NanophotonicsPub Date : 2025-07-01DOI: 10.1515/nanoph-2025-0161
Hanwen Guo, Xiangkun Zhou, Bo Gao, Jianing Yang, Lingyun Zhang, Junya Wang, Zheng You
{"title":"Metasurface-based large field-of-view light receiver for enhanced LiDAR systems","authors":"Hanwen Guo, Xiangkun Zhou, Bo Gao, Jianing Yang, Lingyun Zhang, Junya Wang, Zheng You","doi":"10.1515/nanoph-2025-0161","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2025-0161","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a metasurface-based light receiver tailored for compact off-axis light detection and ranging (LiDAR) systems, addressing the critical challenge of simultaneously enhancing the field of view (FOV) and effective signal reception while adhering to strict size and weight limitations. A general design principle for the metasurface-based light receiver with large FOV capability is proposed, leveraging mapping relations to achieve optimal performance. As a proof of concept, a 20-mm-diameter 4-region metasurface device was designed and fabricated by deep ultraviolet (DUV) projection stepper lithography on an 8-inch fused silica wafer. The metasurface-based light receiver achieves a large FOV of ±30° and demonstrates a significant power enhancement ranging from 1.5 to 3 times at 940 nm when coupled with a 3-mm-diameter avalanche photodiode (APD). The innovation not only establishes a new paradigm for compact, high-performance LiDAR systems but also enables deployment in advanced fields such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and miniaturized robots.","PeriodicalId":19027,"journal":{"name":"Nanophotonics","volume":"272 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144533267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Non-iridescent yet angle-dependent structural colors on titanium surfaces induced by laser oxidation","authors":"XiaoSong Yu, MingYang Wang, QiLin Jiang, ChenHui Lu, TianLi Feng, Jiao Geng, LiPing Shi","doi":"10.1515/nanoph-2025-0149","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2025-0149","url":null,"abstract":"Optically variable features are widely used in product design and anti-counterfeiting. However, current industrial methods rely heavily on chemical inks, which pose environmental concerns and suffer from poor wear and corrosion resistance. We experimentally demonstrate the generation of non-iridescent yet angle-dependent structural colors on titanium surfaces using a nanosecond laser-induced oxidation. Unlike conventional optical color-change methods that rely on multilayer interference, grating diffraction, or surface plasmons, this technique leverages a periodically arranged stepped structure to achieve abrupt color changes under small angle variations. The color shift originates from morphological differences among structures at different heights, which reflect light at distinct angles and produce varying colors through interference effects. The formation mechanism is elucidated through numerical simulations of the processing temperature, revealing that controlled laser ablation, oxidation, and thermal radiation on the sample surface create the unique structure. By tuning the point distance and dwell time, the affected area and intensity of these processes can be regulated. This advancement not only provides new ideas for anti-counterfeiting applications but also broadens the capabilities of laser coloring technology.","PeriodicalId":19027,"journal":{"name":"Nanophotonics","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144516118","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NanophotonicsPub Date : 2025-06-30DOI: 10.1515/nanoph-2025-0185
Sebastian Gloor, Adrian Weisenhorn, Léo Hetier, Urban Senica, Richard Maulini, Mattias Beck, Jérôme Faist, Giacomo Scalari
{"title":"Compact, thermoelectrically cooled surface emitting THz QCLs operating in an HHL housing","authors":"Sebastian Gloor, Adrian Weisenhorn, Léo Hetier, Urban Senica, Richard Maulini, Mattias Beck, Jérôme Faist, Giacomo Scalari","doi":"10.1515/nanoph-2025-0185","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2025-0185","url":null,"abstract":"Terahertz (THz) technology is experiencing rapid progress thanks to recent advancements in sources and detectors. We present a 3.9 THz quantum cascade laser operating in a compact high heat load (HHL) housing. The device features a loop mirror back reflector and a dry-etched surface-emitting antenna that shapes the far-field pattern to optimize coupling to user-defined devices. A peak power of 1.8 mW and average power of 4.5 μW at 185 K are measured experimentally, and the device output is easily detected with a room-temperature THz camera.","PeriodicalId":19027,"journal":{"name":"Nanophotonics","volume":"47 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144520408","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NanophotonicsPub Date : 2025-06-27DOI: 10.1515/nanoph-2025-0087
