The double-slit experiment is one of the most famous experiments in physics and definitely one of the weirdest. It demonstrates that matter and energy (such as light) can exhibit both wave and ...

Quantum physics is the realm of the strange. And one of the strangest discoveries in the field is also one of the most fundamental: Particles fired at barriers with two slits in them can act like ...

A scattering-invariant mode of light is generated by a spatial light modulator. This modulated beam propagates through free space (top) or a strongly scattering medium (bottom) such that the pattern ...

Researchers at Tampere University and the University of Eastern Finland have reached a milestone in a study where they derived a new kind of wave equation, which applies for accelerating waves. The ...

Does light behave more like a particle, or like a wave? Today we know the surprising answer. Here's why it took so long to get there. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an ...

Researchers in Europe have developed a technique for obtaining accurate laser-based measurements of objects hidden behind complex scattering structures. They say that their mathematical formula, which ...

Materials scientists can learn a lot about a sample material by shooting lasers at it. With nonlinear optical microscopy—a ...

When you shine a flashlight into a glass of water, the beam bends. That simple observation, familiar since ancient times, hides one of the oldest puzzles in physics: what really happens to the ...

Many seemingly mundane materials, such as the stainless steel on refrigerators or the quartz in a countertop, harbor fascinating physics inside them. These materials are crystals, which in physics ...

Whenever light interacts with matter, light appears to slow down. This is not a new observation and standard wave mechanics can describe most of these daily phenomena. For example, when light is ...