New research from Rice university could make it easier for engineers to harness the power of light-capturing nanomaterials to boost the efficiency
In a study published July 13 in Nature Communications, scientists from Rice's Laboratory for Nanophotonics (LANP) describe a new method that solar-panel designers could use to incorporate light-capturing nanomaterials into future designs.
including metallic nanoparticles that convert light into plasmons, waves of electrons that flow like a fluid across the particles'surface.
"We can tune plasmonic structures to capture light across the entire solar spectrum, "Halas said."
The process is relatively faster, safer and green--devoid of any toxic substances (just graphite plus concentrated light.
#Reshaping the solar spectrum to turn light to electricity: UC Riverside researchers find a way to use the infrared region of the sun's spectrum to make solar cells more efficient A huge gain in this direction has now been made by a team of chemists at the University of California,
which then generated upconverted orange yellow fluorescent 550-nanometer light, almost doubling the energy of the incoming photons.
"This 550--nanometer light can be absorbed by any solar cell material, "Bardeen said.""The key to this research is the hybrid composite material--combining inorganic semiconductor nanoparticles with organic compounds.
Put simply, the inorganics in the composite material take light in; the organics get light out."
The Utah engineers have developed an ultracompact beamsplitter--the smallest on record--for dividing light waves into two separate channels of information.
and shuttle data with light instead of electrons. Electrical and computer engineering associate professor Rajesh Menon and colleagues describe their invention today in the journal Nature Photonics Silicon photonics could significantly increase the power and speed of machines such as supercomputers
the photons of light must be converted to electrons before a router or computer can handle the information.
"With all light, computing can eventually be millions of times faster, "says Menon. To help do that, the U engineers created a much smaller form of a polarization beamsplitter
(which looks somewhat like a barcode) on top of a silicon chip that can split guided incoming light into its two components.
#Controlling light by pairing two exotic 2-D materials Researchers have found a way to couple the properties of different two-dimensional materials to provide an exceptional degree of control over light waves.
Although the two materials are structurally similar both composed of hexagonal arrays of atoms that form two-dimensional sheets they each interact with light quite differently.
The hybrid material blocks light when a particular voltage is applied to the graphene while allowing a special kind of emission and propagation, called yperbolicity,
One of the consequences of this unusual behavior is that an extremely thin sheet of material can interact strongly with light,
while light interacting with hbn produces phonons. Fang and his colleagues found that when the materials are combined in a certain way,
The properties of the graphene allow precise control over light, while hbn provides very strong confinement and guidance of the light.
Combining the two makes it possible to create new etamaterialsthat marry the advantages of both,
says, his work represents significant progress on understanding tunable interactions of light in graphene-hbn.
They have developed the first light-emitting, transparent and flexible paper out of environmentally friendly materials via a simple, suction-filtration method.
and measure chemical and biological molecules using a broadband nanostructure that traps wide range of light,
The oscillations in the intensity of photoelectron signal for emission normal to the surface show how long light is trapped in the form of excitonic polarization during the coherent nonlinear interaction with the silver surface.
Detecting excitons in metals could provide clues on how light is converted into electrical and chemical energy in solar cells and plants.
in order to develop active elements for technologies such as optical communications by controlling how light is reflected from a metal.
When light reflects from a mirror, the light shakes the metals free electrons and the resulting acceleration of electrons creates a nearly perfect replica of the incident light providing a reflection.
This discovery sheds light on the primary excitonic response of solids which could allow quantum control of electrons in metals, semiconductors,
when irradiated with light or when irradiation was stopped, preventing highly accurate optogenetic control. Postdoctoral fellow Fuun Kawano, Associate professor Moritoshi Sato and their research group at the Graduate school of Arts
For example, when they are illuminated with infrared laser light, they emit visible blue light. A number of crystals produce this effect, called frequency doubling or harmonic generation, to various degrees.
Linearly polarized light, like that produced by a Polaroid filter, vibrates in a single plane.
In circularly polarized light, the polarization plane rotates either clockwise or counterclockwise. When left-handed nano-spirals are illuminated with clockwise polarized light
Counterclockwise polarized light, on the other hand, produces a minimal amount of blue light because the polarization tends to push the electrons outward
to prevent light from scattering as it is being transmitted and, second, to transmit and manipulate light signals fast enough to handle increasingly large quantities of data.
