Optical properties and devices articles within Nature Materials

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  • Letter |

    Employing an oxidation-activated charge transfer strategy to oxidize transition-metal dichalcogenides into transition-metal oxides, the authors imprint plasmonic cavities with laterally abrupt doping profiles and nanoscale precision demonstrating plasmonic whispering-gallery resonators.

    • Brian S. Y. Kim
    • , Aaron J. Sternbach
    •  & D. N. Basov

  • News & Views |

    Twisted bilayer graphene is epitaxially grown between two adjacent Cu(111) surfaces, with the twist angle controlled by the rotation of the Cu foils as designed.

    • Seong-Jun Yang
    •  & Cheol-Joo Kim

  • News & Views |

    Two studies investigate the behaviour of localized interlayer excitons in van der Waals heterostructures, offering insights into their dipolar interactions and the effect of moiré trapping potentials for the design of quantum optical applications based on 2D materials.

    • Alexander Tartakovskii

  • Letter |

    A device is presented that can detect mid-infrared plasmons in graphene encapsulated by hexagonal boron nitride via the thermoelectric effect; the natural decay product of the plasmons (electronic heat) is converted into a measurable voltage signal.

    • Mark B. Lundeberg
    • , Yuanda Gao
    •  & Frank H. L. Koppens

  • Research Highlights |

    • John Plummer

  • News & Views |

    The confinement and scattering lifetimes of graphene plasmons are improved when graphene is sandwiched between layers of thin hexagonal boron nitride. This finding should pave the way for nanophotonic applications in the low-loss regime.

    • Joshua D. Caldwell
    •  & Kostya S. Novoselov

  • Article |

    Although dispersions of aligned graphene oxide flakes are particularly attractive for electro-optic devices, controlling the alignment of the flakes by using electric fields has proved difficult. It is now shown that the macroscopic alignment of graphene oxide liquid crystals can be controlled through the application of weak electric fields when interflake interactions are sufficiently small, giving rise to the largest Kerr coefficient in a molecular liquid crystal.

    • Tian-Zi Shen
    • , Seung-Ho Hong
    •  & Jang-Kun Song

  • Article |

    The propagation of light in photonic crystals with a honeycomb structure mirrors the behaviour of charges in graphene, therefore allowing for the investigation of electronic properties that cannot otherwise be accessed in graphene itself. This approach is now used to predict unexpected edge states that localize in the bearded edges of hexagonal lattices.

    • Yonatan Plotnik
    • , Mikael C. Rechtsman
    •  & Mordechai Segev

  • Article |

    Previous studies have suggested that even in the absence of a graphene bandgap, a relaxation bottleneck at the Dirac point may allow for population inversion and lasing. Now, using time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy with femtosecond extreme-ultraviolet pulses, it is shown that interband excitations give rise to population inversion, suggesting that terahertz lasing may be possible.

    • Isabella Gierz
    • , Jesse C. Petersen
    •  & Andrea Cavalleri

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