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Several research groups have now succeeded in achieving lasing in free-electron lasers (FELs) driven by compact plasma wakefield accelerators. In the future, the approach may ultimately lead to a new breed of much smaller, more affordable FELs.
Although optical communications continue to be the main driver for integrated photonics, new applications are emerging in computing and neural networks. That was the message from this year’s European Conference on Integrated Optics in Milan.
