2022 Vol. 11, No. 1

Light People
Light People: Professor Byoungho Lee
Hui Wang, Cun Yu
Published. 2022, 11(1) : 2-6 doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00683-7
Major developments were made recently in both VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) technologies, which became the focus of attention. In recent years, MR (mixed reality) technology has also emerged, and optical components play an irreplaceable role in these technologies.Professor Byoungho Lee, who graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and currently works at Seoul National University in South Korea, has been committed to the development of optical components used in VR and AR technologies. As a pioneer of optical electronics in Korea, he is involved in various well-known academic organizations in the optical field, such as the Optica, SPIE, and IEEE, as well as serving as the president of the Optical Society of Korea, leading the direction of the development of optical industry in Korea. As the ambassador of China-Korea Optoelectronics Exchange, Prof. Lee has also played an active role in Chinese optical events and activities. Over the years, he and the Journal Light: Science & Applications (LIGHT) have made progress together and have both made their names in the vast field of optoelectronics.So where did the story between Prof. Lee and the LIGHT journal begin? And what kind of link does the professor have with Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics (CIOMP)? How did he become a pioneer in optoelectronics technology? These are the questions we are eager to ask Prof. Byoungho Lee.The future cannot be predicted, but it can be invented, said Dennis Gabor who had invented holography. The pace of human technological advancements has never stopped. Who is to say that we cannot take a virtual tour of the Palace Museum or explore the north and south poles in the future? Scientists like Prof. Lee are working hard to use technology to provide mankind with an intelligent lifestyle, and lead a new technological trend. I am sure we are all looking forward to it.
Light People: Professor Jianhua Jiang
Ying Zhang
Published. 2022, 11(1) : 7-12 doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00698-0
Recently, Prof. Jianhua Jiang from Soochow University of China accepted an interview from Light: Science & Applications. Prof. Jiang works on topological photonics, topological phononics, and nonequilibrium physics. On this issue, he discusses the challenges and opportunities in topological photonics, topological phononics, and other topological synthetic systems. He also shares his experiences in cutting-edge research, the education of graduate students, and other challenges faced by junior researchers. Finally, he gives remarks and suggestions for Light: Science & Applications. Light People is a featured column of high-end interviews with outstanding scientists. It is our great honor to invite Prof. Jianhua Jiang, an outstanding young scientist, to showcase his research life and the story behind his success.
Review
Modeling electronic and optical properties of Ⅲ–Ⅴ quantum dots—selected recent developments
Alexander Mittelstädt, Andrei Schliwa, Petr Klenovský
Published. 2022, 11(1) : 13-26 doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00700-9
Electronic properties of selected quantum dot (QD) systems are surveyed based on the multi-band k·p method, which we benchmark by direct comparison to the empirical tight-binding algorithm, and we also discuss the newly developed "linear combination of quantum dot orbitals" method. Furthermore, we focus on two major complexes: First, the role of antimony incorporation in InGaAs/GaAs submonolayer QDs and In1−xGax AsySb1−y/GaP QDs, and second, the theory of QD-based quantum cascade lasers and the related prospect of room temperature lasing.
Articles
Far-field super-resolution ghost imaging with a deep neural network constraint
Fei Wang, Chenglong Wang, Mingliang Chen, Wenlin Gong, Yu Zhang, et al.
Published. 2022, 11(1) : 27-37 doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00680-w
Ghost imaging (GI) facilitates image acquisition under low-light conditions by single-pixel measurements and thus has great potential in applications in various fields ranging from biomedical imaging to remote sensing. However, GI usually requires a large amount of single-pixel samplings in order to reconstruct a high-resolution image, imposing a practical limit for its applications. Here we propose a far-field super-resolution GI technique that incorporates the physical model for GI image formation into a deep neural network. The resulting hybrid neural network does not need to pre-train on any dataset, and allows the reconstruction of a far-field image with the resolution beyond the diffraction limit. Furthermore, the physical model imposes a constraint to the network output, making it effectively interpretable. We experimentally demonstrate the proposed GI technique by imaging a flying drone, and show that it outperforms some other widespread GI techniques in terms of both spatial resolution and sampling ratio. We believe that this study provides a new framework for GI, and paves a way for its practical applications.
A flexible capacitive photoreceptor for the biomimetic retina
Mani Teja Vijjapu, Mohammed E. Fouda, Agamyrat Agambayev, Chun Hong Kang, Chun-Ho Lin, et al.
