The ultimate high-speed flashbulb just measured how quickly electrons inside atoms respond to light. The work could speed the development of light-based electronics. At 380 attoseconds long – 380 x 10^-18 seconds – the flashes are the shortest pulses of visible light ever created in the lab. Image: Christian Hackenberger/Attoelectronics MPQ
Read More
Light is one of those things that we don’t tend to understand. If you were to zoom in on a ray of light, what would you see? Sure, light travels incredibly fast, but what is it that’s doing the travelling? Many of us would struggle to explain. Image: ilovepics11
Read More
Optical fibres can carry data for longer distances if it is encoded in pulses of darkness – and a...
Read More
A molecular combination lock, opened by only the correct sequence of light pulses, could make it...
Read More
Compact fluorescent bulbs may soon follow incandescent bulbs into history the material needed to...
Read More
Light has been used to drive a tiny mechanical resonator, in a proof of principle that opens the...
Read More
Thanks to a new technique, DNA strands can be easily converted into tiny fibre optic cables that...
Read More
A technique that uses cheap lenses like those used in CD players to transfer data between light...
Read More
A new device does away with mirrors and lenses and focuses fuzzy beams into a sharp edge of laser...
Read More
Researchers have found a way to generate the shortest-ever flash of light – 80 attoseconds...
Read More
