Researchers have created a laser-driven technique that allows 3D microstructures to be created from almost any type of solid material, opening up possibilities for multifunctional microrobots and microscale technology. Read the OPN story: https://bit.ly/46cJ7dB 💡 ⚛️

"You have the power to steer your work to meaningful change, rather than waiting for someone else to make it happen." -Falko Schmidt in OPN's latest Career Focus column as he discusses his academic and entrepreneurial career trajectory. Read the story: https://bit.ly/4kj4bVz #academicsky 💡 ⚛️ 🧪

In new work, researchers demonstrated how to switch between two types of skyrmions by directing differently shaped laser beams at a metasurface to generate terahertz pulses. Read the story: https://bit.ly/3ZhrzZU 💡 ⚛️

Corning and Meta make US$6 billion deal to accelerate the building of advanced data centers in the United States to support Meta’s tech and AI ambitions. Read the OPN story: https://bit.ly/4rzN3gI #AI #Technology #DataCenter 💡 ⚛️

Check out the February OPN cover feature article "Quantum Connectivity for Scale" to learn about entanglement-based optical networks, which are emerging as the key to building larger, more capable quantum systems. Read the story: https://bit.ly/4rMrgT9 #Quantum #OpticalNetworks #Entanglement 💡 ⚛️

Image of the Week: Light Thread A microscope image of an optical step-index fiber that has been processed with a CO2 laser. [2025 #OPNPhotoContest Honorable Mention] Read more here: http://bit.ly/3Uj2QCf

Image of the Week: Illuminated Hands Hands illuminated with a white LED lamp appear semi-transparent. [2025 #OPNPhotoContest Honorable Mention] Read more here: http://bit.ly/3Uj2QCf

Image of the Week: Dispersion in the Lab This photo was captured during an experiment in a first-year lab course. [2025 #OPNPhotoContest Honorable Mention] Read more here: http://bit.ly/3Uj2QCf

What if a consumer-grade 3D printer could be used to make complex optical components? In new work, researchers did just that, creating lenslets for super-resolution microscopy. Check out the OPN story: https://bit.ly/4pWU0XD #microscopy #technology #3DPrinting #lens 💡 ⚛️ 🧪

Researchers have demonstrated how #metasurfaces could lead to large-scale #quantum #computing. In new work, a team used metasurfaces to create arrays of optical tweezers that could trap hundreds of thousands of neutral atoms. Read the OPN story: https://bit.ly/4bbHRL4 💡 ⚛️

📣 OPN's February issue is now live 📣 The latest issue has stories about quantum connectivity, planning science and tech programs in a federal lab, announcing Optica's 2026 Fellows and so much more! https://bit.ly/4r2ZLUO #quantum #stem #technology 💡 ⚛️ 🧪

Image of the Week: Tea Glass Caustic The curved surface of a glass of tea and the liquid within refract and focus sunlight into a bright, concentrated spot, which diffuses into an amber-tinted conical shape. [2025 #OPNPhotoContest ] Read more here: http://bit.ly/3Uj2QCf

"To identify the Next Big Thing, you have to 'follow the money by identifying trends in public and private funding." Check out OPN's latest Market Report to learn about the latest big trend: military technology. https://bit.ly/3NnWEIy #technology #funding #industry 💡 ⚛️

In new work, researchers refined an X-ray diffraction method to see the nanoscale collagen microstructures of an ossicle, a tiny bone in the ear. Read the OPN story: https://bit.ly/4bz91eI #imaging #xray #tomography 💡 ⚛️ 🧪

Image of the Week: Vascular Elegance A two-photon microscopy fluorescence lifetime imaging representation of an artery cross-section, showcasing the rich structural details of the vascular wall. [2025 #OPNPhotoContest Honorable Mention] Read more here: http://bit.ly/3Uj2QCf

Company Vitrealab announced it closed an $11 million Series A financing round. They hope the funding will accelerate the development and industrialization of its Quantum Light Chip technology. Read the OPN story: https://bit.ly/45anr11 #technology #quantum 💡 ⚛️

Check out the January feature article "Unlocking the Secrets of Replicated Mirrors" to learn about this cost-effective method that can create complex optical geometries on many kinds of substrates! Click the link: https://bit.ly/3LJ0gEv #mirrors #materials #technology 💡 ⚛️ 🧪

