Volume 9 Issue 1, January 2015

The nineteenth-century Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell made groundbreaking contributions to many areas of science including thermodynamics and colour vision. However, he is best known for his equations that unified electricity, magnetism and light.

Nature Photonics spoke to Allen Taflove, father of the finite-difference time-domain technique, about the birth of Maxwell's equations and their impact on the world after 150 years.

Non-invasive, multispectral characterization of integrated photonic circuits paves the way towards optical methodologies ready for industrial applications.

The demonstration of real-time and non-destructive Doppler-assisted tomography of the internal structure of photonic-crystal fibres could aid the fabrication of high-quality fibres with enhanced performance.

Fluctuations in light transmitted through a plasmonic nanohole-structure provide a way of mapping Raman transitions in nanoscale objects, including single proteins.

Long-distance secure quantum communication has long been one of the goals of quantum optics research. Ambitions are now growing following the realization of fibre-based links to free-space satellite–ground communication networks.

Transformation optics is a modern application of Maxwell's equations offering unprecedented control over the flow of light that exploits spatially customized optical properties and mathematical techniques applied to space-time curvature.

The ability to store arbitrary polarization states of light in an antiferromagnetic material (YMnO₃) potentially adds a new degree of freedom to data storage applications.

Microcavity polaritons—the bosonic quasiparticles that result from strong light–matter coupling—are observed for the first time in a dielectric cavity containing a monolayer of molybdenum disulphide at room temperature.

Solution-processed small-molecule solar cells with almost 100% internal quantum efficiency and a power conversion efficiency of 9% are reported. The cells make use of a donor molecule called DRCN7T and use PC71BM as an acceptor.

The authors report a semiconductor injection laser with a continuous wave emission spanning more than one octave, from 1.64 THz to 3.35 THz, with optical powers in the milliwatt range and more than 80 modes above threshold.

A quantum receiver based on photon-number-resolving detection and adaptive feedback is demonstrated. It can discriminate quadrature-phase-shift-keying coherent signals with error below the standard quantum limit.

An all-optical modulation technique based on a pump–probe scheme for temporally, spectrally and spatially characterizing the flow of light in a variety of silicon photonic devices is demonstrated.

Tuning the bandgap of multiferroic solar cells made from Bi₂FeCrO₆ is achieved by cationic ordering and is shown to dramatically improve their performance.

A nanoaperture tweezer excited by two lasers with slightly different wavelengths is used to trap nanoscopic particles. The beating field that is created allows low-frequency Raman spectra at the single particle level to be measured.

2015 marks the 150th anniversary of the formulation of Maxwell's equations which lie at the heart of our understanding of electromagnetism and the behaviour of light waves. This focus brings together a collection of articles charting the development, impact and modern day use of Maxwell's equations.