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Quantum randomness of empty space can be controlled with a laser

13 July 2023

The minuscule fluctuations of seemingly empty space can be controlled just enough to make the building blocks of a new type of computer

Shortest pulse of electrons ever created lasts just 53 attoseconds

25 January 2023

A record-breaking short pulse of electrons just 53 billionths of a billionth of a second long has been generated – it is so fast it could allow microscopes to grab images of electrons jumping between atoms

Lasers used to throw and catch single atoms for first time

19 December 2022

Extremely cold atoms were thrown with one laser beam and caught with another. The technique could be used in quantum computing

AI-controlled robotic laser can target and kill cockroaches

20 October 2022

A laser controlled by two cameras and a small computer running an AI model can be trained to target certain types of insect

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Blasting plastic with powerful lasers turns it into tiny diamonds

2 September 2022

Simple plastics can be turned into tiny diamonds with a pulse of laser light, and a similar process may occur inside giant planets, which could explain some of their mysteries

A beam of red light shines through a series of four lenses within a telescope-like device

Anti-laser can make any object suck in light

25 August 2022

A maze of mirrors and lenses turns any material into a highly efficient light absorber and could be used for detection of faint light or charging distant devices with light

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Plasmas could be used to make the world's most powerful laser

22 August 2022

Because plasma can shape very intense light without being damaged, it could be used to make components for lasers thousands of times more powerful than the strongest ones that exist

Laser beams crossing in different directions from several different sources

New kind of laser uses tiny particle clumps to generate light

14 July 2022

Lasers normally use mirrors to create laser light, but a new kind uses clumps of moving particles. The result is a laser that is more programmable and could generate extra-sharp visual displays

A new kind of time crystal has been created and lasts 10 milliseconds

9 June 2022

A time crystal has been created by firing lasers at rubidium atoms. It only lasts for 10 milliseconds, but it could reveal the precise scale at which quantum effects take hold

A specially sculpted laser beam created this photorealistic image of a cat From the researcher: The whole image in the camera (CCD), showing the edges of the (Gaussian) beam, where the dark rectangle background (around the cat) shows the edges of the target image we used to imprint the phase. It is easy to notice it, because it is slightly misaligned with the CCD pixels.

Scientists made a laser beam shaped like a photorealistic cat

6 May 2022

Laser beams normally take the shape of a dot, but by manipulating light with liquid crystals, researchers have bent one into the shape of a photo of a cat