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A superconducting silicon-photonic chip for quantum communication

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.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro

Apple iPhone 17 Pro delivers top performance and advanced cameras for field documentation, data collection, and secure research communications.

A novel way to generate visible light

A research team led by Professor Luca Razzari at INRS has successfully generated coherent, intense visible light pulses with femtosecond duration using a simplified setup. This innovation opens up new possibilities for studying various phenomena in physics, chemistry, and biology.

Detector advance could lead to cheaper, easier medical scans

Researchers have demonstrated a new technique for cross-sectional medical images without the need for tomography, enabling faster and more accurate imaging. The breakthrough is made possible by ultrafast photon detectors that can precisely determine the arrival times of photons, allowing for reconstruction-free positron emission imaging.

Broadband spintronic-metasurface terahertz emitters with tunable chirality

Researchers developed a novel spintronic-metasurface terahertz emitter that generates broadband, circularly polarized, and coherent terahertz waves. The design offers flexible manipulation of the polarization state and helicity with magnetic fields, enabling efficient generation and control of chiral terahertz waves.

GoPro HERO13 Black

GoPro HERO13 Black records stabilized 5.3K video for instrument deployments, field notes, and outreach, even in harsh weather and underwater conditions.

Topological valley Hall edge solitons in photonics

Researchers discovered a novel topological edge soliton that inherits topological protection from its linear counterpart, enabling robust and localized light beams. This breakthrough is achieved through nonlinear photorefractive lattices harnessing the valley Hall effect, without requiring an external magnetic field.

Bright prospects for OCT at 30

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.

Nikon Monarch 5 8x42 Binoculars

Nikon Monarch 5 8x42 Binoculars deliver bright, sharp views for wildlife surveys, eclipse chases, and quick star-field scans at dark sites.

A traffic light for light-on-a-chip

A team of researchers at EPFL and Purdue University has developed a magnetic-free optical isolator using integrated photonics and micro-electromechanical systems. This device can couple to and deflect light propagating in a waveguide, mimicking the effects of magnet-driven isolators without requiring magnetic fields.

Ultrafast optical switching can save overwhelmed datacenters

Researchers have demonstrated ultrafast optical circuit switching for datacenters using integrated soliton microcombs, which can handle increasing bursty datacenter applications while reducing overheads. The proposed architecture employs a central comb system to improve power efficiency and reduce complexity.

Intelligent optical chip to improve telecommunications

The INRS team has developed an intelligent optical chip that uses autonomous learning approaches to generate optical waveforms, paving the way for further advances in telecommunications. The device can autonomously adjust to a user-defined target waveform with strikingly low technical and computational requirements.

Bridging optics and electronics

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.

SAMSUNG T9 Portable SSD 2TB

SAMSUNG T9 Portable SSD 2TB transfers large imagery and model outputs quickly between field laptops, lab workstations, and secure archives.

Smuggling light through opaque materials

Electrical engineers at Duke University have discovered a way to extend the use of chalcogenide glasses into the visible and ultraviolet parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. By nanostructuring these materials, they can create high-order harmonic frequencies that enable transmission of light at previously inaccessible wavelengths.

Photonic chip is key to nurturing quantum computers

A team of researchers at Bristol's Quantum Engineering and Technology Labs has developed a silicon photonic chip that can protect quantum bits from errors using photons. This breakthrough could lead to the creation of more powerful quantum computers by reducing the fragility of qubits.

A monolithic InP/SOI platform for integrated photonics

A new platform enables simultaneous meeting of three critical requirements: low defect density, large dimension, and efficient light coupling with Si-waveguides. The monolithic InP/SOI platform features sub-micron wires and membranes grown using lateral aspect ratio trapping.

Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas, 2nd Edition

Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas, 2nd Edition is a durable star atlas for planning sessions, identifying targets, and teaching celestial navigation.

Tiny lasers acting together as one: Topological vertical cavity laser arrays

Researchers at the University of Würzburg have developed a way to force an array of vertical cavity lasers to act together as a single laser, overcoming previous power limit constraints. This breakthrough enables the creation of highly efficient and compact laser networks with numerous potential applications.

Quantum networks in our future

Researchers propose a time-sensitive network control plane as a key component of quantum networks, enabling real-time control and low costs. Industry applications include cybersecurity through quantum key distribution, but standardization and certification are needed.