Scientists have been attempting for years to make crystals in glass in order to prevent light from being scattered as light signals are transmitted,
"We have made the equivalent of a wire to guide the light. With our crystal, it is possible to do this in 3d
so that the wire--the light--can curve and bend as it is transmitted. This gives us the potential of putting different components on different layers of glass."
and for steering light from one place to another as a supermarket scanner does. Ferroelectric crystals can also transform light from one frequency to another.
This makes it possible to send light through different channels.""""Other groups have made crystal in glass
but were not able to demonstrate quality, "says Jain.""With the quality of our crystal, we have crossed the threshold for the idea to be useful.
and where light is absorbed.""We can heat the glass only locally, "says Jain, "creating the desired conditions and causing the glass to melt,
"The nonlinear absorption of light, says Dierolf, depends on the intensity of light in selected areas."
"If you double the intensity of the laser, you might get 20 to 100 times more absorption.
Structural color occurs through the interaction of light with materials that have patterns on a tiny scale,
Abig cantilever cannot be made to oscillate by freely propagating light, and the effects of chemical changes to its surface on the oscillation frequency would be less noticeable.
and x-ray scattering at the National Synchrotron Light Sourceoth DOE Office of Science User Facilities.
Earlier attempts to create reflective light color displays, however, presented a number of vexing problems.
Though adequate for certain applications, the fact that only one-third of the incoming light can be reflected back toward the viewer in a typical reflective RGB format limits the gamut of colors and brightness of the display.
The new display reported in Optica is able to overcome these hurdles by reflecting more of the incoming light
Hong and his colleagues were able achieve these results by using a property of light they call interferometric absorption to create a broad spectrum of colors.
The first layer consists of a thin absorbing material that lets most of the light pass through to the second mirror layer where it is reflected back upon itself.
With this design, the incoming light and the reflected light interfere with one another, producing a variety of standing waves with each component periodicity producing a unique color in the spectrum.
with only the light behind you shining on the page
#Single-nanocatalyst water splitter produces clean-burning hydrogen 24/7 (Nanowerk News) Stanford university scientists have invented a low-cost water splitter that uses a single catalyst to produce both hydrogen
We decided to extend our research to prints that would exhibit different images depending on the polarization of the incident light,
size, and structure to facilitate desired interactions with light, electrical or magnetic fields, or chemical environment to provide unique functionality in a wide range of applications from energy to medicine.
This enhances the interaction between the light and the sample, and the signal becomes easily measurable,
Then, the corresponding quantities depend on the orientation of the polarization of light with respect to the symmetry axes of the particle.
Instead, the research team used light to"cool"the nuclei. While nuclei do not themselves interact with light, certain imperfections,
or"color-centers,"in the Sic crystals do. The electron spins in these color centers can be cooled readily optically and aligned,
The movement of electrons caused by friction was able to generate enough energy to power the lights
The findings shed new light on a key attribute of stem cells: their ability to make new specialized cells
By shedding light on the fundamental physical processes involved in data storage the work may lead to better, faster computer memory systems with larger storage capacity.
"Today, nanosecond lasersasers that pulse light at one-billionth of a secondre used to record information on DVDS and Blu-ray disks,
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light use a microbead which flies through the hollow channel in the interior of a photonic crystal fibre to measure different physical quantities, for example the electric field along the optical fibre.
What is measured is how the light sent through the fibre is affected by an external factor.
so that light can no longer propagate therein, making them unsuitable to measure radioactivity. The glass fibres which we owe particular thanks to for high rates of data transmission
which were invented around 20 years ago by Philip Russell, Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light,
The diameter of these channels is only a few times the wavelength of light, which means that the channels affect the propagation of the light.
More precisely, they trap light in the inner channel similar to the different types of glass in conventional optical fibres.
The tiny bead reflects the light like a small mirror and thereby experiences pressure from both sides
which is generated by the impacts of the light on the particle. By setting the power of the two laser beams to different strengths,
Wavelengths of the light behave in a similar way to the wavelength of the sound waves when emitted by moving objects.
and does not alter the brightness of light around a hidden object. The technology behind this cloak will have more applications than invisibility,
The idea behind cloaking is to change the scattering of electromagnetic waves--such as light and radar--off an object to make it less detectable to these wave frequencies.
