npj Nanophotonics最新文献

Spectral synthesis of temporal response of nonlinearity through tuneable electron and phonon dynamics in a metamaterial. 通过可调谐电子和声子动力学在超材料中非线性时间响应的光谱合成。

npj Nanophotonics Pub Date : 2026-01-01 Epub Date: 2026-01-08 DOI: 10.1038/s44310-025-00098-x

Jingyi Wu, Anton Yu Bykov, Anastasiia Zaleska, Anatoly V Zayats

{"title":"Spectral synthesis of temporal response of nonlinearity through tuneable electron and phonon dynamics in a metamaterial.","authors":"Jingyi Wu, Anton Yu Bykov, Anastasiia Zaleska, Anatoly V Zayats","doi":"10.1038/s44310-025-00098-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44310-025-00098-x","url":null,"abstract":"Manipulating intensity, phase and polarisation of the electromagnetic fields on ultrafast timescales is essential for all-optical switching, optical information processing and development of novel time-variant media. Noble metal based plasmonics has provided numerous platforms for optical switching and control, enabled by strong local field enhancement, artificially engineered dispersion and strong Kerr-type free-electron nonlinearities. However, achieving precise control over switching times and spectral response remains challenging, often limited by hot-electron gas relaxation on picosecond timescales and by the intrinsic band structure of the materials. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a strong and tunable nonlinearity in a metamaterial-on-a-mirror geometry, controlled by the wavelength of excitation, which imprints a specific, non-uniform hot-electron population distribution, driving targeted electron and lattice dynamics. The synergistic exchange of electromagnetic, electronic and mechanical energies enables reflection changes on sub-300 fs timescales in selected spectral ranges, surpassing the limitations imposed by the inherent material response of metamaterial constituents. The observed effect-present in reflection due to leaky guided modes of the metamaterial, but absent in transmission-is highly spectrally selective and sensitive to polarisation of light, opening a pathway to tailoring switching rates through the choice of operating wavelength and nanostructure design. The ability to manipulate temporal, spectral, and mechanical aspects of light-matter interactions underscores new opportunities for nonlinear optical applications where polarisation diversity, spectral selectivity, and ultrafast modulation are important.","PeriodicalId":501711,"journal":{"name":"npj Nanophotonics","volume":"3 1","pages":"2"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12783046/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145954881","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Polarization-independent dielectric gradient near-perfect absorbers for aqueous mid-infrared molecular sensing. 用于水相中红外分子传感的偏振无关介电梯度近完美吸收器。

npj Nanophotonics Pub Date : 2026-01-01 Epub Date: 2026-04-13 DOI: 10.1038/s44310-026-00121-9

Xingye Yang, Tao Jiang, Lina Rohrer, Jonas Biechteler, Andreas Tittl

{"title":"Polarization-independent dielectric gradient near-perfect absorbers for aqueous mid-infrared molecular sensing.","authors":"Xingye Yang, Tao Jiang, Lina Rohrer, Jonas Biechteler, Andreas Tittl","doi":"10.1038/s44310-026-00121-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44310-026-00121-9","url":null,"abstract":"Mid-infrared molecular sensing offers molecule-specific vibrational fingerprints, yet practical implementation with nanophotonic platforms is challenged by system complexity and strong signal damping in aqueous environments. Dielectric metasurfaces overcome ohmic losses and local heating constraints of metallic resonators and can support high-quality-factor resonances with spectral selectivity, suitable for image-based spectrometer-less sensing. However, their spatially extended near-fields typically render them susceptible to environmental absorption, preventing operation in water. We demonstrate a compact dielectric perfect-absorber metasurface combining C4-symmetric quasi-bound states in the continuum (qBICs) with a dual-gradient architecture. The C4-symmetric unit cells ensure polarization-independent resonances, enabling efficient utilization of incident light under arbitrary polarization states. The gradient architecture independently controls radiative loss and resonance wavelength, allowing distinct coupling regimes within one metasurface while achieving high absorbance (>0.8). We demonstrate poly(methyl methacrylate) sensing in air with ~20% absorbance envelope modulation under arbitrary polarization. Furthermore, we introduce a sensing configuration utilizing a 700 nm residual thin-water film that preserves qBIC (absorbance ~0.5) near the prominent water absorption peak. This enables the first demonstration of dielectric metasurface-based mid-infrared molecular sensing under a water background, achieving >30% absorbance envelope modulation. This platform extends the utility of dielectric metasurfaces to aqueous environments and supports versatile, spectrometer-less sensing schemes.","PeriodicalId":501711,"journal":{"name":"npj Nanophotonics","volume":"3 1","pages":"25"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13076194/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147694225","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Site-control of InAs quantum dots on InP by droplet epitaxy in MOVPE. MOVPE中液滴外延对InP上InAs量子点的位置控制。

npj Nanophotonics Pub Date : 2026-01-01 Epub Date: 2026-06-04 DOI: 10.1038/s44310-026-00139-z

