Go to Nature Website
Login Register

Latest Issue

    Vol. 12 Issue 9 2023

      News & Views

    • Youngsun Kim,Yuebing Zheng
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1713-1714(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01246-8
      Abstract:By decoupling temperature and flow fields through symmetry-correlated laser scan sequences, ISO-FLUCS enables quasi-isothermal optofluidic microscale streaming. This technique offers precise control over fluid manipulation while minimizing thermal damage.  
        
      24
      |
      5
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369080 false
      Published:2024-04-28
    • Kai Hong,Lin Chen
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1715-1716(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01258-4
      Abstract:Exceptional points have given rise to many intriguing optical phenomena that are of fundamental importance for a variety of breakthrough technologies. The pre-defined Mie scatterers can bring a resonator to an exceptional point, and result in enhanced quality factor through coherently suppressing the backward scattering.  
        
      21
      |
      2
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369078 false
      Published:2024-04-28

      Light People

    • Hui Wang,Cun Yu
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1718-1726(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01205-3
      Abstract:Super-resolution microscopy illuminated the hazy molecular world like a beacon, bringing significant changes to the fields of biology, optics and chemistry. Eric Betzig, who shared the 2014 Nobel Prize of Chemistry with Stefan Hell and William Moerner, is one of the inventors of this fantastic scientific tool. Working originally on near field optics, Dr. Betzig made a series of stunning achievements at Bell Labs before turning 35. Yet he quit, seemingly at the top of his game, to become a hands-on dad and joined the machinery business. Eventually, he missed science so much that he made a comeback and wowed everyone instantly with his work. He defies the conventional definition of "persistence" by demonstrating an alternative route to success. Plain-speaking and earnest, Dr. Betzig is sometimes honest to almost a fault, and always believes in doing practical things. He puts his heart and soul into everything he does, because he says he wants to truly live rather than simply pass through life. In science work, he is meticulous, yet he embraces risks and believes they can bring the best out of oneself. In life, he is a loving father who is always ready to take time from his busy research work to take his children to school or tennis lessons, and a caring teacher who never forgets to command the hard work of his postdocs. Please join us for a glimpse of the Nobel laureate Eric Betzig and his extraordinary life.  
        
      13
      |
      1
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369076 false
      Published:2024-04-28

      Original Articles

    • Yannik Horst,Bertold Ian Bitachon,Laurenz Kulmer,Jannik Brun,Tobias Blatter,Jean-Marc Conan,Aurélie Montmerle-Bonnefois,Joseph Montri,Béatrice Sorrente,Caroline B. Lim,Nicolas Védrenne,Daniel Matter,Loann Pommarel,Benedikt Baeuerle,Juerg Leuthold
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1727-1738(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01201-7
      Abstract:Free-space optical (FSO) communication technologies constitute a solution to cope with the bandwidth demand of future satellite-ground networks. They may overcome the RF bottleneck and attain data rates in the order of Tbit/s with only a handful of ground stations. Here, we demonstrate single-carrier Tbit/s line-rate transmission over a free-space channel of 53.42 km between the Jungfraujoch mountain top (3700 m) in the Swiss Alps and the Zimmerwald Observatory (895 m) near the city of Bern, achieving net-rates of up to 0.94 Tbit/s. With this scenario a satellite-ground feeder link is mimicked under turbulent conditions. Despite adverse conditions high throughput was achieved by employing a full adaptive optics system to correct the distorted wavefront of the channel and by using polarization-multiplexed high-order complex modulation formats. It was found that adaptive optics does not distort the reception of coherent modulation formats. Also, we introduce constellation modulation – a new four-dimensional BPSK (4D-BPSK) modulation format as a technique to transmit high data rates under lowest SNR. This way we show 53 km FSO transmission of 13.3 Gbit/s and 210 Gbit/s with as little as 4.3 and 7.8 photons per bit, respectively, at a bit-error ratio of 1 ∙ 10−3. The experiments show that advanced coherent modulation coding in combination with full adaptive optical filtering are proper means to make next-generation Tbit/s satellite communications practical.  
        
