or the batteries have no charge remaining. n addition to the applications discussed above such technology could be extended to other radiations such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and light detection and ranging (LIDAR)
The component converts heat from the sun into infrared light which can be absorbed by solar cells to make electricity a technology known as thermophotovoltaics.
But silicon semiconductors only respond to infrared light. Higher energy light waves including most of the visible light spectrum are wasted as heat
while lower energy waves simply pass through the solar panel. n theory conventional single-junction solar cells can only achieve an efficiency level of about 34 percent
an absorber that heats up when exposed to sunlight and an emitter that converts the heat to infrared light
which is beamed then to the solar cell. ssentially we tailor the light to shorter wavelengths that are ideal for driving a solar cellfan explains. hat raises the theoretical efficiency of the cell to 80 percent
and his colleagues at Stanford who confirmed that devices were still capable of producing infrared light waves that are ideal for running solar cells. hese results are unprecedentedsays former Illinois graduate student Kevin Arpin the lead author of the study. e demonstrated for the first time that ceramics
and determine if the experimental thermal emitters can deliver infrared light to a working solar cell. e ve demonstrated that the tailoring of optical properties at high temperatures is possiblebraun says. afnium
and Energy project and the Department of energy s Light-Material Interactions in Energy conversion Center supported the work along with the National Science Foundation and the Research Triangle Solar fuels Institute.
or their analysis the researchers used ultraviolet spectroscopy data obtained with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on board the Hubble space telescope of the white dwarf GD 61.
As the atmosphere of the Earth blocks the ultraviolet light such study can only be carried out from space.
and intensity of their photoluminescent glow in ultraviolet light. Mart says nobody had studied the third key property the amount of time the complex remains in an excited state.
#This electron accelerator is smaller than a grain of rice Stanford university rightoriginal Studyposted by Mike Ross-Stanford on September 30 2013researchers have used a laser to accelerate electrons at a rate 10 times higher than conventional technology
materials science. ecause it employs commercial lasers and low-cost mass-production techniques the researchers believe it will set the stage for new generations of abletopaccelerators.
which uses ultrafast lasers to drive the accelerator is a leading candidate. Particles are accelerated generally in two stages.
Infrared laser light shining on the pattern generates electrical fields that interact with the electrons in the channel to boost their energy.
It simultaneously reports in Physical Review Letters its success in using a laser to accelerate lower energy electrons.
Byer says laser accelerators could drive compact X-ray free-electron lasers comparable to SLAC s Linac Coherent light Source that are all-purpose tools for a wide range of research.
and stabilize signals of high-quality lasers. Itâ#the first time such a device has been miniaturized to fit on a chip
in optical resonators the pitch corresponds to the color or wavelength of the lightsays Kerry Vahala professor of information science and technology and applied physics at the California Institute of technology (Caltech.
ur device provides a consistent light frequency that improves both optical and electronic devices when it is used as a reference. good tuning fork controls the release of its acoustical energy ringing just one pitch at a particular sound frequency for a long timeâ##a sustaining property called the quality factor.
In the new design photons are applied to an outer ring of the spiraled resonator with a tiny light-dispensing optic fiber;
In combination with the resonator a special guide for the light was used losing 100 times less energy than the average chip-based device.
In addition to its use as a frequency reference for lasers a reference cavity could one day play a role equivalent to that of the ubiquitous quartz crystal in electronics.
roles of photonics and electronics. urrently electronics perform signal processing while photonics rule in transporting information from one place to another over fiber-optic cable.
Eventually oscillators in high-performance electronics systems while outwardly appearing to be electronic devices will internally be purely opticalvahala says. he technology that Kerry
Hong has used long solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to study structural biology including the mechanism used by the flu virus to infect host cells.
So the researchers##working with specialists from the Bruker Biospin Corp. a manufacturer of scientific instruments##used a technology called dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) to enhance the sensitivity of spectroscopy instruments.
The resolution of the chemical pattern nears the current limit of traditional photolithography notes Lance Williamson a graduate student in molecular engineering at University of Chicago
and co-author of the article. mec has the capability to perform the photolithography at this scale over large areas with high precisionwilliamson says.
along with throwing light on the major controls on this key process over long time scales. dditional researchers from Princeton The swiss Institute of technology in Zurich (ETH) and Columbia University Lamont-doherty earth observatory.
