Category Physics

Exotic laser-produced high-energy-density (HED) plasmas akin to those found in stars and nuclear explosions could provide insight into events throughout the universe. Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have discovered a new way to measure and understand these plasmas, among the most extreme states of matter ever produced on Earth. Improved understanding could provide benefits ranging from fine-tuning the high-density plasmas in inertial confinement fusion experiments to better understanding of processes throughout the universe.

A billion times denser

HED plasmas are a billion times denser...

Device can see around corners and through scattering media like fog and human tissue. Northwestern University researchers have invented a new high-resolution camera that can see the unseen — including around corners and through scattering media, such as skin, fog or potentially even the human skull.

Called synthetic wavelength holography, the new method works by indirectly scattering coherent light onto hidden objects, which then scatters again and travels back to a camera. From there, an algorithm reconstructs the scattered light signal to reveal the hidden objects...

Researchers have improved the transfer efficiency between quantum information carriers, in a manner that’s based on well-established nanoscience and is compatible with upcoming advanced communication technologies.

Information storage and transfer in the manner of simple ones and zeros — as in today’s classical computer technologies — is insufficient for quantum technologies under development. Now, researchers from Japan have fabricated a nanoantenna that will help bring quantum information networks closer to practical use.

In a study recently...

By merging two or more sources of light, interferometers create interference patterns that can provide remarkably detailed information about everything they illuminate, from a tiny flaw on a mirror, to the dispersion of pollutants in the atmosphere, to gravitational patterns in far reaches of the Universe.

“If you want to measure something w...