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Category: physics – Page 15

Ultra-thin lenses halve incident wavelength to make infrared light visible

Physicists at ETH Zurich have developed a lens that can transform infrared light into visible light by halving the wavelength of incident light. The study is published in Advanced Materials.

Lenses are the most widely used optical devices. Camera lenses or objectives, for example, produce a sharp photo or video by directing at a focal point. The speed of evolution in the field of optics in recent decades is exemplified by the transformation of conventional bulky cameras into today’s compact smartphone cameras.

Even high-performance smartphone cameras still require a stack of lenses that often account for the thickest part of the phone. This size constraint is an inherent feature of classic design—a thick lens is crucial for bending light to capture a sharp image on the camera sensor.

New laser smaller than a penny can measure objects at ultrafast rates

Researchers from the University of Rochester and University of California, Santa Barbara, engineered a laser device smaller than a penny that they say could power everything from the LiDAR systems used in self-driving vehicles to gravitational wave detection, one of the most delicate experiments in existence to observe and understand our universe.

Laser-based measurement techniques, known as optical metrology, can be used to study the physical properties of objects and materials. But current optical metrology requires bulky and expensive equipment to achieve delicate laser-wave control, creating a bottleneck for deploying streamlined, cost-effective systems.

The new chip-scale laser, described in a paper published in Light: Science & Applications, can conduct extremely fast and accurate measurements by very precisely changing its color across a broad spectrum of light at very fast rates—about 10 quintillion times per second.

Graphene Is Stretchable? Physicists Make “Miracle Material” Bend Like Never Before

Ultra clean, air-free measurements reveal a new property of graphene. Graphene is often called a “miracle material” because it is both mechanically extremely strong and highly conductive, making it ideal for many technological applications. Physicists at the University of Vienna, led by Jani Kota

From infinite past to future: Simulation tracks complete journey of gravitational wave through black hole spacetime

In a new Physical Review Letters study, researchers have successfully followed a gravitational wave’s complete journey from the infinite past to the infinite future as it encounters a black hole.

Reported by scientists from the University of Otago and the University of Canterbury, the study represents the first time anyone has captured the full cause-and-effect relationship of gravitational wave scattering in a single simulation.

The researchers are tackling the scattering problem in . In other words, they want to understand what happens to when they encounter massive objects (like black holes) and scatter off them.

Friction variation creates Tête de Moine’s signature cheese flowers

Tête de Moine, a semi-hard Swiss cheese that often finds its way onto charcuterie boards and salads, not only brings a rich, nutty and creamy flavor, but also adds a dramatic flare to the presentation. Instead of slicing, this cheese is shaved into delicate rosettes using a tool called a Girolle whose rotating blade gently scrapes thin layers of cheese into ruffled curls. These pretty cheese flowers are known to enhance the flavor and texture due to their high surface-to-volume ratio.

The unusual way Tête de Moine forms wrinkles when shaved, piqued the interest of a team of physicists who, in a study published in Physical Review Letters, set out to investigate the physical mechanisms behind these intricate shapes.

Similar morphogenetic patterns can be observed in the frilly edges of leaves, fungi, corals, or even torn , but the mechanisms that explain the similar shapes in these materials fail to account for the distinctive physical properties of .

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