Optics and photonics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article |

    Recent experiments with plasmonic nanostructures have found phenomena that cannot be explained classically, necessitating new theoretical models. Toscano et al. present a self-consistent hydrodynamic theory that describes both the nonlocal response and the electronic spill-out for noble and simple metals.

    • Giuseppe Toscano
    • , Jakob Straubel
    •  & Martijn Wubs

  • Article
    | Open Access

    STED nanoscopy enables sub-diffraction imaging with a wide range of fluorescent probes. Here, the authors show that a bright and very photostable class of fluorescent quantum dots can be super-resolved with STED as biolabels in cellular contexts.

    • Janina Hanne
    • , Henning J. Falk
    •  & Stefan W. Hell

  • Article |

    High-density integration will be vital for silicon photonics, but as we approach sub-wavelength distances between components, the crosstalk becomes intolerable. Here, Song et al. demonstrate waveguide integration at a half-wavelength pitch with low crosstalk using advanced superlattice design concepts.

    • Weiwei Song
    • , Robert Gatdula
    •  & Wei Jiang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Graphene has demonstrated the ability to modulate terahertz (THz) waves by optical or electrical excitation, but modulation depths have been low. Here, Li et al. demonstrate enhanced modulation and polarity-dependent THz attenuation using external voltage bias and photoexcitation on a graphene–silicon film.

    • Quan Li
    • , Zhen Tian
    •  & Weili Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Two-dimensional sheets of zeolites can function as molecular sieves for applications such as membranes or as catalysts. Here, the authors demonstrate a method using electron diffraction patterns to accurately measure the thickness and wrinkles of thin zeolite nanosheets.

    • Prashant Kumar
    • , Kumar Varoon Agrawal
    •  & K. Andre Mkhoyan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metal halide perovskites are promising for solar energy harvesting, but currently prone to a large hysteresis and current instability. Here, Xu et al. show improvements in a hybrid material in which the fullerene is distributed at perovskite grain boundaries and thus passivates defects effectively.

    • Jixian Xu
    • , Andrei Buin
    •  & Edward H. Sargent

  • Article |

    Graphene’s exotic properties make it suitable for many different optoelectronic devices. Brar et al. show that graphene plasmonic resonators can be exploited to produce narrow spectral emission in the mid-infrared, whose frequency and intensity can be modulated by electrostatic gating.

    • Victor W. Brar
    • , Michelle C. Sherrott
    •  & Harry A. Atwater

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Purcell effect predicts a spontaneous emission rate enhancement of several orders of magnitude, but experimental demonstrations have been much lower. Here, Song et al. show emission enhancement of Er3+ions in a metallic nanocavity with a 170 Purcell factor at room temperature and 55% extraction efficiency.

    • Jung-Hwan Song
    • , Jisu Kim
    •  & Yong-Hee Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are essential in a wide range of photonics applications but have not been demonstrated for X-ray optics. Here, Mukhopadhyay et al.use single-crystal silicon to demonstrate a MEMS system that can preserve and manipulate the spatial, temporal and spectral correlations of the X-rays.

    • D. Mukhopadhyay
    • , D. A. Walko
    •  & G. K. Shenoy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Frequency combs have revolutionized the study of electronic structures and dynamics of matter but currently used lasers systems are limited in terms of achievable pulse energies. Here, Pronin et al.demonstrate few cycle pulse emission from a thin-disk laser with 150 nJ pulse energy and 7.7 fs pulse duration.

    • O. Pronin
    • , M. Seidel
    •  & F. Krausz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although expected to have an influence, the effect of strong laser fields on molecules in high-harmonic generation in gases is rarely explored. Kraus et al.show that the laser modifies the electronic structure of large polyatomic molecules and present a new theoretical framework to model this.

    • P. M. Kraus
    • , O. I. Tolstikhin
    •  & H. J. Wörner

  • Article |

    The mechanical properties of metal nanostructures depend on nature of the adhesion layer attaching it to a substrate. Chang et al.find that the properties of phonons in gold nanodisks vary with adhesion layer thickness, and that this response can act as a probe of the metallic composition of the disk.

    • Wei-Shun Chang
    • , Fangfang Wen
    •  & Stephan Link

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the behaviour of magnetic flux ropes in the Sun is crucial for explaining solar phenomena such as flares and space weather. Exploiting the high resolution available in the 1.6 m New Solar Telescope, Wang et al.capture the evolution of a flaring twisted flux rope in the low solar corona.

    • Haimin Wang
    • , Wenda Cao
    •  & Haisheng Ji

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fitting current–voltage curves of organic solar cells with the Shockley equation often results in artificially high ideality factors. Here, the authors analyse inadequacy of the equation and propose an analytic model, which allows prediction of the efficiency potentials by explicit consideration of charge-carrier mobilities.

