Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Localized polarization knots formed in conventional optical fibres are shown to be able to act as topological bits of information for optical data communication.
Previous demonstrations of the elusive Casimir force between interfaces exhibit monotonic dependence on surface displacement. Now a non-monotonic dependence of the force has been shown experimentally by exploting nanostructured surfaces.
Due to their nature antiferromagnets are difficult to probe with conventional magnetometers. The Néel vector of a practically important antiferromagnet, CuMnAs, has now been determined by a femtosecond pump–probe magneto-optical experiment.
The field of photovoltaics has grown tremendously over the past decade and in 2015 solar cell deployments accounted for 20% of the expansion of global electricity capacity.
Optical communication systems have traditionally sent the most information possible through a few spatial channels to minimize cost and maximize density. Energy constraints now compel systems at the longest and shortest distances to employ a new strategy of using more spatial channels, each carrying less data.
From displays to solar cells, the field of organic optoelectronics has come a long way over the past 50 years, but the realization of an electrically pumped organic laser remains elusive. The answer may lie with hybrid organic–inorganic materials called perovskites.
The development of free-electron lasers with improved brilliance, diffraction-limited synchrotrons and compact table-top sources all point to a healthy future for X-ray science.
In the future, sources of intense terahertz radiation will open up an era of extreme terahertz science featuring nonlinear light–matter interactions and applications in spectroscopy and imaging.
A new set of imaging techniques that take advantage of scattered light may soon lead to key advances in biomedical optics, providing access to depths well beyond what is currently possible with ballistic light.
Quantum optics is a well-established field that spans from fundamental physics to quantum information science. In the coming decade, areas including computation, communication and metrology are all likely to experience scientific and technological advances supported by this far-reaching research field.