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A chain of nanorods with weakly damped plasmon resonances is able to perform far-field colour imaging with subwavelength resolution, according to theoretical simulations.

Over the past 20 years photodynamic therapy, a cell-killing technique where a photosensitizing drug is activated by carefully targeted visible light, has led to new therapies for cancer and other diseases. In doing so it has won support from scientists, clinicians and patients alike.

Random lasers do not have mirrors or optical elements. They often lack a well-defined shape or size, and their emission wavelength is difficult to tune. Now it is shown that the optical resonances in an ensemble of microspheres can provide the crucial element of control.

Holographic data storage is poised to change the way we write and retrieve data forever. After many years of developing appropriate recording media and optical read–write architectures, this promising technology is now moving to the market.

Nadya Anscombe talks to David Bunzel, president of the Optical Storage Technology Association, about the aftermath of the Blu-ray/high-definition-DVD format war and future technologies in the optical data-storage market

Random lasers, as their name implies, are difficult to predict. Nature Photonics spoke to Diederik Wiersma at the European Laboratory for Nonlinear Spectroscopy in Florence, Italy, about taming their random nature.

Light is often thought of in terms of radial polarization, but longitudinal polarization is also possible, and it has some intriguing possibilities for particle acceleration. Binary optics, combined with a high-numerical-aperture lens, is a potential route to achieving light with this unusual property.

High-speed imaging gives us a fascinating insight into ultrafast changes in materials. By combining the speed of optical pulses and the short wavelength of X-ray pulses, imaging with 50-nm spatial and 10-ps temporal resolution is possible, with scope to go much further.

A stack of silver nanorods could, according to calculations, be the answer to performing subwavelength colour imaging over far-field distances. The metallic nanolens is designed to operate in the visible wavelength range and by tapering the nanorods, image magnification is also shown to be feasible. If realized such a lens could be useful for imaging applications in the biomedical sciences and other fields.

In a random laser, the conventional optical cavity is replaced by light scattering from many particles. The random arrangement of the particles makes it difficult to tune the lasing to a chosen wavelength. However, tuning is possible by controlling the size of the particles.

Determining the exact number of photons in a weak light pulse is an important requirement for many applications in quantum optics. Now, contrary to popular belief, Andrew Shields and colleagues have demonstrated that an avalanche-photodiode detector can perform the task.

Although the expense involved and pressures of time sometimes make visiting conferences difficult, the benefits are often highly worthwhile.