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Bias-free optical metasurfaces with a large non-reciprocal response for free-space radiation are discussed, based on thermo-optic nonlinearities. These ultrathin devices may lead to new approaches for areas ranging from signal processing to protection of high-power laser cavities.
Wavelength-scale, low-threshold, vortex and anti-vortex nanolasers with topological charges in an optical cavity that is formed by a topological disclination are demonstrated, paving a way towards the development of ultra-small light sources with quantized vector vortex states attractive for optical communication systems.
Programmable photonic arrays with <10 fW (per unit) standby power consumption, <40 pJ (per unit) reconfiguration energy and <11 V programming voltages are demonstrated.
Self-configuring meshes of integrated Mach–Zehnder interferometers determine the optimal communication channels through unknown optical media, with the resulting modes showing crosstalk below –30 dB.
An electrically tunable device that can work as an optical switch, an optical limiter with a tunable limiting threshold and a nonlinear optical isolator with a tunable operating range in the mid-infrared range is realized by combining a gold layer with subwavelength square slits and a layer of VO2.
Researchers demonstrate nonlinear wavelength converters whose output wavelengths are controlled with high accuracy by bandgap-protected wavenumber selectivity. Output frequencies are continuously tuned by nearly 300 GHz without compromising efficiency.
By implanting 117Sn, a fibre-packaged nanophotonic diamond waveguide with optically addressable hyperfine transitions separated by 452 MHz is demonstrated. This enables the formation of a spin-gated optical switch and achieving a waveguide-to-fibre extraction efficiency of 57%.
Researchers propose a laser pulse compression method for exawatt to zettawatt lasers based on spatially varying dispersion of an inhomogeneous plasma. This may enable, for example, pulse compression of a laser pulse from 2.35 ps to 10.3 fs. The approach is robust at high intensities.
Three-dimensional nonlinear optical metamaterials are realized by directly engineering the symmetries of electronic wavefunctions at the atomic scale by stacking individual two-dimensional van der Waals interfaces into a precisely designed three-dimensional configuration.
A mid-infrared dual-comb system capable of nanosecond time-resolved spectral measurements is realized by using a singly resonant optical parametric oscillator that allows an efficient conversion of an input dual-comb pump at 1 µm into an idler dual comb in the mid-infrared regime.
Event-based sensors enable super-resolution single-molecule localization microscopy with comparable quality and resolution to traditional scientific cameras, while also overcoming the limitations of high-density imaging.
Radio-frequency modulation of optical signals increase the parallelization of photonic processors beyond that afforded by exploiting spatial and wavelength dimensions alone. The approach is then demonstrated on electrocardiogram signals and identifies patients at sudden death risk with 93.5% accuracy.
A cascaded hard X-ray self-seeding system is demonstrated at the European X-ray free-electron laser. The setup enables millijoule-level pulses in the photon energy range of 6–14 keV at the rate of ten trains per second, with each train including hundreds of pulses arriving at a megahertz repetition rate.
By exploiting the nonlinear Raman gain inherent in fused silica, short sub-100-fs dissipative Raman soliton pulses can be formed in fused-silica fibre resonators that are driven by electro-optically generated picosecond pulses.
Continuous-wave conversion of a 13.9 GHz field to a near-infrared optical signal is demonstrated by using Rydberg atoms at room temperature. The conversion bandwidth is 16 MHz and the conversion dynamic range is 57 dB, descending down to 3.8 K noise-equivalent temperature.
Optical second-harmonic waves are generated from the electric quadrupole contribution in a centrosymmetric magnetic Weyl semimetal Co3Sn2S2. Two magnetic orders and phase transitions are explored in temperature-dependent rotational anisotropy measurements by second-harmonic generation.
Combining random illumination microscopy with coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering and sum-frequency generation contrasts, a robust wide-field nonlinear microscope with a 3 µm axial sectioning capability and a 300 nm transverse resolution is demonstrated.
