Optical materials and structures articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optical interference filters are multilayer structures for controlling the propagation of electromagnetic waves. Jin et al. have developed a method of via inkjet printing to fabricate optical interference filters with commercially relevant quality with remarkable A4 paper size (29.7 × 21.0 cm²) in ambient conditions.

    • Qihao Jin
    • , Qiaoshuang Zhang
    •  & Uli Lemmer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    An efficient way of realising a large number of telecom single-photon emitters for quantum communication is still missing. Here, the authors use a wide-field imaging technique for fast localization of single InAs/InP quantum dots, which are then integrated into circular Bragg grating cavities featuring high single-photon purity and indistinguishability.

    • Paweł Holewa
    • , Daniel A. Vajner
    •  & Elizaveta Semenova

  • 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 fuse metamaterials and origami technical to achieve ultra-wideband and large-depth reflection modulation. Flexible electronics amplify its lightweight, transparency, and cost-effectiveness, making it ideal for satellite communications.

    • Zicheng Song
    • , Juan-Feng Zhu
    •  & Cheng-Wei Qiu

  • 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

    Shi et al. report the synthesis of multicolour thermally activated delayed fluorescent carbon dots with 3D onion-like configuration to stabilise the triplet state and reduce the singlet-triplet energy gap. LEDs with EQE of 6.0–9.9% are achieved, a step further for efficient and stable displays.

    • Yuxin Shi
    • , Yang Zhang
    •  & Louzhen Fan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Authors present an adaptive underwater optical communication (UWOC) technology based on multi-wavelength lasers and a full-color metasurface for converting visible-band Gaussian to circular autofocusing Airy beams. The potential of Airy beams to mitigate optical power degradation is demonstrated, enabling stable data rate transmission via 4 K video transmission for these systems.

    • Junhui Hu
    • , Zeyuan Guo
    •  & Chao Shen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    2D metallic single crystals are sought after for nanophotonic applications, but their synthesis remains challenging. Here, the authors report an atomic level precision etching method to fabricate large-area crystalline gold flakes with nanometre thickness, showing enhanced plasmonic and nonlinear optical properties.

    • Chenxinyu Pan
    • , Yuanbiao Tong
    •  & Pan Wang

  • 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

    Enhancing the data encoding into the orbital angular momentum of light beams could enable faster and more efficient optical communications. This work demonstrates complex control of the second harmonic wavefront with dynamics solely limited by the pulse duration.

    • Artem Sinelnik
    • , Shiu Hei Lam
    •  & Isabelle Staude

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fermi arcs show unpredictable diffraction features resulting from their long-range scattering order in aperiodic systems. Here, authors continuously twist a bi-block Weyl meta-crystal and experimentally observe the twisted Fermi arc reconstruction.

    • Hanyu Wang
    • , Wei Xu
    •  & Biao Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Polarization serves as an excellent information encoding carrier. Here, authors expand the metasurface encoding dimensionality of polarization information by engineering the Poincaré Sphere trajectory with generalized Malus’ law, unveiling new opportunities for advanced polarization optics.

    • Zi-Lan Deng
    • , Meng-Xia Hu
    •  & Andrea Alù

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Biocompatible afterglow materials have potential in imaging applications, but are challenging to prepare. Here the authors report the development of carbon nanodots with near-infrared afterglow, and demonstrate their use in imaging for tumour resection.

    • Guang-Song Zheng
    • , Cheng-Long Shen
    •  & Chong-Xin Shan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors experimentally demonstrate the anomalous and Chern topological phases in a hyperbolic non-reciprocal scattering network, establishing unidirectional channels to induce new and exciting wave transport properties in curved spaces.

    • Qiaolu Chen
    • , Zhe Zhang
    •  & Romain Fleury

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Compact sources in the frequency range of 6-12 THz are difficult to obtain due to optical phonon absorption in conventional III-V semiconductors. Here, the authors demonstrate third harmonic generation at 9.63 THz by optically pumping monolayer graphene coupled to a circular split ring resonator by using a semiconductor laser.

    • Alessandra Di Gaspare
    • , Chao Song
    •  & Miriam S. Vitiello

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metasurfaces processing incoming images have been proposed in the context of real space operations. Here, the authors demonstrate mathematical operations, such as differentiation, on the angular spectrum of an image using metasurfaces, which can be used to enhance spectral features of an image.

