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Volume 16 Issue 7, July 2022

Vortex rings of light

Artistic image of a vortex-ring light pulse. In such pulses, the field lines follow the shape of a torus (a donut shape), and they can be considered as an optical analogue of a smoke ring or bubble ring — common structures found in fluid dynamics.

See Wan et al., Zdagkas et al. and Cardano and Marrucci

Image: Chenhao Wan and Qiwen Zhan, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology. Cover Design: Bethany Vukomanovic

Editorial

  • In order to simplify and streamline our processes, Nature Photonics is moving to a single format for its primary research submissions

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News & Views

  • The ability to create complex three-dimensional structures of light has reached new heights with the experimental observation of two distinct kinds of toroidal pulses, the optical analogue of smoke rings.

    • Filippo Cardano
    • Lorenzo Marrucci
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  • Ferroelectric domain switching controlled by electrical pulses provides a controllable means to tune the refractive index of BaTiO3 thin films. Now, a device based on this material is presented that is capable of implementing low-power, high-speed and CMOS-compatible programmable phase shifters in silicon photonic chips.

    • José Capmany
    • Daniel Pérez-López
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  • Coherent multi-octave mid-infrared waveforms are created and manipulated by cascaded intrapulse difference-frequency generation, demonstrating absolute phase control, and adding to the growing arsenal of techniques for arbitrary light-wave control.

    • Jeffrey Moses
    • Shu-Wei Huang
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  • One hundred years ago, in 1922, Léon Brillouin discovered the scattering of light by sound waves. Within an optical fibre, Brillouin scattering may be used to create narrow-linewidth filters and spectrometers. A twisted optical fibre is now used to reduce these linewidths by over an order of magnitude, down to the sub-MHz level.

    • Thiago Alegre
    • Gustavo Wiederhecker
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