Volume 5 Issue 7, July 2011

The demonstration of a phase-sensitive optical amplifier with a noise figure of just 1.1 dB — three times lower than that of a conventional amplifier — could help significantly extend the reach of optical communications systems.

Green fluorescent protein — an important biological imaging tool for many years — now forms the foundation of the first cellular laser.

A four-year collaboration between Japan and Europe aims to increase the efficiency of concentrator solar cells to beyond 45%.

Researchers in Japan have now extended the capability of light-in-flight holography to femtosecond pulse durations in the visible wavelength range.

Lensless X-ray imaging is no longer limited to monochromatic sources. A new approach that is compatible with polychromatic beams can increase the efficiency of diffractive imaging experiments, thus significantly reducing exposure times.

The use of carbon nanotube electrodes and new device geometries is enhancing the performance of organic light-emitting transistors.

Semiconductor light-emitting diodes may soon replace mercury lamps as the ultraviolet source of choice in a wide range of applications. Researchers around the world are now racing to increase the efficiency and output power of such ultraviolet solid-state devices.

Scientists demonstrate living biological lasers by pumping cells containing green fluorescent protein in a highly reflective microcavity. The researchers also investigate the thresholds and modes of their cellular lasers.

Scientists study the coupling, guiding and polarizing of electromagnetic waves in graphene and demonstrate a graphene-based fibre polarizer that exhibits a transverse-electric-pass polarization at an extinction ratio of up to ∼27 dB in the telecommunications band.

Growing a group III–V quantum dot laser directly on a group IV substrate could provide silicon photonics with a convenient new form of laser source for use in optoelectronic circuitry.

Poor coherence resulting from long exposure times is a problem for many coherent diffractive X-ray imaging schemes. Here, researchers show that coherent diffractive imaging using a broadband source can achieve a 60-fold reduction in exposure time.

Researchers demonstrate a microwave generator based on a high-Q optical resonator and a frequency comb functioning as an optical-to-microwave divider. They generate 10 GHz electrical signals with a fractional frequency instability of ≤8 × 10⁻¹⁶ at 1 s.

Scientists experimentally demonstrate an optical-fibre-based non-degenerate phase-sensitive amplifier link that offers broadband amplification, signal modulation-format independence and lower noise than links based on conventional erbium-doped fibre amplifiers.

Researchers have now shown that lasers — usually thought of as being inanimate optoelectronic instruments — can also be made from certain biological gain media. Nature Photonics spoke to Malte C. Gather and Seok Hyun Yun about their realization of a living single-cell laser.