      14
      |
      2
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369077 false
      Published:2024-04-28
    • Yanhao Li,Xiong Jiang,Yimu Chen,Yuhan Wang,Yunkai Wu,De Yu,Kaiyang Wang,Sai Bai,Shumin Xiao,Qinghai Song
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1739-1748(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01231-1
      Abstract:Acquiring real-time spectral information in point-of-care diagnosis, internet-of-thing, and other lab-on-chip applications require spectrometers with hetero-integration capability and miniaturized feature. Compared to conventional semiconductors integrated by heteroepitaxy, solution-processable semiconductors provide a much-flexible integration platform due to their solution-processability, and, therefore, more suitable for the multi-material integrated system. However, solution-processable semiconductors are usually incompatible with the micro-fabrication processes. This work proposes a facile and universal platform to fabricate integrated spectrometers with semiconductor substitutability by unprecedently involving the conjugated mode of the bound states in the continuum (conjugated-BIC) photonics. Specifically, exploiting the conjugated-BIC photonics, which remains unexplored in conventional lasing studies, renders the broadband photodiodes with ultra-narrowband detection ability, detection wavelength tunability, and on-chip integration ability while ensuring the device performance. Spectrometers based on these ultra-narrowband photodiode arrays exhibit high spectral resolution and wide/tunable spectral bandwidth. The fabrication processes are compatible with solution-processable semiconductors photodiodes like perovskites and quantum dots, which can be potentially extended to conventional semiconductors. Signals from the spectrometers directly constitute the incident spectra without being computation-intensive, latency-sensitive, and error-intolerant. As an example, the integrated spectrometers based on perovskite photodiodes are capable of realizing narrowband/broadband light reconstruction and in-situ hyperspectral imaging.  
        
      24
      |
      6
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369113 false
      Published:2024-04-28
    • Lucia Di Virgilio,Jaco J. Geuchies,Heejae Kim,Keno Krewer,Hai Wang,Maksim Grechko,Mischa Bonn
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1749-1756(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01232-0
      Abstract:Optical cavities, resonant with vibrational or electronic transitions of material within the cavity, enable control of light-matter interaction. Previous studies have reported cavity-induced modifications of chemical reactivity, fluorescence, phase behavior, and charge transport. Here, we explore the effect of resonant cavity-phonon coupling on the transient photoconductivity in a hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite. To this end, we measure the ultrafast photoconductivity response of perovskite in a tunable Fabry–Pérot terahertz cavity, designed to be transparent for optical excitation. The terahertz-cavity field-phonon interaction causes apparent Rabi splitting between the perovskite phonon mode and the cavity mode. We explore whether the cavity-phonon interaction affects the material's electron-phonon interaction by determining the charge-carrier mobility through photoconductivity. Despite the apparent hybridization of cavity and phonon modes, we show that the perovskite properties in both ground (phonon response) and excited (photoconductive response) states remain unaffected by the tunable light-matter interaction. Yet the response of the integral perovskite-terahertz optical cavity system depends critically on the interaction strength of the cavity with the phonon: the transient terahertz response to optical excitation can be increased up to threefold by tuning the cavity-perovskite interaction strength. These results enable tunable switches and frequency-controlled induced transparency devices.  
        
      11
      |
      1
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369116 false
      Published:2024-04-28
    • Cheng-Wei Lu,Jing Fu,Xiu-Fen Liu,Zhi-Hua Cui,Wei-Wei Chen,Li Guo,Xiao-Lan Li,Yu Ren,Fei Shao,Li-Na Chen,Ji-Long Hao
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1757-1770(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01207-1
      Abstract:The purpose of this study is to explore the associations among dry eye disease (DED), air pollution, and meteorological conditions in the cold region of a northeastern Chinese metropolis (i.e., Changchun). Data on ambient air pollutants and meteorological parameters as well as diagnosed DED outpatients during 2015–2021 were collected. The associations between DED and environmental factors were analysed at multiple time scales using various statistical methods (i.e., correlation, regression and machine learning). Among the 10,809 DED patients (21,617 eyes) studied, 64.60% were female and 35.40% were male. A higher frequency of DED was observed in March and April, followed by January, August and October. Individual and multiple factor models showed the positive importance of particles with aerodynamic diameters < 10 μm (PM10), carbon monoxide (CO), and ozone (O3) among normal air pollutants and air pressure (AP), air temperature (AT) and wind speed (WS) among normal meteorological parameters. Air pollutants (PM10, nitrogen dioxide: NO2) and meteorological parameters (AT, AP) have combined impacts on DED occurrence. For the first time, we further explored the associations of detailed components of atmospheric particles and DED, suggesting potential emission sources, including spring dust from bare soil and roads and precursor pollutants of summer O3 formation from vehicles and industry in Northeast China. Our results revealed the quantitative associations among air pollutants, meteorological conditions and DED outpatients in cold regions, highlighting the importance of coordinated policies in air pollution control and climate change mitigation.  
        
