Inspired by Metal-Organic Framework based topological insulators, researchers at Tsinghua University proposed valley photonic molecular crystal (VPMC) and investigated the impact of molecular rotation on the valley-topological properties of VPMC. Credit: Tsinghua University/Xue Feng A research team led by Yidong Huang at Tsinghua University, including Xue Feng and Yongzhuo Li, has developed valley photonic molecular crystals (VPMCs) on a silicon platform. Combining theoretica

The system integrates a III-V semiconductor light source, SiN-based interferometers, Si-Ge photodetectors (PDs), and an integrated ball-lens microprobe, thereby combining the distinct advantages of multiple photonic integration platforms. The insets illustrate complementary technologies that can be incorporated to realize a miniaturized, fully integrated OCT system. Abbreviations: ADC, analog-to-digital converter. Inset 1: Foundry-scalable embedded III-V lasers on silicon-on-

From left to right: Three photons with different quantum states enter an interferometer with three beam splitters. At each beam splitter, they can take different paths at the same time in superposition. The researchers then measured how often the three photons ended up together at the same output. Counterintuitively, it is possible to make the photons more similar to each other and at the same make them less likely to “bunch” together. AI-generated illustration, by Leonardo N

Taking a step toward a future, fully-automated lab, MIT scientists have developed a robotic, reconfigurable laser laboratory. Every new generation of phone display, television screen, and solar panel is a result of precision optics experiments, which use lasers and other light sources to measure the optical properties of candidate materials. These experiments can take months to run, requiring scientists to meticulously angle and adjust delicate light sources, mirrors, cameras

As AI becomes embedded in modern life, the hardware powering it is running up against its physical limits. Meanwhile, its energy consumption is straining energy grids and increasing scrutiny over AI's environmental footprint. Engineers are racing to find more energy-efficient approaches to AI hardware, and light-based, or photonic, technologies offer promising alternatives. Using light to perform certain computations could lead to more efficient AI, which would reduce its ene

“We’ve now developed a wafer-scale process that produces wafers that are mechanically flexible and optically transparent, enabling novel applications that weren’t previously possible with silicon photonics,” says Jelena Notaros. Image: Courtesy of the researchers The field of silicon photonics, which uses light rather than electricity to transmit and process data on semiconductor chips, has enabled optical systems to evolve from bulky setups to compact and advanced systems. T

Cover illustration showing a gold nanostar illuminated by laser light. The nanostar amplifies the light emitted by proteins in a cell membrane, making them easier to detect, and influencing the dynamics of the proteins so they respond faster to electrical signals. Illustration by Noemi Rosano. Copyright: 2026 Wiley-VCH GmbH Researchers at Delft University of Technology have demonstrated for the first time that nano-antennas can enhance the fluorescence of proteins in living h

In this study, researchers developed an ultrafast infrared near-field optical microscopy technique that combines nanoscale spatial resolution and an approximately 150-femtosecond temporal resolution with a spectral resolution of about 10 cm⁻¹.

Credit: Caltech Three years after a team of Caltech scientists showed that pairs of entangled photons could double the resolution of a light microscope, the same lab has figured out a way to double down on that improvement. They have now achieved a fourfold resolution boost compared to a classical microscope, using a new optical design that sends one of the entangled photons through the microscope's optics three times rather than just once. The work, led by Lihong Wang, the B

Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China have demonstrated skin mode tunability in photonic Floquet lattices. A potential applied at one boundary isolates a skin mode at the opposite boundary, turning it into a self-healing state that recovers its profile after disturbance. The approach enables control of non-Hermitian wave dynamics for mode routing and optical switching. Published in PhotoniX.

An international team from École polytechnique, Collège de France, and HZDR has experimentally realized an all-optical photonic time crystal. Using HZDR’s TELBE terahertz source, they strongly modulated the optical properties of a plasmonic metamaterial on picosecond timescales. This enables ultrafast control of light in the terahertz range and opens paths toward new lasers and optical technologies. Published in Nature.

Researchers observe how a photoinduced hidden state forms within 30 femtoseconds