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Combining a low-coherence source with silicon nitride ring resonators featuring normal group velocity dispersion enables electrically pumped, high-power microcombs, providing on-chip power up to 158 mW and high-coherence comb lines with linewidths as narrow as 200 kHz.

Optical frequency combs in the mid-infrared are required for molecular gas detection applications but their realization in compact microresonator-based platforms is challenging. Here, Griffith et al. demonstrate on-chip broadband comb generation on a silicon microresonator spanning from 2.1 to 3.5 μm.

Whereas the capacity of optical-fibre networks is enhanced by schemes such as mode-division multiplexing, integrated photonics remains based on single-mode operation. Here, Luo et al.demonstrate mode-division multiplexing on a silicon chip by engineering the propagation constants of spatial modes.

Breather solitons can be found in both physical and biological nonlinear systems. Here, Yuet al. demonstrate this type of soliton in silicon and silicon nitride microresonators, which advances the understanding of soliton-based comb-generation in microresonators.

Integrated photonic devices rely on single-mode waveguides, as inter-mode coupling prevents multimode waveguides from being efficiently bent for on-chip schemes. Using transformation optics, Gabrielliet al. overcome this limitation and show a multimode waveguide bend with minimal inter-mode coupling.

Practical implementations of quantum photonic circuits consist primarily of large waveguide networks to path-encode information. Here, Mohantyet al. demonstrate quantum interference between transverse spatial modes in a single silicon nitride waveguide, enabling robust quantum information processing.

Dual-comb spectroscopy is a powerful tool for realizing rapid spectroscopic measurements with high sensitivity and selectivity. Here, Yu et al. demonstrate silicon microresonator-based dual comb spectroscopy in the mid-infrared region, where strong vibrational resonances of many liquids exist.

The authors use time-resolved scanning near-field optical microscopy to probe the ultrafast excitonic processes and their impact on waveguide operation in transition metal dichalcogenide crystals. They observe significant modulation of the complex index by monitoring waveguide modes on the fs time scale, and identify both coherent and incoherent manipulations of WSe₂ excitonic resonances.

Integrating an optical Kerr frequency comb source with an electronically excited laser pump produces a battery-powered comb generator that does not require external lasers, moveable optics or laboratory set-ups.

A monolayer of tungsten oxyselenide, created by oxidizing a layer of tungsten diselenide, can be used to efficiently dope graphene, leading to a room-temperature mobility of 2,000 cm² V^–1 s^–1 at a hole density of 3 × 10¹³ cm^–2.

Scientists have realized a graphene electro-optic modulator operating with a 30 GHz bandwidth and with a state-of-the-art modulation efficiency of 1.5 dB V⁻¹, paving the way for fast digital communications.

A triangular array of silicon nanostructures is experimentally demonstrated to function as an optical cloaking device, operating in the near-infrared at a wavelength of 1550 nm. This approach could, in principle, be extended to larger areas using fabrication techniques such as nanoimprinting.

Phase-matched four-wave mixing can take place with high efficiency in a suitably designed silicon waveguide — this advance could allow for the implementation of dense wavelength channels for optical processing in an all-silicon photonic chip.

An effective magnetic field is generated on a chip and a non-reciprocal phase shift is demonstrated in an 8.35-mm-long interferometer. The magnitude of the non-reciprocal phase produced is comparable to that achievable with monolithically integrated magneto-optical materials.

Optical forces can be used to manipulate small objects; for instance, in optical tweezers. However, it is challenging to manipulate the optical response of photonic structures using optical forces because of the large forces that are required to induce appreciable changes in the geometry of the structure. Here, a resonant structure made of silicon nitride is demonstrated whose optical response can be efficiently statically controlled using relatively weak attractive and repulsive optical forces.

An array of optical traps formed in a nanophotonic waveguide can trap and manipulate biomolecular nanoparticles in three dimensions.

A monolithically integrated CMOS-compatible source is demonstrated using an optical parametric oscillator based on a silicon nitride ring resonator on silicon. Generating more than 100 wavelengths simultaneously and operating at powers below 50 mW, scientists say that it may form the basis of an on-chip high-bandwidth optical network.

A microelectromechanical system is used to bring two parallel beams to sub-100 nm separation and measure the radiative heat transfer between them under a high thermal gradient.

This paper describes the combination of near-field optical forces (such as those used in optical traps) to confine nanoscopic matter inside a liquid core-slot waveguide and photon scattering forces to transport them. The waveguide overcomes the diffraction limits of conventional optical trapping systems to manipulate objects down to tens of nanometres in scale. As the waveguide is linear, it can also manipulate extended biomolecules demonstrated by trapping and transporting DNA molecules.

By exploiting the nonlinearity of on-chip silicon nanowaveguides, a parametric temporal imaging system that can compress optical waveforms in time is demonstrated, enabling generation of complex and rapidly updatable ultrafast optical waveforms.

