Singles become pairs: New insights into the light scattering of atoms

Researchers at the Humboldt University of Berlin, partners of the DAALI project, have demonstrated a surprising effect present in the fluorescent light of a single atom

01-Nov-2023 - Researchers headed by Jürgen Volz and Arno Rauschenbeutel from the Department of Physics at the Humboldt University of Berlin, partners of the DAALI project, have gained new insights into the scattering of light by a fluorescent atom, which could also be useful for quantum communication. The ...

The indestructible light beam

Researchers create special light waves that can penetrate even opaque materials as if the material was not even there

14-Apr-2021 - Why is sugar not transparent? Because light that penetrates a piece of sugar is scattered, altered and deflected in a highly complicated way. However, as a research team from TU Wien (Vienna) and Utrecht University (Netherlands) has now been able to show, there is a class of very special light ...

Squid skin could be the solution to camouflage material

01-Mar-2018 - Cephalopods -- which include octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish -- are masters of disguise. They can camouflage to precisely match their surroundings in a matter of seconds, and no scientist has quite been able to replicate the spectacle. But new research by Leila Deravi, assistant professor of ...

The Beam of Invisibility: New cloaking technology has been developed

A special kind of material is irradiated from above in such a way that another beam of light can pass completely uninhibited

14-Sep-2017 - How do we make an object invisible? Researchers from TU Wien (Vienna), together with colleagues from Greece and the USA, have now developed a new idea for a cloaking technology. A completely opaque material is irradiated from above with a specific wave pattern – with the effect that light waves ...

New technique improves optical fiber communication

09-Aug-2017 - Energy loss due to scattering from material defects is known to set limits on the performance of nearly all technologies that we employ for communications, timing, and navigation. In micro-mechanical gyroscopes and accelerometers, such as those commonly found in cellphones today, microstructural ...

Nanomaterial makes laser light more applicable

International research team creates hybrid material with a fascinating structure

29-Mar-2017 - Light is absorbed differently, depending on the material it shines on. An international research team including material scientists from Kiel University has created a complex hybrid material with the ability to absorb light with a unique broad range of wavelengths. In addition to that it scatters ...

In Flow State

03-Mar-2017 - Ever wonder why you have to shake your bottle of ketchup or mustard before pouring? Or why, to get out of quicksand, you must move slowly? Or why you can run on the surface of a suspension of cornstarch in water, but you’d sink if you tried to walk on it? The common feature of all these ...

Silicon nanoantennas turn light around

18-Nov-2016 - A team of physicists from ITMO University, MIPT, and The University of Texas at Austin have developed an unconventional nanoantenna that scatters light in a particular direction depending on the intensity of incident radiation. The research findings will help with the development of flexible ...

Mixing solids and liquids enhances optical properties of both

13-Jun-2016 - By immersing glass particles in a fluid, researchers at MIT's Media Lab and Harvard University are exploring a new mechanism for modifying an optical device's diffusivity, or the extent to which it scatters light. In its current form, the new diffuser could be used to calibrate a wide range of ...

Nanoscale drawbridges open path to color displays

First method for reversible color changes with metal nanoparticles

08-Dec-2015 - A new method for building "drawbridges" between metal nanoparticles may allow electronics makers to build full-color displays using light-scattering nanoparticles that are similar to the gold materials that medieval artisans used to create red stained-glass. "Wouldn't it be interesting if we ...