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    • Science & Research

    The laserfocusworld.com Science & Research channel includes articles and other content spotlighting the latest research advances and scientific discoveries related to photonics and optics.

    Recent

    (Photo credit: Volker Lannert/University of Bonn)
    Researchers at the University of Bonn’s Institute of Applied Physics—shown here (from left) Niels Wolf, Prof. Dr. Martin Weitz, Andreas Redmann, Dr. Frank Vewinger, and Dr. Julian Schmitt—have designed an approach that generates complex states of light.
    (Photo credit: Konstantin Vodopyanov/CREOL)
    The team’s dual-comb spectroscopy system produces precise and stable frequencies.
    (Image credit: Xuchen Wang)
    FIGURE 1. A time-varying resonant metasurface: The meta-atom is described by time-modulated surface capacitance and a constant surface inductance. A red arrow depicts a surface eigenmode with amplitude growing in time because its wavenumber is within the metasurface’s momentum bandgap.
    (Image credit: HÜBNER Photonics)
    hbner_photonics
    (Image credit: CRAIC Technologies)
    craic_technologies
    (Image credit: Francesco Tani)
    This schematic shows the differences between classical optics vs. quantum optics for the team’s work.

    Highlights

    (Image credit: K. Arjas et al., Nat. Commun., 15, 9544 [2024]; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53952-5)
    Vortex laser pattern from 12-fold rotationally symmetric quasicrystal structure.
    Quantum

    Novel quasicrystal design further ‘green lights’ topological study of light

    Sally Cole Johnson
    Dec. 16, 2024
    A new quasicrystal design process—that enabled a structure with a 12-fold rotational symmetry—may prove useful for many photonic applications beyond plasmonics.
    (Image credit: Wei Wei and Mei Xueting)
    Depiction of the adaptive sampling scheme, in which a laser beam patterned by a digital micromirror device selectively illuminates neurons and their activity in brain tissue.
    Bio&Life Sciences

    Two-photon microscope cracks neural networks code

    Justine Murphy
    Dec. 13, 2024
    A novel fluorescence microscope offers enhanced insight into how different neurons in the brain communicate and interact.
    (Photo credit: Susanne Viezens)
    Birgit Stiller and Steven Becker in the lab with their setup.
    Optics

    Optoacoustic neural networks?

    Sally Cole Johnson
    Dec. 12, 2024
    Birgit Stiller’s lab at Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) in Erlangen and Leibniz University Hannover is pioneering building blocks for optoacoustic neural networks...
    FIGURE 1. Schematic of the HDSP setup (a), printed parts with line cross-section and different extrusion paths for parts 1-3 (b), and a complex object in 4 with the shown pressure pattern in the inset.
    Detectors & Imaging

    Holographic direct sound printing: Sound waves revolutionize 3D printing

    Mahdi Derayatifar
    Dec. 11, 2024
    Holographic direct sound printing (HDSP) is an innovative advancement in sound-based 3D printing technology that uses a patterned acoustic field to create complex shapes with ...
    (Image credit: B. Ko et al., Adv. Funct. Mater.; doi:10.1002/adfm.202410613)
    External cooling performance of the radiative cooler.
    Optics

    Clear cooling film regulates solar heat

    Justine Murphy
    Dec. 6, 2024
    A transparent film based on radiative cooling could someday help regulate solar heat for environmental applications and architecture.

    Recommended

    FIGURE 1. Schematic of a system used to analyze carbon disulfide (CS2) Kerr gate [3]. It highlights the importance of polarizing sheets (magenta dotted boxes) and ND filters (blue dotted boxes).
    Optics

    Optical transmission of polaroid sheet polarizers and neutral-density filters

    Michael Pena
    Dec. 5, 2024
    Neutral-density (ND) filters and polarizers are two common optical components for applications within the visible and near-infrared (NIR) ranges. We measured light transmission...
    (Image credit: A. Stevens et al., Bioeng. Transl. Med.; https://doi.org/10.1002/btm2.10727)
    H&E staining on rat brain coronal slices from all treatment conditions at three days post-injury and four weeks post-injury. Images were taken from frontal cortex, corpus callosum, and choroid plexus (body of the lateral ventricle).
    (Image credit: Oxford Instruments Andor)
    oxford_instruments_andor
    (Photo credit: Yuhui Wang)
    Professor Hui Deng (left), Lingxiao Zhou, and Chenxi Liu in the lab.
    (Image credit: Xuchen Wang/Aalto University)
    “This work could lead to the first experimental realization of photonic time crystals, propelling them into practical applications and potentially transforming industries,' says Professor Viktar Asadchy from Aalto University, Finland.
    (Image credit: Stephen Sweeney)
    Cryogenic testing setup in Sweeney’s lab: A solar cell is held under cryogenic conditions (-196°C) while being powered by a laser.
    Lasers & Sources

    Space lasers: What’s up with that?

    Nov. 20, 2024
    In a Q&A with Stephen Sweeney, a professor of photonics and nanotechnology at the University of Glasgow, he answers our questions about what’s up with space lasers and his work...
    © Endeavor Business Media
    ftpcory_boonelandscape
    Podcasts

    PODCAST: Interview with Cory Boone, Edmund Optics

    Justine Murphy
    Nov. 19, 2024
    Episode 26 of Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast features Cory Boone, technical marketing manager at Edmund Optics.
    (Image credit: NTU Singapore)
    Two thin flakes of niobium oxide dichloride stacked on each other and photographed under a light microscope. One flake’s crystalline grain (gray flake) is positioned perpendicularly to the grain of the other flake (green flake).
    Optics

    Photonics breakthrough can drastically shrink quantum computing parts

    Leevi Kallioniemi
    Nov. 14, 2024
    Very thin materials can create entangled pairs of photons to be used as quantum bits.
    FIGURE 1. Depiction of the ultrahigh-density optical memory. Red dots represent rare earth ion impurities, and blue dots represent defects onto which the excitation is stored by using near-field energy transfer processes. Many optically addressable RE ions within the diffraction-limited excitation volume (red beam) result in an enhanced bit density.
    Quantum

    Near-field energy transfer provides route to ultrahigh-density solid-state optical memories

    Swarnabha Chattaraj
    Nov. 13, 2024
    A combined framework of quantum electrodynamics and quantum mechanical electronic structure theories reveals a promising pathway to exceed the current limitation on data storage...