Applied optics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Single photon devices are needed for many future technologies, but resolving the color of single photons in a compact architecture is still a challenge. The authors present a broadband, chip-scale spectrometer for measuring single photon wavelengths from 600 to 2000 nm with no moving parts.

    • Risheng Cheng
    • , Chang-Ling Zou
    •  & Hong X. Tang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Measurement-based quantum computing is one of the most promising approaches for photon-based universal quantum computation. Here, the authors realise a universal encoder of four-photon graph states on a silicon chip, and use Bayesian inference methods to characterise the error sources.

    • Jeremy C. Adcock
    • , Caterina Vigliar
    •  & Mark G. Thompson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Designing high performance THz pixelless imaging devices is nowadays challenging due to the inability to obtain normal incidence excitation using a grating coupler. Here, the authors report a broadband GaAs HIWIP-LED THz-NIR up-conversion imaging device avoiding the use of any grating coupler.

    • Peng Bai
    • , Yueheng Zhang
    •  & Wenzhong Shen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    On-chip mode-division multiplexing has many challenges including crosstalk, losses, and footprint.  Here the authors use a nanohole metastructure to create multiplexed bends and crossings for photonic data communications circuit routing with high density that combats these challenges.

    • Yingjie Liu
    • , Ke Xu
    •  & Qinghai Song

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Spatially resolved information about material deformation upon loading is critical to evaluate mechanical properties. Here the authors demonstrate integration of nanodiamond orientation sensing and atomic force microscopy nanoindentation as an approach to evaluate non-local material deformation on the nanoscale.

    • Kangwei Xia
    • , Chu-Feng Liu
    •  & Quan Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Long-range correlations play a role in wave transport through disordered media but have rarely been studied in other systems. Here, the authors discover long-range spatio-temporal correlations in multimode fibers with strong random mode mixing, revealing the possibility of utilizing such correlations for effective pulse delivery through the fiber.

    • Wen Xiong
    • , Chia Wei Hsu
    •  & Hui Cao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Temporal cloaks, which hide a temporal event within a signal, have been previously limited to very short and periodic event cloaking. Here the authors report a temporal cloak with a programmable-length cloaking window using a silicon microring and optical frequency comb.

    • Feng Zhou
    • , Siqi Yan
    •  & Xinliang Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Germanium (based) lasers are a promising route towards a fully CMOS-compatible light source, key to the further development of silicon photonics. Here, the authors realize lasing from strained germanium microbridges up to 100 K, finding a quantum efficiency close to 100%.

    • F. T. Armand Pilon
    • , A. Lyasota
    •  & H. Sigg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chip-scale, room-temperature terahertz sensing can potentially enable many applications, but remains restricted in terms of spectrum, angle of incidence and polarization. Here the authors report a methodology for a CMOS-based, programmable THz sensor surface that allows dynamic adaption in all three properties.

    • Xue Wu
    • , Huaixi Lu
    •  & Kaushik Sengupta

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optically reconfigurable elements are in demand for future applications. The authors report on the use of chirality-invertible cholesteric liquid crystals to actively manipulate geometric phase and create switchable planar optics elements that perform a variety of functions.

    • Peng Chen
    • , Ling-Ling Ma
    •  & Yan-Qing Lu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Creating realistic 3D displays that are comfortable to use is both a complicated and important problem. Here the authors present a tomographic near-eye display that uses high-speed synchronization of a lens focus and backlight to produce realistic depth cues for effective and comfortable 3D viewing.

    • Seungjae Lee
    • , Youngjin Jo
    •  & Byoungho Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Terahertz frequency combs are highly desired for applications in precision measurements, sensing, spectroscopy and metrology. Here the authors demonstrate the room-temperature chip-based THz frequency comb using nonlinear frequency generation from a mid-infrared quantum cascade laser comb.

    • Quanyong Lu
    • , Feihu Wang
    •  & Manijeh Razeghi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The optical transmission of images through a multimode fibre remains an outstanding challenge. Here, the authors implement a method that statistically reconstructs the inverse transformation matrix for a fibre and demonstrate real-time imaging of natural scenes in full colour, high resolution and high frame rate.

