Photonics Hot List: October 11, 2024

In this episode: a chip-based tractor beam captures bioparticles, the latest business mergers and moves, and a thermal metasurface design controls itself.

Justine Murphy

Oct. 11, 2024

In this episode of Photonics Hot List:

Some innovative work by a team of MIT engineers is bringing some fictional sci-fi technology into the real world. They’ve developed a chip-based tractor beam device that can capture and manipulate biological particles in the body without damaging any cells. Learn more about the research in Nature Communications.

In business news, Synopsys is now selling its Optical Solutions Group, in preparation for a pending merger with Ansys. Elsewhere, Lynred is set to acquire Paris-based New Imaging Technologies.

Researchers from The City University of New York have designed metasurfaces that can actually control the optical properties of their own thermal radiation emission. This could potentially enable custom light sources with extraordinary capabilities.

About the Author

Justine Murphy

Multimedia Director, Digital Infrastructure

Justine Murphy is the multimedia director for Endeavor Business Media's Digital Infrastructure Group. She is a multiple award-winning writer and editor with more 20 years of experience in newspaper publishing as well as public relations, marketing, and communications. For nearly 10 years, she has covered all facets of the optics and photonics industry as an editor, writer, web news anchor, and podcast host for an internationally reaching magazine publishing company. Her work has earned accolades from the New England Press Association as well as the SIIA/Jesse H. Neal Awards. She received a B.A. from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.