Applied optics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optical communications and quantum operations require active coupling control in closely packed integrated photonic circuits. Here, Mrejen et al.exploit adiabatic elimination to demonstrate active coupling control between two closely packed waveguides by tuning the mode index of an in-between decoupled waveguide.

    • Michael Mrejen
    • , Haim Suchowski
    •  & Xiang Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites have shown great potential for use in optoelectronic applications. Here, the authors create solution-processed lead iodide perovskite light-emitting field-effect transistors and demonstrate both ambipolar behaviour and gate-assisted electroluminescence.

    • Xin Yu Chin
    • , Daniele Cortecchia
    •  & Cesare Soci

  • Article |

    Phase-change materials are a route to high-density data storage, but changes in their properties in time are a limiting factor. Here, the authors combine numerical simulations, photothermal deflection spectroscopy and impedance spectroscopy experiments to investigate the aging process in germanium telluride.

    • Jean Yves Raty
    • , Wei Zhang
    •  & Matthias Wuttig

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the mechanism of ionic transport in organic–inorganic halide perovskites is crucial for the design of future solar cells. Here, Eames et al.undertake a combined experimental and computational study to elucidate the ion conducting species and help rationalize the unusual behaviour observed in these perovskite-based devices.

    • Christopher Eames
    • , Jarvist M. Frost
    •  & M. Saiful Islam

  • Article |

    Optical tweezing typically refers to the trapping and manipulation of particles using lasers. Here, Jang et al. demonstrate analogous manipulation of ultrashort cavity soliton-pulses in the time domain, trapped by the phase modulation of a continuous wave laser beam, and moved by modifying the phase profile.

    • Jae K. Jang
    • , Miro Erkintalo
    •  & Stuart G. Murdoch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Black phosphorus is an atomically thin material that exhibits excellent properties for electronics applications, but these degrade in atmospheric conditions. Here, the authors demonstrate the fabrication of stable, ultra-clean and high-mobility black phosphorus sandwiched between the layers of boron nitride.

    • Xiaolong Chen
    • , Yingying Wu
    •  & Ning Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Periodically strained monolayer molybdenum disulphide funnels photogenerated electron-hole pairs across an electric field induced by a spatially graded band gap, mimicking a crystal of artificial atoms. Here, the authors experimentally demonstrate the artificial crystal in strain-textured molybdenum disulphide.

    • Hong Li
    • , Alex W. Contryman
    •  & Xiaolin Zheng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Water splitting using earth-abundant materials promises a low cost solution to the problem of large scale energy storage. Here, the authors fabricate a haematite and silicon-based high-efficiency water splitting device, which operates without the need for an externally applied bias.

    • Ji-Wook Jang
    • , Chun Du
    •  & Dunwei Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chlorine incorporation into CH3NH3PbI3improves solar cell performance, but its optoelectronic role is still unclear. Here the authors present a strategy that decouples the morphological impact, to reveal that chlorine incorporation affects carrier transport across the heterojunction interface rather than within the perovskite crystal.

    • Qi Chen
    • , Huanping Zhou
    •  & Yang Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Artificial photosynthesis is a means of harnessing solar energy to generate fuels but has traditionally been exploited for the generation of hydrogen. Here, Schreier et al. instead employ a perovskite photovoltaic device to effect the solar conversion of CO2to CO with high efficiency.

    • Marcel Schreier
    • , Laura Curvat
    •  & Michael Grätzel

  • Article |

    High-density integration will be vital for silicon photonics, but as we approach sub-wavelength distances between components, the crosstalk becomes intolerable. Here, Song et al. demonstrate waveguide integration at a half-wavelength pitch with low crosstalk using advanced superlattice design concepts.

    • Weiwei Song
    • , Robert Gatdula
    •  & Wei Jiang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metal halide perovskites are promising for solar energy harvesting, but currently prone to a large hysteresis and current instability. Here, Xu et al. show improvements in a hybrid material in which the fullerene is distributed at perovskite grain boundaries and thus passivates defects effectively.

    • Jixian Xu
    • , Andrei Buin
    •  & Edward H. Sargent

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the behaviour of magnetic flux ropes in the Sun is crucial for explaining solar phenomena such as flares and space weather. Exploiting the high resolution available in the 1.6 m New Solar Telescope, Wang et al.capture the evolution of a flaring twisted flux rope in the low solar corona.

