Photonics Spectra: nanophotonics This is the syndication feed for Photonics Spectra: nanophotonics. https://www.photonics.com/Splash.aspx?Tag=nanophotonics Fri, 29 Mar 2024 07:22:22 GMT Tue, 26 Mar 2024 07:00:00 GMT 1800 Traceable Standards Could Speed Development of Quantum Technologies
Devices that capture light from quantum dots, like chip-scale lasers and optical amplifiers, have made their way from the lab to the commercial market. The transition for newer quantum dot-based devices has been slower due to the extreme level of accuracy needed in the alignment of the individual dots and the optics that extract and guide the emitted radiation.

When localization microscopy of quantum emitters is used to guide lithographic placement of photonic structures, microscopy and lithography measurement errors can easily occur. These errors degrade registration accuracy, limiting device performance and process yield.

To address this bottleneck, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Traceable_Standards_Could_Speed_Development_of/p5/a69840 A69840 Tue, 26 Mar 2024 07:00:00 GMT
Supercritical Coupling Boosts Photon Upconversion
Researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have unveiled a novel concept termed supercritical coupling that enables a several-fold increase in photon upconversion efficiency. This discovery not only challenges existing paradigms but also opens a new direction in the control of light emission, the team said.

Photon upconversion, the process of converting low-energy photons into higher-energy ones, is a crucial technique with broad applications, ranging from superresolution imaging to advanced photonic devices. Despite considerable progress, the quest for efficient photon upconversion has faced challenges due to inherent limitations in the irradiance of lanthanide-doped nanoparticles and the critical coupling conditions...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Supercritical_Coupling_Boosts_Photon_Upconversion/p5/a69776 A69776 Mon, 04 Mar 2024 07:00:00 GMT
Metamaterial’s Magnetoelectric Response Could Enable New Applications
An optical metamaterial from Aalto University has the potential to enable applications that would otherwise need a strong external magnetic field to work.

The 3D metamaterial demonstrates an isotropic and resonant nonreciprocal magnetoelectric (NME) response in the visible frequency range. The NME effect, also known as the Tellegen effect, has both electric and magnetic properties. In materials exhibiting the NME effect, magnetization can be induced by the electric component of light, and polarization can be generated by the magnetic component.

The NME effect is negligible in natural materials. However, due to its technological potential, there have been various attempts by scientists to enhance the NME effect using...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Metamaterials_Magnetoelectric_Response_Could/p5/a69748 A69748 Wed, 21 Feb 2024 07:00:00 GMT
AI-aided Implant Captures Deep Brain Images
A neural implant developed at the University of California San Diego could help advance the path to minimally invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) technology. The implant provides high-resolution data about deep neural activity by recording at the brain’s surface.

Built by a team led by professor Duygu Kuzum, the implant consists of a thin, transparent, flexible polymer strip that conforms to the brain’s surface. The strip is embedded with high-density arrays of graphene microelectrodes that enable up to 256 channels.

The graphene microelectrodes have ultrasmall openings and large, transparent recording areas. The diameter of the microelectrodes is scaled down to 20 μm. Each electrode in the implant is...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/AI-aided_Implant_Captures_Deep_Brain_Images/p5/a69653 A69653 Tue, 23 Jan 2024 07:00:00 GMT
UV-LED Photolithography Imparts Micro Features
Technologies like integrated signal distributing, processing, and sensing networks require basic optical elements such as waveguides, splitters, gratings, and optical switches to be miniaturized. This poses challenges, especially for curved elements such as bends and ring resonators, which require an especially high resolution and lower sidewall roughness.

There are a number of methods to achieve subwavelength high-resolution manufacturing, though they tend to be costly, complex, and time-consuming. Nanoimprint lithography is promising as an approach to efficient high-resolution manufacturing, but it requires high-quality master stamps often produced with electron beam lithography.
An illustration of the UV-LED-based microscope...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/UV-LED_Photolithography_Imparts_Micro_Features/p5/a69645 A69645 Thu, 18 Jan 2024 07:00:00 GMT
Self-Assembled Resonator for Optical Chips Confines Light at Atomic Scale
Optical resonators increase the strength of light-matter interaction by storing light over a long period of time. The smaller the resonator, the tighter the confinement of light will be, resulting in an even stronger interaction that can be used to produce, for example, better photodetectors or quantum light sources.

Strengthening the interaction of light with matter is a central goal of quantum optics and photonics. The development of an optical resonator that can store light for a long time in a region the size of a single atom would be a big step toward reaching this goal.
An illustration of the core of the photonic cavity that was fabricated as two halves that assembled themselves into one unit. The cavity confines light...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Self-Assembled_Resonator_for_Optical_Chips/p5/a69535 A69535 Thu, 14 Dec 2023 07:00:00 GMT
Multimodal Solution Points to Broader Adoption of Metamaterials
Metamaterials, artificial nanostructures that manipulate light, are costly and technologically challenging to fabricate. The broad, practical use of metamaterials depends on lowering their manufacturing cost and making them easier to create.

