Themed collection Photonics

This review summarizes recent advances in dielectric and plasmonic nanowire waveguides and their hybridization towards better device performance.

Opto-electronics on/with paper is fostering a novel generation of flexible and recyclable devices for sunlight harvesting and intelligent optical sensing.

This review summarizes the recent developments in flexible mechanochromic photonic crystals, including the inspirations of the material from nature, principles for fabrication, characterizations of mechanical properties, as well as applications in smart strain-colour sensing.

The schematic of metamaterials applied in wireless power transfer.

Terahertz radiation refers to a broad electromagnetic spectrum range between microwave and infrared waves, which is also known as the terahertz gap due to inadequate materials and technologies for its generation and manipulation.

A review of recent advances in the synthesis of environmentally friendly and earth-abundant colloidal chalcogenide nanocrystals for solar cells.

SrTiO₃ as a disruptive technological solution to the inflated expectations of plasmonics, targeting the mid and far infrared wavelengths.

Polycrystalline colloidal crystals can block ultraviolet light of 290–400 nm, regardless of the incident angle, while maintaining transparency in the visible light region.

Liquid crystalline (LC) triblock copolymers were used either as (i) a nematic matrix, which can be loaded with 10 wt% of CdSe/ZnS QDs, or (ii) a compatibilizer, which allows more than 1 wt% of QDs to be introduced in low-molecular-weight cholesteric LCs.

Highly stretchable liquid crystal core–elastomer sheath fibres are spun using a microfluidic wet spinning approach.

2D-layered Yb/Er homo- and heterometallic MOFs with the chlorocyananilate linker display long-lived NIR emission and high total quantum yields upon ligand excitation over the whole UV-visible spectrum.

Coherent coupling of plasmonic dipoles of metallic nanoislands with random sizes and generation of surface lattice resonances via photonic lattices.

Ge–Sb–Te (GST) phase change materials exhibit a metal-to-insulator transition and therefore are expected to be useful for a variety of terahertz wave applications in addition to their primary application in optical and electrical memory devices.

Elucidating the ultrafast photoevents happening in an excited BODIPY 2-D-material and its parent units: relevance of intramolecular-charge transfer and interunit interactions to their photoresponse.

Temperature-responsive photonic cholesteric liquid crystal reflectors deposited on flexible single substrates, encapsulated by protective polymer layers generated by photo-enforced stratification.

An innovative energy migration strategy is described for efficient color-control in upconverting nanocrystals through the modification of geometrical parameters only.

Spontaneous core-hatching process is introduced to double emulsion droplets for implementing further structural tunability and optical responsiveness in colloidal photonic crystals.

Metal oxide PhCs are used as active optical materials for chemical sensing by connecting optical to electrical gas response.

Increased emission through the oxidation of tetrathiafulvalene redox-active centres in star-shaped oligofluorene structures.

Solar cell patterned with photonic elements on the front transparent contact. The photocurrent generated is boosted in a wide spectral incidence range.

Wide-angle lasing emitting dye-doped blue-phase liquid crystals (DDBPLCs), which are analogous to photonic crystals, have been demonstrated to selectively reflect visible light.

A thermophoretically driven Au aerosol deposition process is used for the self-assembly of thin films consisting of plasmonic nano-islands (NIs) with a controllable and highly reproducible degree of disorder resulting in long-range periodicity with self-similar properties and stochastically distributed hot-spots, benefitting their applications as SERS substrates.

This study reports broadband-tunable photonic bandgap and thermally-convertible lasers with ultra-low lasing thresholds based on refilled chiral polymer templates.

The introduction of nitride into Bi-doped multi-component glasses enhances and broadens Bi NIR emission.

Based on the excellent photothermal effect in few-layer bismuthene, an all-optical phase and intensity modulator has been designed and successfully verified with multifunctional properties, including phase shifting, wavelength tuning, intensity modulating and information loading.

Electrospun fibers made of DNA semi-intercalated with a push–pull, luminescent nonlinear pyrazoline derivative are introduced as novel all-optical switches.

Low threshold ultrafast fiber lasers in 1.5 based NbSe₂ quantum dots saturable absorbers have been successfully fabricated and investigated.

Direct control of the optical path length of each layer inside anodic alumina produces a high quality photonic crystal.

We present a photoresponsive supramolecular liquid-crystalline (LC) system with enhanced stability of the LC phase due to ortho-fluorination of the bond-donating hydroxyazobenzene derivative, an important characteristic for their future use in photonics.

Persistent luminescence materials based on Ti-doped rare earth oxysulfides were obtained by a rapid, one-step process for application in self-sustained warm-light LEDs.

We fabricated dendrimer-modified colloids and utilized them to fabricate PC films with good mechanical strength and high performance WLEDs.

We observed remarkable simultaneous enhancement of both mechanical strength and luminescence performance in the presented luminescent supramolecular hydrogels, which were obtained by copolymerization of functional lanthanide-containing co-monomers and acrylamide monomers.

Water-dispersible NIR-II dye (IR-1061) sensitized core/active shell upconversion nanoparticles (800 nm emission of Tm³⁺ ion).

Photonic hydrogel sensing materials functionalized with 9-crown-3 are fabricated by a two-step process for the sensitive and selective detection of ultratrace Be²⁺ ions in seawater.

Inkjet printing of photoacid catalyzed organic–inorganic hybrid formulations has been used in the preparation of low-loss optical waveguides.

A polyenic chromophore containing a new dendritic tricyanofuran acceptor has been synthesized for achieving improved polar order in poled polymers.

A highly sensitive 1DPC sensor for rapid visual detection of organic solvents was achieved.

Free-standing latex films were prepared by using CNCs as templates. The structural color of the latex film shows a reversible response to water adsorption and dehydration. The maximum elongation at break of the latex film reaches 34.5%, which is ∼8 times larger than that of the best film reported so far.

We developed a new microfluidic printing technology for the fabrication of multi-signal 2D code patterns with structural colors and fluorescence properties, which may have potential applications in anti-counterfeiting and optoelectronic fields.