Light-Science & Applications最新文献

{"title":"Deep-subwavelength exceptional point in microwave plasmonic resonators for enhanced sensing","authors":"Tian Shuo Bai, Xuanru Zhang, Wan Zhu Wang, Jingjing Zhang, Tie Jun Cui","doi":"10.1038/s41377-026-02408-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-026-02408-0","url":null,"abstract":"Exceptional points (EPs) in non-Hermitian electromagnetic (EM) systems have been in the spotlight over the past decades due to their remarkable enhancement effects in sensing sensitivity. Here, we explore EPs at a deep-subwavelength scale, where pronounced coupling modulation is achieved via controllable escaping decay channels. This EP state is realized in a pair of microwave plasmonic resonators each with an electrical size of 1/50 wavelength based on the bonding and antibonding eigenmodes. It can concentrate the EM field into an extremely deep-subwavelength mode volume, accompanied by significant field enhancement, hence enhancing the trace-amount sensing capability. A high signal-to-noise ratio is also maintained, owing to the significantly enhanced sensitivity and only modestly increased noise. Experimental validation of the sensing performance is provided by contactless scatterer detection and nanomole-level glucose measurement. The smallest detectable contactless scatterer size is 1/1600 of the wavelength, and the detection limit for glucose reaches 50 nmol in amount of substance at the operating wavelength of 0.32 m. Our results reveal novel modulation mechanism in the deep-subwavelength EM regime, providing a broadened understanding of non-Hermitian EM systems. The nanomole-level microwave sensing experiments envision a new and promising route for label-free biomedical sensing.","PeriodicalId":18069,"journal":{"name":"Light-Science & Applications","volume":"125 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148769329","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ultrafast triggering of strong coupling in a semiconductor terahertz Fabry-Pérot cavity","authors":"Soumitra Hazra, Hanna Turchinsky, Tal Schwartz, Sharly Fleischer","doi":"10.1038/s41377-026-02379-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-026-02379-2","url":null,"abstract":"Strong light-matter coupling – the hybridization of material excitations with the electromagnetic modes of a photonic resonator, has led to striking modifications in the physical and chemical properties of materials, including their chemical reactivity. To date, experimental studies of these effects have been limited to steady-state conditions, namely long after the formation of polaritons. Here, we overcome this constraint by introducing an ultrafast, optically switchable Fabry–Pérot cavity that enables on-demand triggering of strong coupling with a switch-on time of just a few picoseconds. We demonstrate dynamic activation of strong coupling in the terahertz domain between a cavity mode and the collective vibration of crystalline α-lactose powder pellet embedded in the cavity. By photoexciting silicon-based cavity mirrors, we induce an abrupt spectral shift and linewidth narrowing of the photonic cavity mode alone – leading to a substantial increase in the Q-factor and tuning the cavity mode into resonance with the vibrational transition of the cavity-embedded material. This, in turn, enables ultrafast light-matter hybridization through the formation of vibrational polaritons. The ability to switch the cavity ‘on demand’ at picosecond timescales provides means to actively trigger strong light-matter coupling and to optically manipulate the coupling strength, offering new opportunities to study its dynamics and guide chemical reactivity.","PeriodicalId":18069,"journal":{"name":"Light-Science & Applications","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148769343","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A new platform for achieving long-term air-stable long persistent luminescence in amorphous organic system","authors":"Zhenjiang Liu, Yunshu Meng, Zhihe Chi, Jia Ren, Ziang Song, Hui Zhang, Yu Tian, Yunsheng Wang, Jiaqiang Wang, Dan Li, Manman Fang, Zheng Zhao, Jie Yang, Ben Zhong Tang, Zhen Li","doi":"10.1038/s41377-026-02367-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-026-02367-6","url":null,"abstract":"Organic long persistent luminescence (OLPL) materials are at the forefront of research, undergoing rapid evolution due to their extensive potential applications. The realization of hour-level OLPL, particularly an air-stable one, remains a significant challenge. Here, we developed a new platform to achieve long-term air-stable OLPL in an amorphous system through introducing flexible phosphorescence donors as hosts and electron acceptors with the ability to form stable radical anions as guests. Based on this platform, the regulations of OLPL duration times (1.6–7154.3 s) and emission colors (500–680 nm) were easily realized by enhancing the electron-withdrawing