Materials science articles within Nature Photonics

Featured

  • Interview |

    A burst-mode camera developed in Japan called STAMP with a femtosecond frame rate could become a powerful tool for studying ultrafast dynamics. Nature Photonics asked Keiichi Nakagawa about the technique.

    • Noriaki Horiuchi

  • News & Views |

    Developments in optical materials and components for extreme applications such as the James Webb Space Telescope and petawatt laser systems were showcased at CLEO 2014.

    • David Pile

  • News & Views |

    The fields of metamaterials and plasmonics are both set to benefit from the use of superconducting materials.

    • Ranjan Singh
    •  & Nikolay Zheludev

  • News & Views |

    Marrying the single-molecule detection ability of surface-enhanced Raman scattering with the extreme time resolution of ultrafast coherent spectroscopy enables the vibrations of a single molecule to be observed.

    • Lukasz Piatkowski
    • , James T. Hugall
    •  & Niek F. van Hulst

  • Article |

    A suite of flexible, integrated, high-index-contrast chalcogenide glass photonic devices, including waveguides, microdisk resonators, add–drop filters and photonic crystals, is reported. The devices are demonstrated to survive repeated bending to a submillimetre radius without any significant degradation in their optical performance.

    • Lan Li
    • , Hongtao Lin
    •  & Juejun Hu

  • News & Views |

    Rapid developments in perovskite solar cells, photocatalysis and transparent conductors were showcased at the 2014 MRS Spring Meeting.

    • David Pile

  • Article |

    Through shaping of colloidal particles, optical traps with prescribed force–displacement profiles are generated and are used to design a microscopic constant-force spring capable of delivering a constant piconewton-scale restoring force for displacements of several micrometres. Potential future applications include the imaging of sensitive biological membranes.

    • D. B. Phillips
    • , M. J. Padgett
    •  & S. H. Simpson

  • News & Views |

    The advent of novel fluorophores that harness thermally activated energy transfer processes is resulting in a new breed of highly efficient organic light-emitting diodes.

    • Sebastian Reineke

  • Editorial |

    When promoting the value of their research or procuring funding, researchers often need to explain the significance of their work to the community — something that can be just as tricky as the research itself.

  • News & Views |

    Reports of perovskite solar cells fabricated at temperatures compatible with polymer substrates indicate that high-performance flexible cells are now an exciting proposition. However, increasing the cell area and stability and addressing environmental concerns are aspects requiring attention.

    • Gary Hodes
    •  & David Cahen

  • Review Article |

    Optical generation of hot electrons in metallic structures and its potential as an alternative to conventional electron–hole separation in semiconductor devices are reviewed. The possibilities for realizing high conversion efficiencies with low fabrication costs are discussed along with challenges in terms of the materials, architectures and fabrication methods

    • César Clavero

  • Letter |

    Highly efficient perovskite solar cells have been fabricated by using room-temperature deposition processes. The cells are based on a layer of methylammonium lead iodide perovskite that is prepared by sublimation in a high-vacuum chamber and sandwiched between two thin organic charge-transport layers.

    • Olga Malinkiewicz
    • , Aswani Yella
    •  & Henk J. Bolink

  • Article |

    Little is known about triplet excitons in semiconducting single-walled nanotubes, despite their importance in various applications. The pump–probe and spin-sensitive photoluminescence of such nanotubes is studied, and the quantum yield of triplet formation, triplet lifetime and triplet exciton size are found to be 5 ± 2%, 30 ± 10 µs and 0.65 nm, respectively.

    • Dominik Stich
    • , Florian Späth
    •  & Tobias Hertel

  • News & Views |

    Efficient photocatalytic splitting of water to realize carbon-free production of hydrogen from sunlight remains a challenge. New precious-metal-free molecular catalysts in semiconductor-based, visible-light-driven water-splitting systems are promising for realizing practical artificial photosynthesis.

    • Samuel S. Mao
    •  & Shaohua Shen

  • News & Views |

    The experimental observation of topologically protected photonic edge transport in a silicon chip paves the way to realizing unprecedented control of light using synthetic magnetic fields and opens up new approaches for optical information processing.

    • A. B. Khanikaev

  • Letter |

    Clear evidence is presented for the origins of photocurrent generation in metallic and semiconducting carbon nanotubes — photocurrent is found to be mainly generated by photothermal and photovoltaic effects in metallic and semiconducting carbon nanotubes, respectively. This finding will enable the engineering of highly efficient carbon-based photodetectors and energy-harvesting devices.

    • Maria Barkelid
    •  & Val Zwiller

  • Article |

    The use of Raman spectroscopy for high-resolution optical imaging is severely limited by the inherent weakness of the Raman effect. Now, a giant resonant Raman effect is demonstrated from J-aggregated dye molecules encapsulated in single-walled carbon nanotubes, and it is used to realize multispectral Raman imaging.

    • E. Gaufrès
    • , N. Y.-Wa Tang
    •  & R. Martel

  • Letter |

    Two-, three- and higher multiphoton absorption processes are shown to occur in amyloid protein fibres, which are thought to play a role in various diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. The nonlinear optical behaviour of such proteins may also be useful for fabricating photonics devices.

    • Piotr Hanczyc
    • , Marek Samoc
    •  & Bengt Norden

  • News & Views |

    The development of hydrogel patches that both guide light and accommodate optogenetic cells could usher in a new breed of implantable systems for in-body optical sensing and therapy.

    • Edward A. Sykes
    • , Alexandre Albanese
    •  & Warren C. W. Chan

  • Article |

    Topological edge states of light are observed in a two-dimensional array of coupled optical ring resonators, which induce a virtual magnetic field for photons using silicon-on-insulator technology. The edge states are experimentally demonstrated to be robust against intrinsic and introduced disorder, which is a hallmark of topological order.

    • M. Hafezi
    • , S. Mittal
    •  & J. M. Taylor

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