optics

6 Results

Advanced materials in a snap

January 5, 2021 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — If everything moved 40,000 times faster, you could eat a fresh tomato three minutes after planting a seed. You could fly from New York to L.A. in half a second. And you’d have waited in line at airport security for that flight for 30 milliseconds. Thanks to...

Categories: Computing, Materials Science, Science / Technology / Engineering

Topics: machine learning, materials science, optics

Mirage software automates design of optical metamaterials

March 27, 2019 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New software lets users design science-fiction-like materials with the same efficiency that architects draft building plans. Sandia National Laboratories has created the first inverse-design software for optical metamaterials — meaning users start by describing the result they want, and the software fills in the steps to get...

Categories: Computing, Materials Science, Science / Technology / Engineering

Topics: automation, metamaterials, optics, software

Sandia light mixer generates 11 colors simultaneously

June 28, 2018 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A multicolor laser pointer you can use to change the color of the laser with a button click — similar to a multicolor ballpoint pen — is one step closer to reality thanks to a new tiny synthetic material made at Sandia National Laboratories. A flashy laser...

Categories: Materials Science, Nanotechnology, Science / Technology / Engineering

Topics: Center for Integrated Nanotechnology, gallium arsenide, MESA, metamaterials, National Security Photonic Center, optics, Photonics

Polina Vabishchevich and Igal Brener in a dark room with blue, green, and red laser light reflecting off of a table full of optical mirrors.

Nanotechnology experts at Sandia create first terahertz-speed polarization optical switch

September 14, 2017 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A Sandia National Laboratories-led team has for the first time used optics rather than electronics to switch a nanometer-thick thin film device from completely dark to completely transparent, or light, at a speed of trillionths of a second.The team led …

Categories: Materials Science, Nanotechnology, Science / Technology / Engineering

Topics: all-optical switching technology, nanophotonics, optics, Photonics, plasmonic, polarization switch

Lighting up the study of low-density materials

July 17, 2017 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It’s hard to get an X-ray image of low-density material like tissue between bones because X-rays just pass right through like sunlight through a window. But what if you need to see the area that isn’t bone?Sandia National Laboratories studies myriad…

Categories: Materials Science, Science / Technology / Engineering

Topics: Condensed Matter, optics, Photonics, physics, X-ray

New fog chamber provides testing options that could improve security cameras

June 17, 2015 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Fog can play a key role in cloaking military invasions and retreats and the actions of intruders. That’s why physical security experts seek to overcome fog, but it’s difficult to field test security cameras, sensors or other equipment in fog that is often either too thick or...

Categories: Homeland security, Military / Defense, Science / Technology / Engineering

Topics: AFRL, Air Force Research Laboratory, atmospheric, fog, fog chamber, optical, optics, physical security, security cameras