Photonics/​Optics

Entangled-Photon Pairs Secure Optical Communications

NASA's Glenn Research Center has developed a method of using entangled-photon pairs to produce highly secure mobile communications that require mere milliwatts of power. Read on to learn more.

3D LiDAR for Improved Rover Traversal and Imagery

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has developed a Space Qualified Rover LiDAR (SQRLi) system that will improve rover sensing capabilities in a small, lightweight package. The new SQRLi package is developed to survive the hazardous space environment and provide valuable image data during planetary and lunar rover exploration. Read on to learn more about it.

The U.K.’s First Long-Distance, Quantum-Secured Video Call and More

Researchers have successfully demonstrated the U.K.’s first long-distance ultra-secure transfer of data over a quantum communications network, including the U.K.’s first long-distance quantum-secured video call. Read on to learn more.

Fiber Optic Sensing Technologies

Known as FOSS (for fiber optic sensing system), NASA’s technology portfolio combines advanced sensors and innovative algorithms into a robust package that accurately and cost-effectively monitors a host of critical parameters in real time. Read on to learn more.

Noninvasive Imaging Method Can Penetrate Deeper Into Living Tissue

Metabolic imaging is a noninvasive method that enables clinicians and scientists to study living cells using laser light, which can help them assess disease progression and treatment responses. But light scatters when it shines into biological tissue, limiting how deeply it can penetrate and hampering the resolution of captured images. Now, MIT researchers have developed a new technique that more than doubles the usual depth limit of metabolic imaging. Read on to learn more.

A Technological Breakthrough for Ultra-Fast and Greener AI

AI systems like ChatGPT are notorious for being power-hungry. To tackle this challenge, a team from the Centre for Optics, Photonics and Lasers has come up with an optical chip that can transfer massive amounts of data at ultra-high speed. As thin as a strand of hair, this technology offers unrivaled energy efficiency. Read on to learn more.

Chiral Photonic Device Combines Light Manipulation with Memory

As fast as modern electronics have become, they could be much faster if their operations were based on light, rather than electricity. Fiber optic cables already transport information at the speed of light, but to do computations on that information without translating it back to electric signals will require a host of new optical components. Researchers have now developed such a device. Read on to learn more.

Sensitive Yet Tough Photonic Devices Are Now a Reality

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have achieved a long-sought milestone in photonics: creating tiny optical devices that are both highly sensitive and durable — two qualities that have long been considered fundamentally incompatible. Read on to learn more.

Tunable Laser Light

Researchers have invented a new type of tunable semiconductor laser that combines the best attributes of today’s most advanced laser products, demonstrating smooth, reliable, wide-range wavelength tuning in a simple, chip-sized design. Read on to learn more about it.

Twisted Moiré Photonic Crystals

Researchers have developed an on-chip twisted moiré photonic crystal sensor that uses MEMS technology to control the gap and angle between the crystal layers in real time. The sensor can detect and collect detailed polarization and wavelength information simultaneously. Read on to learn more.

Ferroelectric Material Adapts to Light Stimuli by Reorganizing Atomic Connectivity

With this groundbreaking discovery of time-dependent changes in networked nanodomains, developers are on the path to building adaptive networks for information storage and processing. Read on to learn more.

Noninvasive Imaging Method Can Penetrate Deeper Into Living Tissue

Metabolic imaging is a noninvasive method that enables clinicians and scientists to study living cells using laser light, which can help them assess disease progression and treatment responses. But light scatters when it shines into biological tissue, limiting how deeply it can penetrate and hampering the resolution of captured images. Now, MIT researchers have developed a new technique that more than doubles the usual depth limit of metabolic imaging. Read on to learn more.

New Study Showcases 3D Photonics with Record Performance for AI

Artificial intelligence systems promise transformative advancements, yet their growth has been limited by energy inefficiencies and bottlenecks in data transfer. Researchers at Columbia Engineering have unveiled a groundbreaking solution: a 3D photonic-electronic platform that achieves unprecedented energy efficiency and bandwidth density, paving the way for next-generation AI hardware. Read on to learn more.

