Materials for optics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bound states in continuum have attracted attention in various platforms, and recently condensation of bound states in continuum polariton modes was demonstrated at low temperatures. Here the authors report the observation of such a state in a periodic air-hole perovskite-based photonic crystal at room temperature.

    • Xianxin Wu
    • , Shuai Zhang
    •  & Xinfeng Liu
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The researchers showcase a flexible meta-sensor array based on classical Mie resonance, enabling precise detection of in-plane strain direction and magnitude using dynamically transmitted terahertz (THz) signals. The sensor array holds immense promise for the real-life applications as it possesses high sensor density and has a very large size up to (110 ×130 mm2).

    • Xueguang Lu
    • , Feilong Zhang
    •  & Qiang Cheng
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors induce asymmetric transmission in planar Fabry–Pérot microcavities by embedding organic thin films exhibiting apparent circular dichroism (ACD), an optical phenomenon based on 2D chirality.

    • Tzu-Ling Chen
    • , Andrew Salij
    •  & Randall H. Goldsmith
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Achieving a wide angular response in single layer acoustic metalenses is challenging. By leveraging perfect acoustic symmetry conversion, the authors realize an aberration free metalens with a wide field-of-hearing, up to 140 degrees.

    • Dongwoo Lee
    • , Beomseok Oh
    •  & Junsuk Rho
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors demonstrate a broadband nonlinear optical diode effect and its electric control in the magnetic Weyl semimetal CeAlSi. Their findings advance ongoing research to identify novel optical phenomena in topological materials.

    • Christian Tzschaschel
    • , Jian-Xiang Qiu
    •  & Su-Yang Xu
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Synthesising chemically stable divalent lanthanide compounds is still faced by great challenges. Here, by using octahedra coupling tetrahedra single/double chains to construct an octahedral crystal field, authors synthesised a stable crystalline La(II)-chalcogenide, LaMg6Ga6S16.

    • Yujie Zhang
    • , Jiale Chen
    •  & Hongwei Yu
  • Article
    | Open Access

    High-contrast ultrasonic imaging holds significant importance in biomedical and engineering applications. Here, the authors present a compact spatial differentiator tailored for underwater isotropic edge-enhanced imaging, facilitating the realization of high-contrast ultrasonic imaging.

    • Yurou Jia
    • , Suying Zhang
    •  & Xiaojun Liu
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Canalized polaritons are light-matter excitations characterized by intrinsic collimation of electromagnetic energy along a specific crystal axis. Here, the authors report the observation of intrinsically canalized phonon polaritons in a single thin layer of a van der Waals crystal, LiV2O5.

    • Ana I. F. Tresguerres-Mata
    • , Christian Lanza
    •  & Pablo Alonso-González
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Anisotropic light-matter excitations in van der Waals materials are expected to have an impact on nanophotonics applications. Here, the authors report the observation of canalized in-plane mid-infrared plasmons in the semimetallic phase of WS2 and demonstrate their electrical tunability via ion intercalation.

    • Qiaoxia Xing
    • , Jiasheng Zhang
    •  & Hugen Yan
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The researchers showcased a negative Goos-Hänchen effect in film samples across the entire visible spectrum and discovered an amber rainbow ribbon and an optical black hole where little light leaks out due to perfect back reflection.

    • Jing Zhao
    • , Xianfeng Wu
    •  & Xiaopeng Zhao
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Li et al. report large circular dichroism in 2D chiral perovskite single crystals, arises from the inorganic sublattice, instead of chiral ligands, driven by electron-hole exchange interactions. This is evidenced by both reflective circular dichroism spectroscopy and ab initio theory.

    • Shunran Li
    • , Xian Xu
    •  & Peijun Guo
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ion trapping has been found to be responsible for the performance degradation in electrochromic oxide thin films. This paper visualizes ion trapping and detrapping dynamics, and provides a general picture of electrochromism in amorphous WO3.

    • Renfu Zhang
    • , Qinqi Zhou
    •  & Rui-Tao Wen
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Miniaturized and efficient optical modulators are desired for data transmission, processing and communication. Here, the authors report the fabrication of exciton-polariton Mach–Zehnder modulators based on thin WS2 waveguides with a footprint of ~30 μm², modulation ratio up to −6.20 dB and nanosecond response times.

    • Seong Won Lee
    • , Jong Seok Lee
    •  & Su-Hyun Gong
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Authors control heat transfer through twisting moiré conductive thermal metasurface, showcasing the potential for manipulating thermal conductivity and temperature gradients with imitated magic angles, thereby realizing multifunctional thermal metadevices.

    • Huagen Li
    • , Dong Wang
    •  & Cheng-Wei Qiu
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Principal optical axes define light-matter interactions in crystals and they are usually assumed to be stationary. Here, the authors report the observation of wavelength-dependent principal optical axes in ternary van der Waals crystals (ReS2 and ReSe2), leading to wavelength-switchable propagation directions of their waveguide modes.

    • Georgy A. Ermolaev
    • , Kirill V. Voronin
    •  & Kostya S. Novoselov
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Several recent works have highlighted the importance of the orbital currents in transferring angular momentum within materials. In combination with spin-orbit coupling, such orbital currents can be used to alter the magnetization of a material. Herein, the authors demonstrate the inverse effect, showing orbital current driven terahertz emission in Nickel based heterostructures.

    • Yong Xu
    • , Fan Zhang
    •  & Weisheng Zhao
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Color construction of black carbon fibers is a challenge due to their stable physicochemical properties. Here, the authors demonstrate the tunable structural color of carbon fibers endowed by the dynamic growth of carbon spheres using glucose.

