optics

Plug a sensor into a switch, wire up a building full of cameras, or rack a server, and you are using Ethernet. It is the most widely deployed wired networking standard on earth, the quiet backbone under offices, factories, and data centers. And it is named after a scientific idea that turned out to be completely wrong. The name was not an accident or a marketing afterthought. It was a deliberate …

This record-breaking crystal can transform from mirror-like to glass-like, opening the door to tiny optical chips, AR displays, and smart contact lenses. Creating truly “invisible” wearable technology such as smart contact lenses and ultrathin augmented reality glasses will require a radical rethink of how optical devices are built. Instead of relying on conventional bulky components, [...]

Dutch-German hardware developer QuiX Quantum has announced its membership in QuantumBW and Photonics BW, two prominent innovation networks driving technology transfer and industrial scaling within the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The expansion builds directly upon QuiX Quantum’s existing cross-border presence, which includes a dedicated engineering office at the ARENA2036 research campus …

Researchers from The University of Osaka, National Institute for Fusion Science, National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology, and Osaka Metropolitan University, et al. have published “Optimization of EUV output by experimentally validated radiation-hydrodynamic simulations across a broad laser parameter space”.   Abstract “Practical requirements such as improving wall-plug efficiency a…

Quantum 10, 2132 (2026). https://doi.org/10.22331/q-2026-06-12-2132 Quantum linear optics without post-selection is not powerful enough to produce any quantum state from a given input state. This limits its utility since some applications require entangled resources that are difficult to prepare. Thus, a deeper understanding of linear optical state preparation is needed. In this work, we give a r…

STEMgineer’s Guide to Problem Solving Workbooks The magical world of Harry Potter popularized the idea of an invisibility cloak, but could science make this magical […] The post Could an invisibility cloak really exist? appeared first on STEM Education Works .

Hi, Im not sure if this is the right forum to post this question. If you had a laser, then reflected it back on its self, and then reflected it back again, would this enable a super high powered laser? Because it would be continuously reflecting back on it self at the speed of light.

Nature, Published online: 10 June 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-01701-7 Water-suspended carbon nanotubes move more slowly in green light, suggesting that excited electrons in the tubes couple to the water through ‘quantum friction’.

Nature Electronics, Published online: 10 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41928-026-01647-8 Using a fast convergence phase-retrieval algorithm to manipulate wavefront intensities at each harmonic, a programmable metasurface with 6,144 elements can generate 62 holographic images simultaneously.

Nature Communications, Published online: 10 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-74265-9 High-performance chip-scale microcombs are vital for precision measurement and coherent communications, yet traditional self-injection locking is limited by thermo-refractive noise that creates a trade-off between repetition rate and linewidth. Here, authors propose a cascaded structure to separate comb generati…

The multibillion-dollar agreement includes 1,000 manufacturing jobs, construction roles, and a workforce pathway with Catawba Valley Community College . Amazon’s agreement with Corning will supply optical fiber, cable, and connectivity solutions for its data center infrastructure across the United States. Image credit: Amazon Amazon has announced a multiyear, multibillion-dollar agreement with Co…

Three-dimensional (3D) vision is undergoing a profound transformation. Recently, Zhoujie Wu and Qican Zhang from Sichuan University, together with Gunther Notni from the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF, published a review paper in Light: Advanced Manufacturing to systematically summarize over four decades of development in fringe projection profilometry (FPP)…

Researchers at the University of Cambridge and startup company GlitterinTech have developed a tiny, low-cost device that could bring powerful chemical sensing capabilities to wearable technology. The new device is an optical spectrometer—a tool that analyzes how light interacts with materials. Spectrometers are widely used in science, medicine, manufacturing, and environmental monitoring because …

What kind of microdisplay does the optical engine in Red6's ATARS system use? OLED, microLED, or something else?

While experimenting with a 2D Fourier transform of an image, I obtained a cone‑like, layered pattern that resembles interference between a sharp signal and a temporally smeared component. The structure looks like a central cone with repeating “shells” or “scales”, similar to what one might... Read more

Scientists have finally packed a laboratory-class ultrafast laser onto a tiny photonic chip. Ultrafast lasers generate bursts of light that last only a few hundred femtoseconds, each one just a quadrillionth of a second long. These extremely short pulses are used in a wide range of technologies, including precision manufacturing, eye surgery, and optical frequency [...]

Nature Communications, Published online: 08 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-73443-z By shaping optical caustics with metasurfaces, the authors sculpt the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light in 3D space. This strategy supports hidden OAM states, and enables multidimensional optical encryption.

Scientific Reports, Published online: 07 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41598-026-56747-4 Optical vortex transfer and dispersion-controlled light propagation in an Er³⁺: YAG three-level quantum system