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Volume 2 Issue 11, November 2008

Self-healing Airy beams are used for the manipulation of microparticles.

Cover design by Tom Wilson.

Letter by Baumgartl et al.

Volume 2 Issue 11

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Editorial

  • The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded for research inspired by jellyfish. This is a reminder that the natural world continues to hint at solutions to modern technological dilemmas, and that when it comes to simple and effective solutions, nature is usually well ahead of man.

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    Editorial

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Commentary

  • Famous for its use in clothing since early times, silk is now finding a new application as a useful biocompatible material in photonic devices. Thin films, diffraction gratings and organic photonic crystals are just a few of the exciting possibilities.

    • Fiorenzo G. Omenetto
    • David L. Kaplan

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    Commentary
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Research Highlights

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News & Views

  • By introducing a radial chirp in the dimension of the cells surrounding the central core, researchers now demonstrate a low-dispersion photonic-crystal fibre that could overcome the long-standing problem of ultrashort-pulse delivery.

    • Goëry Genty

    Focus:

    News & Views

  • A bifacial dye-sensitized solar cell that can efficiently generate electricity when illuminated from either side may help bring down the cost of solar energy production.

    • Juan Bisquert

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    News & Views

  • Researchers have demonstrated the first photonic-crystal system with light emitters that experience three-dimensional photonic and electronic confinement.

    • Erik C. Nelson
    • Paul V. Braun

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    News & Views

  • The ability of Airy light beams to transport microparticles along curved, self-healed paths may lead to useful applications in biology and colloidal science.

    • Demetrios N. Christodoulides

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    News & Views
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Editorial

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Research Highlights

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Industry Perspective

  • Improvements in interferometry have made it a powerful and attractive technique for characterizing tiny devices based on microelectromechanical systems.

    • Mike Conroy
    • Daniel Mansfield

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    Industry Perspective

  • The development of the pixelated polarization camera is enabling dynamic interferometry, a new metrology technique that is insensitive to vibration and suits use in an industrial environment.

    • Mike Zecchino

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    Industry Perspective

  • The advent of three-dimensional optical metrology has brought many benefits to industrial quality control of aircraft engines, according to the turbine-blade manufacturer GE.

    • Kevin Harding

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    Industry Perspective
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Business News

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Product Highlights

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Interview

  • Nadya Anscombe talks to Wolfgang Osten, director of the Institute for Applied Optics, about the challenges that optical metrology faces in keeping pace with demands from industry.

    • Nadya Anscombe

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    Interview
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Letter

  • Scientists exploit the use of Airy beams — an unusual class of optical waves — in optical manipulation. The beam can be used to transport particles along curved paths without moving the light beam, a technique that seems poised for many microfluidic applications especially in the biological sciences.

    • Jörg Baumgartl
    • Michael Mazilu
    • Kishan Dholakia

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    Letter

  • Hollow-core photonic-crystal fibres enable confinement of light on a much tighter scale than is possible with conventional fibre. But dispersion makes it difficult to transmit very short, sub 100 fs, pulses over long distances. A chirped structure could offer a solution.

    • Julia S. Skibina
    • Rumen Iliew
    • Günter Steinmeyer

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    Letter

  • An organic LED that acts as an electrically driven source of surface plasmons is reported. The device generates a freely propagating beam of surface plasmons and has potential applications in integrated organic photonics and sensing.

    • D.M. Koller
    • A. Hohenau
    • J.R. Krenn

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    Letter
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Article

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Photonics at NPG

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Interview

  • The demonstration that Airy beams can transport small particles along curved paths of light may lead to a wealth of new applications in optical micromanipulation. Nature Photonics spoke to Kishan Dholakia from the University of St Andrews in Scotland about the idea.

    • Rachel Won

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    Interview
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In This Issue

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Focus

  • Optical metrology is an attractive method for product quality checking owing to its resolution, speed and non-contact approach.

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