Advanced Optical Materials

doi: 10.1002/adom.201570036pmid: N/A

Bao, Qiaoliang; Chen, Jianqiang; Xiang, Yuanjiang; Zhang, Kai; Li, Shaojuan; Jiang, Xiaofang; Xu, Qing‐Hua; Loh, Kian Ping; Venkatesan, T.

doi: 10.1002/adom.201570032pmid: N/A

To overcome optical path length limitations of atomically thin 2D films, all‐optical switching is demonstrated in graphene nanobubbles. On page 744, Q. Bao, K. P. Loh, T. Venkatesan, and co‐workers show how thermally stressing graphene leads to an array of nanobubbles, allowing a large optical phase shift due to their vertical side walls and added curvature.

Fang, Jinghua; Levchenko, Igor; Yan, Wei; Aharonovich, Igor; Aramesh, Morteza; Prawer, Steven; Ostrikov, Kostya (Ken)

doi: 10.1002/adom.201570033pmid: N/A

A metamaterial‐based sensor composed of thin layers of metal and polymer is deposited on a highly ordered porous alumina membrane by I. Aharonovich and co‐workers. On page 750, this device is shown to be capable of sensing various liquids and biomolecules with sensitivities approaching 5000 nanometers per refractive index unit.

doi: 10.1002/adom.201570034pmid: N/A

Burresi, Matteo; Pratesi, Filippo; Riboli, Francesco; Wiersma, Diederik Sybolt

doi: 10.1002/adom.201400514pmid: 26640755

Over the last few years, micro‐ and nanophotonics have roused a strong interest in the scientific community for their promising impact on the development of novel kinds of solar cells. Certain thin‐ and ultrathin‐film solar cells are made of innovative, often cheap, materials which suffer from a low energy conversion efficiency. Light‐trapping mechanisms based on nanophotonics principles are particularly suited to enhance the absorption of electromagnetic waves in these thin media without changing the material composition. In this review, the latest results achieved in this field are reported, with particular attention to the realization of prototypes, spanning from deterministic to disordered photonic architectures, and from dielectric to metallic nanostructures.

Bao, Qiaoliang; Chen, Jianqiang; Xiang, Yuanjiang; Zhang, Kai; Li, Shaojuan; Jiang, Xiaofang; Xu, Qing‐Hua; Loh, Kian Ping; Venkatesan, T.

doi: 10.1002/adom.201400529pmid: N/A

All‐optical switching in graphene nanobubbles is demonstrated in this work. Thermally stressing graphene to form an array of nanobubbles allows a large optical phase shift to be obtained due to their vertical side walls and added curvature. Graphene nanobubbles offer a new and promising type of optical nonlinear medium to overcome the optical path length limitation of atomically thin two‐dimensional films, and enable exploration of such elements as the building blocks of digital all‐optical circuitry.

Fang, Jinghua; Levchenko, Igor; Yan, Wei; Aharonovich, Igor; Aramesh, Morteza; Prawer, Steven; Ostrikov, Kostya (Ken)

doi: 10.1002/adom.201400577pmid: N/A

A metamaterial‐based plasmonic sensor composed of thin metal and polymer layers deposited on top of a highly ordered porous alumina exhibits a sensitivity of more than 4800 nm per refractive index unit in the visible spectral range. The device is robust, cheap, has a large functional area of about 2 cm2, and the overall transmission is tunable by varying the film thickness.

Lee, Seung‐Heon; Kang, Bong‐Joo; Kim, Ji‐Soo; Yoo, Ba‐Wool; Jeong, Jae‐Hyeok; Lee, Kang‐Hyun; Jazbinsek, Mojca; Kim, Jun Wan; Yun, Hoseop; Kim, Jongtaek; Lee, Yoon Sup; Rotermund, Fabian; Kwon, O‐Pil

Ma, Suqian; Zhang, Jibo; Qian, Jingyu; Chen, Jinlong; Xu, Bin; Tian, Wenjing

doi: 10.1002/adom.201400572pmid: N/A

Organic single crystals with cross‐dipole stacking based on 1,4‐bis(2,2‐diphenylvinyl)benzene are prepared. X‐ray diffraction shows that adjacent molecules in the single crystal adopt a rotational angle of ≈62°. Such a stacking mode is highly beneficial for spontaneous and stimulated emission, resulting in high solid‐state fluorescence efficiency and excellent amplified spontaneous emission characteristics.

Watanabe, Yuichiro; Sasabe, Hisahiro; Yokoyama, Daisuke; Beppu, Teruo; Katagiri, Hiroshi; Pu, Yong‐Jin; Kido, Junji

doi: 10.1002/adom.201400532pmid: N/A

1,3,5‐Triphenyltriazine‐based electron transport materials form a highly horizontally oriented film by synergistic effect of intra‐ and intermolecular hydrogen bonds. Organic light‐emitting devices employing this film as electron‐transport layer can operate at an extremely low voltage and realize high power efficiency.