This issue - pv

doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.158

Full Text - This issue | PDF (270 KB) - This issue

A broader spectrum - p513

doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.159

Photonics does not just mean optics performed at the chip-scale or below, at least not by the definition we use at Nature Photonics. Our September issue showcases research from some large-scale facilities, demonstrating the broad range of topics that the journal considers.

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Lasers for engine ignition - pp515 - 517

Duncan Graham-Rowe & Rachel Won

doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.161

The pollutant emissions and high-energy consumption of combustion engines using conventional spark plugs have long been serious environmental problems. Now, it has been demonstrated that lasers can provide a feasible green alternative. Duncan Graham-Rowe reports.

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A room-temperature mid-infrared detector, reduced-divergence beams, holographic quantum computing, optically cooling molecules, and more - pp518 - 519

doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.160

Full Text - A room-temperature mid-infrared detector, reduced-divergence beams, holographic quantum computing, optically cooling molecules, and more | PDF (376 KB) - A room-temperature mid-infrared detector, reduced-divergence beams, holographic quantum computing, optically cooling molecules, and more

Ultraviolet laser diodes: Indium-free success - pp521 - 522

Ulrich Schwarz

doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.163

Researchers at Hamamatsu report an indium-free laser diode operating at 342 nm, the shortest wavelength so far for an electrically pumped semiconductor laser diode.

Full Text - Ultraviolet laser diodesIndium-free success | PDF (403 KB) - Ultraviolet laser diodesIndium-free success

Free-electron lasers: A down-sized design - pp522 - 524

Brian McNeil

doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.164

Necessity is the mother of invention. Lasing in the extreme UV from a prototype compact free-electron-laser design is reported, continuing the push towards X-ray wavelengths.

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Plasmonics: A sharper approach - pp524 - 525

Claire Gmachl

doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.165

Laser beams have an intrinsic spread. Normally this spread is overcome using lenses or curved mirrors to focus the light, but this typically involves meticulous optical alignment. Researchers have now shown that a surface-plasmon technique can reduce the beam spread.

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Nanostructures: Aperiodic arrays - p525

Oliver Graydon

doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.162

Full Text - NanostructuresAperiodic arrays | PDF (441 KB) - NanostructuresAperiodic arrays

Laser wakefields: Bringing accelerators down to size - pp526 - 527

Toshiki Tajima

doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.167

Laser-based accelerator technology has been given a boost thanks to researchers based in Korea, Japan and the USA. Their latest research could lead the way towards compact accelerators that can deliver brilliant electron and X-ray beams.

Full Text - Laser wakefieldsBringing accelerators down to size | PDF (881 KB) - Laser wakefieldsBringing accelerators down to size

View from...ICO-21/OECC/ACOFT 2008: Bright white light on demand - pp527 - 528

Rachel Won

doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.169

Supercontinua — bright broadband light pulses — are helping a plethora of applications in imaging, sensing and defence. Nature Photonics reports from Sydney, Australia.

Full Text - View from...ICO-21/OECC/ACOFT 2008Bright white light on demand | PDF (651 KB) - View from...ICO-21/OECC/ACOFT 2008Bright white light on demand

X-ray holography: The hole story - pp529 - 530

Stefan Eisebitt

doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.182

Introducing coded apertures to X-ray laser holography paves a route to efficient imaging at the nanoscale.

Full Text - X-ray holographyThe hole story | PDF (434 KB) - X-ray holographyThe hole story

A 342-nm ultraviolet AlGaN multiple-quantum-well laser diode - pp551 - 554

Harumasa Yoshida, Yoji Yamashita, Masakazu Kuwabara & Hirofumi Kan

doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.135

Short-wavelength UV laser diodes are required for applications ranging from sensing, data storage and materials processing. Here, an electrically driven semiconductor laser that operates at 342.3 nm, the shortest wavelength so far, is reported. The device emits milliwatt-scale powers at room temperature when driven by pulsed current.

Abstract - | Full Text - A 342-nm ultraviolet AlGaN multiple-quantum-well laser diode | PDF (256 KB) - A 342-nm ultraviolet AlGaN multiple-quantum-well laser diode

Subject Category: Lasers, LEDs and light sources

See also: News and Views by Schwarz

A compact free-electron laser for generating coherent radiation in the extreme ultraviolet region - pp555 - 559

Tsumoru Shintake, Hitoshi Tanaka, Toru Hara, Takashi Tanaka, Kazuaki Togawa, Makina Yabashi, Yuji Otake, Yoshihiro Asano, Teruhiko Bizen, Toru Fukui, Shunji Goto, Atsushi Higashiya, Toko Hirono, Naoyasu Hosoda, Takahiro Inagaki, Shinobu Inoue, Miho Ishii, Yujong Kim, Hiroaki Kimura, Masanobu Kitamura, Toshiaki Kobayashi, Hirokazu Maesaka, Takemasa Masuda, Sakuo Matsui, Tomohiro Matsushita, Xavier Maréchal, Mitsuru Nagasono, Haruhiko Ohashi, Toru Ohata, Takashi Ohshima, Kazuyuki Onoe, Katsutoshi Shirasawa, Tetsuya Takagi, Sunao Takahashi, Masao Takeuchi, Kenji Tamasaku, Ryotaro Tanaka, Yoshihito Tanaka, Takanori Tanikawa, Tadashi Togashi, Shukui Wu, Akihiro Yamashita, Kenichi Yanagida, Chao Zhang, Hideo Kitamura & Tetsuya Ishikawa

doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.134

Free-electron lasers can produce powerful pulses of radiation at very short wavelengths, even in the hard-X-ray region. In general, however, they comprise facilities several kilometres in length. A 55-m-long laser could open up the technology to a broader range of researchers.

