Materials for optics articles within Nature Materials

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  • Letter |

    Artificial materials that show negative refraction can be used for devices such as perfect lenses. The demonstration of negative refraction in nanostructured metal films, using a nonlinear optical effect—four-wave mixing—therefore opens new possibilities for optical devices.

    • Stefano Palomba
    • , Shuang Zhang
    •  & Xiang Zhang

  • Research Highlights |

    • Christian Martin

  • Article |

    Organic ligands enhance the stability and the solution processability of semiconductor quantum dots, but they can impede charge transport in films of such nanoparticles. Passivation with atomic ligands now offers an alternative strategy that enables the fabrication of PbS colloidal-quantum-dot solar cells with power-conversion efficiencies of up to 6%.

    • Jiang Tang
    • , Kyle W. Kemp
    •  & Edward H. Sargent

  • Letter |

    Three-dimensional photonic devices are of interest as light emitters, detectors or waveguides. However, so far their fabrication has remained a challenge. The template-directed epitaxy of three-dimensional semiconductor structures now offers a new strategy for the realization of photonic devices, demonstrated by the realization of a three-dimensional photonic crystal light-emitting diode.

    • Erik C. Nelson
    • , Neville L. Dias
    •  & Paul V. Braun

  • News & Views |

    A single nanodevice that detects the presence of a single molecule would perhaps be the ultimate sensor. The demonstration of hydrogen sensing based on a single gold nanoaerial brings that possibility nearer.

    • Roy Sambles

  • News & Views |

    A new design for elastic metamaterials that can behave either as liquids or solids over a limited frequency range may enable new applications based on the control of acoustic, elastic and seismic waves.

    • John Page

  • Letter |

    Typically, the light-emission of semiconductors always occurs from thermalized electrons, as electrons excited above the bandgap energy relax quickly. In contrast, non-thermalized excitonic light emission has now been observed in nanowires using resonant plasmonic nanocavities. The much higher radiative light-emission rates of the hot excitons suggest their use for ultrafast nanophotonic devices.

    • Chang-Hee Cho
    • , Carlos O. Aspetti
    •  & Ritesh Agarwal

  • Letter |

    Nanowires have many applications across a number of disciplines. So far, their length has been largely limited to mesoscale dimensions. Through the adaption of an iterative fibre-drawing process it is now possible to fabricate millions of ordered nanowires and nanotubes of almost infinite length.

    • Mecit Yaman
    • , Tural Khudiyev
    •  & Mehmet Bayindir

  • Letter |

    Materials with zero refractive index show unusual waveguiding properties and, for example, can squeeze light through narrow passages. It is now suggested that such properties can also be realized in a non-metallic photonic crystal. Furthermore, such photonic crystals can also show a Dirac point in the band structure—offering further possibilities, such as guiding waves unperturbed around bends and obstacles.

    • Xueqin Huang
    • , Yun Lai
    •  & C. T. Chan

  • Article |

    Plasmonic resonances are widely used for sensing applications. The plasmon resonance of a single nanoantenna structure is now used to detect changes in the dielectric properties of a nearby palladium nanoparticle exposed to hydrogen gas, enabling highly sensitive sensing in ultrasmall volumes. The approach can be easily extended to other sensing and catalysis schemes.

    • Na Liu
    • , Ming L. Tang
    •  & A. Paul Alivisatos

  • Letter |

    Plasmonic resonances are often associated with metals, but can also be realized in semiconductors. The observation of plasmon resonances at near-infrared wavelengths in semiconductor quantum dots in particular, offers the possibility to actively control plasmonic properties through quantum-size effects within the dots.

    • Joseph M. Luther
    • , Prashant K. Jain
    •  & A. Paul Alivisatos

  • Article |

    Metamaterials show many intriguing properties, which are often limited to a narrow range of frequencies. The demonstration of a low-loss broadband metamaterial at radiofrequencies promises applications as enhanced antennas, for example.

    • Erik Lier
    • , Douglas H. Werner
    •  & Jeremy A. Bossard

  • Letter |

    Plasmon lasers can operate at dimensions well below the diffraction limit. Their small size promises uses in nanophotonic circuits and for other size-critical applications. The demonstration of a sub-diffraction-limited plasmon laser with low losses, which enables its room-temperature operation, takes a significant step towards realizing the potential of these lasers.

    • Ren-Min Ma
    • , Rupert F. Oulton
    •  & Xiang Zhang

  • News & Views |

    Biocompatible light-emitting structures based on high-performance inorganic compound semiconductors on flexible substrates open the path to futuristic therapeutic devices, instrumented surgical gloves and many other applications.

    • Takao Someya

  • Article |

    Flexible electronic devices that can be stretched without losing performance have seen increasing functionality. In particular, the demonstration of light-emitting diodes and photodetectors on flexible electronic substrates now opens the door to applications of flexible optoelectronic sheets in biomedicine and robotics.

    • Rak-Hwan Kim
    • , Dae-Hyeong Kim
    •  & John A. Rogers

  • Article |

    Using optical antennas in optoelectronic devices could lead to improved device performance. Photoemission from the inner core of core–shell single-walled nanotube structures where the optical bandgap of the core is smaller than that of the outer shells demonstrates that these structures channel excitons thereby acting as optical concentrators.

