Photon bunching is observed in the scintillation process upon excitation by X-rays. The photon intensity correlation function is measured by using Hanbury Brown and Twiss interferometry to extract the light yield and emission lifetime in scintillator materials.

Radio-frequency electro-optic modulation enables a broadband integrated optical isolator that is magnet-free.

The researchers experimentally demonstrate that correlated electrons can propel high-harmonic emission beyond the single-active-electron limit, markedly increasing the generated photon energies. The team observes a weak secondary plateau that extends the conventional cutoff beyond 120 eV up to the water window at 280 eV.

The researchers demonstrate amplification of an ultrabroadband pulse in a laser–plasma Raman amplifier, achieving efficiencies of up to 8.7%, final powers of up to 0.3 TW, and final pulse durations of 64 fs.

An extensible photonic quantum computing architecture based on a fully programmable, scalable linear-optical network has been realized, and is enhanced by two addressable modules: an inline squeezing module for injecting nonlinear resources as input states and a Kerr interaction module for implementing effective nonlinear operations.

The introduction of trimethylphosphonium cations results in the formation of one-dimensional perovskitoid structures, enabling all-perovskite tandem solar cells with a power conversion efficiency of 30.17%, 90% of which is retained after 2,000 h of operation.

Nature Photonics spoke with Yongsheng Chen from Nankai University, who was recently elected an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, about milestones in organic photovoltaic research, key outstanding challenges and the breakthroughs needed to further develop the technology.

Optical neural networks promise unmatched efficiency, bandwidth, and latency — critical benefits as demand for neural network hardware surges. However, their practical value for general-purpose acceleration or specialized applications must be proven under application-realistic conditions. We discuss recent insights and outline key research priorities.

About two decades ago, proof-of-principle demonstrations used light to enable heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR). Now, with over a million HAMR drives in the market, Nature Photonics spoke to Seagate VP of Research Ed Gage about what is arguably one of the greatest commercial success stories in plasmonics.

Orazio Svelto, one of the founding figures of modern laser physics, passed away on 9 January 2026, shortly before his 90th birthday. With his death, the global scientific community loses not only a pioneer whose ideas helped shape more than six decades of laser science, but also a master teacher, an institution builder, and a generous mentor whose legacy will continue to illuminate physics for generations.

John ‘JJ’ Joannopoulos, a pioneering condensed-matter theorist who contributed to the launch of modern nanophotonics and mentored a plethora of scientists and engineers, passed away on 17 August 2025, aged 78. In his five decades at MIT, JJ combined first-principles insights with a gift for nurturing people, shaping fields from ab initio materials theory to photonic crystals and their applications.

Characterizing and reporting photodetector performance demands common standards to ensure rigorous, reproducible and comparable practices.