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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.

    Highlights

    (Photo credit: Quantum Science and Engineering Centre, NTU)
    Photo of the quantum photonic chip that predicts the chemical properties of molecules.
    Quantum

    Light-based technologies at Nanyang Technological University ‘illuminate’ quantum computing

    Daphne Ng
    Jan. 27, 2025
    In this Q&A, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) researchers Professor Baile Zhang and Professor Leong Chuan Kwek share the inspiration and concepts behind...
    (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.
    Optics

    ‘Super photon’ enables tap-proof communications

    Justine Murphy
    Jan. 23, 2025
    A new ability to generate complex states of light could hold the key to significantly more secure communications.
    (Photo credit: Konstantin Vodopyanov/CREOL)
    The team’s dual-comb spectroscopy system produces precise and stable frequencies.
    Lasers & Sources

    Ultrabroadband UV frequency combs show promise for high-res atomic and molecular spectroscopy

    Sally Cole Johnson
    Jan. 15, 2025
    High-res dual-comb spectroscopy system generates light across two ultrabroadband ultraviolet (UV) spectral regions.
    (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.
    Optics

    Photonic time crystals reimagined

    Sally Cole Johnson
    Jan. 9, 2025
    By expanding the momentum bandgap of photonic time crystals via resonant structures, researchers make a crucial advance toward practical photonic time crystals at optical frequencies...
    (Image credit: Andreas Mischok)
    2502lfw_sal_1_web
    Optics

    Thin-film polariton filters for better displays, sensors, and optical imaging?

    Sally Cole Johnson
    Jan. 6, 2025
    By tapping into the quantum mechanical principle of strong light-matter coupling, researchers manage to outmaneuver the problem of angular dependence within optical systems.
    (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.
    (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.
    (Photo credit: Susanne Viezens)
    Birgit Stiller and Steven Becker in the lab with their setup.
    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.
    (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.
    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...
    (Illustration by Rafael Barros/Tampere University)
    The reflection of a twisted light field from an object reveals the topological aberration effect.
    Optics

    Hidden deformations within complex light fields?

    Sally Cole Johnson
    Dec. 4, 2024
    By carefully observing aberrations of a complex light field reflected from a surface, its refractive index and thickness can be inferred.
    (Image credit: Benjamin Yuen)
    The “shape” (expected intensity distribution) of a single photon emitted by an atom on the surface of a silicon nanoparticle.
    Quantum

    Quantum electrodynamics theory unveils precise ‘shape’ of a single photon

    Sally Cole Johnson
    Dec. 2, 2024
    New theory developed by Angela Demetriadou and Benjamin Yuen at the University of Birmingham in the U.K. explains how light and matter interact at the quantum level—at last!