Materials for optics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article |

    Electromagnetically induced transparency—an effect in atomic physics caused by interference between transitions—has found analogues in other areas, like nanophotonics. Yang et al. exploit this effect in an all-dielectric metasurface to produce high-Q-factor resonances ideal for refractive index sensing.

    • Yuanmu Yang
    • , Ivan I. Kravchenko
    •  & Jason Valentine

  • Article |

    The straightforward and scalable synthesis and patterning of graphene-based nanomaterials remains a technological challenge. Here, the authors use a CO2infrared laser, under ambient conditions, to directly produce and pattern porous graphene films with three-dimensional networks from commercial polymer films.

    • Jian Lin
    • , Zhiwei Peng
    •  & James M. Tour

  • Article |

    Unusual effects arise when a material’s permittivity or permeability approach zero, a scenario that can be readily engineered in metamaterials. This study explores the regime wherein both these quantities go to zero and the electric and magnetic fields effectively decouple while remaining temporally dynamic.

    • Ahmed M. Mahmoud
    •  & Nader Engheta

  • Article |

    Metasurfaces are subwavelength structures that manipulate impinging waves into desired output waveforms, but building them for acoustic applications remains challenging. Exploiting tapered labyrinthine structures, Xie et al.present an acoustic metasurface that manipulates sound waves in a variety of ways.

    • Yangbo Xie
    • , Wenqi Wang
    •  & Steven A. Cummer

  • Article |

    Metamaterials manipulate light to deliver tailored optical functionalities, like nonlinearity and optical activity. By exploiting the Drude response and four-fold rotational symmetries, Park et al. show that meshed helical metallic structures can produce a strong and broadband nondispersive optical activity.

    • Hyun Sung Park
    • , Teun-Teun Kim
    •  & Bumki Min

  • Article |

    There is a need for micro- and nanostructures capable of polarization control to cope with the increasing miniaturization of optics devices. Here, the authors propose a beam-splitter consisting of amorphous silicon nanofins on glass that reflect left- and right-circularly polarized light in different directions.

    • Mohammadreza Khorasaninejad
    •  & Kenneth B. Crozier

  • Article |

    If photonics and electronics are to form hybrid information processing systems, it will be necessary to manipulate and isolate light electrically, over short distances. Davoyan and Engheta propose a route to achieve this in plasmonic waveguides by exploiting the magnetic field induced by a direct current.

    • Artur Davoyan
    •  & Nader Engheta

  • Article |

    The limit external quantum efficiency of organic LEDs based on isotropically oriented iridium complexes is believed to be around 30%. But Kim et al. show that the emission from these complexes is in fact anisotropic, enabling them to increase the external quantum efficiency of these devices to 36%.

    • Kwon-Hyeon Kim
    • , Sunghun Lee
    •  & Jang-Joo Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In quantum optical technologies, identical emitters of indistinguishable single photons are difficult to realize due to the inherent dissimilarity of each emitting device. Here, Rogers et al.demonstrate a solid-state uniform single-photon source, which does not require external tuning of optical properties.

    • L.J. Rogers
    • , K.D. Jahnke
    •  & F. Jelezko

  • Article |

    Photonic crystals used for many optical devices are the materials made of nanoscaled periodic structures that diffract light. Yue et al. design and fabricate a soft mechanochromic hydrogel that exhibits a fast colour switching rate at 0.1 ms in a full-colour band.

    • Youfeng Yue
    • , Takayuki Kurokawa
    •  & Jian Ping Gong

  • Article |

    Polyfluorenes emit blue light in organic light-emitting diodes, but their colour purity is always degraded by accompanied green emission band. Here, the authors investigate the physical origin of the green emission using electroluminescence and photoluminescence spectroscopy on a single-molecular level.

    • Yoshihiro Honmou
    • , Shuzo Hirata
    •  & Martin Vacha

  • Article |

    The thermalization of high-energy photons limits the efficient conversion of photon energy in photovoltaic applications. Here, Saeed et al. consider optical extraction of the excess energy of hot carriers by emission of infrared photons, using erbium ions in combination with silicon nanocrystals.

    • S. Saeed
    • , E. M. L. D. de Jong
    •  & T. Gregorkiewicz

  • Article |

    Active metamaterials provide tailored optical properties that can be tuned on-demand by an external stimulus. Kang et al. present a nonlinear metamaterial, based on a nanostructured metal film, exhibiting second harmonic generation and optical rectification that can be electrically controlled.

    • Lei Kang
    • , Yonghao Cui
    •  & Wenshan Cai

  • Article |

    Spontaneous symmetry breaking is one of the unusual effects offered by nonlinear metamaterials. Here, the authors study this effect in chiral magnetoelastic metamaterials where the meta-molecules of opposite handedness are both electromagnetically and mechanically coupled.

    • Mingkai Liu
    • , David A. Powell
    •  & Yuri S. Kivshar

  • Article |

    Fluorescent organic light-emitting diodes hold promise for next-generation full-colour displays, but are currently limited by the internal electroluminescence quantum efficiency. Nakanotani et al.break this limit and demonstrate nearly 100% efficiency in a double-dopant system without a rare metal.

    • Hajime Nakanotani
    • , Takahiro Higuchi
    •  & Chihaya Adachi

  • Article |

    Deep-ultraviolet nonlinear optical materials can generate laser light below 200 nm, which is crucial to solid-state deep-ultraviolet lasers. Here, the authors find that Li4Sr(BO3)2shows advantageous properties as a deep-ultraviolet nonlinear optical material, where alternatives are rare.

    • Sangen Zhao
    • , Pifu Gong
    •  & Junhua Luo

  • Article |

    Metamaterials are artificial media with tailored optical properties that can ideally be altered at will. Jung et al.use superconducting quantum interference devices as switchable meta-atoms to build a metamaterial that can be rapidly controlled by microwave-probe signals.

