Optics and photonics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Highly reflective surfaces are notorious in 3D sensing because they can cause errors in depth perception. Here, the authors devise a polarization structured light 3D sensor for this problem, in which high-contrast-grating VCSELs are used. Experiments are reported to demonstrate the sensor can be used to see and see through the highly reflective surfaces.

    • Xuanlun Huang
    • , Chenyang Wu
    •  & Connie J. Chang-Hasnain

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Light-responsive polymers with polarization-dependent deformation are promising material to develop tunable devices usually limited by irreversible dynamic control. Here, the authors use controlled polarization of visible light to produce arbitrary deformations into amorphous composites containing azopolymer microdomains to unlock the next level of complex actuation in soft lightdriven robots.

    • David Urban
    • , Niccolò Marcucci
    •  & Emiliano Descrovi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Researchers demonstrate robust optical communication around fully opaque occlusions, partially or entirely blocking the light path, using a pair of electronic encoder and passive diffractive decoder that are jointly optimized using deep learning.

    • Md Sadman Sakib Rahman
    • , Tianyi Gan
    •  & Aydogan Ozcan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    van der Waals materials are usually characterized by a significant out-of-plane optical anisotropy, but in-plane birefringence is also necessary for photonics applications. Here, the authors report the presence of broadband optical anisotropy in a layered material, Ta2NiS5, showing in-plane birefringence of ~2 and ~0.5 in the visible and mid-infrared range, respectively.

    • Yanze Feng
    • , Runkun Chen
    •  & Shaojuan Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Gan et al. have developed sodium polyacrylate-based films for passive radiative cooling that can be fabricated using atmospheric moisture alone, offering radiative and evaporative cooling, reducing temperatures by up to 5 °C under partly cloudy skies.

    • Roisul Hasan Galib
    • , Yanpei Tian
    •  & Qiaoqiang Gan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Laser machining can modify and reshape materials on the scale comparable to light’s wavelength. Here, authors use tailored microstructures to push the limit of laser machining to a scale that is almost 100 times smaller than a wavelength of light.

    • Maxim R. Shcherbakov
    • , Giovanni Sartorello
    •  & Gennady Shvets

  • 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

    Here, the authors experimentally discover a class of higher-order Weyl semimetal phase in a three-dimensional photonic crystal, exhibiting the concurrence of the surface and hinge Fermi arcs from the nonzero Chern number and the nontrivial generalized real Chern number, respectively, coined a real higher-order Weyl photonic crystals.

    • Yuang Pan
    • , Chaoxi Cui
    •  & Yihao Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Phosphor efficiency can be improved via materials development or structural engineering, the latter only begun lately. Here the authors propose and investigate simple vertical resonant cavity as a platform for nanostructurally engineered phosphor.

    • Tae-Yun Lee
    • , Yeonsang Park
    •  & Heonsu Jeon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors present a comprehensive framework for on-demand dispersion control with a single-layer metasurface, particularly in an ultra-broad bandwidth. An achromatic metalens spanning the visible and near-infrared spectra is experimentally demonstrated.

    • Yueqiang Hu
    • , Yuting Jiang
    •  & Huigao Duan

  • 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

    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

    The authors demonstrate here a method for the production of arbitrarily long, light-guiding microstructured fibers with shape-memory properties. The showcased design of adaptative fibers here holds potential for the development of functional actuators and sensors.

    • Clément Strutynski
    • , Marianne Evrard
    •  & Frédéric Smektala

  • 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

    Here, the Authors demonstrate a 2D isotropic, polarization-independent, broadband edge detection with high transmission efficiency under both coherent and incoherent illumination along the visible range using a metasurface based on Fourier optics principles.

    • Ibrahim Tanriover
    • , Sina Abedini Dereshgi
    •  & Koray Aydin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Structural engineering at the subatomic level remains little for boosting operational stability of organic light-emitting diodes. Here, authors show that deuteration of acceptor is critical to enhance device stability, which is commonly neglected due to limited availability and synthetic complexity.

    • Sinyeong Jung
    • , Wai-Lung Cheung
    •  & Man-Chung Tang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors report the realization of a sub-THz wireless data link based on a graphene-integrated optoelectronic mixer with a >96 GHz bandwidth, −44 dB upconversion efficiency and <0.1 mm2 footprint, providing an alternative approach for the realization of millimeter-wave transmitters.

