Ultrafast optical switching can save overwhelmed datacenters

EPFL and Microsoft Research scientists demonstrated ultrafast optical circuit switching using a chip-based soliton comb laser and a completely passive diffraction grating device. This particular architecture could enable ...

A massive protocluster of merging galaxies in the early universe

Submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) are a class of the most luminous, distant, and rapidly star-forming galaxies known and can shine brighter than a trillion Suns (about one hundred times more luminous in total than the Milky Way). ...

Professor works to maximize efficiency of solar light pipes

If you have witnessed the rainbow pattern that dances on the surface of a CD or DVD, then you have seen diffraction at work. The disk acts as a diffraction grating, an optical element that disperses light into various colors ...

New optical hydrogen sensors eliminate risk of sparking

Hydrogen as a clean, renewable alternative to fossil fuels is part of a sustainable-energy future, and very much already here. However, lingering concerns about flammability have limited widespread use of hydrogen as a power ...

A world record in detecting extremely low levels of gas impurities

Photoacoustic spectroscopy applied to background-free analyses was used to measure unprecedentedly small trace gas concentrations. Teemu Tomberg from the University of Helsinki developed detection methods that make it possible ...

page 4 from 12