    • Jae-Hee Han
    • , Geraldine L. C. Paulus
    •  & Michael S. Strano

  • Article |

    The conversion of solar energy into electricity usually occurs either electrically or through thermal conversion. A new mechanism, photon-enhanced thermionic emission, which combines electric as well as thermal conversion mechanisms, is now shown to lead to enhanced conversion efficiencies that potentially could even exceed the theoretical limits of conventional photovoltaic cells.

    • Jared W. Schwede
    • , Igor Bargatin
    •  & Nicholas A. Melosh

  • Letter |

    In magnetoelectric compounds, magnetism and ferroelectricity are coupled. The observation of light-induced size changes in the room-temperature magnetoelectric BiFeO3 now adds optical functionality to magnetoelectric devices that may lead to new applications arising from the coupling of light, electric and magnetic fields.

    • B. Kundys
    • , M. Viret
    •  & D. O. Kundys

  • News & Views |

    Organic light-emitting field-effect transistors surpass the external quantum efficiency of analogous organic light-emitting diodes.

    • Christian Melzer
    •  & Heinz von Seggern

  • Article |

    An organic light-emitting transistor has now been fabricated with a trilayer heterostructure. This architecture is shown to prevent both photon loss at the electrodes and exciton-charge quenching, thereby dramatically improving device efficiency and establishing these types of transistor as a promising alternative to organic light-emitting diodes.

    • Raffaella Capelli
    • , Stefano Toffanin
    •  & Michele Muccini

  • Editorial |

    The first demonstration of the laser has not only led to a myriad of commercial applications, but fifty years on basic research continues to rejuvenate the fundamental physics of the laser.

  • Interview |

    Charles Townes played a crucial role in the invention and realization of the first masers and lasers, for which he shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics. Nature Materials speaks to him about his historic contributions.

    • Joerg Heber

  • Interview |

    Coherent synchrotron radiation has revolutionized the study of molecules and materials. Talking to Nature Materials, Gerhard Materlik, CEO of the Diamond Light Source, discusses the many uses of synchrotron sources and free electron lasers.

    • Joerg Heber

  • Interview |

    The quantum cascade laser has liberated laser properties from materials limitations, enabling light emission to be tailored over a broad spectral range. Nature Materials talks to Federico Capasso about the development of these lasers in his laboratory.

    • Joerg Heber

  • Interview |

    It was the realization of semiconductor lasers that led to the commercial success of lasers. Herbert Kroemer explains to Nature Materials his contributions to the design principle of these lasers, for which he shared the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics.

    • Joerg Heber

  • Review Article |

    Transformation optics describes the capability to design the path of light waves almost at will through the use of metamaterials that control effective materials properties on a subwavelength scale. In this review, the physics and applications of transformation optics are discussed.

    • Huanyang Chen
    • , C. T. Chan
    •  & Ping Sheng

  • Letter |

    So far, the realization of negative-refractive-index materials has required the use of resonating metallic structures, leading to an inherently narrowband operation around those resonances. Here, negative-refractive-index materials are proposed that consist of single coaxial waveguide layers, with a negative refractive index at a broad range of visible wavelengths.

    • Stanley P. Burgos
    • , Rene de Waele
    •  & Harry A. Atwater

  • Editorial |

    Light-concentration effects in photonic nanostructures, reviewed in this issue, promise new applications ranging from tumour therapy to catalysis and enhanced solar cells.

  • News & Views |

    Conflicting observations of the speed at which various ferromagnetic materials respond to an external femtosecond laser excitation have generated considerable controversy. It is now shown that ferromagnets can be divided in two categories, according to the values of specific magnetic parameters.

    • Markus G. Münzenberg

  • Review Article |

    Plasmonic structures are ideally suited to manipulate light on a scale that is much smaller than the wavelength of the plasmon resonance. This review discusses the applications arising from such extreme light concentration, which range from photonic devices and photovoltaics to localized thermal effects.

    • Jon A. Schuller
    • , Edward S. Barnard
    •  & Mark L. Brongersma

  • Review Article |

    This review article surveys the potential of using plasmonic nanostructures to enhance the absorption of photovoltaic devices. As a result, the physical thickness of solar cells can be reduced, leading to new photovoltaic-device designs.

    • Harry A. Atwater
    •  & Albert Polman

  • News & Views |

    Stable particle-like molecular architectures are written in a frustrated chiral-nematic liquid crystal using a vortex laser beam. This fundamentally new mechanism to form toroidal features with anisotropic optical properties has great potential to create new applications in liquid-crystal photonics.

    • Dirk J. Broer

  • News & Views |

    The realization of electrical sources of surface plasmon polaritons using complementary metal oxide semiconductor technology is a significant step towards silicon-compatible nanoscale photonic devices.

    • Aaron Hryciw
    • , Young Chul Jun
    •  & Mark L. Brongersma

  • Editorial |

    Nobel prizes for applied research provide recognition for innovations with profound impact, fully in tune with the intentions of Alfred Nobel.

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