ability and increasing the doping concentration of guest molecules, respectively. Additionally, two kinds of non-aromatic chiral substituents were introduced into the phosphorescence hosts, and a rare phenomenon of air-stable circularly polarized organic long persistent luminescence (CP-OLPL) was successfully obtained.","PeriodicalId":18069,"journal":{"name":"Light-Science & Applications","volume":"160 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148769176","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"On-chip terahertz metasensor for quantitative multi-component biomolecular identification","authors":"Xitan Xu, Haoyu Duan, Yao Lu, Yuchen Zhang, Ziyang Zheng, Baohua Jia, Qiang Wu, Jingjun Xu","doi":"10.1038/s41377-026-02427-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-026-02427-x","url":null,"abstract":"Terahertz (THz) metasensors are promising platforms for quantitative biomolecular fingerprint identification in physical, chemical, and biomedical applications. However, conventional free-space THz configurations are limited by their large size and susceptibility to external disturbances, hindering the development of compact and portable devices. Recent advances in on-chip THz metasensors harness miniaturization, yet existing implementations primarily focus on qualitative detection of single molecule types, lacking the capability for quantitative, multi-component analysis. Here, we present an on-chip THz metasensor fabricated on a self-supporting 20 μm-thick lithium niobate (LN) wafer, capable of both identification and quantification of multi-component biomolecular mixtures. By patterning a periodic metasurface array directly onto the LN substrate, our design integrates THz generation, molecular interaction, and signal detection into a single 4 mm × 8 mm chip, achieving a five-order-of-magnitude reduction in the size of the THz functional module relative to conventional THz time-domain spectroscopy systems. Leveraging broadband surface-localized THz waves from the metasurface, this chip accurately identifies and quantifies mixtures of four biomolecules with an error below 3.60%. This work advances THz fingerprint sensing by offering a robust and scalable platform as a portable solution for quantitative multi-component biomolecular analysis.","PeriodicalId":18069,"journal":{"name":"Light-Science & Applications","volume":"52 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148769330","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Highly efficient dual-channel doublet emission in lanthanide cerium(III) complex","authors":"Yujia Li, Peiyu Fang, Zeyou Xiong, Jiayin Zheng, Huanyu Liu, Rubing Bai, Zuqiang Bian, Zhiwei Liu","doi":"10.1038/s41377-026-02377-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-026-02377-4","url":null,"abstract":"Dual-channel luminescent materials are attractive due to their unique electronic structures and potential applications in various fields. Different from traditional dual-channel emitters with closed-shell structure showing singlet fluorescence and/or triplet phosphorescence, we demonstrate herein dual-channel cerium(III) complexes with open-shell structure showing doublet 5d-4f emission from the central Ce(III) ion. By systematically designing and studying a series of cerium(III) complexes Ce(Tp^4Me)(Bp^4Me)₂, Ce(Tp^4Me)₂(Bp^4Me) and Ce(Tp^4R)₃ (R = Me, Cl, I) with gradually varied coordination numbers from seven to eight and nine, respectively, it is found that the nine-coordinated complexes Ce(Tp^4R)₃ showed crowded coordination environments and longer coordination bonds, which underwent a coordination structural relaxation after high energy light excitation, resulting in a new channel emission. This work demonstrates an intriguing dual-channel doublet emission phenomenon in lanthanide Ce(III) complexes and will inspire new insights both into the design of novel lanthanide-based luminescent materials and dual-channel luminescent materials.","PeriodicalId":18069,"journal":{"name":"Light-Science & Applications","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148688026","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fully tunable on-chip meta-generator for multidimensional Poincaré sphere mapping","authors":"Shuang Zheng, Jing Luan, Tiange Wu, Liheng Yi, Zhenyu Wan, Qi Tian, Yuan Meng, Yijie Shen, Kaiyuan Wang, Liangjia Zong, Li Shen, Deming Liu, Ming Tang, Jian Wang, Minming Zhang","doi":"10.1038/s41377-026-02364-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-026-02364-9","url":null,"abstract":"The angular momentum of light can be elegantly mapped onto high-order Poincaré spheres, providing a powerful framework for describing structured light beams. Such beams have shown extraordinary potential across diverse applications, including high-capacity optical communications, precision metrology, and quantum information processing. While various methods exist for generating structured light beams, the dynamic