The Technion has bought the most advanced scanning electron microscope in Israel, at a cost of 1.3 million dollars. This is a substantial contribution to the learning process at all levels, and that the microscope will serve all researchers in Israel, as well as the high-tech industry, says Dean of the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Prof. Wayne D. Kaplan.
Continue reading Welcome to Israel’s most advanced scanning electron microscope.
Using sunlight and ultrathin films of iron oxide, or rust, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology researchers have found a new way to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The breakthrough, they say, could lead to less expensive, more efficient ways to store solar energy in the form of hydrogen-based fuels.
Using sunlight and ultrathin films of iron oxide, or rust, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology researchers have found a new way to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The breakthrough, they say, could lead to less expensive, more efficient ways to store solar energy in the form of hydrogen-based fuels.
“Without Iron Dome, Israel would be in Gaza…” John McCain.
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| Prof. Erez Hasman, Technion. |
The spin Hall effect – the impact of the intrinsic spin on the particle trajectory, which produces transverse deflection of the particle – is a central tenet in the field of spintronics regarding particles of electrons. Now, its optical equivalent has been observed.
The Magnus effect is seen in a wide range of systems. For example, it describes the sideways force applied to a spinning ball as it travels through the air explains Prof. Erez Hasman, head of the Micro- and Nanooptics Laboratory and an avid tennis player.
Light waves, comprising mass-less particles called photons, also demonstrate spin. Light’s spin is determined by its polarization: whether the wave vibration rotates in one direction or the opposite as it travels. Hasman, together with his PhD student Avi Niv, Dr Vladimir Kleiner – a senior scientist in the lab – and Ukrainian visiting scientist Dr Konstantin Bliokh, were the first to observe the effect of spin on the trajectories of polarized light beams.
The researchers launched a laser beam at a sliding angle to the internal surface of a glass cylinder. Once inside the cylinder the beam traveled in a helical trajectory along the glass-air interface, and was collected and analyzed at the far end using polarization optics and a camera. They observed a transverse spin-dependent deflection of the optical beam. These results have promising applications in nano-optics leading to much faster and more accurate computational data processing.
Physics Prof. Mordechai (Moti) Segev, a world leader in the area of Nonlinear Optics, comments, “Nanophotonics is a field where light is manipulated and controlled on a scale that is smaller than the optical wavelength. Erez Hasman has written a series of important papers in this area, leading to a new branch in optics – spinoptics. His discoveries offer an unprecedented ability to control light and its polarization state in nanometer-scale optical devices, thereby facilitating a variety of applications related to nanophotonics.”
Applied to other areas Hasman says, “There are a number of systems where the spin of a particle couples with its trajectory in high-energy and condensed matter physics. The math is the same in all cases, but experimentally it’s hard to understand what’s going on. Our experimental system offers a new way to get at some of these fundamental questions clearly and precisely.”
What is Photonics?
Photonics is the science of generating, controlling, and detecting photons. Photonics researchers investigate the emission, transmission, amplification, detection, and modulation of light. Applications include laser manufacturing, biological and chemical sensing, medical diagnostics and therapy, display technology, and optical computing.
Spinoptics: The Magnus effect for light, also called the optical spin Hall effect, causes the light to deflect due to the interaction between the intrinsic spin of the photons and the shape of the light’s trajectory.
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| Prof. Erez Hasman, Technion. |
The spin Hall effect – the impact of the intrinsic spin on the particle trajectory, which produces transverse deflection of the particle – is a central tenet in the field of spintronics regarding particles of electrons. Now, its optical equivalent has been observed.
The Magnus effect is seen in a wide range of systems. For example, it describes the sideways force applied to a spinning ball as it travels through the air explains Prof. Erez Hasman, head of the Micro- and Nanooptics Laboratory and an avid tennis player.
