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A fingertip-sized on-chip optomechanical device offers a controllable way to shift the frequency of single photons in the telecom band while preserving their quantum information.
The combination of whispering-gallery-mode sensing with photothermal absorption spectroscopy promises significant advances in single-molecule identification.
Research groups around the world are rushing to combine perovskites with silicon or other materials in an attempt to make tandem solar cells that promise unprecedented device efficiencies.
Radiation pressure is not the only way to push or pull matter and drive light–matter interactions. Optomechanical devices can now be driven thermoelastically and amplification with acoustic-laser-like behaviour has been observed.
The X-ray free-electron laser at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in the US can now generate multicolour X-ray pulses with unprecedented brightness using the fresh-slice technique. The development opens the way to new forms of spectroscopy.
Optical sensing of individual ions in solution is made possible by combining a macroscopic dielectric photonic cavity with a nanoscale metal resonator. The approach provides a platform for interrogating single-ion binding events with metal surfaces.
Progress in the development of highly sensitive biosensors and tailored thermal emission were two highlights of the 2016 PECS conference on photonic crystals in York, UK.
Ultrashort laser pulses strongly drive electrons in glass and manipulate its optical properties on the attosecond timescale. A new spectroscopic study reveals the full interaction dynamics, with promising ramifications for future lightwave-driven petahertz electronics.
Quantum teleportation is at the heart of many quantum information protocols. Two teams have now performed it over several kilometres of metropolitan fibre networks, paving the way for future quantum technologies on the city scale.
Antiferromagnets are considered mysterious due to their lack of macroscopic magnetization. Researchers have now found a way to manipulate their magnetic ordering using different wavelengths of light.
The synthesis of more efficient upconversion nanomaterials that absorb multiple low-energy photons in the near-infrared and then re-emit in the visible or ultraviolet was a key theme at the first UPCON conference.
Uncompromised performance of micro-optical compound lenses has been achieved by high-fidelity shape definition during two-photon absorption microfabrication. The lenses have been made directly onto image sensors and even onto the tip of an optic fibre.
High-harmonic generation is an established method to significantly upshift laser photon energies. Now, researchers at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have used echo concepts to generate coherent high-harmonic output from an electron-beam light source.