Next the researchers used a technique called two-photon lithography to turn that design into a three-dimensional polymer lattice.
#Laser pinpoints tiniest traces of explosive Michigan State university rightoriginal Studyposted by Layne Cameron-Michigan State on September 9 2013a bomb-detecting laser that can find micro-traces of explosive
even if itâ#merely a minute trace on a zipper. his doesnâ##t mean that security will be armed with handheld lasers in airports.
The laser would more likely be in a conveyor belt like the X-ray scanners already used for airport security.
The low energy laser is safe to use on luggage as well as passengers Dantus says. For decades scientists have been working to develop lasers that are powerful enough for detection
but safe enough to use on people. Dantusâ##initial spark came from a collaboration with Harvard university that developed a laser that could be used to detect cancer
but has the beam output of a simple presentation pointer. hile working on biomedical imaging I began exploring additional applicationsdantus says. e soon learned how effective it was for detecting traces of hazardous substances from distances up to 10 meters away. s described in the journal Applied Physics Letters the bomb-detecting
laser works as a single beam but uses two pulses. The first resonates with certain chemical frequencies found in explosives.
A discrepancy between the two pulses indicates the presence of explosive materials. he laser is affected not by the color
Biophotonic Solutions is a high-tech company Dantus launched in 2003 to commercialize technology invented by his research group.
The slower version of the cell-dying process is what lights up hillsides in autumn:
#Bubble lens bends nano beam of light PENN STATE (US) Using a few tiny liquid bubbles to bend light beams could open the doors for next-generation, high-speed circuits and displays, according to new research.
researchers use nanoplasmonicsevices that use short electromagnetic waves to modulate light on the nanometer scale, where conventional optics do not work.
However, aiming and focusing this modulated light beam at desired targets is difficult. here are different solid-state devices to control (light beams),
and focus of any light beam passing through it. Huang team created separate simulations of the light beams
and bubble lens to predict their behaviors and optimize conditions before combining the two in the laboratory.
researchers used a low-intensity laser to heat water on a gold surface. The tiny bubble optical behavior remains consistent
as long as the laser power and the environmental temperature stay constant. Simply moving the laser or adjusting the laser power can change how the bubble will deflect a light beam,
either as a concentrated beam at a specific target or as a dispersed wave. Changing the liquid also affects how a light beam will refract.
The materials to form bubble lenses are inexpensive, and the bubbles themselves are easy to dissolve,
replace, and move. n addition to its unprecedented reconfigurability and tenability, our bubble lens has at least one more advantage over its solid-state counterparts:
the better quality of the light that pass through it. Huang believes that the next step is to find out how the bubble shape influences the direction of the light beam and the location of its focal point.
Fine control over these light beams will enable improvements for on-chip biomedical devices and super resolution imaging. or all these applications,
you really need to precisely control light in nanoscale, and that where this work can be a very important component,
The group engineered the miniature silicon system that produces a type of light that is quieter at certain frequencies#meaning it has fewer quantum fluctuations#than
This#squeezed light#is useful for making precise measurements at lower power levels than are required
when using normal light. Although other research groups previously have produced squeezed light the new system generates the ultraquiet light in a way that can be adapted more easily to a variety of sensor applications.#
#This system should enable a new set of precision microsensors capable of beating standard limits set by quantum mechanics#says Oskar Painter a professor of applied physics at Caltech
#Perfect for electronicsin the past squeezed light has been made using so-called nonlinear materials which have unusual optical properties.
This latest work marks the first time that squeezed light has been produced using silicon a standard material.#
#Cancel each other outin this new system a waveguide feeds laser light into a cavity created by two tiny silicon beams.
When photons-particles of light-strike the beams they cause the beams to vibrate. And the particulate nature of the light introduces quantum fluctuations that affect those vibrations.
Typically such fluctuations mean that in order to get a good reading of a signal you would have to increase the power of the light to overcome the noise.
But by increasing the power you also introduce other problems such as introducing excess heat into the system.
so that the light and beams interact strongly with each other#so strongly in fact that the beams impart the quantum fluctuations they experience back on the light.
And as is the case with the noise-canceling technology used for example in some headphones the fluctuations that shake the beams interfere with the fluctuations of the light.
