Sustained concentration (also known as a sustained state of vigilance) will generate a different type of memory than a momentary startle, and these differences are linked to distinct signaling molecules in the brains of mice. Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Brain Science (CBS) used optogenetics to help visualize these dynamics in the living mouse [..]

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 [..]

Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a new imaging technique that produces nm-scale resolution using significantly fewer images than traditional nanoscopy techniques. The scientists used ghost imaging to enhance the imaging speed of their technique. The new approach could be useful for live cell imaging. The technique is based on stochastic optical [..]

Scientists have reported a prototype atomic-array optical tweezer clock that uses optical-tweezer technology to combine the benefits of single-atom and optical-lattice clocks. At present, the most accurate and stable optical clocks use optical interrogation of either a single ion or an ensemble of neutral atoms confined in an optical lattice. They have enabled new experiments [..]

A research team led by Prof Tan Zhi Kuang from the Department of Chemistry and the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) has developed high-efficiency, near-infrared LEDs that can cover an area of 900 mm2 using low-cost solution-processing methods. SERIS notes that infrared LEDs have applications in optical communications and covert illumination, and are [..]

Researchers have designed a new chip-integrated light source that can transform infrared wavelengths into visible wavelengths, which have been difficult to produce with technology based on silicon chips. This flexible approach to on-chip light generation is poised to enable highly miniaturized photonic instrumentation that is easy to manufacture and rugged enough to use outside the [..]

For most people, getting an ultrasound is a relatively easy procedure: As a technician gently presses a probe against a patient’s skin, sound waves generated by the probe travel through the skin, bouncing off muscle, fat, and other soft tissues before reflecting back to the probe, which detects and translates the waves into an image [..]

Skip the litmus paper—a new type of pH sensor, based on light and under development by an international research team, could both give users instant visual readout and record a signal over time without disturbing biological systems being monitored (Sens. Actuators B, doi: 10.1016/j.snb.2019.127076). The researchers believe that their proof-of-concept device could also form the [..]

A new design of optical chips enables light to experience multiple dimensions, which could underpin versatile platforms for advanced communications and ultra-fast artificial intelligence technologies. This scientific breakthrough was led jointly by The Australian National University (ANU) and the University of Rostock in Germany, with other collaborators in Germany, the University of Central Florida in [..]

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are developing a deep learning-based pattern recognition (PR)-OCT system that will automate image processing and provide accurate, computer-aided diagnosis of colorectal cancer potentially in real time. The technique combines OCT machine learning and deep learning to detect patterns in the images of normal and abnormal tissue samples. The [..]

A new technique for imaging single molecules that does not rely on fluorescent emitters could find a host of applications in nanotechnology, photonics and photovoltaics. The technique, which was developed by researchers in Barcelona, works by detecting stimulated emission from single quantum dots at room temperature. Its speed makes it possible to trace charge-carrier populations [..]

Higher atmospheric layers (meaning 30-120 km) are becoming more and more interesting for climate researchers, but the areas above 40 km are only directly accessible with sounding rockets, using conventional research methods. A newly-developed LIDAR system based on a diode-pumped alexandrite laser will soon enable such research remotely. Scientists from the Leibniz-Institute of Atmospheric Physics [..]

Knowing that patients typically do not show symptoms of pancreatic cancer until it is advanced, making early diagnosis and treatment a challenge, a team of researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center (Columbus, OH) used a technique called endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided needle-based confocal laser endomicroscopy (nCLE) to definitively diagnose cysts in the pancreas [..]

Diffractive deep neural network is an optical machine learning framework that blends deep learning with optical diffraction and light-matter interaction to engineer diffractive surfaces that collectively perform optical computation at the speed of light. A diffractive neural network is first designed in a computer using deep learning techniques, followed by the physical fabrication of the [..]

A research team has shown that quantum light can be used to track enzyme reactions in real time. The researchers developed a setup that allowed them to control the light at the level of a single photon. This made it possible to use low illumination without disrupting the enzymes, with the potential to achieve improved [..]

Optical scientists have long been fascinated by the visual system of the mantis shrimp, a marine crustacean whose eyes process information about both the color and the polarization of light. Those capabilities have served as inspiration for a number of optical devices designed extract both 3-D spatial and polarization information simultaneously. But it’s been tough [..]

MIT researchers have devised a method that accelerates the process for creating and customizing templates used in medical-image analysis, to guide disease diagnosis. One use of medical image analysis is to crunch datasets of patients’ medical images and capture structural relationships that may indicate the progression of diseases. In many cases, analysis requires use of [..]