Materials science articles within Nature Photonics

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  • News & Views |

    Flexible electronics and optoelectronics have potential applications in energy generation, biomedicine, robotics and displays. Two recent demonstrations of highly stretchable polymer LEDs suggest that commercial devices may soon become viable.

    • Michael Vosgueritchian
    • , Jeffrey B.-H. Tok
    •  & Zhenan Bao

  • Article |

    A stretchable polymer LED is fabricated that is capable of emitting light when subjected to strains as large as 120%. A prototype 5 × 5 pixel monochrome display based on an array of these LEDs is demonstrated.

    • Jiajie Liang
    • , Lu Li
    •  & Qibing Pei

  • News & Views |

    The abundance of unique effects found at the nanoscale offers advantages for electronics. Now, complex heterostructures of metal clusters grown on a carbon-dot support exhibit interactive plasmonic activity that enhances the performances of LEDs and solar cells.

    • Joseph M. Luther
    •  & Jeffrey L. Blackburn

  • News & Views |

    Advances in theoretical nano-optics provide new insights into how nanoscale modification of spontaneous emission can be realized.

    • Mario Agio
    •  & Diego Martin Cano

  • Letter |

    Off-resonant femtosecond magnetization dynamics are observed after applying an ultra-intense, phase-stable terahertz laser field to ferromagnetic cobalt films. The laser's phase and field-strength characteristics are directly imprinted onto the magnetization response. The off-resonant magnetization removes the speed limitation caused by the cooling process, providing new opportunities for ultrafast data storage.

    • C. Vicario
    • , C. Ruchert
    •  & C. P. Hauri

  • Article |

    An array of piezoelectric nanowire LEDs with a pixel density of 6,350 dpi is capable of mapping two-dimensional pressure distributions with a spatial resolution of 2.7 micrometres. Pressure alters the light emissions from the LEDs, which are then imaged. Possible applications include artificial skin, robotics and touchpads.

    • Caofeng Pan
    • , Lin Dong
    •  & Zhong Lin Wang

  • Article |

    New designs of donor polymers yield organic solar cells with fill factors approaching 80%, significantly higher than those of conventional cells. This enhanced performance is attributed to the close-packed and highly ordered structure of the polymers PTPD3T and PBT13T, which leads to efficient charge extraction and suppressed recombination.

    • Xugang Guo
    • , Nanjia Zhou
    •  & Tobin J. Marks

  • News & Views |

    Further sensitivity improvements are required before advanced optical interferometers will be able to measure gravitational waves. A team has now shown that introducing quantum squeezing of light may help to detect these elusive waves.

    • Ulrik L. Andersen

  • News & Views |

    Two independent groups have concurrently reported the first bosonic lasers driven by electrical injection. Although the devices operate only at low temperatures and in a strong magnetic field, they represent an important step forward in the evolution of polariton-based optoelectronics.

    • Alexey Kavokin

  • Article |

    By employing monocrystalline semiconductor materials as high-quality optical coatings, the long-standing challenge of minimizing the optical phase noise produced by Brownian motion in a multilayer has been overcome. A thermally limited noise floor consistent with a tenfold reduction in mechanical damping relative to that in the best dielectric multilayers is achieved.

    • Garrett D. Cole
    • , Wei Zhang
    •  & Markus Aspelmeyer

  • Letter |

    Artificially reducing the effective dimensionality of carbon nanotubes from one to zero dimensions increases the luminescence quantum yield of excitons confined in zero-dimensional-like states to ∼18%, which is over one order of magnitude larger than that of intrinsic one-dimensional excitons (∼1%). This finding will help realize future nanoscale photonic devices.

    • Yuhei Miyauchi
    • , Munechiyo Iwamura
    •  & Kazunari Matsuda

  • News & Views |

    Organic photovoltaics offer the tantalizing promise of low-cost plastic coatings that can be applied to building surfaces and roofing to generate electricity sustainably. Now, the demonstration that the addition of organic dyes can improve device performance by energy-transfer processes offers an exciting new opportunity.

    • Paul C. Dastoor

  • News & Views |

    Nanophotonics is of both fundamental and applied importance. This field has a wide range of applications, including light-emitting devices and optical integrated circuits.

    • Noriaki Horiuchi

  • Article |

    Researchers demonstrate a high-efficiency polymer solar cell whose device architecture is compatible with a large-scale roll-to-roll process. Enhanced charge collection in the inverted polymer solar cell design and certified power conversion efficiencies of around 7.4% are reported.

    • Cephas E. Small
    • , Song Chen
    •  & Franky So

  • News & Views |

    The use of terahertz pulses to 'gate' interlayer charge transport in a superconductor could lead to a variety of new and interesting applications.

    • Marc Gabay
    •  & Jean-Marc Triscone

  • News & Views |

    Alternative electrode materials and device geometries that avoid the use indium tin oxide — an expensive and brittle material widely used for making transparent electrodes in organic solar cells — are now coming to fruition.

    • Olle Inganäs

  • Review Article |

    • Benjamin J. Eggleton
    • , Barry Luther-Davies
    •  & Kathleen Richardson

  • Letter |

    The diffraction of light scales with wavelength, thereby placing fundamental limits on applications such as imaging, microscopy and communications. Here, researchers experimentally demonstrate scale-free propagation in supercooled structures and cancel diffraction, instead of merely compensating for it, as is the case for most approaches in nonlinear optics.

    • E. DelRe
    • , E. Spinozzi
    •  & C. Conti

  • Letter |

    Researchers demonstrate the generation of deep-ultraviolet light of wavelength ∼240 nm from AlxGa1−xN/AlN quantum wells by electron beam irradiation, with an output power of 100 mW and an efficiency of ∼40%. This record-breaking power is attributed to the high crystalline quality of the quantum wells and the proper well design for electron beam pumping.

    • Takao Oto
    • , Ryan G. Banal
    •  & Yoichi Kawakami

  • Interview |

    Belgian research institute imec is uniquely capable of manufacturing both polymer and small-molecule organic photovoltaic technology.Nadya Anscombetalks to Tom Aernouts, team leader of the organic photovoltaic division at imec, about these competing technologies.

    • Nadya Anscombe

  • Industry Perspective |

    Sphelar solar-cell technology uses an array of tiny spheres of silicon within a transparent matrix to generate power, promising new opportunities for the use of solar cells in power-generating windows and portable, foldable power supplies.

    • Kenichi Taira
    •  & Josuke Nakata

  • News & Views |

    High-performance, ultracompact lenses are needed in the quest to miniaturize optical systems. It now seems that carefully engineered subwavelength gratings can function as almost perfect mirrors with custom-designed focusing properties.

    • Lukas Chrostowski

  • Interview |

    Can new types of organic semiconductor lasers offer low-power and coherent integrated sources? Stephen Forrest explains that his team's room-temperature polariton laser gives a reason to be optimistic.

    • David Pile

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