Optical physics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Authors showcase 3D direct laser writing to fabricate optically interfaced mechanical resonators. The membrane-type structures are placed inside fiber Fabry-Perot cavities to realize a miniaturized optical cavity. Further, the optomechanical properties reveal the coupling mechanism and a significant tuning of the mechanical resonator frequency.

    • Lukas Tenbrake
    • , Alexander Faßbender
    •  & Hannes Pfeifer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors experimentally realize the electrical tuning of branched flow of light in nematic liquid crystals. The statistical properties and the polarization effect of the branched flow of light in the film are systematically studied adding fundamental insights on branched flow of light.

    • Shan-shan Chang
    • , Ke-Hui Wu
    •  & Jin-hui Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors demonstrate a universal approach to achieve turnkey dissipative Kerr soliton (DKS) frequency comb. Phase insensitivity, self-healing capability, deterministic selection of DKS state, and access to ultralow noise are all successfully accomplished.

    • Mingming Nie
    • , Jonathan Musgrave
    •  & Shu-Wei Huang

  • Perspective
    | Open Access

    In this Perspective, the authors illustrate the physics of hyperbolic polaritons in anisotropic 2D and 1D materials, proposing new potential material candidates, forward looking opportunities and technological applications.

    • Hongwei Wang
    • , Anshuman Kumar
    •  & Tony Low

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ultrafast spectroscopy enables characterization and control of non-equilibrium states. Here the authors introduce a stochastic thermodynamics approach to calculate entropy production in a material under ultrafast excitation, using ionic displacement data from time-resolved X-ray scattering experiments.

    • Lorenzo Caprini
    • , Hartmut Löwen
    •  & R. Matthias Geilhufe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chiroptic sensing of single molecule is extremely challenging. Here the authors unveil an extreme nanophotonic system based on nanoparticle-on-mirror shows exceptional high sensitivity of chiral supramolecules, which can resolve enantiomer access of a racemate monolayer, exhibiting great potential for single chiral molecule sensing.

    • Chi Zhang
    • , Huatian Hu
    •  & Tao Ding

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Transparent absorbers for electromagnetic interference shielding are sought in the terahertz frequency range. The authors demonstrate organohydrogel-elastomer composites based on permittivity gradients, with strong ionic conduction loss, showing high absorption in the 0.5–4.5 THz band.

    • Wenke Xie
    • , Qian Tang
    •  & Qiye Wen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optical anapoles in nanoresonators result in strong suppression of the electromagnetic radiation, which is challenging to detect in ideal settings. Here, the authors show that fast electrons are a powerful tool to circumvent this challenge due to their ability to access dark modes.

    • Carlos Maciel-Escudero
    • , Andrew B. Yankovich
    •  & Timur O. Shegai

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors identify real-space contributions to the characteristics of high-harmonic generation in ReS2 and demonstrate the possibility of laser-controlled emission. They find that the spectrum is not just determined by the band structure, but also by the interference between HHG signals coming from different atoms within the unit cell.

    • Álvaro Jiménez-Galán
    • , Chandler Bossaer
    •  & Giulio Vampa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metasurfaces enable all-optical geometric coordinate transformations, converting images with altered pixel spatial relations, which can facilitate fast, energy-efficient preprocessing for tasks like object tracking, or aid in laser manufacturing.

    • Xingwang Zhang
    • , Xiaojie Zhang
    •  & Xingjie Ni

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors report on the experimental observation and characterization of exceptional points above the lasing threshold in photonic crystal nanocavities.

    • Kaiwen Ji
    • , Qi Zhong
    •  & Alejandro M. Yacomotti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    High-dimensional quantum states allow for several advantages in quantum communication, but protocols such as teleportation require additional entangled photons as the dimension increases. Here, the authors show how to transport a high-dimensional quantum state from a bright coherent laser field to a single photon, using two entangled photons as the quantum channel.

    • Bereneice Sephton
    • , Adam Vallés
    •  & Andrew Forbes

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hyperbolic exciton polaritons (HEPs) are anisotropic light-matter excitations with promising applications, but their steady-state observation is challenging. Here, the authors report experimental evidence of HEPs in a van der Waals magnet, CrSBr, via cryogenic infrared near-field microscopy.

    • Francesco L. Ruta
    • , Shuai Zhang
    •  & D. N. Basov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ultrafast laser excitation can generate metastable states in quantum materials, with no counterpart in equilibrium. Here the authors demonstrate a transient quadrupolar ordered state in Ca2RuO4 single crystals via excitation of a phonon mode coupled to the order parameter.

