Optical physics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantum communications require sources of entangled photons. Electrically triggered sources usually suffer from low entangled-emission efficiency. Here, the authors use piezoelectric strains to tune the fine structure of quantum dot emitters, and increase the entanglement probability and fidelity.

    • Jiaxiang Zhang
    • , Johannes S. Wildmann
    •  & Oliver G. Schmidt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multiview light-sheet microscopy is a powerful tool for imaging relatively large biological samples over long periods of time, but scattering can limit image quality. Here, the authors combine multiview light-sheet imaging with electronic confocal slit detection to improve image quality, double acquisition speed and streamline data fusion.

    • Gustavo de Medeiros
    • , Nils Norlin
    •  & Lars Hufnagel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Realizing tunable metamaterials across a broad spectral range is of great interest. Here, Liu et al. introduce hybrid structures comprising graphene plasmonic resonators strongly coupled to conventional split-ring resonators and reach 60% transmission modulation with an operating speed above 40 MHz.

    • Peter Q. Liu
    • , Isaac J. Luxmoore
    •  & Geoffrey R. Nash

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Some optical forces can direct particles, but only in the direction of light propagation. Here, the authors show theoretically that when the spin of the incident circularly polarized light is converted into lateral electromagnetic momentum, it leads to a lateral optical force associated with a recoil mechanical force.

    • Francisco J. Rodríguez-Fortuño
    • , Nader Engheta
    •  & Anatoly V. Zayats

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photonic quantum technologies rely on the creation and manipulation of continuous variables states whose experimental preparation needs to be verified- a noteworthy impractical task. Here, the authors present a protocol that allows to certify continuous variables states with limited experimental overhead.

    • Leandro Aolita
    • , Christian Gogolin
    •  & Jens Eisert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Injecting spin-polarized current into a ferromagnetic thin film via a nanocontact is expected to generate a radially-symmetric spin wave soliton. Here, the authors use time-resolved x-ray microscopy and micromagnetic simulations to demonstrate the occurrence of p-like symmetry associated with non-uniform magnetic fields in the nanocontact region.

    • S. Bonetti
    • , R. Kukreja
    •  & H. A. Dürr

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photoluminescent objects absorb light and then relax by emitting photons, usually with a lower energy. Here, the authors show that carbon nanotubes also emit larger energy photons thanks to one-phonon-assisted up-conversion, suggesting that nanotubes could be used as near-infrared up-converters.

    • Naoto Akizuki
    • , Shun Aota
    •  & Yuhei Miyauchi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plasmonics offers an alternative approach to robust colour printing, but real applications require a full-colour and scalable process. Here, the authors develop such an approach by combining plasmonic broadband absorbers with conjugate twin-phase modulation, demonstrating its potential for anticounterfeiting technology.

    • Jiancai Xue
    • , Zhang-Kai Zhou
    •  & Xue-Hua Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Combining high-resolution microscopic techniques with luminescent probes is important for biological imaging. Here, Mi et al. demonstrate subwavelength imaging by combining lanthanide-doped upconversion nanocrystals with ionoluminescence, revealing cellular structure and particle spatial distribution at high resolution.

    • Zhaohong Mi
    • , Yuhai Zhang
    •  & Andrew A. Bettiol

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Conventional substrates used for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) are slow in response and lack reproducibility. Here, Zheng et al.describe a plasmonic sensor that can trap a single molecule at hot spots for rapid single-molecule detection with repeated trap and release capability and good SERS reproducibility.

    • Yuanhui Zheng
    • , Alexander H. Soeriyadi
    •  & J. Justin Gooding

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The surface of metal nanoparticles can support collective oscillations of electrons known as localized surface plasmon excitations. Here, the authors use electron energy-loss spectroscopy to observe multipole plasmon resonances in silver nanoparticles as small as four nanometres.

    • Søren Raza
    • , Shima Kadkhodazadeh
    •  & Nicolas Stenger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plasmonics enables the medication of light on length-scales smaller than the wavelength of the light. Here, the authors present a theoretical investigation of optical meta-atoms based on core-shell plasmonic nanostructures, where light is confined into a small region of space.

    • Sylvain Lannebère
    •  & Mário G. Silveirinha

  • Article
    | Open Access

    When quantum key distribution is composed with other secure protocols the overall security has to be guaranteed, which adds further security requirements. Here, the authors demonstrate continuous-variable quantum key distribution with composable security and one-sided-device independence.

