Optics and photonics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The advent of isolated attosecond XUV pulse sources marks a new era in attosecond science, pivotal for the investigation of core electron dynamics. Here the authors discover that the coherent Raman coupling between the cation states leads to extra timedelay between different transition channels by applying the attosecond transient absorption spectroscopy on the investigation of complex dynamics of strong field ionization of Krypton.

    • Li Wang
    • , Guangru Bai
    •  & Zengxiu Zhao
  • Article
    | Open Access

    3D-printed glass holds great potential. However, it is challenging to control both the dimension and the resolution of the printed material. Here, authors present a one-photon 3D printing approach to produce high-performance fused silica glass with sub-micron resolution and millimetric dimensions.

    • Ziyong Li
    • , Yanwen Jia
    •  & Xiewen Wen
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Usual multiqubit entangled states can be described using the graph formalism, where each edge connects only two qubits. Here, instead, the authors use a reprogrammable silicon photonics chip to showcase preparation, verification and processing of arbitrary four-qubit hypergraph states, where hyperedges describe entanglement within a subset of many qubits.

    • Jieshan Huang
    • , Xudong Li
    •  & Jianwei Wang
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Anisotropic light-matter excitations in van der Waals materials are expected to have an impact on nanophotonics applications. Here, the authors report the observation of canalized in-plane mid-infrared plasmons in the semimetallic phase of WS2 and demonstrate their electrical tunability via ion intercalation.

    • Qiaoxia Xing
    • , Jiasheng Zhang
    •  & Hugen Yan
  • 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

    Single molecule investigations are often performed in fluidic environments, but molecular diffusion and limited photon counts can compromise studies of processes with fast or slow dynamics. The authors introduce a planar optofluidic antenna which enhances the fluorescence signal from molecules, applicable to a diverse range of studies.

    • Luis Morales-Inostroza
    • , Julian Folz
    •  & Vahid Sandoghdar
  • 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

    Accessing multi-angle views of organoids is important for biology and oncology. The authors propose ultrasound-induced reorientation for multi-angle optical coherence tomography, using a 3D-printed acoustic trap to levitate and rotate samples with a model-based algorithm for reconstruction.

    • Mia Kvåle Løvmo
    • , Shiyu Deng
    •  & Monika Ritsch-Marte
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The performance of Y6-containing donor-acceptor active layers in organic solar cells is highly related to the charge-transfer nature in Y6 aggregates. Here, authors study charge-transfer characteristics of excitations of isolated and aggregated Y6 molecules through electroabsorption spectroscopy.

    • Sudhi Mahadevan
    • , Taili Liu
    •  & Sai-Wing Tsang
  • Article
    | Open Access

    T centers in silicon are promising candidates for quantum applications yet suffer from weak optical transitions. Here, by integrating with a silicon nanocavity, the authors demonstrate an enhancement of the photon emission rate for a single T center.

    • Adam Johnston
    • , Ulises Felix-Rendon
    •  & Songtao Chen
  • 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

    Miniaturized and efficient optical modulators are desired for data transmission, processing and communication. Here, the authors report the fabrication of exciton-polariton Mach–Zehnder modulators based on thin WS2 waveguides with a footprint of ~30 μm², modulation ratio up to −6.20 dB and nanosecond response times.

    • Seong Won Lee
    • , Jong Seok Lee
    •  & Su-Hyun Gong
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Achieving uniform spin excitation, crucial for MRI, is challenging in the electrically large human body at UHF. Here, authors introduce an innovative dielectric waveguide specifically designed for traveling-wave MRI, which enhances homogeneity and efficiency through effective wave manipulation.

    • Yang Gao
    • , Tong Liu
    •  & Xiaotong Zhang
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Polaritons, light-matter hybridized quasiparticles, are the fundamental excitation of strong coupling systems and are widely applicable in information technologies. Here the authors applied the concept of time-of-flight measurement in terahertz induced second harmonic generation experiments in various systems to comprehensively study the dispersion relation of phonon-polaritons and reveal potential spin-lattice couplings.

    • Tianchuang Luo
    • , Batyr Ilyas
    •  & Nuh Gedik
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Interfacing single-photon emitters (SPEs) with high-finesse cavities can prevent decoherence processes, especially at elevated temperature, but its implementation remains challenging. Here, the authors report room-temperature strong coupling of SPEs in hexagonal boron nitride with a dielectric cavity based on bound states in the continuum, showing a Rabi splitting of ~ 4 meV.

    • T. Thu Ha Do
    • , Milad Nonahal
    •  & Son Tung Ha
  • 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

    Malakar et al. investigate the photochemical dynamics in the isomerization of bacteriorhodopsin light and dark-adapted forms and in the first photocycle intermediate, K. The results prompt a reevaluation of the counter ion model, revealing that a different protonation then that shown in the classic quadrupole so far considered must be employed to account for the experimental data.

