2021 Vol. 10, No. 6
Published. 2021, 10(6)
: 944-946
doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00541-6
Analogous to the behavior of a common converging lens for the input of tilted waves, a recent publication suggests a new optical element with an azimuthal-quadratic phase profile for the focusing of orbital angular momentum beams at distinct angular positions. Its realization in a metasurface form enables the combined measurement of orbital and spin angular momentum using a single optical component.
Published. 2021, 10(6)
: 947-949
doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00544-3
Interlayer excitons in van der Waals heterostructures have tunable electron–hole separation in both real space and momentum space, enabling unprecedented control over excitonic properties to be exploited in a wide array of future applications ranging from exciton condensation to valleytronic and optoelectronic devices.
Published. 2021, 10(6)
: 950-956
doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00531-8
Self-action nonlinearity is a key aspect – either as a foundational element or a detrimental factor – of several optical spectroscopies and photonic devices. Supercontinuum generation, wavelength converters, and chirped pulse amplification are just a few examples. The recent advent of Free Electron Lasers (FEL) fostered building on nonlinearity to propose new concepts and extend optical wavelengths paradigms for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and X-ray regimes. No evidence for intrapulse dynamics, however, has been reported at such short wavelengths, where the light-matter interactions are ruled by the sharp absorption edges of core electrons. Here, we provide experimental evidence for self-phase modulation of femtosecond FEL pulses, which we exploit for fine self-driven spectral tunability by interaction with sub-micrometric foils of selected monoatomic materials. Moving the pulse wavelength across the absorption edge, the spectral profile changes from a non-linear spectral blue-shift to a red-shifted broadening. These findings are rationalized accounting for ultrafast ionization and delayed thermal response of highly excited electrons above and below threshold, respectively.
Published. 2021, 10(6)
: 957-962
doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00540-7
The ability to visualise transparent objects such as live cells is central to understanding biological processes. Here we experimentally demonstrate a novel nanostructured coverslip that converts phase information to high-contrast intensity images. This compact device enables real-time, all-optical generation of pseudo three-dimensional images of phase objects on transmission. We show that by placing unstained human cancer cells on the device, the internal structure within the cells can be clearly seen. Our research demonstrates the significant potential of nanophotonic devices for integration into compact imaging and medical diagnostic devices.
Published. 2021, 10(6)
: 963-968
doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00539-0
Is it possible that a measurement of a spin component of a spin-1/2 particle yields the value 100? In 1988 Aharonov, Albert and Vaidman argued that upon pre- and postselection of particular spin states, weakening the coupling of a standard measurement procedure ensures this paradoxical result1 . This theoretical prediction, called weak value, was realised in numerous experiments2 -9 , but its meaning remains very controversial10 -19 , since its "anomalous" nature, i.e., the possibility to exceed the eigenvalue spectrum, as well as its "quantumness" are debated20 -22 . We address these questions by presenting the first experiment measuring anomalous weak values with just a single click, without the need for statistical averaging. The measurement uncertainty is significantly smaller than the gap between the measured weak value and the nearest eigenvalue. Beyond clarifying the meaning of weak values, demonstrating their non-statistical, single-particle nature, this result represents a breakthrough in understanding the foundations of quantum measurement, showing unprecedented measurement capability for further applications of weak values to quantum photonics.
Published. 2021, 10(6)
: 969-975
doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00545-2
Many applications requiring both spectral and spatial information at high resolution benefit from spectral imaging. Although different technical methods have been developed and commercially available, computational spectral cameras represent a compact, lightweight, and inexpensive solution. However, the tradeoff between spatial and spectral resolutions, dominated by the limited data volume and environmental noise, limits the potential of these cameras. In this study, we developed a deeply learned broadband encoding stochastic hyperspectral camera. In particular, using advanced artificial intelligence in filter design and spectrum reconstruction, we achieved 7000–11, 000 times faster signal processing and ~10 times improvement regarding noise tolerance. These improvements enabled us to precisely and dynamically reconstruct the spectra of the entire field of view, previously unreachable with compact computational spectral cameras.
