Materials for optics articles within Nature Communications

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  • 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

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Organic light-emitting diodes must be engineered to circumvent efficiency limits imposed by the ratio of triplet to singlet exciton formation, following electron-hole capture. Here, authors unlock energy transfer channels between singlet, triplet and doublet excitons using thermally activated delayed fluorescence and radical emitters towards more efficient light-emitting devices.

    • Feng Li
    • , Alexander J. Gillett
    •  & Emrys W. Evans

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While great progress has been made in object recognition, implementing them is typically based on conventional electronic hardware. Here the authors introduce a concept of neuro-metamaterials that enable a dynamic entirely-optical object recognition and mirage.

    • Chao Qian
    • , Zhedong Wang
    •  & Hongsheng Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors investigate the optical response of bulk black phosphorus to mid-infrared pulses, and find that while above-gap excitation leads to a broadband light-induced transparency, sub-gap pulses drive an anomalous response, peaked at the single-layer exciton resonance.

    • Angela Montanaro
    • , Francesca Giusti
    •  & Daniele Fausti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dual-wavelength emission materials can provide fluorescence intensity ratio technology with self-calibration features; their fabrication however, remains a challenge. Here, authors design a dual-wavelength emitting material Li2ZnSiO4:Mn2+ and present a wearable optical fibre temperature sensor, functioning in both contact and noncontact modes.

    • Enhai Song
    • , Meihua Chen
    •  & Qinyuan Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Though active metasurfaces have been attractive for applications requiring control of optical wavefronts, realizing metasurfaces with full phase control remains a challenge. Here, the authors report a metasurface design strategy for enhanced dynamic phase modulation and tunability.

    • Ju Young Kim
    • , Juho Park
    •  & Min Seok Jang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A route to scalability for superconducting quantum computation is the modular approach, which however requires coherent microwave-to-optical conversion. Here the authors use gallium phosphide optomechanical crystal cavities for this task, exploiting their high refractive index and large OM coupling rate.

    • Simon Hönl
    • , Youri Popoff
    •  & Paul Seidler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Controlling the transition-dipole-moment orientation in quantum dot solids at device level has not been achieved before. Here, the authors demonstrated intrinsic light out-coupling enhancement approach to boost the external quantum efficiency up to 25% by using the colloidal lead halide perovskite anisotropic nanocrystals.

    • Sudhir Kumar
    • , Tommaso Marcato
    •  & Chih-Jen Shih

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rare-earth doped phosphors with negative thermal expansion (NTE) may display thermally-enhanced emission, but their performance is generally limited. Here the authors report thermally-boosted green upconversion luminescence and near-infrared downshifting luminescence in Sc2(MoO4)3:Yb/Er phosphors with two-dimensional NTE, and their application in temperature sensing.

    • Jinsheng Liao
    • , Minghua Wang
    •  & He-Rui Wen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dual-wavelength lasers are gaining importance for photonic applications. In this work the authors demonstrate that by incorporating a lanthanidedoped material into the size-mismatched coupled microcavities, it is possible to achieve laser switch with high uniformity, long-term stability, and an extremely wide spectral range up to 300 nm

    • Limin Jin
    • , Xian Chen
    •  & Qinghai Song

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors demonstrate an efficient platform for electrically driven reconfigurable metasurfaces by using Ge2Sb2Te5 to realize non-volatile, reversible, multilevel, and fast optical modulation and wavefront engineering in the near-infrared spectral range.

    • Sajjad Abdollahramezani
    • , Omid Hemmatyar
    •  & Ali Adibi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Though chiral hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites are attractive for next-generation optoelectronics, imparting strong chirality through chemical synthesis has proved challenging. Here, the authors report all-dielectric perovskite metasurfaces with giant superstructural chirality via planar nanostructuring.

    • Guankui Long
    • , Giorgio Adamo
    •  & Cesare Soci

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding photo-physics giving rise to quantum beating oscillations in hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites aids their applications in spintronics and quantum information science. Here, authors demonstrate that quantum beatings observed in single crystal perovskite at cryogenic temperatures are originating from positive and negative trions.

