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Radiative sky cooling passively rejects heat from a surface out into space via an atmospheric transparency window, enabling sub-ambient cooling. Goldstein et al. exploit this to show daytime cooling of water by up to 5 ^∘C below ambient temperature, equivalent to a heat rejection flux of 70 Wm⁻².

Weyl points, point degeneracies surrounded by linear dispersions, are the 3-dimensional analogue of the Dirac points known from 2D materials. Here, Linet al. propose a scheme for realizing on-chip electromagnetic Weyl points by utilizing the concept of synthetic dimensions.

By leveraging the superconducting phase transition of Nb, a near-field thermal diode that operates near liquid helium temperature is demonstrated.

A multilayer photonic structure is described that strongly reflects incident sunlight while emitting heat selectively through an atmospheric transparency window to outer space; this leads to passive cooling under direct sunlight of 5 degrees Celsius below ambient air temperature, which has potential applications in air-conditioning and energy efficiency.

A nonlinear parity–time-symmetric circuit is used to enable robust wireless power transfer to a moving device over a distance of one metre without the need for tuning.

For specific problems, analog optical computing can be faster and more computationally efficient than digital methods. Here, Zhuet al. simplify the often metamaterial-based approach to a single thin metal film, with which they demonstrate spatial differentiation.

The Aharonov–Bohm effect describes the influence of an electromagnetic vector potential on the phase of a charged particle. Here, Li et al.demonstrate that photon–phonon interactions can lead to the Aharonov–Bohm effect also for the electrically neutral photons.

Radiative cooling relies on the atmosphere’s transparency window. Here the authors achieve up to 42 °C drops in temperature for low thermal loads under diffuse sunlight by improving the selectivity of the emissivity and the thermal management of their devices.

The local Drude model predicts that, under certain conditions, surface plasmon polaritons at a metal-dielectric surface have a frequency range where only unidirectional propagation is supported. Here, the authors show that in more realistic non-local models surface plasmon polaritons exhibit bidirectional propagation for all frequencies.

By considering a resonator lattice in which the coupling constants between the resonators are harmonically modulated in time and by controlling the spatial distribution of the modulation phases, scientists introduce a scheme that can generate an effective magnetic field for photons, without the use of magneto-optical effects.

It is now shown that coupled optical microcavities bear all the hallmarks of parity–time symmetry; that is, the system’s dynamics are unchanged by both time-reversal and mirror transformations. The resonant nature of microcavities results in unusual effects not seen in previous photonic analogues of parity–time-symmetric systems: for example, light travelling in one direction is resonantly enhanced but there are no resonance peaks going the other way.

By integrating a moiré photonic structure on-chip with advanced microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology, an in situ twisted moiré photonic platform that can be tuned is realized, enabling nanometre-scale positioning of two optical nanostructures in either the near- or far-field coupling regime.

The building envelope is the interface between a building and its surrounding environment, and has a substantial impact on energy efficiency and aesthetic appeal. Here the authors present a coloured low-emissivity film design that could work year-round to save energy.

The control of thermal radiation is important for applications such as energy conversion and radiative cooling. Here Fan et al. demonstrate a thermal extraction scheme that can enhance the emission of a finite-sized blackbody-like emitter.

Higher dimensional vortical structures are being explored in optical and acoustic systems via complex wave interference. However, deterministic generation has not been reported. Here, the authors demonstrate emergent 3D optical vortices in a gradient-thickness optical cavity.

Surface plasmons hold great promise for on-chip miniaturization of all-optical circuits, but practical methods of switching them are needed. Researchers have now demonstrated strong — and potentially fast — modulation of plasmons using a magnet.

Nanophotonic structures can be used to engineer efficient solar thermophotovoltaic systems.

The quantum noise of Kerr combs is found to exhibit oscillatory lattice dynamics through state transitions, with implications for squeezing and comb formation.

Recently, the increased capabilities in generating pulsed optical fields that are rigidly transported in linear media without diffraction or dispersion has opened the path to realisation of 3D optical skyrmionic structures. Here, the authors demonstrate 3D-localized optical merons by imprinting polarization textures onto the momentum-energy space of ultrafast light pulses.

The realization of a chip-based, broadband optical isolator is of considerable interest for integrated photonics. To date, no technique has been shown to be able to do this using materials and processes that are CMOS-compatible. Now, scientists propose that the use of direction-dependent photonic mode transitions in silicon nanophotonic structures could be the solution.