They effectively cancel each other out eliminating the noise in the light.##This is a demonstration of
#You need the particle nature of light to explain these quantum fluctuations and you need the wave nature of light to understand this interference.#
#The National Science Foundation the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation the Air force Office of Scientific research and the Kavli Nanoscience Institute at Caltech supported the work.
Yang is senior author on a paper in the journal Nature Photonics that describes the new imaging strategy.
But light varies in terms of both its intensity and its phase, which is related to the angle at
which light is traveling. What this project has developed is a means of taking low-resolution images
director of the Laboratory for Nanophotonics (LANP) at Rice university. olar steam efficiency at converting sunlight directly into steam opens up new possibilities for off-grid sterilization that simply aren available today In a previous study last year,
Using the Advanced Light source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory engineers and geologists examined the fine-scale structure of Roman concrete.
#First boson laser could save power Stanford university University of Michigan rightoriginal Studyposted by Bjorn Carey-Stanford on May 24 2013stanford (US)# Scientists have demonstrated a revolutionary electrically driven polariton laser
that could significantly improve the efficiency of lasers. The physics powering lasers has remained relatively unchanged through 50 years of use.
The new system however makes use of the unique physical properties of bosons subatomic particles that scientists have attempted to incorporate into lasers for decades.#
#We ve solidified our physical understanding and now it s time we think about how to put these lasers into practice#says physicist Na Young Kim a member of the Stanford university team which was led by Yoshihisa Yamamoto professor of electrical engineering and of applied physics.#
#This is an exciting era to imagine how this new physics can lead to novel engineering.#
#Electrically driven polariton lasers Kim says would operate using one-hundredth of the power of conventional lasers
Einstein s predictionall lasers are based on Einstein s principle of stimulated emission. Charged particles such as electrons exist in discontinuous energy levels like rungs on a ladder.
Excited electrons can spontaneously fall down to an available lower energy level shooting off the difference in energy as a bit of light called a photon.
A laser keeps this process going by continually providing energy for electrons to move into higher energy levels.
and conventional lasers waste energy unnecessarily exciting electrons to higher energy levels even when the lower levels are too full to accept the excited electrons
Exciting excitonskim s polariton laser however pairs electrons with so-called#holes#to form another type of particle an exciton.
Using bosons in lasers has been a scientific goal for decades but Yamamoto s team is the first to successfully build an electrically driven laser using bosons.
The result was reproduced recently and confirmed by scientists at the University of Michigan who published their work in the journal Physical Review Letters.)
This change drastically reduces the amount of power required to run the laser. The current iteration of the polariton laser requires two to five times less energy than a comparable conventional laser
but could require 100 times less energy in the future.##The outcome would look similar to that of the traditional photon lasers
but the physical mechanisms inside are very different#Kim says. The laser consists of an electron reservoir and a hole reservoir.
When a current is applied electrons and holes come together to form excitons in excited energy levels.
#One benefit of the electrically driven polariton laser is it only needs to be attached to a power supply to emit photons allowing it to be integrated easily with existing semiconductor chips in the future.
Still too coolthe current polariton laser can run only at a chilly 4 degrees Kelvin (minus 452 degrees Fahrenheit)
The team hopes switching to a material that requires more energy to break apart excitons will allow them to build polariton lasers that work at room temperature an important step toward widespread use.#
#We re hoping we can replace conventional semiconductor lasers with these polariton lasers in the future#Kim says.#
#Stanford researchers are already using the polariton laser to develop quantum computers and quantum simulators. Kim believes similar lasers will be available to those outside the scientific community within the next five to 10 years.
Researchers conducted the work in collaboration with the National Institute of Informatics in Tokyo Japan and a team from the University of W##rzburg in Germany led by physicist Alfred Forchel.
#Bendy nanosensors detect infrared light University of Pennsylvania rightoriginal Studyposted by Evan Lerner-Pennsylvania on May 22 2013u.
PENN (US)# Engineers have used a pattern of nanoantennas to develop a new way of turning infrared light into mechanical action
but it can also be used to do spectroscopy a technique that involves scattering light over a substance to infer its chemical composition.