    • Piergiorgio Caramazza
    • , Oisín Moran
    •  & Daniele Faccio

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Satellite communications shall only thrive if being able to compete with fibre in both bandwidth and cost. Here, the authors demonstrate that a coherent and yet modular photonic-aided payload is feasible, paving the way for a new generation of communications satellites with photonics at their core.

    • Vanessa C. Duarte
    • , João G. Prata
    •  & Miguel V. Drummond

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Previously, separating Laguerre-Gauss modes of light contained in a single beam required complex setups and could only separate a few modes. Here, the authors demonstrate a simple device capable of spatially decomposing a beam into hundreds of Laguerre-Gaussian components.

    • Nicolas K. Fontaine
    • , Roland Ryf
    •  & Joel Carpenter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors control concentration quenching in a stoichiometric Er3+ compound using a core−shell nanostructured host and an integrated optical waveguide circuit excitation platform. The efficient telecom to ultraviolet upconversion allows for exploration of photonic applications involving upconversion nanomaterials.

    • Tianying Sun
    • , Yuhua Li
    •  & Feng Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Increasing bandwidth demands in optical communications requires components to be compact with energy-efficient operation. Here, the authors demonstrate plasmonic IQ modulators on a silicon photonics platform with phase shifters, operating with sub-1V electronics at 100 GBaud and low electrical energy consumption.

    • Wolfgang Heni
    • , Yuriy Fedoryshyn
    •  & Juerg Leuthold

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The electronic and photonic contributions to the power conversion efficiency in solar cell devices are often hard to disentangle. Here Bercegol et al. develop a purely optical method to quantitatively decouple and assess the electronic and photonic processes in halide perovskite solar cells.

    • Adrien Bercegol
    • , Daniel Ory
    •  & Laurent Lombez

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Distinguishing between closely situated targets depends inversely on the bandwidth of the transmitted radar signal. Here, the authors demonstrate a type of ranging system which is not limited by bandwidth. They show an improvement of two orders of magnitude, compared to standard coherent radars with the same bandwidth.

    • Rony Komissarov
    • , Vitali Kozlov
    •  & Pavel Ginzburg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Emission levels useful for applications from upconversion nanoparticles require high laser irradiance. Here, Liang et al. exploit the superlensing effect from dielectric microbeads to enhance the luminescence efficiency of upconversion nanoparticles and show its application for optogenetics.

    • Liangliang Liang
    • , Daniel B. L. Teh
    •  & Xiaogang Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is desirable to improve spatiotemporal control of light generated by synchrotron user facilities or table-top X-ray sources. Here the authors demonstrate manipulation of hard X-rays using microelectro mechanical systems (MEMS) oscillators on timescales of 300 ps, approaching the synchrotron pulse width.

    • Pice Chen
    • , Il Woong Jung
    •  & Jin Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Universal cluster states for quantum computing can be assembled without feed-forward by fusing n-photon clusters with linear optics if the fusion success probability is above a threshold p. The authors bound p in terms of n and provide protocols for n = 3 clusters requiring lower fusion probability than before.

    • Mihir Pant
    • , Don Towsley
    •  & Saikat Guha

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In the next generation of display technology for portable devices, lasers could replace LEDs to achieve more vibrant colours. Here, Zhao et al. demonstrate a dynamic full-color display in which each pixel is made up of three printed organic microlasers to cover the RGB space.

    • Jinyang Zhao
    • , Yongli Yan
    •  & Yong Sheng Zhao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electrochromic technology has diverse cutting-edge applications, but it has never been used to overcome the critical problems in the field of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). Here, the authors demonstrate a generic electrochromic strategy for ensuring the reproducibility and renewability of SERS substrates.

    • Shan Cong
    • , Zhen Wang
    •  & Zhigang Zhao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There is growing interest in designing platforms for coherent electron-driven photon sources for hybrid light and electron spectroscopy. Here the authors demonstrate generation of coherent broadband ultrashort light pulses upon electron irradiation to nanostructured gold plated film.

