Optical materials and structures articles within Nature Physics

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  • News & Views |

    A single light-emitting dye molecule precisely placed within the tiny gap of a metal nanodimer boosts light–matter coupling — a step closer to the development of quantum devices operating at room temperature.

    • Rohit Chikkaraddy

  • News & Views |

    Whether Anderson localization of light is possible in three dimensions has long been an open question. Numerical calculations have now shown that it can be done with a disordered arrangement of metal particles.

    • Diederik S. Wiersma

  • Research Briefing |

    Time crystals are a new state of matter. Conventional crystal properties are periodic in space, while the properties of a time crystal are periodic in time. A continuous quantum time crystal has recently been realized, and now, using optically driven many-body interactions in a nano-mechanical photonic metamaterial, a classical continuous time crystal has been created.

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ultrafast photon–electron spectroscopy commonly requires a driving laser. Now, an inverse approach based on cathodoluminescence spectroscopy has allowed a compact solution to spectral interferometry inside an electron microscope, without a laser.

    • Masoud Taleb
    • , Mario Hentschel
    •  & Nahid Talebi

  • News & Views |

    Quantum sensing that uses electron spins in diamond can perform precise magnetic field measurements but does not work well at high magnetic fields. An alternative approach involving the spins of carbon-13 nuclei can operate in the high-field regime.

    • Norikazu Mizuochi

  • Comment |

    Random lasers made out of disordered media have a rich but often unpredictable laser light emission, in all directions and over many frequencies. Strategies for taming random lasing are emerging, which have the potential to deliver programmable lasers with unprecedented properties.

    • Riccardo Sapienza

  • News & Views |

    An experiment with photonic waveguides demonstrates the connection between non-Abelian holonomies and adiabatic particle transport, paving the way to the geometric and topological control of light trajectories.

    • Laura Pilozzi
    •  & Valentina Brosco

  • Article |

    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

  • News & Views |

    Quantum waves can have stronger correlations than classical ones because of their particle nature. This effect has now been observed using quantum sound waves travelling in an acoustic waveguide.

    • H. Yamaguchi
    •  & D. Hatanaka

  • Article |

    Non-classical vibrations are generated and transmitted along a mechanical waveguide, providing a platform for distributing quantum information and realizing hybrid quantum devices using phonons in a solid-state system.

    • Amirparsa Zivari
    • , Robert Stockill
    •  & Simon Gröblacher

  • News & Views |

    Light travels through disordered media on a random path that is hard to control. A comprehensive study has now shown that optical energy can be deposited at a desired depth in a disordered waveguide by injecting a light field with a particular shape.

    • Oluwafemi S. Ojambati

  • Article |

    Moiré potentials substantially alter the electronic properties of twisted bilayer graphene at a magic twist angle. A propagating plasmon mode, which can be observed with optical nano-imaging, is associated with transitions between the moiré minibands.

    • Niels C. H. Hesp
    • , Iacopo Torre
    •  & Frank H. L. Koppens

  • Article |

    A general approach to derive direction-dependent complex refractive indices close to zero produces infinite families of time-reversible and infinite families of time-irreversible electromagnetic materials, without invoking the concept of topology.

    • S. A. R. Horsley
    •  & M. Woolley

  • Article |

    A dissipative Kerr soliton crystal state is a temporally ordered regular ensemble of soliton pulses within a cavity. Chaotic driving of optical resonators enables the defect-free creation and dynamical characterization of these states.

    • Maxim Karpov
    • , Martin H. P. Pfeiffer
    •  & Tobias J. Kippenberg

  • News & Views |

    Two-level quantum systems are routinely excited by resonant pump beams. Experiments now show resonant excitation through dichromatic, detuned pumps — providing a coherent control technique that will also aid single-photon emission from solid-state devices.

    • Glenn S. Solomon

  • Editorial |

    Topology is everywhere. Recent predictions for and realizations of higher-order topological insulators are a case in point.

  • Letter |

    The demonstration of substantially enhanced high-harmonic emission from a silicon metasurface suggests a route towards novel photonic devices based on a combination of ultrafast strong-field physics and nanofabrication technology.

    • Hanzhe Liu
    • , Cheng Guo
    •  & David A. Reis

  • Letter |

    The authors theoretically investigate a novel form of a Doppler effect in homogeneous systems with positive refractive index that occurs under certain conditions. It is suggested that this Doppler effect can be experimentally separated from other Doppler effects by using polaritons such as those found in graphene.

    • Xihang Shi
    • , Xiao Lin
    •  & Baile Zhang

  • Article |

    Perfect transmission of sound waves through a strongly disordered environment is demonstrated using a set of speakers that provide exactly the right input to counteract scattering by the disorder. These principles can also be applied to light.

    • Etienne Rivet
    • , Andre Brandstötter
    •  & Romain Fleury

  • Article |

    The angle of Cherenkov radiation in one-dimensional photonic crystals can be controlled by making use of constructive interference. This feature allows new design of particle detectors with improved performance.

    • Xiao Lin
    • , Sajan Easo
    •  & Ido Kaminer

  • Letter |

    Nodal chains are observed for the first time in a photonic crystal with accompanying drumhead surface states. This will stimulate further study of topological nodal lines with non-trivial connectivity.

    • Qinghui Yan
    • , Rongjuan Liu
    •  & Ling Lu

  • Letter |

    Atomically thin chromium tri-iodide is shown to be a 2D ferromagnetic insulator with an optical response dominated by ligand-field transitions, emitting circularly polarized photoluminescence with a helicity determined by the magnetization direction.

    • Kyle L. Seyler
    • , Ding Zhong
    •  & Xiaodong Xu

  • Letter |

    A study of the strong coupling of different exciton species in two-dimensional molybdenum diselenide in a cavity uncovers the rich many-body physics and may lead to new devices.

    • S. Dhara
    • , C. Chakraborty
    •  & A. N. Vamivakas

  • News & Views |

    Topological concepts have been demonstrated in microwave photonic systems but laser-written waveguides show the way to topological physics for light at optical frequencies.

    • Alexander B. Khanikaev

  • Letter |

    Solitonic modes that are redshifted due to a Raman-related effect are reported in optical microcavities, and termed Stokes solitons.

    • Qi-Fan Yang
    • , Xu Yi
    •  & Kerry Vahala

  • Research Highlights |

    • Luke Fleet

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