Articles in 2010

Supply concerns over rare-earth elements mined in China are worrying the rest of the world.

Spin and charge terahertz excitations in solids are promising for implementing future technologies such as spintronics and quantum computation, but coherently controlling them has been a significant challenge. Researchers have now manipulated coherent spin waves in an antiferromagnet using the intense magnetic field of ultrashort terahertz pulses.

Using intricately sculpted light fields to control tiny objects is a well-understood and important technique. Now, the concept of sculpting the object rather than the light field promises to propel light–matter research in an exciting new direction.

Light can now be used to raise a wing-shaped refractive object, in a technique analogous to aerodynamic lift. Grover Swartzlander from the Rochester Institute of Technology in the USA told Nature Photonics how his team achieved optical lift using a uniform collimated beam of light.

ACTMOST, a new initiative subsidized by the European Commission, looks poised to boost microphotonic innovation in Europe.

Miniature lasers with dimensions approaching the nanoscale could provide the ultimate integrated source of bright and coherent light if losses can be overcome and electrical pumping made efficient.

The unusual nonlinear optical properties of rapidly cooled disordered ferroelectric crystals allow beam spreading to be completely suppressed, irrespective of the beam width and intensity, offering potentially important applications in imaging and all-optical beam control.

The demonstration of live video conferencing using quantum key distribution suggests that applications exploiting secure video communication may be just around the corner.

Researchers use a nonlinear coherent imaging technique to demonstrate distant coherent coupling between excitons in quantum wells. The long-range nature of the coupling is attributed to the existence of spatially extended exciton states up to the micrometre range.

Researchers demonstrate the first laser confined in all three spatial dimensions by a three-dimensional photonic crystal. The device, in this case driven by quantum dots, represents the long-standing goal of achieving lasing in a cavity formed entirely by a complete-photonic-bandgap medium.

The diffraction of light scales with wavelength, thereby placing fundamental limits on applications such as imaging, microscopy and communications. Here, researchers experimentally demonstrate scale-free propagation in supercooled structures and cancel diffraction, instead of merely compensating for it, as is the case for most approaches in nonlinear optics.

Entangled photon states, obtained by post selection, are used to perform interferometric phase measurement with a sensitivity beyond the shot-noise limit.

Scientists demonstrate an optical analogue of aerodynamic lift, in which an airfoil-shaped refractive object can be controlled through the radiation pressure induced by refracted and reflected rays of light.