Photonic crystals articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The limit of X-ray detection is an important figure of merit for X-ray detectors, yet the suitability of method adopted from Currie’s 1968 paper and the following international standard is in doubt. Here, the authors propose a statistical model that correlates dark current and photo-current, show how it can be used to determine detection limit.

    • Lei Pan
    • , Shreetu Shrestha
    •  & Lei R. Cao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photonic crystals have a range of desirable properties for manipulating light. Here, the authors calculate and use the photonic band gap for thousands of such crystals to examine heuristics for their design and predict new photonic crystal structures.

    • Rose K. Cersonsky
    • , James Antonaglia
    •  & Sharon C. Glotzer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors present photonic resonator interferometric scattering microscopy, which utilises a dielectric photonic crystal as the sample substrate. The resonant near-field enhancement leads to improved signal to noise ratio without increasing illumination intensity.

    • Nantao Li
    • , Taylor D. Canady
    •  & Brian T. Cunningham

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Blue phases are spatially ordered yet fragile liquid crystalline structures, bearing applications in optoelectronics and photonics. Hu et al. show that self-assembly within a mixture of different mesogens may significantly broaden the temperature range over which they are stable.

    • Wei Hu
    • , Ling Wang
    •  & Huai Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Creating an enhanced-security-level label that carries entirely distinct information in different optical states has proven challenging. Here, the authors design geminate labels by programming fluorescent cholesteric liquid crystal microdroplets to encrypt fluorescent security information behind colorful reflective patterns.

    • Lang Qin
    • , Xiaojun Liu
    •  & Yanlei Yu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A theoretical framework to optimize photonic structure designs for upconversion enhancement is lacking. Here, the authors present a comprehensive theoretical model and confirm the model’s predictions by experimental realisation of 1D-photonic upconverter devices with large statistics and parameter scans.

    • Clarissa L. M. Hofmann
    • , Stefan Fischer
    •  & Jan Christoph Goldschmidt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Higher-order photonic topological states, such as corner states, could enable robust and high-quality confinement of light to a small mode volume. Here, the authors demonstrate lasing from topological multipole corner states and investigate their emission profiles via hyperspectral imaging.

    • Ha-Reem Kim
    • , Min-Soo Hwang
    •  & Hong-Gyu Park

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Typically, phonon trapping is performed using mechanically suspended structures which have many limitations. Here the authors study a phononic structure that supports mechanical bound states in the continuum (BICs) at microwave frequencies with topological features.

    • Hao Tong
    • , Shengyan Liu
    •  & Kejie Fang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lithium niobate (LN) devices are promising for future photonic integrated circuits. Here, the authors demonstrate an electro-optic LN modulator with a very small modal volume based on photonic crystal resonator architecture.

    • Mingxiao Li
    • , Jingwei Ling
    •  & Qiang Lin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Replicating biological patterns is promising for designing materials with multifaceted properties but replication of twisted cholesteric liquid crystal patterns found in insects is extremely difficult. Here, the authors use liquid crystal oligomers to reproduce the textural, structural and color properties of biological liquid crystals.

    • Adriana Scarangella
    • , Vanessa Soldan
    •  & Michel Mitov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The quantum spin Hall effect is limited to one-dimensional lower boundary states which limits the possibilities for its exploitation in photonic devices. Here, the authors demonstrate a higher-order quantum spin Hall effect in a photonic crystal and observe opposite pseudospin corner states.

    • Biye Xie
    • , Guangxu Su
    •  & Yan-Feng Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Beam scanning lasers are required for systems for smart mobility, object recognition, and adaptive illuminations. The authors demonstrate dually modulated photonic crystals, wherein the positions and sizes of the photonic-crystal lattice points are modulated simultaneously, to achieve mechanical-free, 2D beam scanning.

    • Ryoichi Sakata
    • , Kenji Ishizaki
    •  & Susumu Noda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors demonstrate a two-dimensional optomechanical crystal cavity which traps a phonon mode within a phononic bandgap while yielding large thermal conductivity to the environment. High quantum cooperativity at millikelvin temperatures is realized, suitable for quantum coherent control.

    • Hengjiang Ren
    • , Matthew H. Matheny
    •  & Oskar Painter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Most higher order topological phases are realized by emulations of tight binding models. Extending these concepts to continuum theories requires the identification of invariants describing the bulk multipole order. Here the authors realize the analog of quadrupole order for a gyromagnetic photonic crystal.