"When I saw the images of the Cassini vehicle doing slaloms between Saturn’s rings and Saturn, my heart was dancing with joy." In our latest Ideas column Marija Strojnik discusses her work developing an autonomous system for optical navigation of air- and spacecraft. https://bit.ly/49sKghD 💡 ⚛️ 🧪

In new work, researchers demonstrated a laser-based remote-sensing system that can observe cloud microstructures with 100 to 1,000 times more detail than existing atmospheric lidars. Read the OPN story: https://bit.ly/49bNbwr #lidar #atmosphere #clouds 💡 ⚛️ 🧪

A novel method can detect individual atoms in a rapid and minimally destructive way by leveraging an imaging scheme based on fluorescence microscopy. Read the OPN story: https://bit.ly/3N6WyoE #imaging #microscopy 💡 ⚛️ 🧪

In new work, researchers leveraged dispersion from a diffraction grating to study industry-relevant pulses, including those lasting more than 100 femtoseconds. Read the OPN story: https://bit.ly/498yzOn #technology #lasers 💡 ⚛️

Image of the Week: Sweet and Sour Recrystallized from a solution in vodka, vitamin C and stevia accreted into a stunning mandala, with many light-refracting and -diffracting layers helping to bring out visual details. #OPNPhotoContest Read more here: http://bit.ly/3Uj2QCf

Check out OPN's January feature article "Seeing What’s Up Down Below" to see how optical technology is bringing the depths of the deep ocean into view for understanding and tracking climate change. https://bit.ly/3YrWx0T #climate #ecology #imaging #oceanography 💡 ⚛️ 🧪

See some of the incredible cover art submissions received for OPN’s “Optics in 2025” special issue: https://bit.ly/3YhsB7H Which one is your favorite? Vote now! 💡 ⚛️ 🧪

Highlighted in OPN's #OpticsIn2025: Topological methods to generate and guide optical vortices featuring arbitrary higher-order charges, enabling cascaded orbital angular momentum production and dual protection of vortex transport. https://bit.ly/4aV80xg 💡 ⚛️

Highlighted in OPN's #OpticsIn2025: Researchers fiber-coupled a high-efficiency and ultra-low-timing-jitter superconducting nanowire single-­photon detector to the receive channel of their custom single-pixel monostatic scanning transceiver. https://bit.ly/4aoQphc 💡 ⚛️

Highlighted in OPN's #OpticsIn2025: A simple yet powerful method: femtosecond laser ablation and fragmentation in liquid, which can act as a universal chisel, capable of carving bulk van der Waals crystals into pristine nanoparticles with precise control. https://bit.ly/49ioG0y 💡 ⚛️

Highlighted in OPN's #OpticsIn2025: A point-of-care glomerular filtration rate (GFR) measurement #technology that can be applied to the general population and delivers higher accuracy than the estimated GFR equations in current clinical practice. https://bit.ly/49ky0kw 💡 ⚛️ 🧪

Highlighted in OPN's #OpticsIn2025: An imaging platform that combines photothermal #microscopy with an ultra-high-Q whispering gallery mode microtoroid resonator to achieve extreme sensitivity and high spatial resolution. https://bit.ly/45grqZM 💡 ⚛️ 🧪

Nu Quantum raised $60 million in its series A funding round. The company says the investment will help drive technological advancements and international expansion. Read the OPN story: https://bit.ly/4j9CTQC

Highlighted in OPN's #OpticsIn2025: Researchers demonstrated a photonics-integrated architecture that supports versatile THz operation and achieves phase-matched interaction over extended lengths, with bandwidths approaching 3.5 THz. https://bit.ly/44B7pgn 💡 ⚛️

Highlighted in OPN's #OpticsIn2025: Researchers identified and comprehensively characterized germanium disulfide as the first van der Waals material to combine the three essential properties for visible-light photonics. https://bit.ly/4aWnPDS

Scientists have produced an isolated soft X-ray pulse with a duration of only 19.2 attoseconds. The high-harmonic generation tabletop experiment could unlock new details about electron dynamics. Read the OPN story: https://bit.ly/4qqzhMO #attosecond #x-ray 💡 ⚛️