    • Tobias Gehring
    • , Vitus Händchen
    •  & Roman Schnabel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantum communication allows exponential reductions in the information that must be transmitted to solve distributed computational tasks. Here, the authors demonstrate with weak coherent optical pulses a quantum fingerprinting system that transmits less information that the best known classical protocol.

    • Feihu Xu
    • , Juan Miguel Arrazola
    •  & Hoi-Kwong Lo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    For optical control of plasmons metals require a large amount of power in the control pulse, yielding a small modulation depth. Here, Sim et al. fabricate arrays of Bi2Se3 and report a modulation depth of 2,400% at 1.5 THz with an optical fluence of 45 μJ/cm2, demonstrating a novel route for controlling plasmons.

    • Sangwan Sim
    • , Houk Jang
    •  & Hyunyong Choi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Light can provide ultrafast ways of spin manipulation in magnetic materials, but existing methods are limited by long thermal recovery or low temperature. Here, the authors demonstrate ultrafast spin precession via optical charge-transfer processes in exchange-coupled Fe/CoO at room temperature.

    • X. Ma
    • , F. Fang
    •  & G. Lüpke

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Acoustic waves can be used to levitate objects in air, water and tissue. Here, the authors introduce a single-beam scheme to facilitate the translation, rotation and manipulation of levitated objects in 3D, and design acoustic structures such as tweezers, twisters and bottle traps.

    • Asier Marzo
    • , Sue Ann Seah
    •  & Sriram Subramanian

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Interacting light beams are required for all-optical information processing, but such nonlinear effects are tiny at the single-photon level. Here, the authors show that a single quantum dot in a photonic-crystal waveguide enables the necessary giant optical nonlinearity.

    • A. Javadi
    • , I. Söllner
    •  & P. Lodahl

  • Article
    | Open Access

    To date, lasing in colloidal quantum dot solids has been limited to the nanosecond temporal range, limiting the potential for solution-processed lasers. Here, the authors combine thermal management with low amplified spontaneous emission threshold to produce microsecond-sustained lasing.

    • Michael M. Adachi
    • , Fengjia Fan
    •  & Edward H. Sargent

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Erbium ions offer a way to integrate light emitters into silicon electronics, but their radiative decay time is too slow for effective light modulation. Here, the authors use phase changes in vanadium dioxide to enable all-optical modulation more than a thousand times faster than the erbium excited-state lifetime.

    • Sébastien Cueff
    • , Dongfang Li
    •  & Rashid Zia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Zeolites with regular porous structures are widely used as gas adsorbents and scaffolding for catalysts. Poppe et al. report a liquid crystal with zeolite-like structure by self-assembly of polyphilic molecules with π-conjugated rod-like cores into a honeycomb formed by pentagonal/octagonal channels.

    • Silvio Poppe
    • , Anne Lehmann
    •  & Carsten Tschierske

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nitrogen-vacancy colour centre defects in diamond are one possible host for qubits, but such an application requires a method for reading out the colour centre spin state. Here, the authors demonstrate a photoelectric readout technique of the magnetic resonances of these colour centres.

    • E. Bourgeois
    • , A. Jarmola
    •  & M. Nesladek

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Mollow triplet, originally observed in the fluorescence spectrum of an optically excited two level system, is a signature of quantum electrodynamics. Here, the authors observe its phononic equivalent by magnetically coupling a single nitrogen-vacancy qubit to the vibrations of a silicon carbide nanowire.

    • B. Pigeau
    • , S. Rohr
    •  & O. Arcizet

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The more degrees of freedom a quantum observable has, the more complicated it is to measure its probability distribution. Here, the authors deduce the mean and variance of an infinite-dimensional variable, the orbital angular momentum of light, from a two-dimensional one: spin angular momentum.

    • Bruno Piccirillo
    • , Sergei Slussarenko
    •  & Enrico Santamato

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Integrated optomechanical systems can be created by combining semiconductor optoelectronic devices and nanoscale resonators. Here, the authors demonstrate a semiconductor modulation-doped heterostructure-cantilever that achieves efficient optomechanical transduction without the need for an optical cavity.

    • Hajime Okamoto
    • , Takayuki Watanabe
    •  & Hiroshi Yamaguchi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Organic light-emitting diodes promise a more environment-friendly future for light sources, but many use rare metals. Here, the authors present an approach that achieves external quantum efficiency over 40% by realising 100% up-conversion from triplet to singlet excitons and thus 100% radiative emission.

