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Biased noise qubits, which can selectively suppress certain types of noise, are advantageous for quantum error correction of bosonic codes. Here the authors make an important step in this direction by demonstrating quantum control of a harmonic oscillator with a biased noise qubit.

Graphene exhibits interesting optical and electronic properties, resulting from a Dirac dispersion of electrons. Shimano et al.observe quantum magneto-optical Faraday and Kerr effects in the terahertz regime, where plateaus are observed at the quantum-Hall steps.

A broadband multi-frequency Fabry–Pérot laser diode, when coupled to a high-Q microresonator, can be efficiently transformed to an ~100 mW narrow-linewidth single-frequency light source, and subsequently, to a coherent soliton Kerr comb oscillator.

Electromagnetic response of topological materials is described the so called axion electrodynamics which contains additional relations between the fields. Here the authors extend the theory of axion electrodynamics to general optical frequencies and apply it to a realistic topological antiferromagnet.

We demonstrate a hybrid approach to generating chip-scale microcombs leveraging Kerr and electro-optic nonlinearities of thin-film lithium niobate, reaching 2589 comb lines spaced by 29.308 GHz and spanning 75.9 THz.

By exploiting the nonlinear Raman gain inherent in fused silica, short sub-100-fs dissipative Raman soliton pulses can be formed in fused-silica fibre resonators that are driven by electro-optically generated picosecond pulses.

The authors demonstrate an all-optical method to control the polarization of light. Harnessing the Kerr nonlinearity in an optical resonator, this enables precise polarization control in photonic circuits.

Dissipative solitons and their symmetry breaking is important for photonic applications. Here the authors show that dissipative solitons can undergo spontaneous symmetry breaking in a two-component nonlinear optical ring resonator, resulting in the coexistence of distinct vectorial solitons with asymmetric, mirror-like states of polarization.

Through degenerate Kerr four-wave mixing in ultrahigh-Q crystalline microresonators made of magnesium fluoride, tunable conversion of a compact, low-power telecommunications laser over an entire optical octave from 1,083 nm to 2,670 nm, with signatures of mid-infrared sidebands at almost 4,000 nm, is shown.

A study of the dynamics of so-called Kerr solitons in optical microresonators reports the discovery of a simple mechanism that permits the step-wise reduction of soliton states, one by one.

Conventional understanding of the magneto-optical Kerr effect, in which changes in the magnetization of a material cause changes in the polarization of reflected light, assumes that this incident light is continuous. However, first-principles simulations of nickel show that this assumption breaks down for femtosecond pulses of light, and establishes a firm foundation for understanding the dynamics of femtomagnetism.

By exploiting an optical thermodynamic framework, researchers demonstrate universal routing of light. Specifically, light launched into any input port of a nonlinear array is universally channelled into a tightly localized ground state. The principles of optical thermodynamics demonstrated may enable new optical functionalities.

Transient object ASASSN-15lh was previously cast as the most luminous supernova ever discovered. Now, however, there is convincing evidence that its flare was a tidal disruption event: a rapidly-spinning black hole tearing apart a neighbouring star.

We demonstrate entirely connected and octave-spanning Kerr soliton frequency combs on thin-film lithium niobate, enabled by dispersion- and dissipation-engineered microresonators with consistently suppressed stimulated Raman scattering.

Coupling of the Rydberg states of an ensemble of rubidium atoms gives rise to a d.c. Kerr effect that is six orders of magnitude greater than in conventional Kerr media. Such phenomena could enable the development of high-precision electric field sensors and other nonlinear optical devices.

Cavity optomechanics studies interactions between mechanical oscillators and the radiation pressure induced by intracavity photons. The authors embedded a nonlinear Josephson junction in their microwave cavity to make the cavity response highly nonlinear and observed a counter-intuitive optomechanical process, blue-tone mechanical cooling.

Integrating mirrors with magnetic components is crucial for constructing chiral optical cavities, which provide tunable platforms for time-reversal-asymmetric light-matter interactions. Here, the authors introduce single-crystal circular-polarization-selective mirrors based on chiral superconductors, which break time-reversal symmetry themselves, eliminating the need for additional components.

Tuneable microresonator frequency combs offer low-power, coherent light with a small device footprint. Here, the concept of controlling the comb frequency by detuning the probe phase is translated from photonic crystal fibres to a Kerr microresonator.

