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.
A superconducting nanowire acting as a single-photon detector and as a microwave delay line is used to demonstrate an imaging device at the single-photon level with sub-20-µm spatial resolution and 50-ps temporal resolution.
Coherent diffractive imaging of periodic samples is demonstrated with a tabletop, 13.5 nm high-harmonic source. With a novel image reconstruction technique, the record high spatial resolution of 12.6 nm is achieved in the extreme-ultraviolet region.
The spatial phase and direction of extreme-ultraviolet light are controlled by an all-optical modulator based on argon gas. It works by using an infrared pulse to control the spatial and spectral phase of the free induction decay in the gas system.
Terahertz (THz) pulses are generated by irradiating a metal wire with femtosecond laser pulses. For incident laser energy of 3 mJ, a THz pulse with energy of 28 μJ is obtained from a 10-cm-long wire. The spectrum of the THz pulse covers 0.1–1.5 THz.
The application of d.c. fields across p–i–n junctions in silicon ridge waveguides leads to crystal symmetry breaking. This induces a second-order optical nonlinear susceptibility that enables phase-only modulation and second-harmonic generation with an efficiency of ∼13% W–1 at 2.29 µm.
Reabsorption losses in luminescent solar concentrators can be avoided by the use of indirect-bandgap semiconductor nanostructures. The technology has been used to demonstrate flexible luminescent solar concentrators with performance comparable to flat concentrators.
A solution-processed organic phototransistor is operated at 100-frame-per-second rates with external quantum efficiencies above 100%. Dynamic range as high as 103 dB was shown for 30-frame-per-second operation.
Stimulated emission double depletion addresses the issue of background in super-resolution imaging and quantitative microscopy through implementation of a two-pulse sequence in a modified stimulated emission depletion set-up. The measured background intensity is removed from each voxel in the acquired images thanks to time-resolved detection.
Constructive interference is observed in the inelastically backscattered Raman radiation from nanostructured media. The effect is studied at a macroscopic scale and is explained in the context of Rayleigh–Raman random walks inside strongly scattering materials.
Localized polarization knots formed in conventional optical fibres are shown to be able to act as topological bits of information for optical data communication.