Light-Science & Applications最新文献

{"title":"All-optical polarization encoding and modulation by nonlinear interferometry at the nanoscale","authors":"Yigong Luan, Attilio Zilli, Agostino Di Francescantonio, Vincent Vinel, Paolo Biagioni, Lamberto Duò, Aristide Lemaître, Giuseppe Leo, Michele Celebrano, Marco Finazzi","doi":"10.1038/s41377-025-01948-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-025-01948-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Optical metasurfaces allow complex light manipulation within subwavelength thicknesses and are thus rapidly emerging as a key enabling technology for nanophotonics applications. The control over light polarization already provided a route towards ultracompact metasurface-based polarimetry devices. If translated to the nonlinear optical regime it may become a transformative tool for nonlinear imaging, optical holography, and sensing. Here, we report ultrafast all-optical polarization modulation of upconverted light by all-dielectric metasurfaces via nonlinear interferometry. By controlling the relative phase between a pump beam at <i>ω</i> and its frequency-doubled replica at 2<i>ω</i>, we can set the phase relation between two frequency-degenerate upconversion processes at 3<i>ω</i> – sum-frequency generation and third-harmonic generation – stemming from an AlGaAs metasurface. By leveraging the opposite parity of the two nonlinear processes and adjusting their relative intensities, we achieve a modulation of the polarization state of the upconverted light between linear and circular states with a circular polarization degree of up to 83%. Remarkably, circularly polarized light of opposite handedness is symmetrically mapped in the Fourier space, at coincidence with the first diffraction orders of the metasurface. Furthermore, the handedness can be completely reversed within the same diffraction order by applying a phase delay of π. Our work adds an additional modulation layer beyond intensity to all-optical routing with precise phase control: polarization. The capability to encode and modulate simultaneously different polarization states in the <i>k</i>-space holds potential for chiral sensing and advanced imaging techniques.</p>","PeriodicalId":18069,"journal":{"name":"Light-Science & Applications","volume":"313 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145059550","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":"Challenges and opportunities in next-generation LED therapeutic devices.","authors":"Chenxi Wang,Qiang Yu,Ming Li,Haoyi Chen,Huizhen Fan,Yingying Ma,Zhitao Zhang,Mei X Wu,Min Lu","doi":"10.1038/s41377-025-01990-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-025-01990-z","url":null,"abstract":"Phototherapy offers advantages of non-invasiveness, cost-effectiveness, localized treatment, and potential for home-based care across various medical conditions. However, its adoption is hindered by the large size, limited safety, and professional operation requirements of current phototherapeutic devices. Unlike bulky laser phototherapeutic devices, wearable and implantable LED-based devices overcome these limitations, offering improved safety, portability, and uniform light distribution, making them promising prototypes for next-generation phototherapies. This review explores the home-care potentials of phototherapy from a clinical application perspective and provides a comprehensive overview of its therapeutic mechanisms and diverse applications. By synthesizing the latest advancements and cutting-edge research, we identify key clinical challenges associated with wearable and implantable phototherapy devices and propose fundamental strategies to address these limitations, such as miniaturization, biocompatibility, and energy efficiency. Furthermore, we draw on interdisciplinary cutting-edge research to address the challenges faced by phototherapy devices. We also emphasize the critical value of integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and flexible sensing technologies within phototherapy systems. Specific methods and potential applications are discussed for effectively integrating phototherapy systems with AI algorithms to establish a closed-loop diagnostic and therapeutic system. Grounded in clinical applications, we outline concrete research directions for developing next-generation LED-based phototherapy devices. This review delivers valuable insights for clinicians leveraging phototherapy and offers a roadmap for researchers in material science, flexible electronics, and AI, fostering interdisciplinary innovations to advance future phototherapy applications.","PeriodicalId":18069,"journal":{"name":"Light-Science & Applications","volume":"89 1","pages":"319"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145059216","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":"Ultrasound-responsive phosphorescence in aqueous solution enabled by microscale rigid framework engineering of carbon nanodots","authors":"Yachuan Liang, Haochun Shao, Kaikai Liu, Qing Cao, Sifan Zhang, Haiyan Wang, Liying Jiang, Chongxin Shan, Leman Kuang, Hui Jing","doi":"10.1038/s41377-025-01965-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-025-01965-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Solid-state phosphorescent materials with stimulus-responsive properties have been widely developed for diverse