Optical physics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Airy-Talbot effect is experimentally demonstrated for spoof surface acoustic waves in a structured metasurface. Owing to its self-imaging and self-healing properties, the authors achieve robust multipath transmission of nonperiodic signals.

    • Hao-xiang Li
    • , Jing-jing Liu
    •  & Johan Christensen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors provide an experimental demonstration of magnetic field generation in graphene disks via the inverse Faraday effect. When the disks are illuminated with circularly polarized radiation in resonance with the graphene plasmon frequency, the corresponding rotational motion of the charge carriers gives rise to a unipolar magnetic field.

    • Jeong Woo Han
    • , Pavlo Sai
    •  & Martin Mittendorff

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Strong optical excitation near band extrema can drive novel correlated states. Here the authors report a non-equilibrium many-body state in graphite driven by a strong excitation near van Hove singularity, yielding a tenfold increase in optical conductivity attributed to carrier excitations in the flat bands.

    • T. P. H. Sidiropoulos
    • , N. Di Palo
    •  & J. Biegert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Structured light has proven useful for numerous photonic applications. However, its current use in optical fibers is severely limited. The authors report a highly integrated metafiber platform based on 3D laser nanoprinting, capable of creating arbitrarily structured light.

    • Chenhao Li
    • , Torsten Wieduwilt
    •  & Haoran Ren

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Methods to characterize the free-electron laser pulses are evolving and their performances are also improving. Here the authors demonstrate a method based on the artificial neural networks to predict the output pulses of the X-ray free-electron laser by considering the electron beam parameters as input.

    • Kenan Li
    • , Guanqun Zhou
    •  & Anne Sakdinawat

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mie resonances are typically manipulated through varying nanostructure shape/size. Here, authors found that Gaussian beam displacement excites higher-order multipolar modes, not accessible by plane wave, featuring maximal linear and nonlinear scattering efficiency when the focus is misaligned.

    • Yu-Lung Tang
    • , Te-Hsin Yen
    •  & Shi-Wei Chu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Feedback oscillators are a fundamental tool in science and engineering. Here, Loughlin and Sudhir provide a generalized Schawlow-Townes-like formula for quantum-limited feedback oscillators, thus giving a general model to study the fundamental output noise of these devices and techniques to reduce their noise further.

    • Hudson A. Loughlin
    •  & Vivishek Sudhir

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Terahertz frequencies offer the potential of much higher data transfer rates, but this requires devices able to generate and manipulate terahertz waves. One approach is to utilize the spin dynamics of a magnetic system. Here, Ilyakov et al. show how a multilayer magnetic and heavy-metal heterostructure can be used to achieve terahertz second harmonic generation and optical rectification.

    • Igor Ilyakov
    • , Arne Brataas
    •  & Sergey Kovalev

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Storage of photon entanglement at telecommunication wavelength is an important milestone for the development of the quantum internet. Here, the authors demonstrate storage and retrieval of entangled telecom photons—generated through SWFM in a silicon nitride microring resonator—in an Erbium doped crystal.

    • Ming-Hao Jiang
    • , Wenyi Xue
    •  & Xiao-Song Ma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Authors present an exciting dielectric waveguide mechanism that can confine light in regions of varying sizes, unlike conventional designs. The platform offers a unique blend of properties by leveraging radiation modes while minimizing optical losses. This work holds promise for serving as the next generation of fundamental building blocks for integrated photonics applications.

    • Janderson R. Rodrigues
    • , Utsav D. Dave
    •  & Michal Lipson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this work the authors develop a Random optical parametric oscillator - the parametric analogous of random lasers. This system shows improved key metrics like tuneable repetition rates, tuneable pulse duration, inter-pulse coherence as well as simpler configuration compared with standard systems.

    • Pedro Tovar
    • , Jean Pierre von der Weid
    •  & Xiaoyi Bao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors develop a method for sub-diffraction near-field imaging using measurements taken relatively far from an object, amplifying evanescent waves that encode the highest resolution. The increased distance greatly reduces the perturbation of the fields by the imaging device itself.

