Article:

Ultracompact optical buffers on a silicon chip

Fengnian Xia, Lidija Sekaric & Yurii Vlasov

On-chip optical buffers based on waveguide delay lines might have significant implications for the development of optical interconnects in computer systems.

News & Views:

Photonic crystals: Remember the light

Toshihiko Baba

The ability to rapidly tune the properties of a photonic crystal nanocavity and 'program' it to store light for more than a nanosecond brings optical memory a step closer.

Review:

Optical negative-index metamaterials

Vladimir M. Shalaev

Artificially engineered metamaterials are now demonstrating unprecedented electromagnetic properties that cannot be obtained with naturally occurring materials.

Review:

Integrated optofluidics: A new river of light

C. Monat, P. Domachuk & B. J. Eggleton

The realization of miniature optofluidic platforms offers potential for creating compact reconfigurable devices with rich functionality such as sensors, filters, lasers.

Article:

Morpho butterfly wing scales demonstrate highly selective vapour response

Radislav A. Potyrailo, Helen Ghiradella, Alexei Vertiatchikh, Katharine Dovidenko, James R. Cournoyer & Eric Olson

Tropical Morpho butterflies are famous for their brilliant iridescent colours, which arise from ordered arrays of scales on their wings. Researchers show that the wing scales give a different optical response to different individual vapours, and that this optical response outperforms existing nano-engineered photonic sensors.

News & Views:

Lasers: All mirrors are not created equal

Alan E. Willner

Lasers are a triumph of modern optics, and mirrors play a crucial role in the coherent light produced. A hi-tech reflector could make lasers a lot smaller and lead to their inclusion in an even wider range of optical devices.

News & Views:

Slow light: Putting the brakes on images

Alexander L. Gaeta

Slow light has captured the imagination of physicists for over a decade. Although single light pulses have been slowed down in a variety of settings, a group at Rochester University has now managed to delay an entire image for the first time.

Article:

Hybrid polymer/sol�gel waveguide modulators with exceptionally large electro�optic coefficients

Y. Enami, C. T. Derose, D. Mathine, C. Loychik, C. Greenlee, R. A. Norwood, T. D. Kim, J. Luo, Y. Tian, A. K.-Y. Jen & N. Peyghambarian

Electro-optic modulators based on a combination of inorganic and organic materials offer new levels of performance, in particular electro-optic coefficients that are five to six times larger than those based on the benchmark inorganic material.

Commentary:

The life and times of the LED - a 100-year history

Nikolay Zheludev

Many people believe that the LED was discovered by US researchers working in the 1960s. In fact, Henry Round at Marconi Labs noted the emission of light from a semiconductor diode 100 years ago and, independently, a forgotten Russian genius - Oleg Losev - discovered the LED.

Letter:

Optical cloaking with metamaterials

Wenshan Cai, Uday K. Chettiar, Alexander V. Kildishev & Vladimir M. Shalaev

A design for a non-magnetic cloak operating at optical frequencies. The principle and structure of the proposed cylindrical cloak are analysed, and the general recipe for the implementation of such a device is provided.

Interview:

Silicon lasers: the final frontier

Amber Jenkins

People have been trying to get silicon to lase since the first semiconductor laser in the 1960s. Thanks to recent breakthroughs, silicon lasers are finally beginning to take flight. Amber Jenkins spoke to Haisheng Rong, Victor Krutul and Manny Vara at Intel to find out more.

Letter:

Changing the colour of light in a silicon resonator

Stefan F. Preble, Qianfan Xu & Michal Lipson

Wavelength conversion on a silicon chip is performed by inducing ultrafast electro�optic tuning of a microcavity. A change in wavelength of up to 2.5 nm with up to 34% on�off conversion efficiency is demonstrated.

Out of the lab:

Electronic paper rewrites the rulebook for displays

Duncan Graham-Rowe

Following years of development, electronic paper is now entering ebooks, mobile phones and signs and starting to gain the market acceptance that it has long strived for.

Article:

Operation of a free-electron laser from the extreme ultraviolet to the water window

W. Ackermann et al.

Results from a free-electron laser operating at a wavelength of 13.7 nm with unprecedented peak and average powers for a coherent extreme-ultraviolet radiation source are reported. At 2.75 nm the 5th harmonic of the radiation reaches deep into the water window, a wavelength range that is crucially important for the investigation of biological samples.

