Light, science & applications最新文献

{"title":"Physics-paired stimulated Raman scattering microscopy enables label-free phenotyping of lipid droplets 3D motility in live cells.","authors":"Shulang Lin, Bin He, Chang Liu, Rongxuan Li, Le Xin, Zhiwei Huang","doi":"10.1038/s41377-026-02435-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41377-026-02435-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>High-speed volumetric stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy offers unique capabilities for label-free chemical imaging in living systems, yet its performance is fundamentally constrained by the trade-off between imaging speed and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). At the short pixel dwell times required for three-dimensional dynamic imaging, photon-limited detection leads to severe noise that cannot be effectively mitigated by existing denoising approaches, owing to the lack of ground truth data and temporally redundant measurements in live-cell conditions. Here we present PHYSIQ, a physics-paired in-phase and quadrature SRS imaging framework that fundamentally redefines data acquisition for noise-limited optical microscopy. By exploiting the intrinsic quadrature nature of heterodyne detection, PHYSIQ-SRS simultaneously acquires two spatially co-registered and temporally near-synchronous SRS image channels with statistically independent shot noise. This physics-paired measurement enables fully self-supervised Noise2Noise restoration without requiring ground truth or temporal redundancy. The implementation integrates dual-channel lock-in detection with defocus-corrected spatial co-registration and controlled temporal offset, establishing a robust and generalizable strategy for generating unbiased training pairs directly from physical measurements. This innovative approach achieves an SNR enhancement of ~12.5 dB while preserving quantitative Raman contrast, effectively overcoming the conventional speed-sensitivity limitation in volumetric SRS microscopy. The improved performance enables video-rate volumetric imaging and label-free 3D tracking of lipid droplets (LDs) in living cells. Using this capability, we uncover that LD dynamics are governed by discrete motility states with condition-dependent transitions, including spatial redistribution under nutrient perturbation, selective suppression of long-range transport upon glycolytic inhibition, and phase-dependent reprogramming during mitosis. PHYSIQ-SRS establishes a new paradigm of physics-enabled self-supervised imaging, providing a general solution to shot-noise-limited detection in laser-scanning microscopy. This advance opens new opportunities for high-speed, label-free volumetric imaging and quantitative investigation of live-cell biology, metabolic phenotyping, developmental imaging, and biomedical discovery.</p>","PeriodicalId":18093,"journal":{"name":"Light, science & applications","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":23.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13400741/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148583996","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Substrate-free generation of photosensitizer radical-ion pairs enables multipath photoredox for hypoxia-tolerant photodynamic therapy.","authors":"Weiyun Yao, Linfang Yang, Ruizhe Chen, Siwei Yao, Haolin Zhang, Mingxuan Jia, Yonghui Pan, Ruida Bai, Zhongzheng Yu, Quli Fan, Wei Huang, Wenbo Hu","doi":"10.1038/s41377-026-02429-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41377-026-02429-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is fundamentally limited by inefficient conversion of photoexcited energy into reactive oxygen species (ROS), especially in hypoxic pathological tissues. Photogenerated radical-ion pairs (PS⁺•/PS⁻•) from photosensitizer could overcome this limitation by broadening photoredox diversity for hypoxia-tolerant ROS production. However, conventional substrate-dependent mechanism typically generates only one radical species, limiting both photoredox diversity and overall ROS production. Here we demonstrate a substrate-free mechanism via noncovalent homodimer fission for efficient generation of PS⁺•/PS⁻• pairs from water-soluble DB-Py, unlocking multipath photoredox for hypoxia-tolerant PDT. Spectroscopic studies and calculations provide experimental evidence for homodimer formation via noncovalent interactions between a photoexcited triplet-state and a ground-state molecule, followed by fission into abundant PS⁺•/PS⁻• pairs. The resulting PS⁺• oxidizes water to generate O₂ in situ, which is subsequently reduced by PS⁻• to produce •OH and O₂⁻•, thereby establishing a self‑oxygen‑supplying ROS generation cycle. Consequently, DB-Py achieves 4.9‑fold higher •OH and 2.7‑fold higher O₂⁻• compared to commercial Rose Bengal, resulting in 7.9-fold enhanced antibacterial efficacy and 2.2-fold accelerated wound epithelialization. This work establishes a substrate-free radical generation mechanism with broad implications for the development of photodynamic, photocatalytic, and photoredox systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":18093,"journal":{"name":"Light, science & applications","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":23.