Published. 2021, 10(6)
: 976-1006
doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00527-4
Solar-blind ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors (PDs) have attracted tremendous attention in the environmental, industrial, military, and biological fields. As a representative III-nitride material, AlGaN alloys have broad development prospects in the field of solar-blind detection due to their superior properties, such as tunable wide bandgaps for intrinsic UV detection. In recent decades, a variety of AlGaN-based PDs have been developed to achieve high-precision solar-blind UV detection. As integrated optoelectronic technology advances, AlGaN-based focal plane arrays (FPAs) are manufactured and exhibit outstanding solar-blind imaging capability. Considering the rapid development of AlGaN detection techniques, this paper comprehensively reviews the progress on AlGaN-based solar-blind UV PDs and FPAs. First, the basic physical properties of AlGaN are presented. The epitaxy and p-type doping problems of AlGaN alloys are then discussed. Diverse PDs, including photoconductors and Schottky, metal–semiconductor–metal (MSM), p-i-n, and avalanche photodiodes (APDs), are demonstrated, and the physical mechanisms are analyzed to improve device performance. Additionally, this paper summarizes imaging technologies used with AlGaN FPAs in recent years. Benefiting from the development of AlGaN materials and optoelectronic devices, solar-blind UV detection technology is greeted with significant revolutions.
Published. 2021, 10(6)
: 1007-1019
doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00532-7
We show for the first time that a single ultrasonic imaging fibre is capable of simultaneously accessing 3D spatial information and mechanical properties from microscopic objects. The novel measurement system consists of two ultrafast lasers that excite and detect high-frequency ultrasound from a nano-transducer that was fabricated onto the tip of a single-mode optical fibre. A signal processing technique was also developed to extract nanometric in-depth spatial measurements from GHz frequency acoustic waves, while still allowing Brillouin spectroscopy in the frequency domain. Label-free and non-contact imaging performance was demonstrated on various polymer microstructures. This singular device is equipped with optical lateral resolution, 2.5 μm, and a depth-profiling precision of 45 nm provided by acoustics. The endoscopic potential for this device is exhibited by extrapolating the single fibre to tens of thousands of fibres in an imaging bundle. Such a device catalyses future phonon endomicroscopy technology that brings the prospect of label-free in vivo histology within reach.
Published. 2021, 10(6)
: 1020-1028
doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00534-5
Realizing general processing applicable to various materials by one basic tool has long been considered a distant dream. Fortunately, ultrafast laser–matter interaction has emerged as a highly universal platform with unprecedented optical phenomena and provided implementation paths for advanced manufacturing with novel functionalities. Here, we report the establishment of a three-dimensional (3D) focal-area interference field actively induced by a single ultrafast laser in transparent dielectrics. Relying on this, we demonstrate a radically new approach of self-organized phase-transition lithography (SOPTL) to achieve super-resolution construction of embedded all-inorganic photonic textures with extremely high efficiency. The generated textures exhibit a tunable photonic bandgap (PBG) in a wide range from ~1.3 to ~2?μm. More complicated interlaced textures with adjustable structural features can be fabricated within a few seconds, which is not attainable with any other conventional techniques. Evidence suggests that the SOPTL is extendable to more than one material system. This study augments light–matter interaction physics, offers a promising approach for constructing robust photonic devices, and opens up a new research direction in advanced lithography.
Published. 2021, 10(6)
: 1029-1040
doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00538-1
For more than 150 years, scientists have advanced aberration theory to describe, analyze and eliminate imperfections that disturb the imaging quality of optical components and systems. Simultaneously, they have developed optical design methods for and manufacturing techniques of imaging systems with ever-increasing complexity and performance up to the point where they are now including optical elements that are unrestricted in their surface shape. These so-called optical freeform elements offer degrees of freedom that can greatly extend the functionalities and further boost the specifications of state-of-the-art imaging systems. However, the drastically increased number of surface coefficients of these freeform surfaces poses severe challenges for the optical design process, such that the deployment of freeform optics remained limited until today. In this paper, we present a deterministic direct optical design method for freeform imaging systems based on differential equations derived from Fermat's principle and solved using power series. The method allows calculating the optical surface coefficients that ensure minimal image blurring for each individual order of aberrations. We demonstrate the systematic, deterministic, scalable, and holistic character of our method with catoptric and catadioptric design examples. As such we introduce a disruptive methodology to design optical imaging systems from scratch, we largely reduce the "trial-and-error" approach in present-day optical design, and we pave the way to a fast-track uptake of freeform elements to create the next-generation high-end optics. We include a user application that allows users to experience this unique design method hands-on.
