NEWSROOM

Using a new technique, the ETH researchers succeeded in creating the first lithium niobate metalenses with precisely engineered nanostructures. While functioning as normal light focusing lenses, these devices can simultaneously change the wavelength of laser light. When infrared light with a wavelength of 800 nanometres is sent through the metalens, visible radiation with a wavelength of 400 nanometres emerges on the other side and is directed at a designated point.

Crystals are solid materials made up of particles that arrange themselves in repeating patterns. This process of self-assembly—“orchestrating order from chaos,” as the researchers describe it—was once thought to follow a predictable, classic pattern of growth. But instead of always forming building block by building block, scientists are learning that crystals can grow through more complex pathways.

Researchers from Max Born Institute have demonstrated a successful way to control and manipulate nanoscale magnetic bits — the building blocks of digital data — using an ultrafast laser pulse and plasmonic gold nanostructures. The findings were published in Nano Letters.

Diamonds with certain optically active defects can be used as highly sensitive sensors or qubits for quantum computers, where the quantum information is stored in the electron spin state of these colour centres. However, the spin states have to be read out optically, which is often experimentally complex. Now, a team at HZB has developed an elegant method using a photo voltage to detect the individual and local spin states of these defects. This could lead to a much more comp

In twisted moiré photonic crystals, how the layers twist and overlap can change how the material interact with light. By changing the twist angle and the spacing between layers, these materials can be fine-tuned to control and manipulate different aspects of light simultaneously — meaning the multiple optical components typically needed to simultaneous measure light’s phase, polarization, and wavelength could be replaced with one device.

A new active metasurface, the electrical-programmable graphene field effect transistor (Gr-FET), from the labs of Sheng Shen and Xu Zhang...