News |
Featured
-
-
News |
Nations to split telescope project
Australia and South Africa will share the SKA.
- Geoff Brumfiel
-
News |
'Artificial leaf' faces economic hurdle
Company founded to commercialize solar hydrogen device focuses on cheaper design.
- Richard Van Noorden
-
News |
Hubble to revisit exoplanet puzzle
Team aims to settle running dispute over mysterious object.
- Ron Cowen
-
Research Highlights |
Solar panel in the eye
-
Letter |
Light-induced liquid crystallinity
A new class of liquid crystals is reported that undergoes light-induced ordering and order-increasing phase transitions; possible applications include ophthalmic devices, such as variable transmission sunglasses.
- Tamas Kosa
- , Ludmila Sukhomlinova
- & Timothy J. Bunning
-
Research Highlights |
Could graphene be a laser?
-
News |
Wind power 'can be cheaper' than photovoltaics, study says
Some countries could save money by switching from solar to wind.
-
Research Highlights |
Diamond sparkles with one photon
-
News |
Infant galaxy offers tantalizing peek at early Universe
Discovery hints at an unexpected cohort of baby star systems.
- Ron Cowen
-
Letter |
A steady-state superradiant laser with less than one intracavity photon
A superradiant laser with less than one intracavity photon is shown to synchronize its lasing medium spontaneously and simultaneously isolate it from the environment, producing emitted light with a linewidth ten thousand times smaller than the quantum limit for non-superradiant optical lasers.
- Justin G. Bohnet
- , Zilong Chen
- & James K. Thompson
-
News |
Global observatory sees first light
Expanding network of telescopes will give a seamless view of the changing sky.
- Eric Hand
-
Research Highlights |
Camera sees hidden objects
-
News & Views |
Terahertz collisions
Intense laser fields can rip electrons from an atom and slam them back into it. By using intense terahertz radiation, this idea can be extended to electrons paired with 'holes' in a semiconductor. See Letter p.580
- Rupert Huber
-
News & Views |
An entangled walk of photons
By harnessing the quantum nature of light and guiding the light through a network of circuits integrated in a glass chip, it is possible to mimic fundamental particles undergoing a quantum walk.
- Jonathan C. F. Matthews
- & Mark G. Thompson
-
Nature Video |
How to see around corners
-
News |
National Ignition Facility fires record laser shot
Powerful pulse a milepost on the way to fusion energy.
- Eric Hand
-
News |
How to see around corners
Ultra-fast camera can create images of hidden objects using scattered laser light.
- Geoff Marsh
-
News |
Photonic chips made easier
Shared-production system aids academics and start-ups.
- Katherine Bourzac
-
News |
Neutrinos not faster than light
ICARUS experiment contradicts controversial claim.
- Geoff Brumfiel
-
Outlook |
Come into the light
Transparency across the spectrum combined with electronic prowess makes graphene an ideal photonic material.
- Neil Savage
-
News |
Laser fusion nears crucial milestone
National Ignition Facility approaches energy break-even point, but uncertainty over next step persists.
- Eric Hand
-
News & Views |
A comb in the extreme ultraviolet
A 'comb' of photons at evenly spaced frequencies in the extreme ultraviolet has been generated. It will allow a more precise search for variation in the fine-structure constant, which sets the strength of the electromagnetic force. See Letter p.68
- Linda Young
-
Research Highlights |
One molecule, one photon
-
News & Views |
Even harder X-rays
With the laser just over half a century old, another dream of the pioneers of this light source has been fulfilled. An atomic X-ray laser with unprecedentedly high photon energy has been demonstrated. See Letter p.488
- Jon Marangos
-
Letter |
Atomic inner-shell X-ray laser at 1.46 nanometres pumped by an X-ray free-electron laser
A femtosecond, high-intensity atomic X-ray laser with a photon energy of 849 electronvolts is produced in singly ionized neon by pumping using an X-ray free-electron laser.
- Nina Rohringer
- , Duncan Ryan
- & Jorge J. Rocca
-
News |
Superconducting detectors offer high-speed astronomy
Microwave kinetic inductance detectors could help find gravitational waves and extrasolar planets.
- Eric Hand
-
News |
Gemini’s twin telescopes reboot
Adaptive optics put the observatory at the cutting edge.
- Eric Hand
-
-
Letter |
Microwave amplification with nanomechanical resonators
Use of nanomechanical resonators has the potential to offer microwave amplification with the minimum possible added noise, namely that due to quantum fluctuations.
- F. Massel
- , T. T. Heikkilä
- & M. A. Sillanpää
-
News & Views Forum |
Perfect lenses in focus
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
-
Research Highlights |
A mirage of invisibility
-
News & Views |
Controlled incandescence
Sources of incandescence emit their radiation across a broad spectrum. The finding that metamaterials can be used to tune the sources' emission spectrum makes these emitters an attractive prospect for some applications.
- Jean-Jacques Greffet
-
News & Views |
The gentle cooling touch of light
Laser light has been used to cool a nanomechanical resonator to its lowest energy state. The result opens the door to testing the principles of quantum mechanics and to applications in quantum information processing. See Letter p.89
- Florian Marquardt
-
Letter |
Laser cooling of a nanomechanical oscillator into its quantum ground state
- Jasper Chan
- , T. P. Mayer Alegre
- & Oskar Painter
-
News |
The seven suns of Rome
A diagram lost for more than 350 years documents a spectacular sky of 1630.
- Kate McAlpine
-
Letter |
Electrons surfing on a sound wave as a platform for quantum optics with flying electrons
- Sylvain Hermelin
- , Shintaro Takada
- & Tristan Meunier
-
Article |
Diffraction-unlimited all-optical imaging and writing with a photochromic GFP
- Tim Grotjohann
- , Ilaria Testa
- & Stefan W. Hell
-
News |
Virtual hunt for solar technology yields initial results
Theoretical screening method produces first sample molecule as researchers analyse 3.5 million candidates for solar cells.
- Jeff Tollefson
-
News & Views |
Microwave ion-trap quantum computing
A new type of ion-trap quantum technology has been developed that uses microwave radiation to perform computations. It will considerably simplify the practical implementation of large-scale quantum computers. See Letters p.181 & p.185
- Winfried K. Hensinger
-
Letter |
Quantum gates and memory using microwave-dressed states
- N. Timoney
- , I. Baumgart
- & Ch. Wunderlich
-
News |
No turning back for light
'Optical diode' could help make commercial photonic chips a reality.
- Zeeya Merali
-
News |
Diamond disappears in sunlight
Carbon atoms set free by ultraviolet light.
- James Mitchell Crow
-
News |
Soft-drink cans beat the diffraction limit
To focus sound to a point, all you need is a thirst for fizzy drinks.
- Jon Cartwright
-
Letter |
Quantum quench of Kondo correlations in optical absorption
- C. Latta
- , F. Haupt
- & A. Imamoglu
-
Research Highlights |
Rainbow from a single LED
-
Research Highlights |
Fluorescent cells turned into lasers
-
News |
Human cell becomes living laser
Jellyfish protein amplifies light in first biological laser.
- Zoë Corbyn
-
Research Highlights |
Light threaded through tiny gap
-
News & Views |
A stroke of X-ray
X-rays were discovered more than 100 years ago. They have since become a staple tool for medicine and science, so researchers are continuing their efforts to find innovative ways to produce them.
- Stefan Kneip