Signal processing is key to communications and video image processing for astronomy, medical diagnosis, autonomous driving, big data and AI. Menxi Tan and colleagues report a photonic processor operating at 17Tb/s for ultrafast robotic vision and machine learning.

Here the authors use on-chip amplitude and phase modulation to synchronously pump a resonator on thin-film lithium niobate for frequency comb generation. They find that pulsed pumping significantly mitigates stimulated Raman scattering and improves the overall efficiency of the device.

Finding ways to accumulate electronic spins of a given polarization in a given location is important to the development of spintronics. Endres et al.demonstrate a device that uses light to drive the accumulation of spin using a similar principle that a solar cell uses to drive the accumulation of charge.

The layered structure of van der Waals materials leads to highly anisotropic thermal conductivity, due to the van der Waals gap between the layers. Here, Da̧browski et al show how this anisotropic heat transport can be harnessed for ultrafast, optically-induced control of magnetism in Cr₂Ge₂Te₆.

Spin currents can be generated by passing electric currents through ferromagnets, but the process is too slow for ultrafast spintronics. Here, the authors show an approach for laser-driven thermal spin generation that has the potential to attain much higher speeds.

The use of light in driving the magnetization of materials has great technological potential, as well as allowing for insights into the fast dynamics of magnetic systems. Here, the authors combine CrI₃, a van der Waals magnet, with WSe₂, and demonstrate all optical switching of the resulting heterostructure.

Femtosecond laser pulses allow for extremely fast switching of magnetization in ferromagnetic films, but all examples so far contained gadolinium. Here the authors demonstrate room temperature all-optical toggle switching in a ferrimagnetic manganese-based half-metal without gadolinium.

The radiation pressure of light on a mechanical oscillator can be used to manipulate mechanical degrees of freedom in the quantum regime. Noguchi et al. use Josephson junctions to realize an artificial system where the radiation pressure of a single photon is stronger than the effect of dissipation.

The imaging of magnetic domains in three-dimensional solids has been hampered by a lack of suitable methods. The authors show that Talbot-Lau neutron tomography is capable of visualizing the domain structure of an iron silicide bulk crystal.

Chip-based frequency combs promise many applications, but full integration requires the electrical pump source and the microresonator to be on the same chip. Here, the authors show such integration of a microcomb with < 100 GHz mode spacing without additional filtering cavities or on-chip heaters.

The propagation of high-intensity light beams through transparent media can lead to unusual non-linear effects. Here Panagiotopoulos et al.show that a high-intensity ring-Airy beam transforms into a robust non-linear light bullet.

The Landé factors govern all the spin-related basic phenomena and are the key parameters which guide spintronics applications. Here, Kirstein et al. demonstrate a universal dependence of the Landé factors on the bandgap energy of several perovskite materials.

The authors report a meta-analysis of methylome-wide association studies, identifying 15 significant CpG sites linked to major depression, revealing associations with inflammatory markers and suggesting potential causal relationships through Mendelian randomization analysis.

Applications of spontaneous symmetry breaking are hindered by unavoidable imperfections. Here, the authors reveal how a phase defect provides topological robustness to this process, enabling a bias free realization without fine tuning of parameters.

Homochirality, a key feature of life, has unknown origins. Magnetic mineral surfaces can act as chiral agents, but are only weakly magnetized by nature. Here, the authors report the uniform magnetization of magnetite by an RNA precursor that spreads across the surface like an avalanche.

The authors report an alternative approach to build 3D magnetic memories by rolling Co/Pt stripes on flexible polymers in compact geometry, and simultaneously offering current-induced domain wall motion and strain-induced domain wall speed control.

Using time-stretch dispersive Fourier transform, scientists directly observe the spectro-temporal dynamics of the mode-locking transition on a single-shot basis over long record lengths of ∼900,000 consecutive pulses.

The magneto-optical (MO) effects probe the electronic and magnetic properties of a material, particularly useful for 2D magnets. Here, the authors show that the large optical and MO responses in ferromagnetic monolayer CrI₃ arise from strongly bound excitons, extending over several atoms.

Intrinsic long-range ferromagnetic order is observed in few-layer Cr₂Ge₂Te₆ crystals, with a transition temperature that can be controlled using small magnetic fields.