Guoliang Zhou, Elisa M Sala, Young In Na, Paul W Fry, Dominic J Hallett, Alistair J Brash, Luke Wilson, Jon Heffernan

引用次数: 0

Waveguide-integrated colour centres in silicon carbide with broadband photonic crystal reflectors for efficient readout. 波导集成的颜色中心在碳化硅与宽带光子晶体反射器有效读出。

npj Nanophotonics Pub Date : 2026-01-01 Epub Date: 2026-06-15 DOI: 10.1038/s44310-026-00118-4

Marcel Krumrein, Julian M Bopp, Timo Steidl, Wolfgang Knolle, Jawad Ul-Hassan, Vadim Vorobyov, Tim Schröder, Jörg Wrachtrup

{"title":"Waveguide-integrated colour centres in silicon carbide with broadband photonic crystal reflectors for efficient readout.","authors":"Marcel Krumrein, Julian M Bopp, Timo Steidl, Wolfgang Knolle, Jawad Ul-Hassan, Vadim Vorobyov, Tim Schröder, Jörg Wrachtrup","doi":"10.1038/s44310-026-00118-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44310-026-00118-4","url":null,"abstract":"Spin-active colour centres in 4H silicon carbide are promising candidates as building blocks for quantum information applications. To increase the photon count rate of the emitters at low temperatures, the colour centres must be integrated into nanophotonic structures and characterised under cryogenic conditions. Here, we design and fabricate waveguide structures attached with an efficient Dinosaur photonic crystal reflector at one side. The devices show broadband reflection over a range of 60 THz with a peak reflectance above 80 %. Additionally, colour centres were integrated into these structures and characterised at cryogenic conditions. The emission was collected by a tapered-waveguide-tapered-fibre interface. Although the spectral stability of the emitters must be further improved for high excitation powers, the saturation intensity in standard PLE measurements is I s,LT = (103.8 ± 4.2) kcps. The count rate can be further improved to about 125 kcps with a charge-resonance check measurement scheme. To highlight the relevance of our devices, we theoretically show that these count rates enable optical single-shot readout with a fidelity exceeding 98%.","PeriodicalId":501711,"journal":{"name":"npj Nanophotonics","volume":"3 1","pages":"35"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13269121/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148274407","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Simplified aluminum nitride processing for low-loss integrated photonics and nonlinear optics. 用于低损耗集成光子学和非线性光学的氮化铝简化加工。

npj Nanophotonics Pub Date : 2026-01-01 Epub Date: 2026-03-04 DOI: 10.1038/s44310-026-00107-7

Haochen Yan, Shuangyou Zhang, Arghadeep Pal, Alekhya Ghosh, Abdullah Alabbadi, Masoud Kheyri, Toby Bi, Yaojing Zhang, Irina Harder, Olga Ohletz, Florentina Gannott, Alexander Gumann, Eduard Butzen, Katrin Ludwig, Pascal Del'Haye

{"title":"Simplified aluminum nitride processing for low-loss integrated photonics and nonlinear optics.","authors":"Haochen Yan, Shuangyou Zhang, Arghadeep Pal, Alekhya Ghosh, Abdullah Alabbadi, Masoud Kheyri, Toby Bi, Yaojing Zhang, Irina Harder, Olga Ohletz, Florentina Gannott, Alexander Gumann, Eduard Butzen, Katrin Ludwig, Pascal Del'Haye","doi":"10.1038/s44310-026-00107-7","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44310-026-00107-7","url":null,"abstract":"Aluminum nitride (AlN) is an extremely promising material for integrated photonics because of the combination of strong χ(2) and χ(3) nonlinearities. However, the intrinsic hardness of the material and charging effects during electron beam lithography make AlN nanofabrication a challenging process. Conventional approaches often require multiple hard masks and a metal mask to fabricate nanostructures. In this letter, we report a novel, simple method to fabricate AlN microresonators by using a single layer of silicon nitride mask combined with a thin conductive polymer layer. The conductive layer can be conveniently removed during developing without requiring an additional etching step. We achieve a high etching selectivity of 4:1 between AlN and the mask, enabling mid-infrared photonic device fabrication, as well as high intrinsic quality (Q) factors of up to 1.0 × 10⁶ in AlN microresonators. Furthermore, we demonstrate several nonlinear phenomena within these devices, including frequency comb generation, Raman lasing, third-harmonic generation, and supercontinuum generation.","PeriodicalId":501711,"journal":{"name":"npj Nanophotonics","volume":"3 1","pages":"13"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12960216/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147380347","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Reconfigurable spatial-mode generation and multiplexing on a scalable photonic chip. 可扩展光子芯片上的可重构空间模式生成和多路复用。