    • Sijie Zhou
    • , Chunhua Zhang
    •  & Weilin Xu
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Exciton transport in 2D Ruddlesden−Popper perovskite plays a key role for their optoelectronic performance. Here, authors significantly enhance free exciton mobilities in exfoliated thin flakes by anchoring butyl ammonium cation with polymethyl methacrylate, which also improves lattice rigidity.

    • Yiyang Gong
    • , Shuai Yue
    •  & Xinfeng Liu
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multifunctional all-optical logic gate (AOLG) with broadband-based massively parallel processing is desirable for high-speed optical processor. Here, authors propose a reconfigurable all-in-one ultra-broadband AOLG with experimentally achieving 9 fundamental Boolean logics in a single configuration.

    • Jinlong Xu
    • , Chi Zhang
    •  & Lin Zhou
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The efficiency of upconversion electroluminescence remains very low for single-molecule emitters. Here, the authors report over one order of magnitude improvement in the emission efficiency via engineering energy-level alignments for triplet relayed upconversion involving only carrier injection.

    • Yang Luo
    • , Fan-Fang Kong
    •  & Zhen-Chao Dong
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Authors showcase a framework for visual perception enhancement system based on vision-driven metasurfaces. It can help humans obtain information in multiple frequency bands and allows the metasurface platform with more interesting functions.

    • Tianshuo Qiu
    • , Qiang An
    •  & Shaobo Qu
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Entanglement entropy exhibits rich phenomenology connected to different kinds of phases in condensed matter. Here, the authors confirm some of these predictions by experimentally probing nonlocal correlations in 1D and 2D phononic crystal based on interconnected resonating acoustic cavities.

    • Zhi-Kang Lin
    • , Yao Zhou
    •  & Jian-Hua Jiang
  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this work, the authors present an active optical metasurface based on a silicon-organic platform. The metasurface can modulate the amplitude of a reflected beam via electric voltage actuation lower than ± 17V.

    • Tianzhe Zheng
    • , Yiran Gu
    •  & Andrei Faraon
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The role of polymers in stabilizing liquid crystal (LC)-water interfaces is well studied but how the LC affects stabilizers is not fully explored yet. Here, Ma et al. show that amphiphilic polymers change their behavior when the LC is heated towards its transition to the isotropic state, and propose that this is due to an entropic repulsion active at low temperatures where the orientationally ordered LC restricts the mobility of the flexible polymer chains.

    • Xu Ma
    • , Yucen Han
    •  & Jan P. F. Lagerwall
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electric modulation of second harmonic generation finds applications in integrated photonics. Here, authors introduce electric field-induced second harmonic generation by polar skyrmions in PbTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattices with giant modulation depth.

    • Sixu Wang
    • , Wei Li
    •  & Qian Li
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors present a switchable dual colour orthogonal linear polarized OLED by internally integrating a nanograting for selective diffraction of optical modes, which is appealing for applications including polarisation-encrypted colourful optical images and autostereoscopic naked-eye 3D displays.

    • Ruixiang Chen
    • , Ningning Liang
    •  & Tianrui Zhai
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Phosphor-glass composites can serve as efficient and stable photonic converters, but their synthesis generally requires harsh and time-consuming procedures. Here, the authors report an alternative synthesis route that requires only a few seconds and is based on particle self-stabilization.

    • Yongsheng Sun
    • , Yuzhen Wang
    •  & Zhiguo Xia
  • Perspective
    | Open Access

    In this Perspective, the authors illustrate the physics of hyperbolic polaritons in anisotropic 2D and 1D materials, proposing new potential material candidates, forward looking opportunities and technological applications.

    • Hongwei Wang
    • , Anshuman Kumar
    •  & Tony Low
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The researchers showcase all-crystalline and hybrid mid-infrared supermirrors with the lowest optical losses ever demonstrated in this wavelength range, representing an unprecedented improvement over any existing mirrors made with any production technology.

    • Gar-Wing Truong
    • , Lukas W. Perner
    •  & Garrett D. Cole
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors demonstrate how flexible metasurfaces powered by artificial neural network can dynamically manipulate the EM scattering behavior from an arbitrary surface - an ultimate ambition for many EM stealth and communication problems.

    • Erda Wen
    • , Xiaozhen Yang
    •  & Daniel F. Sievenpiper
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Methods for generating macroscopic chiral matter struggle with limited scalability. Here, the authors show two vacuum filtration methods - twist stacking and mechanical rotation - to align carbon nanotubes into chiral structures at wafer scale with tunable circular dichroism.

    • Jacques Doumani
    • , Minhan Lou
    •  & Weilu Gao
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The application of chiral metamaterials is limited by the fabrication of large-area chiral plasmonic structures with high dissymmetry factors. Here, the authors overcome this limitation imparting extrinsic chirality to hierarchical nanostructured polymer substrates with application in quantum and security enhanced optical communications.

    • Yoon Ho Lee
    • , Yousang Won
    •  & Joon Hak Oh
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Low-cost manufacturing of large-scale thermally activated delayed fluorescence organic light-emitting diodes has been restricted due to their incompatibility with solution processing techniques. Here, authors develop inkjet printing ink formulation to fabricate patterns without use of lithography.

    • Chandra Kant
    • , Atul Shukla
    •  & Monica Katiyar
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The development of chemically diverse boron-oxygen-fused polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons has been limited by their synthetic complexity. Here, authors report a one-pot strategy for their facile synthesis and demonstrate their potential as ultralong afterglow and host materials for deep-blue OLEDs.

    • Guijie Li
    • , Kewei Xu
    •  & Yuan-Bin She