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Discover the nanoscale science behind nature's vivid structural colors. This article unravels how nanostructures like photonic crystals manipulate light without pigments to generate colors in organisms. Learn how researchers apply these bioinspired designs to develop advanced optical technologies.
Researchers report a breakthrough in light manipulation with hyperbolic polaritonic crystals by using anisotropic 2D materials to control light at subwavelength scales, paving the way for advancements in imaging, optical communication, and more.
As AI and nanophotonics have distinct backgrounds, there is often a knowledge gap for those interested in this interdisciplinary area. A new book, the first of its kind, aims to introduce the fundamentals of both nanophotonics and machine learning, specifically deep learning, and to help readers understand how these fields can enhance each other.
Researchers demonstrate a new way to create chiral nanostructures using a laser beam. By carefully controlling the direction of the laser beam's vibrations, the researchers created a variety of chiral structures made of platinum oxide in unique shapes, like twisted micropillars and spiral superstructures.
Near-infrared photodetectors play a significant role in many aspects of research and daily life and twisted-angle-induced unusual electrical and optical properties in van der Waals homostructures have received extraordinary attention recently. However, these emerging properties have rarely been applied to optoelectronic devices. Here, researchers demonstrate broadband photoresponse capable of overcoming the band-gap limitation of semiconductors in the twisted lead iodide homostructures.
Artificially engineered chiral materials with exceptional light-manipulating capabilities show significantly enhanced chiroptical response and capability of light manipulation, which have emerged as a promising chiral platform for applications in biosensing, catalysis, and photonics. Scientists now report a novel class of chiral materials called bichiral nanoparticles that can easily tune the sign of circular dichroism through the hybridization of bichiral centers without inverting the geometric chirality.
In an effort to reduce the size of optical spectrometers, researchers have been working on developing miniature on-chip spectrometers that could be integrated into small handheld devices or even smartphones. Now, reducing the size down to the micrometer scale, researchers have developed a single-dot spectrometer based on an in situ modulated perovskite photodetector. The device is enabled by photogain manipulation controlled by ion redistribution in the perovskite film under an externally applied bias. This unique spectrometer design breaks the footprint-resolution restriction of spectrum analysis and leads to a new design direction of perovskite in situ modulation for the development of new functional devices.
Blackbody response is highly desired in two-dimensional (2D) infrared photodetectors, which determines their practical applications. However, limited by the thickness and complex defects of 2D materials, 2D photodetectors still suffer from problems such as low quantum efficiency and large dark current. Researchers now demonstrate fully depleted self-aligned van der Waals (vdW) photodetectors based on a heterosandwiched structure.