Featured
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All-optical frequency division on-chip using a single laser
We demonstrate an all-optical, mode-locking, Kerr-comb frequency division method that provides a chip-scale microwave source that is extremely versatile, accurate, stable and has ultralow noise, using only a single continuous-wave laser.
- Yun Zhao
- , Jae K. Jang
- & Alexander L. Gaeta
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Article
| Open AccessIntegrated optical frequency division for microwave and mmWave generation
A miniaturized optical frequency division system that could transfer the generation of microwaves, with superior spectral purity, to a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor-compatible integrated photonic platform is demonstrated showing potential for large-volume, low-cost manufacturing for many applications.
- Shuman Sun
- , Beichen Wang
- & Xu Yi
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Article
| Open AccessNear-ultraviolet photon-counting dual-comb spectroscopy
We demonstrate a photon-counting approach that extends the unique advantages of spectroscopy with interfering frequency combs into regions where nonlinear frequency conversion tends to be very inefficient, providing a step towards precision broadband spectroscopy at short wavelengths and extreme-ultraviolet dual-comb spectroscopy.
- Bingxin Xu
- , Zaijun Chen
- & Nathalie Picqué
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Article |
Integrated frequency-modulated optical parametric oscillator
An integrated device that combines optical parametric oscillation and electro-optic modulation in lithium niobate creates a flat-top frequency-comb-like output with low power requirements.
- Hubert S. Stokowski
- , Devin J. Dean
- & Amir H. Safavi-Naeini
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Article |
Nozaki–Bekki solitons in semiconductor lasers
Free-running stable optical dissipative solitons, called Nozaki–Bekki solitons, are created in a ring semiconductor laser; their spontaneous formation with tuning of laser bias eliminates the need for an external optical pump.
- Nikola Opačak
- , Dmitry Kazakov
- & Benedikt Schwarz
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Article |
Kerr-induced synchronization of a cavity soliton to an optical reference
The passive and electronics-free Kerr-induced synchronization of optical-frequency combs could be used in their control and stabilization and to simplify optical clock systems.
- Grégory Moille
- , Jordan Stone
- & Kartik Srinivasan
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Article |
Cavity-mediated thermal control of metal-to-insulator transition in 1T-TaS2
Cavity-mediated thermal control of metal-to-insulator transition is achieved by embedding the charge density wave material 1T-TaS2 into cryogenic tunable terahertz cavities.
- Giacomo Jarc
- , Shahla Yasmin Mathengattil
- & Daniele Fausti
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Article |
Frequency–angular resolving LiDAR using chip-scale acousto-optic beam steering
Three-dimensional imaging using a frequency–angular resolving and frequency-modulated continuous-wave LiDAR enabled by a chip-scale acousto-optic beam-steering device has been demonstrated, with the simplicity and low cost of the device making this a promising technology.
- Bingzhao Li
- , Qixuan Lin
- & Mo Li
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Article |
Quantum-limited optical time transfer for future geosynchronous links
Laser-based time transfer with near quantum-limited acquisition and timing is demonstrated that can support femtosecond precision over 102 dB link loss, more than sufficient for future time transfer to geosynchronous orbits for future optical clock networks.
- Emily D. Caldwell
- , Jean-Daniel Deschenes
- & Laura C. Sinclair
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Article
| Open AccessDynamic optical response of solids following 1-fs-scale photoinjection
Petahertz-scale optical-field metrology in a pump-probe setting enables the direct observation of how the optical properties of a medium evolve after 1-fs-scale photoinjection.
- Dmitry A. Zimin
- , Nicholas Karpowicz
- & Vladislav S. Yakovlev
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Article |
Free-space dissemination of time and frequency with 10−19 instability over 113 km
By using 1 W optical frequency combs and nanowatt-level linear optical sampling modules, a time–frequency dissemination over a free-space link of 113 km is achieved with a stability of less than 4 × 10−19 at 10,000 s.
- Qi Shen
- , Jian-Yu Guan
- & Jian-Wei Pan
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Article |
Photonic topological insulator induced by a dislocation in three dimensions
By introducing a further modal dimension to transform a two-dimensional photonic waveguide array, a photonic topological insulator with protected topological surface states in three dimensions, enabled by a screw dislocation, is demonstrated.