      15
      |
      1
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369118 false
      Published:2024-04-28
    • Sen Yang,Justus C. Ndukaife
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1771-1781(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01212-4
      Abstract:Manipulating fluids by light at the micro/nanoscale has been a long-sought-after goal for lab-on-a-chip applications. Plasmonic heating has been demonstrated to control microfluidic dynamics due to the enhanced and confined light absorption from the intrinsic losses of metals. Dielectrics, the counterpart of metals, has been used to avoid undesired thermal effects due to its negligible light absorption. Here, we report an innovative optofluidic system that leverages a quasi-BIC-driven all-dielectric metasurface to achieve subwavelength scale control of temperature and fluid motion. Our experiments show that suspended particles down to 200 nanometers can be rapidly aggregated to the center of the illuminated metasurface with a velocity of tens of micrometers per second, and up to millimeter-scale particle transport is demonstrated. The strong electromagnetic field enhancement of the quasi-BIC resonance increases the flow velocity up to three times compared with the off-resonant situation by tuning the wavelength within several nanometers range. We also experimentally investigate the dynamics of particle aggregation with respect to laser wavelength and power. A physical model is presented and simulated to elucidate the phenomena and surfactants are added to the nanoparticle colloid to validate the model. Our study demonstrates the application of the recently emerged all-dielectric thermonanophotonics in dealing with functional liquids and opens new frontiers in harnessing non-plasmonic nanophotonics to manipulate microfluidic dynamics. Moreover, the synergistic effects of optofluidics and high-Q all-dielectric nanostructures hold enormous potential in high-sensitivity biosensing applications.  
        
      15
      |
      3
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369188 false
      Published:2024-04-28
    • Clothilde Raoux,Anatole Chessel,Pierre Mahou,Gaël Latour,Marie-Claire Schanne-Klein
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1782-1794(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01224-0
      Abstract:A key property of the human cornea is to maintain its curvature and consequently its refraction capability despite daily changes in intraocular pressure. This is closely related to the multiscale structure of the corneal stroma, which consists of 1–3 µm-thick stacked lamellae made of thin collagen fibrils. Nevertheless, the distribution, size, and orientation of these lamellae along the depth of the cornea are poorly characterized up to now. In this study, we use second harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy to visualize the collagen distribution over the full depth of 10 intact and unstained human corneas (500–600 µm thick). We take advantage of the small coherence length in epi-detection to axially resolve the lamellae while maintaining the corneal physiological curvature. Moreover, as raw epi-detected SHG images are spatially homogenous because of the sub-wavelength size of stromal collagen fibrils, we use a polarimetric approach to measure the collagen orientation in every voxel. After a careful validation of this approach, we show that the collagen lamellae (ⅰ) are mostly oriented along the inferior–superior axis in the anterior stroma and along the nasal-temporal axis in the posterior stroma, with a gradual shift in between and (ⅱ) exhibit more disorder in the anterior stroma. These results represent the first quantitative characterization of the lamellar structure of the human cornea continuously along its entire thickness with micrometric resolution. It also shows the unique potential of P-SHG microscopy for imaging of collagen distribution in thick dense tissues.  
        
      15
      |
      1
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369190 false
      Published:2024-04-28
    • Feng Lan,Luyang Wang,Hongxin Zeng,Shixiong Liang,Tianyang Song,Wenxin Liu,Pinaki Mazumder,Ziqiang Yang,Yaxin Zhang,Daniel M. Mittleman
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1795-1806(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01228-w
      Abstract:Terahertz (THz) technologies have become a focus of research in recent years due to their prominent role in envisioned future communication and sensing systems. One of the key challenges facing the field is the need for tools to enable agile engineering of THz wave fronts. Here, we describe a reconfigurable metasurface based on GaN technology with an array-of-subarrays architecture. This subwavelength-spaced array, under the control of a 1-bit digital coding sequence, can switch between an enormous range of possible configurations, providing facile access to nearly arbitrary wave front control for signals near 0.34 THz. We demonstrate wide-angle beam scanning with 1° of angular precision over 70 GHz of bandwidth, as well as the generation of multi-beam and diffuse wave fronts, with a switching speed up to 100 MHz. This device, offering the ability to rapidly reconfigure a propagating wave front for beam-forming or diffusively scattered wide-angle coverage of a scene, will open new realms of possibilities in sensing, imaging, and networking.  
        
