Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Researchers use a nonlinear coherent imaging technique to demonstrate distant coherent coupling between excitons in quantum wells. The long-range nature of the coupling is attributed to the existence of spatially extended exciton states up to the micrometre range.
Scientists demonstrate an optical analogue of aerodynamic lift, in which an airfoil-shaped refractive object can be controlled through the radiation pressure induced by refracted and reflected rays of light.
Researchers demonstrate a probabilistic noiseless linear amplifier based on photon addition and subtraction. The technique enables coherent states to be amplified to the highest levels of effective gain and final-state fidelity, and could become an essential tool for applications in quantum communication and metrology.
Using ∼1-mm-long photonic crystal waveguides, scientists experimentally demonstrate the compression of 3 ps pulses to a minimum duration of 580 fs at a low pulse energy of ∼20 pJ. The approach may pave the way for soliton applications in integrated photonic chips.
Researchers report the generation of isolated sub-160-attosecond pulses that have photon energies of 30 eV, resulting in an on-target pulse energy of a few nanojoules. The availability of attosecond sources with high peak intensities may open new avenues for attosecond pump/probe studies of electronic processes in atomic and molecular physics.
By combining advanced ultrashort-pulse laser technology with scanning tunneling microscopy, scientists demonstrate that they can directly image transient carrier dynamics in nanostructures in real space.
Colour conversion of single photons may allow the advantages of quantum systems operating at different wavelengths to be simultaneously utilized. Researchers demonstrate the colour conversion of triggered single photons from a semiconductor quantum dot between 1.3 µm to 710 nm. The up-converted signal maintains the quantum character of the original light.
A prototype microscope built with self-reconstructing Bessel beams is shown to be able to reduce scattering artifacts as well as increase image quality and penetration depth in three-dimensional inhomogeneous opaque media.
Researchers describe a theoretical mechanism that may ensure high-fidelity entanglement of photons, and thus could be used to construct a practical quantum repeater. The communication rate is shown to be a function of the maximum distance between any two adjacent quantum repeaters, rather than of the entire length of the network.
The effects of interactions on Hanbury Brown and Twiss interferometry are studied by considering the propagation of light in a nonlinear optical medium. The interactions affect the multipath interference, which makes it difficult to extract information about the light source. Nevertheless, the recovery of the disordered information is demonstrated through proper analysis.
Advanced on-chip photonic networks require integrated nanoscale lasers with low power consumption. Researchers have now demonstrated high-speed modulation of a compact heterostructure photonic crystal laser at room temperature with an unprecedented low required energy of ∼13 fJ per bit transmitted.
The Linac Coherent Light Source free-electron laser has now achieved coherent X-ray generation down to a wavelength of 1.2 Å and at a brightness that is nearly ten orders of magnitude higher than conventional synchrotrons. Researchers detail the first operation and beam characteristics of the system, which give hope for imaging at atomic spatial and temporal scales.
Non-Gaussian continuous variable operations are demonstrated for the first time at telecommunications wavelengths. Squeezed states were generated using a titanium superconducting sensor that can resolve the incident photon number. Reconstructed Wigner functions of the generated quantum states indicated non-Gaussian operation.
A terahertz quantum cascade laser and diode mixer are monolithically integrated to form a simple microelectronic terahertz transceiver. The performance of this system — the transmission of a coherent carrier, heterodyne reception of an external signal, frequency locking and tuning — is as efficient as that of discrete component terahertz photonic systems.
Quasi-phase-matching (QPM) has always been thought of as a purely spatial phenomenon. Now, scientists show that QPM can be extended to the temporal domain, introducing temporal and spatiotemporal modulations of the nonlinear susceptibility. This concept paves the way for the manipulation of light through nonlinear interactions, and may have unique applications in nonlinear optics.
Using standard silica optical fibres, scientists observe temporal cavity solitons — packets of light persisting in a continuously driven nonlinear resonator. Cavity solitons 4 ps long are reported and used to demonstrate storage of a data stream for more than a second. The findings represent one of the simplest examples of self-organization phenomena in nonlinear optics.
Distortions in a propagating optical wavefront — known as aberrations — prevent the achievement of a diffraction-limited beam spot. A generic in situ wavefront correction method based on complex modulation is demonstrated, allowing compensation for all aberrations along the whole optical train. The scheme is used for direct trapping through highly turbid and diffusive media, opening up new applications for optical micromanipulation in colloidal and biological physics.
A recording density of 1.5 Pb m−2 using heat-assisted magnetic recording in a bit-patterned media is demonstrated. This represents a dramatic improvement in track width and optical efficiency over continuous media, owing largely to advantageous near-field optical effects.
All-optical switching energies as small as 0.42 fJ — two orders of magnitude lower than previously reported — are demonstrated in small photonic crystal cavities incorporating InGaAsP. These devices can switch within a few tens of picoseconds, and may therefore have potential for low-power high-density all-optical processing on a chip.
Room-temperature lasing from metallo-dielectric cavities that are smaller than their emission wavelength in all three dimensions is reported. The cavity consists of an aluminium/silica bi-layer shield that surrounds an InGaAsP disk. The gain threshold of the laser is minimized by optimizing the thickness of the silica layer.