    • Alessandro Tuniz
    •  & Boris T. Kuhlmey

  • Article
    | Open Access

    THz-driven electron emission is predicted to yield a single burst, due to the single-cycle waveform. Here, the authors demonstrate the confinement of single-cycle THz-waveform-driven electron emission to one of the two half cycles and the control of the active half cycle by changing the field polarity.

    • Shaoxian Li
    • , Ashutosh Sharma
    •  & József A. Fülöp

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors provide the experimental demonstration of a widely tunable integrated frequency comb source unlocking the spectrum from the visible to the mid-infrared in a thin-film lithium niobate platform.

    • Arkadev Roy
    • , Luis Ledezma
    •  & Alireza Marandi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electron holography and microscopy have long been used to map static electric and magnetic fields. Here, authors establish Lorentz Microscopy of Optical Fields, a new technique that uses the deflection and interference of an electron beam to obtain phase-resolved images of nanoscale optical fields.

    • John H. Gaida
    • , Hugo Lourenço-Martins
    •  & Claus Ropers

  • Article
    | Open Access

    THz pulses with tuneable properties are desirable for manipulating electronic states in materials. The authors report generation of THz pulses with phase, frequency, and amplitude control by tuning exciton interference in a 1D Mott insulator of transition metal complex and provide insight into exciton dynamics.

    • Tatsuya Miyamoto
    • , Akihiro Kondo
    •  & Hiroshi Okamoto

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Integrating coherent light sources on surface wave platforms would offer opportunities for sensing and data processing. The authors realize a microfabricated coherent light source based on the stimulated emission of a guided Bloch surface wave mode.

    • Yang-Chun Lee
    • , Ya-Lun Ho
    •  & Jean-Jacques Delaunay

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors demonstrate an efficient way to generate high-purity vortex beams by applying optical neural networks to cascaded phase-only metasurfaces. Specifically, they present record-high-quality Laguerre-Gaussian (LGp,l) optical modes with polynomial orders p = 10 and l = 200 with purity in p, l and relative conversion efficiency of 96%, 85%, and 70%, respectively.

    • Feng Mei
    • , Geyang Qu
    •  & Shumin Xiao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Realising a quantum-backaction-limited oscillator in the acoustic frequency range would have applications in sensing and metrology. Here, the authors reach this goal by demonstrating destructive interference between quantum back-action noise and shot noise down to sub-kHz range in a warm atomic vapor cell.

    • Jun Jia
    • , Valeriy Novikov
    •  & Eugene S. Polzik

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is a significant challenge to create an interface-free lateral optical force under the illumination of a single polarized plane wave. Here, the authors provide a minimalist paradigm to address this challenge by exploiting multipolar interplay in a single elongated particle.

    • Fan Nan
    • , Francisco J. Rodríguez-Fortuño
    •  & Xiaohao Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The topologically robust generation of acoustic spatiotemporal vortex pulses is reported by utilizing mirror- symmetry breaking meta-gratings, which paves the way for exploring spatiotemporal structured waves in acoustics and beyond.

    • Hongliang Zhang
    • , Yeyang Sun
    •  & Zhichao Ruan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Recent experiments have shown the formation of ferroelectric domains in twisted van der Waals bilayers. Here, the authors report near-field infrared nano-imaging and nano-photocurrent measurements to investigate ferroelectricity in minimally twisted WSe2 by visualizing the plasmonic and photo-thermoelectric response of an adjacent graphene monolayer.

    • Shuai Zhang
    • , Yang Liu
    •  & D. N. Basov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Exciton-polaritons are hybrid light matter quasi-particles, which can occur in systems exhibiting strong light-matter coupling. Here, Wang et al study exciton-polaritons in the van der Waals antiferromagnetic material, CrSBr, coupled to a Tamm plasmon microcavity and find the exciton-polaritons are sensitive to and can be tuned by the magnetic order of CrSBr.

