Featured
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News & Views |
Wavefronts wield tweezers amid disorder
Acoustic and optical traps enable contactless manipulation of objects, but trapping has been limited to hom*ogeneous environments. Wavefront shaping now extends this versatile manipulation tool to dynamic and disordered media.
- Emmanuel Fort
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Article |
Continuity equation for the flow of Fisher information in wave scattering
Remote detection protocols use waves scattering off a target, but a formal description of how waves acquire and transmit information about objects has been lacking. The density and flux of Fisher information now provide a way to understand this process.
- Jakob Hüpfl
- , Felix Russo
- &Stefan Rotter
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Measure for Measure |
We can see clearly now
Adaptive optics allows scientists to correct for distortions of an image caused by the scattering of light. Anita Chandran illuminates the nature of the technique.
- Anita Mary Chandran
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News & Views |
Optical Coriolis force guides light along Trojan beams
Trojan beams, which are optical counterparts of Trojan asteroids that maintain stable orbits alongside planets, have been successfully showcased in experiments, opening up possibilities for transporting light in unconventional settings.
- Tomáš Tyc
- &Tomáš Čižmár
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Article |
Non-Hermitian topological phase transitions controlled by nonlinearity
The phase transition from a topologically trivial state to non-Hermitian conducting edge modes can be controlled by optical nonlinearities, achieving picosecond switching speeds.
- Tianxiang Dai
- , Yutian Ao
- &Jianwei Wang
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Comment |
Unfounded concerns about photovoltaic module toxicity and waste are slowing decarbonization
Unsubstantiated claims that fuel growing public concern over the toxicity of photovoltaic modules and their waste are slowing their deployment. Clarifying these issues will help to facilitate the decarbonization that our world depends on.
- Heather Mirletz
- , Henry Hieslmair
- &Teresa M. Barnes
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Article |
Measuring the scattering tensor of a disordered nonlinear medium
Disordered media with their numerous scattering channels can be used as optical operators. Measurements of the scattering tensor of a second-harmonic medium extend this computing application to the nonlinear regime.
- Jungho Moon
- , Ye-Chan Cho
- &Wonshik Choi
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Article |
Programmable large-scale simulation of bosonic transport in optical synthetic frequency lattices
Analogue photonic simulators have so far suffered from severe finite size effects and limited programmability. Now, a frequency-mode photonic simulator enables the simulation of large-scale models in two and three dimensions.
- Alen Senanian
- , Logan G. Wright
- &Peter L. McMahon
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Review Article |
Physics of highly multimode nonlinear optical systems
Nonlinearities allow the large number of modes in a multimode fibre to interact and create emergent phenomena. This Review presents the breadth of the high-dimensional nonlinear physics that can be studied in this platform.
- Logan G. Wright
- , Fan O. Wu
- &Frank W. Wise
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Article |
Non-Abelian Thouless pumping in photonic waveguides
Non-Abelian Thouless pumping, whose outcome depends on the order of pumping operations, has been observed in photonic waveguides with degenerate flat bands.
- Yi-Ke Sun
- , Xu-Lin Zhang
- &Hong-Bo Sun
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News & Views |
Freeform fabrication
- Nina Meinzer
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Research Highlight |
Far-reaching control
- Stefanie Reichert
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News & Views |
Clock comparison using black holes
Observing accreting black holes in the early Universe allows precise comparison of clocks over intercontinental distances on Earth. This is achieved with a novel observation strategy using the next generation of very long baseline interferometry systems.
- Rüdiger Haas
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Article |
Intercontinental comparison of optical atomic clocks through very long baseline interferometry
Very long baseline interferometry is used to compare two optical clocks located in Japan and Italy through the observation of extragalactic radio sources. This approach overcomes limitations of the performance of satellite transfer techniques.
- Marco Pizzocaro
- , Mamoru Sekido
- &Tetsuya Ido
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Thesis |
Perovskite fever
- Mark Buchanan
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Research Highlight |
Photonic crystal maze
- Nina Meinzer
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Research Highlight |
Mix and match
- Nina Meinzer
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Research Highlight |
Grape balls of fire
- Andrea Taroni
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Research Highlight |
Straight for the sun
- Jan Philip Kraack
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Letter |
Geodesy and metrology with a transportable optical clock
An atomic clock has been deployed on a field measurement campaign to determine the height of a mountain location 1,000 m above sea level, returning a value that is in good agreement with state-of-the-art geodesy.
- Jacopo Grotti
- , Silvio Koller
- &Davide Calonico
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Research Highlights |
Scalable vortices
- Jan Philip Kraack
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Article |
Laser amplification in excited dielectrics
Ultrashort high-intensity laser pulses change the properties of dielectrics in different ways. One unexpected outcome is light amplification in an excited dielectric, observed in a two-colour pump–probe experiment.
- Thomas Winkler
- , Lasse Haahr-Lillevang
- &Thomas Baumert
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News & Views |
How water explodes
Micro-explosions triggered by the absorption of X-ray laser light in drops and jets of water result in shock waves and in rapid heating and expansion of the liquid — as now revealed in state-of-the-art experiments.
