Optics and photonics articles within Nature Materials

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  • News & Views |

    Photonic crystals with optical bandgaps across the entire visible spectrum are generated by reconfiguring three-dimensional blue phase liquid crystalline lattices into long-lived metastable non-cubic structures using sequences of electric pulses.

    • Slobodan Žumer

  • Letter |

    The ultrafast response of a pyroelectric sensor with near-infrared responsivity is demonstrated by combining a pyroelectric thermal detector with wavelength-selective nanoparticle absorbers.

    • Jon W. Stewart
    • , Jarrett H. Vella
    •  & Maiken H. Mikkelsen

  • News & Views |

    Ultralow-threshold plasmonic lasers under continuous-wave pumping at room temperature have been created using lattice plasmonic cavities integrated with gain material consisting of upconverting nanoparticles.

    • Ren-Min Ma

  • Letter |

    Water clusters induce hole traps in organic semiconductor thin films. Detrimental effects of hole and electron traps on charge transport can be avoided by using materials with ionization energy and electron affinity within an energy window of 2.4 eV.

    • Naresh B. Kotadiya
    • , Anirban Mondal
    •  & Gert-Jan A. H. Wetzelaer

  • Letter |

    Due to the crystal symmetry of single-layer transition metal dichalcogenides and the fact that the conduction and valence band edges are at the zone-edge K points, the 2p exciton states are split. A two-colour pump–probe scheme is used to drive the 1s–2p exciton transition, and then probe the changes in absorption near the spectral position of the 1s line to measure the splitting energy.

    • Chaw-Keong Yong
    • , M. Iqbal Bakti Utama
    •  & Feng Wang

  • Review Article |

    Spatially resolved electron microscopy techniques, such as cathodoluminescence and electron energy-loss spectroscopy can provide high space, energy and time resolutions for the structural and optical characterization of materials; this Review discusses recent progress and future directions in the field of nanophotonics.

    • Albert Polman
    • , Mathieu Kociak
    •  & F. Javier García de Abajo

  • Review Article |

    This Review covers the basic physics of thermal emission, ways to engineer the thermal field radiated by hot objects in the far field and applications, such as thermophotovoltaics, radiative cooling, camouflage and privacy.

    • Denis G. Baranov
    • , Yuzhe Xiao
    •  & Mikhail A. Kats

  • Review Article |

    The droplet epitaxy technique has emerged as an alternative to the most commonly used Stranski–Krastanov for fabricating semiconductor nanostructures. This Review discusses the important aspects of droplet epitaxy quantum dots, from the growth mechanism to device application.

    • Massimo Gurioli
    • , Zhiming Wang
    •  & Stefano Sanguinetti

  • Review Article |

    This Review discusses the origins of localized plasmon resonances in few-nanometre or sub-nanometre gaps between metal nanoparticles and metal films, as well recent experimental observations and potential future directions.

    • Jeremy J. Baumberg
    • , Javier Aizpurua
    •  & David R. Smith

  • News & Views |

    Irradiating a PbTiO3/SrTiO3 superlattice with ultrafast UV light pulses modifies elastic and electrostatic interactions, resulting in the formation of a stable complex 3D supercrystal.

    • J. M. Gregg

  • Article |

    Upon ultrafast irradiation, a (PbTiO3)/(SrTiO3) superlattice transforms into a complex supercrystal that contains periodicities of up to 30 nm in size and is stable in ambient. Creation and destruction, by heating, of the supercrystal is reversible.

    • V. A. Stoica
    • , N. Laanait
    •  & J. W. Freeland

  • News & Views |

    A hybrid state of photons and electronic excitations in semiconductor quantum wells shows nonlinear behaviour at the level of single or few quanta, thus opening the door to the realization of photonic nonlinear quantum devices employing semiconductor technologies.

    • Dario Gerace
    • , Fabrice Laussy
    •  & Daniele Sanvitto

  • News & Views |

    A photonic crystal design, consisting of two separated lattices arranged in a specific way, forms the base of high-brightness semiconductor lasers, with a very narrow beam divergence angle.

    • L. Kuipers

  • News & Views |

    Electro-optic modulators based on epitaxial barium titanate integrated on silicon can reach speeds up to 50 Gbit s–1.

    • Mo Li
    •  & Hong X. Tang

  • Article |

    In this type of thermal cloak, when a fluid circulates around the object of interest, the temperature perturbation is minimized as the effective thermal conductivity of the fluid becomes very high due to convective effects.

    • Ying Li
    • , Ke-Jia Zhu
    •  & C.-W. Qiu

  • Perspective |

    This Perspective describes the recent advances in understanding and controlling the properties of single-wall carbon nanotubes as well as the progress towards the fabrication of new electrically driven single-photon sources.

    • X. He
    • , H. Htoon
    •  & C. Voisin

  • Perspective |

    This Perspective explores the optical, mechanical and thermal properties required to successfully design an ultralight spacecraft that can reach Proxima Centauri b, which is the goal of the Starshot Breakthrough Initiative.

    • Harry A. Atwater
    • , Artur R. Davoyan
    •  & Joeson Wong

  • Feature |

    Heavy atoms and crystal or inversion symmetry breaking may promote Rashba effects in halide perovskites. Sam Stranks and Paulina Plochocka propose experiments to assess the existence of these effects and their implications on the photophysics of perovskites.

    • Samuel D. Stranks
    •  & Paulina Plochocka

  • News & Views |

    Defects in mercury telluride quantum dots can be exploited to achieve amplified spontaneous emission under continuous-wave optical pumping at ultralow power levels.

    • Frank Wise

  • News & Views |

    Compositional grading of colloidal quantum dots enables electrically driven amplification of light, bringing electrically driven lasers from these materials very close.

    • Ifor Samuel

  • Letter |

    Irradiation with a strong terahertz electric-field pulse is found to induce a Mott transition in an organic molecular compound. The metallization is attributed to an impulsive dielectric breakdown.

    • H. Yamakawa
    • , T. Miyamoto
    •  & H. Okamoto

  • Article |

    Femtosecond laser pulses can induce local bulging or plasma ablation of silk with limited structural damage, thus offering a technique for cutting, patterning, bending and welding of silk with various other materials.

    • Mehra S. Sidhu
    • , Bhupesh Kumar
    •  & Kamal P. Singh

  • News & Views |

    Plasmonic nanolasers embedded in living cells and animal tissues are shown to emit strongly, making them promising potential biocompatible probes.

    • Catherine Alix-Panabières
    •  & Klaus Pantel

  • News & Views |

    Electrical injection into polaritons, built from admixing excitons in carbon nanotubes with light in a surrounding microcavity, has been achieved.

    • Jeremy J. Baumberg

  • News & Views |

    Spectral hole burning is now demonstrated with phonons in amorphous systems, leading to highly reduced phonon dissipation and, therefore, long phonon lifetimes.

    • Maxim Goryachev
    •  & Michael E. Tobar

  • Article |

    A pump–push–probe time-resolved technique is developed to characterize the dynamics of photoexcitations at buried, disordered interfaces. Applied to organic bulk heterojunctions, the method provides insight on charge separation in photovoltaic films.

    • Andreas C. Jakowetz
    • , Marcus L. Böhm
    •  & Richard H. Friend

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