Artist’s interpretation of a polariton-laser. (See Arash Rahimi-Iman et al.
Our panel of editors reviewed a record 162 summaries from scientists all over the globe. They selected for publication 30 stories that they felt most clearly communicated breakthroughs of interest to the optics community. Many of the summaries have multimedia components that you can access at www.opnmagazine-digital.com/opn/december_2013. Thanks to all who submitted summaries as well as to our panel of guest editors.
Holography >open access article
Novel applications through digital recording of holograms
Lasers
A source in thermal equilibrium allows electrical pumping and feedback
Medical Optics
Nondestructive ways to study processes from blood flow to neural activity
Nanophotonics
Subwavelength nanoscale interactions using plasmonics show unique capabilities
Optical Design
Design problems can be solved, but only if you ask the right questions
Optomechanical
Improvements in opto-mechanical coupling enhance biological sensing
Photonic Structures
Microcavities enhance detection and control of propagation around corners
Propagation
Dynamic control of propagation using light to modify the propagation medium
Quantum Optics
Interaction between photons and long-range dipole-like interactions
Solitons
Solitons may be a bad choice for temporal storage of data
Spectroscopy
Miniaturization of this classic instrument
Spin Optics
Nanostructures could lead to spintronic-spinoptical circuits
Ultrafast
Increasing switching speeds in solids, characterizing the noise in broadband signals