Abstract - | Full Text - A compact free-electron laser for generating coherent radiation in the extreme ultraviolet region | PDF (309 KB) - A compact free-electron laser for generating coherent radiation in the extreme ultraviolet region | Supplementary information

Subject Category: Lasers, LEDs and light sources

See also: News and Views by McNeil

Massively parallel X-ray holography - pp560 - 563

Stefano Marchesini, Sébastien Boutet, Anne E. Sakdinawat, Michael J. Bogan, Saa Bajt, Anton Barty, Henry N. Chapman, Matthias Frank, Stefan P. Hau-Riege, Abraham Szöke, Congwu Cui, David A. Shapiro, Malcolm R. Howells, John C. H. Spence, Joshua W. Shaevitz, Joanna Y. Lee, Janos Hajdu & Marvin M. Seibert

doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.154

X-ray Fourier transform holography using free-electron lasers has the potential to enable nanoscale imaging on the timescale of atomic motion. A technique that dramatically increases the efficiency of this technique could move us a step towards such imaging.

Abstract - | Full Text - Massively parallel X-ray holography | PDF (526 KB) - Massively parallel X-ray holography

Subject Category: Imaging and sensing

See also: News and Views by Eisebitt

Small-divergence semiconductor lasers by plasmonic collimation - pp564 - 570

Nanfang Yu, Jonathan Fan, Qi Jie Wang, Christian Pflügl, Laurent Diehl, Tadataka Edamura, Masamichi Yamanishi, Hirofumi Kan & Federico Capasso

doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.152

Nanfang Yu and colleagues show that plasmonics can be used to reduce the spread of laser beams. They demonstrate their technique using a quantum cascade laser, and show that by defining a metallic subwavelength slit and grating onto the facet of the laser, a beam divergence of 2.4 degrees can be achieved. The technique can potentially be used to collimate the beams from a variety of different lasers.

Abstract - | Full Text - Small-divergence semiconductor lasers by plasmonic collimation | PDF (559 KB) - Small-divergence semiconductor lasers by plasmonic collimation | Supplementary information

Subject Categories: Lasers, LEDs and light sources | Plasmonics

See also: News and Views by Gmachl

Stable generation of GeV-class electron beams from self-guided laser–plasma channels - pp571 - 577

Nasr A. M. Hafz, Tae Moon Jeong, Il Woo Choi, Seong Ku Lee, Ki Hong Pae, Victor V. Kulagin, Jae Hee Sung, Tae Jun Yu, Kyung-Han Hong, Tomonao Hosokai, John R. Cary, Do-Kyeong Ko & Jongmin Lee

doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.155

Table-top laser-driven plasma accelerators have the potential advantages of being ultracompact and powerful. Electron beams can be created by irradiating gas jets with intense laser light, however, until now it has proved difficult to achieve stable, high-energy beams. Jongmin Lee and colleagues report the first generation of stable gigaelectronvolt-class electron beams using a laser-based accelerator, and make an important step along the road to future particle accelerators.

Abstract - | Full Text - Stable generation of GeV-class electron beams from self-guided laser–plasma channels | PDF (871 KB) - Stable generation of GeV-class electron beams from self-guided laser–plasma channels | Supplementary information

Subject Category: Lasers, LEDs and light sources

See also: News and Views by Tajima

Ultrafast single-shot diffraction imaging of nanoscale dynamics - p578

Anton Barty, Sébastien Boutet, Michael J. Bogan, Stefan Hau-Riege, Stefano Marchesini, Klaus Sokolowski-Tinten, Nikola Stojanovic, Ra'anan Tobey, Henri Ehrke, Andrea Cavalleri, Stefan Düsterer, Matthias Frank, Saa Bajt, Bruce W. Woods, M. Marvin Seibert, Janos Hajdu, Rolf Treusch & Henry N. Chapman

doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.170

Full Text - Ultrafast single-shot diffraction imaging of nanoscale dynamics | PDF (95 KB) - Ultrafast single-shot diffraction imaging of nanoscale dynamics

A round-up of recent papers in the field of photonics published by the physical sciences division of the Nature Publishing Group - p579

Full Text - A round-up of recent papers in the field of photonics published by the physical sciences division of the Nature Publishing Group | PDF (283 KB) - A round-up of recent papers in the field of photonics published by the physical sciences division of the Nature Publishing Group

Accelerators moving on - p580

Interview with Nasr Hafz

doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.179

Particle accelerators are one of the most remarkable pieces of apparatus to come out of twentieth century science. Nature Photonics spoke to Nasr Hafz who, with the help of colleagues, is working towards more compact and thus more affordable accelerators based on lasers.

Full Text - Accelerators moving on | PDF (224 KB) - Accelerators moving on