Optical techniques articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fanget al. develop a method to determine the photon recycling efficiency for organic-inorganic hybrid single crystal perovskites by differentiating between emitted and re-absorbed photons based on their polarization difference. For these systems efficiencies of less than 0.5% are reported.

    • Yanjun Fang
    • , Haotong Wei
    •  & Jinsong Huang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here Zhaoet al. use twisted metamaterials to drastically enhance chiral responses through strong near-field interactions, and sense the chirality down to zeptomoles of molecules, orders of magnitude smaller than what is detectable with conventional circular dichroism spectroscopy.

    • Yang Zhao
    • , Amir N. Askarpour
    •  & Andrea Alù

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photonic lanterns are made by merging several single-mode cores into one multimode core. Here, the authors show this type of structure can both perform wavelength-to-time mapping of multimode states of light and couple such light to an array of single-photon avalanche detectors.

    • Harikumar K Chandrasekharan
    • , Frauke Izdebski
    •  & Robert R. Thomson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Aligning the resonances of sets of optical cavities is necessary for advanced photonics and sensing applications. Here, the authors introduce resonant photoelectrochemical etching as a method to collectively and permanently tune the resonant wavelengths of ensembles of resonators on a photonic chip.

    • Eduardo Gil-Santos
    • , Christopher Baker
    •  & Ivan Favero

  • Article
    | Open Access

    On-site diagnostics technologies allow for rapid, cost-effective diagnosis with a particular importance for remote communities. Here the authors demonstrate the use of mobile phone based microscopy for targeted DNA sequencing andin situpoint mutation detection in tumours.

    • Malte Kühnemund
    • , Qingshan Wei
    •  & Mats Nilsson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The near-field interaction of single emitters and plasmonic structures can alter the perceived physical location of the emitter. Here, Raabet al. use DNA origami and far-field super-resolution microscopy to quantitatively evaluate this localization offset for gold nanoparticles.

    • Mario Raab
    • , Carolin Vietz
    •  & Philip Tinnefeld

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Light-matter interactions with single quantum emitters are generally difficult to measure with both high-resolution and a large field of view. Here, Johlin et al. develop far-field super-resolution fluorescence methods to map near-field emitter-nanostructure interactions over several microns.

    • Eric Johlin
    • , Jacopo Solari
    •  & Erik C. Garnett

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Single-molecule localization microscopy offers super-resolution imaging, but needs a long acquisition time and a toxic photochemical environment. Here, the authors demonstrate a multiple signal classification algorithm that achieves a resolution of 50 nm with as few as 50 frames in a biologically conducive environment.

    • Krishna Agarwal
    •  & Radek Macháň

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Many super-resolution imaging techniques use fluorescence emission intensity to obtain precise positional information, but other spectral information is ignored. Here, the authors develop a method that records the spectrum and position of single dye molecules to map the hydrophobicity of a surface.

    • Marie N. Bongiovanni
    • , Julien Godet
    •  & Steven F. Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Robust coherent diffractive imaging generally requires many exposures that may damage samples. Here, the authors develop a single-shot X-ray imaging method applicable to general samples for materials and biological sciences, also enabling imaging of dynamic processes, using a pulsed X-ray laser.

    • Fucai Zhang
    • , Bo Chen
    •  & Ian K. Robinson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fibre sensors are key to many minimally-invasive detection techniques but, owing to an index mismatch, they are often limited to aqueous environments. Here, Caucheteur et al. develop a high-resolution fibre gas sensor with a tilted in-fibre grating that allows coupling to higher-order plasmon modes.

    • Christophe Caucheteur
    • , Tuan Guo
    •  & Jacques Albert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Indium arsenide quantum dots are promising materials for short-wavelength infrared emissive applications. Here, the authors investigate the kinetics of indium arsenide nanocrystal growth and design large quantum dots with narrow emission wavelengths which can be used for through-skull fluorescence imaging.

    • Daniel Franke
    • , Daniel K. Harris
    •  & Moungi G. Bawendi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Low repetition rate lasers are suitable for studying nonlinear optical phenomena, while near-field microscopy allows high spatial resolution for nanomaterial characterisation. Here, Wang et al. enable scattering-type near-field microscopy with low repetition rate lasers through phase-domain sampling.