Revolutionizing Dynamic Facial Projection Mapping: A Leap Forward in Augmented Reality

Augmented reality has become a hot topic in the entertainment, fashion, and makeup industries. Though a few different technologies exist in these fields, dynamic facial projection mapping is among the most sophisticated and visually stunning ones. Read on to learn more about it.

Ultra-Broadband Photonic Chip Boosts Optical Signals

Researchers have developed a photonic chip-based traveling wave parametric amplifier that achieves ultra-broadband signal amplification in an unprecedentedly compact form. Read on to learn more about it.

Scientists Use Distant Sensor to Monitor American Samoa Earthquake Swarm

Residents of the Manu’a Islands in American Samoa were feeling the earth shake, raising concerns of an imminent volcanic eruption or tsunami. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey used machine learning and a technique called template matching on shaking data recorded from a single seismic sensor located 250 kilometers away to locate the source of the shaking. Read on to learn more.

Scientists Propose Laser Scalpel with a ‘Curved’ Blade

Changing the shape of the blade will expand the possibilities of using the laser in medicine.

Handheld Space Microscope

Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have developed a handheld digital microscope to fill the critical microscopy needs of human space exploration by providing flight crews in situ hematological diagnostic and tracking ability to assess and monitor crew health in the absence of gravity. Read on to learn more.

Single-Shot Polarization Imaging System Provides Complete Picture

Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have developed a compact, single-shot polarization imaging system that can provide a complete picture of polarization. Read on to learn more about it.

An Innovative Sensing Platform for Ultrahigh Sensitivity in Conventional Sensors

New research unlocks the power of exceptional points (EPs) for advanced optical sensing. In a study published in Science Advances , a team showed that these unique EPs — specific conditions in systems where extraordinary optical phenomena can occur — can be deployed on conventional sensors to achieve a striking sensitivity to environmental perturbations. Read on to learn more.

New AR Glasses Use AI-Enhanced Holographic Imaging

Researchers in the emerging field of spatial computing have developed a prototype augmented reality headset that uses holographic imaging to overlay full-color, 3D moving images on the lenses of what would appear to be an ordinary pair of glasses. Read on to learn more about it.

Say Goodbye to the Dots and Dashes to Enhance Optical Storage Media

Purdue researchers have created technology aimed at replacing Morse code with colored “digital characters” to modernize optical storage. They are confident the advancement will help with the explosion of remote data storage during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Read on to learn more.

Levitating Objects with Light

Researchers have designed a way to levitate and propel objects using only light by creating specific nanoscale patterning on the objects' surfaces. The work could be a step toward developing a spacecraft that could reach the nearest planet outside of our solar system in 20 years, powered and accelerated only by light. Read on to learn more.

Visible-Light Lasers That Fit on a Fingertip

Researchers have created visible lasers of very pure colors from near-ultraviolet to near-infrared that fit on a fingertip. The colors of the lasers can be precisely tuned and extremely fast — up to 267 petahertz per second, which is critical for applications such as quantum optics. Read on to learn more.

Quantum Sensing to Engineer Photonic Sensors

A Bristol-led team of physicists has found a way to operate mass manufacturable photonic sensors at the quantum limit. This breakthrough paves the way for practical applications such as monitoring greenhouse gases and cancer detection. Read on to learn more.

A New Method Makes High-Resolution Imaging More Accessible

Researchers have made it possible to expand tissue twentyfold in a single step. This simple, inexpensive method could pave the way for nearly any biology lab to perform nanoscale imaging. Read on to learn more.

Ultra-Compact Camera Technology Optimized for VR/AR Devices

Researchers have developed an optical design technology that dramatically reduces the volume of cameras with a folded lens system utilizing “metasurfaces,” a next-generation nano-optical device. Read on to learn more.

Spiral Ladder-Inspired Tool That Allows Precision Control of Light Direction and Polarization

Researchers have designed a spiral ladder-inspired tool that allows precision control of light direction and polarization to control the direction of the emitted beam and the polarization of the light, while using a precisely engineered resonance of the structure. Read on to learn more.

A Methodology to Read QR Codes on Uneven Surfaces

A team from the University of Barcelona and the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya has designed a methodology that facilitates the recognition of QR codes in these physical environments, where reading is more complicated. Read on to learn more.