Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 10, 2026

07:24
Hyperspectral Imaging as a Tool to Study Optical Anisotropy in Lanthanide-Based Molecular Single Crystals
Published on: April 14, 2020
Broadening the color palette of optical skyrmions
Mingjian Cheng1, Andrew Forbes2
1School of Physics, Xidian University, Xi'an, China.
Light, Science & Applications
|September 8, 2026
Abstract:
Optical skyrmions have been demonstrated across many wavelengths, but so far only one at a time for a monochrome color palette. Now they are reported as broadband topologies across the entire visible spectrum, heralding white light skyrmions on-chip.
Related Concept Videos
Symmetry Elements in a Crystal
Crystal symmetry operations are isometric transformations that map objects onto indistinguishable copies while preserving distances, angles, and volumes. The simplest symmetry operation is translation, which shifts the entire infinite crystal lattice parallelly by a translation vector.Crystallographic rotations involve rotations by an angle of 2π/n around an axis without changing the positions of points on the axis. It is called the rotational axis of the symmetry, denoted by n. The combination...
Colors and Magnetism
Color in Coordination Complexes
When atoms or molecules absorb light at the proper frequency, their electrons are excited to higher-energy orbitals. For many main group atoms and molecules, the absorbed photons are in the ultraviolet range of the electromagnetic spectrum, which cannot be detected by the human eye. For coordination compounds, the energy difference between the d orbitals often allows photons in the visible range to be absorbed and emitted, which is seen as colors by the human eye.
When atoms or molecules absorb light at the proper frequency, their electrons are excited to higher-energy orbitals. For many main group atoms and molecules, the absorbed photons are in the ultraviolet range of the electromagnetic spectrum, which cannot be detected by the human eye. For coordination compounds, the energy difference between the d orbitals often allows photons in the visible range to be absorbed and emitted, which is seen as colors by the human eye.