synthesis and flexible control of arbitrary vectorial states on diverse, multidimensional Poincaré spheres still rely on bulky free-space optical components, posing significant challenges for scalability and integration. To date, a fully tunable solution implemented on a single photonic chip has yet to be realized. Here, we present the first fully tunable on-chip meta-generator capable of dynamically mapping arbitrary scalar, vectorial, and hybrid modes across multiple Poincaré spheres, and extendable to higher-dimensional Poincaré hyperspheres within a four-dimensional Hilbert space. Our device is implemented on an eight-channel space-multiplexed multimode silicon photonic integrated circuit, where densely integrated mode multiplexers, amplitude–phase modulators, and an inverse-designed multimode meta-waveguide together enable compact, precise, and programmable control of structured light. The multimode meta-waveguide directly maps eight on-chip guided modes to orbital angular momentum (OAM), supporting broadband generation of high-purity OAM modes with diverse polarization states and topological charges. By simultaneously engineering amplitude, phase, polarization, and topological charge, we achieve full-field control over OAM mode bases, enabling fully tunable access to arbitrary scalar and vectorial states across more than eight distinct Poincaré spheres. This work represents a significant step toward reconfigurable on-chip manipulation of multidimensional Poincaré spheres, paving the way for advanced applications in optical communications, quantum photonics, and beyond.","PeriodicalId":18069,"journal":{"name":"Light-Science & Applications","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148687756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An infrared-transparent flexible glass for adaptive optics","authors":"Saihui Li, Linling Tan, Jianqiang Ma, Shiliang Kang, Chengwei Gao, Shixun Dai, Changgui Lin","doi":"10.1038/s41377-026-02409-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-026-02409-z","url":null,"abstract":"Transparent, flexible inorganic-organic composites are essential for next-generation adaptive optics, bio-integrated sensing, and reconfigurable photonics. Despite progress in hybrid material design, achieving a material that is simultaneously flexible and transparent across a broad infrared spectrum remains a fundamental challenge. Here, we report a S60Se40 chalcogenide glass designed with a chain-ring dual-network architecture that overcomes this classic limitation. By integrating a dynamic covalent network of physical cross-links with heavy chalcogen elements (S, Se), this dual-network design suppresses multi-phonon absorption and ensures broadband transparency up to 21 μm, combining these optical properties with an ultralow Young’s modulus (E ≈ 0.0037 GPa), extreme tensile strain (~650%), and high elastic recovery (~80%). The material further exhibits autonomous self-healing and shape-memory behavior at room temperature. We demonstrate its applicability through IR deformable lenses with tunable focal length and real-time aberration correction, showcasing capabilities in adaptive imaging and wavefront control. This work provides a versatile material platform that bridges the gap between glass-like optical performance and polymer-like mechanics, opening avenues for soft infrared photonics and reconfigurable optical systems.","PeriodicalId":18069,"journal":{"name":"Light-Science & Applications","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148612596","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Programmable rotation of single cells along arbitrary axes via opto-thermo-osmotic torque.","authors":"Siyuan Huang,Zhihan Chen,Yuebing Zheng","doi":"10.1038/s41377-026-02424-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-026-02424-0","url":null,"abstract":"Controlled rotation of single biological cells is significant for cellular biology and engineering. Here we present a light-driven and non-contact strategy that enables arbitrary-axis rotation of both spherical and anisotropic cells with real-time switching between distinct rotation modes (major-axis and minor-axis). The platform employs a Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA)-coated gold nano-island (AuNIs) plasmonic film to generate strong interfacial thermo-osmotic flow under laser illumination, while Polyethylene Glycol (PEG)-induced depletion forces confine cells near the interface. For spherical particles, arbitrary-axis rotation is achieved using a single Gaussian beam, where spatial asymmetry in the thermo-osmotic flow determines the rotation axis. For anisotropic cells, different rotation modes are enabled by optical pattern reconfiguration. A Gaussian beam induces major-axis rotation, while a half-ring beam generates a combined optical and thermo-osmotic torque distribution that supports sustained minor-axis rotation. The rotation mode is reversibly switched solely