Nature Photonics - CURRENT ISSUE : May 2008 - Vol 2 No 5
- Omnidirectional absorption
- Metamaterials: Terahertz tuning
- Imaging: Inside plasmas
- Microscopy: Exploiting polarization
LATEST HIGHLIGHTS
TECHNOLOGY FOCUS
Renewable energy is high on the political agenda at the moment. One bright hope for the future is solar power, but first the production costs must be reduced to make it competitive with the traditional alternatives of coal and oil.
ADVANCE ONLINE PUBLICATION
Plasmonics
Letter by Eurenius et al.
One–and two–dimensional grating patterns are formed in a disordered metal-nanoparticle layer by a single light pulse. The phenomenon is attributed to interference effects between the incident light and waveguided modes. Such self-patterning behaviour could be useful for the fabrication of complex nanostructures.
ADVANCE ONLINE PUBLICATION
Optical tweezers
Article by Grigorenko et al.
Optical tweezers use focused laser beams to move microscopic objects with high precision. Gold nanodots arrayed on a substrate can decrease the trapping volume to below the diffraction limit and dramatically increase the efficiency of three–dimensional trapping, lowering the required laser power.
Current Issue
Plasmonics
Letter by Teperik et al.
Light absorbers are not 100% efficient – it is a challenge to absorb light completely at all angles of incidence. Metal surfaces covered in nanostructures offer omnidirectional absorption that can be tuned across visible and near-infrared wavelengths. Solar cell technology could benefit.
Conference
A report on the Nature Photonics conference, which took place at the end of October in Tokyo. All the presentations that were given at the event are now available.
More images in our online gallery.
ONE YEAR ON
January 2008 marks the first anniversary of the launch of Nature Photonics. A selection of articles representing the range of topics featured in 2007 is available free for a limited time.