Editor’s Picks

1. Study Sheds Light On The Really Peculiar ‘Normal’ Phase Of High-Temperature Superconductors 12/4/2019

   Every character has a back story, and so do high-temperature superconductors, which conduct electricity with no loss at much higher temperatures than scientists once thought possible.

2. When Laser Beams Meet Plasma: New Data Addresses Gap In Fusion Research 12/3/2019

   New research from the University of Rochester will enhance the accuracy of computer models used in simulations of laser-driven implosions. The research, published in the journal Nature Physics, addresses one of the challenges in scientists’ longstanding quest to achieve fusion.

3. Tiny Quantum Sensors Watch Materials Transform Under Pressure 12/13/2019

   Since their invention more than 60 years ago, diamond anvil cells have made it possible for scientists to recreate extreme phenomena – such as the crushing pressures deep inside the Earth’s mantle – or to enable chemical reactions that can only be triggered by intense pressure, all within the confines of a laboratory apparatus that you can safely hold in the palm of your hand.

4. Russian Scientists Have Found A Way To Make Laser Optics More Effective And Cheaper 12/21/2019

   The research team of the IKBFU developed a fundamentally new method of manufacturing laser optics, which is based on the use of rare-earth metal ions of ytterbium and its oxide. The results of the work of scientists were recently published in the scientific journal Optics Communications.

5. A New Playbook For Interference 12/18/2019

   Particles can sometimes act like waves, and photons (particles of light) are no exception. Just as waves create an interference pattern, like ripples on a pond, so do photons.

6. Researchers Discover New Way To Split And Sum Photons With Silicon 12/3/2019

   A team of researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of California, Riverside have found a way to produce a long-hypothesized phenomenon—the transfer of energy between silicon and organic, carbon-based molecules—in a breakthrough that has implications for information storage in quantum computing, solar energy conversion and medical imaging.

7. Scientists Devise Catalyst That Uses Light To Turn Carbon Dioxide To Fuel 12/4/2019

   The concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is steadily increasing, and many scientists believe that it is causing impacts in our environment. Recently, scientists have sought ways to recapture some of the carbon in the atmosphere and potentially turn it into usable fuel — which would be a holy grail for sustainable energy production.

8. Researchers Produce First Laser Ultrasound Images Of Humans 12/20/2019

   For most people, getting an ultrasound is a relatively easy procedure: As a technician gently presses a probe against a patient’s skin, sound waves generated by the probe travel through the skin, bouncing off muscle, fat, and other soft tissues before reflecting back to the probe, which detects and translates the waves into an image of what lies beneath.

9. Let’s Roll: Material For Polymer Solar Cells May Lend Itself To Large-Area Processing 8/12/2016

   For all the promise they have shown in the lab, polymer solar cells still need to “get on a roll” like the ones employed in printing newspapers so that large sheets of acceptably efficient photovoltaic devices can be manufactured continuously and economically.

10. SPIE Leaders ‘Delighted’ With Duke Of York As Patron Of International Year Of Light 7/17/2014

    The announcement that the UK's Duke of York has agreed to become Patron of the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies 2015 (IYL2015) in the UK is excellent news for photonics, said leaders of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, following today's press release from the Institute of Physics (IOP) on the Duke's action.