- Eran Lustig
- , Lukas J. Maczewsky
- & Mordechai Segev
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Article
| Open AccessSelf-emergence of robust solitons in a microcavity
Slow nonlinearities of a free-running microresonator-filtered fibre laser are shown to transform temporal cavity solitons into the system’s dominant attractor, leading to reliable self-starting oscillation of microcavity-solitons that are naturally robust to perturbations.
- Maxwell Rowley
- , Pierre-Henry Hanzard
- & Alessia Pasquazi
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Article
| Open AccessMicrocomb-driven silicon photonic systems
A simple and power-efficient microcomb source is used to drive complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor silicon photonic engines, a step towards the next generation of fully integrated photonic systems.
- Haowen Shu
- , Lin Chang
- & John E. Bowers
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Article |
Optomechanical dissipative solitons
Stable, dissipative optomechanical solitons are realized using optical fields in a whispering gallery mode resonator by balancing the optomechanical nonlinearities with a tailored modal dispersion.
- Jing Zhang
- , Bo Peng
- & Lan Yang
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Article |
11 TOPS photonic convolutional accelerator for optical neural networks
An optical vector convolutional accelerator operating at more than ten trillion operations per second is used to create an optical convolutional neural network that can successfully recognize handwritten digit images with 88 per cent accuracy.
- Xingyuan Xu
- , Mengxi Tan
- & David J. Moss
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Article |
Parallel convolutional processing using an integrated photonic tensor core
An integrated photonic processor, based on phase-change-material memory arrays and chip-based optical frequency combs, which can operate at speeds of trillions of multiply-accumulate (MAC) operations per second, is demonstrated.
- J. Feldmann
- , N. Youngblood
- & H. Bhaskaran
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Article |
Monolithic piezoelectric control of soliton microcombs
By monolithically integrating piezoelectric actuators on ultralow-loss photonic circuits, soliton microcombs—a spectrum of sharp lines over a range of optical frequencies—can be modulated at high speeds with megahertz bandwidths.
- Junqiu Liu
- , Hao Tian
- & Tobias J. Kippenberg
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Article |
Observation of branched flow of light
Branched flow of light is experimentally observed inside a thin soap membrane, where smooth variations of the membrane thickness transform the light beam into branched filaments of enhanced intensity that keep dividing as the waves propagate.
- Anatoly Patsyk
- , Uri Sivan
- & Miguel A. Bandres
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Article |
Integrated turnkey soliton microcombs
A turnkey regime for soliton microcombs is demonstrated, in which solitons are generated by switching on a co-integrated pump laser, eliminating the need for photonic and electronic control circuitry.
- Boqiang Shen
- , Lin Chang
- & John E. Bowers
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Article |
Frequency combs induced by phase turbulence
Wave destabilization is demonstrated in semiconductor ring lasers operating at low pumping levels, where ultrafast gain recovery leads to the emergence of a frequency comb regime owing to phase turbulence.
- Marco Piccardo
- , Benedikt Schwarz
- & Federico Capasso
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Article |
Massively parallel coherent laser ranging using a soliton microcomb
A massively parallel coherent light detection and ranging (lidar) scheme using a soliton microcomb—a light source that emits a wide spectrum of sharp lines with equally spaced frequencies—is described.
- Johann Riemensberger
- , Anton Lukashchuk
- & Tobias J. Kippenberg
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Letter |
Energy of the 229Th nuclear clock transition
The transition energy of the first excited state of 229Th to the ground state is determined through the measurement of internal conversion electrons to correspond to a wavelength of 149.7 ± 3.1 nanometres.
- Benedict Seiferle
- , Lars von der Wense
- & Peter G. Thirolf
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Letter |
Resonant electro-optic frequency comb
A low-power, fixed microwave signal in combination with an optical-pump signal generates an optical frequency comb that spans the whole wavelength range of the telecommunications C-band, with possible applications ranging from spectroscopy to optical communications.
- Alfredo Rueda
- , Florian Sedlmeir
- & Harald G. L. Schwefel
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Letter |
Random anti-lasing through coherent perfect absorption in a disordered medium
Coherent perfect absorption in a disordered medium is demonstrated experimentally in the microwave regime through the realization of a random anti-laser that absorbs engineered radiation with near-perfect efficiency.