Commentary:

How to start up a start-up

James C. Wyant

Researchers are increasingly toying with the idea of taking their ideas out of universities and into the marketplace. Starting your own company can be extremely rewarding, but it requires perseverance and a great deal of hard work.

Article:

Terahertz transfer onto a telecom optical carrier

Sukhdeep S. Dhillon, Carlo Sirtori, Jesse Alton, Stefano Barbieri, Alfredo de Rossi, Harvey E. Beere & David A. Ritchie

A nonlinear up-conversion technique opens up new possibilities in the optical treatment of terahertz waves, by taking advantage of highly developed telecom technology.

News & Views:

Obituary: Theodore Maiman (1927�2007)

Jeff Hecht

Laser pioneer, Theodore Maiman died on Saturday 5 May 2007, aged 79. His legacy lives on.

Letter:

All-optical modulation by plasmonic excitation of CdSe quantum dots

Domenico Pacifici, Henri J. Lezec & Harry A. Atwater

An all-optical modulator on a micrometre-scale platform is reported in which efficient interaction between two light beams at different wavelengths is achieved by converting them into co-propagating surface plasmon polaritons.

Commentary:

A world of opportunity

Robert Bradley

The photonics industry is in excellent health, with more job opportunities than have been seen in a number of years. The key is to find a position that's right for you.

Letter:

Mirrorless optical parametric oscillator

Carlota Canalias & Valdas Pasiskevicius

The first experimental demonstration of a mirrorless optical parametric oscillator (OPO). The device relies on quasi phase-matching in a nonlinear photonic structure with submicrometre periodicity.

Letter:

All-optical anatomical co-registration for molecular imaging of small animals using dynamic contrast

Elizabeth M. C. Hillman & Anna Moore

A remarkably simple all-optical method for generating co-registered anatomical maps of a mouse's internal organs, while also acquiring in vivo molecular imaging data is presented.

Article:

Attosecond nanoplasmonic-field microscope

Mark I. Stockman, Matthias F. Kling, Ulf Kleineberg & Ferenc Krausz

A method which combines photoelectron emission microscopy and attosecond streaking spectroscopy offers a valuable way of probing optical fields on the nanoscale.

Letter:

Photon-number discriminating detection using a quantum-dot, optically-gated field-effect transistor

E. J. Gansen, M. A. Rowe, M. B. Greene, D. Rosenberg, T. E. Harvey, M. Y. Su, R. H. Hadfield, S. W. Nam & R. P. Mirin

Detectors with the capability to directly measure the photon number of a pulse of light have important potential applications in quantum computing and communications and can be used to characterize and herald non-classical states of light.

Review:

Nano-optics from sensing to waveguiding

Surbhi Lal, Stephan Link & Naomi J. Halas

Plasmonics - a rapidly emerging subdiscipline of nanophotonics - is aimed at exploiting both localized and propagating surface plasmons for technologically important applications, specifically in sensing and waveguiding.

Editorial:

Talk of the town

The sun is setting on fossil fuels. With the dawn of a new, clean-energy era comes new responsibilities, challenges and opportunities. Those in the photonics community will certainly help to forge the path we take in the coming years.

Interview:

Atoms in a spin

The miniaturization of laser-based atomic magnetometers could be used in neuroscience to investigate the inner workings of the brain. Nature Photonics spoke to John Kitching at the National Institute of Standards and Technology about the latest developments.

Letter:

High-frequency single-photon source with polarization control

Stefan Strauf, Nick G. Stoltz, Matthew T. Rakher, Larry A. Coldren, Pierre M. Petroff & Dirk Bouwmeester

A quantum-dot-based single-photon source with a measured single-photon emission rate of 4.0 MHz (31 MHz into the first lens, with an extraction efficiency of 38%) is reported.

News & Views:

Laser design: A cooler Raman laser

Bahram Jalali

Textbooks suggest that heating, caused by phonon emission, is an inevitable and intrinsic by-product of light generation in a Raman laser. Now a design has emerged that reduces the phonon emission and may lead to higher efficiency and smaller devices.