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13400614/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148584040","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Metasurface platform for simultaneous and uncorrelated emissivity control over MWIR and LWIR spectral bands.","authors":"Roy Maman, Noa Mazurski, Ilya Goykhman, Uriel Levy","doi":"10.1038/s41377-026-02426-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41377-026-02426-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Thermal radiation in the mid-wave infrared (MWIR) and long-wave infrared (LWIR) underpins a wide range of imaging, sensing, and security technologies. While metasurfaces have enabled spectral and angular control of thermal emissivity, achieving spatially resolved and uncorrelated emissivity control across multiple infrared bands on a single platform remains a major challenge. Here we experimentally demonstrate a metasurface-based approach that enables pixel-level control of thermal emissivity in both the MWIR and LWIR bands simultaneously. The platform is based on a cavity-coupled metal-insulator-metal architecture supporting two infrared resonances whose spectral positions and strengths are orthogonally controlled through geometric design parameters. By systematically exploring the design space, we realize a broad emissivity palette and experimentally verify its thermal response using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) together with calibrated MWIR and LWIR thermal imaging. This capability allows the encoding of spatial thermal patterns that are either correlated or distinct in the two bands, enabling demonstrations of dual-band thermal camouflage and decoupled thermal image multiplexing on a single chip. The metasurface response is shown to be polarization-insensitive and robust over a wide range of temperatures and viewing angles. These results establish a scalable route toward multi-band, image-level control of thermal emission, with potential applications in thermal imaging, security, and infrared information encoding.</p>","PeriodicalId":18093,"journal":{"name":"Light, science & applications","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":23.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13396640/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148579291","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Robust hybrid feature-driven on-the-fly mapping enables freehand 3D panoramic photoacoustic angiography.","authors":"Haishu Xin, Erqi Wang, Rui Ma, Xin Chen, Yanshen Guo, Xinyue Huang, Fanjia Zeng, Yuanzheng Ma, Kaipeng Zhang, Ting Guo, Zhiyang Wang, Wuyu Zhang, Fei Yang, Yuqin Zhang, Sihua Yang","doi":"10.1038/s41377-026-02401-7","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41377-026-02401-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The vascular network defines the perfusion boundaries that are fundamental to surgical resection and functional preservation. Photoacoustic angiography (PAA) offers stereoscopic visualization and quantification of microvascular anatomy and hemodynamics in vivo, but existing implementations remain constrained in field of view and imaging speed, limiting the intraoperative utility. Here, we introduce a real-time PAA tracking and mapping strategy that estimates the six degree-of-freedom motion of a handheld probe and reconstructs panoramic three-dimensional vascular maps for surgical guidance. By associating geometric and intensity-based hybrid vascular features to prevent degeneracy, the method achieves robust online mapping with 99.67% accuracy, even under dynamic freehand operation. In rat radical gastrectomy, the approach expanded the imaging boundary by 42.3-fold to 50.84 mm³ within 16.7 s, enabling panoramic microvascular visualization beyond the surgical field for preoperative planning, postoperative evaluation, and distal hemodynamic surveillance. This on-the-fly, freehand, and field-of-view-unconstrained PAA establishes a practical framework for vascular-focused surgical interventions, supporting precise and timely decision-making.</p>","PeriodicalId":18093,"journal":{"name":"Light, science & applications","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":23.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13392144/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148562518","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Hybrid deep reconstruction for vignetting-free upconversion imaging through scattering in epsilon-near-zero materials.","authors":"Hao Zhang, Yang Xu, Wenwen Zhang, Saumya Choudhary, M Zahirul Alam, Long D Nguyen, Matthew Klein, Shivashankar Vangala, J Keith Miller, Eric G Johnson, Joshua R Hendrickson, Robert W Boyd, Sergio Carbajo","doi":"10.1038/s41377-026-02375-6","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41377-026-02375-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Optical imaging through turbid or heterogeneous environments, collectively referred to as complex media, is fundamentally challenged by scattering, which scrambles structured spatial and phase information. To address this, we propose a hybrid-supervised deep learning framework to reconstruct high-fidelity images from nonlinear scattering measurements acquired with a time-gated epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) imaging system. The system leverages four-wave mixing (FWM) in subwavelength indium tin oxide (ITO) films to temporally isolate ballistic photons, thus rejecting multiply scattered light and enhancing contrast. To recover structured features from these signals, we introduce DeepTimeGate, a U-Net-based supervised model that performs initial reconstruction, followed by a Deep Image Prior (DIP) refinement stage using self-supervised learning. Our approach demonstrates strong performance across different imaging scenarios, including binary resolution patterns and complex vortex-phase masks, under varied scattering conditions. Compared to FWM raw scattering inputs, it boosts average peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) by 124%, structural similarity index (SSIM) by 231%, and achieves a 10 × improvement in intersection-over-union (IoU). Beyond enhancing fidelity, our method removes the vignetting effect and expands the effective field-of-view compared to the ENZ-based optical time gate output. These results suggest broad applicability for future biomedical imaging, in-solution diagnostics, and other scenarios where conventional optical imaging fails due to scattering.