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Recent improvements of the operation speed of variable optical elements are reviewed with an emphasis on components with microsecond focus-varying response time.
Moiré lattices optically induced in photorefractive nonlinear media are used to explain the formation of optical solitons under different geometrical conditions controlled by the twisting angle between the constitutive sublattices.
Perovskite-filled-membranes enable flexible, sensitive and large-area X-ray detectors. The structures are made by infiltrating perovskite solution into porous polymer membranes.
Jonathan P. Dowling, who died in June, was a pioneer in quantum optics and one of the founders of the US government’s research programme in quantum information.
Relativistic 35 MeV electron bunches with charges of 60 pC are accelerated in a terahertz-wave-driven dielectric waveguide. When the terahertz pulse energy is 0.8 μJ, an accelerating gradient of 2 MeV m−1 and energy gain of 10 keV are achieved.
Through the use of a plasmon-active atomically sharp tip and an ultrathin insulating film, and precise junction control in a highly confined nanocavity plasmon field at the scanning tunnelling microscope junction, sub-nanometre-resolved single-molecule near-field photoluminescence imaging with a spatial resolution down to ∼8 Å is achieved.
Deactivation of deep-strong light–matter coupling is achieved by femtosecond switching of terahertz cavities. This disruption leads to pronounced high-frequency polarization oscillations evolving much faster than the oscillation cycle of light.
A strong Brillouin amplification per unit length, observed in a gas-filled hollow-core fibre, is used to realize a low-threshold continuous-wave single-frequency laser that can in principle operate at any wavelength and to demonstrate distributed temperature sensing with no strain cross-sensitivity.
The findings that the spatial distribution of an optical field with vortex phase profile can be imprinted coherently onto a propagating electron wave reveal new aspects of light–matter interactions and will help develop future single-photon electron spectroscopy.
An organic molecule, 5Cz-TRZ, with multiple donor units supports fast reverse intersystem crossing, allowing fabrication of high-performance organic light-emitting diodes.
An organic molecule, TpAT-tFFO, which is designed to support rapid reverse intersystem crossing allows the fabrication of efficient organic light-emitting diodes.
Unidirectional and topological surface plasmon polaritons are currently attracting substantial interest and intense debate. Realistic material models and energy conservation considerations are essential to correctly understand extreme wave effects in non-reciprocal plasmonics, and to assess their potential for novel devices.
A phase transition between disordered and quasi-ordered states, known as the Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless transition, has now been revealed in a two-dimensional photonic ‘fluid’. The interplay between phase singularities and coherence may lead to new vortex-based optical applications.
New methods to control how laser pulses propagate inside a plasma could signify the start of a global race to demonstrate truly high-energy compact particle accelerators.
The finding that hollow-core optical fibres can preserve the state of linearly polarized light over hundreds of metres with exceptional purity could benefit applications in sensing, gyroscopes and quantum optics.
Gold atoms were stripped of up to 72 electrons by irradiating gold foils and nanowire arrays with a relativistic 400 nm laser pulse. This work will open the door to the study of the atomic physics of highly charged atoms in very-high-density plasmas.
Coherent diffractive imaging using broadband illumination is demonstrated at visible and X-ray wavelengths. The method is based on a numerical monochromatization of the broadband diffraction pattern by the regularized inversion of a matrix.
