If you shine a beam of light from a laser or flashlight, the beam will spread out over distance, becoming wider and less intense far from the source. That phenomenon is called diffraction, and it is ...

Understanding how helical, curved beams operate — how their spiral cuts accommodate angular and parallel misalignment, axial motion, and system vibrations — is the key to knowing how they will perform ...

Scientists have created the first neutron 'Airy beam,' which has unusual capabilities that ordinary neutron beams do not. The achievement could enhance neutron-based techniques for investigating the ...

Lasers may have thousands of applications in every section of modern society, but all laser beams are fundamentally similar – single-coloured and straight. Now, US physicists have helped to break that ...

Physicists have demonstrated accelerating light beams on flat surfaces, where acceleration has caused the beams to follow curved trajectories. However, a new experiment has pushed the boundaries of ...

Airy beam: When an ordinary beam of neutrons strikes the team’s silicon grating, the millions of scored lines on the grating convert the neutrons into an Airy beam with a wavefront that travels along ...