Published. 2022, 11(1) : 38-49 doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00686-4
Neuromorphic vision sensors have been extremely beneficial in developing energy-efficient intelligent systems for robotics and privacy-preserving security applications. There is a dire need for devices to mimic the retina's photoreceptors that encode the light illumination into a sequence of spikes to develop such sensors. Herein, we develop a hybrid perovskite-based flexible photoreceptor whose capacitance changes proportionally to the light intensity mimicking the retina's rod cells, paving the way for developing an efficient artificial retina network. The proposed device constitutes a hybrid nanocomposite of perovskites (methyl-ammonium lead bromide) and the ferroelectric terpolymer (polyvinylidene fluoride trifluoroethylene-chlorofluoroethylene). A metal-insulator-metal type capacitor with the prepared composite exhibits the unique and photosensitive capacitive behavior at various light intensities in the visible light spectrum. The proposed photoreceptor mimics the spectral sensitivity curve of human photopic vision. The hybrid nanocomposite is stable in ambient air for 129 weeks, with no observable degradation of the composite due to the encapsulation of hybrid perovskites in the hydrophobic polymer. The functionality of the proposed photoreceptor to recognize handwritten digits (MNIST) dataset using an unsupervised trained spiking neural network with 72.05% recognition accuracy is demonstrated. This demonstration proves the potential of the proposed sensor for neuromorphic vision applications.
Polarization modulation with optical lock-in detection reveals universal fluorescence anisotropy of subcellular structures in live cells
Meiling Guan, Miaoyan Wang, Karl Zhanghao, Xu Zhang, Meiqi Li, et al.
Published. 2022, 11(1) : 50-62 doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00689-1
The orientation of fluorophores can reveal crucial information about the structure and dynamics of their associated subcellular organelles. Despite significant progress in super-resolution, fluorescence polarization microscopy remains limited to unique samples with relatively strong polarization modulation and not applicable to the weak polarization signals in samples due to the excessive background noise. Here we apply optical lock-in detection to amplify the weak polarization modulation with super-resolution. This novel technique, termed optical lock-in detection super-resolution dipole orientation mapping (OLID-SDOM), could achieve a maximum of 100 frames per second and rapid extraction of 2D orientation, and distinguish distance up to 50 nm, making it suitable for monitoring structural dynamics concerning orientation changes in vivo. OLID-SDOM was employed to explore the universal anisotropy of a large variety of GFP-tagged subcellular organelles, including mitochondria, lysosome, Golgi, endosome, etc. We found that OUF (Orientation Uniformity Factor) of OLID-SDOM can be specific for different subcellular organelles, indicating that the anisotropy was related to the function of the organelles, and OUF can potentially be an indicator to distinguish normal and abnormal cells (even cancer cells). Furthermore, dual-color super-resolution OLID-SDOM imaging of lysosomes and actins demonstrates its potential in studying dynamic molecular interactions. The subtle anisotropy changes of expanding and shrinking dendritic spines in live neurons were observed with real-time OLID-SDOM. Revealing previously unobservable fluorescence anisotropy in various samples and indicating their underlying dynamic molecular structural changes, OLID-SDOM expands the toolkit for live cell research.
Ultrafast imaging of terahertz electric waveforms using quantum dots
Moritz B. Heindl, Nicholas Kirkwood, Tobias Lauster, Julia A. Lang, Markus Retsch, et al.
Published. 2022, 11(1) : 63-68 doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00693-5
Microscopic electric fields govern the majority of elementary excitations in condensed matter and drive electronics at frequencies approaching the Terahertz (THz) regime. However, only few imaging schemes are able to resolve sub-wavelength fields in the THz range, such as scanning-probe techniques, electro-optic sampling, and ultrafast electron microscopy. Still, intrinsic constraints on sample geometry, acquisition speed and field strength limit their applicability. Here, we harness the quantum-confined Stark-effect to encode ultrafast electric near-fields into colloidal quantum dot luminescence. Our approach, termed Quantum-probe Field Microscopy (QFIM), combines far-field imaging of visible photons with phase-resolved sampling of electric waveforms. By capturing ultrafast movies, we spatio-temporally resolve a Terahertz resonance inside a bowtie antenna and unveil the propagation of a Terahertz waveguide excitation deeply in the sub-wavelength regime. The demonstrated QFIM approach is compatible with strong-field excitation and sub-micrometer resolution—introducing a direct route towards ultrafast field imaging of complex nanodevices in-operando.
