Ultrafast photonics articles from across Nature Portfolio

Ultrafast photonics is the study of light and its interaction with matter on short timescales, typically less than a picosecond. This includes investigating processes that occur in atoms and molecules, such as the dynamics and correlations between electrons during ionization, and often employs ultrafast lasers or mode-locked lasers.

Latest Research and Reviews

Research
23 March 2023 | Open Access

Development of the multi-directional ablation process using the femtosecond laser to create a pattern on the lateral side of a 3D microstructure
- Cheol Woo Ha
- & Yong Son
Scientific Reports 13, 4781
Research
23 March 2023 | Open Access

Attosecond magnetization dynamics in non-magnetic materials driven by intense femtosecond lasers
- Ofer Neufeld
- , Nicolas Tancogne-Dejean
- & Angel Rubio
npj Computational Materials 9, 39
Research | 20 March 2023

Sub-picosecond steering of ultrafast incoherent emission from semiconductor metasurfaces

Researchers demonstrate sub-picosecond steering of ultrafast incoherent emission from a light-emitting metasurface. The steering is achieved over a 70° range.
- Prasad P. Iyer
- , Nicholas Karl
- & Igal Brener
Nature Photonics, 1-6
Reviews | 13 March 2023

Materials for chiral light control

Solution-processable semiconductors based on small molecules, polymers or halide perovskites combine sustainable manufacturing with exceptional optoelectronic properties that can be chemically tailored to achieve flexible and highly efficient optoelectronic and photonic devices. A new exciting research direction is the study of the influence of chirality on light–matter interactions in these soft materials and its exploitation for the simultaneous control of charge, spin and light. In this Viewpoint, researchers working on different types of chiral semiconductors discuss the most interesting directions in this rapidly expanding field.
- Jeanne Crassous
- , Matthew J. Fuchter
- & Sascha Feldmann
Nature Reviews Materials, 1-7
Research | 13 March 2023

Observation of temporal reflection and broadband frequency translation at photonic time interfaces

Reflection cannot only occur at interfaces in space but also in time. Transmission-line metamaterials support time interfaces at which interference has been observed, forming a temporal version of a Fabry–Pérot cavity.
- Hady Moussa
- , Gengyu Xu
- & Andrea Alù
Nature Physics, 1-6
Research
04 March 2023 | Open Access

Upconversion time-stretch infrared spectroscopy

We develop upconversion time-stretch infrared spectroscopy, which enables high-speed and high-resolution broadband mid-infrared spectroscopy with over 1000 spectral elements at a rate of more than 10 MSpectra s⁻¹.
- Kazuki Hashimoto
- , Takuma Nakamura
- & Takuro Ideguchi
Light: Science & Applications 12, 48

All Research & Reviews

News and Comment

Comments & Opinion
23 January 2023 | Open Access

Light People: Professor Peter Delfyett

Prof. Peter Delfyett has been working on semiconductor mode-locked lasers and optical frequency combs, and his research has sped up the transmission of information.
- Hui Wang
Light: Science & Applications 12, 27
News & Views | 19 January 2023

Elusive phase wave caught

Long-theorized, non-dispersive de Broglie wave packets have been optically synthesized using classically entangled ring-shaped space-time wave packets in a medium exhibiting anomalous dispersion.
- Mbaye Diouf
- , Joshua A. Burrow
- & Kimani C. Toussaint Jr.
Nature Physics 19, 314-316
News & Views | 29 November 2022

Down the RABBIT hole

Manipulating the chirality of electron vortices using attosecond metrology allows the clocking of continuum–continuum transitions, bringing the dream of time-resolved quantum physics a little closer.
- Jean Marcel Ngoko Djiokap
Nature Physics 19, 154-155
News & Views
13 September 2022 | Open Access

Hyperspectral imaging and pulse characterization
- Spencer W. Jolly
Light: Science & Applications 11, 267
News & Views | 08 August 2022

Observing the effect of nuclear motion on attosecond charge migration

Attosecond charge migration in a neutral molecule has been observed to decohere within approximately 10 fs. However, this does not mean that the electronic coherence is irreversibly lost, as the charge migration is observed to revive after 40–50 fs. These findings have the potential to enable laser control of photochemical processes.

Nature Physics 18, 1150-1151
News & Views | 06 June 2022

Light in the fast lane
- David F. P. Pile
Nature Photonics 16, 409