Photonic-dispersion neural networks for inverse scattering problems

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.

Garmin GPSMAP 67i with inReach

Garmin GPSMAP 67i with inReach provides rugged GNSS navigation, satellite messaging, and SOS for backcountry geology and climate field teams.

SiCOI: A new platform for integrated photonics

A team of scientists has fabricated an ultralow loss SiCOI platform with a record-high Q factor of 7.1×206, demonstrating various nonlinear processes including harmonic generation and cascaded Raman lasing.

USTC improves anyonic photonic quantum simulation

Researchers from USTC demonstrate the quantum statistics and contextuality of parafermion zero modes using a multi-mode Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The fidelity of the braiding operation reaches 93.4%, enabling a fault-tolerant quantum gate.

Kestrel 3000 Pocket Weather Meter

Kestrel 3000 Pocket Weather Meter measures wind, temperature, and humidity in real time for site assessments, aviation checks, and safety briefings.

Metasurfaces control polarized light at will

Researchers at Harvard SEAS have demonstrated a new way to control polarized light using metasurfaces, enabling holographic images with an unlimited number of polarization states and manipulation in virtually infinite directions. This advancement could lead to applications in imaging, microscopes, displays, and astronomy.

One-dimensional red phosphorous glows in unexpected ways

Researchers at Aalto University have discovered that fibrous red phosphorous, when electrons are confined in its one-dimensional sub-units, shows large optical responses. The material demonstrates giant anisotropic linear and non-linear optical responses, as well as emission intensity.

Creality K1 Max 3D Printer

Creality K1 Max 3D Printer rapidly prototypes brackets, adapters, and fixtures for instruments and classroom demonstrations at large build volume.

Natural mineral hackmanite enables new method of x-ray imaging

Researchers have developed a new X-ray imaging method utilizing hackmanite's colouring abilities, revealing its potential for non-expensive and reusable imaging applications. The study found that adding different atoms to the material impacts its colouring properties, and the mechanism of colour changing occurs through X-ray excitation.

Cascaded metasurfaces for dynamic control of THz wavefronts

Researchers developed a general framework for dynamic control of THz wavefronts using cascaded metasurfaces. By varying the polarization of a light beam with rotating multilayer metasurfaces, they demonstrated efficient redirection and manipulation of THz beams, overcoming limitations in local tuning.

Doctoral student bridges gap between electronics and optics

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.

Aranet4 Home CO2 Monitor

Aranet4 Home CO2 Monitor tracks ventilation quality in labs, classrooms, and conference rooms with long battery life and clear e-ink readouts.

Apple Watch Series 11 (GPS, 46mm)

Apple Watch Series 11 (GPS, 46mm) tracks health metrics and safety alerts during long observing sessions, fieldwork, and remote expeditions.

Accomplished University of Ottawa professors earn Canada Research Chairs

The University of Ottawa has been awarded four new Canada Research Chairs in artificial intelligence, health, and law. Carole Yauk's research addresses toxicological risk assessment of environmental chemicals, while Emmanuelle Bernheim focuses on improving access to justice for those with mental health issues.

Near-field routing of hyperbolic metamaterials

Hyperbolic metamaterials enable subwavelength confinement of electromagnetic waves, allowing for flexible control of near-field light propagation. The researchers used an all-electric scheme to selectively couple near-field light in HMMs, enabling unidirectional excitation of hyperbolic modes.

Infrared imaging leaves invasive pythons nowhere to hide

Researchers developed a near-infrared camera system that can detect Burmese pythons up to 1.3 times farther away than traditional visible-wavelength cameras, providing a new tool for removal efforts and expanding detection capabilities day and night.

Davis Instruments Vantage Pro2 Weather Station

Davis Instruments Vantage Pro2 Weather Station offers research-grade local weather data for networked stations, campuses, and community observatories.

Quantum-optically integrated light cage on a chip

Researchers from several institutions have successfully integrated a novel on-chip hollow-core light cage into an alkali atom vapor cell, overcoming previous limitations. The device exhibits high-speed gas diffusion and long-term stability, enabling integration with other technology platforms.

