Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Photonic-crystal waveguides can control light propagation on subwavelength scales, but structural disorder typically causes scattering and broadening. It is now shown that disorder can enhance light collimation beyond conventional limits.
By exploiting the interaction between light and phonons in a silica microsphere resonator it is possible to generate Brillouin scattering induced transparency, which is akin to electromagnetically induced transparency but for acoustic waves.
The Higgs mechanism is best known for generating mass for subatomic particles. Less well-known is that the idea originated in the study of superconductivity, and can be tested in the laboratory.
The relaxation processes of light-emitting excited ions are tunable, but electrical control is challenging. It is now shown that graphene can be used to manipulate the optical emission and relaxation of erbium near-infrared emitters electrically.
By engineering the electron wavefunction it is possible to create Aharonov–Bohm-like phases and relativistic effects such as length contraction and time dilation in a non-relativistic setting and in the absence of electromagnetic fields.