It won't lose any intensity of the light that it reflects.""Many cloaks are lossy
and surface--appear flat by mimicking the reflection of light off the flat surface. Any object reflects light differently from a flat surface,
light from different points is reflected out of sync, effectively cancelling the overall distortion of light caused by the object's shape."
"This cloaking device basically fools the observer into thinking that there's a flat surface, "said Kant.
we were able to control the reflection of light at each point on the cloak,
They showed how a single nanoresonator can manipulate light to cast a very large"reflection."
"Making an object look 10,000 times larger than its physical size has lots of implications in technologies related to light,
Much like sound, light can resonate, amplifying itself as the surrounding environment manipulates the physical properties of its wave energy.
which the wavelength of light is much larger than in a vacuum, which allows light waves to resonate more powerfully.
and then scatters the light over a very large area, harnessing its output for imaging applications that make microscopic particles appear huge."
"This research opens up a new way to manipulate the flow of light, and could enable new technologies in light sensing and solar energy conversion,
"Microcavity To produce the room-temperature condensate, the team of researchers from Polytechnique and Imperial College first created a device that makes it possible for polaritons-hybrid quasiparticles that are part light
the team of researchers from Polytechnique and Imperial College first created a device that makes it possible for polaritons-hybrid quasiparticles that are part light
Powerful transistors entirely powered by light are another possible application. The research team foresees that the next major challenge in developing such applications will be to obtain a lower particle-condensation threshold
While Day and Mankins study focused on the wires ability to absorb different wavelengths of light,
and funnel the light into them. Previous research has shown that different diameter wires absorb different wavelengths of light.
Day and Mankin discovered that the wires not only absorb light at specific wavelengths, they also absorb light from other parts of the spectrum.
Its actually more than a simple additive effect, Day said. As you shrink the spacing down to distances smaller than about 400 nanometers,
which light activates an oxidizing chemical reaction. When light strikes a photocatalyst like titanium dioxide (Tio2) nanoparticles
Nanoparticles that lose their stability upon irradiation with light have been designed to extract endocrine disruptors, pesticides,
These oscillations create their own light, which reacts again with the free electrons. Energy trapped on the surface of the nanocube in this fashion is called a plasmon.
In Bell's days it was a simple, very thin mirror that turned sound waves into modulated light.
however, dictate that such a volume cannot be smaller than the wavelength of the light itself.
the light is turned first into so-called surface-plasmon-polaritons. Plasmon-polaritons are a combination of electromagnetic fields
The advantage of this detour is that plasmon-polaritons can be confined in a much smaller space than the light they originated from.
Refractive index changed from the outside In order to control the power of the light that exits the device,
After that, the plasmons are reconverted into light, which is fed into a fibre optic cable for further transmission.
or change how much light is reflected by 40 percent while requiring less power than other"all-optical"semiconductor devices. plasmonic oxide material This rendering depicts a new"plasmonic oxide material"that could make possible devices for optical communications that are at least 10 times faster than conventional
"Being able to modulate the amount of light reflected is necessary for potential industrial applications such as data transmission."
An optical transistor could perform a similar role for light instead of electricity, bringing far faster systems than now possible.
The switching speed of transistors is limited by how fast it takes conventional semiconductors such as silicon to complete this cycle of light to be absorbed,
patterns or elements that enable unprecedented control of light by harnessing clouds of electrons called surface plasmons.
which describes how much light will bend in that particular material and defines how much the speed of light slows down while passing through a material.
The material then reflects 10 percent less light, while its transparency increases by 40 percent.
Recent studies have cast a much brighter light on this underrated and extremely necessary vitamin.
to better locate the source of the light the molecules emit. These methods can now discern objects that are as close together as about 20nm.
And there an enormous array of other neurological diseases, from autism to multiple sclerosis, that must be reconsidered in light of the presence of something science insisted did not exist u
Karagozler as people controlled lights or computer screens with finger strokes on a blue cloth covering a table in the display area behind him. t is just like normal fabric.
