Optics and photonics articles within Communications Materials

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Phononic crystals and acoustic metamaterials hold great promise in advancing technology and scientific understanding of materials. Here, the authors demonstrate a characterization method for acoustic meta-structures based on broadband acoustic pulses generated by laser-plasma sound sources.

    • Konstantinos Kaleris
    • , Emmanouil Kaniolakis-Kaloudis
    •  & Nektarios A. Papadogiannis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Due to their plasmonic properties, silver nanoparticles are promising across a vast range of applications, from physics instrumentation to biomedicine and environmental science. Here, the photon-to-heat conversion efficiency of individual nanoparticles is elucidated by designing and fabricating an ultra-sensitive bolometer with 26 pW power resolution.

    • Hanliang Zhu
    • , Evelína Gablech
    •  & Pavel Neuzil

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rydberg excitons in cuprous oxide feature giant optical nonlinearities that may be exploited in quantum applications if suitably confined. Here, the authors show how exciton confinement can be realised by focused-ion-beam etching of Cu2O crystals without noticeable degradation of excitonic properties.

    • Anindya Sundar Paul
    • , Sai Kiran Rajendran
    •  & Hamid Ohadi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Dicke model, describing the cooperative coupling of an ensemble of two-level atoms with a single-mode light field, has a rich phenomenology in quantum optics and quantum information, but its analytical or numerical solution is beyond current reach. Here, a solid-state quantum simulator of an extended Dicke model is achieved using ErFeO3 crystals, where terahertz spectroscopy and magnetocaloric effect measurements reveal an atomically ordered phase in addition to the expected superradiant and normal phases.

    • Nicolas Marquez Peraca
    • , Xinwei Li
    •  & Junichiro Kono

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hole-doped polymer PEDOT:PSS shows high conductivity but the carrier transport mechanism is not yet clarified. Here, broadband optical conductivity spectra are derived using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy and far-infrared to-ultraviolet reflection spectroscopy, demonstrating band transport of hole carriers.

    • Zijing Guo
    • , Tetsu Sato
    •  & Hiroshi Okamoto

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Polarization rotation is key for modern optics but achieving it at mid-infrared frequencies is challenging and requires very thick phase retarders. Here, α-MoO3 flakes provide mid-infrared phase retardation and 90 degrees polarization rotation within one micrometer of material, a thickness ten times thinner than the operational wavelength.

    • Michael T. Enders
    • , Mitradeep Sarkar
    •  & Georgia T. Papadakis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cavity polariton condensates are promising for room temperature quantum technologies, but realizing polaritonic qubit states remains challenging. Here, polarization superposition of polariton states and laser-induced polarization switching are observed in a perovskite microcavity at room temperature, suggesting a coupling between orthogonally polarized states that could enable polaritonic qubits.

    • Yuta Moriyama
    • , Takaya Inukai
    •  & Kenichi Yamashita

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A superlattice structure in Eu-doped GaN is known to improve the power output of red LEDs, though the mechanism behind this needs to be further established. Here, terahertz emission spectroscopy is used to understand the role played by potential barriers and carrier confinement in determining power output.

    • Fumikazu Murakami
    • , Atsushi Takeo
    •  & Masayoshi Tonouchi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Using machine learning to construct interatomic potentials when materials are not in their electronic ground state is challenging. Here, a neural network interatomic potential is constructed for laser-excited silicon, which extends first-principles accuracy to ultra-large length and time scales.

    • Pascal Plettenberg
    • , Bernd Bauerhenne
    •  & Martin E. Garcia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Light-emitting electrochemical cells are next-generation light-emitting devices but the operation mechanism is still not well understood microscopically. Here, the operation mechanism of light-emitting electrochemical cells is microscopically investigated by operando observation of spin states.

    • Junya Katsumata
    • , Fumiya Osawa
    •  & Kazuhiro Marumoto

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    Scintillators are materials of great interest for versatile and fast radiation detection systems. This Review discusses recent advances and strategies to improve the light yield, decay time, and coincidence timing resolution of all-inorganic and hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite scintillators.

    • Arie Wibowo
    • , Md Abdul Kuddus Sheikh
    •  & Muhammad Danang Birowosuto

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Controlling the dynamics of natural soft photonic systems is challenging due to difficulties in sourcing and stimulating them. Here, natural bovine tapetum is used to investigate soft biophotonic crystals and dynamically control their response, providing insight into the development of displays and dynamic light management.

    • Giulia Guidetti
    • , Chris Pirie
    •  & Fiorenzo G. Omenetto

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Short-wavelength lasers based on wide-bandgap GaN photonic crystals are promising for high-brightness illumination and materials processing. Here, the authors develop a nano-fabrication method for GaN/air photonic crystals, achieving high lasing operation performance in terms of output power, beam quality, and low threshold current.

    • Kei Emoto
    • , Tomoaki Koizumi
    •  & Susumu Noda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Short-range chemical ordering has emerged as a key feature for controlling the properties of high-entropy alloys. Here, ab initio calculations reveal that two types of short-range ordering exist in Si–Ge–Sn medium-entropy alloys, suggesting that multiple types of ordering could exist in a single alloy.

