Physics articles within Nature Photonics

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    A nonlinear multi-pass cell is shown to be able to shift the central wavelength of a laser by tens of nanometres, offering a new means for control for high-power laser systems

    • Prannay Balla
    • , Henrik Tünnermann
    •  & Christoph M. Heyl

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Researchers demonstrate a laser-plasma accelerator-driven free-electron laser in a seeded configuration, where control over the radiation wavelength and longitudinal coherence are achieved.

    • Marie Labat
    • , Jurjen Couperus Cabadağ
    •  & Marie-Emmanuelle Couprie

  • News & Views |

    Experimental confirmation that the Gouy phase can modify the photonic de Broglie wavelength opens up many exciting directions in metrology using quantum systems with higher-order Gaussian modes.

    • Xuemei Gu
    •  & Mario Krenn

  • Article |

    Panuski et al. demonstrate a programmable photonic crystal cavity array, enabling the spatiotemporal control of a 64 resonator, two-dimensional spatial light modulator with nanosecond- and femtojoule-order switching.

    • Christopher L. Panuski
    • , Ian Christen
    •  & Dirk R. Englund

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A single beamline interferometer with different two-photon N00N states is implemented through spatial tailoring of photon pairs. It enables the observation of the speed-up of the quantum Gouy phase — the phase acquired by the N-photon number state of paraxial modes upon propagation.

    • Markus Hiekkamäki
    • , Rafael F. Barros
    •  & Robert Fickler

  • News & Views |

    The energy exchange between two Rydberg atoms is induced and observed on a nanosecond timescale, paving the way for ultrafast quantum gates.

    • Peng Xu
    •  & Ming-Sheng Zhan

  • News & Views |

    A photonic quantum heat engine based on superradiance — many-atom quantum coherence — is shown to deliver enhanced operation, with an efficiency no longer bounded by the Carnot limit.

    • Moochan Kim
    • , Marlan Scully
    •  & Anatoly Svidzinsky

  • Article |

    Nitrogen-vacancy centres in surface-engineered diamond are demonstrated to operate as charge-sensitive fluorescent reporters, enabling an optical scheme for voltage recording in physical and biological systems.

    • D. J. McCloskey
    • , N. Dontschuk
    •  & D. A. Simpson

  • News & Views |

    A new method enables precise control of spin qubits in diamond by selectively activating them with a laser beam, thus paving the way to the control of spin qubits in dense arrays for applications in quantum technology.

    • Tim Hugo Taminiau

  • Letter
    | Open Access

    An ultrabroadband femtosecond enhancement cavity is developed, using gold-coated mirrors and a wedged-diamond-plate input coupler. Simultaneous enhancement of a 22–40 THz offset-free frequency comb allows cavity-enhanced time-domain spectroscopy of gas mixtures based on electro-optic sampling in the mid-infrared range.

    • Philipp Sulzer
    • , Maximilian Högner
    •  & Ioachim Pupeza

  • News & Views |

    The presence of topologically protected edge states is usually determined by angular-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy, requiring clean surfaces and ultrahigh vacuum. Now, an all-optical technique, based on high-harmonic radiation, has been shown to detect topological phase transitions under ambient conditions.

    • Dieter Bauer

  • Article |

    Up to six photons in a Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger state are sequentially generated by using a Rydberg superatom—a mesoscopic atomic ensemble under the condition of strong Rydberg blockade. The efficiency scaling factor for adding one photon is 0.27.

    • Chao-Wei Yang
    • , Yong Yu
    •  & Jian-Wei Pan

  • News & Views |

    A micropillar cavity that can impart a phase shift to single photons offers a promising route to scalable quantum information processing with light.

    • Stephan Dürr

  • Article |

    Microwave-driven holonomic quantum gates on an optically selected electron spin in a nitrogen-vacancy centre in diamond are demonstrated. Optically addressable entanglement is generated between the electron and adjacent nitrogen nuclear spin.

    • Yuhei Sekiguchi
    • , Kazuki Matsushita
    •  & Hideo Kosaka

  • Article |

    A superradiant photonic engine is developed by using a 138Ba atomic beam and a high-finesse optical cavity. The mirrors of a Fabry–Pérot cavity act as the piston of an engine. The achieved engine temperature and efficiency are 1.5 × 105 K and 98%, respectively.

