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Strain gauges that change colour when stressed, bright backlight-free displays and highly sensitive biological sensors are all potential applications of tunable photonic crystal materials, reports Duncan Graham-Rowe.
Until now, excitonic devices have only been realized at temperatures of 1.5 K. Nature Photonics spoke to Leonid Butov from the University of California in San Diego about his group's recent demonstration of excitonic switches operating at 125 K.
Laser science looks set to reach new dimensions, following the use of plasmonics to confine optical energy in laser nanocavities, and the recent claims of blue and green stimulated emission from two such lasers.
The race to demonstrate new lasers, including electrically pumped polymer lasers, makes it a good time to reflect on the measurements that must be undertaken to support a claim of lasing.
Cooling and stabilizing the temperature of optoelectronic devices, such as semiconductor diode lasers and photodetectors, is often important for optimizing their performance. Neil Savage looks at thermoelectric coolers based on the Peltier effect that are designed for this task.
The delivery of a 13.5-nm light source to one of the world's leading producers of lithographic equipment suggests that a new era of silicon chip manufacturing may be in sight.
Illumination of a congruent lithium niobate crystal with blue or green light can improve its optical damage threshold dramatically. Nature Photonics spoke to Karsten Buse, who explained that this could result in far cheaper nonlinear crystals for a wide variety of photonic applications.
Two-photon polymerization is a 3D nanoscale manufacturing tool that offers great potential for rapid prototyping and the manufacture of photonic devices, tissue scaffolds and biomechanical parts.
German company Novaled has built a business around a doping technology that increases the efficiency of organic LEDs. Its materials have broken many efficiency records and are being used in a wide range of applications, reports Nadya Anscombe.
The organic photonics industry has come of age in the past few years. Nadya Anscombe speaks to Marc Baldo from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, about the advances that have been made and the challenges that remain.
With efficiencies continually improving, polymer solar-cell technology is now leaving the lab and entering the marketplace. Many challenges remain, however, including the development of reliable manufacturing processes and improvement of the lifetimes of these low-cost, flexible cells.
