Researchers have shown that recyclable, flexible electronics have a high potential for use in the production of cheaper solar cells, touchscreens, wearable ‘e-skins,’ and next-generation responsive windows. These materials, created using a simple, low-cost fabrication process, have the potential to replace traditional transparent conductive oxides such as indium tin oxide (ITO), which is a required [..]

The tree of life is full of species that transitioned from aquatic to terrestrial. Some species occasionally went oppositely. A CT scan showed new information about the inner ear anatomy of ancient reptiles called thalattosuchians, providing details about one of these evolutionary turning points. Following a protracted semiaquatic phase, these now-extinct crocodile relatives entered the [..]

Whether it be computing systems, sensors, or lidars, the modern photonics business is constantly working to make its products smaller. Making lasers, transistors, and other components compact is required for this. A team of scientists proposed an affordable, fast fabrication method to create optical chips in a Petri dish. Devices built on microscopic lasers and [..]

The primary component used in electrical engineering is silicon. Silicon is the foundation for all information and computing technologies essential to contemporary society, including computers, communications, astronautics, biomedicine, robotics, and many others. The slow speed of electrical signal propagation in metal interconnection wiring is the primary challenge to accelerating integrated circuit speeds. It necessitates switching [..]

Thanks to research, integrated switching units can now be constructed on a silicon photonics chip in a novel, programmable, and energy-efficient manner. By enabling a generic optical circuit to be manufactured in bulk and later programmed for specific applications like communications systems, LIDAR circuits, or computing applications, the new circuit technology is positioned to lower [..]

A new chip-based device that can shape and steer blue light could significantly reduce the size of the light projection components used in emerging applications such as VR display, autonomous vehicles, optogenetics, and even trapped-ion quantum computers. Researchers have made an optical phased array (OPA) with a wide field of view that contains no moving [..]

Before the invention of lens-design software, complex optical systems were regularly created by manual calculation, resulting in extremely effective microscopes, telescopes, camera lenses, and other optics that served their purposes well. The effects of glass, manufacturing, and mechanical imperfections can now be taken into account with a high degree of precision by the lens designer, [..]

Optical frequency combs, which provide hundreds of evenly spaced and mutually synchronized laser lines, are a crucial component of microwave photonics. They are extremely brief optical pulses with a steady repetition rate that matches comb line frequency spacing—the bursts’ photodetection results in the creation of a microwave carrier. Chip-scale frequency combs made from nonlinear microresonators [..]

In addition to having a basic impact on science, the three-dimensional (3D) vectorial nature of electromagnetic waves of light has inspired innovative uses for optical displays, microscopy, and manipulation. Conventional optical holography, on the other hand, can only handle the amplitude and phase information of an optical beam, totally excluding the 3D vectorial feature of [..]

The number of COVID-19 cases has not yet hit its peak and supplies of essential personal protective equipment (PPE) such as N95 masks are dwindling, so medical communities are desperately looking for alternative solutions for disinfecting masks that healthcare workers are being forced to reuse. Medical optics solutions can prove very helpful in such conditions.  [..]

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 [..]

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 [..]

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 [..]