    • Honglie Ning
    • , Omar Mehio
    •  & David Hsieh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Remote transport of high-dimensional-encoded photonic states could in principle be achieved via quantum teleportation, but with considerable experimental effort. Here, instead, the authors exploit spatial-mode engineered frequency conversion between a coherent wave packet and a single photon to remotely transfer the HD OAM states, also providing a strategy for quantum imaging.

    • Xiaodong Qiu
    • , Haoxu Guo
    •  & Lixiang Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors propose electron-positron creation by scattering of gamma-rays and polaritons, enabling the synthesis of ultrafast, localized positron sources and introducing the possibility to exploit nanophotonics for particle physics.

    • Valerio Di Giulio
    •  & F. Javier García de Abajo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ultrahigh-efficiency and low-threshold yet tunable and compact laser devices are at the base of new functional devices. Here the authors harness a new temperature degree of freedom to realize a tunable photon-phonon collaboratively pumped laser.

    • Yu Fu
    • , Fei Liang
    •  & Yan-Feng Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors uncover a coherent, long-range transport of excitons in organic semiconductors that are strongly coupled to spatially structured plasmon fields by tracing ultrafast Rabi oscillations using two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy.

    • Daniel Timmer
    • , Moritz Gittinger
    •  & Christoph Lienau

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Standard techniques for Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy are limited by the electronics to 100’s of picoseconds time resolution. Here, the authors show how to use two-photon interference to perform fluorescence lifetime sensing with picosecond-scale resolution.

    • Ashley Lyons
    • , Vytautas Zickus
    •  & Daniele Faccio

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The photonic applications of hyperbolic phonon polaritons (HPhPs) in anisotropic van der Waals materials are currently limited by their low tunability. Here, the authors report the static and ultrafast wavevector modulation of HPhPs in hexagonal boron nitride by tuning the plasma frequency of doped semiconductor substrates.

    • Mingze He
    • , Joseph R. Matson
    •  & Joshua D. Caldwell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Levitated nanoparticles are a new platform for exploring quantum mechanics at macroscopic scales. The authors realize feedback controls of all external degrees of freedom of a nanoparticle, with one translational degree in the quantum ground state.

    • Mitsuyoshi Kamba
    • , Ryoga Shimizu
    •  & Kiyotaka Aikawa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Antiferromagnets exhibit high frequency magnons, in the THz regime, a point potentially useful for applications, however, it has meant that detecting spin-fluctuations in antiferromagnets is typically too fast for current experimental approaches. Here Weiss et al use femtosecond noise correlation spectroscopy to observe magnon fluctuations in Sm0.7Er0.3FeO3.

    • M. A. Weiss
    • , A. Herbst
    •  & T. Kurihara

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nonlinear optical processes like higher-order harmonic generation in solids depend on several factors. Here the authors explore the optical nonlinearity of hexagonal boron nitride and find that enhanced nonlinearity is due to electron-phonon and phonon-polariton couplings.

    • Jared S. Ginsberg
    • , M. Mehdi Jadidi
    •  & Alexander L. Gaeta

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The usual treatment of wave scattering theory relies on a formalism that does not easily allow for probing optimal spectral response. Here, the authors show how an alternative formalism, encoding fundamental principles of causality and passivity, can be used to make sense of complex scattered fields’ structures.

    • Lang Zhang
    • , Francesco Monticone
    •  & Owen D. Miller

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors introduce and demonstrate experimentally a novel fundamental property of nonlinear multimode optical systems, named mode rejection. This paves the way towards a more general idea of all-optical mode control and its related applications.

    • Kunhao Ji
    • , Ian Davidson
    •  & Massimiliano Guasoni

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this work, the authors use a surface plasmonic mechanism to efficiently confine TeraHertz photons inside ultrasmall cavities. These plasmonic-based TeraHertz cavities are shown to operate until the ultimate limit that is allowed fundamentally and at which plasmons start to behave in a nonlocal fashion.

    • Ian Aupiais
    • , Romain Grasset
    •  & Yannis Laplace

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Airy-Talbot effect is experimentally demonstrated for spoof surface acoustic waves in a structured metasurface. Owing to its self-imaging and self-healing properties, the authors achieve robust multipath transmission of nonperiodic signals.

