Tag: lasers

  • Science & Tech

    Mystery of the missing molecules

    When scientists moved from manipulating atoms to messing with molecules, molecules started to disappear from view. Professor Kang-Kuen Ni has figured out why.

    5 minutes
    Professor Kang-Kuen Ni
  • Science & Tech

    Catching lightning in a bottle

    Harvard researchers have performed the coldest reaction in the known universe by capturing a chemical reaction in its most critical and elusive act.

    4 minutes
    Scientist with special equipment.
  • Science & Tech

    Tiny tweezers

    Using precisely focused lasers that act as “optical tweezers,” Harvard scientists have been able to capture and control individual ultracold molecules – the eventual building-blocks of a quantum computer – and study the collisions between them in more detail than ever before.

    5 minutes
    optical tweezers in use
  • Science & Tech

    Seeing things in a different light

    Harvard researchers are using a chemical process known as triplet fusion upconversion to transform near-infrared photons into high-energy photons. The high-energy photons could be used in a huge range of applications, including a new type of precisely targeted chemotherapy, in which low-energy infrared lasers that penetrate deep into the body could be used to transform…

    5 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    Researchers create quantum calculator

    Researchers have developed a special type of quantum computer, known as a quantum simulator, that is programmed by capturing super-cooled rubidium atoms with lasers and arranging them in a specific order, then allowing quantum mechanics to do the necessary calculations.

    6 minutes
  • Health

    Lasering in on tumors

    In the battle against brain cancer, doctors now have a new weapon: an imaging technology that will make brain surgery dramatically more accurate by allowing surgeons to distinguish between brain tissue and tumors, and at a microscopic level.

    4 minutes
  • Health

    Controlling behavior, remotely

    Researchers have been able to take control of tiny, transparent worms by manipulating neurons in their brains, using precisely targeted pulses of laser light.

    4 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    SEAS brings good things to light

    By nestling quantum dots in an insulating egg-crate structure, researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have demonstrated a robust new architecture for quantum-dot light-emitting devices (QD-LEDs).

    4 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    Researchers demonstrate highly directional terahertz laser rays

    A collaborative team of scientists at Harvard and the University of Leeds have demonstrated a new terahertz (THz) semiconductor laser that emits beams with a much smaller divergence than conventional…

    3 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    Scientists demonstrate highly directional semiconductor lasers

    Applied scientists at Harvard collaborating with researchers at Hamamatsu Photonics in Hamamatsu City, Japan, have demonstrated, for the first time, highly directional semiconductor lasers with a much smaller beam divergence…

    3 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    Creating semiconductor lasers

    Lasers are often considered to be highly directional light sources: their beams are able to propagate over long distances without substantial spreading. This, however, is not always the case. Semiconductor…

    2 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    Laser precision added to search for new Earths

    Harvard scientists have unveiled a new laser-measuring device that they say will provide a critical advance in the resolution of current planet-finding techniques, making the discovery of Earth-sized planets possible.…

    5 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    Compact, wavelength-on-demand Quantum Cascade Laser chip created

    Engineers at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have demonstrated a highly versatile, compact and portable Quantum Cascade Laser sensor for the fast detection of a large number of…

    3 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Body art for the faint of heart

    Ever wish you could get rid of that tattoo of barbed wire around your wrist, or the forearm-length dragon you once thought of as so stylish or macho? It’s not…

    1 minute
  • Campus & Community

    Harvard scientists develop ‘plug and play’ laser

    Engineers and applied physicists have demonstrated the feasibility of a new type of plug-in laser that could lay the groundwork for wide-ranging security applications. Their Raman injection laser, described in…

    2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Lasers produce slow, cold antiatoms

    A new way to make colder atoms of antimatter has been found. It could help bring scientists closer to understanding why we, and everything else, are made out of matter instead of antimatter.

    2 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    New use found for black silicon

    In 1999, Harvard researchers used laser pulses to etch the surface of silicon, the most common substance used in electronic devices. By accident, they created a material that efficiently traps…

    1 minute
  • Health

    New treatment effective against psoriasis

    Psoriasis is a skin disease that disfigures people’s bodies with scaly red plaques. Thirteen patients had portions of their psoriasis patches irradiated with intense beams of ultraviolet laser light at…

    1 minute
  • Science & Tech

    Black silicon: A new way to trap light

    Eric Mazur, Harvard College Professor and Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics, and his students were studying what kinds of new chemistry can occur when lasers shine on metals, like…

    1 minute