Articles in 2009

Filter By:

  • Based on a passively phase-locked superposition of a dispersive wave and a soliton from two branches of a femtosecond Er-doped fibre laser, researchers demonstrate that single cycles of light can be achieved using existing fibre technology and standard free-space components. The pulses have a pulse duration of 4.3 fs, close to the shortest possible value for a data bit of information transmitted in the near-infrared.

    • Günther Krauss
    • Sebastian Lohss
    • Alfred Leitenstorfer
    Letter
  • Nanocavity plasmons are exploited as a coherent optical source with tunable energy and to actively control the radiative channels of molecules. Intense resonance enhancement of both excitation and emission, in an effect called resonant hot-electroluminescence, is demonstrated for porphyrin molecules confined inside a nanocavity.

    • Z. C. Dong
    • X. L. Zhang
    • J. G. Hou
    Letter
  • A monolithically integrated CMOS-compatible source is demonstrated using an optical parametric oscillator based on a silicon nitride ring resonator on silicon. Generating more than 100 wavelengths simultaneously and operating at powers below 50 mW, scientists say that it may form the basis of an on-chip high-bandwidth optical network.

    • Jacob S. Levy
    • Alexander Gondarenko
    • Michal Lipson
    Letter
  • Through optical ‘hyper-parametric’ oscillation in a high-index silica glass microring resonator, scientists demonstrate a fully integrated CMOS-compatible low-loss multiple-wavelength source that has high differential slope efficiency at only a few tens of milliwatts of continuous-wave power. The achievement has significant implications for telecommunications and on-chip optical interconnects in computers.

    • L. Razzari
    • D. Duchesne
    • D. J. Moss
    Letter
  • The generation of random bit sequences at a data rate of up to 300 Gbit s−1 — a rate many orders of magnitude faster than previously achieved — is realized by exploiting the output of a chaotic semiconductor laser. The randomness of the generated bits is verified by standard statistical tests.

    • Ido Kanter
    • Yaara Aviad
    • Michael Rosenbluh
    Article
  • Utilizing a self-referenced detection scheme based on the mode-splitting in an ultrahigh-Q microresonator, scientists realize the real-time in situ detection and sizing of single nanoparticles with radii as small as 30 nm. Labelling of the particles and a priori information on the presence of nanoparticles in the medium are not required, thus providing an effective platform for studying nanoparticles at the single-particle resolution level.

    • Jiangang Zhu
    • Sahin Kaya Ozdemir
    • Lan Yang
    Letter
  • Quantum optics has come a long way since its birth at the beginning of the 1900s. Nature Photonics spoke to Anton Zeilinger to gain some perspective on its progress.

    • David Pile
    Interview
  • The optical world has long been the perfect playground for exploring quantum mechanics and its applications. Now, improvements in the fabrication of optoelectronics and integrated optics are promising dramatic enhancements to the capabilities of quantum communication and computing.

    Editorial
  • Recent progress in manipulating quantum states of light and matter brings quantum-enhanced measurements closer to prospective applications. The current challenge is to make quantum metrologic strategies robust against imperfections.

    • Konrad Banaszek
    • Rafał Demkowicz-Dobrzański
    • Ian A. Walmsley
    Commentary
  • Laser-based Doppler cooling is a popular method for reducing the temperature of atoms, but it is limited to dilute gases. Now, researchers in Germany have demonstrated a laser scheme for cooling a highly dense gas mixture.

    • Mansoor Sheik-Bahae
    • Denis Seletskiy
    News & Views
  • Mechanically manipulating the lateral size of the lasing mode of a single-mode terahertz quantum cascade laser provides a new and robust method for widely and continuously tuning its emission wavelength.

    • Claire Gmachl
    News & Views
  • Photonics currently lacks a way of amplifying terahertz pulses in time-domain spectroscopy. Nathan Jukam from the École Nomale Supérieure in France spoke to Nature Photonics about how his group has achieved a semiconductor-based terahertz amplifier that gives a greatly improved amplification factor.

    • Rachel Won
    Interview
  • Quantum information protocols based on continuous-variable entangled states are attractive because they exploit standard optical modulation and measurement equipment, and do not require single photons. Recent progress in the field is reversing initial concerns about the practicality of the approach.

    • Timothy C. Ralph
    • Ping K. Lam
    Commentary
  • The integration of an optically pumped switch in a quantum cascade laser device yields a semiconductor terahertz amplifier that promises to extend the capabilities of time-domain spectroscopy.

    • Alessandro Tredicucci
    • Aldo Di Carlo
    News & Views
  • The demonstration that polarized laser pulses can control molecular velocities through the dipole force suggests that the cooling of molecules using light may soon be within reach.

    • Juan Ortigoso
    • Mirta Rodríguez
    News & Views
  • The detection of light at the single-photon level is important for tasks ranging from fluorescence imaging to quantum information processing, reports Neil Savage.

    • Neil Savage
    Product Focus
  • Quantum memory is important for a range of application including quantum information processing, matching various processes within a quantum devices, as a tool to convert photons to photons-on-demand and for implementation of long-distance quantum communication using quantum repeaters. Here, state-of-the-art optical quantum memory is reviewed.

    • Alexander I. Lvovsky
    • Barry C. Sanders
    • Wolfgang Tittel
    Review Article
  • We have just witnessed the birth of the first quantum technology based on encoding information in light for quantum key distribution. The quantum nature of light seems destined to continue to have a central role in future technologies. Here we provide a broad review of photonics for quantum technologies touching on topics including secure communication with photons, quantum information processing, quantum lithography and integrated quantum photonics.

    • Jeremy L. O'Brien
    • Akira Furusawa
    • Jelena Vučković
    Review Article