through optical reconfiguration without mechanical intervention. This unified platform establishes geometry-independent, optically programmable rotational control, opening new opportunities for high-speed multi-angle cellular imaging and dynamic studies of cell-cell interactions.","PeriodicalId":18069,"journal":{"name":"Light-Science & Applications","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148498882","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Topological Jackiw-Rebbi states in photonic Van der Waals heterostructures","authors":"Sam A. Randerson, Paul Bouteyre, Xuerong Hu, Oscar J. Palma Chaundler, Alexander J. Knight, Casey K. Cheung, Roman Gorbachev, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Yue Wang, Helgi Sigurðsson, Alexander I. Tartakovskii","doi":"10.1038/s41377-026-02392-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-026-02392-5","url":null,"abstract":"Topological phenomena, first studied in solid state physics, have seen increased interest for applications in nanophotonics owing to highly controllable light confinement with inherent robustness to defects. Photonic crystals can be designed to host topologically protected interface states for directional light transport, localization and robust lasing via tuning of the bulk topological invariant. At the same time, van der Waals (vdW) materials, in both their monolayer and quasi-bulk forms, emerge as exciting additions to the field of nanophotonics, with a range of unique optoelectronic properties and intrinsic adherence to any type of host material, allowing fabrication of complex multi-layer structures. We present here a 1D topological photonic platform made from stacked nanostructured and planar layers of quasi-bulk WS2 to achieve Jackiw-Rebbi (JR) interface states between two topologically distinct gratings in the near-infrared range around 750 nm. Such states are measured in the far-field using angle-resolved reflectance contrast spectroscopy and exhibit linewidth of 10 meV and highly directional emission with an angular bandwidth of 8.0°. Subsequent local mapping of the structure via sub-wavelength resolution scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) reveals strong spatial confinement of the JR state to the interface region between the gratings. Finally, we couple in the JR state the photoluminescence of monolayer WSe2 incorporated in a five-layer vdW grating heterostructure, giving rise to directional enhancement of the excitonic emission of up to 22 times that of uncoupled monolayer, thus demonstrating the potential of the topological interface states for highly directional light emission in addition to light scattering.","PeriodicalId":18069,"journal":{"name":"Light-Science & Applications","volume":"49 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148476552","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"All-optical computing towards 100-GHz clock rates","authors":"Gordon H. Y. Li, Midya Parto, Jinhao Ge, Qing-Xin Ji, Maodong Gao, Yan Yu, James Williams, Robert M. Gray, Christian R. Leefmans, Nicolas Englebert, Kerry J. Vahala, Alireza Marandi","doi":"10.1038/s41377-026-02314-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-026-02314-5","url":null,"abstract":"A computer’s clock rate ultimately determines the minimum time between sequential operations or instructions. Despite exponential advances in electronic computer performance due to Moore’s Law and increasingly parallel system architectures, clock rates of conventional processors have remained stagnant at ~5 GHz for nearly two decades. This creates a significant challenge for applications requiring real-time processing or control of ultrafast information systems. Here, we break this barrier by proposing and experimentally demonstrating computing based on an all-optical recurrent neural network leveraging the ultrafast characteristics of linear and nonlinear optical operations while circumventing electronic bottlenecks. The all-optical computer realizes linear operations, nonlinear functions, and memory entirely in the optical domain with accuracy surpassing a purely linear model up to 80 GHz clock rates depending on the task. We experimentally demonstrate a prototypical task of noisy waveform classification as well as perform ultrafast in-situ analysis of the soliton states from integrated optical microresonators. We further illustrate the application of the architecture for generative artificial intelligence based on quantum fluctuations to generate images even in the absence of input optical signals. Our results highlight the potential of all-optical computing beyond what can be achieved with digital electronics by utilizing ultrafast linear, nonlinear, and memory functions and quantum fluctuations.","PeriodicalId":18069,"journal":{"name":"Light-Science & Applications","volume":"262 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148459330","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}