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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.
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?
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.
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.
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.