A wide-temperature-range fluid-phase molecular complex that forms dynamically adaptive grain boundaries in perovskite films enables an efficiency of 26.52% and improved thermal cycling stability in perovskite solar cells.

A threaded α-cyclodextrin rotaxane near-infrared (NIR) dye offers superior photostability, high solubility, negligible non-specific binding and complete renal clearance, enabling ureter imaging in mice and pigs via NIR-II imaging and clinical NIR-I laparoscopes.

Attosecond light-field control in doped germanium is demonstrated, reporting sub-cycle manipulation in conductive semiconductors, establishing doping as a route towards petahertz electronics and lightwave information processing.

Tuning the bromine/iodine ratio in evaporated inorganic framework enables the fabrication of hybrid-deposited ultrawide-bandgap perovskites and their use in perovskite/perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells with a certified power conversion efficiency of 27.53%.

Spontaneous photoblinking in Yb³⁺/Ho³⁺-codoped upconversion nanoparticles enables super-resolution imaging of biological cells with a spatial resolution down to 30 nm at excitation power densities of about 6 kW cm⁻².

Barium titanate ferroelectric is used in photonic phase shifters arranged in a hexagonal waveguide mesh, forming a programmable photonic array. The device achieves sub-100-ns switching speeds, while each individual gate retains its state without continuous powering, enhancing overall energy efficiency.

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.