Featured
-
-
Article |
Understanding the luminescent nature of organic radicals for efficient doublet emitters and pure-red light-emitting diodes
An investigation on the electronic transitions of organic radicals allows us to identify design rules to increase the oscillator strength of these emitters and obtain efficient radical-based light-emitting diodes operating in the visible range.
- Alim Abdurahman
- , Timothy J. H. Hele
- & Emrys W. Evans
-
Article |
Dipolar interactions between localized interlayer excitons in van der Waals heterostructures
Repulsive dipole–dipole interactions between localized interlayer excitons are shown to modify the optical response of van der Waals heterobilayers, forming the basis to obtain strong optical nonlinearity and excitonic many-body states in two-dimensional materials.
- Weijie Li
- , Xin Lu
- & Ajit Srivastava
-
Article |
Revealing multiple classes of stable quantum emitters in hexagonal boron nitride with correlated optical and electron microscopy
Defects in hexagonal boron nitride exhibit room-temperature quantum emission, but their unknown structural origin challenges their technological utility. A combination of optical and electron microscopy helps to distinguish at least four classes of defects and correlate them with local strain.
- Fariah Hayee
- , Leo Yu
- & Jennifer A. Dionne
-
Article |
Critical role of intermediate electronic states for spin-flip processes in charge-transfer-type organic molecules with multiple donors and acceptors
Triplet excited states related to partial molecular structures are shown to mediate spin-flip between lowest singlet and triplet excited states in multiple donor–acceptor charge-transfer-type organic molecules.
- Hiroki Noda
- , Xian-Kai Chen
- & Chihaya Adachi
-
News & Views |
Radically more stable
Violating the Aufbau principle is shown to be a successful strategy to improve the stability of neutral organic radicals used in organic light-emitting diodes.
- Sebastian Reineke
-
Article |
Scalable in operando strain tuning in nanophotonic waveguides enabling three-quantum-dot superradiance
Local tuning of quantum dots embedded in a photonic waveguide can be achieved through the strain produced by laser heating of a thin layer of HfO2 deposited around the waveguide. The method is exploited to tune three quantum dots in resonance.
- Joel Q. Grim
- , Allan S. Bracker
- & Daniel Gammon
-
News & Views |
Rydberg spectroscopy of indirect excitons
Measuring the 1s–2p splitting of direct and indirect excitons in van der Waals heterostructures allows their binding energy and dynamics to be determined.
- Steven T. Cundiff
-
News & Views |
Shedding light on dark excitons
A magnetic-field-dependent spectroscopy study on single perovskite nanocrystals reveals the spectral signatures of an exciton dark state below the bright triplet states.
- Andries Meijerink
- & Freddy T. Rabouw
-
News & Views |
Vorticity induced by chiral plasmonic fields
Coherent shaping of matter waves in temporal and spatial domains by photon-induced near fields opens up new possibilities for the quantum control of matter.
- Jun Yuan
-
News & Views |
Organic LEDs and solar cells united
Organic donor–acceptor heterojunctions can show efficient electroluminescence and at the same time generate charges under photovoltaic operation.
- Wolfgang Brütting
-
News & Views |
Lighting up the new order
Irradiating a PbTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattice with ultrafast UV light pulses modifies elastic and electrostatic interactions, resulting in the formation of a stable complex 3D supercrystal.
- J. M. Gregg
-
Article |
Nonlinear photoresponse of type-II Weyl semimetals
A large photoresponse is observed in the type-II Weyl semimetal TaIrTe4, and attributed to the diverging Berry curvature of the Weyl nodes.
- Junchao Ma
- , Qiangqiang Gu
- & Dong Sun
-
News & Views |
Lasers that shine brighter
A photonic crystal design, consisting of two separated lattices arranged in a specific way, forms the base of high-brightness semiconductor lasers, with a very narrow beam divergence angle.
- L. Kuipers
-
Article |
Double-lattice photonic-crystal resonators enabling high-brightness semiconductor lasers with symmetric narrow-divergence beams
An optimized design for a broad-area surface-emitting photonic-crystal laser leads to high brightness of over 300 MW cm–2 sr–1 and an output power of 10 W under pulsed excitation.
- Masahiro Yoshida
- , Menaka De Zoysa
- & Susumu Noda
-
Article |
Molecularly thin two-dimensional hybrid perovskites with tunable optoelectronic properties due to reversible surface relaxation
Reversible structural surface relaxation under laser exposure is observed for monolayers of 2D metal halide perovskites. These structural changes also induce reversible shifts in the photoluminescence peaks of these materials.