    • Hao-xiang Li
    • , Jing-jing Liu
    •  & Johan Christensen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors provide an experimental demonstration of magnetic field generation in graphene disks via the inverse Faraday effect. When the disks are illuminated with circularly polarized radiation in resonance with the graphene plasmon frequency, the corresponding rotational motion of the charge carriers gives rise to a unipolar magnetic field.

    • Jeong Woo Han
    • , Pavlo Sai
    •  & Martin Mittendorff

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Strong optical excitation near band extrema can drive novel correlated states. Here the authors report a non-equilibrium many-body state in graphite driven by a strong excitation near van Hove singularity, yielding a tenfold increase in optical conductivity attributed to carrier excitations in the flat bands.

    • T. P. H. Sidiropoulos
    • , N. Di Palo
    •  & J. Biegert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Structured light has proven useful for numerous photonic applications. However, its current use in optical fibers is severely limited. The authors report a highly integrated metafiber platform based on 3D laser nanoprinting, capable of creating arbitrarily structured light.

    • Chenhao Li
    • , Torsten Wieduwilt
    •  & Haoran Ren

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Methods to characterize the free-electron laser pulses are evolving and their performances are also improving. Here the authors demonstrate a method based on the artificial neural networks to predict the output pulses of the X-ray free-electron laser by considering the electron beam parameters as input.

    • Kenan Li
    • , Guanqun Zhou
    •  & Anne Sakdinawat

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mie resonances are typically manipulated through varying nanostructure shape/size. Here, authors found that Gaussian beam displacement excites higher-order multipolar modes, not accessible by plane wave, featuring maximal linear and nonlinear scattering efficiency when the focus is misaligned.

    • Yu-Lung Tang
    • , Te-Hsin Yen
    •  & Shi-Wei Chu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Feedback oscillators are a fundamental tool in science and engineering. Here, Loughlin and Sudhir provide a generalized Schawlow-Townes-like formula for quantum-limited feedback oscillators, thus giving a general model to study the fundamental output noise of these devices and techniques to reduce their noise further.

    • Hudson A. Loughlin
    •  & Vivishek Sudhir

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Terahertz frequencies offer the potential of much higher data transfer rates, but this requires devices able to generate and manipulate terahertz waves. One approach is to utilize the spin dynamics of a magnetic system. Here, Ilyakov et al. show how a multilayer magnetic and heavy-metal heterostructure can be used to achieve terahertz second harmonic generation and optical rectification.

    • Igor Ilyakov
    • , Arne Brataas
    •  & Sergey Kovalev

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Storage of photon entanglement at telecommunication wavelength is an important milestone for the development of the quantum internet. Here, the authors demonstrate storage and retrieval of entangled telecom photons—generated through SWFM in a silicon nitride microring resonator—in an Erbium doped crystal.

    • Ming-Hao Jiang
    • , Wenyi Xue
    •  & Xiao-Song Ma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    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.

    • Janderson R. Rodrigues
    • , Utsav D. Dave
    •  & Michal Lipson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In this work the authors develop a Random optical parametric oscillator - the parametric analogous of random lasers. This system shows improved key metrics like tuneable repetition rates, tuneable pulse duration, inter-pulse coherence as well as simpler configuration compared with standard systems.

    • Pedro Tovar
    • , Jean Pierre von der Weid
    •  & Xiaoyi Bao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors develop a method for sub-diffraction near-field imaging using measurements taken relatively far from an object, amplifying evanescent waves that encode the highest resolution. The increased distance greatly reduces the perturbation of the fields by the imaging device itself.

    • Alessandro Tuniz
    •  & Boris T. Kuhlmey

  • Article
    | Open Access

    THz-driven electron emission is predicted to yield a single burst, due to the single-cycle waveform. Here, the authors demonstrate the confinement of single-cycle THz-waveform-driven electron emission to one of the two half cycles and the control of the active half cycle by changing the field polarity.

    • Shaoxian Li
    • , Ashutosh Sharma
    •  & József A. Fülöp

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here the authors provide the experimental demonstration of a widely tunable integrated frequency comb source unlocking the spectrum from the visible to the mid-infrared in a thin-film lithium niobate platform.

    • Arkadev Roy
    • , Luis Ledezma
    •  & Alireza Marandi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electron holography and microscopy have long been used to map static electric and magnetic fields. Here, authors establish Lorentz Microscopy of Optical Fields, a new technique that uses the deflection and interference of an electron beam to obtain phase-resolved images of nanoscale optical fields.

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

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