Metamaterials traditionally have been made by depositing physical and chemical layers onto materials such as silicon and resin and following up the deposition process with lithography. This method is expensive and can be used only with certain materials. Consequently, the focus has shifted to creating metamaterials through the assembly of particles, rather than through the costly process of surface shaving.
Researchers at POSTECH developed a method for 3D co-assembly of freestanding and...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Multimodal_Solution_Points_to_Broader_Adoption_of/p5/a69454 A69454 Thu, 09 Nov 2023 07:00:00 GMT
Synthesized Nanoresonators Harness Power of IR for Optics and Electronics
When combined with electronics, infrared (IR) light can enable small, fast devices for sensing, imaging, and signaling at the molecular level. To fully harness the advantages of IR light, the materials used for IR optical and optoelectronic applications require defect-free crystallinity.

To make high-quality crystals that resonate strongly with IR light, researchers at Stanford University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) developed a bottom-up, self-assembly approach to synthesize nanostructures with crystal qualities consistent with bulk single crystals. The ultrathin nanostructures act as ultrahigh-quality, nanoscale resonators of lattice vibrations at IR frequencies, to provide a high-performance, low-loss platform...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Synthesized_Nanoresonators_Harness_Power_of_IR/p5/a69438 A69438 Wed, 01 Nov 2023 07:00:00 GMT
Demonstration Moves On-chip Particle Accelerators One Step Closer
Particle accelerators range in size from a few square meters to large research centers. Using lasers to accelerate electrons within a photonic nanostructure constitutes a microscopic alternative with the potential of generating significantly lower costs and making devices considerably less bulky. Until now, no substantial energy gains have been demonstrated. In other words, it has not been shown that electrons have increased in speed significantly.

A team of laser physicists at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU) has now succeeded in demonstrating the first nanophotonic electron accelerator — at the same time as colleagues from Stanford University.

While the term “particle accelerator” will often bring...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Demonstration_Moves_On-chip_Particle_Accelerators/p5/a69415 A69415 Mon, 23 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT
Simulated Technique Cuts Losses in Optical Resonators
Optical resonators are used to control light in a range of photonic applications, from pocket-size laser pointers to quantum computers. When a resonator experiences optical loss, its ability to trap and concentrate photons deteriorates, reducing its ability to control the photons’ behavior.

Researchers at Aalto University devised a way to eliminate both the radiation and the absorption losses in optical resonators. The new loss-mitigation technique could considerably boost the performance of photonic applications and devices that depend on resonant enhancement of light-matter interaction.

In resonant optical systems, the average amount of time each photon spends trapped inside the resonator, before it either escapes or is...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Simulated_Technique_Cuts_Losses_in_Optical/p5/a69317 A69317 Wed, 13 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT
Complex Frequency Waves Counter Optical Losses in Superimaging
Superlenses made of plasmonic materials and metamaterials can image features at the subdiffraction scale. However, intrinsic losses restrict the image resolution of superlenses, hindering their widespread use.

To compensate for optical loss in superimaging systems, researchers at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) devised a way to provide virtual gain. To do so, they synthesized excitation waves of complex frequency, based on measurements at real frequencies. By illuminating materials with synthetic frequency waves, the researchers were able to implement virtual gain experimentally and retrieve subwavelength features. The multifrequency approach from HKU could provide a practical solution to overcoming the intrinsic losses of...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Complex_Frequency_Waves_Counter_Optical_Losses_in/p5/a69311 A69311 Mon, 11 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT
Spin-Optics Laser Enables Electron and Photon Spins for Optoelectronics
Researchers at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology developed an atomic-scale, spin-optical laser. To do so, they incorporated a WS2 monolayer into a heterostructure microcavity that supported high-Q photonic spin-valley resonances. The spin-valley modes were generated from a photonic, Rashba-type spin splitting of a bound state in the continuum.

The Rashba monolayer laser has intrinsic spin polarizations, high spatial and temporal coherence, and symmetry-enabled, robust features to enable valley coherence in the WS2 monolayer upon arbitrary pump polarizations at room temperature. It does not require magnetic fields or cryogenic temperatures.
Professor Erez Hasman, head of the Atomic-Scale Photonics Laboratory at the...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Spin-Optics_Laser_Enables_Electron_and_Photon/p5/a69250 A69250 Thu, 17 Aug 2023 07:00:00 GMT
SPIE Adds 89 Senior Members
SPIE has added 89 new senior members from academia, industry, and government, from across 17 countries. The members work in a variety of disciplines, including nanophotonics, quantum optics, biomedical engineering, free space optical communications, optical microscopy, optical systems engineering, medical imaging, lidar, machine learning, optoelectronic devices, micro-structured optical fiber technology, astronomical optics, and lithography.

