Amorphous phases of self-assembling molecules employed as a hole-transporting layer in inverted perovskite solar cells contribute to homogeneous perovskite film growth, resulting in a power conversion efficiency of 25.20% (certified 24.35%) for one-square-centimetre area cells.

By entangling multiple qudits within the Hilbert space of each photon, cluster states with up to 9.28 qubits are generated at a rate of 100 Hz. The high-dimensional encoding substantially reduces the computation duration compared to the standard two-dimensional encoding.

Cr³⁺-sensitized lanthanide-doped nanoparticles afford high-brightness luminescence in the near-infrared region for applications in in vivo non-invasive bioimaging.

Integrating an organic photodiode with a tandem OLED enables positive photonic feedback that results in bistable behaviour. Devices show giant hysteresis in their current–voltage–luminance characteristic and upconversion of near-infrared to visible light with 100-fold photon-to-photon gain.

A Brillouin laser-driven terahertz oscillator is developed. The phase noise level of the generated terahertz waves is less than –100 dBc Hz^–1, translating to timing noise below 10 as Hz^–1/2 at 10 kHz Fourier frequency, over a carrier frequency range from 300 GHz to 3 THz.

Dual-comb spectroscopy with time–frequency dissemination and high-power frequency combs enables sensing CO₂ and H₂O over a 113 km turbulent open-air path, with a sensing precision as high as 2 parts per million of CO₂.

The mitigation of climate change requires major transformations in the ways we generate energy and operate technologies that release carbon dioxide. Photonic concepts and novel light-driven technologies provide many potential solutions, transforming our current modes of energy use into more effective and sustainable ones.

Nathalie Picqué, the new director at the Max Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroscopy (MBI) in Berlin, Germany, tells us all we need to know about frequency combs and dual-comb spectroscopy, and shares with us some golden tips on becoming a successful scientist.

Joseph Izatt’s work advanced the science of imaging in biophotonics and brought optical coherence tomography imaging to the eye care of infants and children and, as live feedback for the surgeon, to ophthalmic microsurgery.

Following first lasing at LCLS-II — a coherent X-ray laser source driven by a 700-m superconducting linear accelerator — several upgrades are already in the works. Nature Photonics spoke to LCLS director Mike Dunne about LCLS-II commissioning hurdles as well as future plans.

Global proliferation of free-electron laser X-ray sources has improved accessibility. Now the race is on for high repetition rates, attosecond pulses, and full coherence.

We had all been wondering “where is Costas?” and now we learned that we shall not see him again. We have lost a good friend and leader in the photonics community.