    • Alberto Montanaro
    • , Giulia Piccinini
    •  & Marco Romagnoli

  • 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

    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

    The hole injection and device stability rely heavily on the inorganic/organic interface in perovskite light-emitting diodes. The authors enhanced the NiOx/PVK interface with a self-assembled monolayer, resulting in blue and green devices with maximum efficiencies of 14.5% and 26.0%, respectively.

    • Zhenchao Li
    • , Ziming Chen
    •  & Hin-Lap Yip

  • 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

    The authors propose an implementation of Floquet non-Abelian topological insulators in a 1D three-band system with parity-time symmetry. Furthermore, they demonstrate that the bulk-edge correspondence is multifold and follows the multiplication rule of a quaternion group.

    • Tianyu Li
    •  & Haiping Hu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Deep-blue emitters and corresponding light-emitting devices are still in the progress to meet industrial standards. Here, the authors report catalytic interconversion of isomeric iridium(III) complexes and achieve true-blue emission and operational half-lifetime of over 10,000 h for tandem devices.

    • Jie Yan
    • , Dong-Ying Zhou
    •  & Yun Chi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Recent years have seen a growing need for miniaturized spectroscopic tools. Here, authors present a novel integrated spectrometer with programmable photonic circuits, achieving record-high resolution and bandwidth via only a few filtering components.

    • Chunhui Yao
    • , Kangning Xu
    •  & Richard Penty

  • 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 assessment of selective therapeutics targeted to treat altered vasoactivity, a major characteristic of cardiovascular and oncological diseases, is still challenging due to unknown whole-body selectivity. Here the authors demonstrate that photoacoustic tomography has the potential to capture significant acute vasodilation of major arteries and vasculature selectivity.

    • Kristie Huda
    • , Dylan J. Lawrence
    •  & Carolyn L. Bayer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Inspired by Alan Turing’s last works on morphogenesis, this research introduces a technique for generating metasurfaces through the emergence of anisotropic patterns capable of self-structuring in response to electromagnetic constraints.

    • Thomas Fromenteze
    • , Okan Yurduseven
    •  & Cyril Decroze

  • 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

    The understanding of the orientation of luminescent molecules is currently limited by the ensemble-averaging nature of state-of-the-art measurements. Here, the authors apply single-molecule imaging to obtain complete orientation distributions of the transition dipole of individual emitter molecules.

    • Francisco Tenopala-Carmona
    • , Dirk Hertel
    •  & Malte C. Gather

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Intraventricular hemorrhage is one of the most fatal forms of brain injury. It is a common complication in premature infants and has limited treatment options. Here, the authors show that transcranial photostimulation can ameliorate lymphatic removal of blood from the brain of adult and newborn rodents after intraventricular hemorrhage, providing fast recovery and improvement of behavioral outcomes.

    • Dongyu Li
    • , Shaojun Liu
    •  & Dan Zhu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Capillary breakup in multimaterial fibers is explored for the self-assembly of optoelectronic systems. However, its insights primarily stem from numerical simulations, qualitative at best. The authors formulate an analytical model of such breakup, obtaining a window in the governing parameters where the generally chaotic breakup becomes predictable and thus engineerable.

    • Camila Faccini de Lima
    • , Fan Wang
    •  & Alexander Gumennik

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this work, the authors demonstrate a ‘jointly modulated’ amplifying programmable metasurface (APM) for simultaneous wireless information and power transmission (SWIPT). Their technique outperforms existing methods, significantly improving power transmission and adaptability for conveying energy and data across various domains, including wireless implants, 6 G networks, and IoT systems.

    • Xin Wang
    • , Jia Qi Han
    •  & Tie Jun Cui

  • 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

    Three-dimensional structures with micro-/nanoscale features can be produced by two-photon polymerization lithography but suffering from a non-uniform shrinkage. Here, the authors report a poly(vinyl alcohol)-assisted pick-and-place process to uniformly heat shrink three-dimensional micro-/nano-architected materials printed by two-photon polymerization lithography.

    • Tomohiro Mori
    • , Hao Wang
    •  & Joel K. W. Yang

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