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Surface plasmons undergo ultrafast dynamics on the attosecond timescale. Probing these ultrabrief effects is notoriously difficult, but a new microscope could pave the way towards an understanding of these fields and, ultimately, control of them.
The first OSA topical meeting in China was dedicated to optics on the nanoscale. Experts from all over the world gathered in Hangzhou and heard how this emerging technology could help healthcare, communications and energy generation.
An elegant approach to imaging the interior organs of small animals with improved visibility and accuracy looks set to help drug development and disease research.
Lasers that are powered by sunlight alone could have a promising future thanks to an efficient and compact design that can scale to high output powers.
The continuing rapid progress of quantum information technology was evident from the latest research presented at the CLEO/Europe–IQEC conference in Munich.
The first experimental demonstration of a mirrorless optical parametric oscillator could lead to compact sources of tunable light that require fewer parts and are alignment free.
Peidong Yang, of the University of California, Berkeley, recently added another prestigious prize to his collection — the National Science Foundation's Waterman award. Nature Photonics spoke to Yang about his latest accolade.
High-fidelity line-by-line spectral shaping has been applied to more than 100 phase-stable optical frequency-comb components. This represents a significant step towards optical arbitrary waveform generation and control.
A technique for cutting thin slices of lithium niobate offers a way of integrating this valuable material, and its strong nonlinear optical properties, into small photonic circuits.
Optical modulators typically rely on weak nonlinear light–matter interactions to modulate light with light. But using surface plasmons to excite quantum dots, researchers at the California Institute of Technology have now demonstrated an efficient approach to chip-based all-optical modulation.
Experiments now show that the force exerted by light can be used to pull a waveguide towards a microdisk resonator, illustrating how optical forces could be used for positioning and control in integrated microphotonics.
The combination of superconducting single-photon detectors and phase-shift keying technology has enabled a leap in the performance of quantum cryptography.
