Displays

Optical clocks promise new standards in the measurement of time. To ensure accuracy, however, different clocks must be compared, even if they are on opposite sides of the planet.

Could laser televisions be the next big market opportunity for semiconductor lasers? Nature Photonics spoke to Jean-Michel Pelaprat, the chief executive officer of Novalux, a Californian company investigating the idea, to find out.

Microphotonic devices are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Nature Photonics spoke to Michal Lipson from Cornell University about her team's recent success in adding a new type of wavelength converter to the silicon-photonics toolbox.

In the future, equipping rooms with 'optical wireless hotspots' that enable fast free-space data transmission to laptops or mobile phones by means of light beams rather than radio waves, could dramatically boost the speed of wireless communication.

Following years of development, electronic paper is now entering ebooks, mobile phones and signs, and, as Duncan Graham-Rowe reports, is starting to gain the market acceptance that it has long strived for.

Eighteen months ago a massive fire ripped through the Optoelectronics Research Centre at Southampton University in the UK. Nadya Anscombe talks to David Payne about the lessons learned and the future of one of the world's largest photonics research groups.

Is the terahertz spectral range finally about to be opened up for broad application across the physical and biological sciences? Researchers propose a new source of terahertz waves that could do just this.

Comparing ultrastable optical frequency standards developed in different laboratories presents a significant challenge. However, a group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder has now demonstrated a prototype coherent ring network that rises to the test.

Breaking the diffraction limit for the resolution of conventional optical systems has long been the primary aim of optical imaging. The recently demonstrated far-field optical superlens is paving the way to this elusive goal.

Since the drive for thin-film-transistor LCDs began in the 1980s, these devices have become kings of the display world. But hot on their tails is a whole host of alternative technologies.

Carbon nanotubes, with their superb electron-emitting properties, are the latest nanotech wonders of the display world. These tiny structures could have a big impact on flat-panel displays.

Liquid crystal on silicon brings together silicon and liquid crystals to produce displays with unprecedented resolution and image quality. But have they arrived on the display scene too late?