Photonics

Researchers have created a prototype optical antenna that is claimed to increase the intensity of emission from a nanorod light source by more than 115 times. This technique may offer the opportunity to replace power-hungry lasers with LEDs in short-range optical communications devices.

The city of Vienna has hosted a laser light show with a twist with University of Vienna scientists having tested a new way of sending data over a light beam. The technique, which exploits classical and quantum mechanics, allows much more information to be transmitted securely through the air.

Physicists at the University of Geneva claim to have succeeded in passing information from light into matter using the teleportation of a photon via optical fiber cable to a receiving crystal located over 25 km (15 m) away

Researchers at Rice University have developed an image sensor that integrates light amplifiers and color filters directly into pixels, enabling color detection similar to the human eye.

Using transparent sensors, the glass in your smartphone screen could soon be used to take your temperature, among many other possibilities.

By exploiting the difference between the speed of two different beams of colored light when traveling through a heated crystalline disk, University of Adelaide researchers claim to have produced the world's most sensitive thermometer – with an accuracy of 30 billionths of a degree.

Scientists have recently experimented with a combination of biological and photonic quantum mechanical states to form a new half-light half-matter particle called the “polariton.” It could help realize fully synthetic systems that replicate biological photosynthesis.

A team of international researchers has developed artificial crystals with unique optical properties that could lead to advances in quantum computing and telecommunications. Their inspiration? The glorious green wings of the Callophyrs Rubi butterfly.

What do electronic signatures, fingerprint scans and touch-sensitive robot skin have in common? All three technologies may soon be advancing, thanks to a new system that turns an array of zinc oxide nanowires into tiny LEDs.

Nanoscribe GmbH, a spin-off of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), has built the world’s fastest 3D printer of micro- and nanostructures.

A team led by the University of St. Andrews has turned a laser into a tractor beam that works on the microscopic level.

IBM has announced a key advance in its silicon nanophotonics technology, which integrates optical and electrical circuits side-by-side on the same chip.