Related papers: Suppressing photochemical reactions with quantized…
Almost twenty years ago the light was slowed down to less than $10^{-7}$ of its vacuum speed in a cloud of ultracold atoms of sodium. Upon a sudden turn-off of the coupling laser, a slow light pulse can be imprinted on cold atoms such that…
Photovoltaics has two main processes: Optical absorption and power conversion. In photosynthesis, the two equivalent processes are optical absorption and chemical conversion. Whereas in the latter, the two processes are carried out by…
Actuation remains a signifcant challenge in soft robotics. Actuation by light has important advantages: objects can be actuated from a distance, distinct frequencies can be used to actuate and control distinct modes with minimal…
The overall process of photosynthesis consists of two main phases, the so-called light and dark eactions: light energy is absorbed by chlorophyll molecules and transferred to regenerate NADH and ATP, then drive Calvin-Benson cycle to…
Squeezed light is a critical resource in quantum sensing and information processing. Due to the inherently weak optical nonlinearity and limited interaction volume, considerable pump power is typically needed to obtain efficient…
In the light of the interest in the transport of single photons in arrays of waveguides, fiber couplers, photonic crystals, etc., we consider the quantum mechanical process of the tunneling of photons through evanescently or otherwise…
Molecules are ubiquitous in natural phenomena and man-made products, but their use in quantum optical applications has been hampered by incoherent internal vibrations and other phononic interactions with their environment. We have now…
The observation of photoluminescence (PL) or achieve lasing modes in alcohol solutions of dyes or other media (silica glass fibers), doped in small quantities by certain active working elements, which are dipped in the environment, do not…
A 2-D photonic crystal was integrated experimentally into a thin-film crystalline-silicon solar cell of 1-{\mu}m thickness, after numerical optimization maximizing light absorption in the active material. The photonic crystal boosted the…
Natural photosynthetic photonic nanostructures can show sophisticated light matter-interactions including enhanced light absorption by slow light even for highly pigmented systems. Beyond fundamental biology aspects these natural…
The term `laser cooling' is applied to the use of optical means to cool the motional energies of either atoms and molecules, or micromirrors. In the literature, these two strands are kept largely separate; both, however suffer from severe…
We have probed the fragmentation dynamics in a bent triatomic molecule, water, a non-planar molecule, methanol, and a planar ring-structured molecule, benzene, using 100 fs duration pulses of linearly and circularly polarized, infrared,…
Even though the term `organic electronics' evokes rather organic devices, a significant part of its scope deals with physical properties of `active elements' such as organic films and interfaces. Examination of the film growth and the…
Phenomena involving electron transfer are ubiquitous in nature, photosynthesis and enzymes or protein activity being prominent examples. Their deep understanding thus represents a mandatory scientific goal. Moreover, controlling the…
We measure the absolute absorption cross section of molecules using a matter-wave interferometer. A nanostructured density distribution is imprinted onto a dilute molecular beam through quantum interference. As the beam crosses the light…
Suppressing charge recombination is key for organic solar cells to become commercial reality. However, there is still no conclusive picture of how recombination losses are influenced by the complex nanoscale morphology. Here, new insight is…
Optoionics, a promising new field that aims at controlling ion dynamics using light, links photovoltaic power generation with electrochemical charge storage. This has the potential to drive and accelerate the energy revolution by utilizing…
Photonic integration of thick holograms in waveguiding structures could be considered the chimera of photonics; multi-faceted and hard to tame. It is the fundamental, and hence indispensable, concept behind compact and monolithically…
We consider a coherent state of light propagating through an ensemble of two-level atoms where all the atoms are initially in their ground state. In ordinary absorption, the transition of atoms to their excited state along with the…
Holography is a cornerstone characterisation and imaging technique that can be applied to the full electromagnetic spectrum, from X-rays to radio waves or even particles such as neutrons. The key property in all these holographic approaches…