      10
      |
      1
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369195 false
      Published:2024-04-28
    • Yuangang Xie,Chong Wang,Fucong Fei,Yuqi Li,Qiaoxia Xing,Shenyang Huang,Yuchen Lei,Jiasheng Zhang,Lei Mu,Yaomin Dai,Fengqi Song,Hugen Yan
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1807-1817(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01244-w
      Abstract:Naturally existing in-plane hyperbolic polaritons and the associated optical topological transitions, which avoid the nano-structuring to achieve hyperbolicity, can outperform their counterparts in artificial metasurfaces. Such plasmon polaritons are rare, but experimentally revealed recently in WTe2 van der Waals thin films. Different from phonon polaritons, hyperbolic plasmon polaritons originate from the interplay of free carrier Drude response and interband transitions, which promise good intrinsic tunability. However, tunable in-plane hyperbolic plasmon polariton and its optical topological transition of the isofrequency contours to the elliptic topology in a natural material have not been realized. Here we demonstrate the tuning of the optical topological transition through Mo doping and temperature. The optical topological transition energy is tuned over a wide range, with frequencies ranging from 429 cm−1 (23.3 microns) for pure WTe2 to 270 cm−1 (37.0 microns) at the 50% Mo-doping level at 10 K. Moreover, the temperature-induced blueshift of the optical topological transition energy is also revealed, enabling active and reversible tuning. Surprisingly, the localized surface plasmon resonance in skew ribbons shows unusual polarization dependence, accurately manifesting its topology, which renders a reliable means to track the topology with far-field techniques. Our results open an avenue for reconfigurable photonic devices capable of plasmon polariton steering, such as canaling, focusing, and routing, and pave the way for low-symmetry plasmonic nanophotonics based on anisotropic natural materials.  
        
      10
      |
      1
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369205 false
      Published:2024-04-28
    • Boquan Ren,Antonina A. Arkhipova,Yiqi Zhang,Yaroslav V. Kartashov,Hongguang Wang,Sergei A. Zhuravitskii,Nikolay N. Skryabin,Ivan V. Dyakonov,Alexander A. Kalinkin,Sergei P. Kulik,Victor O. Kompanets,Sergey V. Chekalin,Victor N. Zadkov
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1818-1829(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01235-x
      Abstract:Introduction of controllable deformations into periodic materials that lead to disclinations in their structure opens novel routes for construction of higher-order topological insulators hosting topological states at disclinations. Appearance of these topological states is consistent with the bulk-disclination correspondence principle, and is due to the filling anomaly that results in fractional charges to the boundary unit cells. So far, topological disclination states were observed only in the linear regime, while the interplay between nonlinearity and topology in the systems with disclinations has been never studied experimentally. We report here on the experimental observation of the nonlinear photonic disclination states in waveguide arrays with pentagonal or heptagonal disclination cores inscribed in transparent optical medium using the fs-laser writing technique. The transition between nontopological and topological phases in such structures is controlled by the Kekulé distortion coefficient r with topological phase hosting simultaneously disclination states at the inner disclination core and spatially separated from them corner-Ⅰ, corner-Ⅱ, and extended edge states at the outer edge of the structure. We show that the robust nonlinear disclination states bifurcate from their linear counterparts and that location of their propagation constants in the gap and, hence, their spatial localization can be controlled by their power. Nonlinear disclination states can be efficiently excited by Gaussian input beams, but only if they are focused into the waveguides belonging to the disclination core, where such topological states reside. Our results open new prospects for investigation of nonlinear effects in topological systems with disclinations and are relevant for different areas of science, including Bose-Einstein and polariton condensates, where potentials with the disclinations can be created.  
        