applications. However, the task of generating excited states with long lifetimes in aqueous solution remains challenging due to the ultrafast deactivation of the triplet excitons and the difficulty in regulating stimulation sites in an aqueous environment. Additionally, most existing materials are primarily responsive to limited stimuli, such as light, oxygen, or temperature. Here, we present a microscale rigid framework engineering strategy that can be used to modulate the phosphorescence properties of carbon nanodots (CNDs), by brightening triplet excitons through ultrasound-enhanced rigidity in CNDs. Ultrasound-responsive phosphorescent CNDs with a lifetime of 1.25 seconds in an aqueous solution were achieved. The CNDs exhibit high sensitivity to surrounding ultrasound, showing a linear response to ultrasound exposure during the treatment period. The ultrasound-responsive phosphorescent CNDs demonstrate potential applications as sensing units in ultrasound radar detection and in vivo afterglow imaging.</p>","PeriodicalId":18069,"journal":{"name":"Light-Science & Applications","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145032188","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":"In-line multi-wavelength non-destructive pharma quality monitoring with ultrabroadband carbon nanotubes photo-thermoelectric imaging scanners.","authors":"Miki Kubota,Yuya Kinoshita,Sayaka Hirokawa,Daiki Shikichi,Noa Izumi,Naoko Hagiwara,Daiki Sakai,Yuto Matsuzaki,Minami Yamamoto,Leo Takai,Yukito Kon,Yuto Aoshima,Raito Ota,Mitsuki Kosaka,Meiling Sun,Yukio Kawano,Kou Li","doi":"10.1038/s41377-025-01957-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-025-01957-0","url":null,"abstract":"While non-destructive in-line monitoring at manufacturing sites is essential for safe distribution cycles of pharmaceuticals, efforts are still insufficient to develop analytical systems for detailed dynamic visualisation of foreign substances and material composition in target pills. Although spectroscopies, expected towards pharma testing, have faced technical challenges in in-line setups for bulky equipment housing, this work demonstrates compact dynamic photo-monitoring systems by selectively extracting informative irradiation-wavelengths from comprehensive optical references of target pills. This work develops a non-destructive in-line dynamic inspection system for pharma agent pills with carbon nanotube (CNT) photo-thermoelectric imagers and the associated ultrabroadband sub-terahertz (THz)-infrared (IR) multi-wavelength monitoring. The CNT imager in the proposed system functions in ultrabroadband regions over existing sensors, facilitating multi-wavelength photo-monitoring against external sub-THz-IR-irradiation. Under recent advances in the investigation of functional optical materials (e.g., gallium arsenide, vanadium oxide, graphene, polymers, transition metal dichalcogenides), CNTs play advantageous leading roles in collectively satisfying informative efficient photo-absorption and solution-processable configurations for printable device fabrication into freely attachable thin-film imagers in pharma monitoring sites. The above non-destructive dynamic monitoring system maintains in-line experimental setups by integrating the functional thin-film imager sheets and compact multiple photo-sources. Furthermore, permeable sub-THz-IR-irradiation, which provides different transmittance values specific to non-metallic materials per wavelength or composition, identifies constituent materials for pharma agents themselves and concealed foreign substances in a non-contact manner. This work finally inspects invisible detailed features of pharma pills with the non-destructive in-line dynamic photo-monitoring system by incorporating performances of CNT imagers and compact optical setups.","PeriodicalId":18069,"journal":{"name":"Light-Science & Applications","volume":"86 1","pages":"306"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145031905","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":"Laser-driven luminescent ceramic-converted near-infrared II light source for advanced imaging and detection techniques","authors":"Simin Gu, Huiwang Lian, Rongyi Kuang, Bibo Lou, Chonggeng Ma, Gaochao Liu, Jing Wang","doi":"10.1038/s41377-025-01953-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-025-01953-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Laser-driven near-infrared II (NIR-II) light sources comprising luminescent ceramics represent a promising research frontier, yet their development remains constrained by the external quantum efficiency (EQE) and thermal stability bottleneck of current luminescent materials. Herein, we present a non-equivalent cation substitution strategy to fabricate high-efficiency translucent MgO:Ni²⁺, Cr³⁺ NIR-II luminescent ceramics. The co-doping of Cr³⁺ induces structural distortion at Ni²⁺-occupied octahedral sites, effectively breaking the parity-forbidden d-d transition constraint while enabling efficient energy transfer from Cr³⁺ to Ni²⁺. These synergistic effects yield remarkable internal and external quantum efficiencies of 61.06% and 39.69%, respectively. The developed ceramic demonstrates exceptional thermal management capabilities with 31.28 W·m⁻¹·K⁻¹ thermal conductivity and 92.11% emission retention at 478 K. When integrated into laser-driven NIR-II light sources, the system achieves record-breaking performance of 214 mW output power under 21.43 W/mm² blue laser excitation. Practical demonstrations showcase superior non-destructive imaging capabilities with 5.29 lp/mm spatial resolution and 0.97 contrast ratio. This work establishes a new paradigm for developing high-performance NIR-II light sources in advanced imaging and detection technologies.