photonics and lasers A showcase of cutting-edge research taken from selected journals and Physics World iopscience.org/photonics-lasers contents Introduction 3 EPL 4 Journal of Optics 6 Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics 8 Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics 10 Laser Physics 12 Laser Physics Letters 14 Measurement Science and Technology 16 Nanotechnology 18 Reports on Progress in Physics 20 Semiconductor Science and Technology 22 Physics World 24 How to submit your photonics and lasers research 26 Stay updated on the latest photonics and lasers Interested in other areas research by visiting the online collection at iopscience.org/photonics-lasers. of science? Latest articles, special issues, videos Visit our subject collections homepage to and news will be posted regularly. explore similar collections in other key topics. iopscience.org/subjects photonics and lasers When invented more than half a century ago, lasers were considered a solution searching for a problem to solve. Today, together with photonics, the applications seem to be endless in reshaping the way we live. Lasers are devices that emit coherent light that is amplified through the process of stimulated emission. Their temporal and spatial coherence properties make them particularly desirable for applications and have led to the expansion of the broader field of photonics—the science of light with an emphasis towards applied research and development, with cross-over to areas such as quantum optics where photonic methods are widely employed. The global research initiative towards lasers and photonics is driven by their ever-growing number of applications across medicine, communications, industry and science. For example, laser or photonic devices are used with optical fibres to make today’s high speed internet possible, in everyday consumer products such as DVD players and barcode scanners, in medicine to perform treatments like laser surgery, in industrial applications such as laser cutting and lithography, and of course to carry out important scientific research. To showcase some of the cutting-edge research in this area, IOP Publishing has launched a new online platform iopscience.org/photonics-lasers with content from across our portfolio of journals. The articles highlighted in this brochure comprise publications from 10 of our leading journals, covering topics including novel laser sources and photonic devices, applications, nanophotonics, quantum optics and metamaterials. Our aim is to highlight the latest leading research, helping researchers in the field to broadcast their results and keep track of work by other groups in this area. iopscience.org/photonics-lasers 3 EPL Owned by an association of 17 European physical societies, EPL publishes Letters that cover the broadest range of physics topics and related scientific fields. These short publications are focused towards novel, scientifically significant, emerging and developing areas of science including many high-profile topics such as plasma physics, nuclear fusion, quantum simulators, topological insulators, metamaterials, plasmonics, ferro-electrics/ magnetics and rheology. Targeted marketing ensures that the Letters published gain recognition within their relevant fields. This is supported on the website, which now hosts several compilation pages providing authors with easy access to Did you know? recent articles published relating to their specialist areas. All articles are peer-reviewed by The compilation listing can be found at epljournal.org/ one of the 50 Co-Editors who compilations. are experts in their fields For authors we provide permanent greater visibility for a one- off open access publishing fee. All submissions are supported Did you know? by a high standard of peer review. Articles are sent to external reviewers, usually two, selected by an expert Co-Editor, one of EPL articles were downloaded more than 640,000 times in a truly international team of over 50 active research scientists. 2012 In recent years EPL has gained considerable strength in plasma physics and fusion topics, including visibility and Published in partnership with: promotion at conferences and workshops, and providing sponsorship funds for best posters or presentations by young researchers at targeted events. Articles published cover theory, fundamental physics, emerging technologies and experimental techniques. Several articles have been selected here to introduce the broad scope available for authors in EPL. epljournal.org 4 iopscience.org/photonics-lasers FEATURED ARTICLE Analytic study on solitons in gas-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fibers Wen-Jun Liu, Bo Tian, Hui-Ling Zhen and Yan Jiang 2012 EPL 100 64003 Abstract An analytic study on controlling the soliton dynamics in the