npj Nanophotonics Pub Date : 2026-01-01 Epub Date: 2026-03-31 DOI: 10.1038/s44310-026-00115-7

Xingguo Xiao, Yuxuan Chen, Bishal Bhandari, Simon Levasseur, Leslie A Rusch, Wei Shi

{"title":"Reconfigurable spatial-mode generation and multiplexing on a scalable photonic chip.","authors":"Xingguo Xiao, Yuxuan Chen, Bishal Bhandari, Simon Levasseur, Leslie A Rusch, Wei Shi","doi":"10.1038/s44310-026-00115-7","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44310-026-00115-7","url":null,"abstract":"Spatial modes have found widespread applications in spatial division multiplexing (SDM), sensing, quantum information processing, and on-chip machine learning. The capability to manipulate multiple mode bases will greatly enhance versatility and accelerate the adoption of SDM by remaining agnostic to the specific mode types traversing optical networks. Programmable photonic integrated circuits offer compact and flexible control over spatial modes. In this work, we design and demonstrate a reconfigurable spatial mode generator utilizing a programmable silicon photonic chip. Our architecture leverages orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes as the basis to generate linear polarized (LP) modes and cylindrical vector (CV) modes, providing a scalable solution for spatial mode manipulation across amplitude, phase, and polarization domains. Using a proof-of-concept device, we experimentally generate ten distinct OAM modes and eight LP modes. Furthermore, we numerically analyze experimental errors and propose methods to enhance modal purity and enable effective vector mode generation.","PeriodicalId":501711,"journal":{"name":"npj Nanophotonics","volume":"3 1","pages":"19"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13038407/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147611171","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Chiral quantum optics with scalable quantum dot dimers. 具有可伸缩量子点二聚体的手性量子光学。

npj Nanophotonics Pub Date : 2026-01-01 Epub Date: 2026-09-09 DOI: 10.1038/s44310-026-00148-y

L Hallacy, D Hallett, A Fenzl, N J Martin, R Dost, A Verma, J Fletcher, I Farrer, L Antwis, M S Skolnick, L R Wilson

引用次数: 0

AlGaN/AlN heterostructures: an emerging platform for integrated photonics. AlGaN/AlN异质结构：集成光子学的新兴平台。

npj Nanophotonics Pub Date : 2025-01-01 Epub Date: 2025-01-07 DOI: 10.1038/s44310-024-00048-z

Sinan Gündoğdu, Sofia Pazzagli, Tommaso Pregnolato, Tim Kolbe, Sylvia Hagedorn, Markus Weyers, Tim Schröder

{"title":"AlGaN/AlN heterostructures: an emerging platform for integrated photonics.","authors":"Sinan Gündoğdu, Sofia Pazzagli, Tommaso Pregnolato, Tim Kolbe, Sylvia Hagedorn, Markus Weyers, Tim Schröder","doi":"10.1038/s44310-024-00048-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44310-024-00048-z","url":null,"abstract":"We introduce a novel material for integrated photonics and investigate aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) on aluminum nitride (AlN) templates as a platform for developing reconfigurable and on-chip nonlinear optical devices. AlGaN combines compatibility with standard photonic fabrication technologies and high electro-optic modulation capabilities with low loss over a broad spectral range, from UVC to long-wave infrared, making it a viable material for complex photonic applications. In this work, we design and grow AlGaN/AlN heterostructures and integrate several photonic components. In particular, we fabricate edge couplers, low-loss waveguides, directional couplers, and tunable high-quality factor ring resonators. These devices will enable nonlinear light-matter interaction and quantum functionality. The comprehensive platform we present in this work paves the way for photon-pair generation applications, on-chip quantum frequency conversion, and fast electro-optic modulation for switching and routing classical and quantum light fields.","PeriodicalId":501711,"journal":{"name":"npj Nanophotonics","volume":"2 1","pages":"2"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11706782/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142960981","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Linear optical wave energy redistribution methods for photonic signal processing. 光子信号处理中的线性光波能量重分配方法。

npj Nanophotonics Pub Date : 2025-01-01 Epub Date: 2025-04-03 DOI: 10.1038/s44310-025-00060-x

