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The photonics applications of engineered liquid crystals extend far beyond their use in displays. High-density optical data storage, tunable lasers and metamaterials are just a few of the other opportunities.

As the demand for sophisticated imaging systems grows, adaptive lenses with fast-focusing capability become indispensable. Nature Photonics spoke to Amir H. Hirsa from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute about the oscillating liquid lens that he and his co-author have demonstrated.

Gaining the readers' interests should not come at the expense of veracity. Getting the facts correct when communicating science to the general public is essential.

Researchers demonstrate fast optical focusing using an oscillating liquid lens. The method could lead to the development of three-dimensional imaging instruments with rapid data collection.

The ability to align optical components to tighter tolerances and in less time is the continual goal of designers of manipulation equipment, reports Neil Savage.

The human eye is a simple, but extremely robust, optical instrument. Analysis by sophisticated wavefront-sensing technology and customized ray-tracing has now revealed that the eye is actually an aplanatic design, with the cornea and lens compensating each other's aberrations.

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory in the USA is searching for gravitational-wave emissions from cataclysmic astrophysical events. The task has required the construction of the world's largest and most sensitive optical strain sensor.

Diode-pumped thin-disk lasers are now capable of generating femtosecond light pulses with a pulse energy in the microjoule regime at multi-megahertz repetition rates. This review describes the progress that has been made in scaling the performance of such lasers and the applications that may benefit as a result.

An organic LED that acts as an electrically driven source of surface plasmons is reported. The device generates a freely propagating beam of surface plasmons and has potential applications in integrated organic photonics and sensing.

Scientists exploit the use of Airy beams — an unusual class of optical waves — in optical manipulation. The beam can be used to transport particles along curved paths without moving the light beam, a technique that seems poised for many microfluidic applications especially in the biological sciences.

A design of on-chip optomechanical resonator that simultaneously maximizes a high mechanical Q-factor in the megahertz range and an ultrahigh optical finesse is reported. Studies of the mechanical properties of the cavity achieve the first direct observation of mechanical normal-mode coupling in a micromechanical system.

A millimetre-scale liquid lens that is harmonically driven and thus has an oscillating shape is demonstrated. By synchronizing the electronic timing of the image capture with the oscillations, a variable focus lens with a response time of 100 Hz is achieved. Simulations suggest that a faster response is possible for smaller lenses based on the same design.

Metamaterials, based on split-ring resonators, for example, enable complete control over electromagnetic waves in terms of both the electric and magnetic vector components. Measuring the absolute extinction cross-section of a single split-ring resonator advances our understanding of these useful materials.

The ability to efficiently transfer photons from a light source to an optical circuit is crucial, and requires efficient coupling of light to optical fibres and waveguides. Using state-of-the-art fabrication techniques, Hong-Gyu Park and colleagues create a device that uses nanowires to inject light into photonic-crystal waveguides in an efficient way. The structure could become an important part of the nanophotonics toolbox.

Attosecond spectroscopy promises real-time observation of the motion of electrons inside atoms. Nadya Anscombe talks to Ferenc Krausz from the Max-Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich in Germany about the technology.