gas-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fibers is presented in this paper. The bilinear method with the auxiliary function is introduced to derive the bilinear forms for the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. With symbolic computation, the analytic soliton solutions are obtained, and the features and properties of solitons are discussed. The influence of the parameters for the soliton solutions obtained are analyzed. The presented results could be used in soliton control in the gas-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fibers. MORE HIGH-INTEREST ARTICLES Low-threshold optical bistability in metal-nonlinear dielectric multilayer nanostructure H J Zhao and Z H Li 2013 EPL 102 24003 Enhancing the absorption of graphene in the terahertz range N M R Peres and Yu V Bludov 2013 EPL 101 58002 Photon sorters and QND detectors using single photon emitters D Witthaut, M D Lukin and A S Sørensen 2012 EPL 97 50007 Surface whispering-gallery mode J J Yang, M Huang, J Yu and Y Z Lan 2011 EPL 96 57003 ) To read the full articles, visit iopscience.org/photonics-lasers iopscience.org/photonics-lasers 5 Journal of Optics Journal of Optics actively seeks out the new pioneers of laser and photonic science, providing a platform for innovators in fields such as ultrafast optics, metamaterials, nanophotonics and plasmonics, and communication optics. With a dedicated board of prestigious scientists, led by Editor-in-Chief Nikolay Zheludev, Journal of Optics is proud to publish high-quality and high-impact research on modern and classical optics. Together with first-rate papers and Fast Track Communications, our programme of special issues highlights specific timely developments in optics, with recent Did you know? special issues addressing switchable and reconfigurable Accessed by over 2800 metamaterials, green photonics and nano and random institutions worldwide lasers. Concurrently, review articles from invited authors provide expert insights into emerging areas of research, regularly attracting upwards of 1000 downloads. Impact Factor At Journal of Optics, we are pleased to provide our authors with friendly and fast service. On average, a first decision on 1.990 an article is reached within a month, with articles published As listed in 2012 Journal Citation online 24 days after acceptance. Now offering additional reports (Thomson Reuters 2013)® publicity to outstanding articles in the form of LabTalks, Highlights and ‘Paper of the Week’, we do all we can to ensure your paper reaches its audience. Our expertise and commitment to the laser and optics community makes Journal of Optics a leader in its field, and a premier choice for authors and readers alike. iopscience.org/jopt 6 iopscience.org/photonics-lasers FEATURED ARTICLE Modeling of causality with metamaterials Igor I Smolyaninov 2013 J. Opt. 15 025101 Abstract When a metamaterial is built and illuminated with a coherent extraordinary laser beam, the stationary pattern of light propagation inside the metamaterial may be treated as a collection of particle world lines, which represents a complete ‘history’ of this 2 + 1-dimensional space–time. While this model may be used to build interesting space–time analogs, such as metamaterial ‘black holes’ and a metamaterial ‘big bang’, it lacks causality: since light inside the metamaterial may propagate back and forth along the ‘timelike’ spatial coordinate, events in the ‘future’ may affect events in the ‘past’. Here we demonstrate that a more sophisticated metamaterial model may fix this deficiency via breaking the mirror and temporal (PT) symmetries of the original model and producing one-way propagation along the ‘timelike’ spatial coordinate. MORE HIGH-INTEREST ARTICLES Three-dimensional staggered herringbone mixer fabricated by femtosecond laser direct writing Di Lin, Fei He, Yang Liao, Jintian Lin, Changning Liu, Jiangxin Song and Ya Cheng 2013 J. Opt. 15 025601 Chiral metamaterials: from optical activity and negative refractive index to asymmetric transmission Zhaofeng Li, Mehmet Mutlu and Ekmel Ozbay 2013 J. Opt. 15 023001 Optical properties of Ag nanoparticle layers deposited on silicon substrates Eshwar Thouti, Nikhil Chander, Viresh Dutta and Vamsi K Komarala 2013 J. Opt. 15 035005 Long range surface plasmons in a symmetric graphene system with anisotropic dielectrics K V Sreekanth and Ting Yu 2013 J. Opt. 15 055002 ) To read the full articles, visit iopscience.org/photonics-lasers iopscience.org/photonics-lasers 7 Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics Progress in exploring the fundamentals of atoms, molecules and clusters depends significantly on novel developments in optical and laser physics. This field provides indispensable tools and resources for carrying out the latest state-of-the-art research. These developments include