A team of engineers has demonstrated an improved technique for growing high-performance photodetectors made from III-V materials directly on a platform compatible with silicon photonics. The team’s approach puts together several micropatterning and deposition methods to create a monolithic indium-phosphate/silicon-on-insulator (InP/SOI) platform tuned for growing such devices in various dimensions. The engineers devised a new method [..]

Researchers have discovered new information that will aid materials scientists in predicting how material properties change due to stresses such as high temperatures. The current model for forecasting a material’s structure and properties does not apply to polycrystalline materials. So, they developed a new model using near-field high energy diffraction microscopy (HEDM). Most metals, alloys, [..]

Researchers have developed a pick-and-place integration process, generally referred to as transfer printing, for thin-film devices to allow local hybrid materials integration on host PICs. The method provides the freedom to carry out multiple printing processes on a single chip. The method relies on transferring membrane devices or coupons of material with dimensions in the [..]

Tumors within an organ release cells into circulation as they grow. These cells can spread to other organs, causing metastases or new tumors. Engineers have now discovered a technology that allows them to assess the rate of development of these circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in mice for the first time. Their method, which also displays [..]

A research team has created colloidal crystals that look like opal nanostructures sensitive to time and temperature and can make new sensors. These sensors record the temperature in their environment visibly and continuously over a set period. As a result, they’re ideal for continuous monitoring of temperature-sensitive processes. Exposure to only moderate temperatures for long [..]

Effective vein visualization is vital for several clinical procedures, such as venous blood sampling and intravenous injection. Existing technologies using infrared devices or ultrasound technology are unsuitable for daily medical care due to their equipment. Now, researchers have devised a new regression-based vein visualization method. It uses conventional RGB images to diagnose venipuncture procedures and [..]

Scientists have created an IR detector with two separate IR bands and a bias-switchable spectral response. The gadget changes from the near-infrared (NIR) to the shortwave infrared (SWIR) band to reverse the detector’s bias voltage. Integrating the silicon-based dual-band photodetector into existing camera circuits and cellphones is possible. A thin layer of Si acts as [..]

In the mid-2020s, NASA will launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. It will provide a panoramic field of view at least a hundred times larger than Hubble’s, at a similar resolution. It will survey the sky up to thousands of times faster than can be done with Hubble. This wide-field, high-resolution, and efficient survey [..]

A new family of 2D semiconductors could pave the way for high-performance and energy-efficient electronics. The findings may lead to the fabrication of semiconductor devices applicable in mainstream electronics and optoelectronics – and even potentially replace silicon-based device technology altogether. 2D semiconductors are materials with a thickness of a few atoms. Due to their nanoscale [..]

Researchers have paired microscopy with artificial intelligence to develop a fast, accurate, cost-effective COVID test. While many methods currently exist to test for SARS-CoV-2, none use a label-free optical approach. So, the research team turned to a technique typically reserved for visualizing cells: spatial light image microscopy (SLIM), which facilitates chemical-free (or label-free) imaging. SLIM [..]

DNA computing uses the individual units of DNA’s two strands (selectively bound to each other in a complementary manner) to do complicated mathematical calculations. However, most DNA computing processes are still manual – one needs to add reactants step-by-step to the reaction. Finally, scientists have developed a programmable DNA-based microfluidic device that a personal computer [..]

Due to light dispersion and absorption, imaging deep into tissues is challenging. The wavelength windows for high-resolution deep mouse brain imaging are around 1300 nm and 1700 nm. However, due to the low detection efficiency of currently available detectors, one-photon fluorescence imaging in the wavelength region has proved extremely difficult. Researchers have created one-photon confocal [..]

Active display illumination technology generates a surplus of energy demand. Reflective displays (using thin films) that do not require active illumination can stifle this demand. However, these display technologies are challenging to employ in low-light conditions due to a lack of active light sources. The reflection of optical rays within a polymer-embedded microsphere introduces reflective [..]

Photopyroelectric detectors can absorb electromagnetic radiation, convert the absorbed energy into thermal energy, and generate a pyroelectric voltage (PEV) across a pyroelectric material. Their applications include energy harvesting, infrared sensing, and thermal imaging. Conventional narrowband photopyroelectric detectors require a bulky bandpass filter. Alternatively, a narrowband filter, such as a photonic crystal, can be directly integrated [..]

Researchers have developed a new imaging strategy to see the small, ultrastructural changes in dendritic spines during structural plasticity. They have captured the best of both imaging modalities by refining and elaborating on an established imaging technique called correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM). Using 2-photon optical microscopy and glutamate uncaging, the research team first [..]

Astronomers have recorded an unparalleled look at X-rays from a black hole system in the early cosmos using gravitational lensing, a natural lens in space. NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory employed this magnifying glass to sharpen X-ray images for the first time. It acquired details about black holes that would otherwise be too far away to [..]

Researchers have significantly improved the response time of a four mm-aperture hole-patterned liquid crystal (HLC) lens with doping of N-benzyl-2-methyl-4-nitroaniline (BNA) and rutile titanium dioxide nanoparticle (TiO2 NP) nanocomposite. The proposed HLC lens provides focus and defocus times (related to the wavefront bending speed) that are 8.5× and 14× faster than the new HLC lens, [..]

Due to their lower toxicity than cadmium-based semiconductor quantum dots, graphene quantum dots (GQDs) are attractive luminous materials for numerous light-emitting, biological, and energy applications. The luminous properties of GQDs drive their practical applications and use. As a result, controlling and tailoring the emission properties of these materials to suit the specified optoelectronic applications is [..]

Silicon Carbide (SiC) is a CMOS-compatible semiconductor material that promises to realize the monolithic integration of electronics and photonics with low fabrication costs via CMOS foundry. The non-centrosymmetric crystal structures of SiC grant both second-order and third-order nonlinear effects, enabling an efficient light frequency conversion and on-chip generation of nonclassical light states. SiC exhibits the [..]

Cavity optomechanics has recently gained a lot of interest from the quantum physics, quantum optics, and quantum information sciences sectors. It is due to the importance of cavity optomechanics in studying fundamental quantum mechanics problems and quantum precision measurements. Quantum simulation, as a cutting-edge approach, could be a valuable tool for investigating optomechanical interactions in [..]