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Depiction of an ‘angular streaking’ scheme that enables the attosecond details of individual X-ray pulses to be read by a detector, akin to reading the face of a clock. Performed at the Linac Coherent Light Source in Stanford, US, ultrashort X-ray pulses photoionize neon while the circular polarization of an infrared laser field modulates the corresponding photoelectron energy and angle of the emission.
Observing ultrafast transient dynamics in optics is a challenging task. Two teams in Europe have now independently developed ‘optical oscilloscopes’ that can capture both amplitude and phase information of ultrafast optical signals. Their schemes yield new insights into the nonlinear physics that takes place inside optical fibres.
Optical trapping of metal nanoparticles with conventional ‘tweezers’ can be challenging due to absorption and heating. Now, an opto-thermoelectric trapping approach that exploits heating has been demonstrated.
Heating due to optical losses in metal nanoparticles, which is usually an unwanted side effect, is harnessed to realize low-power opto-thermoelectric nanotweezers.
By employing difference-frequency generation, a mid-infrared dual-comb spectrometer covering the 2.6 to 5.2 µm range is demonstrated with comb-tooth resolution, sub-MHz frequency precision and accuracy, and a spectral signal-to-noise ratio as high as 6,500.
A dual-comb spectrometer based on a pair of ultra-broadband optical parametric oscillators is demonstrated. It provides the simultaneous acquisition of 350,000 spectral data points, spaced by a 115 MHz intermodal interval over the 3.1–5.5 µm spectral range.
Attosecond time–energy characterization of pulses generated by the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray free-electron laser is enabled by angular streaking measurements.
The simultaneous use of dispersive Fourier transform and time-lens measurements allows complete characterization of the unstable spectral and temporal evolution of ultrashort dissipative solitons, providing further insight into ultrafast transient dynamics in optics.
The use of a phase-sensitive time-lens system allows single-shot recording of both the amplitude and phase of random and complex signals with a high temporal resolution of ~80 fs over a long time window of ~40 ps.
Organic light-emitting diodes featuring the compounds CzDBA and tBuCzBDA are shown to not only offer high external quantum efficiency, but also minimal reduction in performance at high brightness.
By exploiting two-photon laser lithography for in situ printing of facet-attached beam-shaping elements, hybrid photonic integration can now be realized, opening opportunities for the automated assembly of photonic multi-chip systems with unprecedented performance and versatility.