Going beyond the conventional approach based on the Faraday effect, scientists have now used acoustic modes optically excited in the core of a photonic crystal fibre to realize a reconfigurable all-optical isolator.

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.

This Review discusses the physics of nonreciprocal radiation and Kirchhoff’s law generalization in the context of nanophotonics-enabled nonreciprocal thermal applications.

Fano resonances have been studied for many resonant optical systems. To fully understand the origin behind this phenomenon it would be necessary to have simultaneous information about the dissipation of stored energy in the near-field and the scattering response in the far-field. This is now shown to be possible in a single semiconductor nanostripe using photocurrent measurements.

Non-Abelian lattice gauge fields in photonic synthetic frequency dimensions can be used to study lattice physics in a scalable and programmable way.

Passive, lossy materials with positive index at real frequencies can be used to realize optical antimatter under complex frequency excitation. Our approach enables arbitrary complex \(\epsilon ,\,\mu\) to be achieved.

Two Si resonators couple through a non-Hermitian interaction to sense both the intensity and the incident angle of light with subwavelength resolution.

This study uses machine learning to design a coolhouse film that regulates temperature and water evaporation to maximize plant photosynthesis efficiency. The film selectively transmits the sunlight needed for photosynthesis, improving crop yield and survival rates in hot, arid regions.

A hierarchically designed polymer nanofibre-based film produced by a scalable electrospinning process enables selective mid-infrared emission and effective sunlight reflection, and thus realizes an excellent all-day radiative cooling performance.

Experiments using two coupled optical ring resonators and based on the concept of synthetic dimension reveal non-Hermitian energy band structures exhibiting topologically non-trivial knots and links.

Photonic processors that can perform arbitrary tasks are in demand for many applications. Here, the authors present a photonic architecture using waveguide and resonator couplings to perform arbitrary linear transformations, by taking advantage of the frequency synthetic dimension.

Conventional DC-DC converters rely on switching operations and energy storing components which face both noise and scaling difficulties. Here, the authors present an alternative design for a DC-to-DC converter based on closely coupled LEDs and photovoltaic cells, which exhibits high efficiency, low noise, and miniaturizability.

The exploration of topological boundary effects is one of the important aspects that could foster the development of future topological photonics devices. Here the authors propose a straightforward method to construct sharp boundaries in synthetic dimensions using a modulated ring resonator strongly coupled to an auxiliary ring.

A parity–time symmetric circuit that uses a switch-mode amplifier and current-sensing phase-delay feedback can wirelessly transfer around 10 W of power to a moving device with a nearly constant total efficiency of 92%.

Spatial differentiation is a form of optical computation which has applications in image processing. Here, the authors exploit nontrivial topological charges in the transfer function to realise broadband isotropic two-dimensional differentiation.

Understanding the tunable range of radiative thermal load for a given colour is important for thermal management of outdoor structures. Here, the authors theoretically and experimentally highlighted all mechanisms through which one can control the radiative thermal load of coloured objects.

In this type of thermal cloak, when a fluid circulates around the object of interest, the temperature perturbation is minimized as the effective thermal conductivity of the fluid becomes very high due to convective effects.

Internal degrees of freedom allow to expand the effective dimensionality of a system along “synthetic” dimensions. Here, the authors demonstrate this by modulating a ring resonator at frequencies commensurate with its mode spacing, and are able to directly measure its synthetic band structure.

The ultrafast response of a pyroelectric sensor with near-infrared responsivity is demonstrated by combining a pyroelectric thermal detector with wavelength-selective nanoparticle absorbers.

The demonstration of substantially enhanced high-harmonic emission from a silicon metasurface suggests a route towards novel photonic devices based on a combination of ultrafast strong-field physics and nanofabrication technology.

Coupled lithium niobate ring resonators enable control of a ‘photonic molecule’ by programmed microwave signals. An on-demand optical storage and retrieval system is demonstrated.

A 1,340-fold increase in single-molecule fluorescence has been observed from a lithographically fabricated gold bowtie nanoantenna — approximately an order of magnitude greater than that achieved in previous reports on such structures. The improvement results from an estimated ninefold increase in quantum efficiency, caused by enhanced absorption and an increased radiative emission rate.