Sally Cole Johnson

Editor in Chief
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Sally Cole Johnson, Laser Focus World’s editor in chief, is a science and technology journalist who specializes in physics and semiconductors.

Credit: think-design/Jochen Thamm
Quantum tornado within momentum space: Quantum material tantalum arsenide’s electrons form vortices within momentum space—a physics concept used to analyze how electrons behave within solids. Work by researchers from the Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat at Würzberg and Dresden recently provided the first experimental evidence of these quantum tornadoes.
April 17, 2025
Scientists experimentally show electrons form vortices, tornado-like structures, within momentum space—and it’s a milestone for quantum materials research.
Credit: Zhenxu Bai
The team’s diamond Raman vortex laser experimental optical platform with Zhenxu Bai (left) and Hui Chen (right) of the paper. A physical image of the device is also shown on the right-hand monitor in the background.
April 16, 2025
What happens when you combine diamond’s broad spectral transmission range and its Raman frequency shift characteristics with the wavelength-independent nature of vortex beam generation...
A new route to chaos: Starting from a subharmonic frequency (the single peak), sidebands emerge as the control parameters is tuned (the modulated subharmonic state). Many frequencies form a very broad spectrum, which indicates chaos is being generated.
April 4, 2025
An unexpected modulated subharmonic route to chaos via a breathing soliton laser discovered by an international team of scientists extends laser chaos from Maxwell-Bloch equations...