NEWSROOM

Scientists at New York University report the discovery of “gyromorphs”—a material that combines the seemingly incompatible properties of liquids and crystals and that performs better than any other known structure in blocking light from all incoming angles. The breakthrough, described in the journal Physical Review Letters, marks an innovative way to control optical properties and to potentially advance the capabilities of light-based computers.

In the quest for ultra-compact, light-based circuits, scientists are turning to polaritons—hybrid modes formed from the coupling of light with optically active material excitations such as plasmons or phonons. These remarkable quasiparticles can squeeze light into spaces far smaller than its natural wavelength, overcoming the conventional limits of far-field optics. However, exciting most confined variants - higher-order polaritons - has been a major challenge, as they demand

A team of researchers at the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering has created a new breakthrough in photonics: the design of the first optical device that follows the emerging framework of optical thermodynamics. The work, reported in Nature Photonics, introduces a fundamentally new way of routing light in nonlinear systems—meaning systems that do not require switches, external control, or digital addressing. Instead, light naturally finds its way thro

Since the Generalized Snell's Law (GSL) was proposed, planar metasurfaces have achieved remarkable progress in optical and electromagnetic wavefront manipulation by leveraging phase gradients. The Generalized Snell’s Law primarily focuses on the influence of phase gradients on the fundamental wave components while neglecting higher-order spatial harmonics generated by inter-element coupling and periodicity, often limiting metasurfaces to "single-channel" devices and constrain

Researchers have demonstrated a compact, fully integrated device that uses a carefully crafted mirror to generate a stable frequency comb with very broad bandwidth. The mirror they developed, along with an on-chip measurement platform, offers the scalability and flexibility needed for mass-producible remote sensors and portable spectrometers. This development could enable more accurate environmental monitors that can identify multiple harmful chemicals from trace gases in the

By leveraging the concept of chirality, or the difference of a shape from its mirror image, EPFL scientists have engineered an optical metasurface that controls light to yield a simple and versatile technique for secure encryption, sensing, and computing.