The authors achieve enhanced cavity loading using complex-frequency excitations that can tailor on-demand the effective coupling rate in a microring resonator by precisely controlling the temporal evolution of the incident pulses.

We demonstrate an all-optical, mode-locking, Kerr-comb frequency division method that provides a chip-scale microwave source that is extremely versatile, accurate, stable and has ultralow noise, using only a single continuous-wave laser.

Excitons play an important role in the optical properties of 2D semiconductors, but their spatial characterization is usually constrained by the diffraction limit. Here, the authors report near-field optical spectroscopy of 2D transition metal dichalcogenides with 20 nm resolution, revealing their spatially dependent excitonic spectra and complex dielectric function.

The Authors present an exciting dielectric waveguide mechanism that can confine light in regions of varying sizes, unlike conventional designs. The platform offers a unique blend of properties by leveraging radiation modes while minimizing optical losses. This work holds promise for serving as the next generation of fundamental building blocks for integrated photonics applications.

Controlling light with light using devices small enough to fit on a chip is tricky, but it is crucial for any integrated all-optical logic scheme. Scientists have now produced modulators that control light at breakneck speeds, bringing the vision of all-optical chips closer to reality.

Researchers design and demonstrate a scalable yet compact chip-based link architecture that may enable terabit-scale optical interconnects for hyperscale data centres.

A reconfigurable nanophotonic silicon probe, implanted in anaesthetized mice, that switches multiple optical beams in less than 20 μs enables the optical stimulation of multineuron spike patterns in the brain at sub-millisecond precision.

Genome-wide data from 400 individuals indicate that the initial spread of the Beaker archaeological complex between Iberia and central Europe was propelled by cultural diffusion, but that its spread into Britain involved a large-scale migration that permanently replaced about ninety per cent of the ancestry in the previously resident population.

A chip-scale laser platform based on silicon nitride ring resonators and commercial Fabry–Pérot laser diodes is developed for the wavelength range from 404 nm to 785 nm. The achieved coarse and fine tunings are up to 12.5 nm and 33.9 GHz, respectively, with kilohertz-scale linewidths and side-mode suppression ratios above 35 dB.

The availability of integrated mid-infrared light sources is restricted by a lack of suitable materials and increasingly complicated fabrication requirements. Here, a single-mode silicon microresonator laser is demonstrated, who’s emission in the mid-infrared can be tuned by integrated microheaters.

Higher order synchronization in optomechanical devices is relatively unexplored. Here the authors use nonlinear parametric effects to entrain an optomechanical oscillator with a drive signal several octaves away from the oscillation frequency, and demonstrate RF frequency division.

Visible-spectrum silicon nitride thermo-optic phase modulators based on adiabatic micro-ring resonators with a small device footprint and low power consumption, of potential use for applications like augmented-/virtual-reality goggles, quantum information processing circuits and optogenetics, are presented.

Thermal scanning probe lithography can be used to pattern metal electrodes in direct contact with monolayer MoS₂, creating field-effect transistors that exhibit vanishing Schottky barrier heights, high on/off ratios of 10¹⁰, no hysteresis, and subthreshold swings as low as 64 mV per decade.

Synchronization of two optical microresonator frequency combs coupled over distances larger than 20 metres is experimentally realized, opening up applications of microresonator combs and offering a chip-based photonic platform for exploring complex nonlinear systems.

Designing a scalable platform to generate electricity from the energy exchange mechanism between two surfaces separated by nanometer distances remains a challenge. Here, the authors demonstrate reconfigurable, scalable and fully integrated near-field thermo-photovoltaics for on-demand heat recycling.

Lead-halide perovskite are an interesting material platform for light-emitting devices but the underlying lasing mechanism is still disputed. Here, Schlaus et al. use time-resolved spectroscopy of CsPbBr₃ nanowires to show that lasing results from stimulated emission of an electron-hole plasma.

Strong electrorefractive effects in semiconductor transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) at near-infrared wavelengths, where the TMDs are transparent, are observed and used to demonstrate photonic devices based on a composite SiN–TMD platform with large phase modulation, minimal induced loss and low electrical power consumption.

α-N-methylation is an unusual post-translational modification in which the amino-terminal residues of proteins are methylated. One example is the Ran guanine nucleotide-exchange factor, RCC1, which requires methylation for its association with chromatin. These authors describe the first α-N-methyltransferase, named N-terminal RCC1 methyltransferase (NRMT). They identify the NRMT recognition sequence and several new methylation targets, and demonstrate the importance of α-N-methylation for normal bipolar spindle formation and chromosome segregation.

The use of a photonic network of coupled degenerate optical parametric oscillators for solving complex optimisation problems would require scalable integration capabilities. Here, the authors exploit χ (3) nonlinearity in SiN to demonstrate on-chip phase-tunable coupling between two DOPO based Ising nodes.