Published. 2021, 10(6)
: 1041-1052
doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00536-3
The multiplexing capability of fluorescence microscopy is severely limited by the broad fluorescence spectral width. Spectral imaging offers potential solutions, yet typical approaches to disperse the local emission spectra notably impede the attainable throughput. Here we show that using a single, fixed fluorescence emission detection band, through frame-synchronized fast scanning of the excitation wavelength from a white lamp via an acousto-optic tunable filter, up to six subcellular targets, labeled by common fluorophores of substantial spectral overlap, can be simultaneously imaged in live cells with low (~1%) crosstalks and high temporal resolutions (down to ~10 ms). The demonstrated capability to quantify the abundances of different fluorophores in the same sample through unmixing the excitation spectra next enables us to devise novel, quantitative imaging schemes for both bi-state and Förster resonance energy transfer fluorescent biosensors in live cells. We thus achieve high sensitivities and spatiotemporal resolutions in quantifying the mitochondrial matrix pH and intracellular macromolecular crowding, and further demonstrate, for the first time, the multiplexing of absolute pH imaging with three additional target organelles/proteins to elucidate the complex, Parkin-mediated mitophagy pathway. Together, excitation spectral microscopy provides exceptional opportunities for highly multiplexed fluorescence imaging. The prospect of acquiring fast spectral images without the need for fluorescence dispersion or care for the spectral response of the detector offers tremendous potential.
Published. 2021, 10(6)
: 1053-1060
doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00546-1
Layered type-Ⅱ Weyl semimetals, such as WTe2, MoTe2, and TaIrTe4 have been demonstrated as a supreme photodetection material with topologically enhanced responsivity and specific sensitivity to the orbital angular momentum of light. Toward future device applications with high performance and ultrafast response, it is necessary to understand the dynamical processes of hot carriers and transient electronic properties of these materials under photoexcitation. In this work, mid-infrared ultrafast spectroscopy is performed to study the dynamical evolution of the anisotropic response of TaIrTe4. The dynamical relaxation of photoexcited carriers exhibits three exponential decay components relating to optical/acoustic phonon cooling and subsequent heat transfer to the substrate. The ultrafast transient dynamics imply that TaIrTe4 is an ideal material candidate for ultrafast optoelectronic applications, especially in the long-wavelength region. The angle-resolved measurement of transient reflection reveals that the reflectivity becomes less anisotropic in the quasi-equilibrium state, indicating a reduction in the anisotropy of dynamical conductivity in presence of photoexcited hot carriers. The results are indispensable in material engineering for polarization-sensitive optoelectronics and high field electronics.
Published. 2021, 10(6)
: 1061-1069
doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00535-4
A major challenge in three-dimensional (3D) microscopy is to obtain accurate spatial information while simultaneously keeping the microscopic samples in their native states. In conventional 3D microscopy, axial resolution is inferior to spatial resolution due to the inaccessibility to side scattering signals. In this study, we demonstrate the isotropic microtomography of free-floating samples by optically rotating a sample. Contrary to previous approaches using optical tweezers with multiple foci which are only applicable to simple shapes, we exploited 3D structured light traps that can stably rotate freestanding complex-shaped microscopic specimens, and side scattering information is measured at various sample orientations to achieve isotropic resolution. The proposed method yields an isotropic resolution of 230 nm and captures structural details of colloidal multimers and live red blood cells, which are inaccessible using conventional tomographic microscopy. We envision that the proposed approach can be deployed for solving diverse imaging problems that are beyond the examples shown here.