    • Partha Malakar
    • , Samira Gholami
    •  & Sanford Ruhman
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Signal transmission without the interference from ambient light is prerequisite for optical communications. Min et al. design an asymmetric 2D-3D-2D perovskite photodetector with frequency-selective photoresponse for real-time high fidelity optical communications under strong light interference.

    • Liangliang Min
    • , Haoxuan Sun
    •  & Liang Li
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quickly acquiring topographical information from a sample remains a challenge in optics. Here, the authors introduce encoded search focal scan, a technique for sub-micrometric imaging of tens of topographies per second based on collecting a reduced set of images.

    • Narcís Vilar
    • , Roger Artigas
    •  & Guillem Carles
  • 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
  • Comment
    | Open Access

    I argue that a surface emitting laser that remains single mode irrespective of its size, a scale-invariant laser, should of necessity also waste light at the edge. This is a fundamental departure from the Schawlow-Townes two-mirror strategy that keeps light away from mirrors and edges to preserve gain and minimize loss. The strategy was implemented in the recent discovery of the Berkeley Surface Emitting Laser (BerkSEL).

    • Boubacar Kanté
  • 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

    Bioresorbable neural implants offer a promising solution to the challenges of secondary surgeries required for the removal of implanted devices. Here, the authors introduce a fully bioresorbable flexible hybrid opto-electronic system for simultaneous electrophysiological recording and optogenetic stimulation.

    • Myeongki Cho
    • , Jeong-Kyu Han
    •  & Ki Jun Yu
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Previous research reported enhanced emission from spin defects in hBN by coupling to optical resonators; however, this approach has limited scalability. Here the authors use a monolithic metasurface featuring quasi bound states fabricated from hBN to enhance photoemission and optical spin-readout efficiency of defects in the same material.

    • Luca Sortino
    • , Angus Gale
    •  & Andreas Tittl
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors propose a generalization of the equipartition theorem of thermal physics to account for non-Hermitian trapping forces, relevant for the problems in non-equilibrium open systems and advanced nanotechnology.

    • Xiao Li
    • , Yongyin Cao
    •  & Jack Ng
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Current approaches for volumetric super-resolution microscopy can yield large and complex PSF spatial footprints. Here, the authors show a super-resolution microscopy approach using a hexagonal microlens array, which offers speed improvements in volumetric imaging compared to other single-molecule methods.

    • Sam Daly
    • , João Ferreira Fernandes
    •  & Steven F. Lee
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Parallel information transmission components and hardware strategies are still lacking in neural networks. Here, the authors propose a strategy to use light emitting memristors with negative ultraviolet photoconductivity and intrinsic parallelism to construct direct information cross-layer modules.

    • Zhenjia Chen
    • , Zhenyuan Lin
    •  & Huipeng Chen
  • 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

    Using gas cells for spectroscopic studies opens possibility for miniaturized platforms that can be integrated with other optical components. Here the authors demonstrate molecular rovibrational spectroscopy by confining molecules in a cell of subwavelength thickness.

    • Guadalupe Garcia Arellano
    • , Joao Carlos de Aquino Carvalho
    •  & Athanasios Laliotis
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Via Raman and infrared spectroscopy measurements, X. Zan et al. find that rhombohedral ABC trilayer graphene has stronger electron/infrared-phonon coupling than Bernal ABA trilayer graphene.

    • Xiaozhou Zan
    • , Xiangdong Guo
    •  & Guangyu Zhang
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors show an original approach to achieve strong light-matter interaction harnessing the coupling between plasmonic resonators and the Landau resonances of an underlying quantum well, demonstrating remarkably high coupling strengths.

    • Joshua Mornhinweg
    • , Laura Katharina Diebel
    •  & Christoph Lange
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mid-infrared hyperspectral imaging is valuable for sample characterisation but suffers limited scanning rates. The authors develop such an imaging system based on parametric upconversion of supercontinuum illumination in the Fourier plane, enabling a 100-Hz acquisition rate of spectral datacubes.

    • Jianan Fang
    • , Kun Huang
    •  & Heping Zeng
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The miniaturization of spectrometers to a submillimeter-scale footprint opens opportunities for applications in hyperspectral imaging and lab-on-a-chip systems. Here, the authors report a high-performance single-pixel photodetector spectrometer based on the III-V semiconductor p-graded-n junction, featuring a voltage-tunable optical response.

    • Jingyi Wang
    • , Beibei Pan
    •  & Baile Chen
  • 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

    In-sensor computing requires detectors with polarity reconfigurability and linear responsivity. Pang et al. report a CsPbBr3 perovskite single crystal X-ray detector for edge extraction imaging with a data compression ratio of 46.4% and classification task with an accuracy of 100%.

    • Jincong Pang
    • , Haodi Wu
    •  & Guangda Niu