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Volume 4 Issue 4, April 2010

Low light levels and decreasing detector pixel sizes mean that the quantum nature of light can manifest itself in imaging techniques. Italian researchers have now demonstrated that quantum correlations of light can be used to obtain higher signal-to-noise ratios than those possible through classical imaging methods.

Cover design by Tom Wilson.

Letter by G. Brida et al.

Editorial

  • The use of diamond, graphene and carbon nanotubes is becoming increasingly common in photonic applications, and several recent notable achievements suggest that carbon has a bright future in photonics.

    Editorial

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Research Highlights

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News & Views

  • By utilizing the spatial quantum correlations of light, Italian researchers have now performed imaging at significantly higher signal-to-noise ratios than those possible through classical techniques.

    • Stefanie Barz
    • Philip Walther
    News & Views
  • The emission of visible light from a dye encapsulated within a carbon nanotube gives great hope and new opportunities for the design of nanoscale optoelectronic devices.

    • Kazuhiro Yanagi
    • Hiromichi Kataura
    News & Views
  • The demonstration of a solid-state yellow laser based on diamond could bring new levels of convenience and capability for biomedical applications.

    • Andrew D. Greentree
    • Steven Prawer
    News & Views
  • The demonstration of a 'mirrorless' ultralong Raman fibre laser that provides stable, spatially incoherent continuous-wave lasing may prove to be an important new light source for applications in nonlinear optics, sensing and telecommunications.

    • Andrei A. Fotiadi
    News & Views
  • The demonstration of coherent storage and retrieval of subnanosecond light pulses in an atomic vapour opens the door to optical quantum memories with gigahertz bandwidths.

    • Hugues de Riedmatten
    News & Views
  • Optical parametric chirped pulse amplification is a promising approach for amplifying few-cycle laser pulses to unprecedented powers. However, the future success of the scheme depends on the availability of suitable pump sources.

    • Rachel Won
    News & Views
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Review Article

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Letter

  • Quantum memories for storing and releasing photons are required for quantum computers and quantum communications. So far, their operational bandwidths have limited data-rates to megahertz. Researchers now demonstrate coherent storage and retrieval of subnanosecond low-intensity light pulses with spectral bandwidths exceeding 1 GHz.

    • K. F. Reim
    • J. Nunn
    • I. A. Walmsley
    Letter
  • Sub-shot-noise imaging using spatial quantum correlations between parametric down-conversion light beams is demonstrated. The scheme exhibits a larger signal-to-noise ratio than is possible through classical imaging methods.

    • G. Brida
    • M. Genovese
    • I. Ruo Berchera
    Letter
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Article

  • The combination of distributed Rayleigh back-scatter and Raman gain in an optical fibre yields an open cavity, mirror-less fibre laser that offers stable operation at the telecommunications wavelength of 1.5 µm.

    • Sergei K. Turitsyn
    • Sergey A. Babin
    • Evgenii V. Podivilov
    Article
  • Nanocavity optomechanical systems can exhibit strong dynamical back-action between mechanical motion and the cavity light field. Here, optical control of mechanical motion within two different nanocavity structures is demonstrated. A form of optically controlled mechanical transparency is also demonstrated, which is analogous to electromagnetically induced transparency.

    • Qiang Lin
    • Jessie Rosenberg
    • Oskar Painter
    Article
  • Tailoring of arbitrary single-mode states of travelling light up to the two-photon level is proposed and demonstrated. The desired state is remotely prepared in the signal channel of spontaneous parametric down-conversion by means of conditional measurements on the idler channel.

    • Erwan Bimbard
    • Nitin Jain
    • A. I. Lvovsky
    Article
  • A measurement scheme that is capable of recording the amplitude and phase of arbitrary shaped optical waveforms with a bandwidth of up to 160 GHz is presented. The approach is compatible with integration on a silicon photonic chip and could aid the study of transient ultrafast phenomena.

    • Nicolas K. Fontaine
    • Ryan P. Scott
    • S. J. B. Yoo
    Article
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Product Focus

  • The design of complex and high-performance optical assemblies is greatly simplified by the availability of a wide range of sophisticated software packages, reports The Scott Partnership.

    Product Focus
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Interview

  • Accurate characterization of ultrafast optical pulses is important for applications such as spectroscopy and communications research. S. J. Ben Yoo from the University of California at Davis explains his team's scheme for real-time measurement of the amplitude and phase of arbitrary and non-repetitive waveforms.

    • Rachel Won
    Interview
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