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X-ray photons emitted by free electrons travelling in van der Waals materials show energy shifts induced by quantum recoil, thus offering a viable route to generating tailored and tunable single X-ray photons.
A field trial in the Swiss mountains demonstrating that an intense laser beam can guide lightning discharge over tens of metres gives hope for the development of a new form of mobile lightning protection.
A scheme for converting qubits between two different representations, discrete and continuous variables, paves the way for more-efficient quantum networks.
The near-field chirality of a single-symmetry achiral object enables polarization-dependent unidirectional photocurrent generation, and the vectorial output paves a way for a new family of geometric photodetectors.
The resonance wavelengths of optical Möbius strip microcavities can be continuously tuned via geometric phase manipulation by changing the thickness-to-width ratio of the strip.
Using two different designs of superconductor-based detectors, two independent research groups report photon number detection for light pulses with up to 100 photons.
Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors offer outstanding performance, but the development of large-format imaging arrays is challenging. A new approach based on sectioning a single nanowire enables an eightfold improvement of the spatial resolution and the realization of a 1,024-pixel imager.
The free-carrier dispersion effect with photo-excited free carriers provides all-optical control of the resonance of photonic crystal microcavities. Using this technique, a spatial light modulator comprising optically addressed cavity arrays has been developed for high-efficiency, high-bandwidth spatiotemporal modulation of light.
Experimental confirmation that the Gouy phase can modify the photonic de Broglie wavelength opens up many exciting directions in metrology using quantum systems with higher-order Gaussian modes.
Suppression of exciton–vibration coupling yields organic light-emitting diodes that emit at 1,000 nm in the NIR-II spectral region, which is important for biological imaging.
