News & Comment

John ‘JJ’ Joannopoulos, a pioneering condensed-matter theorist who contributed to the launch of modern nanophotonics and mentored a plethora of scientists and engineers, passed away on 17 August 2025, aged 78. In his five decades at MIT, JJ combined first-principles insights with a gift for nurturing people, shaping fields from ab initio materials theory to photonic crystals and their applications.

Characterizing and reporting photodetector performance demands common standards to ensure rigorous, reproducible and comparable practices.

In this Focus issue we highlight a selection of recent developments in super-resolution microscopy.

Super-resolution microscopy offers valuable tools to tackle biological questions. Nature Photonics spoke with Markus Sauer, from the University of Würzburg, about the advantages and outstanding challenges of super-resolution microscopy for biological applications.

The performance of super-resolution microscopy is continuously improving. Nature Photonics interviewed Stefan Hell, from the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, about key milestones in the field, current capabilities of MINFLUX and what remains to be excited about.

Champion experimentalist of quantum optics and squeezed-light pioneer has sadly passed away.

Sir Peter Knight, described as "one of the UK’s most influential scientists and leaders of scientific policy" by his peers, tells Nature Photonics about the many hats he is wearing now in pushing quantum research and technologies in the UK and beyond.

On 7 June 2024, the United Nations proclaimed 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology.

Wilson Sibbett, a highly respected member of the international optics and laser community, left us on the 15th October 2024.

Daniel Mittleman spoke with Nature Photonics about promising applications using terahertz waves, including spectroscopy, imaging, wireless communications, and quality control in industry.

Nature Photonics spoke with Hatice Altug, from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Thomas Krauss, from the University of York, and Malini Olivo from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) about optical biosensors and their prospects and challenges for clinical translation.

Photonics can play a pivotal role in bringing time crystals to the domain of optical ‘timetronics’ — an information and data technology that relies on the unique functionalities of this sophisticated yet esoteric state of matter.

The mitigation of climate change requires major transformations in the ways we generate energy and operate technologies that release carbon dioxide. Photonic concepts and novel light-driven technologies provide many potential solutions, transforming our current modes of energy use into more effective and sustainable ones.

Nathalie Picqué, the new director at the Max Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroscopy (MBI) in Berlin, Germany, tells us all we need to know about frequency combs and dual-comb spectroscopy, and shares with us some golden tips on becoming a successful scientist.

Joseph Izatt’s work advanced the science of imaging in biophotonics and brought optical coherence tomography imaging to the eye care of infants and children and, as live feedback for the surgeon, to ophthalmic microsurgery.

Following first lasing at LCLS-II — a coherent X-ray laser source driven by a 700-m superconducting linear accelerator — several upgrades are already in the works. Nature Photonics spoke to LCLS director Mike Dunne about LCLS-II commissioning hurdles as well as future plans.

Global proliferation of free-electron laser X-ray sources has improved accessibility. Now the race is on for high repetition rates, attosecond pulses, and full coherence.

We had all been wondering “where is Costas?” and now we learned that we shall not see him again. We have lost a good friend and leader in the photonics community.