</p><figure></figure>","PeriodicalId":18069,"journal":{"name":"Light-Science & Applications","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145032170","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":"Single-shot X-ray and near-infrared (NIR) dual-mode fusion imaging based on bifunctional NIR scintillators","authors":"Peng Ran, Lurong Yang, Juan Hui, Yirong Su, Zeng Chen, Haiming Zhu, Cuifang Kuang, Xu Liu, Yang (Michael) Yang","doi":"10.1038/s41377-025-01898-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-025-01898-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p>X-ray and near-infrared (NIR) imaging are two well-established noninvasive imaging techniques, whose fusion often delineates a more complementary view of the subject. In this study, we introduce an innovative dual-mode imaging approach using a NIR scintillator, functioning both as a conventional scintillator for X-ray imaging and as a light source for NIR imaging. Our method facilitates the concurrent acquisition and registration of X-ray and NIR images in a single X-ray shot, eliminating the need for additional hardware beyond that of a standard X-ray imaging system. We have successfully synthesized an ytterbium-doped perovskite NIR scintillator using a water-based scalable process, which exhibits a pronounced scintillation emission at 980 nm, suggesting the presence of a potential quantum cutting effect. The experimental results underscore the enhanced capabilities in visualizing features typically elusive in standard X-ray images, such as the vascular network in a human palm. Besides, our method can effectively separate the X-ray and NIR signals, which is a common issue with recently developed multi-band detectors that suffer from superimposed electrical signals. This separation is achieved by designing a NIR-Visible dual-band scintillator that channels the X-ray and NIR characteristics into distinct emission pathways, thus avoiding any potential interference between the two imaging modalities. This study presents a novel strategy for harnessing the synergistic information from X-ray and NIR photons, enabled by the simple yet effective design of a NIR X-ray scintillator. This advancement might hold the potential to broaden the application scope of conventional X-ray imaging, enhancing its diagnostic and analytical capabilities.</p>","PeriodicalId":18069,"journal":{"name":"Light-Science & Applications","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145032044","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":"Color-thermal multispectral camouflage with VO2-based dynamic regulator","authors":"Chengcong Li, Cuicui Cao, Zhongshao Li, Zewei Shao, Fei Cao, Genshui Wang, Ping Jin, Hongjie Luo, Xun Cao","doi":"10.1038/s41377-025-01968-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-025-01968-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Camouflage technology has garnered increasing attention for various applications. With the continuous advancement of detection technologies and the increasing variability of camouflage scenarios, the demand for multispectral dynamic camouflage has been steadily growing. In this work, we present a multispectral dynamic regulator based on phase-changing material vanadium dioxide (VO₂) that can be dynamically and functional-independently regulated for reflective color and thermal radiation. It has been shown that the device can achieve a wide color gamut variation in visible band while simultaneously achieving highest emissivity tunability (Δ<i>ε</i>=-0.58) in the atmospheric window up to now, achieves multispectral camouflage spanning the visible and infrared spectra among VO₂-based devices. To go a step further, we advance the device featuring long-term cycling stability to achieve thermal-electric dual-mode response and flexibility for a series real-world camouflage performance evaluation. We have also demonstrated the digital camouflage based on multispectral dynamic regulator through Neighboring Color Block Camouflage Algorithm, highlighting its potential for practical implementation in different camouflage scenarios. The device achieves multispectral dynamic camouflage, opening a path for advancing the technology development in both the scientific field and practical applications.