CAMBRIDGE, England, June 20, 2014 — Lower cost, more reliable diagnostic testing could be a light at the end of the nanophotonic tunnel … or barrel, in this case. A team from the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with the school’s Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis, as well as researchers in Spain and France, has developed a barrel-shaped molecular container called cucurbituril (CB) that acts as a mini test tube. It allows single molecules to enter and effectively isolates them. Now, the

VIENNA, June 18, 2014 — Lasers that switch off when their pump power is increased could one day make viable optical switches and logic circuits. Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology, led by professor Stefan Rotter, have demonstrated the phenomenon using a...

COLUMBIA, S.C., and HOUSTON, June 9, 2014 — Obtaining real-time reaction information from nanocatalysts has long impeded attempts to describe them in detailed kinetic behavior. But a team from the University of South Carolina and Rice University has discovered just how to do it. The...

Jun 9, 2014 — Invest in Photonics, a two-day international business convention focused exclusively on photonics-related venture capital investment, is set to return to Bordeaux, France, on Oct. 9 and 10. The fourth biennial convention brings together industry...

Jun 9, 2014 — When prehistoric organisms conspire with time and sediment to preserve a piece of nature’s skeleton, it’s something to gawk at: Fossils are lifted from their thousand-, million- or even billion-year respites to meet the public’s...

MANHATTAN, Kan., June 6, 2014 — A new approach to harmonic generation aims to create smaller, more powerful tabletop light sources for laboratory research, particularly in the emerging area of strong-field physics. “High-order harmonic generation has been considered a very...

OLDENBURG, Germany, MODENA, Italy, and MILAN, June 6, 2014 — Ultrafast spectroscopy has allowed physicists, for the first time, to observe and capture the light-to-current conversion process in an organic solar cell as it happens. The quantum-mechanical nature of electrons and their coupling to nuclei is...

Jun 5, 2014 — Researchers are on the threshold of building feasible quantum computers, with a few architectures inching ahead. Will we soon see a quantum leap in their progress? For more than two decades, one of the holy grails of physics has been to build a...

SINGAPORE, June 3, 2014 — Tiny crystals of a cobalt coordination compound leap, twirl and burst apart like popcorn when exposed to UV light. A team led by researchers at the National University of Singapore suggests the microscopic phenomenon could find macroscopic...

WASHINGTON, June 3, 2014 — The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded funding totaling $28.3 million for four photonics graduate research projects under its Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI). Brief summaries of the projects follow. For further...

VIENNA, May 20, 2014 — Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an important tool in diagnosing problems in the retina. It’s downfall, however, is that it lacks the ability to provide more specific information about retinal function. A new technique, developed by a...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., and VIENNA, May 19, 2014 — A new technique could lead to a better understanding of how neuronal networks process sensory information and even how behavior is created in the brain. A team from MIT, the University of Vienna and the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology has...

LONDON, May 18, 2014 — Producing matter from light via two-photon collision was originally proposed in 1934, but there has never been a viable experimental method to prove this fundamental prediction of quantum electrodynamics – until now. The 80-year-old theory,...

KANAZAWA, Japan, May 14, 2014 — Creating optically active chiral compounds &mdash which are becoming more and more important in chemical manufacturing — just got a bit easier. A team from Kanazawa University has devised a method for producing chiral molecules via...

EVANSTON, Ill., May 12, 2014 — A new solar cell promises enhanced efficiency and a smaller environmental footprint. The new cell, developed by a team from Northwestern University, uses a perovskite structure composed of tin instead of the traditional lead as the light-absorbing...

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y., May 9, 2014 — Bard College has won a three-year, $500,000 Scientific Equipment Program grant from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation for the creation of a new microscopy suite to enhance undergraduate science programs. The funding will allow for four lasers, two...

BERKELEY, Calif., and BOULDER, Colo., May 9, 2014 — The in-depth study of complex molecular systems, from batteries and electronic materials to living cells and even stardust, is now possible with a new imaging technique. Broadband IR synchrotron light has enabled researchers at Lawrence Berkeley...

GREENBELT, Md., April 30, 2014 — Just how blue the ocean is can be a clue to the health of its inhabitants, and now scientists have a way of gauging that color even under dark of night. A team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Biospherical Instruments Inc. has developed a...

LEICESTER, England, April 23, 2014 — The complex biological process of skin aging can now be studied more extensively and efficiently, thanks to a new low-cost laser-based technique.

MILAN, WARSAW, Poland and DRESDEN, Germany, April 22, 2014 — A newly developed polymer is said to be the first of its kind to combine optical and electrical properties. This could mean new manufacturing possibilities for glass, polarization filters and sensors capable of detecting single molecules of a given...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 11, 2014 — A new technique to connect particles could assist in development of quantum computing systems.

STANFORD, Calif., April 11, 2014 — Photovoltaic installations may be able to give a boost to biofuels production and vice versa, particularly in sunny and dry regions of the US.

FRANKFURT, Germany, April 8, 2014 — Headaches are a common symptom of altitude sickness. But they may not have to be. Researchers from University Hospital Frankfurt have turned to NIR spectroscopy to study ailments associated with altitude sickness, namely its tendency to reduce...

IRVINE, Calif., April 7, 2014 — An accidental discovery has scientists looking at light glare through new eyes.

Apr 7, 2014 — A panel of industry experts weighs in on recent and future advances in laser technologies for machine vision, and offers a look at the market. Laser-based machine vision can be a valuable tool for manufacturers looking to improve various areas of...