Optical physics articles from across Nature Portfolio

In this work the authors use coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering to study collisional vibrational excitation in highly rotationally excited CO2 molecules prepared in an optical centrifuge.

Anisotropic leaky mode, defying the expectation, achieves zero crosstalk, enhancing photonic integration density. Applied in TM mode using subwavelength gratings, coupling length extends 100x.

Huygens-Fresnel features are useful for harnessing light in unique ways. Here the authors demonstrate a chiral light source that induces globally a counter energy flow in a topological photonics structure with Dirac-type frequency dispersion.

Insights from recent THz emission studies involving quantum materials and low-dimensional systems are surveyed from the standpoints of dynamical mechanisms and basic symmetries, highlighting interplays between intrinsic and designer structuring.

Quantum emitters with strong and tunable coupling to breathing-mode phonons are observed in bilayer WSe₂. The emission of each single photon heralds the creation of a phonon Fock state in the atomic-scale excitonic–optomechanical system.