Materials for optics articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors present an intelligent metasurface system that uses a target detection algorithm combined with a depth camera, to automatically detect the position of moving targets and achieve real-time wireless communications. The system can operate for multiple targets in limited ambient light, outdoor and other realistic environments.

    • Weihan Li
    • , Qian Ma
    •  & Tie Jun Cui

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Pyroelectricity promises viable heat harvesting and sensing. Here, the authors identify transverse polarization ripple in pyroelectrics via heat localization and propagation decoupling and offer competitive power output to solar thermoelectrics.

    • Yi Zhou
    • , Tianpeng Ding
    •  & Ghim Wei Ho

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quasi-2D halide perovskites are attracting increasing attention for light-emitting devices. Here, the authors demonstrated efficient and stable quasi-2D perovskite LEDs enabled by suppressed phase disproportionation with newly designed organic ligands.

    • Kang Wang
    • , Zih-Yu Lin
    •  & Letian Dou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Structural coloration - i.e. colors arising from light interference in microstructures - is a good resource for several applications but usually involves elaborate fabrication techniques. Here, the authors achieve controllable coloration using silica particles embedded in a rearrangeable polymer network.

    • Juan Xue
    • , Xuewu Yin
    •  & Jiaxi Cui

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The design of high-efficiency solution-processable orange-red thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters remains to be a challenge. Here, the authors synthesize a series of emitters consisting of a trinaphtho[3,3,3]propellane core with highly efficient emission in the orange-red region of the spectrum.

    • Lei Hua
    • , Yuchao Liu
    •  & Zhongjie Ren

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The parity-time symmetry has led to exotic phenomena and fruitful applications in optical systems. In this paper, the authors propose a leaky-wave-enabled anti-parity-time design and realize space-wave harnessing.

    • Yumeng Yang
    • , Xinrong Xie
    •  & Fei Gao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Holography recreates both the amplitude and wave front of a three dimensional object, meaning that the observer perceives the image in the nearly same way as they would the true object. Creating such holographic images is challenging computationally, and requires extremely fast display update. Here, the authors combine a fast memoryless computation algorithm with the ultra-rapid writing based on all-optical switching of a ferrimagnetic film.

    • M. Makowski
    • , J. Bomba
    •  & A. Stupakiewicz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Controlling the high-power laser transmittance is built on the diverse manipulation of multiple nonlinear absorption processes in the nonlinear optical materials. Here, the authors demonstrate the crucial role of hot-carrier effect to tune the nonlinear absorption response in quasi-2D perovskite films.

    • Gang Wang
    • , Tanghao Liu
    •  & Guichuan Xing

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Experimental evidence is given that upon the optical excitation of surface plasmon polaritons, a nonthermal electron population appears in the topmost domain of the plasmonic film directly coupled to the local fields.

    • Judit Budai
    • , Zsuzsanna Pápa
    •  & Péter Dombi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Under strong laser fields, materials exhibit extreme non-linear optical response, such as high harmonic generation. These higher harmonics provide insights into electron behaviour in materials in sub-laser cycle timescale. Here, Cha et al study higher harmonic generation resulting from the laser driven motion of massless Dirac fermions in graphene.

    • Soonyoung Cha
    • , Minjeong Kim
    •  & Jonghwan Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Development of efficient upconversion (UC) phosphors that emit under irradiation in the NIR II region is challenging - most UC materials rely on the presence of sensitizers absorbing at shorter wavelengths. Here, authors synthesize Er3+ doped ternary sulfides phosphors with visible UC efficiency up to 2.6% and long emission lifetimes under 1532 nm irradiation, via an excited state absorption mechanism.

    • Xiumei Yin
    • , Wen Xu
    •  & Bin Dong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanophotonic light sources with programmable emission spectrum are important building blocks for integrated photonics, sensing and optical computing. Here the authors tune the complex laser spectrum of a network laser achieving selective lasing of a single, two or more modes.

    • Dhruv Saxena
    • , Alexis Arnaudon
    •  & Riccardo Sapienza

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Designing single-component materials with white-light electroluminescence is highly demanded for artificial lighting applications. Here, the authors fabricate a single-component white-light electroluminescence device based on an aromatic carbon nitride material with high maximum luminance and external quantum efficiency.

    • Yunhu Wang
    • , Kunpeng Wang
    •  & Jun Xing

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tunable plasmonic materials capable of surviving harsh environments are critical for advanced applications. Here, the authors report that some high-entropy transition-metal carbides can satisfy the requirements.

    • Arrigo Calzolari
    • , Corey Oses
    •  & Stefano Curtarolo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Unravelling the origin of emission in luminescent inorganic materials is challenging. Here, the authors report that AlF6 octahedrons exhibit excitation-dependent color-tunable phosphorescence; structurally related compounds are also luminescent.

    • Peisheng Cao
    • , Haoyue Zheng
    •  & Peng Wu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Low modulus materials that can change shape in response to external stimuli are promising for a wide range of applications. The authors here introduce a shape-reprogrammable construct, based on liquid metal microfluidic networks and electromagnetic actuation, that supports a unique collection of capabilities.

    • Xinchen Ni
    • , Haiwen Luan
    •  & John A. Rogers

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Organic radicals, which have unique doublet spin-configuration, provide an alternative method to overcome the efficiency limitation of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) but extending their fluorescence into a short-wavelength region remains challenging. Here, the authors significantly expand the scope of luminescent radicals by showing a new platform of carbon-centered radicals that produce blue to green emission.