    • Uyen N. Huynh
    • , Ye Liu
    •  & Z. Valy Vardeny

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Efficiency roll-off in organic light-emitting diodes under elevated current densities not only results in high power consumption but also device degradation. Here, the impact of polaroninduced quenching in efficiency roll-off was investigated and strategies to reduce efficiency roll-off were proposed.

    • Monirul Hasan
    • , Siddhartha Saggar
    •  & Ebinazar B. Namdas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Exciton scattering in perovskite is an important phenomenon dictating the optoelectronic performance. Here, the authors confirm the deformation potential scattering by charged defects, not by the non-polar optical phonons, dominates the excitons interband relaxation in 2D Sn-based perovskites.

    • Tianju Zhang
    • , Chaocheng Zhou
    •  & Jun Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chern number controls the number of surface state channels in topological insulators. Here the authors propose 3D Chern insulating cubic photonic crystals with orientable and arbitrarily large Chern numbers demonstrating topologically protected photonic surface states.

    • Chiara Devescovi
    • , Mikel García-Díez
    •  & Aitzol García-Etxarri

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Integrated nanophotonics is an emerging research direction that has attracted great interests. Here, the authors show upon substituting Te with Se, the thermal conductivity of ordered Ge2Sb2Te5 transitions from an electron to a phonon dominated regime.

    • Kiumars Aryana
    • , Yifei Zhang
    •  & Patrick E. Hopkins

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Thermal metamaterials can be used to manipulate heat flow but experimental fabrication is challenging. Here, the authors report robustly printable freeform thermal metamaterials to tackle this challenge by topology optimization and 3D printing.

    • Wei Sha
    • , Mi Xiao
    •  & Run Hu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors demonstrate a sensing approach for effectively monitoring organic micropollutants in water. They first use mesoporous nanosponge and magnetic nanoparticles for fast enrichment of micropollutants, and demonstrate SERS-based sensing with 2-3 orders of magnitude improvement in detection limits.

    • Lingling Zhang
    • , Yu Guo
    •  & Jixiang Fang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Efficient second-harmonic generation (SHG) occurs for crystals with broken inversion symmetry, such as transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers. Here the authors show SHG tuning in bilayer MoS2 - an inversion-symmetric crystal - mediated by interlayer excitons.

    • Shivangi Shree
    • , Delphine Lagarde
    •  & Ioannis Paradisanos

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A low singlet-triplet energy gap, necessary for delayed fluorescence organic semiconductors, results in a small radiative rate that limits performance in OLEDs. Here, the authors show that it is possible to reconcile these conflicting requirements in materials that can access both high oscillator strength intramolecular excitations and intermolecular charge transfer states.

    • Alexander J. Gillett
    • , Claire Tonnelé
    •  & Richard H. Friend

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Weyl semimetals have interesting band-structure features that lead to unique properties. Here, the authors observe and study high-harmonic generation in type-II Weyl semimetal β-WP2 crystals.

    • Yang-Yang Lv
    • , Jinlong Xu
    •  & Shining Zhu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Molecular designs improving the performance of thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters are greatly desired for optoelectronic applications. The authors propose a molecular geometry with donor and acceptor moieties facing each other separated by an anthracene bridge, giving rise to hot exciplex states producing color pure and fast TADF emission.

    • A. Lennart Schleper
    • , Kenichi Goushi
    •  & Alexander J. C. Kuehne

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Core-shell designs enhance the luminescence of lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs), but the effect of shell coverage was insufficiently characterized. Here the authors demonstrate, on a series of core-shell UCNPs with various shell coverage ratios, an on-off effect by which luminescence is enhanced only when a full coverage is achieved.

    • Yi Zhang
    • , Pengpeng Lei
    •  & Yong Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Single photon emitters (SPEs) in 2D semiconductors can be deterministically positioned using localized strain induced by underlying nanostructures. Here, the authors show SPE coupling in WSe2 to GaP dielectric nanoantennas, substantially increasing quantum efficiency and photoluminescence brightness.

