Browse Physics

Advances in extracting an image from a multimode optical fiber will make thinner endoscopes possible.

Ultracold atoms can coherently scatter backwards from a disordered potential in a way similar to classical waves.

A quantum twist on digital holography offers improved imaging and the chance to reach new and difficult wavelength regions.

A carefully prepared light beam can either push or pull tiny particles, like the much larger tractor beams of science fiction.

Experiments show that normally transparent nanorods can absorb or reflect nearly 100% of light at a specific wavelength when the rods are arranged in a periodic two-dimensional array.

Ultrathin solar cells are cost efficient, but new theoretical tools are needed to understand how light interacts with cells thinner than its wavelength.

Thin filaments of intense laser light have many potential uses but are unstable. Experiments demonstrate that they can be stabilized by sending them through glass whose properties vary periodically in space.

Optical microscopes can be adapted to measure the mass of individual cells.

Measurements with live retinal rod cells reveal their capacity for detecting the statistical properties of different light sources.

A thin metal slab known as a superlens, which focuses light more sharply than its wavelength, could have an even higher resolution imaging rapidly varying electromagnetic fields.

Theorists explain how a new generation of laser tractor beams can manipulate nanoparticles with unprecedented dexterity and precision.

A new metamaterial mirror comes with a control knob that varies the direction of the reflected light.

Researchers measure the complex “shape” of individual photons, which could lead to new ways of encoding information.

Noiseless amplification of multiple spatial channels in rubidium vapor can aid optical communications and quantum information processing.

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

Simulations show that a new technique can control the wavelength of a random laser—a type of laser that lacks mirrors and whose output has been impossible to control.

Experiments demonstrate a new way to prevent light from retracing its steps, which could potentially be integrated with other components on a chip to process optical information.

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

Radiation pressure and thermal effects come together in a new technique for manipulating particles inside a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber.

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