- Kevin Pichler
- , Matthias Kühmayer
- & Stefan Rotter
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Letter |
Battery-operated integrated frequency comb generator
Integrating an optical Kerr frequency comb source with an electronically excited laser pump produces a battery-powered comb generator that does not require external lasers, moveable optics or laboratory set-ups.
- Brian Stern
- , Xingchen Ji
- & Michal Lipson
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Letter |
Absolute timing of the photoelectric effect
The absolute timing of the photoelectric effect has proved difficult to measure, but the delay between photon arrival at a tungsten surface and ejection of photoelectrons has now been determined.
- M. Ossiander
- , J. Riemensberger
- & R. Kienberger
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Letter |
Room-temperature electrical control of exciton flux in a van der Waals heterostructure
Heterobilayer excitonic devices consisting of two different van der Waals materials, in which excitons are shared between the layers, exhibit electrically controlled switching actions at room temperature.
- Dmitrii Unuchek
- , Alberto Ciarrocchi
- & Andras Kis
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Letter |
A photophoretic-trap volumetric display
Photophoretic optical trapping of cellulose particles and persistence of vision are used to produce real-space volumetric images that can be viewed from all angles, in geometries unachievable by holograms and light-field technologies.
- D. E. Smalley
- , E. Nygaard
- & J. Peatross
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Letter |
Printable organometallic perovskite enables large-area, low-dose X-ray imaging
Highly sensitive all-solution-based detectors based on printable polycrystalline organometallic perovskite thick films enable X-ray imaging at low radiation doses and over large areas.
- Yong Churl Kim
- , Kwang Hee Kim
- & Nam-Gyu Park
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Letter |
Enhanced sensitivity at higher-order exceptional points
The response of a ternary, parity–time-symmetric system that exhibits a third-order exceptional point increases as a function of the cube-root of induced perturbations.
- Hossein Hodaei
- , Absar U. Hassan
- & Mercedeh Khajavikhan
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Letter |
Microresonator-based solitons for massively parallel coherent optical communications
Frequency combs produced by solitons in silicon-based optical microresonators are used to transmit data streams of more than 50 terabits per second in telecommunication wavelength bands.
- Pablo Marin-Palomo
- , Juned N. Kemal
- & Christian Koos
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Letter |
Ablation-cooled material removal with ultrafast bursts of pulses
Ablation cooling is demonstrated as an effective means of removing material using successive bursts of laser pulses with short intraburst delay times; the technique allows the overall pulse energy to be decreased, overcoming negative thermal effects during the ablation process.
- Can Kerse
- , Hamit Kalaycıoğlu
- & Fatih Ömer Ilday
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Article |
Direct detection of the 229Th nuclear clock transition
Direct detection of the 229Th nuclear clock transition has been achieved, placing direct constraints on transition energy and half-life; these results are a step towards a nuclear clock, nuclear quantum optics and a nuclear laser.
- Lars von der Wense
- , Benedict Seiferle
- & Peter G. Thirolf
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Letter |
Passive radiative cooling below ambient air temperature under direct sunlight
A multilayer photonic structure is described that strongly reflects incident sunlight while emitting heat selectively through an atmospheric transparency window to outer space; this leads to passive cooling under direct sunlight of 5 degrees Celsius below ambient air temperature, which has potential applications in air-conditioning and energy efficiency.
- Aaswath P. Raman
- , Marc Abou Anoma
- & Shanhui Fan
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Letter |
Mid-infrared frequency comb based on a quantum cascade laser
A broadband, compact, all-electrically driven mid-infrared frequency comb based on a quantum cascade laser widens the scope of application of combs in this frequency range beyond that of sources which depend on a chain of optical components.
- Andreas Hugi
- , Gustavo Villares
- & Jérôme Faist
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News |
Neutrinos not faster than light
ICARUS experiment contradicts controversial claim.
- Geoff Brumfiel
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News & Views |
A comb in the extreme ultraviolet
A 'comb' of photons at evenly spaced frequencies in the extreme ultraviolet has been generated. It will allow a more precise search for variation in the fine-structure constant, which sets the strength of the electromagnetic force. See Letter p.68
- Linda Young
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News |
Soft-drink cans beat the diffraction limit
To focus sound to a point, all you need is a thirst for fizzy drinks.
- Jon Cartwright
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News |
Human cell becomes living laser
Jellyfish protein amplifies light in first biological laser.
- Zoë Corbyn