Improving the precision of optical metrology by detecting fewer photons with biased weak measurement
Published. 2021, 10(6)
: 1070-1077
doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00543-4
In optical metrological protocols to measure physical quantities, it is, in principle, always beneficial to increase photon number n to improve measurement precision. However, practical constraints prevent the arbitrary increase of n due to the imperfections of a practical detector, especially when the detector response is dominated by the saturation effect. In this work, we show that a modified weak measurement protocol, namely, biased weak measurement significantly improves the precision of optical metrology in the presence of saturation effect. This method detects an ultra-small fraction of photons while maintains a considerable amount of metrological information. The biased pre-coupling leads to an additional reduction of photons in the post-selection and generates an extinction point in the spectrum distribution, which is extremely sensitive to the estimated parameter and difficult to be saturated. Therefore, the Fisher information can be persistently enhanced by increasing the photon number. In our magnetic-sensing experiment, biased weak measurement achieves precision approximately one order of magnitude better than those of previously used methods. The proposed method can be applied in various optical measurement schemes to remarkably mitigate the detector saturation effect with low-cost apparatuses.
Published. 2021, 10(6)
: 1078-1087
doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00550-5
Internal hydroxyl impurity is known as one of the main detrimental factors affecting the upconversion (UC) efficiency of upconversion luminescence (UCL) nanomaterials. Different from surface/ligand-related emission quenching which can be effectively diminished by, e.g., core/shell structure, internal hydroxyl is easy to be introduced in synthesis but difficult to be quantified and controlled. Therefore, it becomes an obstacle to fully understand the relevant UC mechanism and improve UC efficiency of nanomaterials. Here we report a progress in quantifying and large-range adjustment of the internal hydroxyl impurity in NaYF4 nanocrystals. By combining the spectroscopy study and model simulation, we have quantitatively unraveled the microscopic interactions underlying UCL quenching between internal hydroxyl and the sensitizers and activators, respectively. Furthermore, the internal hydroxyl-involved UC dynamical process is interpreted with a vivid concept of "Survivor effect, " i.e., the shorter the migration path of an excited state, the larger the possibility of its surviving from hydroxyl-induced quenching. Apart from the consistent experimental results, this concept can be further evidenced by Monte Carlo simulation, which monitors the variation of energy migration step distribution before and after the hydroxyl introduction. The new quantitative insights shall promote the construction of highly efficient UC materials.
Published. 2021, 10(6)
: 1088-1098
doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00552-3
Monochromatic light can be characterized by its three fundamental properties: amplitude, phase, and polarization. In this work, we propose a versatile, transmission-mode all-dielectric metasurface platform that can independently manipulate the phase and amplitude for two orthogonal states of polarization in the visible frequency range. For proof-of-concept experimental demonstration, various single-layer metasurfaces composed of subwavelength-spaced titanium-dioxide nanopillars are designed, fabricated, and characterized to exhibit the ability of polarization-switchable multidimensional light-field manipulation, including polarization-switchable grayscale nanoprinting, nonuniform cylindrical lensing, and complex-amplitude holography. We envision the metasurface platform demonstrated here to open new possibilities toward creating compact multifunctional optical devices for applications in polarization optics, information encoding, optical data storage, and security.
Published. 2021, 10(6)
: 1099-1111
doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00549-y
Microcombs—optical frequency combs generated in microresonators—have advanced tremendously in the past decade, and are advantageous for applications in frequency metrology, navigation, spectroscopy, telecommunications, and microwave photonics. Crucially, microcombs promise fully integrated miniaturized optical systems with unprecedented reductions in cost, size, weight, and power. However, the use of bulk free-space and fiber-optic components to process microcombs has restricted form factors to the table-top. Taking microcomb-based optical frequency synthesis around 1550 nm as our target application, here, we address this challenge by proposing an integrated photonics interposer architecture to replace discrete components by collecting, routing, and interfacing octave-wide microcomb-based optical signals between photonic chiplets and heterogeneously integrated devices. Experimentally, we confirm the requisite performance of the individual passive elements of the proposed interposer—octave-wide dichroics, multimode interferometers, and tunable ring filters, and implement the octave-spanning spectral filtering of a microcomb, central to the interposer, using silicon nitride photonics. Moreover, we show that the thick silicon nitride needed for bright dissipative Kerr soliton generation can be integrated with the comparatively thin silicon nitride interposer layer through octave-bandwidth adiabatic evanescent coupling, indicating a path towards future system-level consolidation. Finally, we numerically confirm the feasibility of operating the proposed interposer synthesizer as a fully assembled system. Our interposer architecture addresses the immediate need for on-chip microcomb processing to successfully miniaturize microcomb systems and can be readily adapted to other metrology-grade applications based on optical atomic clocks and high-precision navigation and spectroscopy.
