Tractor beams come to life
Tractor beams, energy rays that can move objects, are a science fiction mainstay. But now they are becoming a reality -- at least for moving very tiny objects.
Tractor beams, energy rays that can move objects, are a science fiction mainstay. But now they are becoming a reality -- at least for moving very tiny objects.
General Physics
Sep 8, 2010
13
0
(Phys.org) —Currently, precision laser ranging is limited to the Earth-Moon distance. These systems are based on passive laser ranging, so that the signal deteriorates as 1/R4 over distance R. In a new study, physicists ...
Scientists have known for decades that time passes faster at higher elevations—a curious aspect of Einstein's theories of relativity that previously has been measured by comparing clocks on the earth's surface and a high-flying ...
General Physics
Sep 23, 2010
50
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- In a major physics breakthrough, University of Otago scientists have developed a technique to consistently isolate and capture a fast-moving neutral atom - and have also seen and photographed this atom for ...
General Physics
Oct 1, 2010
26
0
It's not at every university that laser pulses powerful enough to burn paper and skin are sent blazing down a hallway. But that's what happened in UMD's Energy Research Facility, an unremarkable looking building on the northeast ...
Optics & Photonics
Jan 19, 2023
3
637
Scientists harnessing precise control of ultrafast lasers have accelerated electrons over a 20-centimeter stretch to speeds usually reserved for particle accelerators the size of 10 football fields.
Optics & Photonics
Sep 19, 2022
4
4797
JILA and NIST Fellow James K. Thompson's team of researchers have for the first time successfully combined two of the "spookiest" features of quantum mechanics to make a better quantum sensor: entanglement between atoms ...
Optics & Photonics
Oct 21, 2022
8
2143
Quick bursts of laser light, lasting less than a trillionth of a second, are used in a range of applications today. These ultrashort laser pulses have allowed scientists to observe chemical reactions in real-time, image delicate ...
Optics & Photonics
Nov 11, 2021
0
289
(PhysOrg.com) -- The remarkable feat of tying light in knots has been achieved by a team of physicists working at the universities of Bristol, Glasgow and Southampton, UK, reports a paper in Nature Physics this week.
General Physics
Jan 17, 2010
4
0
A team of physicists from the Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms and other universities has developed a special type of quantum computer known as a programmable quantum simulator capable of operating with 256 quantum ...
Optics & Photonics
Jul 8, 2021
3
5584