Physics articles within Nature Photonics

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• Article | 29 April 2024

  Attosecond core-level absorption spectroscopy reveals the electronic and nuclear dynamics of molecular ring opening

  Attosecond core-level spectroscopy is used to probe the ultrafast molecular dynamics of furan at the carbon K-edge, demonstrating its ability to simultaneously probe electronic and vibrational dynamics.

  • S. Severino
  • , K. M. Ziems
  •  & J. Biegert

• News & Views | 26 April 2024

  Sub-cycle photonics in correlated materials

  Sub-cycle confinement and control of phase transitions in strongly correlated materials are theoretically demonstrated, potentially providing a way to investigate electron dynamics on timescales previously unattainable with these materials.

  • Eleftherios Goulielmakis

• Article | 23 April 2024

  Direct observation of Landau levels in silicon photonic crystals

  Photonic Landau levels are demonstrated via a strain-induced pseudomagnetic field in a silicon photonic crystal slab.

  • Maria Barsukova
  • , Fabien Grisé
  •  & Mikael C. Rechtsman

• Article | 23 April 2024

  Observation of Landau levels and chiral edge states in photonic crystals through pseudomagnetic fields induced by synthetic strain

  Strain-engineered pseudomagnetic fields realized in two-dimensional photonic crystals induce flat-band Landau levels at discrete energies as well as chiral edge states. The high density of states and high degeneracy of the flat bands has implications for both on-chip and radiating light fields.

  • René Barczyk
  • , L. Kuipers
  •  & Ewold Verhagen

• Article
  23 April 2024 | Open Access

  Non-reciprocal band structures in an exciton–polariton Floquet optical lattice

  A frequency detuning between two pump lasers enables an exciton–polariton Floquet optical lattice and a polariton ‘conveyor belt’. The findings pave the way for Floquet engineering in polariton condensates.

  • Yago del Valle Inclan Redondo
  • , Xingran Xu
  •  & Michael D. Fraser

• Article
  17 April 2024 | Open Access

  Random-access wide-field mesoscopy for centimetre-scale imaging of biodynamics with subcellular resolution

  Random-access wide-field mesoscopy enables the imaging of in vivo biodynamics in mice over an area of 160 mm² and at a subcellular spatial resolution of about 2 μm.

  • Ruheng Shi
  • , Xinyue Chen
  •  & Lingjie Kong

• Article | 11 April 2024

  Experimental demonstration of attosecond pump–probe spectroscopy with an X-ray free-electron laser

  Researchers have demonstrated the generation and control of subfemtosecond pulse pairs from a two-colour X-ray free-electron laser and conducted pump–probe experiments in core-ionized molecules.

  • Zhaoheng Guo
  • , Taran Driver
  •  & Agostino Marinelli

• Article | 09 April 2024

  Epsilon-near-zero regime enables permanent ultrafast all-optical reversal of ferroelectric polarization

  Researchers reveal that naturally emerging epsilon-near-zero conditions in BaTiO₃ can be exploited to drive permanent all-optical switching of ferroelectric polarization. The general nature of the epsilon-near-zero regime means that the approach could be used to switch spontaneous order parameters in other systems.

  • M. Kwaaitaal
  • , D. G. Lourens
  •  & A. Kirilyuk

• Article | 29 March 2024

  Integrated optical vortex microcomb

  Microring-based vortex combs with each comb line carrying a distinct orbital angular momentum generate light springs with time-varying orbital angular momenta.

  • Bo Chen
  • , Yueguang Zhou
  •  & Jin Liu

• Article
  26 March 2024 | Open Access

  A versatile single-photon-based quantum computing platform

  A versatile cloud-accessible single-photon-based quantum computing machine is developed, which shows a six-photon sampling rate of 4 Hz over weeks. Heralded generation of a three-photon Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger state—a key milestone toward measurement-based quantum computing—is implemented.

