Intelligent nanomaterials for photonics

Since the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for research on graphene in 2010, 2-D materials—nanosheets with atomic thickness—have been a hot topic in science. This significant interest is due to their outstanding properties, ...

Why you should care about better fiber optics

Fibre optic research can give us better medical equipment, improved environmental monitoring, more media channels—and maybe better solar panels.

Hit the slopes with bio-based skis and snowboards

With the onset of winter, Europe's ski season is in full swing. To help you perfect your turns and hold your line down the slope, ski and snowboards are surprisingly complex pieces of equipment, but they are also increasingly ...

Nanoscale one-way street for light

An optical device at nanoscale which allows light to pass in only one direction has been developed at TU Wien (Vienna). It consists of alkali atoms which are coupled to ultrathin glass fibres.

Two photons strongly coupled by glass fiber

Usually, light waves do not interact with each other. Coupling of photons with other photons is only possible with the help of special materials and very intense light. Scientists in Vienna have now created the strongest ...

Moving towards electronically active threads

We are just starting to develop smart textiles. So far the problem has always been that it was not possible to apply the electronic components, called organic semiconductors, to three-dimensional structures such as fibres ...

Faster-than-superfast Internet, and why we can't have it (yet)

You may have read about Sony's plan to install a fibre-based internet service in Japan which could reach download speeds of 2 gigabits a second (Gbps). That's 20 times faster than speeds offered by Labor's National Broadband ...

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