- Susan Davis Allen
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Article |
Liquid explosions induced by X-ray laser pulses
X-ray-induced explosions in water drops, examined using time-resolved imaging, show interacting high-speed liquid and vapour flows. This type of X-ray absorption dynamics is predictable and may be used for inducing particular dynamical liquid states.
- Claudiu A. Stan
- , Despina Milathianaki
- &Sébastien Boutet
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Letter |
Quantum-limited heat conduction over macroscopic distances
Quantum mechanics sets a fundamental upper limit for the flow of heat. Such quantum-limited heat conduction is now observed over macroscopic distances, extending to a metre, in superconducting transmission lines.
- Matti Partanen
- , Kuan Yen Tan
- &Mikko Möttönen
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Research Highlights |
Kirigami tracking
- Luke Fleet
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Letter |
Broadband magnetometry and temperature sensing with a light-trapping diamond waveguide
Nitrogen–vacancy centres offer significant promise as nanoscale magnetometers. A light-trapping diamond waveguide is demonstrated, enhancing the temperature and magnetic field sensitivity of such centres by three orders of magnitude.
- Hannah Clevenson
- , Matthew E. Trusheim
- &Dirk Englund
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News & Views |
Playing pinball with light
Without a well-defined cavity, there is no obvious way to control the resonant modes in a random laser. Experiments now show that shaping the optical pump allows for controlled single-mode operation at predetermined lasing wavelengths.
- Stefan Rotter
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News & Views |
Asymmetry from symmetry
An unusual form of symmetry breaking in coupled microresonators with balanced optical gain and loss is now exploited to realize a novel type of optical isolator.
- Chong Yidong
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Article |
Parity–time-symmetric whispering-gallery microcavities
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.
- Bo Peng
- , Şahin Kaya Özdemir
- &Lan Yang
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News & Views |
Optomechanics sets the beat
A tiny drum converts between infrared and microwave signals with record efficiency by keeping the beat of both.
- Mankei Tsang
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Article |
Bidirectional and efficient conversion between microwave and optical light
An optomechanical system that converts microwaves to optical frequency light and vice versa is demonstrated. The technique achieves a conversion efficiency of approximately 10%. The results indicate that the device could work at the quantum level, up- and down-converting individual photons, if it were cooled to millikelvin temperatures. It could, therefore, form an integral part of quantum-processor networks.
- R. W. Andrews
- , R. W. Peterson
- &K. W. Lehnert
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News & Views |
Silicon carbide goes quantum
Defects in the crystal lattice of silicon carbide prove to be a useful room-temperature source of non-classical light.
- Igor Aharonovich
- &Milos Toth
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Article |
Room-temperature quantum microwave emitters based on spin defects in silicon carbide
Defects in silicon carbide can produce continuous-wave microwaves at room temperature. Spectroscopic analysis indicates a photoinduced inversion of the population in the spin ground states, which makes the defects a potential route to stimulated amplification of microwave radiation.
- H. Kraus
- , V. A. Soltamov
- &G. V. Astakhov
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Letter |
Nanomechanical coupling between microwave and optical photons
A nanomechanical interface between optical photons and microwave electrical signals is now demonstrated. Coherent transfer between microwave and optical fields is achieved by parametric electro-optical coupling in a piezoelectric optomechanical crystal, and this on-chip technology could form the basis of photonic networks of superconducting quantum bits.
- Joerg Bochmann
- , Amit Vainsencher
- &Andrew N. Cleland
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Research Highlights |
Camera insecta obscura
- David Gevaux
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Article |
Photoexcitation cascade and multiple hot-carrier generation in graphene
The efficiency of carrier–carrier scattering in graphene is now experimentally demonstrated. The dominance of this mechanism over phonon-related scattering means that a single high-energy photon could create two or more electron–hole pairs in graphene; an effect useful for optoelectronic applications.
- K. J. Tielrooij
- , J. C. W. Song
- &F. H. L. Koppens
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Letter |
Computing prime factors with a Josephson phase qubit quantum processor
Shor’s quantum algorithm factorizes integers, and implementing this is a benchmark test in the early development of quantum processors. Researchers now demonstrate this important test in a solid-state system: a circuit made up of four superconducting qubits factorizes the number 15.
- Erik Lucero
- , R. Barends
- &John M. Martinis
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Article |
A wideband, low-noise superconducting amplifier with high dynamic range
An ideal amplifier has low noise, operates over a broad frequency range and has large dynamic range. A superconducting-resonator-based amplifier that combines all of these qualities is now demonstrated. The concept is applicable throughout the microwave, millimetre-wave and submillimetre-wave bands and can achieve a noise limit very close to that set by quantum mechanics.
- Byeong Ho Eom
- , Peter K. Day
- &Jonas Zmuidzinas
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Research Highlights |
Exciting an avalanche
- David Gevaux
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Research Highlights |
Transformed detectors
- David Gevaux