    • Uli Würfel
    • , Dieter Neher
    •  & Steve Albrecht

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The current methods of fabricating three-dimensional particles include photolithography, layer-by-layer printing and several others. Here, Paulsen et al. demonstrate an optofluidic approach, whereby masked ultraviolet light is illuminated on photosensitive fluids whose cross-sections are shaped by fluid inertia.

    • Kevin S. Paulsen
    • , Dino Di Carlo
    •  & Aram J. Chung

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Owing to its electronic and optical properties, graphene holds potential for flat display systems. Here, Li et al. write wide-angle, full-colour, three-dimensional holographic images using subwavelength, multilevel index modulation of athermally reduced graphene oxide by a single femtosecond pulse.

    • Xiangping Li
    • , Haoran Ren
    •  & Min Gu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Active control of light in optical fibres is of great interest, to this end, electric control of all-fibre graphene devices is desirable but highly challenging. Here, Lee et al. demonstrate electric control of the optical properties of a graphene sheet deposited on a side-polished fibre mediated by an ion liquid.

    • Eun Jung Lee
    • , Sun Young Choi
    •  & Dong-Il Yeom

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Atomic clocks are increasingly important for many applications in scientific research and technology. Here, Nicholson et al. present a series of developments allowing them to achieve a new record in atomic clock performance, with a systematic uncertainty of just 2.1 × 10−18 for their 87Sr atomic clock.

    • T.L. Nicholson
    • , S.L. Campbell
    •  & J. Ye

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The transmission of light through opaque media is a complex process, owing to the many scattering processes of light. Here, the authors develop a method to determine the transmission eigenchannels through an opaque medium as a solution of diffusion equations.

    • Matthieu Davy
    • , Zhou Shi
    •  & Azriel Z. Genack

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plasmonic lasers offer ultrasmall mode confinement via nanoscale structures, but their reliance on solid-state gain media makes tunability difficult. Yang et al, present a laser based on gold nanoparticle arrays in a microfluidic channel, whose liquid gain media enable dynamic tuning of the lasing wavelength.

    • Ankun Yang
    • , Thang B. Hoang
    •  & Teri W. Odom

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In astronomy, interferometry between telescopes enables high-resolution imaging but optical links are limited by atmospheric turbulence. Here, the authors show how this can be circumvented, producing diffraction-limited images using an array of electronically connected optical telescopes.

    • Dainis Dravins
    • , Tiphaine Lagadec
    •  & Paul D. Nuñez

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Whispering-gallery mode microresonators are powerful sensing tools, but spectrum acquisition has taken milliseconds or longer. Here, Rosenblum et al.introduce cavity ring-up spectroscopy, in which sharply rising detuned probe pulses capture spectra of microresonators on nanosecond timescales.

    • Serge Rosenblum
    • , Yulia Lovsky
    •  & Barak Dayan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantum repeaters are needed for long-distance quantum communication but it is thought that they require matter quantum memories. Azuma et al. introduce an all-photonic quantum repeater based on flying qubits that scales polynomially with the channel distance without the need for matter quantum memories.

    • Koji Azuma
    • , Kiyoshi Tamaki
    •  & Hoi-Kwong Lo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Interactions between weakly coupled pairs of electron spins are thought to play a role in biological magnetoreception and spin-dependent carrier dynamics in semiconductors. Here, the authors investigate such intrapair dipolar and exchange interactions in a polymer using electrically detected magnetic resonance experiments.

    • Kipp J. van Schooten
    • , Douglas L. Baird
    •  & Christoph Boehme

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photothermal interferometry systems using free-space optics have limits in terms of light–matter interaction efficiency, size, optical alignment and integration. Here, Jin et al. use a gas-filled hollow-core photonic bandgap fibre to demonstrate an all-fibre gas sensor with ultrahigh sensitivity and dynamic range.

    • Wei Jin
    • , Yingchun Cao
    •  & Hoi Lut Ho

  • Article |

    Thin films of carbon nanotubes are been considered for energy harvesting and optoelectronic devices but their energy transfer pathways are largely unknown. Here, Mehlenbacher et al. use two-dimensional white-light spectroscopy to investigate the ultrafast energy redistribution in carbon nanotube films.

    • Randy D. Mehlenbacher
    • , Thomas J. McDonough
    •  & Martin T. Zanni

  • Article |

    Taking full advantage of photons as quantum information carriers requires faithful control of their lifetime, emission direction and orbital angular momentum. Here, the authors experimentally demonstrate a technique for directionally coupling classical, circular dipoles to the modes of a photonic-crystal waveguide.