      15
      |
      1
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369242 false
      Published:2024-04-28
    • Md Sadman Sakib Rahman,Xilin Yang,Jingxi Li,Bijie Bai,Aydogan Ozcan
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1830-1856(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01234-y
      Abstract:Under spatially coherent light, a diffractive optical network composed of structured surfaces can be designed to perform any arbitrary complex-valued linear transformation between its input and output fields-of-view (FOVs) if the total number (N) of optimizable phase-only diffractive features is ≥~2NiNo, where Ni and No refer to the number of useful pixels at the input and the output FOVs, respectively. Here we report the design of a spatially incoherent diffractive optical processor that can approximate any arbitrary linear transformation in time-averaged intensity between its input and output FOVs. Under spatially incoherent monochromatic light, the spatially varying intensity point spread function (H) of a diffractive network, corresponding to a given, arbitrarily-selected linear intensity transformation, can be written as H(m, n; m′, n′) = |h(m, n; m′, n′)|2, where h is the spatially coherent point spread function of the same diffractive network, and (m, n) and (m′, n′) define the coordinates of the output and input FOVs, respectively. Using numerical simulations and deep learning, supervised through examples of input-output profiles, we demonstrate that a spatially incoherent diffractive network can be trained to all-optically perform any arbitrary linear intensity transformation between its input and output if N ≥ ~2NiNo. We also report the design of spatially incoherent diffractive networks for linear processing of intensity information at multiple illumination wavelengths, operating simultaneously. Finally, we numerically demonstrate a diffractive network design that performs all-optical classification of handwritten digits under spatially incoherent illumination, achieving a test accuracy of > 95%. Spatially incoherent diffractive networks will be broadly useful for designing all-optical visual processors that can work under natural light.  
        
      10
      |
      1
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369266 false
      Published:2024-04-28
    • Doga Yamac Ozgulbas,Don Jensen Jr.,Rory Butler,Rafael Vescovi,Ian T. Foster,Michael Irvin,Yasukazu Nakaye,Miaoqi Chu,Eric M. Dufresne,Soenke Seifert,Gyorgy Babnigg,Arvind Ramanathan,Qingteng Zhang
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1857-1866(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01233-z
      Abstract:The dynamics and structure of mixed phases in a complex fluid can significantly impact its material properties, such as viscoelasticity. Small-angle X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (SA-XPCS) can probe the spontaneous spatial fluctuations of the mixed phases under various in situ environments over wide spatiotemporal ranges (10−6–103 s /10−10–10−6 m). Tailored material design, however, requires searching through a massive number of sample compositions and experimental parameters, which is beyond the bandwidth of the current coherent X-ray beamline. Using 3.7-μs-resolved XPCS synchronized with the clock frequency at the Advanced Photon Source, we demonstrated the consistency between the Brownian dynamics of ~100 nm diameter colloidal silica nanoparticles measured from an enclosed pendant drop and a sealed capillary. The electronic pipette can also be mounted on a robotic arm to access different stock solutions and create complex fluids with highly-repeatable and precisely controlled composition profiles. This closed-loop, AI-executable protocol is applicable to light scattering techniques regardless of the light wavelength and optical coherence, and is a first step towards high-throughput, autonomous material discovery.  
        
      13
      |
      1
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369272 false
      Published:2024-04-28
    • Victor Vassiliev,Michael Sumetsky
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1867-1876(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01247-7
      Abstract:High Q-factor monolithic optical microresonators found numerous applications in classical and quantum optical signal processing, microwave photonics, ultraprecise sensing, as well as fundamental optical and physical sciences. However, due to the solid structure of these microresonators, attaining the free spectral range tunability of most of them, critical for several of these applications, was, so far, unfeasible. To address this problem, here we experimentally demonstrate that the side-coupling of coplanar bent optical fibres can induce a high Q-factor whispering gallery mode optical microresonator. By changing the curvature radius of fibres from the centimetre order to the millimetre order, we demonstrate fully mechanically reconfigurable optical microresonators with dimensions varying from the millimetre order to 100-micron order and free spectral range varying from a picometre to ten picometre order. The developed theory describes the formation of the discovered microresonators and their major properties in a reasonable agreement with the experimental data. The new microresonators may find applications in cavity QED, microresonator optomechanics, frequency comb generation with tuneable repetition rate, tuneable lasing, and tuneable processing and delay of optical pulses.  
        
