Applied optics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The refractive index of natural materials only covers a limited range. Here, Chang et al. use the principle of space-filling curves to construct a mesoscopic crystal with a refractive index greater than 1000 at GHz frequencies. The concept is inherently broadband and scalable.

    • Taeyong Chang
    • , Jong Uk Kim
    •  & Jonghwa Shin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Microwave single photon sources are important for quantum applications, but their design often incorporates a resonator that fixes the frequency of the emitted photon. Here, the authors demonstrate a tuneable on-demand photon source based on an artificial atom asymmetrically coupled to two transmission lines.

    • Z. H. Peng
    • , S. E. de Graaf
    •  & O. V. Astafiev

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Integrated plasmonic sources are crucial in the development of plasmonic circuitry. Here, McPolin et al. show that vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers can be employed as an on-chip, electrically pumped source or detector of plasmonic signals and also demonstrate waveguiding and frequency conversion on this platform.

    • Cillian P. T. McPolin
    • , Jean-Sebastien Bouillard
    •  & Anatoly V. Zayats

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Detection of a single nanoparticle or molecule is essential for many applications. Here, Yu et al.demonstrate the use of an optical cavity with optomechanical oscillation to detect single bovine serum albumin proteins, with potential for studying mechanical properties and interactions of individual molecules.

    • Wenyan Yu
    • , Wei C Jiang
    •  & Tao Lu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Single-photon detection is challenging in the microwave regime due to the small photon energy. Here, the authors demonstrate the deterministic detection of single microwave photons through an impedenance-matched artificial Λ system composed by a driven superconducting qubit and a microwave resonator.

    • Kunihiro Inomata
    • , Zhirong Lin
    •  & Yasunobu Nakamura

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The detection of low-energy photons may be enabled by devices that make use of the excess thermal energy from photoexcited carriers as a result of light absorption. Here the authors demonstrate a vertical graphene-WSe2-graphene heterostructure that takes advantage of the photo-thermionic effect.

    • M. Massicotte
    • , P. Schmidt
    •  & F. H. L. Koppens

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Scaling of photonic devices requires materials with sufficiently strong elecro-optic effects. Here, Schoen et al.demonstrate and analyze single electrically induced switching events that can operate in the visible with a small active volume using electron energy loss in a scanning transmission electron microscope.

    • David T. Schoen
    • , Aaron L. Holsteen
    •  & Mark L. Brongersma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Combining freeform optics with micro- and nano-optics can permit wavefront shaping, phase engineering, k-space and polarization control. Here, Gissibl et al. use femtosecond 3D printing to manufacture free-form optical elements, giving sub-micrometre accuracy so that direct manufacturing on single-mode fibres is possible.

    • Timo Gissibl
    • , Simon Thiele
    •  & Harald Giessen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Active metamaterials are largely controlled by light, preventing integration in electronic systems. Here, the authors introduce electroluminescent metamaterials based on metal nano-inclusions hybridized with colloidal quantum dots and use this approach to weave intricate light-emitting surfaces.

    • Quynh Le-Van
    • , Xavier Le Roux
    •  & Aloyse Degiron

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In organic photovoltaics, the best performing devices usually involve low-bandgap polymers whose limited solubility and stability constrain the scalability of organic solar cells. Here, Holliday et al. develop a new acceptor and pair it with canonical P3HT to obtain 6.4% efficient and stable devices.

    • Sarah Holliday
    • , Raja Shahid Ashraf
    •  & Iain McCulloch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Visual evidence for photo-induced ionic migration in perovskite films without contacts is lacking. Here, the authors use a unique combination of confocal photoluminescence microscopy and chemical imaging to correlate the local changes in photophysics with composition in CH3NH3PbI3films under illumination.

    • Dane W. deQuilettes
    • , Wei Zhang
    •  & Samuel D. Stranks

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electrochromism, the dependence of light absorption upon electronic control, finds a wide range of applications in smart materials. Here, Liu et al. show an electrochromic DNA–surfactant liquid crystal system that exhibits electrically tunable optical absorption and thermally tunable memory.

    • Kai Liu
    • , Justin Varghese
    •  & Andreas Herrmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The photophysics of lead halide perovskites is under intense investigation. Here, the authors use force microscopy on single crystals to show that light induces drastic lattice changes, and propose that the weakening of the hydrogen coupling under illumination is responsible for the lattice dilatation.

    • Yang Zhou
    • , Lu You
    •  & Junling Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The recombination dynamics of photogenerated carriers in organolead trihalide perovskites are not well understood. Here, He et al.report that the recombination of photogenerated carriers in solution-processed methylammonium-lead-halide films is dominated by excitons weakly localized in band tail states.

    • Haiping He
    • , Qianqian Yu
    •  & Zhizhen Ye

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optical fibres offer a way of sensing across a wide area, providing a spatial and temporal map of the measured parameter. Here, the authors use image and video processing to remove noise and increase the contrast in such a distributed optical fibre sensor, improving the signal-to-noise ratio by a factor of 100.

    • Marcelo A. Soto
    • , Jaime A. Ramírez
    •  & Luc Thévenaz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Laser frequency combs emit a spectrum of equally spaced peaks that can provide precise frequency references useful for astronomy. Here, the authors demonstrate a frequency comb using electro-optical modulation, which has a line spacing that is resolvable using grating spectrographs unlike the mode-locking approach.