- Kai Leng
- , Ibrahim Abdelwahab
- & Kian Ping Loh
-
Letter |
Simultaneous coherence enhancement of optical and microwave transitions in solid-state electronic spins
Long coherence times in a subset of states that allows for transitions in both microwave and optical range have been reported using an isotopically purified 171Yb3+:Y2SiO5 crystal, rendering the system suitable for quantum information applications.
- Antonio Ortu
- , Alexey Tiranov
- & Mikael Afzelius
-
Article |
Impacts of surface depletion on the plasmonic properties of doped semiconductor nanocrystals
Degenerately doped semiconductor nanocrystals exhibit localized surface plasmon resonance in the infrared. Semiconducting properties such as band structure modification due to doping and surface states are now shown to strongly affect plasmonic modulation.
- Omid Zandi
- , Ankit Agrawal
- & Delia J. Milliron
-
-
Article |
Electron–phonon interaction in efficient perovskite blue emitters
Films of exfoliated crystals of two-dimensional hybrid metal halide perovskites with phenyl groups as organic cations show increased molecular rigidity, reduced electron–phonon interactions and blue emission with photoluminescence quantum yield approaching 80%.
- Xiwen Gong
- , Oleksandr Voznyy
- & Edward H. Sargent
-
Article |
Hole trap formation in polymer light-emitting diodes under current stress
Quantitative analysis of polymer LED degradation under current stress provides insight on the role of hole traps and their formation. Blending of the emitting material with large-bandgap semiconductors leads to trap dilution and improved stability.
- Quan Niu
- , Roland Rohloff
- & N. Irina Crăciun
-
Letter |
Ultralow-loss polaritons in isotopically pure boron nitride
Isotopic enrichment in hexagonal boron nitride is shown to enhance the propagation properties of phonon polaritons, achieving a threefold enhancement in their lifetime.
- Alexander J. Giles
- , Siyuan Dai
- & Joshua D. Caldwell
-
Article |
Beating the thermodynamic limit with photo-activation of n-doping in organic semiconductors
The activation of cleavable organometallic dimers upon exposure to ultraviolet radiation allows air-stable n-type doping of organic materials with electron affinity lower than the expected thermodynamic reducing strength of the dimers.
- Xin Lin
- , Berthold Wegner
- & Antoine Kahn
-
Article |
Continuous-wave infrared optical gain and amplified spontaneous emission at ultralow threshold by colloidal HgTe quantum dots
Stimulated emission under continuous-wave excitation from mercury telluride quantum dots at very low thresholds (compatible with electrical injection) is achieved by exploiting surface traps that render the quantum dots into four-level systems.
- Pieter Geiregat
- , Arjan J. Houtepen
- & Zeger Hens
-
Article |
Electrotunable nanoplasmonic liquid mirror
Designing fully tunable metamaterials for applications ranging from sensors to superlenses remains a challenge. A reversible electrotuneable liquid mirror based on voltage-controlled self-assembly/disassembly plasmonic nanoparticles is now reported.
- Yunuen Montelongo
- , Debabrata Sikdar
- & Alexei A. Kornyshev
-
Article |
Charge-transfer dynamics and nonlocal dielectric permittivity tuned with metamaterial structures as solvent analogues
Charge-transfer dynamics in organic semiconductors are shown to be altered by multi-layered hyperbolic metamaterial substrates, an effect linked to the number of metal–dielectric pairs used.
- Kwang Jin Lee
- , Yiming Xiao
- & Pascal André
-
News & Views |
Stabilizing colour and intensity
Thermally activated defects in a blue-emitting phosphor can enhance energy transfer to the activator, and compensate for thermal quenching.
- Philippe F. Smet
- & Jonas J. Joos
-
News & Views |
Opposite interaction matters
Low-energy electron microscopy reveals how growth of multiple ordered heteromolecular phases can be steered by utilizing intermolecular repulsion.
- Christian Teichert
-
Article |
A zero-thermal-quenching phosphor
A blue-emitting phosphor without thermal quenching is reported. The emission losses at high temperatures are compensated by a counter mechanism, originating in energy transfer between electron–hole pairs and thermally activated defect levels.