      11
      |
      1
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369328 false
      Published:2024-04-28
    • Sungsam Kang,Renjie Zhou,Marten Brelen,Heather K. Mak,Yuechuan Lin,Peter T. C. So,Zahid Yaqoob
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1877-1885(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01240-0
      Abstract:Resolving three-dimensional morphological features in thick specimens remains a significant challenge for label-free imaging. We report a new speckle diffraction tomography (SDT) approach that can image thick biological specimens with ~500 nm lateral resolution and ~1 μm axial resolution in a reflection geometry. In SDT, multiple-scattering background is rejected through spatiotemporal gating provided by dynamic speckle-field interferometry, while depth-resolved refractive index maps are reconstructed by developing a comprehensive inverse-scattering model that also considers specimen-induced aberrations. Benefiting from the high-resolution and full-field quantitative imaging capabilities of SDT, we successfully imaged red blood cells and quantified their membrane fluctuations behind a turbid medium with a thickness of 2.8 scattering mean-free paths. Most importantly, we performed volumetric imaging of cornea inside an ex vivo rat eye and quantified its optical properties, including the mapping of nanoscale topographic features of Dua's and Descemet's membranes that had not been previously visualized.  
        
      11
      |
      1
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369329 false
      Published:2024-04-28
    • Joshua Yang,Melissa A. Guidry,Daniil M. Lukin,Kiyoul Yang,Jelena Vučković
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1886-1892(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01253-9
      Abstract:Inverse design has revolutionized the field of photonics, enabling automated development of complex structures and geometries with unique functionalities unmatched by classical design. However, the use of inverse design in nonlinear photonics has been limited. In this work, we demonstrate quantum and classical nonlinear light generation in silicon carbide nanophotonic inverse-designed Fabry-Pérot cavities. We achieve ultra-low reflector losses while targeting a pre-specified anomalous dispersion to reach optical parametric oscillation. By controlling dispersion through inverse design, we target a second-order phase-matching condition to realize second- and third-order nonlinear light generation in our devices, thereby extending stimulated parametric processes into the visible spectrum. This first realization of computational optimization for nonlinear light generation highlights the power of inverse design for nonlinear optics, in particular when combined with highly nonlinear materials such as silicon carbide.  
        
      13
      |
      1
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369348 false
      Published:2024-04-28
    • Lei Zhang,Xinyu Sun,Hongyan Yu,Niping Deng,Feng Qiu,Jiyong Wang,Min Qiu
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1893-1901(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01255-7
      Abstract:Digitalizing optical signals through electric driving signals, electro-optic modulators (EOMs) are one of the cardinal elements in modern optical communications. Most of current EOM devices are targeting on-chip integrations, which routinely suffer from high coupling losses, complex optical alignments and single-band operations. In this study, we for the first time integrate a lumped EOM device on the endfaces of a single-mode optical fiber jumper for fast amplitude modulations. Profiting from ultrathin and high quality-factor plasmonic metasurfaces, nanofabrication-friendly and highly efficient EO polymers and coupling-free connections with fiber networks, our EOM is demonstrated to allow dual-band operations (telecom O band and S band) and high-speed modulations (~1 GHz at a bias voltage of ±9 V). This work offers an avenue to 'plug-and-play' implementations of EO devices and ultracompact "all-in-fibers" optical systems for communications, imaging, sensing and many others.  
        
      9
      |
      1
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369387 false
      Published:2024-04-28
    • Lihong Hong,Liqiang Liu,Yuanyuan Liu,Junyu Qian,Renyu Feng,Wenkai Li,Yanyan Li,Yujie Peng,Yuxin Leng,Ruxin Li,Zhi-Yuan Li
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1902-1910(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01256-6
      Abstract:A high-brightness ultrabroadband supercontinuum white laser is desirable for various fields of modern science. Here, we present an intense ultraviolet-visible-infrared full-spectrum femtosecond laser source (with 300–5000 nm 25 dB bandwidth) with 0.54 mJ per pulse. The laser is obtained by sending a 3.9 μm, 3.3 mJ mid-infrared pump pulse into a cascaded architecture of gas-filled hollow-core fiber, a bare lithium niobate crystal plate, and a specially designed chirped periodically poled lithium niobate crystal, under the synergic action of second and third order nonlinearities such as high harmonic generation and self-phase modulation. This full-spectrum femtosecond laser source can provide a revolutionary tool for optical spectroscopy and find potential applications in physics, chemistry, biology, material science, industrial processing, and environment monitoring.  
        
