Volume 9 Issue 8, August 2015

The observation of individual atoms with single-lattice-site resolution has proved to be an enormously powerful detection method for optical lattice-based quantum simulators. Such a technique has now been demonstrated with fermionic atoms.

A state-of-the-art source of hyperentangled photon pairs has been built and its quantum properties fully characterized.

Researchers have observed light propagation in which photons glide smoothly along a one-dimensional chain of electrons known as a Luttinger liquid — a many-body interacting quantum system held within a single-walled carbon nanotube.

As the plasmonics community meets in Jerusalem, the hunt to make it a more practical technology continues. The use of new materials and applications in colour printing could be part of the answer.

The ultrafast enhancement of the exchange interaction between two spins in an antiferromagnetic insulator can now be detected, thanks to an all-optical pump–probe method based on stimulated two-magnon excitation.

The benefits of designing and constructing organic solar cells featuring more than a single donor and single acceptor material are discussed.

The room-temperature lasing of a single nanowire containing 50 quantum dots is demonstrated, paving the way towards ultrasmall lasers with extremely low power consumption for integrated photonic systems.

Femtosecond stimulated Raman experiments on the antiferromagnetic system KNiF₃ are implemented to understand how the exchange interaction — a crucial interaction that rules magnetic phenomena — is influenced by ultrafast optical excitation.

Scientists have realized a graphene electro-optic modulator operating with a 30 GHz bandwidth and with a state-of-the-art modulation efficiency of 1.5 dB V⁻¹, paving the way for fast digital communications.

The authors report the observation of plasmons that exhibit quantized velocities in carbon nanotubes.

Small molecules improve the characteristics of polymer solar cells.

The authors demonstrate a 70 GHz modulator in a 10-μm-long two-dimensionally localized gap-plasmon waveguide system.

The prediction of light propagation up to hundreds of millimetres within straight or even deformed segments of multimode fibres is demonstrated. The concept is applied in an endoscope and exceptional resolution and footprint are obtained.

A high-dimensional hyperentanglement of polarization and energy–time subspaces is demonstrated using a biphoton frequency comb. The long-postulated Hong–Ou–Mandel quantum revival is exhibited, with up to 19 time-bin dimensions and 96.5% visibility.

A mechanism for the propagation of mid-infrared femtosecond laser pulses in air is theoretically investigated. A numerical simulation predicts that the propagation of multiple-terawatt pulses is possible over hundreds of metres.