</p>","PeriodicalId":18093,"journal":{"name":"Light, science & applications","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":23.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13389204/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148549799","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Approaching the low optical loss limit of plasmonics using potassium.","authors":"Yi Zhang, Yuhan Yang, Jie Liang, Shizhuang Wang, Yuhong Shi, Pengcheng Yao, Hanyu Fu, Jacob B Khurgin, Fengrui Hu, Jia Zhu, Shining Zhu, Lin Zhou","doi":"10.1038/s41377-026-02400-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41377-026-02400-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Plasmonics enables the miniaturization of photonic devices beyond the optical diffraction limit, yet its potential is hindered by inherently large ohmic losses. Hence, it is prudent to explore low-loss alternatives to the current mainstay of plasmonics-the noble metals. In this work, we demonstrate the potential of potassium as a plasmonic material with intrinsically low losses in the optical region. The ultra-flat, high-quality potassium film, fabricated via a rapid slipping-assisted oxide-free crystallization process, achieves measured optical damping rate down to 2.27 meV, with a measured imaginary permittivity of ~0.1 across the entire visible to near-infrared range (400-2000 nm). Near-field optical spectroscopic measurements further confirmed the reduced losses by revealing deeply subwavelength confinement of optical modes. This result overcomes the loss-confinement tradeoff existing in state-of-the-art plasmonic materials and devices, establishing a new platform for exploring extreme light-matter interactions in a variety of plasmonic systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":18093,"journal":{"name":"Light, science & applications","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":23.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13389207/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148549808","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Self-aligned heterogeneous quantum photonic integration.","authors":"Kinfung Ngan, Yeeun Choi, Chun-Chieh Chang, Dongyeon Daniel Kang, Shuo Sun","doi":"10.1038/s41377-026-02339-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41377-026-02339-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Integrated quantum photonics holds significant promise for scalable photonic quantum information processing, quantum repeaters, and quantum networks, but its development is hindered by the mismatch between materials hosting high-quality quantum emitters and those compatible with mature photonic technologies. Heterogeneous integration offers a potential solution to this challenge, yet practical implementations have been limited by inevitable insertion losses at material interfaces. Here, we present a self-aligned heterogeneous quantum photonic integration approach that enables near-unity coupling efficiency at the interface. To showcase our approach, we demonstrate Purcell enhancement of a silicon vacancy (SiV) center in diamond induced by a heterogeneous photonic crystal cavity defined by titanium dioxide (TiO₂), as well as optical spin control and readout via a TiO₂ photonic circuit. We further show that, when combined with inverse photonic design, our approach enables efficient and broadband collection of single photons from a color center into a heterogeneous waveguide. Our approach is not restricted to SiV centers or TiO₂; it has the potential to be broadly applied to integrate diverse solid-state quantum emitters with thin-film photonic devices where conformal deposition is possible. Together, these results establish a practical route to scalable quantum photonic integrated circuits that combine high-quality quantum emitters with technologically mature photonic platforms.</p>","PeriodicalId":18093,"journal":{"name":"Light, science & applications","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":23.