Mid-infrared hyperchaos of interband cascade lasers
Yu Deng, Zhuo-Fei Fan, Bin-Bin Zhao, Xing-Guang Wang, Shiyuan Zhao, et al.
Published. 2022, 11(1) : 69-78 doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00697-1
Chaos in nonlinear dynamical systems is featured with irregular appearance and with high sensitivity to initial conditions. Near-infrared light chaos based on semiconductor lasers has been extensively studied and has enabled various applications. Here, we report a fully-developed hyperchaos in the mid-infrared regime, which is produced from interband cascade lasers subject to the external optical feedback. Lyapunov spectrum analysis demonstrates that the chaos exhibits three positive Lyapunov exponents. Particularly, the chaotic signal covers a broad frequency range up to the GHz level, which is two to three orders of magnitude broader than existed mid-infrared chaos solutions. The interband cascade lasers produce either periodic oscillations or low-frequency fluctuations before bifurcating to hyperchaos. This hyperchaos source is valuable for developing long-reach secure optical communication links and remote chaotic Lidar systems, taking advantage of the high-transmission windows of the atmosphere in the mid-infrared regime.
Drastic transitions of excited state and coupling regime in all-inorganic perovskite microcavities characterized by exciton/plasmon hybrid natures
Shuki Enomoto, Tomoya Tagami, Yusuke Ueda, Yuta Moriyama, Kentaro Fujiwara, et al.
Published. 2022, 11(1) : 79-86 doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00701-8
Lead-halide perovskites are highly promising for various optoelectronic applications, including laser devices. However, fundamental photophysics explaining the coherent-light emission from this material system is so intricate and often the subject of debate. Here, we systematically investigate photoluminescence properties of all-inorganic perovskite microcavity at room temperature and discuss the excited state and the light–matter coupling regime depending on excitation density. Angle-resolved photoluminescence clearly exhibits that the microcavity system shows a transition from weak coupling regime to strong coupling regime, revealing the increase in correlated electron–hole pairs. With pumping fluence above the threshold, the photoluminescence signal shows a lasing behavior with bosonic condensation characteristics, accompanied by long-range phase coherence. The excitation density required for the lasing behavior, however, is found to exceed the Mott density, excluding the exciton as the excited state. These results demonstrate that the polaritonic Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer state originates the strong coupling formation and the lasing behavior.
Phase Diversity Electro-optic Sampling: A new approach to single-shot terahertz waveform recording
Eléonore Roussel, Christophe Szwaj, Clément Evain, Bernd Steffen, Christopher Gerth, et al.
Published. 2022, 11(1) : 87-100 doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00696-2
Recording electric field evolution in single-shot with THz bandwidth is needed in science including spectroscopy, plasmas, biology, chemistry, Free-Electron Lasers, accelerators, and material inspection. However, the potential application range depends on the possibility to achieve sub-picosecond resolution over a long time window, which is a largely open problem for single-shot techniques. To solve this problem, we present a new conceptual approach for the so-called spectral decoding technique, where a chirped laser pulse interacts with a THz signal in a Pockels crystal, and is analyzed using a grating optical spectrum analyzer. By borrowing mathematical concepts from photonic time stretch theory and radio-frequency communication, we deduce a novel dual-output electro-optic sampling system, for which the input THz signal can be numerically retrieved—with unprecedented resolution—using the so-called phase diversity technique. We show numerically and experimentally that this approach enables the recording of THz waveforms in single-shot over much longer durations and/or higher bandwidth than previous spectral decoding techniques. We present and test the proposed DEOS (Diversity Electro-Optic Sampling) design for recording 1.5 THz bandwidth THz pulses, over 20 ps duration, in single-shot. Then we demonstrate the potential of DEOS in accelerator physics by recording, in two successive shots, the shape of 200 fs RMS relativistic electron bunches at European X-FEL, over 10 ps recording windows. The designs presented here can be used directly for accelerator diagnostics, characterization of THz sources, and single-shot Time-Domain Spectroscopy.
Towards high-power mid-IR light source tunable from 3.8 to 4.5 µm by HBr-filled hollow-core silica fibres
Zhiyue Zhou, Zefeng Wang, Wei Huang, Yulong Cui, Hao Li, et al.
