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    • Science & Research

    The laserfocusworld.com Science & Research channel includes articles and other content spotlighting the latest research advances and scientific discoveries related to photonics and optics.

    Recent

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    (Photo credit: Chalmers University of Technology)
    Researcher Minghao Qi, a professor at Purdue University, with the team’s setup.
    (Photo credit: William P.D. Hayes/Columbia Engineering)
    Natalie Fardian-Melamed in the lab working on a combo scanning probe—an inverted-optical microscope to explore single photon avalanching nanocrystal mechano-optics and photophysics. (Photo credit: William P.D. Hayes/Columbia Engineering)
    (Photo credit: Artiom Skripka)
    Artiom Skripka in front of a fume hood where the scientists synthesize their nanomaterials. (Photo credit: Artiom Skripka)
    (Photo credit: Mikko Raskinen)
    Professor Hele Savin (left) and her group used the Micronova micro- and nanofabrication center at Aalto University to fabricate their germanium infrared photodiodes.
    © Endeavor Business Media
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    Highlights

    (Image credit: SMART DiSTAP)
    Lead researchers Dr. Song Wang (left), a research scientist at SMART DiSTAP, and Dr. Yangyang Han (right), a senior postdoctoral associate at SMART DiSTAP.
    Bio&Life Sciences

    First-of-its-kind chromatic sensor detects plant distress

    Justine Murphy
    Feb. 17, 2025
    It’s not always easy to tell if a plant is dehydrated, and sometimes it’s too late to save it. But a sensor designed by an international team of scientists detects distress in...
    (Image credit: Nativo Calavera)
    FIGURE 1. Transforming bacteria into solar-powered lasers: we extract light-harvesting structures from bacteria (left), enhance them with proprietary specially engineered lasing units (middle), and place them into a lasing cavity (right) to create a new type of laser that runs directly on sunlight. The natural light-gathering rings (green/purple) of purple bacteria measure 60-nm across and achieve near-perfect efficiency in energy transfer of captured photons.
    Lasers & Sources

    Bio-inspired approach to harvest sunlight and convert it into laser beams in space

    Erik Gauger
    Feb. 7, 2025
    A new way to power space missions piggybacks on bacteria's efficient light-harvesting abilities to create sunlight-powered lasers—and could enable power transmission between satellites...
    (Image credit: iGii)
    Gii: A pure, porous three-dimensional carbon nanostructure poised to revolutionize sensing.
    Detectors & Imaging

    Breakthrough material for broadband photodetectors: Gii

    Des Gibson
    Feb. 6, 2025
    A sustainable carbon nanomaterial “Gii” is poised to revolutionize broadband photodetectors because it can absorb the full spectrum of light—from ultraviolet to infrared.
    (Photo credit: Quantum Science and Engineering Centre, NTU)
    Photo of the quantum photonic chip that predicts the chemical properties of molecules.
    Quantum

    Light-based technologies at Nanyang Technological University ‘illuminate’ quantum computing

    Daphne Ng
    Jan. 27, 2025
    In this Q&A, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) researchers Professor Baile Zhang and Professor Leong Chuan Kwek share the inspiration and concepts behind...
    (Photo credit: Volker Lannert/University of Bonn)
    Researchers at the University of Bonn’s Institute of Applied Physics—shown here (from left) Niels Wolf, Prof. Dr. Martin Weitz, Andreas Redmann, Dr. Frank Vewinger, and Dr. Julian Schmitt—have designed an approach that generates complex states of light.
    Optics

    ‘Super photon’ enables tap-proof communications

    Justine Murphy
    Jan. 23, 2025
    A new ability to generate complex states of light could hold the key to significantly more secure communications.

    Recommended

    (Photo credit: Konstantin Vodopyanov/CREOL)
    The team’s dual-comb spectroscopy system produces precise and stable frequencies.
    Lasers & Sources

    Ultrabroadband UV frequency combs show promise for high-res atomic and molecular spectroscopy

    Sally Cole Johnson
    Jan. 15, 2025
    High-res dual-comb spectroscopy system generates light across two ultrabroadband ultraviolet (UV) spectral regions.
    (Image credit: HÜBNER Photonics)
    hbner_photonics
    (Image credit: CRAIC Technologies)
    craic_technologies
    (Image credit: Francesco Tani)
    This schematic shows the differences between classical optics vs. quantum optics for the team’s work.
    (Image credit: K. Arjas et al., Nat. Commun., 15, 9544 [2024]; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53952-5)
    Vortex laser pattern from 12-fold rotationally symmetric quasicrystal structure.
    (Image credit: Wei Wei and Mei Xueting)
    Depiction of the adaptive sampling scheme, in which a laser beam patterned by a digital micromirror device selectively illuminates neurons and their activity in brain tissue.
    Bio&Life Sciences

    Two-photon microscope cracks neural networks code

    Justine Murphy
    Dec. 13, 2024
    A novel fluorescence microscope offers enhanced insight into how different neurons in the brain communicate and interact.
    (Photo credit: Susanne Viezens)
    Birgit Stiller and Steven Becker in the lab with their setup.
    Optics

    Optoacoustic neural networks?

    Sally Cole Johnson
    Dec. 12, 2024
    Birgit Stiller’s lab at Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) in Erlangen and Leibniz University Hannover is pioneering building blocks for optoacoustic neural networks...
    FIGURE 1. Schematic of the HDSP setup (a), printed parts with line cross-section and different extrusion paths for parts 1-3 (b), and a complex object in 4 with the shown pressure pattern in the inset.
    Detectors & Imaging

    Holographic direct sound printing: Sound waves revolutionize 3D printing

    Mahdi Derayatifar
    Dec. 11, 2024
    Holographic direct sound printing (HDSP) is an innovative advancement in sound-based 3D printing technology that uses a patterned acoustic field to create complex shapes with ...
    (Image credit: B. Ko et al., Adv. Funct. Mater.; doi:10.1002/adfm.202410613)
    External cooling performance of the radiative cooler.
    Optics

    Clear cooling film regulates solar heat

    Justine Murphy
    Dec. 6, 2024
    A transparent film based on radiative cooling could someday help regulate solar heat for environmental applications and architecture.