Volume 10 Issue 6, June 2016

An Austrian start-up describes how its membrane-free optical microphone technology is being put to good use in ultrasonic non-destructive testing and process control.

The sustainability of many existing desalination technologies is questionable. Plasmon-mediated solar desalination has now been demonstrated for the first time, using an aluminium structure that absorbs photons spanning the 200 nm to 2,500 nm wavelength range, and is both cheap and 'clean'.

By making use of the spin angular momentum of light, rotational frequency shifts of harmonic waves generated by spinning nonlinear media have been observed.

The demonstration of a prototype avalanche photodiode with a staircase band profile suggests that such devices may ultimately become a viable alternative to photomultiplier tubes in the infrared.

Mechanical oscillation in a microtoroidal optical cavity transfers chaos from a pump to a probe laser beam with a different wavelength. Through stochastic resonance, the combination of noise and internal chaotic dynamics leads to amplification of optomechanically induced light self-oscillations.

At the 63rd Spring Meeting of the Japan Society of Applied Physics, scientists described how femtosecond laser pulses can be used to perform tasks such as quantum beat spectroscopy, control of magnetization, cell sorting and crystal growth.

This Review covers the state-of-the-art technologies on photonics-based terahertz communications, which are compared with competing technologies based on electronics and free-space optical communications. Future prospects and challenges are also discussed.

An efficient light–matter interface for quantum repeaters is developed. By placing Rb atoms optically confined in a 3D lattice in a ring cavity, an initial retrieval efficiency of 76% together with a 1/e lifetime of 0.22 s are achieved.

A silicon nitride ring resonator with implanted ytterbium ions offers a means for greatly enhanced ion–light interactions in an integrated optics platform.

Patterned chiral liquid crystals operate as configurable optical elements.

Self-assembling aluminium nanoparticles are used to make a plasmon-enhanced device for desalination.

Researchers demonstrate chaos transfer between two optical fields in an optomechanical system.

Ultralow-noise frequency conversion within the 980-nm band and between the 980-nm and 1,550-nm bands occurs through Bragg scattering in Si₃N₄ microring resonators. The maximum conversion efficiencies are 25% and 60%, respectively.

More than 10,000 time-division-multiplexed degenerate parametric oscillators are generated using phase-sensitive amplification in a nonlinear optical fibre. They can be used to simulate a coherent Ising machine that could solve difficult computing problems.

Carbon nanotubes in a nanocavity offer a route to narrow-linewidth on-chip light emitters.