Existing infrared detectors use cryogenically cooled semiconductors or thermal detectors known as microbolometers in which changes in electrical resistance can be correlated to temperatures.
but both need expensive bulky equipment to be sensitive enough for spectroscopy applications.##We set out to make an optomechanical thermal infrared detector#says Ertugrul Cubukcu assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania.#
#Rather than changes in resistance our detector works by connecting mechanical motion to changes in temperature.#
Because metals will naturally convert some energy from infrared light into heat researchers can connect the amount the material expands to the amount of infrared light hitting it.#
A fiber optic cable pointed upward at this system bounces light off the underside of the silicon nitride layer enabling the researchers to determine how far the structure has bent upwards.#
#We can tell how far the bottom layer has moved based on this reflected light#Cubukcu says.##We can even see displacements that are thousands of times smaller than a hydrogen atom.#
The new device is an improvement in this regard due to the inclusion of#slot#nanoantennas cavities that are etched into the gold layer at intervals that correspond to wavelengths of mid-infrared light.#
which type of light it is sensitive to by etching a different pattern of slots on the surface.#
#Our antennas can be engineered to absorb at any wavelength.##While only a proof-of-concept at this stage future research will demonstrate the device s capabilities as a low-cost way of analyzing individual proteins and gas molecules.
I had the chance to see Ember in action at Autodesk Pier 9 manufacturing space in San francisco. It a digital light processing machine,
Lasers software and a joystick After spending several years interviewing scientists and holding public forums to debate ethics and air concerns,
Rather, it a highly advanced single-cell micro-surgery, replete with cutting-edge lasers and imaging software and, yes, even a joystick,
and Sciences University just outside Portland. his procedure uses a very high-tech imaging system microscopes, lasers,
The light from a low-power infrared laser interacts with the atoms and is transmitted through the fiber-optic cable to register the magnetic field strength.
and the researchers are confident that it will only be a matter of time before they can fill the gap-they say they will do so mainly by boosting the amount of light detected.
Another system, developed at the UK's National Physical Laboratory, uses radio frequencies, microwaves, terahertz radiation and far-infrared light to determine the ripeness of strawberries
and docks with the teats using a 3d camera and lasers. Another feature is a set of counter-rotating brushes that automatically clean the teats of dirt
#NASA probe will reveal 3d architecture of forests from space NASA is developing a laser-based instrument for deployment on the International space station that will probe the depths of Earth's forests from space in a bid to reveal more about their role in the planet's carbon cycle.
After its completion in 2018, this Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) lidar will join the likes of the Soil Moisture Active Passive satellite in studying Earth's vegetation on a global scale."
"GEDI carries three specialized lasers and an optics system that divides the three beams into 14 tracks on the ground.
The lasers will send brief pulses of light around 16 billion of them in a year that are optimized to pass through the canopy of even very dense forests without causing harm to animals or vegetation,
The GEDI lidar will be built at NASA'S GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER, with the University of Maryland, College Park leading the project e
#Nature inspires color-sensitive CMOS-compatible photodetector Researchers at Rice university's Laboratory for Nanophotonics (LANP) have developed a new image sensor that mimics the way we see color by integrating light amplifiers and color
and other photodetectors used in cameras. Conventional image sensors work by first converting light into electrical signals then combining that information with the red green
and blue color data determined by separate filters (or especially in low-end cameras a single filter array that uses a mosaic pattern to interpret colors).
LANP graduate student Bob Zheng set out to create a photonic system that could detect colored light but in what lab director Naomi Halas calls a great example of the serendipity that can occur in the lab he wound up with a device with far broader applications.
Zheng's color photodetector consists of an ultra-thin oxide coating atop a thin layer of aluminum that was deposited onto a silicon photodetector using a common technique called electron-beam evaporation.
It's these approximately 100-nanometers-wide slits that allow the device to differentiate between colors with plasmons waves of electrons that flow across metal surfaces) excited by light of a specific wavelength.
and the width and spacing of the slits the device is able to preferentially direct different colors into the silicon photodetector
The plasmonic gratings don't just help the photodetector filter color; they also interact with each other thereby increasing the amount of light absorbed (and thus potentially reducing noise.
The grating sort of acts as its own lens Zheng explains. You get this funneling of light into a concentrated area.