Published. 2021, 10(6)
: 1112-1121
doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00542-5
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is an established biomarker of cancer metastasis. The circulation dynamics of CTCs are important for understanding the mechanisms underlying tumor cell dissemination. Although studies have revealed that the circadian rhythm may disrupt the growth of tumors, it is generally unclear whether the circadian rhythm controls the release of CTCs. In clinical examinations, the current in vitro methods for detecting CTCs in blood samples are based on a fundamental assumption that CTC counts in the peripheral blood do not change significantly over time, which is being challenged by recent studies. Since it is not practical to draw blood from patients repeatedly, a feasible strategy to investigate the circadian rhythm of CTCs is to monitor them by in vivo detection methods. Fluorescence in vivo flow cytometry (IVFC) is a powerful optical technique that is able to detect fluorescent circulating cells directly in living animals in a noninvasive manner over a long period of time. In this study, we applied fluorescence IVFC to monitor CTCs noninvasively in an orthotopic mouse model of human prostate cancer. We observed that CTCs exhibited stochastic bursts over cancer progression. The probability of the bursting activity was higher at early stages than at late stages. We longitudinally monitored CTCs over a 24-h period, and our results revealed striking daily oscillations in CTC counts that peaked at the onset of the night (active phase for rodents), suggesting that the release of CTCs might be regulated by the circadian rhythm.
Published. 2021, 10(6)
: 1122-1132
doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00548-z
2D materials are considered for applications that require strong light-matter interaction because of the apparently giant oscillator strength of the exciton transitions in the absorbance spectrum. Nevertheless, the effective oscillator strengths of these transitions have been scarcely reported, nor is there a consistent interpretation of the obtained values. Here, we analyse the transition dipole moment and the ensuing oscillator strength of the exciton transition in 2D CdSe nanoplatelets by means of the optically induced Stark effect (OSE). Intriguingly, we find that the exciton absorption line reacts to a high intensity optical field as a transition with an oscillator strength FStark that is 50 times smaller than expected based on the linear absorption coefficient. We propose that the pronounced exciton absorption line should be seen as the sum of multiple, low oscillator strength transitions, rather than a single high oscillator strength one, a feat we assign to strong exciton center-of-mass localization. Within the quantum mechanical description of excitons, this 50-fold difference between both oscillator strengths corresponds to the ratio between the coherence area of the exciton's center of mass and the total area, which yields a coherence area of a mere 6.1 nm2. Since we find that the coherence area increases with reducing temperature, we conclude that thermal effects, related to lattice vibrations, contribute to exciton localization. In further support of this localization model, we show that FStark is independent of the nanoplatelet area, correctly predicts the radiative lifetime, and lines up for strongly confined quantum dot systems.
Published. 2021, 10(6)
: 1133-1142
doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00553-2
Here, an engineered tunneling layer enhanced photocurrent multiplication through the impact ionization effect was proposed and experimentally demonstrated on the graphene/silicon heterojunction photodetectors. With considering the suitable band structure of the insulation material and their special defect states, an atomic layer deposition (ALD) prepared wide-bandgap insulating (WBI) layer of AlN was introduced into the interface of graphene/silicon heterojunction. The promoted tunneling process from this designed structure demonstrated that can effectively help the impact ionization with photogain not only for the regular minority carriers from silicon, but also for the novel hot carries from graphene. As a result, significantly enhanced photocurrent as well as simultaneously decreased dark current about one order were accomplished in this graphene/insulation/silicon (GIS) heterojunction devices with the optimized AlN thickness of ~15 nm compared to the conventional graphene/silicon (GS) devices. Specifically, at the reverse bias of −10 V, a 3.96-A W−1 responsivity with the photogain of ~5.8 for the peak response under 850-nm light illumination, and a 1.03-A W−1 responsivity with ~3.5 photogain under the 365 nm ultraviolet (UV) illumination were realized, which are even remarkably higher than those in GIS devices with either Al2O3 or the commonly employed SiO2 insulation layers. This work demonstrates a universal strategy to fabricate broadband, low-cost and high-performance photo-detecting devices towards the graphene-silicon optoelectronic integration.
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