#Octopus has automatic camouflage thanks to its light-sensing skin Octopuses are pretty good at blending in,
which has skin that responds directly to light by producing deep brown spots for camouflage. Desmond Ramirez and Todd Oakley of the University of California at Santa barbara shone light on samples of skin from the octopus and within around 6 seconds,
the camouflaged brown spots appeared. They say this is the first time the skin of cephalopods invertebrates that include octopuses
and react to light by changing body colour. But finding that skin can do the job on its own suggests these creatures might have sensed originally light with their skin before they evolved their complex eyes.
The researchers say their discovery could provide clues as to how light sensing evolved in the animal kingdom l
but we now know that it doesn't absorb light at quite the right frequency.
"This is the first explanation of how the light might work.""Other research groups are investigating this phenomenon as a way to speed up the healing of skin wounds
#Living lasers made by injecting oil droplets into human cells Light fantastic (Image: Matja Humar and Seok Hyun Yun) Individual cells have been turned into tiny lasers. t actually super-easy,
Shining a light pulse on to the cavity excited the dye atoms into emitting light in a tightly focused beam.
-and using less light than some existing infrared-based alignment procedures-the principles behind eyeselfie could also now be extended outside ophthalmology and into other sectors.
"a simple light pattern seen by the user and produced at their pupil. A novel interactive ray-based approach developed by the team allows images with the same field-of-view to be projected onto the retina simultaneously,
"This is the first demonstration of a class of static light-field patterns in which the perceived image changes with eye relief
"Furthermore, our light-field pattern can be incorporated readily into artificial reality headsets for self-calibration of near eye displays.
Emerging light-field-based near-eye displays could use such patterns for user alignment straight out of the box."
The microscope scans a sheet of light through the sample, making it unnecessary to position the sample
SCAPE yields data equivalent to conventional light-sheet microscopy, but using a single, stationary objective lens;
Conventional light-sheet microscopes use two orthogonal objectives and require that samples be fixed in a position.
"We have made the equivalent of a wire to guide the light, "said professor Volkmar Dierolf."
so that the wire the light can curve and bend as it is transmitted. This gives us the potential of putting different components on different layers of glass."
to prevent light from scattering as it is being transmitted and, second, to transmit and manipulate light signals fast enough to handle increasingly large quantities of data.
and for steering light from one place to another as a supermarket scanner does said, "he."
"Ferroelectric crystals can also transform light from one frequency to another. This makes it possible to send light through different channels."
"The research was published in Scientific Reports (doi: 10.1038/srep10391. For more information, visit www1. lehigh. edu. Harsh Environments No Match for New Fiber Sensor Nanofiber Fabrication Boosts Quantum computing Sulfur Copolymers Boost IR Optics
#Graphene Filaments Provide Tunable On-Chip Light source Graphene Filaments Provide Tunable On-Chip Light Sourcenew YORK, June 15,
but the principle of light-emitting filaments may have a new use in displays and optical communications.
"This new type of broadband light emitter can be integrated into chips and will pave the way towards the realization of atomically thin, flexible and transparent displays,
The ability to create light in small structures on the surface of a microchip is a crucial step towards the development of fully integrated photonic circuits.
"By measuring the spectrum of the light emitted from the graphene, the team was able to show that graphene was reaching temperatures of above 2500°Celsius,
The spectrum of the emitted light showed peaks at specific wavelengths, which the team discovered was due to interference between the light emitted directly from the graphene
and light reflecting off the silicon substrate and passing back through the graphene.""This is only possible
because graphene is transparent, unlike any conventional filament, and allows us to tune the emission spectrum by changing the distance to the substrate,
For more information, visit engineering. columbia. edu. Corning to Acquire Fiber optics Business from Samsung Camera Powered by the Light It Captures Microscope Takes 3-D Images From Inside Moving Subjects Technique
#Continuously Disinfecting Light Fixtures Commercialized Designed to continuously disinfect the air and surfaces in hospitals,
The lights can be used to inactivate a range of microorganisms that are known causes of hospital-acquired infections,
Continuous indigo light, on the other hand, is lethal to pathogens but safe for use in the presence of patients and staff.