      14
      |
      1
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369399 false
      Published:2024-04-28
    • Luca Sortino,Merve Gülmüs,Benjamin Tilmann,Leonardo de S. Menezes,Stefan A. Maier
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1911-1920(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01249-5
      Abstract:Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors possess strongly bound excitons, opening novel opportunities for engineering light–matter interaction at the nanoscale. However, their in-plane confinement leads to large non-radiative exciton–exciton annihilation (EEA) processes, setting a fundamental limit for their photonic applications. In this work, we demonstrate suppression of EEA via enhancement of light–matter interaction in hybrid 2D semiconductor–dielectric nanophotonic platforms, by coupling excitons in WS2 monolayers with optical Mie resonances in dielectric nanoantennas. The hybrid system reaches an intermediate light–matter coupling regime, with photoluminescence enhancement factors up to 102. Probing the exciton ultrafast dynamics reveal suppressed EEA for coupled excitons, even under high exciton densities > 1012 cm−2. We extract EEA coefficients in the order of 10−3, compared to 10−2 for uncoupled monolayers, as well as a Purcell factor of 4.5. Our results highlight engineering the photonic environment as a route to achieve higher quantum efficiencies, for low-power hybrid devices, and larger exciton densities, towards strongly correlated excitonic phases in 2D semiconductors.  
        
      18
      |
      2
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369403 false
      Published:2024-04-28
    • Yanling Cheng,Fei Liang,Dazhi Lu,Jingcheng Feng,Guochun Zhang,Haohai Yu,Huaijin Zhang,Yicheng Wu
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1921-1929(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01243-x
      Abstract:Since the first invention of the laser in 1960, direct lasing outside the fluorescence spectrum is deemed impossible owing to the "zero-gain" cross-section. However, when electron-phonon coupling meets laser oscillation, an energy modulation by the quantized phonon can tailor the electronic transitions, thus directly creating some unprecedented lasers with extended wavelengths by phonon engineering. Here, we demonstrate a broadband lasing (1000–1280 nm) in a Yb-doped La2CaB10O19 (Yb: LCB) crystal, far beyond its spontaneous fluorescence spectrum. Numerical calculations and in situ Raman verify that such a substantial laser emission is devoted to the multiphonon coupling to lattice vibrations of a dangling "quasi-free-oxygen" site, with the increasing phonon numbers step-by-step (n = 1–6). This new structural motif provides more alternative candidates with strong-coupling laser materials. Moreover, the quantitative relations between phonon density distribution and laser wavelength extension are discussed. These results give rise to the search for on-demand lasers in the darkness and pave a reliable guideline to study those intriguing electron-phonon-photon coupled systems for integrated photonic applications.  
        
      13
      |
      1
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369417 false
      Published:2024-04-28
    • Guohua Liu,Xiliang Zhang,Xin Zhang,Yanwen Hu,Zhen Li,Zhenqiang Chen,Shenhe Fu
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1930-1942(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01238-8
      Abstract:Rabi oscillation has been proven to be one of the cornerstones of quantum mechanics, triggering substantial investigations in different disciplines and various important applications both in the classical and quantum regimes. So far, two independent classes of wave states in the Rabi oscillations have been revealed as spin waves and orbital waves, while a Rabi wave state simultaneously merging the spin and orbital angular momentum has remained elusive. Here we report on the experimental and theoretical observation and control of spin–orbit-coupled Rabi oscillations in the higher-order regime of light. We constitute a pseudo spin-1/2 formalism and optically synthesize a magnetization vector through light-crystal interaction. We observe simultaneous oscillations of these ingredients in weak and strong coupling regimes, which are effectively controlled by a beam-dependent synthetic magnetic field. We introduce an electrically tunable platform, allowing fine control of transition between different oscillatory modes, resulting in an emission of orbital-angular-momentum beams with tunable topological structures. Our results constitute a general framework to explore spin–orbit couplings in the higher-order regime, offering routes to manipulating the spin and orbital angular momentum in three and four dimensions. The close analogy with the Pauli equation in quantum mechanics, nonlinear optics, etc., implies that the demonstrated concept can be readily generalized to different disciplines.  
        