    • Li He
    • , Zachariah Addison
    •  & Bo Zhen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Observing the photonic analogue of an unpaired Dirac point is hard, as it requires breaking the time-reversal symmetry. Here, the authors use gyromagnetic materials to do that, and thus succeed in observing an unpaired Dirac point in a planar photonic crystal operating at microwave frequencies.

    • Gui-Geng Liu
    • , Peiheng Zhou
    •  & Baile Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Topological properties of materials are typically presented in momentum space. Here, the authors show a universal mapping of topological singularities from momentum to real space, potentially applicable to a wide range of systems.

    • Xiuying Liu
    • , Shiqi Xia
    •  & Zhigang Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fabricating semiconductor photonic lasers based on III-V materials are challenging because of the material mismatch with silicon. Here the authors monolithically grow quantum-dot-based photonic crystal membrane lasers directly on an on-axis silicon substrate.

    • Taojie Zhou
    • , Mingchu Tang
    •  & Huiyun Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Traditional photonic crystals consist of periodic media with a pre-defined optical response. Here, the authors combine nanostructured back-gate insulators with a continuous layer of graphene to demonstrate an electrically tunable two-dimensional photonic crystal suitable for controlling the propagation of surface plasmon polaritons.

    • L. Xiong
    • , C. Forsythe
    •  & D. N. Basov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The ability to print arbitrary colors and shapes in all three dimensions at microscopic length scales is still lacking. Here, the authors introduce a means to produce three-dimensionally-printed photonic crystals with a periodicity as small as 280 nm, achieving sub-100-nm features with a full range of colors.

    • Yejing Liu
    • , Hao Wang
    •  & Joel K. W. Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Topological photonic structures can be understood by solving the eigenvalue problem of Maxwell’s equations in the static case. Here, the authors study Floquet topological phases in nonlinear photonic crystals under external drive and show how non-reciprocal transport can be achieved in a Floquet Chern insulator.

    • Li He
    • , Zachariah Addison
    •  & Bo Zhen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Generation of light with desirable amplitude and phase profiles with nonlinear wavefront shaping is of great interest for optical technologies. Here, the authors demonstrate efficient nonlinear beam shaping using three-dimensional lithium niobate photonic crystals fabricated using a femtosecond-laser-engineering technique.

    • Dunzhao Wei
    • , Chaowei Wang
    •  & Min Xiao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Generation of light with desirable amplitude and phase profiles with nonlinear wavefront shaping is important for optical technologies. Here, the authors demonstrate nonlinear wavefront shaping with three-dimensional nonlinear photonic crystals formed by ultrafast-light-induced ferroelectric domain inversion approach.

    • Shan Liu
    • , Krzysztof Switkowski
    •  & Yan Sheng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Backscattering is one of the major factors that limit the performance of integrated nanophotonics. Here, He et al. realize topologically protected, robust and unidirectional coupling as well as optical transport on a silicon-on-insulator platform by exploiting the valley degree of freedom.

    • Xin-Tao He
    • , En-Tao Liang
    •  & Jian-Wen Dong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) spontaneously organize into a helical arrangement but flexible CNC elastomer composite materials with this structure were so far not realized. Here the authors demonstrate the fabrication of a CNC based elastomer composite and its application as a photonic strain sensor.

    • Osamu Kose
    • , Andy Tran
    •  & Mark J. MacLachlan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photonic crystals can steer, shape, and sculpture the flow of photons. Here, the author fabricate a deep-subwavelength photonic crystal slab that supports ultra-confined phonon polaritons, by patterning a nanoscale hole array in h-BN.

    • F. J. Alfaro-Mozaz
    • , S. G. Rodrigo
    •  & A. Y. Nikitin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Topological one-way fibers are promising candidates for novel fiber devices. Here, Lu et al. propose that one-way fiber modes are topologically protected by the second Chern number in a four-dimensional parameter space, which develop in a helically-modulated magnetic Weyl photonic crystal.

    • Ling Lu
    • , Haozhe Gao
    •  & Zhong Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Exciton diffusion length and directionality are important parameters in artificial photosynthetic devices. Here, the authors present a way to make crystalline chromophore assemblies with bespoke architecture, fabricating one exhibiting anisotropic exciton transport properties.