SPIE senior members are society members of distinction who are recognized for their professional experience and technical accomplishments, for their active involvement with the optics community and with SPIE, and for significant performance that sets them apart from their peers. For more...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/SPIE_Adds_89_Senior_Members/p5/a69217 A69217 Fri, 04 Aug 2023 07:00:00 GMT
Linear Waveguide Streamlines Directional Single-Photon Production
Single-photon sources are fundamental components in quantum optical devices for computing, cryptography, and metrology. These devices use quantum emitters that, after excitation, produce single photons with a probability close to 100% and emission times on the order of a few to tens of nanoseconds. The quality of a single-photon source depends on its ability to extract photons efficiently, to reduce...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Linear_Waveguide_Streamlines_Directional/p5/a69200 A69200 Mon, 31 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT
Nanophotonic Simulator Performs Computations at the Quantum Level
Researchers at the University of Rochester (UR) have developed a photonics-based quantum simulation system that simulates physical phenomena at the quantum level. The nanophotonic quantum simulator performs chip-scale simulations in a quantum-correlated synthetic space by controlling the frequency of quantum-entangled photons over time.

An efficient simulator for quantum systems is one of the original goals of quantum computing. Synthetic dimensions in photonics present a powerful approach for simulation that is free from the constraints of geometric dimensionality.

The UR simulator could provide scientists with a better understanding of complex natural phenomena that cannot be simulated on classical, high-performance computing...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Nanophotonic_Simulator_Performs_Computations_at/p5/a69183 A69183 Fri, 21 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT
REM Atoms and Nanophotonic Resonator Offer Path to Quantum Networks
Researchers at Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) and Technical University of Munich (TUM) demonstrated a potential platform for large-scale quantum computing and communication networks. Secure quantum networks are of interest to financial institutions, medical facilities, government agencies, and other organizations that handle personal data and classified information due to their much higher level of security.

To create an environment that supported quantum computing, the researchers excited individual atoms of the rare-earth metal erbium. The excitation process caused the erbium atoms to emit single photons with properties suitable for the construction of quantum networks.
A single dopant in a nanophotonic silicon...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/REM_Atoms_and_Nanophotonic_Resonator_Offer_Path/p5/a69128 A69128 Thu, 29 Jun 2023 07:00:00 GMT
Raising Light Frequencies Makes Nanosized Objects Visible
Researchers at Australian National University (ANU) and the University of Adelaide are using nanotechnology to increase the frequency of the light that can be detected by cameras and other technologies by up to seven times.

There is significant interest in achieving very high frequency detection of extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) light in order to observe objects at the nanoscale. “With violet light we can see much smaller things compared to using red light,” researcher Sergey Kruk of ANU said. “And with extreme-ultraviolet light sources, we can see things beyond what’s possible using conventional microscopes of today.”

High-harmonic generation (HHG) is one of the pathways leading toward light sources in...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Raising_Light_Frequencies_Makes_Nanosized_Objects/p5/a68967 A68967 Wed, 03 May 2023 07:00:00 GMT
Silicon Photonics Enable Next-Generation Quantum Devices
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have greatly improved the efficiency and power output of a series of chip-scale devices that generate laser light at different colors while using the same input laser source. The researchers developed on-chip microresonators with optical parametric oscillators that support the operation of a range of distinct quantum technologies, such as miniature optical atomic clocks and quantum computers. These technologies will require simultaneous access to multiple, widely varying laser colors within a small region of space.

Further, because the researchers’ methodology could be applied to existing silicon photonics platforms with heterogeneously integrated pump...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Silicon_Photonics_Enable_Next-Generation_Quantum/p5/a68928 A68928 Tue, 11 Apr 2023 07:00:00 GMT
Dual-Property Coating Combats Fog, Reflections at Same Time
Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF (Fraunhofer IOF) and Friedrich Schiller University Jena developed an optical coating system that combines antifogging (AF) and antireflective (AR) properties. The dual-property technology could help boost the performance of lidar systems and cameras, such as those used in autonomous vehicles.

“Walking into a warm room from the cold outside can cause glasses to fog up, blinding the user,” said research team leader Anne Gärtner from Fraunhofer IOF and Friedrich Schiller University Jena. “The same can happen to sensors such as the lidar systems used in autonomous cars. It is important that surfaces remain highly transparent,...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Dual-Property_Coating_Combats_Fog_Reflections_at/p5/a68850 A68850 Mon, 20 Mar 2023 07:00:00 GMT
Researchers Shrink Dimensions in Which Light Can Be Confined
The degree to which light can be confined determines the intensity and precision of light-based devices. It also sets the limits within which nanoparticles can be observed.

For these reasons, finding ways to confine and control light in ever smaller volumes is an ongoing challenge for the photonics community.

Scientists from the University of Southampton, in collaboration with colleagues at the Technical University of Dortmund and the University of Regensburg, have demonstrated that a light beam can be confined to a spot that is 50× smaller than its own wavelength. In a first-of-its-kind demonstration, the researchers said, the team further showed that the spot can be moved by miniscule amounts at the point where the...]]>
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Researchers_Shrink_Dimensions_in_Which_Light_Can/p5/a68844 A68844 Thu, 16 Mar 2023 07:00:00 GMT