Nanophotonics is in its infancy, but a recently published European roadmap is the first attempt to paint a detailed picture of the industry that could emerge in the future.
Optical antennas are the short-wavelength equivalent of the common radiofrequency structures. Taking this analogy one step further, the design concepts of radiofrequency lumped circuit elements can effectively be transplanted to optical wavelengths.
Researchers in Germany have shown that an ultrafast electron beam can be used to probe the dynamics of laser-generated plasmas with picosecond resolution.
The ability to tune the resonant frequency of a metamaterial in the terahertz region will help to overcome some of the limitations of customary designs demonstrated so far. The result could be a new breed of active, frequency-agile devices that are controlled by light.
The ability to distinguish how many photons comprise a particular state of light leads to significant benefits in practical quantum information processing and quantum cryptography. Superconducting nanostructures provide an effective solution at telecom wavelengths.
Optical-frequency antennas efficiently couple light into very small volumes. Introducing an important concept from radiofrequency antenna design, that of loading with so-called lumped circuit elements, may provide a way of tuning the frequency response of optical nanoantennas.
Laser-generated plasmas are important for the creation of X-ray lasers and attosecond light pulses, but observing the internal dynamics of a plasma is difficult. This paper reports a method for real-time imaging of the electric-field distribution in such plasmas with ultrahigh temporal resolution, yielding a new insight into their behaviour