    • Haomin Wang
    • , Le Wang
    •  & Xiaoji G. Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Visualizing surface plasmon polaritons at buried interfaces has remained elusive. Here, the authors develop a methodology to study the spatiotemporal evolution of buried near-fields within complex heterostructures, enabling the characterization of the next generation of plasmonic devices.

    • Tom T. A. Lummen
    • , Raymond J. Lamb
    •  & F. Carbone

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Differences in the intensity of the left- and right-circularly polarized components of light can provide useful information about the chirality of electromagnetic radiation. Here, the authors demonstrate a monolithic photodetector that translates this difference in incident radiation directly into a voltage

    • Feng Lu
    • , Jongwon Lee
    •  & Mikhail A. Belkin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The experimental determination of band structure of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) is a challenging task, and often must be theoretically predicted. Here, the authors separate SWCNTs in high purity and experimentally determine their excitonic band structures using circular dichroism spectra.

    • Xiaojun Wei
    • , Takeshi Tanaka
    •  & Hiromichi Kataura

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The design of holographic displays usually involves a trade-off between size and viewing angle. Here, the authors combine holographic projection with a digitally designed holographic optical element so that display size and the visual angle can be designed independently.

    • Koki Wakunami
    • , Po-Yuan Hsieh
    •  & Kenji Yamamoto

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The spatial structure of vortex laser beams associates angular momentum to photons, which, in addition to their spin, can be used to tailor light-matter interactions. Here, the authors excite an atomic transition with a vortex laser beam, showing that the transfer of angular momentum modifies selection rules.

    • Christian T. Schmiegelow
    • , Jonas Schulz
    •  & Ferdinand Schmidt-Kaler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    An ideal optical frequency-comb system should combine both single-line spectral resolution and a bandwidth broad enough to cover as many lines as possible. Here, the authors incorporate a fibre spectrometer to detect approximately 500 comb-lines with an instrument resolution of 120 megahertz.

    • Nicola Coluccelli
    • , Marco Cassinerio
    •  & Gianluca Galzerano

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Manipulation of individual superconducting vortices remains challenging and has been demonstrated only in a sophisticated way. Here, Veshchunov et al.realize a fast and precise manipulation of individual vortices using a far-field optical method, providing a simple way towards optical control of Josephson transport.

    • I. S. Veshchunov
    • , W. Magrini
    •  & B. Lounis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Low-damage and high-precision imaging can be achieved by passing the same probe photons through the specimen more than once, and this has been previously achieved in double-pass transmission microscopy. Here, the authors generalize this idea to full-field multi-pass microscopy using a self-imaging cavity.

    • Thomas Juffmann
    • , Brannon B. Klopfer
    •  & Mark A. Kasevich

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Integration time limits the capacity of super-resolution microscopy to study dynamics. Here, Bartsch et al. use the 3D scanning of a nanoparticle held in an optical trap, and its thermal noise motion within the trap, to image the local dynamics of soft-matter structures with a 50 kHz bandwidth.

    • Tobias F. Bartsch
    • , Martin D. Kochanczyk
    •  & Ernst-Ludwig Florin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Imaging buried interfaces is necessary to assess the quality of electronic devices and their degradation mechanisms. Here, Hirohata et al. use energy-filtered scanning electron microscopy to image buried defects in an inorganic lateral spin-valve device, at the nanometre scale and non-destructively.

    • Atsufumi Hirohata
    • , Yasuaki Yamamoto
    •  & Andrew J. Vick

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Detection of a single nanoparticle or molecule is essential for many applications. Here, Yu et al.demonstrate the use of an optical cavity with optomechanical oscillation to detect single bovine serum albumin proteins, with potential for studying mechanical properties and interactions of individual molecules.

    • Wenyan Yu
    • , Wei C Jiang
    •  & Tao Lu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Angiopoietin-like 4 protein (ANGPTL4) is a regulator of lipoprotein metabolism whose role in atherosclerosis has been controversial. Here the authors show that ANGPTL4 deficiency in haematopoietic cells increases atherogenesis by promoting myeloid progenitor cell expansion and differentiation, foam cell formation and vascular inflammation.

    • Binod Aryal
    • , Noemi Rotllan
    •  & Carlos Fernández-Hernando

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photon localization microscopy uses stochastic emission events from fluorescent molecules to enable super-resolution imaging, but spectroscopic information is lost. Here, the authors improve the spatial resolution of this technique with a method that also detects each blink’s fluorescence spectrum.

