Lightsails have hit another speed bump on the road to interstellar travel

A new study suggests laser-driven interstellar lightsails may face a hidden efficiency problem as the very light pushing them ...
Wired

Cool Things You Can Do With a Blue Laser: Reflection vs. Fluorescence

Alternate title: Interactions Between Light and Matter. Warning: Light and matter are both seriously complicated stuff. I am going to try and simplify this whole thing a bit so that everyone can see ...
Optics

NIST exploits laser reflections to enhance 3D metal printing

A project at NIST has developed a new way to monitor and assess 3D printing of metals. Finding and correcting defects inadvertently created inside a 3D printed part is one of the biggest challenges ...
Nanowerk

Nanoporous SiO2 coatings raise ultraviolet laser damage resistance

Researchers made nanoporous SiO2 coatings for ultraviolet laser optics, achieving uniform large area films and higher damage ...