Articles in 2017

Picosecond all-optical switching of the polarization of visible light is achieved by using the anisotropy and nonlinearity of a hyperbolic metamaterial.

A nanocryostat is realized through the refrigeration of levitated Yb³⁺:YLF nanocrystals to 130 K using anti-Stokes fluorescence cooling, while the laser polarization allows orientation control of the trapped nanocrystal and maximizes its cooling.

Applications of the concept of structured light are not limited to optical communications, metrology, and probing and sensing, they can also go beyond optics.

Single-molecule detection commonly requires focused laser beams because of the small absorption cross-sections of dye molecules. Now, researchers have shown that thousands of dye molecules in nanoparticles can transfer light excitation to a single acceptor dye, enabling single-molecule detection at sunlight excitation power.

Switching the handedness of circularly polarized light requires separately controlling the phases of orthogonal components while maintaining their magnitudes, ideally with gigahertz operation rates. Ultrafast switching has now been realized via all-optical control of birefringent metamaterials.

Electronic–plasmonic transducers made from metal–insulator–metal junctions are demonstrated. The plasmon sources are coupled efficiently to plasmonic waveguides and could be used in integrated nanophotonic applications.

Topologically protected lasing is reported in a lattice of polariton micropillars.

The opening of the superconducting European X-ray free-electron laser in Hamburg, Germany provides exciting opportunities for exploring a completely new world of science.

Following eight years of construction, the superconducting European X-ray free-electron laser in Hamburg, Germany has just opened and started its first experiments. Nature Photonics spoke to Thomas Tschentscher, its scientific director, about the facility and its plans.

Simultaneous trapping, alignment and anti-Stokes fluorescence cooling of Yb³⁺:YLF nanocrystals from room temperature to temperatures as low as about 130 K can now be realized using a single-beam optical dipole trap within a low-pressure environment.

Exploiting Einstein’s theory of general relativity, the curved space associated with specially designed nanophotonic structures is shown to be able to manipulate light propagation.

Donor dye nanoparticles have been used to realize structures that are 25 times brighter than quantum dots. This enabled single-molecule imaging using ambient light.

By exploiting dynamics arising from nonlinear laser–material interactions, functional microelements and arbitrarily complex 3D architectures deep inside silicon are fabricated with 1 μm resolution, without damaging the silicon above or below.

The longest coherence time of a single qubit of more than ten minutes is observed in a ¹⁷¹Yb⁺ ion. After sympathetically cooling the ¹⁷¹Yb⁺ ion qubit with a ¹³⁸Ba⁺ ion, noise from magnetic-field fluctuations and the local oscillator is suppressed by a dynamic decoupling scheme.

The observation of soliton crystals in monolithic Kerr microresonators is reported. The physics of such resonators is explored in a regime of dense soliton occupation, offering a way to increase the efficiency of Kerr combs.