Meta-surface corrects for chromatic aberrations across all kinds of lenses

Single-layer surface of nanostructures can be incorporated into commercial optical systems

23-Nov-2018 - Today's optical systems -- from smartphone cameras to cutting-edge microscopes -- use technology that hasn't changed much since the mid-1700s. Compound lenses, invented around 1730, correct the chromatic aberrations that cause lenses to focus different wavelengths of light in different spots. ...

A new method to detect nucleation

27-Jul-2018 - As a solution evaporates, the dissolved chemicals concentrate until they begin forming a crystal through a process called nucleation. Industries that use small crystals in pharmaceuticals, food and microelectronics are seeking to understanding this nucleation event. Scientists studying nucleation ...

Tiny lasers from a gallery of whispers

21-Sep-2017 - Whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonators are used to make tiny micro-lasers, sensors, switches, routers and other devices. These tiny structures rely on a phenomenon similar to an effect observed in circular galleries, such as in some cathedrals or museums, where sound waves travel across the ...

Water and light 'flow' inspire ultrasensitive optical microfiber coupler sensor

07-Sep-2016 - When a river narrows or two rivers run into each other and merge, the water flow's speed increases and it becomes much stronger. Water flow and light flow are similar in many ways, and this inspired a group of researchers from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the University of ...

Light-powered 3-D printer creates terahertz lens

02-May-2016 - From visible light to radio waves, most people are familiar with the different sections of the electromagnetic spectrum. But one wavelength is often forgotten, little understood, and, until recently, rarely studied. It's called terahertz, and it has important applications in imaging and ...

Quantum gas in free fall

Physicists produce a Bose-Einstein condensate at zero gravity - a step towards extremely sensitive quantum sensors for gravitation

24-Jun-2010 - A sensitive measuring device must not be dropped - because this usually destroys the precision of the instrument. A team of researchers including scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics has done exactly this, however. And the researchers want to use this experience to make the ...

Quantum-limited Measurement Method for Nanosensors

A team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics succeeds in applying a novel optical method to nanomechanical oscillators

14-Oct-2009 - New fabrication techniques have enabled the development of on-chip mechanical elements whose dimensions are on the nanometre (one millionth mm) scale. Their application, however, has been limited by the lack of sufficiently sensitive techniques for measuring the motion of these tiny devices. A ...

New metamaterials that bend light backwards bring invisibility cloaks 1 step closer

13-Aug-2008 - Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have for the first time engineered 3-D materials that can reverse the natural direction of visible and near-infrared light, a development that could help form the basis for higher resolution optical imaging, nanocircuits for high-powered ...

A sub-femtosecond stop watch for 'photon finish' races

17-Mar-2008 - Using a system that can compare the travel times of two photons with sub-femtosecond precision, scientists at the Joint Quantum Institute (a partnership of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland) and Georgetown University have found a remarkably ...

MIT creates 3-D images of living cell

Method is similar to medical CT scans

15-Aug-2007 - A new imaging technique developed at MIT has allowed scientists to create the first 3D images of a living cell, using a method similar to the X-ray CT scans doctors use to see inside the body. The technique, described in a paper published in Nature Methods, could be used to produce the most ...