    • Haimin Wang
    • , Wenda Cao
    •  & Haisheng Ji

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fitting current–voltage curves of organic solar cells with the Shockley equation often results in artificially high ideality factors. Here, the authors analyse inadequacy of the equation and propose an analytic model, which allows prediction of the efficiency potentials by explicit consideration of charge-carrier mobilities.

    • Uli Würfel
    • , Dieter Neher
    •  & Steve Albrecht

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Active control of light in optical fibres is of great interest, to this end, electric control of all-fibre graphene devices is desirable but highly challenging. Here, Lee et al. demonstrate electric control of the optical properties of a graphene sheet deposited on a side-polished fibre mediated by an ion liquid.

    • Eun Jung Lee
    • , Sun Young Choi
    •  & Dong-Il Yeom

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photothermal interferometry systems using free-space optics have limits in terms of light–matter interaction efficiency, size, optical alignment and integration. Here, Jin et al. use a gas-filled hollow-core photonic bandgap fibre to demonstrate an all-fibre gas sensor with ultrahigh sensitivity and dynamic range.

    • Wei Jin
    • , Yingchun Cao
    •  & Hoi Lut Ho

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Aligned, one-dimensional, single-crystal materials may allow on-demand photon/electron transfer. Here, the authors use a physical vapour transport technique to grow organic single-crystal wires with the guidance of pillar-structured substrates, and perform proof of concept waveguide experiments.

    • Yuchen Wu
    • , Jiangang Feng
    •  & Lei Jiang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bulk contributions to transport measurements often inhibit the study of the surface states of topological insulators. Here, Kastl et al. demonstrate high-fidelity helicity-dependent photocurrents in the surface states of Bi2Se3, controlled via circularly polarized light with a picosecond time-resolution.

    • Christoph Kastl
    • , Christoph Karnetzky
    •  & Alexander W. Holleitner

  • Article |

    Lead halide perovskite solar cells use hole-blocking layers to allow a separate collection of positive and negative charge carriers and to achieve high-operation voltages. Here, the authors demonstrate efficient lead halide perovskite solar cells that avoid using this extra layer.

    • Weijun Ke
    • , Guojia Fang
    •  & Yanfa Yan

  • Article |

    Controlling the electrical properties of radar absorbing materials is required for active camouflage systems in the microwave. Here, Balci et al.use large-area graphene electrodes to demonstrate electrical control of microwave reflection, transmission and absorption by electrostatic tuning of the charge density.

    • Osman Balci
    • , Emre O. Polat
    •  & Coskun Kocabas

  • Article |

    An important source of loss in solar cells is the recombination of the photogenerated charge carriers before they are extracted from the device. Chang et al. now show that such recombination can be reduced in organic solar cells by increasing the separation between donors and acceptors.

    • Wendi Chang
    • , Daniel N. Congreve
    •  & Marc A. Baldo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    On-chip nonlinear optics can be used to manipulate classical or quantum signals but enhancement of competing nonlinear processes can cause signal distortion. Here, Merklein et al. enhance and inhibit nonlinear scattering on a chip by tailoring the optical density-of-states at the edge of a photonic bandgap.

    • Moritz Merklein
    • , Irina V. Kabakova
    •  & Benjamin J. Eggleton

  • Article |

    Ultrathin film photovoltaic cells are a promising energy device, but suffer from low power conversion efficiency. Here, the authors construct a double-junction tandem cell using a hydrogenated amorphous silicon and a polymer as the front and back cell, respectively, which achieves 10.5% efficiency.

    • Jeehwan Kim
    • , Ziruo Hong
    •  & Yang Yang

  • Article |

    The integration of silicon optoelectronic devices in a fibre platform has great potential, but drawing such fibres is difficult. Using a simple, low cost and scalable method, Hou et al. fabricate a metre-long crystalline silicon-core, silica-clad fibre from a preform not containing elemental silicon.