Xiaohui Du, Chenyue Liu, Zefei Ding, Yuan Zhao, Cunguang Zhu, Yaoyao Wang, Pengpeng Wang
{"title":"High-repetition-rate ultrafast fiber lasers enabled by BtzBiI4: a novel bismuth-based perovskite nonlinear optical material","authors":"Xiaohui Du, Chenyue Liu, Zefei Ding, Yuan Zhao, Cunguang Zhu, Yaoyao Wang, Pengpeng Wang","doi":"10.1515/nanoph-2025-0087","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2025-0087","url":null,"abstract":"Recent advances in perovskite crystals have highlighted their exceptional optical properties, making them promising candidates for a wide range of photonic applications. However, the exploration of high-repetition-rate laser systems based on these materials remains underdeveloped, hindering their potential in ultrafast laser technologies and related fields such as optical communications and precision metrology. In this study, we present, for the first time, the saturable absorption characteristics of a novel organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite incorporating the heavy metal bismuth (Bi), specifically N-methylbenzothiazoleBiI<jats:sub>4</jats:sub> (BtzBiI<jats:sub>4</jats:sub>). The material was integrated as a saturable absorber (SA) into a passively mode-locking erbium-doped fiber laser. By harnessing the exceptional optical nonlinearity of BtzBiI<jats:sub>4</jats:sub>-SA, we successfully achieved stable fundamental mode-locking, harmonic mode-locking, and bound-state soliton mode-locking within a single cavity. The fundamental mode-locking yielded pulses with a duration of 844 fs and a signal-to-noise ratio of 66.15 dB. Additionally, the 142nd-order harmonic solitons attained an impressive repetition rate of 1.3202 GHz. These results represent a significant step forward in the realization of high-repetition-rate fiber lasers utilizing perovskite materials. Our findings highlight the remarkable potential of BtzBiI<jats:sub>4</jats:sub> as a high-performance nonlinear optical material, paving the way for next-generation ultrafast photonic devices.","PeriodicalId":19027,"journal":{"name":"Nanophotonics","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144503424","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NanophotonicsPub Date : 2025-06-27DOI: 10.1515/nanoph-2025-0108
Gohar Ijaz Dar, Elisabet Xifre-Perez, Lluis F. Marsal
{"title":"Self-ordered silver nanoparticles on nanoconcave plasmonic lattices for SERS multi-antibiotic detection","authors":"Gohar Ijaz Dar, Elisabet Xifre-Perez, Lluis F. Marsal","doi":"10.1515/nanoph-2025-0108","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2025-0108","url":null,"abstract":"Antibiotic detection at trace levels in different matrices is an important tool for environmental monitoring, clinical diagnostics, and pharmaceutical quality control. Using aluminum concavities covered with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), this study introduces another approach for the surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) detection of antibiotics. The optimal substrate provided by the aluminum concavities and the outstanding plasmonic enhancement of the AgNPs greatly enhances the adsorbed Raman signals of the antibiotic molecules. First, we used a controlled magnetron sputtering technique to deposit AgNPs onto the SERS substrates, synthesized by anodizing aluminum into highly organized concave dimensions. Detection limits approaching the 10<jats:sup>−10</jats:sup> M concentration level, owing to an EF of 10<jats:sup>8</jats:sup>, proved that these substrates successfully detected various antibiotics, including amoxicillin and tetracycline. An in-depth examination of the SERS spectra revealed distinctive peaks that correspond to functional groups, allowing for the exact identification and quantification of the antibiotic compounds. The synergistic impact of the aluminum concavities and silver nanofractals results in extremely homogenous substrates that are reproducible and sensitive.","PeriodicalId":19027,"journal":{"name":"Nanophotonics","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144500758","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NanophotonicsPub Date : 2025-06-27DOI: 10.1515/nanoph-2024-0740
Noah A. Rubin, Yeshaiahu Fainman
