Holograms are a ubiquitous part of our lives. They are in our wallets—protecting credit cards, cash and driver's licenses from fraud—in grocery store scanners and biomedical devices.
Optics & Photonics
May 13, 2016
0
1564
Diamonds are one of the most coveted gemstones. But while some may want the perfect diamond for its sparkle, physicists covet the right diamonds to perfect their experiments. The gem is a key component in a novel system that ...
General Physics
May 5, 2016
1
1005
Scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have taken a big step toward the practical application of "valleytronics," which is a new type of electronics that could ...
Nanophysics
Apr 4, 2016
5
1056
Researchers at MIT and other institutions have found a new phenomenon in the behavior of a kind of quasiparticles called plasmons as they move along tiny ribbons of two-dimensional materials such as graphene and TMDs (transition ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 21, 2016
0
695
As the moon slowly covers the face of the sun on the morning of March 9, 2016, in Indonesia, a team of NASA scientists will be anxiously awaiting the start of totality – because at that moment, their countdown clock begins. ...
Space Exploration
Mar 4, 2016
0
72
Hands and feet are two examples of chiral objects – non-superimposable mirror images of each other. One image is distinctly "left-handed," while the other is "right-handed." A simple drinking glass and a ball are achiral, ...
Nanomaterials
Feb 23, 2016
0
51
A study into how animals secretly communicate has led to the discovery of a new way to create a polarizer - an optical device widely used in cameras, DVD players and sunglasses.
Materials Science
Feb 17, 2016
0
1586
A thin, stretchable film that coils light waves like a Slinky could one day lead to more precise, less expensive monitoring for cancer survivors.
Nanophysics
Jan 14, 2016
0
46
What do astrophysics, telecommunications and pharmacology have in common? Each of these fields relies on polarimeters—instruments that detect the direction of the oscillation of electromagnetic waves, otherwise known as ...
Optics & Photonics
Jan 8, 2016
2
98
Monolayer films of tungsten disulfide, just three atoms thick, have unique electronic valleys which can be manipulated with laser light. This finding, by MIT physics graduate student Edbert Jarvis Sie, Associate Professor ...
Condensed Matter
Dec 3, 2015
0
1652
