about 600 million light years away in the constellation Draco. Composite data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other ...

Researchers Holding Steady in an Atomic-Scale Tug-of-War

(PhysOrg.com) -- How hard do you have to pull on a single atom of -- let's say -- gold to detach it from the end of a chain of like atoms?* It's a measure of the astonishing progress in nanotechnology that questions that ...

Double engine for a nebula

(PhysOrg.com) -- The new image, showing a very rich field of stars towards the Carina arm of the Milky Way, is centred on the star HD 87643, a member of the exotic class of B[e] stars [1]. It is part of a set of observations ...

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