Shrinking 3-D technology for comfortable smart phone viewing

25-Feb-2016 - Imagine watching a 3D movie on your smart phone and suddenly getting a headache or even feeling nauseous. Such viewer discomfort is one of the biggest obstacles preventing widespread application of 3D display technology - especially for portable devices whose slim design poses an extra ...

Toward clearer, cheaper imaging of ultrafast phenomena

15-Oct-2015 - Many mysteries of nature are locked up in the world of the very small and the very fast. Chemical reactions and material phase transitions, for example, happen on the scale of atoms and attoseconds. A research team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Massachusetts, in collaboration ...

Researchers slow light to a crawl in liquid crystal matrix

16-Aug-2013 - Light traveling in a vacuum is the Universe’s ultimate speed demon, racing along at approximately 300,000 kilometers per second. Now scientists have found an effective new way to put a speed bump in light’s path. Reported in the journal Optics Express, researchers from France and China embedded ...

Hearing the telltale sounds of dangerous chemicals

New photoacoustic technique detects multiple nerve agents simultaneously

16-Aug-2012 - To warn of chemical attacks and help save lives, it's vital to quickly determine if even trace levels of potentially deadly chemicals—such as the nerve gas sarin and other odorless, colorless agents—are present. U.S. Army researchers have developed a new chemical sensor that can simultaneously ...

Diamonds are a laser's best friend

21-Sep-2009 - Tomorrow's lasers may come with a bit of bling, thanks to a new technology that uses man-made diamonds to enhance the power and capabilities of lasers. Researchers in Australia have now demonstrated the first laser built with diamonds that has comparable efficiency to lasers built with other ...

Engineering algae to make fuel instead of sugar

Optics Express research describes how tiny organism can make biofuel

18-Dec-2008 - In pursuing cleaner energy there is such a thing as being too green. Unicellular microalgae, for instance, can be considered too green. In a paper in a special energy issue of Optics Express, the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley ...

Improved spectrometer based on nonlinear optics

New tool allows for higher sensitivity at reduced complexity and cost

14-Nov-2008 - Scientists at Stanford University and Japan's National Institute of Informatics have created a new highly sensitive infrared spectrometer. The device converts light from the infrared part of the spectrum to the visible part, where the availability of superior optical detectors results in strongly ...

Silicon optical fiber made practical

29-Oct-2008 - Scientists at Clemson University for the first time have been able to make a practical optical fiber with a silicon core, according to a new paper published in the current issue of the Optical Society's open-access journal, Optics Express. Led by Professor John Ballato and including fiber pioneer ...

Researchers use light to detect Alzheimer's

New technique may help identify ways to predict and prevent deadly disease

18-Mar-2008 - A team of researchers in Bedford, Mass. has developed a way of examining brain tissue with near-infrared light to detect signs of Alzheimer's disease. In the March 15 issue of the journal Optics Letters, published by the Optical Society of America, the team describes how they used optical ...