Connor Rowe, Xinyi Zhu, Benjamin Crockett, Geunweon Lim, Majid Goodarzi, Manuel Fernández, James van Howe, Hao Sun, Saket Kaushal, Afsaneh Shoeib, José Azaña

{"title":"Linear optical wave energy redistribution methods for photonic signal processing.","authors":"Connor Rowe, Xinyi Zhu, Benjamin Crockett, Geunweon Lim, Majid Goodarzi, Manuel Fernández, James van Howe, Hao Sun, Saket Kaushal, Afsaneh Shoeib, José Azaña","doi":"10.1038/s44310-025-00060-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44310-025-00060-x","url":null,"abstract":"Manipulating the phase of an optical wave over time and frequency gives full control to the user to implement a wide variety of energy preserving transformations directly in the analogue optical domain. These can be achieved using widely available linear mechanisms, such as temporal phase modulation and spectral phase filtering. The techniques based on these linear optical wave energy redistribution (OWER) methods are inherently energy efficient and have significant speed and bandwidth advantages over digital signal processing. We describe several recent OWER methods for optical signal processing, including denoising passive amplification, real-time spectrogram analysis, passive logic computing, and more. These functionalities are relevant whenever the signal is found on a classical or quantum optical wave, or could be upconverted from radio frequencies or microwaves, and they are of interest for a wide range of applications in telecommunications, sensing, metrology, biomedical imaging, and astronomy. The energy preservation of these methods makes them particularly interesting for quantum optics applications. Furthermore, many of the individual components have been demonstrated on-chip, enabling miniaturization for applications where size and weight are a main constraint.","PeriodicalId":501711,"journal":{"name":"npj Nanophotonics","volume":"2 1","pages":"13"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11968407/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143797548","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Ultrafast all-optical switching in nonlinear 3R-MoS₂ van der Waals metasurfaces. 非线性3R-MoS2范德华超表面的超快全光开关。

npj Nanophotonics Pub Date : 2025-01-01 Epub Date: 2025-09-02 DOI: 10.1038/s44310-025-00083-4

Levin Seidt, Thomas Weber, Albert A Seredin, Thomas Possmayer, Roman Savelev, Mihail I Petrov, Stefan A Maier, Andreas Tittl, Leonardo de S Menezes, Luca Sortino

{"title":"Ultrafast all-optical switching in nonlinear 3R-MoS2 van der Waals metasurfaces.","authors":"Levin Seidt, Thomas Weber, Albert A Seredin, Thomas Possmayer, Roman Savelev, Mihail I Petrov, Stefan A Maier, Andreas Tittl, Leonardo de S Menezes, Luca Sortino","doi":"10.1038/s44310-025-00083-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44310-025-00083-4","url":null,"abstract":"Second-order nonlinear optical processes are fundamental to photonics, spectroscopy, and information technologies, with material platforms playing a pivotal role in advancing these applications. Here, we demonstrate the exceptional nonlinear optical properties of the van der Waals crystal 3R-MoS2, a rhombohedral polymorph exhibiting high second-order optical susceptibility (χ (2)) and remarkable second-harmonic generation (SHG) capabilities. By designing high quality factor resonances in 3R-MoS2 metasurfaces supporting quasi-bound states in the continuum (qBIC), we first demonstrate SHG efficiency enhancement exceeding 102. Additionally, by using degenerate pump-probe spectroscopy, we harness the C 3v system's symmetry to realize ultrafast SHG polarization switching with near-unity modulation depth. The operation speeds are limited only by the excitation pulse duration, allowing its characterization via the nonlinear autocorrelation function. These findings establish 3R-MoS2 as a transformative platform for nanoscale nonlinear optics, offering large conversion efficiencies and ultrafast response times for advanced pulse measurement devices, integrated photonics, and quantum technologies.","PeriodicalId":501711,"journal":{"name":"npj Nanophotonics","volume":"2 1","pages":"37"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12404986/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145002442","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0