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Beam steering using an electrowetting prism

Fluid-based laser scanning technique could improve brain imaging

University of Sydney researchers with their perovskite solar cells

Large-area triple-junction perovskite solar cell achieves record efficiency

Novel design strategies provide a step towards more efficient and stable perovskite–perovskite–silicon solar cells

Fabrication and device performance of Ni0/Ga₂O₃ heterojunction power rectifiers

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Research headlines

Randomly textured lithium niobate gives snapshot spectrometer a boost

Photo showing the optical components used to manipulate the quantum fluctuations of light

Entangled light leads to quantum advantage

Photo of two researchers in a clean room with the components of the prototype. They're wearing white bunny suits, gloves, and masks over their noses and mouths. The components are shiny and gold and laid out on a bench

New adaptive optics technology boosts the power of gravitational wave detectors

Chip-integrated nanoantenna efficiently harvests light from diamond defects

Nearly all light emitted by nitrogen-vacancy centres can be collected, providing a boost for these room-temperature quantum technology platforms

High-speed 3D microscope improves live imaging of fast biological processes

Multifocus microscope uses 25 tiny cameras to image rapid biological processes over the entire volume of small living organisms

New hollow-core fibres break a 40-year limit on light transmission

Researchers at Microsoft and the University of Southampton create fibres that cut signal loss, boost bandwidth and promise faster, greener communications.

Broadband wireless gets even broader thanks to integrated transmitter

Device can process signals at frequencies ranging from below 1 GHz to more than 100 GHz

Optical imaging tool could help diagnose and treat sudden hearing loss

Optical coherence tomography can detect fluid imbalance in the inner ear, which correlates with the severity of a patient’s hearing loss

Deep-blue LEDs get a super-bright, non-toxic boost

A new hybrid copper iodide semiconductor converts nearly all the photoenergy it receives into blue light

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Features

3D model of the High Energy Photon Source (HEPS) synchrotron building

China’s High Energy Photon Source prepares to light up the world

Hands holding a small piece of medical equipment in front of a patient's eye

Oculomics: a window to the health of the body

Rethinking physics: Silvia Vignolini on succeeding at the boundary between disciplines

Explore more in optics and photonics

Illustration of Crainio's sensor with a sticker attached to a person's head and a box containing the electronics

Crainio’s Panicos Kyriacou explains how their light-based instrument can help diagnose brain injury

Panicos Kyriacou talks about the development and uses of Crainio's non-invasive sensor to measure intracranial pressure

Conceptual illustration of bladed microtube implosion, showing how sawtooth-like blades inside the cylindrical target drive strong loop currents (shown as a pinkish swirl) and generate strong magnetic fields (shown as bright yellow loops around the target)

Laser-driven implosion could produce megatesla magnetic fields

Simulations of improved technique generate fields as strong as those found near neutron stars

A laser superheats a sample of gold. The gold is shown as a gold-coloured lattice while the laser is a bright beam of light. A rainbow coming off the lattice represents light being emitted at different wavelengths

How hot can you make a solid before it melts?

Superheated gold stays solid at temperatures far beyond the predicted "entropy catastrophe"

Diagram of the metalaser showing different emission profiles it can produce

New metalaser is a laser researcher’s dream

Nanostructured lasing system creates arbitrarily-shaped wavefronts, making it possible to control laser emission at will

Researchers inspect the new laser-driven FEL

New laser-plasma accelerator could soon deliver X-ray pulses

New design is more efficient at driving electrons

A palette of colours including blues, greens, reds, yellow, orange, pink, purple and various shades of black, grey and white. It looks a little like a Mondrian artwork

Stacked perovskite photodetector outperforms conventional silicon image sensors

New device could lead to sensitive, artefact-free imaging with improved colour fidelity

Images showing the blue, green, yellow, orange and red iridscent colours of squid splotches

Squid use Bragg reflectors in their skin to change colour

New holotomography measurements reveal that the tuneable optical properties of these cephalopods come from winding columns of platelets in iridescent cells

Dongqing Lin and Magnus Jonsson in the laboratory

Switchable metasurfaces deliver stronger light control

Optimizing the geometric parameters of polymer nanoantenna arrays significantly improves the performance of optical metasurfaces

New definition of second ticks closer after international optical-clock comparison

Fibre and satellites connections span two continents

Bright light emitted from an orange disc

Soliton structure protects superfluorescence

New work could help in the development of materials that host exotic coherent quantum states under ambient conditions

Single silicon chip processes optical and microwave signals

Researchers create a photonic engine that can manipulate microwave and optical signals and convert the signals between the two domains

Nick Stone and Tami Freeman on stage at the Celebration of Physics

Harnessing the power of light for healthcare

Nick Stone discusses some of the many ways in which light can be used for diagnostic and therapeutic applications

Laser World of Photonics showcases cutting-edge optical innovation

Attendees at this year’s Laser World of Photonics trade show can discover the latest trends in photonics technology, attend workshops and technical presentations, and interact wi...

Tiny laser delivers high-quality, narrowband light for metrology

Laser diode device enables rapid measurement

Illustration showing an orange sphere hovering in space within a dark blue hemispherical curved mirror. A standing light wave, shown in red, reflects from the mirror and a stream of information, represented by 1s and 0s written in a wavelike form, radiates outward

Quantum effect could tame noisy nanoparticles by rendering them invisible

Theoretical proposal suggests a way of eliminating backaction noise in nanoparticles levitated with light

Ferenc Krausz explains how ultrashort laser pulses could help detect disease

Nobel laureate also talks about science education for children displaced by war

Photo of the Lightmatter device. A long bluish-grey rectangle flanked by thinner gold rectangles is mounted on a larger black rectangle. Wires lead in and out of the device.

Photonic computer chips perform as well as purely electronic counterparts, say researchers

New light-based chips could boost machine leaning

Optical micrograph of the quantum transducer

Quantum transducer enables optical control of a superconducting qubit

Physicists create the first device that can control a superconducting microwave qubit using only light

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Medical physics | Virtual event Virtual International Day of Medical Physics 2025 7 November 2025
Solar cells | Conference Photovoltaics Science, Applications and Technology Conference (PVSAT-2026) 22—24 April 2026 | Newcastle, UK
Optics and photonics | Conference Photon 2026 31 August — 3 September 2026 | Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK

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