    • P. Jung
    • , S. Butz
    •  & A. V. Ustinov

  • Article |

    Introducing active hetrojunctions could improve the capabilities of devices based on colloidal quantum dots. Here, the authors develop nanorods with double heterojunctions and show that they can provide independent control over the electron and hole processes, demonstrating their potential in light-emitting diodes.

    • Nuri Oh
    • , Sooji Nam
    •  & Moonsub Shim

  • Article |

    Smart luminescent materials have many potential applications. Here, the authors synthesize a series of responsive iridium complexes, with tunable emission colours, and use their mechano-, vapo- and electrochromic phosphorescence properties to construct a proof of concept data recording device.

    • Huibin Sun
    • , Shujuan Liu
    •  & Wei Huang

  • Article |

    Using light to manipulate matter on scales smaller than its wavelength presents a major challenge. Here, the authors show that two-photon surface excitation of diamond surfaces etches a variety of nano-scale patterns, comprising evidence for carbon ejection via a highly localized photon interaction with the crystal bonds.

    • A. Lehmann
    • , C. Bradac
    •  & R. P. Mildren

  • Article |

    Several techniques exist for patterning a single densely packed layer of quantum dots onto a surface. Kim et al.now demonstrate a simple and reliable technique for transferring multiple monolayers, one-by-one, to form stacked multilayers of quantum dots of different types and sizes on a surface.

    • Tae-Ho Kim
    • , Dae-Young Chung
    •  & Kinam Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Algae beds are a promising resource for bio-energy and gas production, but their productivity is often limited by solar energy harvesting efficiency. Wondraczek et al. promote algal growth by using photoluminescent phosphor, which shifts the light spectrum to better match the algal adsorption band.

    • Lothar Wondraczek
    • , Miroslaw Batentschuk
    •  & Christoph J. Brabec

  • Article |

    Polymer light-emitting diodes promise cheap and flexible lighting and displays, but their fabrication is hindered by high-vacuum methods for creating cathodes. Zheng et al.show an all-solution processing approach to polymer diodes that removes this obstacle, offering roll-to-roll fabrication of devices.

    • Hua Zheng
    • , Yina Zheng
    •  & Yong Cao

  • Article |

    Single-crystal organic semiconductors are potential materials for electronic applications, for example, as field-effect transistors. Here, the authors demonstrate photoconductivity of single-crystal charge-transfer interfaces, suggesting that they may also be used for photonic applications.

    • Helena Alves
    • , Rui M. Pinto
    •  & Ermelinda S. Maçôas

  • Article |

    Information transport and control of the energy flow in a disordered system is difficult to achieve. Here Leonetti et al. demonstrate that the transmission of one laser mode in a random medium can be switched and amplified by exciting a second mode.

    • Marco Leonetti
    • , Claudio Conti
    •  & Cefe Lopez

  • Article |

    Diamond is of interest for optical and electronic applications owing to its unique mechanical and optical properties. Here, Rath et al. demonstrate the use of small nanometre-sized beams etched from diamond thin films for integrated photonic circuits.

    • Patrik Rath
    • , Svetlana Khasminskaya
    •  & Wolfram H.P. Pernice

  • Article |

    Glasses are solid when cold, but when mixed with the correct dye can be fluidized by light. Fang et al.show that each photon absorbed in an azobenzen-based molecule layer produces an efficient local heating up to 800 K to melt the glass but without altering the average temperature.

    • G.J. Fang
    • , J.E. Maclennan
    •  & N.A. Clark

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Measuring acoustic phonons across the Brillouin zone reveals important information on electrical and thermal transport in materials. Temnov et al.generate giant acoustic strain pulses in gold/cobalt bilayers and monitor their nonlinear reshaping in the gold layer with plasmonic interferometry.

    • Vasily V. Temnov
    • , Christoph Klieber
    •  & Rudolf Bratschitsch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metamaterials can be designed with anisotropy, which tailors their optical properties to enable interesting functionalities. Here, the anisotropy of a Maltese-cross metamaterial is actively controlled by an actuator, allowing for tunable birefringence and dichroism in the terahertz frequency region.

    • W.M. Zhu
    • , A.Q. Liu
    •  & N.I. Zheludev

  • Article |

    Metamaterial cloaks can manipulate light to effectively hide objects from view, but they mostly rely on rigid structures that are tailored specifically for the chosen object. Shin et al.demonstrate an elastic, smart metamaterial cloak that can adapt to a range of deformations and object sizes.

    • Dongheok Shin
    • , Yaroslav Urzhumov
    •  & David R. Smith

  • Review Article |

    The diffraction limit of light constrains the achievable resolution of conventional optical systems, but metamaterials provide numerous avenues to beat it. Lu and Liu review recent advances in super-resolution imaging with hyperlenses and metalenses, and discuss future directions and hurdles for the field.

    • Dylan Lu
    •  & Zhaowei Liu

  • Article |

    Light-emitting diodes are attractive sources of light used in an increasing range of applications. This study presents a novel europium-based phosphor that gives rise to a substantial reduction in the glare that often makes LEDs uncomfortable to the human eye.

    • Hisayoshi Daicho
    • , Takeshi Iwasaki
    •  & Hideo Hosono

  • Article |

    Understanding ultrafast demagnetisation is key to manipulating magnetic structures on fast timescales, yet laser sources limit the attainable spatial resolution. Here, a soft X-ray high harmonic source enables a high temporal and spatial resolution study of domain demagnetisation in [Co/Pt]30multilayer films.

    • Boris Vodungbo
    • , Julien Gautier
    •  & Jan Lüning

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