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The efficiency of coherent transport can be enhanced through interaction between the system and a noisy environment. Here, Biggerstaff et al. report an experimental simulation of environment assisted coherent transport using laser-written waveguides, showing that controllable decoherence yields an increase in transport efficiency.

Transport of particles in the presence of disorder is of interest for applications in electronics as well as photonics. Here the authors show theoretically and experimentally that based on dissipation alone, transport of light undergoes a change from ballistic to diffusive transport even in the absence of disorder.

Parity–time symmetry in second quantization is demonstrated in an integrated non-Hermitian coupled waveguide structure. A counterintuitive shift of the position of the Hong–Ou–Mandel dip is observed in integrated lossy waveguide structures.

Coherent diffractive imaging is a powerful numerical technique that can reconstruct and enhance images. The demonstration of this technique with subwavelength resolution now exhibits the possibility of new applications such as single-shot imaging of ultrafast events with ultrahigh resolution.

Topologically protected bound states in parity–time-symmetric non-Hermitian photonic lattices are theoretically predicted and experimentally demonstrated.

An optical thermodynamic framework can describe the complex dynamics in highly multimodal systems. Now, the observation of all-optical Joule–Thompson expansion in an optical gas further validates this thermodynamic approach.

The broadening of a wave-packet can be suppressed as it propagates through a periodic potential. The first-order effect of this so-called dynamic localization has been seen in many different systems. Higher-order effects are now seen for the first time in an optical pulse guided along curved photonic lattices.

The boson-sampling problem is experimentally solved by implementing Aaronson and Arkhipov's model of computation with photons in integrated optical circuits. These results set a benchmark for a type of quantum computer that can potentially outperform a conventional computer by using only a few photons and linear optical elements.

Optical guiding by a synthetic gauge field is experimentally demonstrated through an array of evanescently coupled identical waveguides, opening the door to applications of artificial gauge fields in optical, microwave and acoustic systems and in cold atoms.

The behaviour of multi-dimensional excitation dynamics and localization transition is synthesized in one-dimensional lattices formed by planar photonic structures.

Researchers demonstrate systems in which optical solitons coexist and interact with topological solitonic structures localized in the molecular alignment field of a soft birefringent medium. The findings could lead to solitonic tractor beams and new light–matter self-patterning phenomena.

Boundary-localized bulk eigenstates given by the non-Hermitian skin effect are observed in a non-reciprocal topological circuit. A fundamental revision of the bulk–boundary correspondence in an open system is required to understand the underlying physics.

A spatially oscillating two-dimensional waveguide array is used to realize a photonic topological insulator in synthetic dimensions with modal-space edge states, unidirectionality and robust topological protection.