    • Chong Hou
    • , Xiaoting Jia
    •  & Yoel Fink

  • Article |

    Molybdenum disulphide is a two-dimensional material that, unlike graphene, has a nonzero bandgap. Here, the authors demonstrate that the bandgap of single-layer molybdenum disulphide grown on graphite by chemical vapour deposition changes with distance from the grain boundary

    • Yu Li Huang
    • , Yifeng Chen
    •  & Andrew T. S. Wee

  • Article |

    Concentrating photovoltaics (PVs) offer a route to lower the cost of solar power, but their scale has been incompatible with roof top installation. Here, Price et al.demonstrate quasi-static concentrating PVs that achieve >200 × flux concentration over a full day in the form factor of a standard PV panel.

    • Jared S. Price
    • , Xing Sheng
    •  & Noel C. Giebink

  • Article |

    Although synthesis of high-quality MoS2 has been demonstrated, growth of monolayer MoS2at controlled locations is highly desirable for applications. Here, the authors introduce a method where patterned seeds of molybdenum source material are used to grow isolated flakes at predetermined locations.

    • Gang Hee Han
    • , Nicholas J. Kybert
    •  & A. T. Charlie Johnson

  • Article |

    The detection of high-frequency radiation emitted by a quantum conductor is promising but current approaches exhibit limited sensitivity. Here, Jompol et al. propose on-chip radiation detection based on photo-assisted shot noise and show the response to be independent of the nature and geometry of the quantum conductor.

    • Y. Jompol
    • , P. Roulleau
    •  & D. C. Glattli

  • Article |

    Replica symmetry breaking, in which identical systems subject to identical conditions evolve to different end states, has been predicted to occur in many contexts but has yet to be observed experimentally. Ghofraniha et al.report evidence for its occurrence in the pulse-to-pulse variations of a random laser.

    • N. Ghofraniha
    • , I. Viola
    •  & C. Conti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Performing radio-frequency arbitrary waveform generation in the optical domain offers advantages over electronic-based methods but suffers from lack of integration and slow speed. Here, Wang et al. propose a fast-reconfigurable, radio-frequency arbitrary waveform generator fully integrated in a silicon chip.

    • Jian Wang
    • , Hao Shen
    •  & Minghao Qi

  • Article |

    Halide perovskites are widely studied as components in photovoltaic cells. Here, the authors show that these materials also possess a tunable ferroelectric polarization as well as relativistic spin-splitting effects suggesting additional functionalities, for example, as spintronic and optoelectronic devices.

    • Alessandro Stroppa
    • , Domenico Di Sante
    •  & Silvia Picozzi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quadrature amplitude modulation signalling is currently enabling rapid data transfer capacity growth, but it still has associated drawbacks. Here, Liu et al.use optical injection locking to generate complex modulation format signals with reduced consumption, small footprint and easy integration.

    • Zhixin Liu
    • , Joseph Kakande
    •  & Radan Slavík

  • Article |

    Two-dimensional photocurrent spectroscopy can identify coherent electronic dynamics and offers promise for studies of numerous material systems. Karki et al. now show that the method can be used to study ultrafast carrier processes in lead sulphide quantum dots, such as multiple exciton generation.

    • Khadga J. Karki
    • , Julia R. Widom
    •  & Andrew H. Marcus

  • Article |

    Single-crystal diamond is a promising material for applications in classical and quantum optics, but the lack of scalable fabrication remains an issue. Here, Burek et al. adapt angle-etching nanofabrication techniques to realize ring resonators and photonic crystal cavities in single crystal diamond with quality factors in excess of 105.

    • Michael J. Burek
    • , Yiwen Chu
    •  & Marko Lončar

  • Article |

    Efficiency and stability are two major concerns in polymer-based solar cell development. Here Kong et al.report that the lifetime of a bulk heterojunction polymer can be improved by removing its low-molecular-weight components, which leads to a substantially reduced burn-in loss under photo-aging conditions.

    • Jaemin Kong
    • , Suhee Song
    •  & Kwanghee Lee

  • Article |

    Biological systems, subject to evolutionary optimization over millions of years, have been a source of ingenious solutions in many areas of science. Here, Han et al. develop transparent electrodes inspired by two such systems: a leaf venation and a spider’s web.

    • Bing Han
    • , Yuanlin Huang
    •  & Jinwei Gao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Coherently coupling microwave photons to quantum electronic conductors could provide a useful platform for quantum information processing. Souquet et al. now theoretically demonstrate that such systems can also act as sensitive probes of the quantum properties of non-classical microwave radiation.

    • J. -R. Souquet
    • , M. J. Woolley
    •  & A. A. Clerk

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