A new direction of topological research is ready for take off

Scientists at the Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat have successfully created non-Hermitian topological states in topolectric circuits, exhibiting stable and robust features. This breakthrough has far-reaching implications for future quantum technologies and may establish a milestone towards developing light-controlled computers.

Silicon chips combine light and ultrasound for better signal processing

Researchers at Bar-Ilan University developed a novel solution combining light and ultrasound waves to create ultra-narrow filters in silicon integrated circuits. This innovation addresses the challenge of accommodating long delays required for narrowband filtering, enabling more efficient microwave photonic systems.

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch (M4)

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch (M4) runs demanding GIS, imaging, and annotation workflows on the go for surveys, briefings, and lab notebooks.

Complex shapes of photons to boost future quantum technologies

Assistant Professor Robert Fickler and Doctoral Researcher Markus Hiekkamäki demonstrated near-perfect two-photon interference control using spatial photon shape. The method holds promise for building new linear optical networks and developing quantum-enhanced sensing techniques.

Sony Alpha a7 IV (Body Only)

Sony Alpha a7 IV (Body Only) delivers reliable low-light performance and rugged build for astrophotography, lab documentation, and field expeditions.

Army-funded research paves way for improved lasers, communications

Researchers designed and built two-dimensional arrays of closely packed micro-lasers that achieve power density orders of magnitude higher, paving the way for improved lasers, high-speed computing, and optical communications. The breakthrough enables single-mode lasing with enhanced emission power and increased coherence.

New tech builds ultralow-loss integrated photonic circuits

Scientists have developed a new technology for building silicon nitride integrated photonic circuits with record low optical losses, significantly reducing power budgets for chip-scale optical frequency combs. The technology enables high-quality-factor microresonators and meter-long waveguides on small chips.

Meta Quest 3 512GB

Meta Quest 3 512GB enables immersive mission planning, terrain rehearsal, and interactive STEM demos with high-resolution mixed-reality experiences.

Photonic MEMS switches going commercial

Researchers demonstrate commercialization of photonic MEMS switches fabricated on silicon-on-insulator wafers using regular photolithographic and dry-etching processes. The switch design includes a 32x32 matrix of replicated elements, achieving excellent light power loss, optical bandwidth, and switching speed.

Efficient generations of complex vectorial optical fields with metasurfaces

Scientists develop a generic approach to generate arbitrary vectorial optical fields (VOFs) using metasurfaces, offering improved efficiency and control over polarization. They experimentally demonstrate the generation of VOFs in both far-field and near-field regimes with tailored wave fronts and inhomogeneous polarization distributions.

Using holographic endoscopes to observe distant objects

Researchers developed a holographic endoscope made of single-hair thin optical fibers to reconstruct images of macroscopic objects at larger imaging distances. The tool sheds light on biological processes occurring at the macromolecular and subcellular levels, allowing for better treatment of severe brain diseases like Alzheimer's.

DJI Air 3 (RC-N2)

DJI Air 3 (RC-N2) captures 4K mapping passes and environmental surveys with dual cameras, long flight time, and omnidirectional obstacle sensing.

New microcomb could help discover exoplanets and detect diseases

A new microcomb technology has been developed by researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, which can generate a wide range of optical frequencies with high precision. This technology has the potential to be used in various applications, including exoplanet discovery and disease diagnosis.

Anker Laptop Power Bank 25,000mAh (Triple 100W USB-C)

Anker Laptop Power Bank 25,000mAh (Triple 100W USB-C) keeps Macs, tablets, and meters powered during extended observing runs and remote surveys.

Optical frequency combs found a new dimension

The generation of dissipative solitons and coherent frequency combs in a photonic dimer made of two microresonators enables real-time tuning of the soliton-based frequency comb. Soliton hopping, a phenomenon not present at the single-particle level, can be used for generating configurable combs in the radio-frequency domain.

The quantum advantage: a novel demonstration

Scientists have successfully demonstrated a quantum advantage by performing a verification task in seconds using a quantum machine, whereas the same task would take centuries for a conventional computer. The experiment used a complex algorithm and simple experimental photonics system, showcasing the potential of quantum computing.

Researchers create novel photonic chip

A digital-to-analog converter has been developed without leaving the optical domain, enabling high-speed data processing with low power consumption. This innovation has the potential to advance next-generation data centers, 6G networks, artificial intelligence and more.