Articles in 2025

Optical micro-printing provides a way to directly self-assemble photonic microchips with chiral liquid-crystalline photonic elements.

Attosecond pulses in the optical regime, formed as solitons during infrared laser-pulse compression in a hollow-core fibre, may open up attosecond science in molecules and solids.

Quantum light is shown to perturb strong-field interactions in solids, revealing photon bunching in high-harmonic sidebands. The generation of attosecond non-classical states opens up quantum-enhanced photonics in novel temporal and spectral domains.

Brillouin scattering microscopy is prone to artefacts and inconsistencies. This Consensus statement provides recommendations for measuring and reporting relevant parameters with the aim of standardizing protocols and improving the comparability of studies.

The researchers demonstrate direct measurement and complete characterization of structured electronic wave packets created within a prototypical Fano resonance. The method may be broadly applicable to the study of ultrafast processes, especially electronic ones, in complex systems, as well as coherent control of such systems on their fundamental timescales.

The broad applications of emerging photonic technologies, such as photoacoustic imaging, optical wearable sensors, point-of-care testing and optogenetic control, in cardiovascular disease care are reviewed, together with the challenges of integrating these innovations into clinical practice.

A single-shot full-vector-field measurement technique for intense, ultrashort laser pulses is studied, demonstrating the approach on systems ranging from high-repetition-rate oscillators to petawatt-class lasers.

Exploiting resonant quantum electron tunnelling empowered by an optically resonant, doubly periodic plasmonic nanowire metasurface, a biosensor with no external light source is demonstrated, boosting the integrability of the biosensor.

A temperature-controlled vacuum quenching method enables the fabrication of perovskite solar modules with a power conversion efficiency of 22.69% and an area of 11.7 cm², while the corresponding cells maintain over 93% of their initial efficiency after 3,500 h of operation.

A platform based on quantum-emitter-embedded metasurfaces with a microcavity that can be tuned by a micro-electromechanical system is demonstrated, enabling dynamic photon emission with narrow bandwidth, ångström-level wavelength tunability and polarization switching.

Attosecond transient reflection spectroscopy is used to experimentally observe the attosecond electron dynamics of a crystalline diamond, showing that virtual interband transitions affect the timing and adiabaticity of the crystal response and thus providing insights for the development of information processing and petahertz electronics.

Solvent engineering by the addition of 1,4-butane sultone in a perovskite precursor solution simultaneously enhances the crystallization of the perovskite and passivates defects, resulting in a power conversion efficiency of 26.5%.

Combining attosecond metrology and soliton dynamics in hollow-core fibres, the generation of attosecond laser pulses from the deep-ultraviolet to the near-infrared regime and the measurement of attosecond solitons with 350-as durations at optical wavelengths are demonstrated, providing an efficient route to generate intense isolated attosecond pulses complementary to those based on high-harmonic generation in gases.

The generation of spatiotemporal optical vortices in the extreme-ultraviolet regime is demonstrated via high harmonic generation. Topologically coupled at the nanometre and attosecond domains, these light beams are attractive for exploring electronic dynamics in magnetic materials, chiral media and nanostructures.

Self-injection locking of an on-chip laser to a milimetre-scale vacuum-gap Fabry–Pérot cavity is demonstrated, with a phase noise of –97 dBc Hz^–1 at a 10-kHz offset frequency and a fractional frequency stability of 5 × 10⁻¹³ at 10 ms, enabling next-generation high-performance integrated systems.

The introduction of sodium heparin passivates interface defects and enhances bonding between the electron transport layer and the perovskite layer in perovskite solar cells. The best-performing devices exhibit a certified PCE of 26.54% and maintain almost 95% of their initial performance after 1,800 h of maximum power point tracking.

Key advances included subcycle laser development, quantum vortex visualization, and terahertz-based analysis of solar cells — showcasing the benefit of pulsed lasers across a wide range of disciplines.

Combining spatial and temporal modulation in aluminium zinc oxide metamaterials allows the fission of beams with distinct angles and frequencies, paving the way for advanced optical devices and applications like ultrafast beam steering and integrated neural networks.

A new method that uses light-induced superconducting quenches to generate abrupt, sub-picosecond, local magnetic field steps has potential applications ranging from spintronics to spectroscopy of quantum materials.