{"title":"Polarization-sensitive diffractive optics and metasurfaces: “Past is Prologue”","authors":"Noah A. Rubin, Yeshaiahu Fainman","doi":"10.1515/nanoph-2024-0740","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2024-0740","url":null,"abstract":"Polarization control and switchability are among the most unique features of “metasurfaces” as compared with diffractive optics technologies of the past. Here, we review how the polarization control afforded by the advent of present-day metasurfaces compares to diffractive elements of previous decades, clarifying from a functional perspective what is new, and what is not.","PeriodicalId":19027,"journal":{"name":"Nanophotonics","volume":"145 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144503393","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Generation of Bessel beams with tunable topological charge and polarization","authors":"Tong Nan, Zhiyan Zhu, Guocui Wang, Yunfei Wang, Shulin Sun, Hao Tian, Yan Zhang","doi":"10.1515/nanoph-2025-0165","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2025-0165","url":null,"abstract":"Bessel beams hold significant potential in optical communications, particle manipulation, and medicine due to their self-healing and nondiffracting properties. However, most existing Bessel beam generation devices are either static or capable of dynamically adjusting only a single characteristic. In this paper, we propose a tunable Bessel beam generation scheme based on a moiré meta-device. The device consists of two cascaded layers of all-dielectric metasurfaces. By adjusting the relative rotation between two layers, Bessel beams with varying topological charges can be generated. Moreover, the overall rotation of the cascaded metasurfaces modulates the polarization state of the Bessel beam by leveraging both the propagation phase and geometric phase. Experimental results confirmed the generation of Bessel beams with tunable uniform linear polarization and topological charge, as well as Bessel beams with tunable topological charge and controllable polarization variations along the propagation direction. This method offers a flexible design strategy for the continuous dynamic manipulation of both the transverse and longitudinal optical field properties of Bessel beams. In addition, it may also advance the development of related fields, including optical communications, particle manipulation, and super-resolution imaging.","PeriodicalId":19027,"journal":{"name":"Nanophotonics","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144500760","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Nonlinear multimode photonics on-chip","authors":"Valerio Vitali, Thalía Domínguez Bucio, Hao Liu, Jack Haines, Pooja Uday Naik, Massimiliano Guasoni, Frederic Gardes, Lorenzo Pavesi, Ilaria Cristiani, Cosimo Lacava, Periklis Petropoulos","doi":"10.1515/nanoph-2025-0105","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2025-0105","url":null,"abstract":"Nonlinear integrated photonics, which takes advantage of the strong field enhancement in integrated waveguides to boost the efficiency of nonlinear effects, has paved the way for the demonstration of cutting-edge applications. These achievements have also been made possible by the impressive progress in material engineering and fabrication processes, which have enabled a remarkable control of the nonlinear dynamics in the waveguides. While researchers initially focused their attention on single-mode devices, in recent years, the exploitation of nonlinear effects in integrated multimode waveguides has attracted significant interest. Indeed, the simultaneous use of different spatial modes of the same multimode waveguide has opened new avenues in the realization of integrated nonlinear processors, thanks to the ability to tune the dispersion profiles of the different modes. In this review, we discuss the most recent advances in nonlinear multimode photonics on-chip. In the first part, we review the use of intermodal nonlinear effects for frequency generation. The use of intermodal nonlinear effects has been extensively reported, for example, for wavelength conversion for telecom applications, generation of photon pair sources for quantum optics and mid-infrared frequency generation. Then, we discuss several demonstrations of nonlinear multimode waveguides used to perform simultaneous multi-channel and multi-functional optical signal processing, such as nonlinear switching and logic operations. Next, supercontinuum generation in nonlinear multimode waveguides will be discussed. Finally, we report the use of high-quality-factor micro-resonators based on multimode waveguides for the realization of compact and widely-tunable integrated Raman lasers and optical frequency comb sources with record-low threshold power.","PeriodicalId":19027,"journal":{"name":"Nanophotonics","volume":"246 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144500759","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NanophotonicsPub Date : 2025-06-25DOI: 10.1515/nanoph-2025-0012
Mathilde Hary, Daniel Brunner, Lev Leybov, Piotr Ryczkowski, John M. Dudley, Goëry Genty