    • Xin Li
    • , Yi-Lin Wang
    •  & Ying-Feng Han

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The develop of organic functional materials requires the exploration of the pressure dependent emissive mechanisms of molecular structures, conformations and stacking modes. Here, Tong et al propose a strategy for monitoring the pressure-induced fluorescence under multiple excitation channels.

    • Shuang Tong
    • , Jianhong Dai
    •  & Xinggui Gu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    High power efficiency and low roll-off values are essential to the commercialization of white organic light-emitting diodes. Here, the authors construct all-fluorescence devices with an orange emitting layer sandwiched between two sky-blue emitting layers, achieving figure-of-merit of 130.7 lm/W.

    • Hao Liu
    • , Yan Fu
    •  & Zujin Zhao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    One challenge with using circularly polarized light is an increased device complexity typically required to provide sufficient sensitivity to the polarization. Here, by integrating chiral plasmonic nanoparticles with a InGaZnO hot electron transistor, the authors present a polarization sensitive, optically active transistor.

    • Seok Daniel Namgung
    • , Ryeong Myeong Kim
    •  & Ki Tae Nam

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors combine multiple resonance effect and multi-lock strategy to dope green-emitting thermally activated delayed fluorescent molecules into green-emitting phosphorescence OLEDs by endowing the device with a Broadcast Service Television 2020 color-gamut, 50% improved EQE, and a high luminescence of half a million nits.

    • Junyuan Liu
    • , Yunhui Zhu
    •  & Qisheng Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors report tunable luminescence from a single lanthanide ion upon changing excitation conditions through co-doping an energy-modulator ion, thus adjusting the photon transition process of the lanthanide activator ion. Optical encryption has also been demonstrated as an application of this universal strategy.

    • Xiao Fu
    • , Shuai Fu
    •  & Qingsong Mei

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This paper reports an experimental observation of irrotational, inviscid, and incompressible electromagnetic power flow within an epsilon-near-zero medium, exhibiting an analogy to an ideal fluid.

    • Hao Li
    • , Ziheng Zhou
    •  & Yue Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Colloidal crystals are widely applied in the fabrication of optoelectronic devices, but realizing freedom of design, such as in 3D printing, in colloidal crystal fabrication remains challenging. Here, the authors demonstrate a sacrificial-scaffold-mediated two-photon lithography strategy that enables the fabrication of complex 3D colloidal crystal microstructures with orderly arranged nanoparticles in the bulk.

    • Keliang Liu
    • , Haibo Ding
    •  & Zhongze Gu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Advanced security applications require materials responsive to different stimuli with remarkable stability. Here, Sargent et al. introduce Ge homogenously into a silica scaffold and obtain a colourtuned germanium silicon oxide with ultra-long phosphorescence and delayed fluorescence across a broad temperature range.

    • Huai Chen
    • , Mingyang Wei
    •  & Zhenyu Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Wave-matter interaction suffers from fundamental limit to scattering cross section, referred to as the single-channel scattering limit. Here, the authors break this limit by exploiting gain metasurfaces and reveal the transient formation and relaxation of this phenomenon.

    • Chao Qian
    • , Yi Yang
    •  & Hongsheng Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Typical buildings are static structures, unable to adjust to dynamic temperature and daylight fluctuations. Here, authors present an adaptive alternative, using shape-tuneable pigment injections to control solar ingress and reduce estimated building energy use by 30%.

    • Raphael Kay
    • , Charlie Katrycz
    •  & Benjamin D. Hatton

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Spintronic terahertz (THz) emitters are a class of magnetic heterostructure where femtosecond laser excitations generate THz radiation emission. While they have great potential, electric field control of spintronic emitter remains a challenge. Here, by combining a spintronic emitter with a piezoelectric substrate, Agarwal et al. demonstrate electric field control of THz emission through induced piezostrain.

    • Piyush Agarwal
    • , Lisen Huang
    •  & Ranjan Singh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors achieved the X-ray-excited organic phosphorescent scintillation from copolymers through copolymerization of bromine-substituted chromophores and acrylic acid and demonstrated their potential application in X-ray radiography.

    • Nan Gan
    • , Xin Zou
    •  & Wei Huang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This paper proposes an unconventional type of antennas that are composed by epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) media. The operating frequencies of such antennas are independent of their geometries, and are determined by material dispersion.

    • Hao Li
    • , Ziheng Zhou
    •  & Nader Engheta

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Setting any polarization value in ferroelectric thin films is a key step for their implementation in neuromorphic devices. Here, the authors demonstrate continuous modulation of the remanent polarization at the nanoscale in PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 films.

    • Martin F. Sarott
    • , Marta D. Rossell
    •  & Morgan Trassin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Asymmetric n/p conductivity is a fundamental difficulty in wide bandgap semiconductors. Here the authors demonstrate a concept of orbital level engineering through sacrificial impurity coupling to achieve n-type conductivity (ne ~1016 cm-3) in hexagonal BN.

    • Shiqiang Lu
    • , Peng Shen
    •  & Junyong Kang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors introduce stimulated-emission induced excitation depletion (STExD) nanoscopy using a single pair of low-power, near-infrared, continue-wave lasers. Emission of multichromatic probes is inhibited by cascade amplified depletion in lanthanide upconversion systems induced by manipulating their common sensitizer.

    • Xin Guo
    • , Rui Pu
    •  & Qiuqiang Zhan

Browse broader subjects

Browse narrower subjects

Browse Materials for optics across other nature.com journals