In the early 2010s, LightSquared, a multibillion-dollar startup promising to revolutionize cellular communications, declared bankruptcy. The company couldn’t figure out how to prevent its signals from interfering with those of GPS systems. Now, Penn Engineers have developed a new tool that could prevent such problems from ever happening again: an adjustable filter that can successfully prevent … Read more
Researchers have taken a big step towards making high-fidelity 3D mapping from the air more accessible with the development of a compact and lightweight single-photon lidar system. This innovation paves the way for wider use of the technology in drones, satellites, and other airborne platforms for applications like environmental monitoring, creating precise terrain maps, and … Read more
Spintronics is a field garnering immense attention for its range of potential advantages for conventional electronics. These include reducing power consumption, high-speed operation, non-volatility, and the potential for new functionalities. Spintronics exploits the intrinsic spin of electrons, and fundamental to the field is controlling the flows of the spin degree of freedom, i.e., spin currents. … Read more
New research from U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) researchers delivers a novel contribution to fiber optics computing. Titled “Fiber optic computing using distributed feedback,” the paper published in Communications Physics journal brings the Navy one step closer to faster, more efficient computing technologies. Optical computing uses the properties of light such as its speed and … Read more
Researchers have developed a new way to control and manipulate optical signals by embedding a liquid crystal layer into waveguides created with direct laser writing. The new devices enable electro-optical control of polarization, which could open new possibilities for chip-based devices and complex photonic circuits based on femtosecond-written waveguides. “Laser writing of waveguides and electro-optical … Read more
Scientists have created a reprogrammable light-based processor, a world-first, that they say could usher in a new era of quantum computing and communication. Technologies in these emerging fields that operate at the atomic level are already realizing big benefits for drug discovery and other small-scale applications. In the future, large-scale quantum computers promise to be … Read more