  • Nicolas Maring
  • , Andreas Fyrillas
  •  & Niccolo Somaschi

• Article
  14 March 2024 | Open Access

  Ultrafast atomic-scale scanning tunnelling spectroscopy of a single vacancy in a monolayer crystal

  Time-resolved lightwave-driven scanning tunnelling spectroscopy is developed to investigate how the spin–orbit-split energy levels of a selenium vacancy within a WSe₂ monolayer shift under phonon displacement. Ultrafast snapshots of the electronic tunnelling spectra reveal transient energy shifts up to 40 meV.

  • C. Roelcke
  • , L. Z. Kastner
  •  & Y. A. Gerasimenko

• Article | 14 March 2024

  Parametrically driven pure-Kerr temporal solitons in a chip-integrated microcavity

  Kerr resonators can support a new form of parametrically driven temporal cavity soliton (and associated optical frequency comb), with potential performance advantages that include background-free operation and the possibility of very high pump-to-comb conversion efficiencies.

  • Grégory Moille
  • , Miriam Leonhardt
  •  & Miro Erkintalo

• Article | 16 February 2024

  Inverse-designed low-index-contrast structures on a silicon photonics platform for vector–matrix multiplication

  Using inverse design, a 3D silicon photonics platform that can be used for the mathematical operation of vector–matrix multiplication with light is demonstrated, potentially enabling large-scale wave-based analogue computing.

  • Vahid Nikkhah
  • , Ali Pirmoradi
  •  & Nader Engheta

• Article
  13 February 2024 | Open Access

  Key requirements for ultraefficient sensitization in hyperfluorescence organic light-emitting diodes

  Moderately efficient TADF emitters can play the role of surprisingly good sensitizers in hyperfluorescent blue organic light-emitting diodes.

  • Kleitos Stavrou
  • , Larissa G. Franca
  •  & Andrew P. Monkman

• Article
  12 February 2024 | Open Access

  Attosecond electron microscopy by free-electron homodyne detection

  Free-electron homodyne detection allows measuring phase-resolved optical responses in electron microscopy, demonstrated in the imaging of plasmonic fields with few-nanometre spatial and sub-cycle temporal resolutions.

  • John H. Gaida
  • , Hugo Lourenço-Martins
  •  & Claus Ropers

• Article
  02 February 2024 | Open Access

  A high-efficiency programmable modulator for extreme ultraviolet light with nanometre feature size based on an electronic phase transition

  A reflective spatial light modulator for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) or soft X-ray light is demonstrated in an electronic Wigner crystal material with a sub-90-nm feature size. The diffraction grating imprinted by sub-picosecond EUV beams is rewritable. The projected efficiency according to the modelling exceeds 1%.

  • Igor Vaskivskyi
  • , Anze Mraz
  •  & Dragan Mihailovic

• Article | 26 January 2024

  Optical readout of the chemical potential of two-dimensional electrons

  An optical readout technique for the chemical potential of an arbitrary two-dimensional material is realized using a monolayer transition metal dichalcogenide semiconductor sensor whose optical response sharply depends on the chemical potential.

  • Zhengchao Xia
  • , Yihang Zeng
  •  & Kin Fai Mak

• Article
  24 January 2024 | Open Access

  Sub-cycle multidimensional spectroscopy of strongly correlated materials

  Nonlinear multidimensional spectroscopy that can image the sub-cycle dynamics of strongly correlated systems on the sub-femtosecond timescale is demonstrated by using the carrier–envelope-phase dependence of the correlated multielectron response to decode the complex interplay between different many-body states.

  • V. N. Valmispild
  • , E. Gorelov
  •  & O. Smirnova

• Article | 18 January 2024

  Multifunctional entinostat enhances the mechanical robustness and efficiency of flexible perovskite solar cells and minimodules

  The organic molecule entinostat improves adhesion between the perovskites and substrates, leading to mechanically robust solar cell minimodules with an area of 9 cm² and power conversion efficiency of 19%.

  • Wenzhan Xu
  • , Bo Chen
  •  & Jinsong Huang

• Article
  12 January 2024 | Open Access

  Generating free-space structured light with programmable integrated photonics

  Using programmable integrated photonics to generate a higher-order free-space structured light beam promises lossless and reconfigurable control of the spatial distribution of light’s amplitude and phase with very short switching times.