</p><figure></figure>","PeriodicalId":18069,"journal":{"name":"Light-Science & Applications","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145025600","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":"Reconfigurable nonlinear Pancharatnam-Berry diffractive optics with photopatterned ferroelectric nematics","authors":"Hui-Feng Chen, Xin-Yu Tao, Bo-Han Zhu, Jin-Tao Pan, Ling-Ling Ma, Chao Chen, Wen-Guo Zhu, Wei Chen, Yan-Qing Lu","doi":"10.1038/s41377-025-01981-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-025-01981-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Planar optical elements incorporating space-varying Pancharatnam-Berry phase have revolutionized the manipulation of light fields by enabling continuous control over amplitude, phase, and polarization. While previous research focusing on linear functionalities using apolar liquid crystals (LCs) has attracted much attention, extending this concept to the nonlinear regime offers unprecedented opportunities for advanced optical processing. Here, we demonstrate the reconfigurable nonlinear Pancharatnam-Berry LC diffractive optics in photopatterned ion-doped ferroelectric nematics. By customizing the spatial phase distribution of efficient second-harmonic excitation, we accomplish programmable beam steering of various optical states towards predefined diffraction directions. Experimental results reveal continuous evolution of diffraction orders, intensity distributions, and polarization states under electrically varying splay conditions, consistent with our theoretical predictions. This work opens new avenues for designing reconfigurable nonlinear beam shaping and steering devices with potential applications in advanced optical and quantum information processing.</p><figure></figure>","PeriodicalId":18069,"journal":{"name":"Light-Science & Applications","volume":"44 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145025598","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":"Giant two-photon upconversion from 2D exciton in doubly-resonant plasmonic nanocavity","authors":"Fangxun Liu, Haiyi Liu, Cheng Chi, Wenqi Qian, Yuchen Dai, Guangyi Tao, Sihan Lin, Shihan Ding, Menghan Yu, Hongliang Liu, Lie Lin, Pengfei Qi, Zheyu Fang, Weiwei Liu","doi":"10.1038/s41377-025-02010-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-025-02010-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Photon upconversion through high harmonic generation, multiphoton absorption, Auger recombination and phonon scattering performs a vital role in energy conversion and renormalization. Considering the reduced dielectric screening and enhanced Coulomb interactions, semiconductor monolayers provide a promising platform to explore photon upconversion at room temperature. Additionally, two-photon upconversion was recently demonstrated as an emerging technique to probe the excitonic dark states due to the extraordinary selection rule compared with conventional excitation. However, highly efficient two-photon upconversion still remains challenging due to the limited multiphoton absorption efficiency and long radiative lifetimes. Here, a 2440-fold enhancement of two-photon luminescence (TPL) is achieved in doubly resonant plasmonic nanocavities due to the amplified light collection, enhanced excitation rate, and increased quantum efficiency. To gain more insight into the attractive doubly resonant enhancement in such a plasmon−exciton coupling system, the intriguing thermally tuned excitonic upconversion and optimized amplification factor &gt;3000 are realized at 350 K. Meanwhile, the single resonance enhanced photoluminescence (PL) (~890-fold) and second-harmonic generation (SHG) (~134-fold) are elaborately demonstrated. These results establish a foundation for developing cost-effective, high-performance nonlinear photonic devices and probing fine excitonic states via configuring plasmonic nanocavities.</p>","PeriodicalId":18069,"journal":{"name":"Light-Science & Applications","volume":"49 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145025599","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":"Optoelectronic polymer memristors with dynamic control for power-efficient in-sensor edge computing","authors":"Jia Zhou, Wen Li, Ye Chen, Haowen Qian, Yen-Hung Lin, Ruipeng Li, Zhen Wang, Jin Wang, Wei Shi, Xianwang Tao, Youtian Tao, Haifeng Ling, Wei Huang, Mingdong Yi","doi":"10.1038/s41377-025-01986-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41377-025-01986-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p>As the demand for edge platforms in artificial intelligence increases, including mobile devices and security applications, the surge in data influx into edge devices often triggers interference and suboptimal decision-making. There is a pressing need for solutions emphasizing low power consumption and cost-effectiveness. In-sensor computing systems employing memristors face challenges in optimizing energy efficiency and streamlining manufacturing due to the necessity for multiple physical processing components. Here, we introduce low-power organic optoelectronic memristors with synergistic optical and mV-level electrical tunable operation for a dynamic “control-on-demand” architecture. Integrating signal sensing, featuring, and processing within the same memristors enables the realization of each in-sensor analogue reservoir computing module, and minimizes circuit integration complexity. The system achieves 97.15% fingerprint recognition accuracy while maintaining a minimal reservoir size and ultra-low energy consumption. Furthermore, we leverage wafer-scale solution techniques and flexible substrates for optimal memristor fabrication. By centralizing core functionalities on the same in-sensor platform, we propose a resilient and adaptable framework for energy-efficient and economical edge computing.</p><figure></figure>","PeriodicalId":18069,"journal":{"name":"Light-Science & Applications","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145017446","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}