Capturing light in a waveguide array

07-Jun-2018 - Cheaper and more efficient photonic devices, such as lasers, optical fibers, and other light sources may be possible with confined light that is unaffected by imperfections in the material that confines it, according to new research. A team of physicists from Penn State, the University of ...

Tech bends light more efficiently, offers wider angles for light input

11-May-2018 - Engineering and physics researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a new technology for steering light that allows for more light input and greater efficiency - a development that holds promise for creating more immersive augmented-reality display systems. At issue are ...

New microscopic technique could help detect, diagnose metastatic melanomas

08-May-2017 - The fight against skin cancer just got a new weapon. For years, melanoma researchers have studied samples that were considered uniform in size and color, making them easier to examine by more conventional means. But melanomas don't always come in the same shape and hue; often, melanomas are ...

Newly developed liquid crystal elastomer material could enable advanced sensors

24-Dec-2015 - Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs), essentially rubbers with liquid crystal properties, can do a number of fascinating things, especially in the fields of optics, photonics, telecommunications and medicine. They can curl up, bend, twist, wrinkle and stretch when exposed to light, heat, gases and ...

Nano shake-up

UD researchers demonstrate that processing can affect size of nanocarriers for targeted drug delivery

16-Apr-2014 - Significant advances have been made in chemotherapy over the past decade, but targeting drugs to cancer cells while avoiding healthy tissues continues to be a major challenge. Nanotechnology has unlocked new pathways for targeted drug delivery, including the use of nanocarriers, or capsules, that ...

Fuel cells in operation: A closer look

11-Oct-2010 - Measuring a fuel cell's overall performance is relatively easy, but measuring its components individually as they work together is a challenge. That's because one of the best experimental techniques for investigating the details of an electrochemical device while it's operating is x-ray ...

Highest X-ray energy used to probe materials

27-Jul-2010 - Scientists for the first time have dived into the effect that an intense X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) has on materials. Using the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) facility at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore scientists probed nitrogen gas at X-ray energies of up ...

X-rays reveal chemical link between birds and dinosaurs

14-May-2010 - Researchers have found that a 150 million year old "dinobird" fossil, long thought to contain nothing but fossilized bone and rock, has been hiding remnants of the animal's original chemistry. Using the bright X-ray beam of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, located at the Department ...

Scientists glimpse nanobubbles on super non-stick surfaces

Could lead to design of water-shedding materials for applications in energy, medicine and more

03-Mar-2010 - Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have obtained the first glimpse of miniscule air bubbles that keep water from wetting a super non-stick surface. Detailed information about the size and shape of these bubbles — and the non-stick material the scientists ...

World's brightest X-ray machine comes online at SLAC

The $420 million Linac Coherent Light Source will snap photos at the molecular level of everything from proteins to semiconductor materials

24-Apr-2009 - After years of design and construction, the world's brightest X-ray machine has come to life at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, in the hills near Stanford University. The mile-long machine produces a laser beam made of X-rays instead of visible light. Its laser bursts are so bright and ...