  • Johannes Bütow
  • , Jörg S. Eismann
  •  & Peter Banzer

• Article | 10 January 2024

  Attosecond-resolved non-dipole photoionization dynamics

  Using a self-referenced attosecond photoelectron interferometry on helium atoms, the electron subcycle motion along the light propagation direction is observed in the 15 pm range. A time delay of 15 ± 10 as between the electric-dipole and electric-quadrupole transitions is also revealed.

  • Jintai Liang
  • , Meng Han
  •  & Hans Jakob Wörner

• Article | 10 January 2024

  Dynamic resonance fluorescence in solid-state cavity quantum electrodynamics

  Dynamic resonance fluorescence spectra beyond the Mollow-triplet are observed in a In(Ga)As quantum dot in a micropillar. Multiple side peaks, excitation-induced spectral asymmetry, and cavity filtering effects are experimentally observed and theoretically reproduced by a full quantum model that includes phonon-induced decoherence.

  • Shunfa Liu
  • , Chris Gustin
  •  & Jin Liu

• Article | 10 January 2024

  Wide-band frequency modulation of a terahertz intrinsic Josephson junction emitter of a cuprate superconductor

  Frequency-modulated terahertz continuous waves are generated from Josephson junctions included in a cuprate superconductor. When 3 GHz sinusoidal waves were superimposed on 840–890 GHz carrier waves, the modulation bandwidth reached 40 GHz when a Josephson plasma emission was utilized.

  • Masashi Miyamoto
  • , Ryota Kobayashi
  •  & Itsuhiro Kakeya

• Article | 08 January 2024

  Non-local skyrmions as topologically resilient quantum entangled states of light

  A skyrmion is a topologically stable field configuration. A non-local skyrmion, which has been hitherto elusive in condensed-matter physics, is realized by using entangled photons with a non-trivial topology. The connection between the notions of topology and entanglement is investigated, revealing topological invariance even when entanglement is fragile.

  • Pedro Ornelas
  • , Isaac Nape
  •  & Andrew Forbes

• News & Views | 05 January 2024

  Acoustic gigawatt laser deflection

  Acoustic modulation of atmospheric air enables the deflection of laser pulses with a peak power of 20 gigawatts, expanding the acousto-optics toolbox to high-power laser manipulation in ambient air.

  • Günter Steinmeyer

• Article | 05 January 2024

  Correlated sensing with a solid-state quantum multisensor system for atomic-scale structural analysis

  Exploiting the signal correlation between multiple quantum sensors enables measuring overlapping signals from multiple targets, as demonstrated by imaging point defects in a diamond with an accuracy of 1.7 nm.

  • Wentao Ji
  • , Zhaoxin Liu
  •  & Jiangfeng Du

• Article
  04 January 2024 | Open Access

  Plasmonic photoconductive terahertz focal-plane array with pixel super-resolution

  A terahertz focal-plane array based on a two-dimensional array of plasmonic photoconductive nanoantennas offers high-quality imaging in the terahertz region.

  • Xurong Li
  • , Deniz Mengu
  •  & Mona Jarrahi

• News & Views | 15 December 2023

  Ambient microwave-to-optical converter

  A coherent microwave-to-optical conversion scheme, previously feasible only under cryogenic environments, has now been expanded to ambient conditions by using Rydberg atoms.

  • Kai-Yu Liao
  • , Hui Yan
  •  & Shi-Liang Zhu

• News & Views | 30 November 2023

  Plasma optics promise exawatt performance

  Modelling shows how plasma density gradients can be tailored to compress optical pulses in the final stages of laser systems towards exawatt (10¹⁸ W) peak powers.

  • Brendan Dromey

• News & Views | 30 November 2023

  Large-angle twist effect

  A large-angle twist between two bilayer graphene films makes a sensitive and broadband infrared–terahertz detector as a result of interlayer screening and a crystal field-induced bandgap.