    • Ritesh Haldar
    • , Marius Jakoby
    •  & Christof Wöll

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Valleys in the photonic band structure provide an additional degree of freedom to engineer topological photonic structures and devices. Here, Kang et al. demonstrate that inter-valley scattering is inhibited at a Y-junction between three sections with different valley topology.

    • Yuhao Kang
    • , Xiang Ni
    •  & Azriel Z. Genack

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although topological confinement of waves to the edges is common, lower-dimensional wave confinement is scarce. Here, Li et al. demonstrate that concurrent wavevector and real-space topology can lead to a topologically protected zero-dimensional cavity mode in a two-dimensional photonic crystal.

    • Fei-Fei Li
    • , Hai-Xiao Wang
    •  & Sajeev John

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Semiconductor microcavities can host polaritons formed by strong exciton-photon coupling, yet they may be plagued by scalability issues. Here, the authors demonstrate a sub-wavelength-thick, one-dimensional photonic crystal platform for strong coupling with atomically thin van der Waals crystals.

    • Long Zhang
    • , Rahul Gogna
    •  & Hui Deng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Scattering characteristics are important optical properties but they depend strongly on the relative electromagnetic size and environment of a particle. Here, the authors study the frequency-dependence of the scattering cross section for a scatterer located inside a photonic Weyl system.

    • Ming Zhou
    • , Lei Ying
    •  & Zongfu Yu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Conventional fabrication approaches for large-size three-dimensional photonic crystals are problematic. By properly controlling the self-assembly processes, the authors report the fabrication of monocrystalline blue phase liquid crystals that exhibit three-dimensional photonic-crystalline properties.

    • Chun-Wei Chen
    • , Chien-Tsung Hou
    •  & Tsung-Hsien Lin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optomechanical experiments often assume linear coupling between optical fluctuations and mechanical displacements. Here, Leijssenet al. experimentally demonstrate the nonlinear interaction from thermally induced fluctuations in a sliced nanobeam cavity with high cooperativity.

    • Rick Leijssen
    • , Giada R. La Gala
    •  & Ewold Verhagen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quasicrystals promise exciting technological advances in optical devices, but their formation mechanism is yet not fully understood. Here, the authors describe a two-dimensional dodecagonal fullerene quasicrystal, forming on a Pt3Ti(111)-surface due to the complex adsorption-energy landscape.

    • M. Paßens
    • , V. Caciuc
    •  & S. Karthäuser

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The mechanism underpinning the photovoltaic effect in hybrid perovskite solar cells has remained unclear. Here, Green and co-workers suggest that iodide ions in methylammonium lead iodide perovskite migrate via interstitial sites and undergo a redox reaction to form molecular iodine and free electrons.

    • J. L. Minns
    • , P. Zajdel
    •  & M. A. Green

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In optomechanics, optical nonlinearities are usually regarded as detrimental and efforts are made to minimize their effects. Here, the authors study the complex dynamics, including chaos, arising from the coupling of such optical nonlinearities with the mechanical modes of a silicon nanobeam cavity.

    • Daniel Navarro-Urrios
    • , Néstor E. Capuj
    •  & Clivia M. Sotomayor-Torres

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Colloidal crystals arranged in a diamond lattice are desirable for photonic applications, yet are challenging to create. Here, Wanget al. show the self-assembly of a binary system composed of two interlocked diamond structures with lattice spacing comparable to the wavelength of visible light.

    • Yifan Wang
    • , Ian C. Jenkins
    •  & John C. Crocker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ferroelectric phase transitions are normally accompanied by structural changes in the materials. Here, Li et al. synthesize homochiral molecular crystals and utilize their ferroelectric transitions to achieve optical switches with different refractive indices for left- and right-handed polarizations.

    • Peng-Fei Li
    • , Yuan-Yuan Tang
    •  & Ren-Gen Xiong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Engineering the interaction between optical fields and gas-phase matters is important for spectroscopy and more general laser science and technology. Here, the authors demonstrate a method for light-trapping of molecular hydrogen in hollow-core photonic-crystal fibres, relying on Raman transition.

    • M. Alharbi
    • , A. Husakou
    •  & F. Benabid

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The high polarity of colloidal inorganic-ligand-functionalized nanocrystals can be problematic for their processing, limiting their optoelectronic applications. Here, by complexation with macrocycles, the authors enabled broad amphiphilicity of such nanocrystals and processing from a variety of solvents.

    • Maryna I. Bodnarchuk
    • , Sergii Yakunin
    •  & Maksym V. Kovalenko

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