Materials for optics articles within Nature

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  • Letter |

    A free-electron laser is used to power a pulsed electron paramagnetic resonance spectrometer at 240 GHz, demonstrating a range of experimental possibilities such as the manipulation of spin-1/2 systems with 6-ns pulses and the measurement of ultrashort decoherence times.

    • S. Takahashi
    • , L.-C. Brunel
    •  & M. S. Sherwin

  • News & Views |

    Use of an ultra-high-intensity X-ray laser has allowed X-ray and optical waves to be mixed in a diamond sample. The effect paves the way to studying the microscopic optical response of materials on an atomic scale. See Article p.603

    • Nina Rohringer

  • Letter |

    Using an organic molecular crystal as gain medium allows a maser to be operated in pulsed mode in air, at room temperature and in the terrestrial magnetic field, so avoiding many of the obstacles that have previously hindered the application of masers.

    • Mark Oxborrow
    • , Jonathan D. Breeze
    •  & Neil M. Alford

  • Letter |

    Propagating optical plasmons — collective electron excitations coupled to photons — are launched in graphene and studied with near-field optical microscopy, revealing ultra-strong optical field confinement and gate-tunable control of optical fields at nanoscale dimensions.

    • Jianing Chen
    • , Michela Badioli
    •  & Frank H. L. Koppens

  • Brief Communications Arising |

    • Seungchul Kim
    • , Jonghan Jin
    •  & Seung-Woo Kim

  • News & Views |

    Lasers are often described in terms of a light field circulating in an optical resonator system. Now a laser has been demonstrated in which the field resides primarily in the atomic medium that is used to generate the light. See Letter p.78

    • Vladan Vuletic

  • News & Views |

    Observations of collective electron waves in metal nanoparticles challenge our understanding of how light interacts with matter on small scales and underscore the need to factor quantum effects into nanophotonics. See Article p.421

    • F. Javier García de Abajo

  • Letter |

    A new family of resonators for nanoscale lasers is described that allows the size of the laser cavity to be scaled down without increasing the threshold power required to drive lasing.

    • M. Khajavikhan
    • , A. Simic
    •  & Y. Fainman

  • News & Views Forum |

    Materials that refract light backwards are thought to be required for making super-resolution lenses. An alternative proposal — that conventional, positively refracting media can do the job — has met with controversy. Two experts from either side of the debate lay out their views on the matter.

    • Tomáš Tyc
    •  & Xiang Zhang

  • Comment |

    Combining Maxwell's equations with Einstein's general relativity promises perfect images and cloaking devices, explains Ulf Leonhardt.

    • Ulf Leonhardt

  • Letter |

    In the area of metamaterials it is shown that electromagnetic properties can be achieved that are not attainable with natural materials. The main research efforts have been directed towards experimentally realizing materials with negative refractive index, but to extend the potential and design flexibility for novel 'transformation optics' applications, it is of considerable interest to produce a material with unnaturally high refractive index. A broadband, flexible terahertz metamaterial with unprecedented high refractive index, reaching a value of 38.6, is now demonstrated.

    • Muhan Choi
    • , Seung Hoon Lee
    •  & Bumki Min

  • News & Views |

    Plasmonic hotspots — nanometre-sized crevices that permit the detection of single molecules — are too small to be imaged with conventional microscopes. They can now be probed using super-resolution fluorescence microscopy. See Letter p.385

    • Martin Moskovits

  • News & Views |

    A subtle quantum-interference effect has been used to control the optical response of a single atom confined in a cavity. It could offer a means to develop logic gates for an optical quantum computer.

    • Scott Parkins

  • Letter |

    A quantum computer based on optical processes requires a source of entangled photons that can be delivered efficiently on demand. Such a source has now been developed: it involves a compact light-emitting diode with an embedded quantum dot that can be driven electrically to generate entangled photon pairs.

    • C. L. Salter
    • , R. M. Stevenson
    •  & A. J. Shields

  • News & Views |

    Bose–Einstein condensates are ideal tools with which exotic phenomena can be investigated. The hitherto-unrealized Dicke quantum phase transition has now been observed with one such system in an optical cavity.

    • Cheng Chin
    •  & Nathan Gemelke

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