Researchers have developed a method to manufacture large SiC mirrors with high accuracy, enabling the creation of the world's largest aspherical mirror. The team successfully polished a 4.03m diameter SiC mirror using a home-built MRF24 polishing machine and proposed a PVD cladding process to improve substrate surface quality.
Researchers uncover hidden physics in electromagnetic optical forces, introducing complex Maxwell stress tensor theorem, revealing reactive strength of orbital momentum and imaginary Lorentz force.
Researchers propose an optical imaging system for real-time hypoxia imaging in cancer treatment. The technique utilizes protoporphyrin IX to enhance contrast between tumors and healthy tissues, allowing for more effective surgical removal.
A team at Tampere University has demonstrated that quantum waves behave differently from classical counterparts, increasing the precision of distance measurements. Their findings also shed light on the physical origin of the Gouy phase anomaly in focused light fields.
Researchers designed an optical black hole cavity using transformation optics, eliminating radiation loss in WGM cavities. The conformal optical black hole (OBH) cavity realizes infinite radiation Q-factor and enhances field confinement, paving the way for surface field manipulation.
Researchers at the National Eye Institute used adaptive optics to visualize cells across different tissue layers in the eye, revealing dramatic enlargement of RPE cells in people with choroideremia. This discovery may help design effective treatments for this rare genetic disorder.
Scientists have developed a new chip that can transfer different optical states to switch light flows using supersymmetry. The approach enables broadband continuous transformation of light spatial characteristics, opening up avenues for advanced photonic functionalities.
A new bidimensional semiconductor shows the highest nonlinear optical efficiency over nanometer thicknesses, enabling smaller devices with potential for compact phase-matched and waveguided nonlinear optics.
A new study demonstrates bound vortex light on optical chips by simulating gauge fields of cosmic strings. The research team created a deformed photonic graphene inspired by cosmic strings, which can generate and transport optical vortices and control photon orbital angular momentum.
Dielectric metalenses have made significant progress in compact imaging systems, offering aberration-correction and dispersion-engineering capabilities. However, challenges such as phase discretization, diffraction constraints, and crosstalk among sub-units need to be addressed for practical development.
Researchers developed a new method for converting light frequencies using atomically thin layers of molybdenum disulfide, enabling smaller lasers and potential applications in optical communications. The breakthrough could lead to compact phase-matched nonlinear optics and waveguide devices.
A team of scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University created unprecedentedly lightweight optics for X-ray space telescopes by employing Micro Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) technology. By refining the patterning and annealing process, they achieved ultra-sharp features that rival existing telescopes in performance while significan...
Researchers developed topological membrane metadevices for on-chip terahertz wave manipulations, showcasing robust single-mode manipulation and valley-locked edge states. This breakthrough enables the development of a robust platform for terahertz on-chip communication, sensing, and multiplexing systems.
Researchers review current progress on DUV NLO crystals, discussing key performance criteria, material development, and design strategies to surpass existing KBBF crystals. They propose rational tuning of interlayer cations as an effective strategy to improve DUV NLO performance.
Freeform optics have revolutionized the way we approach precision optical systems, enabling superior imaging in compact packages. Researchers have summarized the present state of art in advances, design methods, manufacturing, metrology, and applications. Key challenges include standard definitions, optimization complexities, and measu...
Researchers showcase nonlinear control of structured light, enabling novel applications in imaging, microscopy and quantum communications. New forms of structured light can be produced using nonlinear optics, offering unparalleled efficiency.
Researchers at UC Berkeley created a new type of semiconductor laser that maintains a single mode while scaling up in size and power. This breakthrough enables more powerful and coherent lasers for various applications, including fiber optic communications and biometric identification systems.
A collaborative initiative aims to establish common protocols for assessing and comparing diffuse optics systems used in medical diagnosis. The study presents the results of a multi-laboratory comparison of 12 institutions and 28 systems, proposing simple numeric values for easy comparison across instruments.
Researchers have developed advanced liquid crystal devices for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) displays, improving image quality and formfactor. The devices address challenges such as light efficiency, resolution density, and ambient contrast ratio, providing valuable guidelines for future LC device development.
Researchers at the University of Rochester have created an automated scanning device that detects monolayers with high accuracy, reducing processing time and costs. The system utilizes AI-powered image processing to analyze images of materials, identifying monolayers with near 100% accuracy in just nine minutes.
