Browse Physics

A new method for compressing laser pulses overcomes power constraints that hamper current compressor technology.

Experiment and theory combine to give a more complete picture of a fundamental problem in diffraction optics.

Focusing a beam of light on a slit reveals details of its polarization with surprising sensitivity.

An optomechanical system in which light and matter exchange roles promises new kinds of quantum states.

A random laser formed from shaken grains can be partially manipulated by varying the amount of shaking, according to new experiments.

The sloshing of light between optical waveguides replicates the quantum-mechanical exchange between an atom and an electromagnetic mode.

A new method of imaging with second harmonic light allows more general studies of molecules with different orientations.

The next generation of ultrahigh energy lasers will be able to produce extremely dense electron-positron plasmas and intense bursts of gamma rays, according to simulations, and both will lead to new types of experiments.

A waveguide’s dielectric properties could result in an effective gauge field for photons even though they have no charge.

An updated proposal for a clock based on the excited states of a nucleus could keep time better than existing clocks that use electronic states.

Experiments demonstrate a semiconductor device that emits more power as light than it takes in electrically.

Quantum interference of pairs of photons emitted by nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond paves the way for entanglement of distant qubits.

Theoretical models edge closer to explaining how photoionization is affected by many-body interactions.

Large-scale free-electron laser facilities with limited beam time can be simulated by low-cost, tabletop, mode-locked laser systems

According to theoretical work, the tricks for controlling atoms with lasers should extend naturally into probing the nucleus.

Theorists have devised two new ways to drag objects towards a light source.

Spontaneous emission from stimulated quantum dots can be suppressed inside a crystal with a 3D photonic band gap.

A laser gyroscope measures extremely low-frequency wobbles in the Earth’s rotation.

A subwavelength double groove on a metal acts as a broadband device for funneling light.

In a superconductor-semiconductor hybrid system, circularly polarized light can generate an electric current without the system leaving thermal equilibrium.