Physical world and mathematics

Microspectrophotometry

Microspectrophotometry (MSP) is an analytical technique coupling an optical microscope to a spectrophotometer to measure spectra of micron-scale samples, used in forensics, biology, and gemology.

Microspectroscopy, also called photoelectron microspectroscopy or photoemission spectromicroscopy, is a family of surface-analysis methods that maps chemical state and electronic structure with nanometer spatial resolution.

Microstructure

Microstructure is the structure of a material as seen under a microscope at magnifications above about 25 times, covering grains, grain boundaries, phases, defects, and pores.

Microstructured optical fiber

Microstructured optical fiber, also known as microstructured fiber or photonic crystal fiber, is an optical fiber with tiny air holes in its cladding, first demonstrated in 1996.

Microswimmer

A microswimmer is a microscopic object, biological or artificial, that propels itself through fluid at scales of a few to tens of micrometers, where viscosity dominates over inertia.

Microtearing mode

The microtearing mode is a short-wavelength electromagnetic plasma instability of tokamak discharges, first described in 1980, which enhances electron heat transport and dominates in spherical tokamaks.

Microtomography

Microtomography, or micro-CT, is a non-destructive X-ray imaging technique that reconstructs three-dimensional maps of small objects' internal structure, with typical resolution of 1 to 100 micrometers.

Microtubule-kinesin active liquid crystals

Microtubule-kinesin active liquid crystals are synthetic active-matter systems where kinesin motor clusters, fueled by ATP, slide bundled microtubules past each other, creating self-stirred nematic fluids with active turbulence and topological defects.

Microwave

A microwave is an electromagnetic wave in the radio spectrum between roughly 300 MHz and 300 GHz, used in ovens, radar, satellite communication, and superconducting quantum computers.

Microwave activation (chemistry)

Microwave activation in chemistry, also called microwave-assisted organic synthesis (MAOS), heats reaction mixtures directly by dielectric heating, giving rapid heating, shorter reaction times, and often higher yields.

Microwave and wave diagnostics of plasmas

Microwave and wave diagnostics of plasmas are techniques that probe plasmas with millimeter or centimeter-wave radiation, using interferometry, reflectometry, and radiometry to measure electron density, temperature, and magnetic-field profiles.

Microwave auditory effect

The microwave auditory effect, or Frey effect, is the perception of clicks or buzzes in the head from pulsed microwave energy, first studied by Allan Frey in the early 1960s.

Microwave digestion

Microwave digestion, or microwave-assisted digestion, is an analytical chemistry sample-preparation method that uses microwave heating with concentrated acids in sealed vessels to dissolve samples quickly before elemental analysis by ICP-MS.

Microwave optomechanics

Microwave optomechanics studies systems in which a mechanical resonator couples to a superconducting microwave circuit, the microwave-frequency counterpart of cavity optomechanics, also called quantum electromechanics.

Microwave photon detection

Microwave photon detection is the measurement of individual photons in the microwave range, roughly 300 MHz to 300 GHz, requiring cryogenic superconducting circuits for qubit readout, axion searches, and quantum communication.

Oct 15, 2026

Microwave plasma

A microwave plasma is an electrodeless electrical discharge sustained by microwave power, most often at 2.45 GHz, and used for semiconductor etching, diamond synthesis, and ion sources for spacecraft propulsion.

Microwave quantum logic gates for trapped ions

A 2011 experimental physics paper by Dietrich Leibfried and David Wineland's NIST team, published in Nature, driving trapped-ion quantum logic gates with microwaves instead of lasers.

Microwave radiometry

Microwave radiometry is the passive measurement of thermal microwave emission from the atmosphere, ocean, or land, retrieving temperature and moisture in all weather, day or night.

Microwave spectroscopy

Microwave spectroscopy is an analytical method measuring microwave absorption by gas-phase molecules to determine rotational transitions, from which bond lengths, conformers, and dipole moments follow.

Microwave-assisted cathode synthesis

Microwave-assisted cathode synthesis is a family of battery-manufacturing methods that uses microwave energy, as dielectric heating or plasma, to produce lithium-ion and sodium-ion cathode powders far faster than conventional calcination.

Microwave-assisted extraction

Microwave-assisted extraction (MAE), or microwave extraction, is a sample-preparation technique that uses microwave energy to heat solvent or sample directly, replacing hours of Soxhlet extraction with minutes at lower solvent use.

Microwave-assisted hydrothermal method

The microwave-assisted hydrothermal method heats aqueous precursor solutions with microwaves inside sealed vessels, crystallizing nanostructured oxides, ferrites, and zeolites far faster than conventional hydrothermal synthesis.

Microwave-assisted hydrothermal synthesis

Microwave-assisted hydrothermal synthesis, also called microwave hydrothermal synthesis, prepares inorganic and nanostructured materials by heating aqueous precursors in a sealed vessel with microwaves, cutting reaction times from hours to minutes.

Microwave-assisted synthesis

Microwave-assisted synthesis, also known as microwave synthesis, is a chemistry method using microwave dielectric heating to drive reactions, cutting times from hours to minutes since its 1986 founding.

Microwave-to-optical conversion

Microwave-to-optical conversion, in its quantum form called microwave-to-optical quantum transduction, is the coherent conversion of photons between microwave and optical frequencies while preserving their quantum state.

Microwave-to-optical transduction

Microwave-to-optical transduction, also called quantum frequency conversion, coherently converts quantum states between microwave and optical photons, linking devices like superconducting quantum processors and quantum memories.

Mid-circuit measurement and classical control

Mid-circuit measurement is the operation of measuring qubits while a quantum circuit is still running, producing a classical outcome used to condition later operations, enabling qubit reset and reuse.

Mid-infrared frequency comb

A mid-infrared frequency comb is a laser emitting evenly spaced, phase-coherent lines across the 2.5–12 μm molecular fingerprint region, used mainly for high-resolution trace gas spectroscopy.

Mid-infrared frequency comb spectroscopy

Mid-infrared frequency comb spectroscopy uses frequency-comb lasers, whose spectra consist of equally spaced lines, to measure molecular absorption in the mid-infrared fingerprint region of 2.5 to 25 µm.