Materials for optics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article |

    Metamaterial cloaks can manipulate light to effectively hide objects from view, but they mostly rely on rigid structures that are tailored specifically for the chosen object. Shin et al.demonstrate an elastic, smart metamaterial cloak that can adapt to a range of deformations and object sizes.

    • Dongheok Shin
    • , Yaroslav Urzhumov
    •  & David R. Smith

  • Review Article |

    The diffraction limit of light constrains the achievable resolution of conventional optical systems, but metamaterials provide numerous avenues to beat it. Lu and Liu review recent advances in super-resolution imaging with hyperlenses and metalenses, and discuss future directions and hurdles for the field.

    • Dylan Lu
    •  & Zhaowei Liu

  • Article |

    Light-emitting diodes are attractive sources of light used in an increasing range of applications. This study presents a novel europium-based phosphor that gives rise to a substantial reduction in the glare that often makes LEDs uncomfortable to the human eye.

    • Hisayoshi Daicho
    • , Takeshi Iwasaki
    •  & Hideo Hosono

  • Article |

    Understanding ultrafast demagnetisation is key to manipulating magnetic structures on fast timescales, yet laser sources limit the attainable spatial resolution. Here, a soft X-ray high harmonic source enables a high temporal and spatial resolution study of domain demagnetisation in [Co/Pt]30multilayer films.

    • Boris Vodungbo
    • , Julien Gautier
    •  & Jan Lüning

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanocrystal quantum dots can exhibit photoluminescence blinking, where the intensity of the emitted light fluctuates due to random charging and discharging. Gallandet al.study thick shell nanocrystals and find that the photoluminescence lifetime can also undergo blinking, without intensity changes.

    • Christophe Galland
    • , Yagnaseni Ghosh
    •  & Victor I. Klimov

  • Article |

    Light propagating in a medium can undergo polarization rotation, an effect that depends on light intensity and chiral properties. Renet al. report polarization rotation in a plasmonic metamaterial with million-fold stronger nonlinearity than that found in natural crystals.

    • Mengxin Ren
    • , Eric Plum
    •  & Nikolay I. Zheludev

  • Article |

    Metamaterials can be used to alter the transmission of light or sound, with their tailored structures permitting control over their optical or acoustic properties. Meiet al. present a thin-film acoustic metamaterial that provides efficient absorption of sound over a broad range of wavelengths.

    • Jun Mei
    • , Guancong Ma
    •  & Ping Sheng

  • Article |

    Optical vortex traps are appealing for handling delicate particles, but conventional techniques are challenging with objects smaller than the diffraction limit of light. By exploiting plasmonic resonances in gold diabolo nanoantennas, Kanget al. demonstrate low-power vortex trapping of nano-scale objects.

    • Ju-Hyung Kang
    • , Kipom Kim
    •  & Hong-Gyu Park

  • Article |

    The development of practical photonic quantum technologies will be aided by the spatial control of entangled photons. Lenget al. achieve on-chip spatial control of entangled photons by using domain engineering, rather than by using external optical elements.

    • H.Y. Leng
    • , X.Q. Yu
    •  & S.N. Zhu

  • Article |

    Optoelectronic devices such as conventional semiconductor lasers are used to study the chaotic behaviour of nonlinear systems. Here chaos is observed for quantum-dot microlasers operating close to the quantum limit with potential for new directions in the study of chaos in quantum systems.

    • Ferdinand Albert
    • , Caspar Hopfmann
    •  & Ido Kanter

  • Article |

    Polycrystalline substrates are a hindrance to the realization of high-definition plasmonic nanostructures. In this paper the authors chemically grow large and thin gold single crystals, and show that they can be coupled with top-down fabrication methods to produce high-quality nanostructures with good optical properties.

    • Jer-Shing Huang
    • , Victor Callegari
    •  & Bert Hecht

  • Article |

    Lenses with superior performance with respect to conventional uniform materials are desirable. The authors show a three-dimensional lens, made of multilayered metamaterials and based on approximate transformation optics, which works in different polarizations at broad viewing angles and with wide bandwidth.

    • Hui Feng Ma
    •  & Tie Jun Cui

  • Article |

    The development of optical information processing depends on the demonstration of silicon-based all-optical circuit components. Here, the authors show a monolithic pulse compressor, compatible with current electronic processing technologies, which is able to function at low power input.

    • Dawn T.H. Tan
    • , Pang C. Sun
    •  & Yeshaiahu Fainman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optical cloaking has already been demonstrated in two dimensions, and also in three dimensions for a limited range of angles. Now, Ma and Cui present a metamaterial-based cloaking device that can shield an object lying on the ground plane from all viewing angles at microwave frequencies.

    • Hui Feng Ma
    •  & Tie Jun Cui

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