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Category: materials

Diffractive networks enable optical information transfer through random and unknown diffusers

The transmission of optical information through random scattering media is a major challenge in optics, biomedical imaging, telecommunications and remote sensing. When light passes through a turbid or diffusive medium, such as biological tissue or a randomly structured optical material, the original image information can be severely distorted, making reliable recovery difficult.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have introduced interleaved diffractive networks to address this challenge by enabling optical information transfer through random and unknown diffusers. The work is published in the journal Laser & Photonics Reviews.

Russian physicists study laser beam compressed into thin filament

A group of Russian scientists recently presented their research into the process of laser pulse filamentation—the effect produced when a laser beam propagating in air focuses into a filament. The researchers discovered how this process influences the preliminary transition of a beam passing through quartz glass, which has applications in the field of nonlinear optics.

Light propagates in straight lines, and beams of are only reflected or refracted to the side when the properties of the medium it is passing through change. This is the basis of linear optics: it is called ‘linear’ because the division of that occurs when light passes through a medium is linearly dependent on the intensity of the fields in the light wave itself. In other words, the stronger the electric field, the more the different charges are dispersed within the material—the material becomes polarized.

The of a material should not be confused with the . This polarization is characterised by the degree to which the positive and negative charges are dispersed in a substance, and in this way, the presence of specific directions within the electromagnetic wave within which the electric fields vibrate is called polarization.

Blame the model, not the machine—better data helps 3D-printed metamaterials match predictions

Additive manufacturing, such as 3D printing, provides an excellent opportunity to design metamaterials: materials with an engineered structure that leads to desired properties such as, for instance, resistance to vibrations. However, a major challenge was that the predicted metamaterial response often failed to match real-world behavior.

Researchers at the University of Groningen have now shown that the unexpected behavior of 3D-printed metamaterial structures is not due to structural defects, as was commonly believed, but that the material simply needs to be properly characterized to obtain models with high predictive accuracy. The results were published in Materials Horizons on June 3, 2026.

Polymer network reconfigures in sequence, helping elastomers stay tough under strain

Shock-absorbing sneaker soles are likely made of polyurethane, a highly elastic and tough polymer. The ability of these elastomers to absorb impact without breaking is extremely important for practical applications. While multiple strategies exist for enhancing elastomer toughness, each has its limitations. However, achieving synergistic toughening by integrating all three mechanisms within a single material remains challenging.

Now, researchers at the University of Osaka have overcome these limitations by developing a multipath synergistic strategy to toughen elastomers. This discovery is reported in Nature Communications.

Elastomers are polymers that are exceptionally elastic; they can deform strongly under external stress and revert to their original shape when the stress is removed. However, traditional elastomers are not very tough because microscopic cracks can cause the material to tear.

Microstructure-based model predicts sheet metal behavior in seconds for car and battery design

A research team led by Kyung Mun Min and Seonghwan Choi of Materials Processing Research Division (Korea Institute of Materials Science) has developed a new analysis model capable of predicting the anisotropic mechanical behavior of sheet metals within seconds using only microstructural information of metallic materials.

The technology is expected to reduce the time and cost required to design forming processes for metallic materials used in automobiles and batteries by enabling fast, accurate prediction of how sheet metals stretch and deform without complex, repetitive experiments.

The study is published in the International Journal of Plasticity.

Plasma and graphene combine to protect metal surfaces from corrosion

Plasma is an ionized gas, often referred to as the fourth state of matter. Plasmas, which are created artificially by applying energy to a gas, are found in the fluorescent tubes that illuminate kitchens. However, they have many other possible applications, such as the production of graphene.

The Plasma Innovation Laboratory (LIPs) at the University of Córdoba has already made progress in using plasma to produce graphene, the revolutionary material that earned its discoverers the Nobel Prize. Recently, a new technological design boosted graphene production by more than 22%. Continuing along this line of research, the team is now proposing two methods for applying graphene—also highly anticorrosive—to metal surfaces using microwave plasmas at atmospheric pressure, with the aim of not altering the properties of the metals.

The research is published in the journal Surfaces and Interfaces.

Molecular mechanics behind heart cell restructuring revealed

Microtubules, part of heart muscle cells’ internal “skeleton,” help determine how the heart changes shape under stress, and a common signaling pathway called the ERK pathway acts as a key controller of where the building materials for these cells’ growth are delivered inside them, a pair of new studies show. These findings, from a team at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, point to possible new ways to address harmful heart remodeling that can be linked to heart failure.

“The molecular decision behind how a heart cell, and by extension the heart, changes in size and shape has been a mystery, even though we’ve known that heart cells do change in length and width over a person’s life in response to different conditions,” said the studies’ senior author Benjamin Prosser, Ph.D., a professor of Physiology.

“But now that we know what is doing the work and what guides it, that opens the door to targeting these mechanisms and correcting abnormal growth.”

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