Magnified image of nearly single-crystalline GaN LEDs grown on an amorphous glass substrate.

Article by Choi et al.

IMAGE & COVER DESIGN: TOM WILSON

By embedding plasmonic structures in a silicon-nanopillar-based hydrophobic surface, scientists have found an elegant way to perform ultrahigh-sensitivity optical sensing.

Article by De Angelis et al.

IMAGE: JIANGANG ZHU

COVER DESIGN: TOM WILSON

Polymer optics integrated with microfluidics provides an excellent platform for biosensing.

Interview with Frances Ligler

Image: Georg Wieser

Cover design: Tom Wilson

Scientists theoretically demonstrate that certain types of light beam can pull particles towards the light source.

Letter by Jun Chen et al.

IMAGE: TOM WILSON

Strong, single-cycle terahertz pulses can be used to control interlayer superconductivity in a cuprate superconductor.

Letter by A. Dienst et al.

IMAGE: A. DIENST, M. C. HOFFMANN, D. FAUSTI, J. C. PETERSEN, S. PYON, T. TAKAYAMA, H. TAKAGI AND A. CAVALLERI

Cells expressing green fluorescent protein can lase when placed in a reflective microcavity and optically pumped with blue light. These living lasers exhibit well-defined longitudinal and transverse laser modes, as depicted in the image.

Image courtesy of Malte C. Gather and Seok Hyun Yun.

Letter by Malte C. Gather and Seok Hyun Yun.

A microscopic bead can be set into rotation using a light beam carrying orbital angular momentum created using a forked diffraction grating.

Image courtesy of Miles Padgett and Richard Bowman.

Review by Miles Padgett and Richard Bowman.

Researchers have shown how coupling a nitrogen–vacancy centre to the whispering gallery mode of an optical resonator fabricated in single-crystal diamond can enhance single-photon emission.

Image courtesy of A. Faraon et. al.

Letter by Faraon et. al.

Artist's illustration of the heart of an optical lattice clock, in which multiple atoms are individually confined in a landscape of periodic potential wells made by interfering laser beams. The lattice allows highly stable and ultranarrow atomic radiative transitions to be probed for applications in temporal metrology.

Review by Hidetoshi Katori

The growth of InGaAs nanopillar lasers directly onto silicon substrates provides a means of realizing miniature light sources for future high-density optoelectronics.

Article by Chen et.al

The ability to capture sequential ultrafast images generated by femtosecond X-ray pulses could ultimately allow the realization of molecular movies.

Image courtesy of C. M. Gunther et.al.

Letter by C. M. Gunther et.al

Scientists in the USA have now developed the 'lightfoil' - an optical analogue of the aerofoil. When illuminated by a uniform beam of laser light, radiation pressure causes this carefully shaped microstructure to rotate and take off.

Image courtesy of Jesper Gluckstad.

Article by Swartzlander et.al