    • X. Yi
    • , K. Vahala
    •  & C. Beichman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Spontaneous polarization in ferroelectric materials leads to their use as photovoltaic devices. Here, the authors show by first-principles calculations how nanolayering of PbTiO3with nickel ions and oxygen vacancies can result in enhanced photocurrents due to smaller bandgaps and photocurrent alignment.

    • Fenggong Wang
    • , Steve M. Young
    •  & Andrew M. Rappe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nano-apertures cannot distinguish between distinct spin-states of photons because of information loss upon light-aperture interaction. Here, Du et al.report a subwavelength aperture integrated with metasurfaces which breaks spin degeneracy and produces opposite transmission spectra over a broad spectral range.

    • Luping Du
    • , Shan Shan Kou
    •  & Jiao Lin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Organic semiconductors with high mobility and strong fluorescence are necessary for optoelectronic devices. Here, Liu et al. show an organic semiconductor, 2,6-diphenylanthracene, satisfying both requirements with mobility of 34 cm2 V−1 s−1 and emission of 6,627 cd m−2at a turn-on voltage of 2.8 V.

    • Jie Liu
    • , Hantang Zhang
    •  & Alan J. Heeger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    An imbalance in I/Pb stoichiometry is thought to lead to defects in metal halide films. Here, Zhang et al. show that the addition of hypophosphorous acid in the precursor solution can significantly improve the film quality and enhance the photoluminescence intensity, leading to improved photovoltaic devices.

    • Wei Zhang
    • , Sandeep Pathak
    •  & Henry J. Snaith

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenides are useful for optoelectronic applications, but the ultimate limit on the speed of photodetector operation is unknown. Here, the authors show that the optical response time of monolayer molybdenum disulfide can be as short as three picoseconds.

    • Haining Wang
    • , Changjian Zhang
    •  & Farhan Rana

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Single crystals of organolead halide perovskites exhibit large carrier mobilities and long diffusion lengths. Here, the authors succeed in growing the single crystals on planar substrates and integrate them as the active layer of visible photodetectors with a large gain-bandwidth product.

    • Makhsud I. Saidaminov
    • , Valerio Adinolfi
    •  & Osman M. Bakr

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lead halide perovskite solar cells have a limited spectral response in the near infrared. Here, the authors present ruthenium dyes with extended near infrared absorbance and combine perovskite and dye-based solar cells by spectral splitting to obtain broadband, 21.5% efficient solar cells.

    • Takumi Kinoshita
    • , Kazuteru Nonomura
    •  & Hiroshi Segawa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    When quantum key distribution is composed with other secure protocols the overall security has to be guaranteed, which adds further security requirements. Here, the authors demonstrate continuous-variable quantum key distribution with composable security and one-sided-device independence.

    • Tobias Gehring
    • , Vitus Händchen
    •  & Roman Schnabel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Graphene has excellent electronic properties but its photoresponsivity is limited by low absorption and the ultrafast recombination of photoexcited carriers. Here, the authors demonstrate fast, high responsivity and broadband photodetectors by combining graphene with single-wall carbon nanotubes.

    • Yuanda Liu
    • , Fengqiu Wang
    •  & Rong Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Zinc oxide is potentially a useful material for ultraviolet detectors, but a relatively long response time hinders practical implementation. Here, the authors demonstrate a zinc oxide nanowire/perovskite heterostructure detector with a five orders of magnitude improvement in both rising and falling edge time.

    • Zhaona Wang
    • , Ruomeng Yu
    •  & Zhong Lin Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The use of organic–inorganic metal-halide perovskites in hot-carrier devices depends on deepening the understanding of photoexcitations in these materials. Here, Price et al. use transient absorption spectroscopy to study hot-carrier distributions in CH3NH3PbI3and quantify key semiconductors parameters.

    • Michael B. Price
    • , Justinas Butkus
    •  & Felix Deschler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Maser applications are hindered by their demanding working conditions. Here, Jinet al. theoretically propose a room-temperature maser based on nitrogen vacancy centres in diamond. This numerical study demonstrates that the operation of the maser under readily accessible conditions is feasible.

    • Liang Jin
    • , Matthias Pfender
    •  & Ren-Bao Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ultrathin semiconductor metafilms can be designed to achieve near-unity absorption in specific spectral regions. Here, Kim et al. engineer nanoscale optical resonances in sub-50-nm-thick germanium nanobeams metafilms to demonstrate near-unity absorption in one or more desired wavelength regions.

    • Soo Jin Kim
    • , Pengyu Fan
    •  & Mark L. Brongersma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The efficiency of a single-junction photovoltaic cell is constrained by the Shockley-Queisser limit. Here, the authors adopt a triple-junction configuration which relaxes material and current-matching constraints, providing a generic strategy for advancing the efficiency roadmap of photovoltaic technologies.

    • Fei Guo
    • , Ning Li
    •  & Christoph J. Brabec

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plasmonic excitations of electrons in metallic nanostructures are promising for the enhanced conversion of light in semiconductor solar cells. Here, the authors are able to experimentally distinguish the absorption phenomena of plasmonic carrier generation and excitation of carriers by light absorption.

    • Bob Y. Zheng
    • , Hangqi Zhao
    •  & Naomi J. Halas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Two-dimensional spectroscopy revealed oscillatory signals in photosynthesis’ exciton dynamics, but crowded spectra impede the identification of what sustains the oscillations. Here the authors probe an J-aggregate, whose uncongested response shows that vibronic coupling is responsible for the sustained coherence.

    • James Lim
    • , David Paleček
    •  & Jürgen Hauer

  • 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

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