    • Biqin Dong
    • , Luay Almassalha
    •  & Hao F. Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Underwater microscopes have limited spatial and temporal resolutions. Here, Mullen et al. present a small non-invasive underwater microscope for both direct and fluorescence microscopy. They image coral bleaching and interspecific competition with resolutions approaching a micron and hundreds of milliseconds.

    • Andrew D. Mullen
    • , Tali Treibitz
    •  & Jules S. Jaffe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A three-dimensional imaging system which distributes the optical illumination over the full field-of-view is sought after. Here, the authors demonstrate the capability of reconstructing 128 × 128 pixel resolution three-dimensional scenes to an accuracy of 3 mm as well as real-time video with a frame-rate up to 12 Hz.

    • Ming-Jie Sun
    • , Matthew P. Edgar
    •  & Miles J. Padgett

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Active optical imaging systems use their own light sources to recover scene information but typically operate with large number of photon detections. Here, the authors present a 3D imaging system that acquires depth and reflectivity information with a single photon camera operating in low-light conditions.

    • Dongeek Shin
    • , Feihu Xu
    •  & Jeffrey H. Shapiro

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There is a need to characterize devices during operation in real-time and at nanoscopic length scales. Here, King et al. perform electroluminescence-STED imaging with a polymer based light-emitting diode, revealing nanoscopic defects that would be unresolvable with traditional optical microscopy.

    • John T. King
    •  & Steve Granick

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Three-dimensional computer-generated holography cannot be implemented with temporal focusing. Here, Hernandez et al. use two spatial light modulators to control transverse- and axial-target light distribution, generating spatiotemporally focused patterns with uniform light distribution throughout the entire volume.

    • Oscar Hernandez
    • , Eirini Papagiakoumou
    •  & Valentina Emiliani

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plasmonic metasurfaces can provide exciting optical functionalities. Here, Hui et al. demonstrate an infrared sensor by combining plasmonic and piezoelectric electromechanical resonances, demonstrating efficient transduction of vibration with a strong and polarization-independent absorption over an ultrathin thickness.

    • Yu Hui
    • , Juan Sebastian Gomez-Diaz
    •  & Matteo Rinaldi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Confocal and multiphoton fluorescence microscopy often suffers from low dynamic range. Here the authors develop a high dynamic range, laser scanning fluorescence technique by simultaneously recording different light intensity ranges. The method can be adapted to commercial systems.

    • C. Vinegoni
    • , C. Leon Swisher
    •  & R. Weissleder

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Use of electron microscopy to determine morphology, or find where functionally significant biomolecules are located with high spatial resolution is of great interest. Here, Rez, Cohen et al. use aloof electron beam vibrational spectroscopy to probe different bonds in biological samples with no significant radiation damage.

    • Peter Rez
    • , Toshihiro Aoki
    •  & Hagai Cohen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Short X-ray pulses from free-electron lasers enable coherent diffractive imaging of noncrystalline objects such as single molecules. Here, the authors reconstructing full image information from a single-shot diffraction pattern by using two sufficiently separated objects to act as references for each other.

    • Ben Leshem
    • , Rui Xu
    •  & Oren Raz

  • 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

    Existing single-particle tracking techniques are limited in terms of penetration depth, tracking range or temporal resolution. Here, Perilloet al. demonstrate three-dimensional particle tracking up to 200-μm depth, with 35-nm spatial localization and 50-μs resolution using multiplexed two-photon excitation.

    • Evan P. Perillo
    • , Yen-Liang Liu
    •  & Andrew K. Dunn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tracking and stabilizing sample drifts is crucial towards realizing nanometer resolution in superresolution microscopy; metal nanoparticles can provide drift information but diffraction remains a challenge. Here, Bonet al. combine intensity and phase information to reach three-dimensional subnanometre accuracies.

    • Pierre Bon
    • , Nicolas Bourg
    •  & Sandrine Lévêque-Fort

  • Article |

    While desirable for compact solutions, the miniaturization of spectrometers comes at the cost of spectral resolution and operating range. Here, Wanet al. propose a tapered fibre multimode interference spectrometer exhibiting high spectral resolution from the visible to the near infrared in a compact configuration.

    • Noel H. Wan
    • , Fan Meng
    •  & Dirk Englund

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