Browse Physics

The voltage created in inclined thin anisotropic films illuminated by laser light is significantly affected by a photovoltaic component.

Scientists have for the first time observed two-photon absorption with x rays.

Nonclassical light may provide a more efficient readout mechanism than its classical counterpart in the regime of few photons.

Researchers have designed the first emitter of circularly polarized light made from a stand-alone semiconductor device.

Trions—one electron bound to two holes via Coulomb forces—can be observed in the optical spectra of doped carbon nanotubes.

A carpet cloak hides a chunky object sitting on a mirror, reflecting light as though only the mirror were there.

New results predict that a well-known phase transition in two dimensions should also be observable optically.

A new plasmonic route to long-distance entanglement is proposed.

A cloak that can make an object undetectable by ultrasonic water waves has been successfully demonstrated.

Light pulses injected into an array of waveguides form solitons in time and space.

In the early 1960s the first lasers to operate continuously, rather than in pulses, were invented, and they were based on gases rather than solids. They are now used widely in science and technology.

Thanks to illusion optics, an open channel across a metamaterial slab is made invisible to light incident from the left.

Researchers achieve generation of stable and coherent optical rogue waves.

Elastic scattering may be a larger source of qubit error than previously thought.

Evidence for radiation analogous to that predicted near black holes by Hawking has been found in the emission of optical filaments propagating through glass.

High-intensity laser pulses in air can undergo a phase transition between two different states, according to simulations.

Observations in nanostructured gold films, impossible until now, confirm theoretical predictions about how optical energy is localized in strongly scattering disordered materials.

A two-step process could improve the resolution of optical lithography.

A general approach works toward bringing the magical ideas of transformation optics closer to practical use.

Cold atoms in optical cavities can undergo a transition to a liquid-crystalline state in which the positions of the atoms are determined by the photon field.