Light waves, comprising mass-less particles called photons, also demonstrate spin. Light’s spin is determined by its polarization: whether the wave vibration rotates in one direction or the opposite as it travels. Hasman, together with his PhD student Avi Niv, Dr Vladimir Kleiner – a senior scientist in the lab – and Ukrainian visiting scientist Dr Konstantin Bliokh, were the first to observe the effect of spin on the trajectories of polarized light beams.
The researchers launched a laser beam at a sliding angle to the internal surface of a glass cylinder. Once inside the cylinder the beam traveled in a helical trajectory along the glass-air interface, and was collected and analyzed at the far end using polarization optics and a camera. They observed a transverse spin-dependent deflection of the optical beam. These results have promising applications in nano-optics leading to much faster and more accurate computational data processing.
Physics Prof. Mordechai (Moti) Segev, a world leader in the area of Nonlinear Optics, comments, “Nanophotonics is a field where light is manipulated and controlled on a scale that is smaller than the optical wavelength. Erez Hasman has written a series of important papers in this area, leading to a new branch in optics – spinoptics. His discoveries offer an unprecedented ability to control light and its polarization state in nanometer-scale optical devices, thereby facilitating a variety of applications related to nanophotonics.”
Applied to other areas Hasman says, “There are a number of systems where the spin of a particle couples with its trajectory in high-energy and condensed matter physics. The math is the same in all cases, but experimentally it’s hard to understand what’s going on. Our experimental system offers a new way to get at some of these fundamental questions clearly and precisely.”
What is Photonics?
Photonics is the science of generating, controlling, and detecting photons. Photonics researchers investigate the emission, transmission, amplification, detection, and modulation of light. Applications include laser manufacturing, biological and chemical sensing, medical diagnostics and therapy, display technology, and optical computing.
Spinoptics: The Magnus effect for light, also called the optical spin Hall effect, causes the light to deflect due to the interaction between the intrinsic spin of the photons and the shape of the light’s trajectory.
| Newly Created UNESCO Chair at Technion for Sustainable Engineering Date: 13/06/2012 |
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| Prof. Mark Talesnick of the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering is the incumbent of the newly established UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Engineering in Developing Communities.
The specific objectives of this Chair are to develop undergraduate and graduate teaching programs in engineering for developing communities, in cooperation with partners; carry out research on engineering for developing communities and disseminate results widely; design, test and apply, jointly with partners, ground-level projects to test and further refine the concept of sustainable engineering; and, provide short-term theoretical and practical training, as well as facilitate visiting professorships. Talesnick reports that the University of Colorado and Kathmandu Universities are also involved and that he will be travelling to Ghana, Ethiopia and Batswana soon to enlist their collaboration as well. Talesnick also spearheads Engineers Without Borders – Technion (EWB). Currently, 739 UNESCO Chairs and 70 UNITWIN Networks in 134 countries provide an innovative modality for international academic cooperation. They act as think-tanks and bridge- builders between research and policy-making, and between academia, civil society, local communities and the productive sector. |
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| Distinguished Prof. Mordechai (Moti) Segev, Technion Faculty of Physics. |
Developing a real, working tractor beam has regularly been an exercise in frustration: it often relies on brute force attempts to induce a magnetic link or an air pressure gap, either of which falls a bit short of science fiction-level elegance.
The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology’s Mordechai Segev has a theory that would use the subtler (though not entirely movie-like) concept of negative radiation pressure in light to move objects. By using materials that have a negative refraction index, where the light photons and their overall wave shape move in opposite directions, Segev wants to create a sweet spot where negative radiation pressure exists and an object caught in the middle can be pushed around. His early approach would use extremely thin crystals stacked in layers to manipulate the refraction.
As it’s theorized, the technology won’t be pulling in the Millennium Falcon anytime soon — the millimeters-wide layer intervals dictate the size of what can be pulled. Nonetheless, even the surgery-level tractor beams that Segev hopes will ultimately stem from upcoming tests would bring us much closer to the future that we’ve always wanted.
Read more about Distinguished Prof. Motti Segev at the Technion Book of Faces.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2015