A team of researchers from the University of St Andrews has achieved a breakthrough in the measurement of lasers which could revolutionize the future of fiber-optic communications. The new research, published in Optics Letters, reveals the team of scientists has developed a low-cost and highly-sensitive device capable of measuring the wavelength of light with unprecedented…
Immune Cells Light Up from Tiny Lasers
A team of researchers from the School of Physics at the University of St Andrews has developed tiny lasers that could revolutionize our understanding and treatment of many diseases, including cancer. The research, published in Nature Communications, involved developing miniscule lasers, with a diameter of less than a thousandth of a millimeter, and inserting them…
Eye Lasers are on the Horizon
Superman’s ability to shoot laser beams from his eyes has come a step closer to reality, with discoveries made by a research team at the University of St Andrews. Lasers on the eye — ocular lasers — may now be possible with the development of an ultra-thin membrane laser using organic semiconductors. They could be…
Exciting Research Heralds the Future of Electronics
Research led by the Universities of St Andrews and Tokyo reveals a new understanding on how to create topological electronic states in solids which could fuel the development of improved materials for fast and energy-efficient electronic devices. The findings could lead to new types of computer chips that could be much more powerful than those…
Carbon Nanotubes Turn Electrical Current Into Light-Matter Quasi-Particles
Material scientists and physicists from Heidelberg University (Germany) and the University of St Andrews (Scotland) have demonstrated electrical generation of hybrid light-matter particles, so-called exciton-polaritons, by using field-effect transistors with semiconducting carbon nanotubes integrated in optical micro-cavities. The extraordinary stability of these transistors enabled electrical pumping at unprecedented rates, which paves the way for electrically…
Nanostructures Advance Large-scale Clean Energy Storage
University of St Andrews researchers have made an important step forward in the quest to store electricity from intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar. Energy conversion technology holds the key to storing energy on large scales — making wind and solar more economical and reliable — and solid oxide cells (SOCs), which operate…