High-harmonic spectroscopy is employed to investigate the electron–phonon, anharmonic phonon–phonon coupling, and their relaxation dynamics in solids. It reveals the maximum displacement of neighbouring oxygen atoms in α-quartz crystal to tens of picometres in real space.

By measuring the Brillouin gain only at mechanical frequencies of interest, Brillouin gain microscopy enables Brillouin imaging with a temporal resolution of 100 µs with excitation energies of 23 µJ on biological samples.

A fully hybrid integrated erbium-doped photonic integrated waveguide laser with wide tuning of 40 nm, side-mode suppression ratio of >70 dB and output power up to 17 mW is demonstrated, achieving not only footprint reduction but also the long-anticipated fibre-laser coherence.

Researchers show that atom-like dipoles based on germanium vacancy centres in diamond may be useful as antennas, exhibiting million-fold near-field optical intensity enhancement. These antennas are used to detect and control the charge state of nearby carbon vacancies.

Perovskite zinc sulphide phosphors in perovskite-based alternating-current electroluminescent devices are employed as skin-wearable devices with high stretchability, monochromaticity and power efficiency.

Owing to spectral long-range correlation, broadband energy can be delivered to extended targets deep inside a multiple-scattering system, greatly broadening the scope of controlling wave transport in disordered systems.

We had all been wondering “where is Costas?” and now we learned that we shall not see him again. We have lost a good friend and leader in the photonics community.

Andrew M. Weiner, a luminary in ultrafast optics and quantum photonics passed away on February 13, 2024, at the age of 65. He will be remembered for his profound contributions to the optics and photonics community, engineering, education, and for his devoted mentorship. He leaves behind a legacy of innovation and inspiration.

A ring laser gyroscope, located at the Geodetic Observatory Wettzell in Southern Germany, measures variations in the Earth’s rotation. Nature Photonics spoke to a key researcher on the project, Ulrich Schreiber, about the system’s birth, teething issues, and how it may one day probe the El Niño effect.

Nature Photonics spoke with Rüdiger Paschotta, the founder of RP Photonics, about his online encyclopedia of photonics, the motivation behind it and future plans for the project.

Photonic processors are promising candidates for solving tough mathematical problems. Nature Photonics asked Yoshihisa Yamamoto, director of the Physics and Informatics Laboratories at NTT Research in USA, about the progress that is being made in realizing coherent Ising machines (CIMs).

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.