    • Jinuk Kim
    • , Seung-hoon Oh
    •  & Kyungwon An

  • Article
    | Open Access

    X-ray detectors based on dual-site-doped perovskite single crystals exhibit excellent sensitivity of 2.6 × 104 μC Gyair−1 cm–2 under a low field of 1 V cm–1. The detectable dose rate is as low as 7.09 nGyair s–1. The operational stability is beyond half a year.

    • Jizhong Jiang
    • , Min Xiong
    •  & Feng Gao

  • Article |

    An analogous all-optical Stern–Gerlach experiment is observed in nonlinear optics, where the frequency of light acts as a pseudospin. The deflection depends on the strength of the nonlinear coupling gradient as well as on the relative phase between the different input frequencies.

    • Ofir Yesharim
    • , Aviv Karnieli
    •  & Ady Arie

  • Article |

    Linearly polarized orbital angular momentum-carrying hard X-ray beams are induced using spiral Fresnel zone plates. By sending the hard X-ray beams to disordered enantiopure molecular complexes, the helicity-dependent and chiral-sensitive signal is obtained.

    • Jérémy R. Rouxel
    • , Benedikt Rösner
    •  & Majed Chergui

  • News & Views |

    Coherent multi-octave mid-infrared waveforms are created and manipulated by cascaded intrapulse difference-frequency generation, demonstrating absolute phase control, and adding to the growing arsenal of techniques for arbitrary light-wave control.

    • Jeffrey Moses
    •  & Shu-Wei Huang

  • Article |

    Pulses of light with a toroidal structure are experimentally realized in the terahertz and optical regions.

    • Apostolos Zdagkas
    • , Cormac McDonnell
    •  & Nikolay I. Zheludev

  • Letter |

    Giant effective photon–photon interactions are achieved by hybridizing light with excitons in an InGaAs-based quantum well micropillar cavity. Cross-phase modulation of up to 3 mrad per polariton is observed at the laser intensity below the single-photon level.

    • Tintu Kuriakose
    • , Paul M. Walker
    •  & Dmitry N. Krizhanovskii

  • Article |

    Tunable sub-megahertz spectral features are demonstrated without resonators. The approach, which exploits gain-enhanced polarization pulling in a twisted birefringent medium, may be useful in applications such as microwave photonic filters, slow and fast light, and optical sensing.

    • Neel Choksi
    • , Yi Liu
    •  & Li Qian

  • News & Views |

    High-harmonics spectroscopy reveals the closure of the bandgap between adjacent conduction bands in solids driven by high-intensity laser fields, providing insight into light-driven modifications of band structures

    • Dieter Bauer

  • Comment |

    A heat-powered emitter can sometimes exceed the Planck thermal-emission limit. We clarify when such super-Planckian emission is possible, arguing that far-field super-Planckian emission requires a distribution of energy that is not consistent with a unique temperature, and therefore the process should not be called ‘thermal emission’.

    • Yuzhe Xiao
    • , Matthew Sheldon
    •  & Mikhail A. Kats

  • Article |

    Researchers demonstrate a multilevel non-volatile phase shifter memory that is based on the monolithic integration of BaTiO3 thin films and silicon waveguides. By manipulating ferroelectric domains in BaTiO3 with electrical control signals, they achieve analogue and non-volatile optical phase tuning.

    • Jacqueline Geler-Kremer
    • , Felix Eltes
    •  & Stefan Abel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Continuously adjustable single-cycle waveform spanning from 0.9 to 12.0 μm is obtained by cascaded intrapulse difference-frequency generation in a ZnGeP2 crystal. The cascade-associated phase response—distinct for different spectral bands—provides a new tuning parameter for waveform adjustment.

    • Philipp Steinleitner
    • , Nathalie Nagl
    •  & Ka Fai Mak

  • News & Views |

    A single-pass free electron laser operating at 0.16 THz with an energy efficiency of ~10% promises compact and high-power sources in the terahertz spectral region.

    • Lixin Yan
    •  & Zhuoyuan Liu

  • Article |

    A single-pass free-electron laser based on a waveguide in a tapered helical undulator is developed. The energy conversion efficiency from a relativistic electron beam to terahertz waves at 0.16 THz is ~10%.

    • A. Fisher
    • , Y. Park
    •  & P. Musumeci

  • News & Views |

    Non-reciprocal physical systems exhibit direction-dependent propagation of light, enabling a myriad of devices such as diodes and circulators. A new experiment demonstrates non-reciprocal amplification of light via atomic spins, driving photons on a one-way street through optical nanofibres.

    • Kanu Sinha
    •  & Elizabeth A. Goldschmidt

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