  • Bingchen Deng
  •  & Fengnian Xia

• Article | 23 November 2023

  Programmable photonic arrays based on microelectromechanical elements with femtowatt-level standby power consumption

  Programmable photonic arrays with <10 fW (per unit) standby power consumption, <40 pJ (per unit) reconfiguration energy and <11 V programming voltages are demonstrated.

  • Dong Uk Kim
  • , Young Jae Park
  •  & Kyoungsik Yu

• Article | 23 November 2023

  Determining the optimal communication channels of arbitrary optical systems using integrated photonic processors

  Self-configuring meshes of integrated Mach–Zehnder interferometers determine the optimal communication channels through unknown optical media, with the resulting modes showing crosstalk below –30 dB.

  • SeyedMohammad SeyedinNavadeh
  • , Maziyar Milanizadeh
  •  & Francesco Morichetti

• Article
  13 November 2023 | Open Access

  A diamond nanophotonic interface with an optically accessible deterministic electronuclear spin register

  By implanting ¹¹⁷Sn, a fibre-packaged nanophotonic diamond waveguide with optically addressable hyperfine transitions separated by 452 MHz is demonstrated. This enables the formation of a spin-gated optical switch and achieving a waveguide-to-fibre extraction efficiency of 57%.

  • Ryan A. Parker
  • , Jesús Arjona Martínez
  •  & Mete Atatüre

• Article
  13 November 2023 | Open Access

  Laser pulse compression by a density gradient plasma for exawatt to zettawatt lasers

  Researchers propose a laser pulse compression method for exawatt to zettawatt lasers based on spatially varying dispersion of an inhomogeneous plasma. This may enable, for example, pulse compression of a laser pulse from 2.35 ps to 10.3 fs. The approach is robust at high intensities.

  • Min Sup Hur
  • , Bernhard Ersfeld
  •  & Hyyong Suk

• Obituary | 31 October 2023

  A scientist and a poet

  Vladimir Zakharov was a man of a strong passion and grand intellect, who was equally and deservedly proud of both his scientific achievements and his poetry.

  • G. E. Falkovich
  • , E. A. Kuznetsov
  •  & S. K. Turitsyn

• News & Views | 31 October 2023

  Efficient quantum state tomography

  A scheme for fast, comprehensive characterization of high-dimensional quantum states could aid quantum applications in imaging and information processing.

  • Gregory Kanter
  •  & Prem Kumar

• Article | 30 October 2023

  Nanosecond time-resolved dual-comb absorption spectroscopy

  A mid-infrared dual-comb system capable of nanosecond time-resolved spectral measurements is realized by using a singly resonant optical parametric oscillator that allows an efficient conversion of an input dual-comb pump at 1 µm into an idler dual comb in the mid-infrared regime.

  • David A. Long
  • , Matthew J. Cich
  •  & Gregory B. Rieker

• Article | 30 October 2023

  Event-based vision sensor for fast and dense single-molecule localization microscopy

  Event-based sensors enable super-resolution single-molecule localization microscopy with comparable quality and resolution to traditional scientific cameras, while also overcoming the limitations of high-density imaging.

  • Clément Cabriel
  • , Tual Monfort
  •  & Ignacio Izeddin

• Article | 19 October 2023

  Coherence and superradiance from a plasma-based quasiparticle accelerator

  A new conceptual approach to light generation involving an ensemble of light-emitting charges may result in more compact superradiant light sources.

  • B. Malaca
  • , M. Pardal
  •  & J. Vieira

• Article
  16 October 2023 | Open Access

  Cascaded hard X-ray self-seeded free-electron laser at megahertz repetition rate

  A cascaded hard X-ray self-seeding system is demonstrated at the European X-ray free-electron laser. The setup enables millijoule-level pulses in the photon energy range of 6–14 keV at the rate of ten trains per second, with each train including hundreds of pulses arriving at a megahertz repetition rate.