Researchers have found that light-based therapies such as photobiomodulation and photodynamics can effectively treat a range of post-COVID complications, including muscle and joint damage. The studies, conducted in Brazil, utilized laser irradiation, negative pressure, and other technologies to improve symptoms and promote healing.
Researchers conducted wave-optics simulations to study the impact of turbulence on light beams, finding that branch point density grows non-linearly with grid resolution. The study's results could lead to more accurate modeling and improved performance in Adaptive Optics systems.
The research team created a three-dimensional vertical solar panel system using advanced optical materials, fibers, and organic solar cells. This design significantly improves the efficiency of existing solar panels, enabling them to generate power for longer periods and in various environments.
Researchers developed a new way to apply antireflective coatings to 3D printed micro-optical systems, reducing light losses and improving imaging quality. The low-temperature coating technique can be used for applications such as miniature fiber endoscopes and virtual reality devices.
The Biophotonics Congress: Biomedical Optics will bring together biomedical experts to discuss advancements in clinical and translational biophotonics. Key findings include the development of label-free spectroscopy methods for identifying parathyroid glands during thyroidectomies.
Researchers developed a new technique, 2p-MINFLUX, to increase the precision of optical nanoscopy by doubling the gradient and decreasing the number of photons needed by a factor of four. The team's simulation proved that this approach requires fewer photons under two-photon excitation.
The holo-imprinting method overcomes the mass production bottleneck of traditional holographic optical elements. It uses photoalignment and reflective planar LC optics to record high-quality linear polarization fields. The technique has been experimentally validated with samples exhibiting excellent optical quality.
Physicists at Nicolaus Copernicus University developed new methods of molecular spectroscopy in optical cavity structures, offering higher precision and sensitivity. The methods were tested using dual-comb cavity ring-down spectroscopy, enabling parallel broadband spectroscopy with limited spectral definition.
Researchers developed a new reagent-free detection technique for SARS-CoV-2 using Raman spectroscopy and machine learning. The method shows an accuracy of 80% in detecting COVID-19 infections from saliva samples, overcoming limitations of RT-PCR testing.
Researchers created a spatial and nonlinear encryption method for images using photorefractive crystals, increasing security in documents, currency, and credit cards. The method is immune to traditional phase-retrieval-based known-plaintext attacks and robust against machine learning-based cracking due to its image-dependence.
A new wearable headset, Kernel Flow, monitors brain activity using time-domain fNIRS. The system can record high-resolution brain signals from across the brain with performance similar to conventional systems.
Scientists demonstrated experimental realization of an atom-optically synthetic gauge field in a noninteracting Bose gas of Cs atoms. They observed gauge flux-dependent populations and chiral atomic currents, which are significant for understanding gauge fields in synthetic dimensions.
The integration of optical sensing into orthopedic surgical devices has the potential to increase accuracy and improve outcomes in musculoskeletal repair. Researchers explore various types of optical sensing, including spectroscopy and imaging, to address unmet clinical needs in orthopedic surgery.
Silk's unique properties make it a promising material for biomedical devices, wearable sensors, and optics. The researchers aim to harness its versatility for future technologies, including reducing food waste.
Researchers have developed a new method for 3D imaging without distal optics, enabling high-resolution endomicroscopy with diameters below 0.5 millimeters. The approach uses diffractive optical elements to compensate phase distortions in fiber bundles, allowing for robust and low-cost medical imaging.
Researchers at the University of Rochester have developed a way to amplify interferometric signals without increasing extraneous input on an integrated photonic chip. This breakthrough enables high-precision measurements in various applications, including quantum gyroscopes.
A team of scientists has developed a novel method to characterize microscope objectives without an aberration-less reference element, enabling error correction and precise data collection. Using nanoscale dipole scatterers, they create a nearly-perfect reference wave for measurement.
A lung model mimicking complex anatomy has enabled the assessment of respiratory volumes using a gas-in-scattering-media absorption spectroscopy (GASMAS) technique. The study demonstrates the feasibility of GASMAS to sense changes in gas volume in a controlled environment, paving the way for potential clinical applications.
Researchers have developed a superconducting silicon-photonic chip for quantum communication, enabling optimal Bell-state measurement of time-bin encoded qubits. This breakthrough enhances the key rate of secure quantum communication and removes detector side-channel attacks, significantly increasing security.
Recent advances in holographic optical elements, surface relief gratings, metasurfaces, and micro-LEDs offer new optical architectures to break the etendue limitation in AR/VR displays. These innovations have led to improved system performance, reduced size, and increased weight tolerance.