- Yoon Hwa Kim
- , Paulraj Arunkumar
- & Won Bin Im
-
Article |
Centimetre-scale micropore alignment in oriented polycrystalline metal–organic framework films via heteroepitaxial growth
Heteroepitaxial growth using aligned crystalline substrates allows extended metal–organic framework crystal growth oriented relative to the substrate
- Paolo Falcaro
- , Kenji Okada
- & Masahide Takahashi
-
Letter |
Valley photonic crystals for control of spin and topology
A theoretically proposed photonic crystal design with valley-dependent spin-split bulk bands allows for the independent control of valley and topology in a single system.
- Jian-Wen Dong
- , Xiao-Dong Chen
- & Xiang Zhang
-
Review Article |
Polaritons in layered two-dimensional materials
This Review discusses the properties of polariton modes (plasmon, phonon and exciton) in graphene, hexagonal boron nitride and transition metal dichalcogenides for applications across the terahertz to visible spectrum.
- Tony Low
- , Andrey Chaves
- & Frank Koppens
-
News & Views |
High-throughput virtual screening
Computer networks, trained with data from delayed-fluorescence materials that have been successfully used in organic light-emitting diodes, facilitate the high-speed prediction of good emitters for display and lighting applications.
- Shuzo Hirata
- & Katsuyuki Shizu
-
News & Views |
Zeolites shine bright
Zeolite-encaged silver nanoclusters as highly photoluminescent materials.
- Bert M. Weckhuysen
-
News & Views |
Tuning phase diagrams
Strain engineering can tune a manganite film into an antiferromagnetic insulating state whose extreme photo-susceptibility allows for the ordinary ferromagnetic metal state to then be transiently realized.
- Dragan Mihailovic
-
Letter |
A sub-femtojoule electrical spin-switch based on optically trapped polariton condensates
The spin-switching of optically induced polariton condensates can be externally controlled with an electric field, with switching energies below 0.5 fJ.
- Alexander Dreismann
- , Hamid Ohadi
- & Jeremy J. Baumberg
-
-
News & Views |
To scatter or not to scatter
A rewritable platform for subwavelength optical components is demonstrated by combining surface phonon–polaritons, sustained in a polar dielectric layer, with the switching functionality provided by a phase-change material.
- Isabelle Staude
- & Carsten Rockstuhl
-
Review Article |
The road towards polaritonic devices
This review discusses exciton–polaritons in microcavities and their emerging technological applications, with emphasis on the materials challenges for operation at room temperature.
- Daniele Sanvitto
- & Stéphane Kéna-Cohen
-
News & Views |
Growing gold nanoprisms with light
An adsorbed polymer directs the photochemical growth of colloidal Au single-crystal nanoprisms following visible metal excitation.
- Louis Brus
-
-
Feature |
China's first pulsed neutron source
The China Spallation Neutron Source is expected to produce its first beam in 2017. Hesheng Chen and Xun-Li Wang provide an overview of this user facility and what it means for science in China and elsewhere.
- Hesheng Chen
- & Xun-Li Wang
-
Article |
Tuning the energetics and tailoring the optical properties of silver clusters confined in zeolites
Zeolites encapsulating clusters of silver offer interesting optical properties. Here it is shown how the interactions between these clusters and the framework can be tuned to achieve photoluminescence quantum yields approaching unity.
- Oliver Fenwick
- , Eduardo Coutiño-Gonzalez
- & Paolo Samorì
-
Article |
Reversible optical switching of highly confined phonon–polaritons with an ultrathin phase-change material
Optically rewritable surface phonon–polariton resonators are demonstrated in a system combining phase-change materials that can reversibly switch between amorphous and crystalline phases, with polar crystals that support surface phonon–polaritons.
- Peining Li
- , Xiaosheng Yang
- & Thomas Taubner
-
Article |
Extreme sensitivity biosensing platform based on hyperbolic metamaterials
A highly sensitive plasmonic biosensor, based on hyperbolic metamaterials, can detect biomolecules of ultralow molecular weight at picomolar concentrations.
- Kandammathe Valiyaveedu Sreekanth
- , Yunus Alapan
- & Giuseppe Strangi
-
Article |
Robust reconfigurable electromagnetic pathways within a photonic topological insulator
Topologically protected states at the interface of magnetic domain walls in a parallel plate waveguide with adjustable rods, are shown to be directed along different paths, as the waveguide geometry changes.
- Xiaojun Cheng
- , Camille Jouvaud
- & Alexander B. Khanikaev
-
-
-
-
An integrated optical modulator operating at cryogenic temperatures
The big squeeze
A new twist for OLEDs
This season's colours
Spinning top-ology
Ultrafast responses
Snapping metamaterials