Sally Johnson

New Hampshire

Science and Technology Journalist at Freelance

Science and tech journalist/physics ghostwriter

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Articles

Can single-mode fiber arrays drive down cost and complexity of copackaged optics?

1 week ago | laserfocusworld.com | Sally Johnson

As the worlds of advanced semiconductor packaging, optics, photonics, and networking converge to accommodate the performance needs of high-performance computing, AI data centers, and quantum computing, it’s becoming essential to combine optical and electrical functions within the same package, a.k.a. copackaged optics. Why turn to copackaged optics with silicon photonics as a solution? It accommodates bandwidth density and energy efficiency challenges.
‘Hot’ Schrödinger cat states can be created

2 weeks ago | laserfocusworld.com | Sally Johnson

A recent collaboration led by University of Innsbruck researchers in Austria revealed that hot (alive) Schrödinger cat states can indeed be created within a superconducting microwave resonator—and it means quantum phenomena can be generated and used within less perfect and warmer conditions than previously believed.
High-precision optics are essential for commercial laser-driven fusion

1 month ago | laserfocusworld.com | Sally Johnson

Beyond laser technology advances, the path to putting commercial laser-driven fusion energy on the grid by the 2040s or 2050s requires high-precision optics that can meet stringent optical, mechanical, and thermal specifications to withstand extreme conditions. Laser-driven fusion technology is currently being fast-tracked to put carbon-free energy on the power grids—and hopefully help save the planet.
Feat of optics: Vera C. Rubin Observatory telescope’s final optical component is in place

1 month ago | laserfocusworld.com | Sally Johnson

A journey of scientific planning, design, engineering, and precision that began back in the 1990s has led to this moment: the NSF-DOE Vera C.
Quantum ‘tornadoes’ experimentally shown within momentum space

1 month ago | laserfocusworld.com | Sally Johnson

A quantum “tornado” is a simplified term for an orbital vortex line, and work led by Maximilian Ünzelmann, a Complexity and Topology in Quantum Matter (ct.qmat) postdoctoral researcher at the Universities of Würzburg and Dresden in Germany, experimentally demonstrated electrons form these vortices within the momentum space of quantum semimetal tantalum arsenide (TaAs). Momentum space describes electron motion in terms of energy and direction—not a precise physical position.
Researchers demo diamond-based Raman vortex beams

1 month ago | laserfocusworld.com | Sally Johnson

Inspired by the rapid evolution and broad applications of vortex beams, an international team of researchers from China, Japan, and Australia set out to address a few challenges of traditional population inversion lasers—namely limitations in wavelength scalability and power scaling. Drawing upon their earlier work with diamond-based lasers, the researchers realized diamond’s exceptional thermo-optical properties could offer a breakthrough solution.
Breathing soliton laser chaos?

2 months ago | laserfocusworld.com | Sally Johnson

New work on breathing soliton lasers by a team of scientists, including Professor Junsong Peng at the East China Normal University in Shanghai, recently led to the discovery of a novel route to chaos. Solitons are localized wave packets that propagate without changes in dispersive/diffraction mediums, thanks to balance between dispersion/diffraction and nonlinearity.
Quantum holograms via metasurfaces?

2 months ago | laserfocusworld.com | Sally Johnson

A new twist on metasurfaces by researchers from the University of Exeter in the U.K. and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology generates quantum holograms in which polarization and holographic information are entangled.
Light is ‘greener’ way to tune quantum dot bandgaps

2 months ago | laserfocusworld.com | Sally Johnson

A more environmentally sustainable technique to tune the optical properties of quantum dots via light recently developed by North Carolina State University researchers also speeds the process and improves their energy efficiency. Quantum dots are among the most impressive breakthroughs in modern materials science, thanks to their extraordinary versatility for optoelectronics applications—from advanced displays and lighting to quantum technologies and renewable energy.
Optically bistable nanocrystals?

Feb 20, 2025 | laserfocusworld.com | Sally Johnson

Nonlinear luminescent nanocrystals are poised to enable faster and more energy-efficient data processing and artificial intelligence (AI) because of their superpower of “switching” from bright to dark states, which looks extremely promising for optical computing.