Today's color filtering mechanisms often involve materials that are not CMOS-compatible but this new approach has advantages beyond on-chip integration adds LANP Director Naomi Halas.
The scientists replicated these boundaries in glass microscope slides using lasers to engrave networks of wavy 3d micro-cracks within them.
and the wind The light is being developed through a collaboration between the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and Spanish startup Eolgreen.
and a lithium iron phosphate battery pack that can store enough power to run the lights for up to 3. 5 nights per charge an optional higher-capacity battery could reportedly manage 6. 5 nights.
and plans to produce 700 of the lights this year. Spain University of Seville is also working on a solar wind-powered streetlight,
partially blocking incoming light, without the need for an external power source. The device also functions as a small transparent battery that recharges on its own simply by interacting with the oxygen in its surroundings.
wee seen a number of"smart windows"pop up that act as high-tech shutters to shield incoming light during those hot sunny days.
controllable with a light switch or wirelessly through a smartphoneenerally rely on an external power source to function,
and the company Trilite Technologies have developed a new kind of display just for this purpose that sends beams of light directly to the viewerseyes via a laser and a sophisticated mirror system.
"as the team calls them) used by the prototype system consists of lasers and a movable mirror to send light beams in different directions,
which the creators claim produces angular resolution so fine that the left eye is presented a different picture than the right one,
"The mirror directs the laser beams across the field of vision, from left to right,"says Professor Ulrich Schmid of TU Vienna."
"During that movement the laser intensity is modulated so that different laser flashes are sent into different directions.''Unlike current large-scale 3d projection systems,
such as those used at the cinema where only two different pictures are projected, one for each eye,
"But the crucial point is that the individual laser pixels work. Scaling it up to a display with many pixels is not a problem."
The breakthrough is in the new system's ability to bind titanium dioxide (Tio2) a photocatalyst that reacts under ultraviolet light.
and polymer layers where the light is collected. Furthermore, graphics can be printed to improve its visual appearance.
Freely designed decorative organic solar panels are applicable also in indoor use to harvest energy from indoor Light production methods are cost-effective
VTT is also developing a method to utilize light in wireless data transfer by using solar cells as data receivers.
which the devices can also harvest energy from the ambient light. The first results have been very promising g
When activated by light, these nanoscale motors twist the polymer chains in the gel, which as a result contracts by several centimeters.
as soon as the motors are activated by light they twist the polymer chains in the gel, which makes it contract.
people could feel holograms of objects that would not otherwise be touchable, such as feeling the differences between materials in a CT SCAN or understanding the shapes of artifacts in a museum.
and other sophisticated methods, including etching identification codes on produce with lasers or micro-percussion markers that make tiny indents. hey each believe they have the holy grail product tracking solutions sitting in their laptop,
##All three CEOS expressed frustration that the first time their fledgling industry has seen the light of day,
At our 2013 Structure Data conference, the CIA s tech chief, Gus Hunt, said the new breed offitness trackers#were both light on security
or left so that it can turn on or off the lights. With#Phillips Hue#and countless other smart lights, this is already possible.
If invisible buttons were defined just rigidly on-off switches they wouldn t be terribly useful. But because the actions they trigger#can be modified by an infinitude of other variables,
internet-connected smart energy systems can figure out you re home the moment you switch on a light.
Anticipatory computing and the end of interfaces Objects on our bodies (health monitors, smart glasses) and in our homes and businesses (smart thermostats, lights, appliances and security systems) can all be programmed to interact in complicated and unexpected ways
With laser rangefinders and stereo cameras for vision, hydraulically actuated aluminum and titanium limbs and fully articulated humanlike hands, Atlas is envisioned as a humanoid hero who can walk undaunted into dangerous environments
With a trio of cameras and lights up front and those floppy flailing legs, RHEX gets your pareidolia going##it looks like a determined little critter trying to find a snack.
As the sun shifts, the light comes in at an angle, creating shadows within the cylinder.
which ensures that they always get direct light. Via Pop Sci Share Thissubscribedel. icio. usfacebookredditstumbleupontechnorat k
The company developed a patented##Light-guide Optical Element##(LOE) in effect a tiny projector that projects onto a special lens
the lights go off and the system shuts down, ##he says, in what is a simulation of just one potential result of a successful attack.
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