    • Tingting Wang
    • , Dingyang Zhang
    •  & Wenjing Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    High-resolution single-photon imaging is challenging due to complex hardware and noise disturbances. Here, the authors realise simultaneous single-photon denoising and super-resolution enhancement by physics-informed deep learning, with a physical multi-source noise model, two single-photon image datasets, and a deep transformer network.

    • Liheng Bian
    • , Haoze Song
    •  & Jun Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors use tip-enhanced photoluminescence spectroscopy to show a discontinuity of the exciton density distribution on each side of the interface of a MoSe2/WSe2 lateral heterostructure. They introduce the concept of ‘exciton Kapitza resistance’ by analogy with the interfacial thermal resistance known as ‘Kapitza resistance’.

    • Hassan Lamsaadi
    • , Dorian Beret
    •  & Jean-Marie Poumirol

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors demonstrate the active control of an all-optical switch harnessing the interaction of light with the constituent materials. The response speeds up by two orders of magnitude and scales accordingly with the strength of the light matter interaction.

    • Soham Saha
    • , Benjamin T. Diroll
    •  & Alexandra Boltasseva

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Accelerated electron beams are potentially useful for imaging and different type of light sources. Here the authors demonstrate electron acceleration using metallic laser acceleration with efficiency comparable to that of dielectric laser accelerators.

    • Dingguo Zheng
    • , Siyuan Huang
    •  & Jianqi Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dissipative optomechanics, once limited to low frequencies, now operates in a sideband-resolved regime, reshaping optical and mechanical spectra and paving the way for the individual addressing of different mechanical modes in a single device.

    • André G. Primo
    • , Pedro V. Pinho
    •  & Thiago P. Mayer Alegre

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photonic, electronic and lattice resonances in patterned semiconductor microcavities are tailored to demonstrate coherent bidirectional microwave-to-optical conversion via phonon-exciton-photon quasi-particles in the strong-coupling regime.

    • Alexander Sergeevich Kuznetsov
    • , Klaus Biermann
    •  & Paulo Ventura Santos

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors show how concepts from metasurface flat optics and folded optics can be combined to push the limits in miniaturization of optical systems. Such optical systems can be fabricated using low-index materials, opening up a path for large-area fabrication using nanoimprint lithography.

    • Brandon Born
    • , Sung-Hoon Lee
    •  & Mark L. Brongersma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Strongly correlated transition metal insulators are often coloured. Understanding the underlying optical response from first-principles calculations is challenging. Now, ab initio many body Green’s function theories are shown to reproduce the colours of NiO and MnF2.

    • Swagata Acharya
    • , Dimitar Pashov
    •  & Mikhail I. Katsnelson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In the magneto-optical Kerr effect, light incident on a magnetic material is reflected with a shifted polarization, the size of the shift characterized by the Kerr angle. Here, Kato et al introduce a topological magneto-optical Kerr effect, where the presence of skyrmions, a type of topological spin texture, leads to a significant enhancement of the Kerr signal.

    • Yoshihiro D. Kato
    • , Yoshihiro Okamura
    •  & Youtarou Takahashi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Measurement and control of the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) is essential for applications of few-cycle laser beams. The authors present a compact on-chip, ambient-air, CEP scanning probe and show a 3D map of spatial changes of CEP and demonstrate CEP control in the focal volume with a spatial light modulator.

    • Václav Hanus
    • , Beatrix Fehér
    •  & Péter Dombi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Since their initial operation, free-electron lasers are regularly upgraded in their performance and parameter control. Here the authors present the first lasing results of the soft X-ray free-electron laser beamline of the Paul Scherrer Institute, demonstrating different modes of operation and polarisation control of the tailored soft X-ray pulses.

    • Eduard Prat
    • , Andre Al Haddad
    •  & Tobias Weilbach

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