Highlighted in OPN's #OpticsIn2025: The first real-world demonstration of long-distance coherent #quantum communication over an operational fiber network. https://bit.ly/48KPtCr 💡 ⚛️

New work could reveal the quantum nature of gravity! Experimental physicist Ralf Schützhold conceived a new experiment that would enable gravitational waves to be manipulated as well as observed. Read the OPN story: https://bit.ly/3LcuUG2 #Quantum #Physics #Gravity 💡 ⚛️

Highlighted in OPN's #OpticsIn2025: A single-photon source that overcomes the long-standing efficiency 2/3 loss-tolerant threshold for the first time. https://bit.ly/44AAF77

📣 OPN's January issue is now live 📣 The latest issue has stories about using optics to see the deep sea, the secrets of replicated mirrors, using AI for optical system design and so much more! https://bit.ly/45oaSiD 💡 ⚛️ 🧪

Highlighted in OPN's #OpticsIn2025: A new kind of light pulse, the hybrid toroidal vortex (HTV), that unites the topologies spatiotemporal optical vortices, toroidal vortices, vortex streets, and skyrmions into a single, structured electromagnetic pulse. https://bit.ly/4q8mjms 💡 ⚛️

Highlighted in OPN's #OpticsIn2025: A novel optical transmitter that miniaturizes coherent modulators on a silicon photonics platform, paving the way for compact, high-capacity and energy-efficient coherent optical interconnects. https://bit.ly/3KRrNTI 💡 ⚛️

Quantum Computing announced that it will be acquiring Luminar Semiconductor, Inc. in an all-cash transaction of US$110 million to accelerate their roadmap. Read the OPN story: https://bit.ly/3KSBO3e #quantum #industry #technology 💡 ⚛️

Highlighted in OPN's #OpticsIn2025: Researchers demonstrated that wafer-scale, ultrathin reflectors can be realized in practice, a step toward realizing the century-old dream of light-driven interstellar flight. https://bit.ly/4rNwEG4 💡 ⚛️ 🧪

To celebrate the international year of quantum, a quantum emitter hit the road, visiting 12 labs across Europe over the course of 2025. Check out the OPN column to learn more about this incredible outreach program! https://bit.ly/3MPQm44 #IYQ #Quantum #SciComm 💡 ⚛️ 🧪

Highlighted in OPN's #OpticsIn2025: A new approach to reverse scattering, built on image-guided wavefront shaping, that is inherently parallel, scalable and versatile and can be adapted to a wide range of imaging modalities. https://bit.ly/4oFuci7 💡 ⚛️

A new device could spare diabetes patients from frequent finger pricks! The prototype glucose monitor employs near-infrared light to measure blood glucose levels, rather than needles. Read the OPN story: https://bit.ly/4aUkfdp #biomedical #imaging 💡 ⚛️ 🧪

Optica (and the Optica #cat) wishes you a pawsitively wonderful holiday season. In this season of reflection, we celebrate our global community of #scientists and #engineers, who are transforming possibilities into solutions: https://bit.ly/48CuXUA

Highlighted in OPN's #OpticsIn2025: A computer-vision approach that synergizes both algorithmic compression and optical hardware acceleration to achieve ultra-low-power computer vision with significantly reduced energy consumption and latency. https://bit.ly/44ki7Yt 💡 ⚛️

New work features photopatterned electrodes that can be directly manufactured on different types of surfaces, including glass, textiles and even skin! "As the method works on many different surfaces, you can also imagine sensors built into garments." Read the story: https://bit.ly/3N56IG1 💡 ⚛️ 🧪

Highlighted in OPN's #OpticsIn2025: Researchers engineered the statistical properties of an incoherent pump beam, showing the spatial coherence of the second-harmonic output can be controlled—enabling custom-shaped coherence functions and structured beams. https://bit.ly/48tyB39 💡 ⚛️

Highlighted in OPN's #OpticsIn2025: A rapid, laser-driven origami technique to fold nanometer-smooth silica structures into complex 3D shapes—such as microresonators and parabolic mirrors—by harnessing surface tension. https://bit.ly/4oF8ivt 💡 ⚛️

The results are in! https://bit.ly/4iY4Bjn Congratulations to the winners of OPN’s 20th annual After Image photo contest! #photography 💡 ⚛️ 🧪