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13373209/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148456213","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Light People: Prof. Zhanshan Wang.","authors":"Qiushi Huang, Rongjun Zhang","doi":"10.1038/s41377-026-02387-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41377-026-02387-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Editorial: </strong>At the frontiers of X-ray and high-power laser optics, Professor Zhanshan Wang has made outstanding contributions from fundamental mechanism to fabrication technologies and high performance applications over the last 25 years. As a Professor at Tongji University, he leads the Innovative Research Group of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, pioneered a novel theoretical framework for the synergistic tailoring of spectral response, electric field distribution, irradiation damage and optical loss in thin films optics. He developed high-precision characterization methods for resolving atomic-scale defects in coatings, invented a full-process and quantitative fabrication technology for thin film optics. By establishing premier research platforms and cultivating a highly skilled scientific team, his sustained efforts have greatly improved the performance of X-ray and optical thin-film devices which have been widely applied in synchrotron radiation, high power laser facilities, and space telescope. In this interview, he reflects on the scientific concepts guiding his research on X-ray and laser optics, the philosophy behind cultivating a world-class research team, and his vision for the future of optical science and technology.</p>","PeriodicalId":18093,"journal":{"name":"Light, science & applications","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":23.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13354795/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148422142","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Tunable resonant metasurfaces enabled by atomically thin semiconductors.","authors":"Alexey Ustinov, Ángela Barreda, Duk-Yong Choi, Tobias Bucher, Giancarlo Soavi, Thomas Pertsch, Isabelle Staude","doi":"10.1038/s41377-026-02311-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41377-026-02311-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Nanophotonics has recently gained new momentum with the emergence of a novel class of nanophotonic systems consisting of resonant dielectric nanostructures integrated with single or few layers of transition metal dichalcogenides (2D-TMDs). Thinned to the single-layer phase, 2D-TMDs are unique solid-state systems with excitonic states able to persist at room temperature, demonstrating notable tunability in the optical frequency range. Based on these properties, 2D-TMDs offer important opportunities for hybrid nanophotonic systems where a tailored nanostructure serves to enhance the light-matter interaction in the 2D-TMDs, while the 2D-TMDs can provide various active functionalities, thereby dramatically enhancing the scope of these hybrid systems. In this work, we combine 2D-TMDs with resonant metasurfaces composed of high-index dielectric nanoresonators. The dependence of excitonic states in 2D-TMDs on the charge carrier density leads to an amplitude modulation of the corresponding optical transitions as the Fermi level varies, thereby altering the coupling strength between the 2D-TMD and the resonant modes of the photonic nanostructure. We experimentally implement such a hybrid nanophotonic system and demonstrate voltage tuning of its reflectance as well as polarization-dependent behavior. Our results show that hybridization with 2D-TMDs can serve to render resonant photonic nanostructures tunable - an important property for practical applications, e.g., in optical analog computers and neuromorphic circuits.</p>","PeriodicalId":18093,"journal":{"name":"Light, science & applications","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":23.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13354806/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148422239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Integrated photonic polarization synthesizer and analyzer.","authors":"Carson G Valdez, Anna J Miller, Anne R Kroo, Charles Roques-Carmes, David A B Miller, Olav Solgaard","doi":"10.1038/s41377-026-02405-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41377-026-02405-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Polarization-resolved control and measurement of optical fields are essential for a wide range of photonic systems, including coherent communication, polarimetric sensing, and quantum information processing. We present a photonic integrated circuit architecture that enables the generation and analysis of arbitrary polarization states. The device provides reconfigurable access to the full polarization degree of freedom of coherent light within a single integrated platform. We experimentally demonstrate arbitrary polarization state generation spanning the Poincaré sphere, as well as Stokes vector measurement on a chip. Unlike conventional Stokes measurements that rely on direct detection, the polarization state in this architecture is inferred from the phase settings required to interferometrically combine polarization-demultiplexed optical fields. As a result, the optical signal itself does not need to be detected or absorbed and remains available for subsequent optical-domain processing. The devices are fabricated in a commercial foundry using CMOS-compatible processes, enabling scalable and reproducible integration. By combining polarization generation and analysis in a compact and stable photonic circuit, this work eliminates the need for external polarization optics and provides a foundation for robust, polarization-enabled photonic integrated systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":18093,"journal":{"name":"Light, science & applications","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":23.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13354763/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148422195","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}