    • Luca Sortino
    • , Panaiot G. Zotev
    •  & Alexander I. Tartakovskii

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The use of chalcogenide glass in optical science and applications at the UV frequencies has been so far hindered by its absorption in this spectral region. Here the authors demonstrate that a nanostructured chalcogenide glass can efficiently generate third harmonic radiation, leading to a strong UV light source at the nanoscale.

    • Jiannan Gao
    • , Maria Antonietta Vincenti
    •  & Natalia M. Litchinitser

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cherenkov detectors are used to detect high energy particles and their performance capabilities depend heavily on the material used. Here, the authors propose use of a Brewster-optics-based angular filter for a detector with increased sensitivity and particle identification capability.

    • Xiao Lin
    • , Hao Hu
    •  & Yu Luo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Graphene-based photodetectors have many advantages for applications. Here, the authors demonstrate a high-speed optical coherent receiver for optical communications based on graphene-on-plasmonic slot waveguide photodetectors.

    • Yilun Wang
    • , Xiang Li
    •  & Xinliang Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Broad-band emission of self-trapped exciton in low-dimensional perovskite is prospective for white LED, yet rational design new white perovskite remains challenge. Here, the authors develop an atom-substituting strategy to trigger exciton self-tapping in perovskites and reveal the mechanism behind.

    • Mingming Zhang
    • , Lili Zhao
    •  & Jun Xing

  • Article
    | Open Access

    One-dimensional van der Waals (1D vdW) materials derive interesting behaviour from dimensional confinement. Here the authors study a 1D vdW semiconductor, fibrous red phosphorous, and observe exceptional optical properties of large optical anisotropy and high photoluminescence.

    • Luojun Du
    • , Yanchong Zhao
    •  & Zhipei Sun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Graphene is the archetype for realizing two-dimensional topological phases of matter. Here, the authors introduce a new topological classification connected to polarization transport, where the topological number is revealed in the spatiotemporal dispersion of the susceptibility tensor.

    • Todd Van Mechelen
    • , Wenbo Sun
    •  & Zubin Jacob

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Despite advances in the design of thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters for devices, the effect of spin interactions is not well understood. Here, the authors report the role of spin-vibronic coupling in TADF organic emitters using transient electron spin resonance spectroscopy.

    • Bluebell H. Drummond
    • , Naoya Aizawa
    •  & Emrys W. Evans

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ensuring robustness of bound states in the continuum usually relies on precise control of geometrical symmetries, which are quite susceptible to fabrication imperfections. Here, the authors propose to exploit physical symmetries instead, as a way to achieve robust BICs in disordered systems.

    • Qingjia Zhou
    • , Yangyang Fu
    •  & Yadong Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Refraction between anisotropic media is still an unexplored phenomenon. Here, the authors investigate the propagation of hyperbolic phonon polaritons traversing α-MoO3 nanoprisms, showing a bending-free refraction effect and sub-diffractional focusing with foci size as small as 1/50 of the light wavelength in free space.

    • J. Duan
    • , G. Álvarez-Pérez
    •  & P. Alonso-González

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lead toxicity poses a big hurdle for the commercialization of perovskite optoelectronics, hence reducing the environmental impact holds the answer for its future application. To tackle this challenge, the authors utilize germanium to reduce the lead content, enabling highly luminescent eco-friendly compound for LEDs.

    • Dexin Yang
    • , Guoling Zhang
    •  & Dawei Di

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    The application space for optical fibers is growing, enabled by fibers built using special materials and processes. In this Review, the authors discuss the materials science behind producing crystalline core fibers for diverse applications and progress in the field.

    • Ursula J. Gibson
    • , Lei Wei
    •  & John Ballato

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    This review presents an overview of scenarios where van der Waals (vdW) materials provide unique advantages for nanophotonic biosensing applications. The authors discuss basic sensing principles based on vdW materials, advantages of the reduced dimensionality as well as technological challenges.

    • Sang-Hyun Oh
    • , Hatice Altug
    •  & Michael S. Strano

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Though multiplexing meta-holograms remains an attractive approach for realizing optical encoding, existing methods encode information based on the intensity of the holographic images. Here, the authors report vectorial metasurfaces that decouple and encode intensity and polarization information.

    • Qinghua Song
    • , Arthur Baroni
    •  & Patrice Genevet

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