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The high-resolution imaging of individual colour centres in diamond using stimulated emission depletion microscopy is set to offer new insights into the physics underlying solid-state light emitters.
LEDs are receiving great interest as candidates for next-generation lighting because they promise to reduce energy consumption enormously. However, to be a feasible solution their quantum efficiency needs to improve. Now, it seems that the incorporation of photonic crystals may be an answer.
A transition between strong and weak coupling regimes in a polariton diode microcavity yields optically controlled switching of current. Researchers show bistable cycles for optical powers two to three orders of magnitude less than typical schemes.
By carefully optimizing the properties of a waveguide made from a highly nonlinear glass, Australian researchers have achieved record optical nonlinearity and put it to use in a broadband radiofrequency spectrum analyser. The work could ultimately lead to improved all-optical signal processing.
Researchers in South Korea and the Netherlands have demonstrated that the enhancement of the electric field of terahertz radiation inside a nano-slit continues to grow, even when the slit becomes narrower than the skin depth of the material.
Practical low-loss metamaterials at optical frequencies may soon be realized thanks to optical parametric amplification that uses backwards propagation of a signal beam in negative-index metamaterials. Surprisingly, increasing losses at the idler frequency leads to broadband transparency or amplification at the signal frequency.
Storing a light pulse in a vapour is by now a standard laboratory technique. For such optical memory to become truly practical, however, the fidelity of the technique has to be improved. Combining light storage with nonlinear wave mixing may offer a way forwards.
By using an optical frequency comb as a light source for Fourier transform spectroscopy, scientists show that well-resolved absorption and dispersion spectra can be recorded simultaneously, providing sensitive detection of multiple molecular species over a broad spectral window.
A spectral decomposition of the fluorescence emission from labelled receptors within cells, together with a simple but accurate data analysis of their mutual Förster resonant energy transfer, can provide high-resolution real-time imaging of the fate of intracellular proteins.
For integrated photonics to take off, light signals zooming around optical chips must be successfully isolated from one another. Scientists at Stanford University have now designed a miniature one-way valve for light that uses photonic transitions and is potentially compatible with silicon-chip CMOS fabrication processes.
The use of fluorescent tagging and nanoscale waveguides looks set to make real-time DNA sequencing a realistic proposition. Commercial devices based on nanophotonics are expected in 2010.
The demonstration that lasing at high-k wavevectors is possible in a quantum cascade laser may open new avenues for the design of intersub-band devices.
Using clever device engineering, European researchers have created vertically emitting microcavity lasers, potentially paving the way towards powerful terahertz sources and detectors useful for imaging and biological sensing.
By applying an extremely large magnetic field to break a semiconductor's energy bands into discrete levels, researchers have shown that it is possible for terahertz quantum cascade lasers to operate at unprecedented temperatures and wavelengths.
Optical communication makes good use of sensitive avalanche photodiodes, typically made from group III–V semiconductor compounds. New research shows that silicon may be a viable alternative material for realizing such detectors with better performance.
How can we capture ultrafast optical signals in real time? A time lens is one possibility — able to image the temporal profile of a short optical signal, analogous to a conventional lens. Such a device has now been created on a silicon chip.