Published. 2022, 11(1) : 101-113 doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00703-6
Fibre lasers operating at the mid-IR have attracted enormous interest due to the plethora of applications in defence, security, medicine, and so on. However, no continuous-wave (CW) fibre lasers beyond 4 μm based on rare-earth-doped fibres have been demonstrated thus far. Here, we report efficient mid-IR laser emission from HBr-filled silica hollow-core fibres (HCFs) for the first time. By pumping with a self-developed thulium-doped fibre amplifier seeded by several diode lasers over the range of 1940–1983 nm, narrow linewidth mid-IR emission from 3810 to 4496 nm has been achieved with a maximum laser power of about 500 mW and a slope efficiency of approximately 18%. To the best of our knowledge, the wavelength of 4496 nm with strong absorption in silica-based fibres is the longest emission wavelength from a CW fibre laser, and the span of 686 nm is also the largest tuning range achieved to date for any CW fibre laser. By further reducing the HCF transmission loss, increasing the pump power, improving the coupling efficiency, and optimizing the fibre length together with the pressure, the laser efficiency and output power are expected to increase significantly. This work opens new opportunities for broadly tunable high-power mid-IR fibre lasers, especially beyond 4 μm.
High-throughput volumetric adaptive optical imaging using compressed time-reversal matrix
Hojun Lee, Seokchan Yoon, Pascal Loohuis, Jin Hee Hong, Sungsam Kang, et al.
Published. 2022, 11(1) : 114-126 doi: 10.1038/s41377-021-00705-4
Deep-tissue optical imaging suffers from the reduction of resolving power due to tissue-induced optical aberrations and multiple scattering noise. Reflection matrix approaches recording the maps of backscattered waves for all the possible orthogonal input channels have provided formidable solutions for removing severe aberrations and recovering the ideal diffraction-limited spatial resolution without relying on fluorescence labeling and guide stars. However, measuring the full input–output response of the tissue specimen is time-consuming, making the real-time image acquisition difficult. Here, we present the use of a time-reversal matrix, instead of the reflection matrix, for fast high-resolution volumetric imaging of a mouse brain. The time-reversal matrix reduces two-way problem to one-way problem, which effectively relieves the requirement for the coverage of input channels. Using a newly developed aberration correction algorithm designed for the time-reversal matrix, we demonstrated the correction of complex aberrations using as small as 2% of the complete basis while maintaining the image reconstruction fidelity comparable to the fully sampled reflection matrix. Due to nearly 100-fold reduction in the matrix recording time, we could achieve real-time aberration-correction imaging for a field of view of 40 × 40 µm2 (176 × 176 pixels) at a frame rate of 80 Hz. Furthermore, we demonstrated high-throughput volumetric adaptive optical imaging of a mouse brain by recording a volume of 128 × 128 × 125 µm3 (568 × 568 × 125 voxels) in 3.58 s, correcting tissue aberrations at each and every 1 µm depth section, and visualizing myelinated axons with a lateral resolution of 0.45 µm and an axial resolution of 2 µm.
Mid-infrared-perturbed molecular vibrational signatures in plasmonic nanocavities
Rohit Chikkaraddy, Angelos Xomalis, Lukas A. Jakob, Jeremy J. Baumberg
Published. 2022, 11(1) : 127-135 doi: 10.1038/s41377-022-00709-8
Recent developments in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) enable observation of single-bond vibrations in real time at room temperature. By contrast, mid-infrared (MIR) vibrational spectroscopy is limited to inefficient slow detection. Here we develop a new method for MIR sensing using SERS. This method utilizes nanoparticle-on-foil (NPoF) nanocavities supporting both visible and MIR plasmonic hotspots in the same nanogap formed by a monolayer of molecules. Molecular SERS signals from individual NPoF nanocavities are modulated in the presence of MIR photons. The strength of this modulation depends on the MIR wavelength, and is maximized at the 6–12 μm absorption bands of SiO2 or polystyrene placed under the foil. Using a single-photon lock-in detection scheme we time-resolve the rise and decay of the signal in a few 100 ns. Our observations reveal that the phonon resonances of SiO2 can trap intense MIR surface plasmons within the Reststrahlen band, tuning the visible-wavelength localized plasmons by reversibly perturbing the localized few-nm-thick water shell trapped in the nanostructure crevices. This suggests new ways to couple nanoscale bond vibrations for optomechanics, with potential to push detection limits down to single-photon and single-molecule regimes.