And unlike other light-based disinfection systems it does not require a technician to operate.
and scattering the light. In this way the device can determine blood glucose levels in about 30 seconds."
the researchers hope that Virscan can be used to quickly detect the bacteria and fungi to shed more light on the microbiome
interactive holograms comprised of tiny points of light called voxels. Using femtosecond lasers (a femtosecond is a quadrillionth of a second,
and blue light in different proportions, based on the light applied to each segment. The wavelength spans 191 nanometers,
Real color images, under low light, of a single laser beam. So, we have a white laser.
Wireless data transfer using light has already been demonstrated at blistering gigabit speeds using white LED LIGHTS.
because Li-Fi works by reading slight modulations of light, and lasers can be tuned far more finely than LEDS.
The ASU team calls their white laser he ultimate form of such a light
#New Sun-Blocking Material Uses Compounds From Algae And Fish Researchers have used compounds found in algae
The sunscreen you buy at your local pharmacy contains ingredients to block two different types of light from the sunv-A,
Mycosporines absorb both types of light, and would be ingested safe if. Researchers have wanted to use mycosporines in sunblock for more than a decade,
#Anti-Radiation Glasses Protect Against Computer Eye Strain Zappi glasses are designed to protect the wearer eyes from the harmful light given off by digital devices such as smartphones, tablets and computers.
while blue-violet light reaches further into the retina and can cause the gradual degeneration of retinal cells.
instead, relying on kerosene generators, battery-powered lamps or candles for light during the night.
The saline solution in SALT IS significantly safer than other methods of producing light without a power grid.
and shine lights on neurons inside the brain. Neuroscientists have until now been limited to injecting drugs through larger tubes
so that their neurons are lights sensitive, to stimulate the mice's brain cells with miniature LEDS.
The lights go out, the TV goes black, the computers shut down as their batteries drain. And worst of all-your smartphone dies.
since the early 1800's. Light a candle, fill the device with water, and you have a charger."
For example, when they are illuminated with infrared laser light, they emit visible blue light. A number of crystals produce this effect, called frequency doubling or harmonic generation, to various degrees.
Linearly polarized light, like that produced by a Polaroid filter, vibrates in a single plane.
In circularly polarized light, the polarization plane rotates either clockwise or counterclockwise. When left-handed nano-spirals are illuminated with clockwise polarized light,
the amount of blue light produced is maximized because the polarization pushes the electrons toward the center of the spiral.
Counterclockwise polarized light, on the other hand, produces a minimal amount of blue light because the polarization tends to push the electrons outward
Anheuser-busch, for example, probably wants to make sure that every bottle of Bud Light tastes the same before it hits grocery and liquor store coolers.
"With all light, computing can eventually be millions of times faster, "Menon said. Menon and his team figured out how to take current beamsplitters,
A team of European researchers has announced just that they've set a new record by creating black silicon solar cells that can convert 22.1 percent of the Sun's light into electricity-an increase of almost four percent on their previous record.
thanks to their ability to suck up light even when the Sun was low in the sky."
Once this light is captured, a quantum reaction occurs that results in the production of electrons.
Publishing in Nature Nanotechnology, the researchers report that their resulting cells are the most efficient black silicon solar cells to date, capable of turning 22.1 percent of available light into electricity."
and could help electric cars travel further on a single charge, thanks to their light and bendy structure.
#Light-based computers will be even more awesome than we thought Researchers have come up with an efficient way of transporting data between computer chips using light rather than electricity.
theye struggled to find an efficient way to transmit that light across the thousands of different connections,
In theory, light can be beamed between chips via silicon structures that bend it to the desired location,
Called'Light and Charge',these prototype street lights combine energy-efficient Light Emitting Diodes (LED) and BMW Chargenow recharging stations,
The team announced that it would be testing the Light and Charge system out in Munich, Germany next year,
and use a control panel on the light to swipe their charge card and register their use.
when the light is too low for the power cells. At $15, 000 per unit, the price tag might sound exorbitant,
Team leader Yoichi Ochiai says the hologram size is limited by the size of the spatial light modulator included in the setup,
"The spatial light modulator can modify the phases of light rates and produce various spatial distributions of light based on interference,"explains the team from DNG."
"Our results led to calmer and safer plasma generation that can be incorporated into our daily lives."
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