    • Hironori Kaji
    • , Hajime Suzuki
    •  & Chihaya Adachi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optomechanics is the use of light to control the motion of a mechanical resonator, potentially cooling it to the quantum ground state. Here, the authors cool a millimetre-scale silicon nitride membrane to an effective temperature of 34 microkelvin by coupling it to a three-dimensional microwave cavity.

    • Mingyun Yuan
    • , Vibhor Singh
    •  & Gary A. Steele

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Polaritons are exciton–photon hybrid particles that are created when the interaction between light and matter is strong enough. Here, the authors create polaritons in molybdenum diselenide/boron nitride quantum wells by enhancing the light–matter coupling using a tunable optical cavity.

    • S. Dufferwiel
    • , S. Schwarz
    •  & A. I. Tartakovskii

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Pulses of light offer a way to create particle accelerators that are a fraction of the size of conventional approaches. Here, the authors demonstrate the linear acceleration of electrons with kiloelectronvolt energy gain and in extremely short bunches using optically-generated terahertz pulses.

    • Emilio A. Nanni
    • , Wenqian R. Huang
    •  & Franz X. Kärtner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantum dots with different size emit light at different wavelengths but also different brightness, which complicates analysis of fluorescence images. Here, the authors synthesize multicolour brightness-equalized quantum dots by controlling the composition and structure of core-shell HgCdSeS-CdZnS nanocrystals.

    • Sung Jun Lim
    • , Mohammad U. Zahid
    •  & Andrew M. Smith

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Spectroscopy in the terahertz range requires polarization modulation. Here, Kan et al.demonstrate a chirality switchable metamaterial for polarization modulation employing deformable spirals. A polarization rotation as high as 28° is achieved, providing a practical and compact polarization modulator for the terahertz range.

    • Tetsuo Kan
    • , Akihiro Isozaki
    •  & Isao Shimoyama

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multiphoton-pumped lasing from semiconductor nanocrystals in solution is difficult due to Auger recombination, low volume fraction and high threshold. Here, Li et al. demonstrate photostable, ultralow threshold multi-photon pumped lasing from colloidal CdSe/CdS nanoplatelets in a Fabry-Pérot optical resonator.

    • Mingjie Li
    • , Min Zhi
    •  & Yinthai Chan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Conventional methods to control surface plasmon polaritons with light offer limited tunability or complex design parameters. Here, Xiao et al. demonstrate coherent and independent control of surface plasmon polariton orbitals for two opposite spins using multiple rings of nano-slots on a metasurface

    • Shiyi Xiao
    • , Fan Zhong
    •  & Jensen Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The design of all-passive nonreciprocal metastructures is a challenging task as there are trade-offs between the nonreciprocal transmission ratio and insertion loss. Here, Mahmoud et al. propose a concept for all-passive, high-throughput metastructures that exhibit nonreciprocal properties and wave-flow isolation.

    • Ahmed M. Mahmoud
    • , Arthur R. Davoyan
    •  & Nader Engheta

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Remote generation of population-inverted gain media in air is a step towards the realization of bright and coherent atmospheric lasers. Here, the authors verify population inversion in N2+and demonstrate the generation of air lasing by acting on it as the gain medium.

    • Huailiang Xu
    • , Erik Lötstedt
    •  & Kaoru Yamanouchi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Zinc oxide is potentially a useful material for ultraviolet detectors, but a relatively long response time hinders practical implementation. Here, the authors demonstrate a zinc oxide nanowire/perovskite heterostructure detector with a five orders of magnitude improvement in both rising and falling edge time.

    • Zhaona Wang
    • , Ruomeng Yu
    •  & Zhong Lin Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Harnessing nonlinear optics in optoelectronic devices requires a platform that exhibits both giant optical nonlinearity and is compatible with photonic-circuit fabrication. Here, the authors demonstrate such a system that uses strong light–matter coupling between waveguide photons and quantum-well excitons.

    • P. M. Walker
    • , L. Tinkler
    •  & D. N. Krizhanovskii

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Maser applications are hindered by their demanding working conditions. Here, Jinet al. theoretically propose a room-temperature maser based on nitrogen vacancy centres in diamond. This numerical study demonstrates that the operation of the maser under readily accessible conditions is feasible.

    • Liang Jin
    • , Matthias Pfender
    •  & Ren-Bao Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Designing robust electromagnetic channels where transport is unidirectional is still a challenge. Here, the authors propose a new paradigm for spin-filtered waveguides in air, avoiding the use of special bulk materials.

    • Wen-Jie Chen
    • , Zhao-Qing Zhang
    •  & C. T. Chan

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