Twisting laser patterns into a corkscrew-like pattern, rather than sending the light beams in a line, promises to relieve some data gridlock, say scientists A bottleneck in data rates is coming, some ...

Cooled to almost absolute zero, atoms not only move in waves like light but also can be focused into shapes called caustics, similar to the reflecting or refracting patterns light makes on the bottom ...

Physicists in Germany have generated what they call a "special" state of matter, using a three-dimensional optical interference pattern. Turning up the intensity of this pattern created a gaseous ...

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2014 was awarded for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy. Inspired by this work, scientists at Institute of Photonic Chips (IPC), University of ...

Lasercutters are amazingly versatile tools that can help you build all manner of complicated structures if you can break them down into a series of planar parts. [David] had spotted artworks at the ...

Fractals commonly show up in nature, from spiral-shaped seashells to heads of cauliflower. Now physicists have found these complex, self-repeating patterns in a very unnatural spot: laser light. Peer ...