    • Xiaochen Jin
    • , Shunda Chen
    •  & Tianshu Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optical nanoantennas based on organic plasmonics are promising for their higher degree of tunability over metallic nanostructures. Here, nanodisks of polythiophene-based semiconducting polymers provide nanooptical antennas with resonances that are tunable over a 1000 nm wavelength range and can be switched off or on by doping modulation.

    • Akchheta Karki
    • , Yu Yamashita
    •  & Magnus P. Jonsson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanoscale light manipulation and characterization are essential in nano-optics, but conventional microscopy or indirect imaging methods are often limited by low resolution or invasive nature. Here, a non-destructive light-field imaging with ~20 nm resolution is realized by p-n junction photodetection in graphene controlled by gate voltage.

    • Tongcheng Yu
    • , Francisco Rodriguez
    •  & Alexander N. Grigorenko

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Light diffusion effects in liquid crystals are important for security and lighting devices. Here, viewing angle dependent pearlescence and iridescence are reported in a nematic liquid crystal elastomer with a stabilized director buckling pattern, which can be controlled by deformation or temperature.

    • Takuya Ohzono
    • , Hiroyuki Minamikawa
    •  & Eugene M. Terentjev

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    Carbon dots are suitable for a range of biological applications due to their unique physicochemical properties and biological behavior. This Review summarizes research related to the emerging field of red-emissive two-photon carbon dots for bioimaging, biosensing, and phototherapeutic applications.

    • Pooria Lesani
    • , Aina Hazeera Mohamad Hadi
    •  & Hala Zreiqat

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy typically relies on opaque optical waveguides, compatible only with upright microscopes. Here, a versatile approach is reported that uses CMOS-compatible transparent chips, demonstrated for the imaging of synthetic and biological samples, including super-resolution applications.

    • Anish Priyadarshi
    • , Firehun Tsige Dullo
    •  & Ganapathy Senthil Murugan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Silicon-based electronic-photonic integrated circuits are promising for various applications, but their mid-infrared optical modulation is elusive. Here, tunable mid-infrared electro-absorption modulation, with broadband operation range >140 nm, is achieved in GeSn alloys on Si by controlling the Sn content.

    • Yun-Da Hsieh
    • , Jun-Han Lin
    •  & Guo-En Chang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Stiction between polymerized layers and the constraining solid interface during stereolithography limits resolution. Here, a static inert liquid is used as a constraining interface to mitigate stiction, enabling high resolution parts to be fabricated with feature sizes spanning tens to thousands of microns.

    • Aftab A. Bhanvadia
    • , Richard T. Farley
    •  & Toshikazu Nishida

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Describing the laser ablation process with reduction-free data is important for furthering its use in modern manufacturing. Here, fluence maps, correlating laser beam intensity and ablated depth at each point in a full two-dimensional space, provide a method to probe ablation morphology in cases of arbitrary beam and crater profiles.

    • Haruyuki Sakurai
    • , Kuniaki Konishi
    •  & Makoto Kuwata-Gonokami

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hyperbolic materials have unique optical properties such as negative refraction and highly directional polaritons, relevant in super-resolution imaging. Here, the topological insulator Bi2Se3 is shown to host hyperbolic edge-confined exciton polaritons that can be steered via engineered edge defects.

    • Robin Lingstädt
    • , Nahid Talebi
    •  & Peter A. van Aken

  • Article
    | Open Access

    MoS2 is a promising two-dimensional material for optoelectronics. Here, MoS2 phototransistors with a dual-functioning HfO2 dielectric and charge-trapping layer achieve a responsivity of 1.1×106, due to an enhanced photogating effect from band edge alignment with oxygen vacancies.

    • Roda Nur
    • , Takashi Tsuchiya
    •  & Mitsuru Takenaka

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Intermediate band solar cells have the ability to reach efficiencies similar to multijunction cells using a single semiconductor junction. Here, enhanced two-photon carrier generation is demonstrated on a silicon substrate in an InGaN/GaN quantum dot-in-nanowire heterostructure intermediate band solar cell.

    • Ross Cheriton
    • , Sharif M. Sadaf
    •  & Karin Hinzer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cu2O is of great interest for its excitonic properties, yet challenges in its fabrication means that most experiments focus on naturally occurring samples. Here, scalable thermal oxidation is reported for the growth of Cu2O with low-defect content, allowing the observation of Rydberg excitons.

    • Stephan Steinhauer
    • , Marijn A. M. Versteegh
    •  & Val Zwiller

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mid-infrared optical modulators are important for detecting compounds in a wide range of applications, but are typically limited to short wavelengths. Now, a SiGe waveguide is used to fabricate an optical modulator that can reach wavelengths spanning 5.5 µm to 11 µm.

    • Miguel Montesinos-Ballester
    • , Vladyslav Vakarin
    •  & Delphine Marris-Morini

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Controlling spatial conductivity in graphene is important for plasmonic devices, yet conductivity patterning typically changes the electromagnetic environment. Here, teraherz plasmons in graphene are confined to specific regions via a patterned zinc oxide gate, reducing electromagnetic coupling.

    • Ngoc Han Tu
    • , Katsumasa Yoshioka
    •  & Norio Kumada

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