{"title":"Principles and metrics of extreme learning machines using a highly nonlinear fiber","authors":"Mathilde Hary, Daniel Brunner, Lev Leybov, Piotr Ryczkowski, John M. Dudley, Goëry Genty","doi":"10.1515/nanoph-2025-0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2025-0012","url":null,"abstract":"Optical computing offers potential for ultra high-speed and low-latency computation by leveraging the intrinsic properties of light, such as parallelism and linear as well as nonlinear ultra-high bandwidth signal transformations. Here, we explore the use of highly nonlinear optical fibers (HNLFs) as platforms for optical computing based on the concept of extreme learning machines (ELMs). To evaluate the information processing potential of the system, we consider both task-independent and task-dependent performance metrics. The former focuses on intrinsic properties such as effective dimensionality, quantified via principal component analysis (PCA) on the system response to random inputs. The latter evaluates classification task accuracy on the MNIST digit dataset, highlighting how the system performs under different compression levels and nonlinear propagation regimes. We show that input power and fiber characteristics significantly influence the dimensionality of the computational system, with longer fibers and higher dispersion producing up to 100 principal components (PCs) at input power levels of 30 mW, where the PC corresponds to the linearly independent dimensions of the system. The spectral distribution of the PC’s eigenvectors reveals that the high-dimensional dynamics facilitating computing through dimensionality expansion are located within 40 nm of the pump wavelength at 1,560 nm, providing general insight for computing with nonlinear Schrödinger equation systems. Task-dependent results demonstrate the effectiveness of HNLFs in classifying MNIST dataset images. Using input data compression through PC analysis, we inject MNIST images of various input dimensionality into the system and study the impact of input power upon classification accuracy. At optimized power levels, we achieve a classification test accuracy of 87 % ± 1.3 %, significantly surpassing the baseline of 83.7 % from linear systems. Noteworthy, we find that the best performance is not obtained at maximal input power, i.e., maximal system dimensionality, but at more than one order of magnitude lower. The same is confirmed regarding the MNIST image’s compression, where accuracy is substantially improved when strongly compressing the image to less than 50 PCs. These are highly relevant findings for the dimensioning of future, ultrafast optical computing systems that can capture and process sequential input information on femtosecond timescales.","PeriodicalId":19027,"journal":{"name":"Nanophotonics","volume":"40 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144488466","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
NanophotonicsPub Date : 2025-06-25DOI: 10.1515/nanoph-2025-0088
Anna De Vetter, James Normansell, José Palomo, Martin Mičica, Li Chen, Juliette Mangeney, Jerome Tignon, Lianhe H. Li, Alexander Giles Davies, Edmund H. Linfield, Joshua R. Freeman, Sukhdeep S. Dhillon
{"title":"Extended spectral response of cavity-based terahertz photoconductive antennas and coherent detection of quantum cascade lasers","authors":"Anna De Vetter, James Normansell, José Palomo, Martin Mičica, Li Chen, Juliette Mangeney, Jerome Tignon, Lianhe H. Li, Alexander Giles Davies, Edmund H. Linfield, Joshua R. Freeman, Sukhdeep S. Dhillon","doi":"10.1515/nanoph-2025-0088","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2025-0088","url":null,"abstract":"Coherent ultrafast detection has become an important method to study the temporal response of terahertz (THz) quantum cascade lasers (QCLs), bringing insights into the dynamics of modelocking and frequency comb operation in these complex structures. Coherent detection has been typically based on the use of nonlinear crystals and electro-optic sampling, which are less sensitive to QCLs operating at high THz frequencies. This is because their response drops rapidly with frequency owing to phase matching conditions. Here, we develop coherent detection based on THz photoconductive antennas in vertical quarter-wavelength cavities, where we can freely engineer the spectral response to enhance the THz detection at frequencies greater than 2 THz. We develop thick low temperature grown GaAs that is transferred onto polymer and metal coated substrates to create a cavity with an THz response that exceeds the response of non-cavity detectors. This vertical THz cavity also permits the planar electrode geometry to be designed independently. Indeed, we show that the THz cavity can be combined with large surface area single contact electrodes to further enhance the spectral response. Although this proof-of-principle coherent detection is not fully optimised, it is used to coherently resolve the temporal response of a double-metal THz QCL operating at 3 THz. This approach opens up perspectives to tune the response of THz photoconductive antennas and enhance their spectral response at a desired frequency.","PeriodicalId":19027,"journal":{"name":"Nanophotonics","volume":"46 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":7.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144478955","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}