    • B. le Feber
    • , N. Rotenberg
    •  & L. Kuipers

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Increasing the resolution of fluorescence microscopy is a fundamental need for modern cell biology. Lanzanò et al.demonstrate that arbitrary spatial resolution is, in principle, possible by encoding the fluorophore's spatial distribution information in the temporal dynamics of the fluorophore's transition.

    • Luca Lanzanò
    • , Iván Coto Hernández
    •  & Giuseppe Vicidomini

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Aligned, one-dimensional, single-crystal materials may allow on-demand photon/electron transfer. Here, the authors use a physical vapour transport technique to grow organic single-crystal wires with the guidance of pillar-structured substrates, and perform proof of concept waveguide experiments.

    • Yuchen Wu
    • , Jiangang Feng
    •  & Lei Jiang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bulk contributions to transport measurements often inhibit the study of the surface states of topological insulators. Here, Kastl et al. demonstrate high-fidelity helicity-dependent photocurrents in the surface states of Bi2Se3, controlled via circularly polarized light with a picosecond time-resolution.

    • Christoph Kastl
    • , Christoph Karnetzky
    •  & Alexander W. Holleitner

  • Article |

    Lead halide perovskite solar cells use hole-blocking layers to allow a separate collection of positive and negative charge carriers and to achieve high-operation voltages. Here, the authors demonstrate efficient lead halide perovskite solar cells that avoid using this extra layer.

    • Weijun Ke
    • , Guojia Fang
    •  & Yanfa Yan

  • Article |

    Controlling the electrical properties of radar absorbing materials is required for active camouflage systems in the microwave. Here, Balci et al.use large-area graphene electrodes to demonstrate electrical control of microwave reflection, transmission and absorption by electrostatic tuning of the charge density.

    • Osman Balci
    • , Emre O. Polat
    •  & Coskun Kocabas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Time-resolved probing of electronic dynamics such as exciton formation and annihilation requires attosecond pulses at photon energies covering the absorption edges of materials. Here, Silva et al. experimentally demonstrate spatio-temporal isolation of single-attosecond soft X-ray pulses in the water window.

    • Francisco Silva
    • , Stephan M. Teichmann
    •  & Jens Biegert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    An emitter near a surface induces an image dipole that alters the emission pattern and creates errors in single-particle imaging applications. Here, Ropp et al.show that an image dipole can distort the polarization and measured position of an emitter, and that these distortions can be corrected.

    • Chad Ropp
    • , Zachary Cummins
    •  & Edo Waks

  • Article |

    Tunable metamaterials bring the promise of on-demand tailored optical properties, offering numerous device functionalities. Towards this aim, this study presents a tunable metamaterial based on dynamic self-assembly of nanoparticles coated with organic ligands, which also shows epsilon-near-zero behaviour.

    • Wiktor Lewandowski
    • , Martin Fruhnert
    •  & Ewa Górecka

  • Article |

    An important source of loss in solar cells is the recombination of the photogenerated charge carriers before they are extracted from the device. Chang et al. now show that such recombination can be reduced in organic solar cells by increasing the separation between donors and acceptors.

    • Wendi Chang
    • , Daniel N. Congreve
    •  & Marc A. Baldo

  • Article |

    The shape of red blood cells is highly sensitive to surrounding liquid environment. Here, Miccio et al. make red blood cells into optofluidic lenses with fully controllable focal length at the microscale, which can be used for imaging and optical magnification in addition to blood diseases detection.

    • L. Miccio
    • , P. Memmolo
    •  & P. Ferraro

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Colour change in many vertebrates originates from pigment dispersion or aggregation. Here, Teyssier et al. show that chameleons rapidly shift colour through a physical mechanism involving a lattice of nanocrystals in dermal iridophores, a second and deeper iridophore layer strongly reflects near-infrared light.

    • Jérémie Teyssier
    • , Suzanne V. Saenko
    •  & Michel C. Milinkovitch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ultrafast metrology typically relies on pulse coherence, but full coherence is not always possible in emerging attosecond and ultrashort X-ray technologies. Here, Bourassin-Bouchet and Couprie adapt frequency-resolved optical gating (FROG) to measure partially coherent optical pulses in the attosecond scale.

    • C. Bourassin-Bouchet
    •  & M.-E. Couprie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Two-colour X-ray pulses from free-electron lasers can be used to probe ultrafast dynamics, but the total power is a fraction of the saturation power. Here, Marinelli et al. use twin electron bunches to reach full saturation power and increase the two-colour intensity by an order of magnitude at hard-X-ray energies.

    • A. Marinelli
    • , D. Ratner
    •  & Z. Huang

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