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The realization of an all-optical phase and amplitude regenerator could help take coherent optical communication to new distances and transmission speeds.
Researchers have demonstrated how photon correlations can be used to explore the spectral diffusion of light from a single quantum dot with subnanosecond time resolution. This will help to clarify the origin of frequency jitter, and thereby help to realize narrowband stable condensed matter sources of single photons.
High-harmonic interferometry can be used to measure the amplitude and phase of light emitted from molecules. This method has now been used to reveal the ultrafast dynamics of electrons and nuclear interactions during a chemical reaction.
Research into photochemical reactions is now yielding promising ways of converting solar energy into convenient forms of chemical energy that can be easily stored.
Graphene has had a big impact in optics and optoelectronics for both fundamental physics and real-world applications, and there is now considerable excitement about its prospects for terahertz science.
The Linac Coherent Light Source at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in the USA is producing coherent soft and hard X-rays at a brightness nearly ten orders of magnitude larger than synchrotron sources, heralding a new era in ultrafast science.
Photonic crystal nanocavities can strongly enhance the interaction between light and matter. Researchers have now demonstrated high-speed signal generation and all-optical switching with energies in the femtojoule and sub-femtojoule regime.
An infrared laser pacemaker that can optically synchronize the beat of an embryonic heart shows great promise for developmental biology, and perhaps ultimately for use as a pacemaker in humans.
Using a clever design of polarization optic, Italian researchers have successfully created four-level 'ququart' quantum states using the polarization and orbital angular momentum of single photons. This approach may help to realize more effective forms of quantum communication.
The study of dissipative solitons is not only increasing our understanding of nonlinear systems but may also help develop high-performance short-pulse lasers and devices for optical information processing.
Carefully designed nanophotonic silicon waveguides, when pumped at long wavelengths to avoid inherent losses, are opening the door to useful nonlinear processes in the mid-infrared.
Entangled photons are a key ingredient in optical quantum technologies, but researchers have so far been unable to produce a single pair of entangled photons. Now, two groups from China and Austria independently report just that, with a technique that avoids the need to infer entanglement from detection signatures.
Common sense suggests that complex phenomena such as Bose–Einstein condensation require complicated experimental set-ups to be observed. But when it comes to the field of photonics, the simplest system may sometimes reveal the most unexpected surprises.
The demonstration of an integrated terahertz transceiver featuring a quantum cascade laser and a Schottky diode mixer promises new applications for compact and convenient terahertz photonic instrumentation.
The generation of entangled photon pairs is usually a complex process involving optically driven schemes and nonlinear optics. The recent demonstration of an electrically powered light-emitting diode that is capable of this task looks set to greatly simplify experiments in the field of quantum information processing.