      14
      |
      1
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369433 false
      Published:2024-04-28
    • Kefu Ning,Bolin Lu,Xiaojun Wang,Xiaoyu Zhang,Shuo Nie,Tao Jiang,Anan Li,Guoqing Fan,Xiaofeng Wang,Qingming Luo,Hui Gong,Jing Yuan
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1943-1960(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01230-2
      Abstract:One intrinsic yet critical issue that troubles the field of fluorescence microscopy ever since its introduction is the unmatched resolution in the lateral and axial directions (i.e., resolution anisotropy), which severely deteriorates the quality, reconstruction, and analysis of 3D volume images. By leveraging the natural anisotropy, we present a deep self-learning method termed Self-Net that significantly improves the resolution of axial images by using the lateral images from the same raw dataset as rational targets. By incorporating unsupervised learning for realistic anisotropic degradation and supervised learning for high-fidelity isotropic recovery, our method can effectively suppress the hallucination with substantially enhanced image quality compared to previously reported methods. In the experiments, we show that Self-Net can reconstruct high-fidelity isotropic 3D images from organelle to tissue levels via raw images from various microscopy platforms, e.g., wide-field, laser-scanning, or super-resolution microscopy. For the first time, Self-Net enables isotropic whole-brain imaging at a voxel resolution of 0.2 × 0.2 × 0.2 μm3, which addresses the last-mile problem of data quality in single-neuron morphology visualization and reconstruction with minimal effort and cost. Overall, Self-Net is a promising approach to overcoming the inherent resolution anisotropy for all classes of 3D fluorescence microscopy.  
        
      12
      |
      0
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369478 false
      Published:2024-04-28
    • Yong Zhang,Jian Shen,Jingchi Li,Hongwei Wang,Chenglong Feng,Lei Zhang,Lu Sun,Jian Xu,Ming Liu,Ying Wang,Yonghui Tian,Jianwen Dong,Yikai Su
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1961-1970(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01251-x
      Abstract:Electro-optic modulators are key components in data communication, microwave photonics, and quantum photonics. Modulation bandwidth, energy efficiency, and device dimension are crucial metrics of modulators. Here, we provide an important direction for the miniaturization of electro-optic modulators by reporting on ultracompact topological modulators. A topological interface state in a one-dimensional lattice is implemented on a thin-film lithium-niobate integrated platform. Due to the strong optical confinement of the interface state and the peaking enhancement of the electro-optic response, a topological cavity with a size of 1.6 × 140 μm2 enables a large modulation bandwidth of 104 GHz. The first topological modulator exhibits the most compact device size compared to reported LN modulators with bandwidths above 28 GHz, to the best of our knowledge. 100 Gb/s non-return-to-zero and 100 Gb/s four-level pulse amplitude modulation signals are generated. The switching energy is 5.4 fJ/bit, owing to the small electro-optic mode volume and low capacitance. The topological modulator accelerates the response time of topological photonic devices from the microsecond order to the picosecond order and provides an essential foundation for the implementation of large-scale lithium-niobate photonic integrated circuits.  
        
      17
      |
      1
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369486 false
      Published:2024-04-28
    • Linjie Dai,Junzhi Ye,Neil C. Greenham
      Vol. 12, Issue 9, Pages: 1971-1981(2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01236-w
      Abstract:Understanding and control of ultrafast non-equilibrium processes in semiconductors is key to making use of the full photon energy before relaxation, leading to new ways to break efficiency limits for solar energy conversion. In this work, we demonstrate the observation and modulation of slow relaxation in uniformly mixed tin-lead perovskites (MASnxPb1-xI3 and CsSnxPb1-xI3 nanocrystals). Transient absorption measurements reveal that slow cooling mediated by a hot phonon bottleneck effect appears at carrier densities above ~1018 cm−3 for tin-lead alloy nanocrystals, and tin addition is found to give rise to suppressed cooling. Within the alloy nanoparticles, the combination of a newly introduced high-energy band, screened Fröhlich interaction, suppressed Klemens decay and reduced thermal conductivity (acoustic phonon transport) with increased tin content contributes to the slowed relaxation. For inorganic nanocrystals where defect states couple strongly with carriers, sodium doping has been confirmed to benefit in maintaining hot carriers by decoupling them from deep defects, leading to a decreased energy-loss rate during thermalization and an enhanced hot phonon bottleneck effect. The slow cooling we observe uncovers the intrinsic photophysics of perovskite nanocrystals, with implications for photovoltaic applications where suppressed cooling could lead to hot-carrier solar cells.  
        
      8
      |
      1
      |
      0
      <HTML>
      <L-PDF><Meta-XML>
      <CITATION> <Bulk Citation> 42369488 false
      Published:2024-04-28
    0