  • Shan Liu
  • , Christian Grech
  •  & Gianluca Geloni

• Article
  05 October 2023 | Open Access

  Continuous wideband microwave-to-optical converter based on room-temperature Rydberg atoms

  Continuous-wave conversion of a 13.9 GHz field to a near-infrared optical signal is demonstrated by using Rydberg atoms at room temperature. The conversion bandwidth is 16 MHz and the conversion dynamic range is 57 dB, descending down to 3.8 K noise-equivalent temperature.

  • Sebastian Borówka
  • , Uliana Pylypenko
  •  & Michał Parniak

• Article
  02 October 2023 | Open Access

  Acousto-optic modulation of gigawatt-scale laser pulses in ambient air

  Air-based acousto-optic modulation is shown to be able to efficiently control gigawatt-scale, ultrashort laser pulses.

  • Yannick Schrödel
  • , Claas Hartmann
  •  & Christoph M. Heyl

• News & Views | 29 September 2023

  A step towards cavity-based X-ray free electron lasers

  The demonstration of a low-loss diamond mirror cavity that can temporally store X-ray pulses brings hope for a future generation of X-ray free electron lasers.

  • Enrico Allaria
  •  & Giovanni De Ninno

• News & Views | 29 September 2023

  Spin-selective transitions between quantum Hall states

  Platforms enabling control over strong light–matter interactions in optical cavities provide a challenging but promising way to manipulate emergent light–matter hybrids. Spin selectivity of transitions has now been demonstrated in a two-dimensional hole gas microcavity system, paving the way towards the study of new spin physics phenomena in hybrid excitations.

  • Hrvoje Buljan
  •  & Zhigang Chen

• Article | 28 September 2023

  Electric quadrupole second-harmonic generation revealing dual magnetic orders in a magnetic Weyl semimetal

  Optical second-harmonic waves are generated from the electric quadrupole contribution in a centrosymmetric magnetic Weyl semimetal Co₃Sn₂S₂. Two magnetic orders and phase transitions are explored in temperature-dependent rotational anisotropy measurements by second-harmonic generation.

  • Youngjun Ahn
  • , Xiaoyu Guo
  •  & Liuyan Zhao

• Article | 21 September 2023

  Ultra-broadband photoconductivity in twisted graphene heterostructures with large responsivity

  Thanks to the unique properties of twisted double bilayer graphene heterostructures, an ultra-broadband photoconductivity spanning the spectral range of 2–100 μm with internal quantum efficiencies of approximately 40% at speeds of 100 kHz is reported.

  • H. Agarwal
  • , K. Nowakowski
  •  & F. H. L. Koppens

• News & Views | 18 September 2023

  Laser gyroscope precisely tracks the Earth’s rotation

  Precise measurements of the length of an Earth day are essential for understanding global mass transport phenomena. A ring laser gyroscope provides absolute measurements of variations in the length of the day with a resolution of 5 parts per billion over a 14-day period.

  • Caterina Ciminelli
  •  & Giuseppe Brunetti

• Article | 18 September 2023

  Quantum time reflection and refraction of ultracold atoms

  Time reflection and refraction are experimentally observed in ultracold atoms. To this end, the time boundary is formed by imposing an abrupt change in the coupling strength of the atomic chain. Time boundary effects are robust against material disorder.

  • Zhaoli Dong
  • , Hang Li
  •  & Bo Yan

• News & Views | 31 August 2023

  Ultrashort coils of light

  A diffractive axicon (a device that diffracts the input light pulse radially) enables complex correlations between the topological charges and the frequencies of ultrashort laser pulses, resulting in a variety of ultrashort coiled light structures.

  • Spencer W. Jolly

• Article
  31 August 2023 | Open Access

  Surpassing the nonlinear conversion efficiency of soliton microcombs

  Researchers demonstrated coherent dissipative Kerr solitons with a conversion efficiency exceeding 50% and good line spacing stability. The results may facilitate practical implementation of a scalable integrated photonic architecture for energy-efficient applications.

  • Óskar B. Helgason
  • , Marcello Girardi
  •  & Victor Torres-Company