Physicists discover skyrmions can fly through electromagnetic pulses with controlled topological complexity. The supertoroidal pulse, a generalization of the 'Flying Doughnut', features fractal-like toroidal structures and multiple singularities.
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has significant growth potential across various medical applications, including cardiology and dermatology. Miniaturized OCT systems are expected to revolutionize healthcare with compact, mobile, and cost-effective devices.
Researchers at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have developed a simple spatial light modulator made from gold electrodes covered by a thin film of electro-optical material. This device can control light intensity and pixel by pixel, enabling compact, high-speed, and precise optical devices.
Researchers discuss the recent development of quantum optics based on micro/nano structures, including metasurfaces, which offers rich light field control function to discover new quantum physics. Metasurfaces has great potential in quantum optics, enabling the exploration of quantum technologies with strong stability and high efficiency.
A new metrology instrument and techniques have been developed to characterize strongly curved high-quality X-ray mirrors, enabling unprecedented accuracy. The technique, known as speckle angular measurement (SAM), can push the precision of slope error measurements down to 20nrad rms.
Polarisation optics offers sensitive sub-cellular structure analysis and compatible imaging/sensing for in vivo applications. The Stokes-Mueller formalism and Mueller matrix describe polarisation states, enabling various measurement approaches and information extraction techniques.
Researchers have developed new strategies to optimize multiscale design of macro optics to micro/nanophotonics, enhancing the spectral sensitivity of surface-enhanced Raman and infrared absorption spectroscopies. This enables effective signal detection even for molecules with small scattering or absorption cross-sections.
Researchers developed a method to overlay a virtual scale on acquired endoscope images in real-time, allowing accurate estimation of colorectal polyp sizes. The approach uses triangulation principles and minimal image processing, enabling cost-effective diagnosis without adding extra instrumentation.
Researchers developed a high-throughput Fourier-optics-based angle-resolved imaging spectroscopy system with robust neural network-based algorithms to solve inverse scattering problems. The system achieved a strong linear correlation between the reconstructed geometric parameters and atomic force microscopy measurements.
A doctoral student at Texas A&M University has designed a chip that can revolutionize data rate for processors by utilizing photons. The chip operates at higher speeds with higher data rates compared to previous generation of chips, and is capable of reaching nearly five times the bandwidth.
Researchers designed a cascaded LC flat optical element to achieve steering angle magnification independent of incident beam position. The system consists of two flat optical elements with phase profiles, achieving nearly diffraction-limited performance through ray-tracing simulations.
Scientists developed a method to predict and eliminate X-ray glitches in single-crystal optics, increasing the efficiency of refractive optics. The approach is based on accurate simulation and prediction of glitches, allowing researchers to tune their work at modern X-ray sources.
A new AI-powered algorithm, WeakGCSeg, accurately detects and tracks ganglion cells in the retina, surpassing human expertise. This technology enables early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases like glaucoma, improving treatment options.
A breakthrough study by Anglia Ruskin University experts suggests that cataract treatment could shift from surgery to drug therapy, offering exciting implications for public health. The research found the role of aquaporin proteins in lens development and highlights the potential for nanotechnologies to support drug-based therapies.
Scientists have developed a method to create highly precise and complex miniature lenses using 3D printing, enabling small and lightweight cameras. The new apochromatic lens design reduces chromatic aberrations, improving imaging performance and quality in medical endoscopes.
Scientists have developed a method to shape soft X-ray pulses with high precision, using self-phase modulation in the X-ray regime. This technique has the potential to unlock new protocols for femtosecond core electrons spectroscopies.
Researchers successfully tested a reflectionless, highly refractive index metasurface made of micro-sized cut metal wires for use in terahertz waveband applications. The metasurface has a high refractive index and low reflection at 3.0 THz, enabling potential uses in 6G wireless communications and other commercial applications.
Researchers devise novel technique to 'flip' optical wavefront for simultaneous transmission through multimode fiber without distortion. This enables enhanced channel capacity in long multimode fibers.
University of Rochester researchers developed a novel technology using freeform optics and metasurfaces to deliver high-quality images with socially acceptable optics. The metaform component gathers visible light rays from all directions and redirects them directly into the human eye, achieving a significant improvement in image quality.
Researchers developed a new x-ray optics-on-a-chip device that can modulate X-rays at speeds up to 100 times faster than conventional devices. The tiny device, weighing just 3 micrograms, has the potential to capture fast chemical, material and biological processes.