Plasmonics

Using light and tiny nanoparticles of rhodium​, scientists have found a way to turn carbon dioxide into a building block of many fuels. The newly discovered chemical reaction could use sunlight to reduce growing levels of CO2 and lead to the development of new alternative energy technologies.

A new flexible material can block various portions of the electromagnetic spectrum while allowing others through. The material has the potential to improve solar cell efficiencies and create window coatings that not only let in visible light and keep out heat, but also block electromagnetic signals.

Researchers at the University of California San Diego claim to have created the world's first microelectronic device that has no semiconductors, instead employing low-power laser optical control to increase its conductivity by more than 1,000 percent.

Physicists have created a new set of energy-carrying particles dubbed "topological plexcitons" that show promise in greatly enhancing energy flows for solar cells and nanoscale photonic circuitry.

Researchers at ETH Zurich claim to have created both the world's smallest optical switch using a single atom, and accompanying circuitry that is smaller than the wavelength of the light that passes through it.

A team from the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has created a 2D laser just one molecule thick that promises to make significant advances in ultra-compact photonic components for the likes of quantum computers and the next generation of optoelectronic devices.

Using nanometer-size metamaterials, researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology have developed a technique to print images that uses the manipulation of light, rather than the application of ink, to produce colors.

Researchers have recorded the world's first optically encoded audio onto a plasmonic film substrate the size of human hair that has a capacity over five-and-a-half thousand times greater than conventional analog magnetic recording media.

Instead of storing a 3D image in a photographic plate, researchers at Purdue University have developed a novel hologram which stores a 3D image in a thin gold film containing thousands of V-shaped nanoantennas, shrinking the hologram and enabling a host of new applications.

Researchers from Minnesota and Seoul have developed a novel nanolithographic technique based on atomic layer deposition and ... Scotch Magic tape. Materials made using this new method show hugely nonlinear optical properties and promise to enhance our ability to fabricate nanostructures.

Research teams at Cal Tech and UC-Berkeley have invented a nanofocusing device that shrinks light beams down to a few nanometers in size.

A group of European researchers has managed to send plasmonics signals over longer distances in a breakthrough that makes this technology much closer to reality.