    • Ming Deng
    • , Michele Cotrufo
    •  & Lin Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dielectric constant of non-fullerene acceptors plays a critical role in organic solar cells in terms of exciton dissociation and charge recombination. Here, authors report selenium substitution on central core of acceptors to improve dielectric constant, realizing devices with efficiency of 19.0%.

    • Xinjun He
    • , Feng Qi
    •  & Wallace C. H. Choy

  • 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

    Achieving spatiotemporal control of photochromic upconversion from a single lanthanide emitter remains challenging. Here, the authors present a conceptual model enabling such control of Er3+ photochromic upconversion via interfacial energy transfer in a core-shell nanostructure.

    • Long Yan
    • , Jinshu Huang
    •  & Bo Zhou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Non-Hermitian systems have many physical properties without Hermitian counterparts. Here, the authors demonstrate a non-Hermitian topolectrical circuit hosting continuous bound states under pseudomagnetic fields with no counterparts in Hermitian systems.

    • Xuewei Zhang
    • , Chaohua Wu
    •  & Gang Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Exploring the miniaturization of imaging systems, researchers use inverse-design for broadband meta-optics in the LWIR spectrum. Here, authors achieve a six-fold Strehl ratio improvement in image quality over conventional metalenses using a novel design and computational techniques.

    • Luocheng Huang
    • , Zheyi Han
    •  & Arka Majumdar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors develop a coupled ring resonators platform for realizing topological states of matter with hyperbolic dispersion thus offering an approach to boost the efficiency of topological photonic devices.

    • Lei Huang
    • , Lu He
    •  & Xiangdong Zhang

  • 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

    Here, the authors report on the fabrication of strained wrinkles in monolayer WSe2 by placing the material on Au nanoconical substrates. They investigate the correlation between topographical stress factors and localised, quantum-dot-like photoluminescence emission.

    • Emanuil S. Yanev
    • , Thomas P. Darlington
    •  & P. James Schuck

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors experimentally realized a systematic approach to synthesize arbitrary-size two-dimensional all-band-flat photonic lattices, which pave a route for investigating flat-band related physics such as slow-light, nonlinear breathing, and dispersionless image transmission.

    • Jing Yang
    • , Yuanzhen Li
    •  & Fei Gao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The enantiomer fraction strategy can achieve continuous control of the phase transition temperature, chiroptical properties, SHG intensity and other properties of chiral two-dimensional lead bromide ferroelectrics.

    • Chang-Chun Fan
    • , Cheng-Dong Liu
    •  & Wen Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Authors report a novel architecture of photonic beamformer capable of achieving broadband operation and a high number of pointing angles. We demonstrate the operation of a 5-bit beamformer capable of providing 32 pointing angles in the 10−30 GHz range.

    • Pablo Martinez-Carrasco
    • , Tan Huy Ho
    •  & José Capmany

  • Article
    | Open Access

    An efficient and physically accurate platform is required to rapidly design high-performance integrated photonic devices. Here, the authors present a scalable framework for creating on-chip optical systems with complex and arbitrary functionality.

    • Ali Najjar Amiri
    • , Aycan Deniz Vit
    •  & Emir Salih Magden

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors propose an isotropic three-dimensional metamaterial with nonreciprocal magnetoelectric resonant responses at visible and mid-infrared frequencies. The proposed metamaterials do not require external magnetization.

    • Shadi Safaei Jazi
    • , Ihar Faniayeu
    •  & Viktar Asadchy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors showcase a five-channel silicon microring modulator array with a total data rate in the terabit range. Each microring is equipped with two separate Z-shape junctions to overcome the bandwidth and modulation efficiency trade-off, providing a pathway for future 200 Gb/s/lane silicon optical interconnects.

    • Yuan Yuan
    • , Yiwei Peng
    •  & Raymond G. Beausoleil

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Silicon microring resonator plays crucial role in optical computing owing to the compact footprint and energy-efficiency, yet existing modulators require >2 V to drive it. Here, the authors present a solution to this by using metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitor microring that brings down the driving voltage to 0.8 V.

    • Wei-Che Hsu
    • , Nabila Nujhat
    •  & Alan X. Wang

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