    • Nahid Talebi
    • , Sophie Meuret
    •  & Peter A. van Aken

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Storage-free quantum repeaters represent a viable alternative to quantum-memory-based ones. Here, the authors propose a modified scheme for Bell state measurements which reduces the necessary resources for realising such an all-photonic repeater, and show a proof-of-principle implementation.

    • Yasushi Hasegawa
    • , Rikizo Ikuta
    •  & Nobuyuki Imoto

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electrical and optical properties of light emitting devices driven by quantum tunneling are closely intertwined. Parzefall et al. show that these properties can be individually controlled by cointegrating van der Waals heterostructures with optical antennas.

    • Markus Parzefall
    • , Áron Szabó
    •  & Lukas Novotny

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors fabricate a device that integrates multiple computer-generated holograms into a single colour print. Under white light, a colour image is seen, whereas illumination with a red, green, or blue beam from a handheld laser pointer projects three different holograms onto a distant screen.

    • Kevin T. P. Lim
    • , Hailong Liu
    •  & Joel K. W. Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Controlling complex properties of optical systems, like the output of nonlinear light sources, is increasingly important for applications. Here, Wetzel et al. use an actively-controlled photonic chip to prepare patterns of femtosecond laser pulses used for tailoring supercontinuum generation.

    • Benjamin Wetzel
    • , Michael Kues
    •  & Roberto Morandotti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors demonstrate a metasurface application to realize a compact near-eye display system for augmented reality with a wide field of view, full-color imaging, high resolution and a sufficiently large eyebox.

    • Gun-Yeal Lee
    • , Jong-Young Hong
    •  & Byoungho Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the tunable range of radiative thermal load for a given colour is important for thermal management of outdoor structures. Here, the authors theoretically and experimentally highlighted all mechanisms through which one can control the radiative thermal load of coloured objects.

    • Wei Li
    • , Yu Shi
    •  & Shanhui Fan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The quantum-confined Stark effect is conventionally observed in inorganic semiconductor multilayer quantum well structures that are expensive to make. Here Walters et al. report large Stark effects in easily made layered hybrid perovskites and exploit the orientational polarizability of dipolar cations.

    • G. Walters
    • , M. Wei
    •  & E. Sargent

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although there are many reports on the development of devices for terahertz signal processing, the possibility of electrical control of the functionality remains elusive. Here, the authors use electrically actuated liquid metal components incorporated into terahertz waveguides for controlling power flow and for frequency filtering.

    • Kimberly S. Reichel
    • , Nicolas Lozada-Smith
    •  & Daniel M. Mittleman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors introduce the folded metasurface optics architecture by demonstrating a compact high-resolution optical spectrometer made from a 1-mm-thick glass slab. The spectrometer has a resolution of 1.2 nm, resolving more than 80 spectral points in a 100-nm bandwidth centered at 810 nm.

    • MohammadSadegh Faraji-Dana
    • , Ehsan Arbabi
    •  & Andrei Faraon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Current ultraviolet (UV) sensors cannot differentiate between UVA, B and C, each of which has a remarkably different impact on human health. Here the authors show spectrally-selective colorimetric monitoring of ultraviolet radiations by developing a photoelectrochromic ink that consists of a multiredox polyoxometalate and an e– donor.

    • Wenyue Zou
    • , Ana González
    •  & Vipul Bansal

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Predicting and modelling the responses of free-from photonics devices remain challenging with conventional computational tools. Here, the authors propose an efficient algorithm based on conformal boundary optics and modified finite difference time-domain to calculate the electromagnetic fields across conformal metasurfaces.

    • Kedi Wu
    • , Philippe Coquet
    •  & Patrice Genevet

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Active devices such as modulators made of silicon nitride still lack performance. Here, the authors demonstrate electro-optic modulators based on ferroelectric lead zirconate titanate films on silicon nitride, in both the O- and the C-band with a modulation bandwidth beyond 33 GHz and with data rates of 40 Gbps.

    • Koen Alexander
    • , John P. George
    •  & Jeroen Beeckman

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