Researchers have created a method that combines optics and magnetic particles that can test 100 samples of patients who may be infected with the virus and cut the diagnostic time to around 15 minutes after realizing that current methods of coronavirus diagnosis take about an hour. By joining the virus’ RNA to a fluorescent molecule [..]

Scientists have observed light traveling through a unique substance without reflections. The photonic crystal substance comprises two pieces with subtly different perforation patterns. Light can move along the border between these two regions uniquely because it is “topologically protected” and does not reflect flaws. The light follows the boundary without any issues, even when it [..]

To treat a type of red-green color blindness called deuteranomaly, researchers have put metasurfaces, ultra-thin optical components, with commercially available high-tech contact lenses. People who experience different types of color blindness may find the new customizable contact lenses easy and comfortable. Additionally, the quality of plastic optical lenses can be enhanced by this research. Simple [..]

A recently released report from several German trade and research organizations argues that photonic technologies can represent “a driver of global sustainability,” and that the application of these technologies can prevent some 2.92 billion tons of annual CO2 emissions by 2030. Those avoided emissions, according to the study, would “correspond to at least 11% of [..]

Lasers that switch on and off billions of times per second are the backbone of optical communications networks, but this feat is only possible at certain laser frequencies. A team of researchers has now taken a step towards extending this frequency range by using sound waves to modulate the emission of a terahertz (THz) quantum [..]

Using a particular kind of light beam (polarization of light) to stimulate certain exotic materials has led a team of scientists to discover that an identically asymmetrical pattern can be produced and measured at will in these materials. In this instance, the “handedness” phenomenon—known as chirality—occurs in the abundance of electrons within the substance rather [..]

According to project managers, Galahad, a Horizon 2020 research project creating an OCT platform for enhanced early glaucoma screening, has successfully finished its job. The three-year program to create ultra-high resolution polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography, called Galahad, from Glaucoma Advanced, LAbel-free High resolution Automated OCT Diagnostics, has ended. (UHR-PS-OCT). By utilizing only OCT volumes focused [..]

The results of a successful demonstration of a lensless on-chip microscopy platform by a biomedical engineering lecturer at a university have been published in Lab on a Chip. He claims that his ptychography platform offers a low-cost alternative for disease detection while removing several of the most prevalent issues with traditional optical microscopy. The platform [..]

Researchers have equipped a normal optical microscope with infrared (IR) capabilities to perform digital biopsies for cancer diagnosis. They developed digital biopsies that did better than cutting-edge infrared microscopes. They closely correlated with conventional pathology procedures by combining IR measurements with high-resolution optical images and machine learning methods. The benefit is that the chemistry and [..]

These quickly expanding industries, including big data centers, Industry 4.0, and personalized healthcare, have one thing in common: they require miniaturized photonic components. These integrated or miniature photonic parts provide methods for sensing, transmitting, and processing data. Integrated photonic component production, alignment, and assembly technologies are constantly developing. Markets and manufacturers are frequently tiny, making [..]

Noise is a constant issue in traditional sensing techniques, particularly in systems designed to notice changes in their environment that are barely larger or smaller than the noise in the system. Scientist Said Rodriguez devised a solution after running into this issue in his tests with interacting photons. In a paper, he shows how noise [..]

Scientists have been working to create processors that operate on light instead of electric currents for many years. Finding an appropriate nonlinear process to perform the optical equivalent of a transistor’s switching has proven to be one of the biggest challenges. But now, a joint research effort thinks it may have the solution: a specially [..]

In many cases, by forming nanostructures on the surface, direct laser processing of material surfaces is a powerful method for changing those materials’ optical (light absorption) and electrical properties. The aspect of random chance that affects the size and geometry of the small-scale structures themselves has made it difficult to regulate precisely those surface modifications [..]

Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) may power various optical devices that produce light in the near- and mid-infrared (IR) spectral ranges. But basic physical constraints reduce the power of IR-emitting QDs. According to Fermi’s golden rule, the quantum yield of such QDs declines at longer wavelengths as the radiative emission rate falls, while nonradiative recombination channels [..]

Using pseudo-random speckle patterns to image targets is efficient (high-resolution imaging), but most approaches require bulky, expensive, complex, and slow machinery. A smaller device capable of generating random speckles is required to apply this technique to biomedical imaging, such as ultra-thin endoscopy or in vivo neural imaging. A group of scientists demonstrated using a multimode [..]

The creation of 3-D images and range detection has been proven by researchers using stacked, transparent graphene photodetectors in conjunction with image processing methods. The feasibility of a 3D camera that can deliver superior three-dimensional imaging while calculating how far things are from the lens has been established by researchers. Robotics, autonomous vehicles, and 3-D [..]

Sustained concentration (also known as vigilance) produces a different type of memory than a momentary startle, and these differences are linked to different signaling molecules in mice brains. Researchers used optogenetics neuroscience to help visualize these dynamics in the living mouse brain, observing fast and slow molecular pathways that support memory function. These processes occur [..]

While living tissue significantly attenuates and scatters visible light, attenuation, and scattering are less for two spectral regions at slightly longer wavelengths. The first and second near-infrared (NIR) windows refer to these frequencies. Although labels emitting in the NIR-II band are challenging, this band is especially attractive. A group of scientists has created an organic [..]

The diagnosis of sepsis must be made quickly, but the tests presently used to do so can take up to 72 hours. Researchers have created an optical detector that can diagnose sepsis in minutes instead of several days. The portable biosensor uses digital plasmonic imaging, in which nanoparticles have improved. An optical metasurface made of [..]

A research team has created a low-cost colloidal quantum dot photodetector that can sense long-wave infrared (IR) light and may eventually replace more expensive commercially available options. According to the researchers, the new technology closes a gap in the photodetection spectrum and may be helpful for environmental monitoring, food inspection, and gas analysis. With silicon [..]