physics.optics papers | Gist.Science

Label-free mid-infrared photothermal microscopy revisits intracellular thermal dynamics: what do fluorescent nanothermometers measure?

This study resolves the "10^5 gap issue" in intracellular thermal biology by demonstrating via label-free mid-infrared photothermal microscopy that cells possess water-like thermal conductivity, suggesting that the large temperature heterogeneity observed with fluorescent nanothermometers actually reflects slow, non-conductive intracellular processes rather than true thermodynamic temperature differences.

Keiichiro Toda, Masaharu Takarada, Genki Ishigane, Hiroyuki Shimada, Venkata Ramaiah Badarla, Kohki Okabe, Takuro Ideguchi2026-04-14🔬 physics.optics

Optomechanical vector sensing of new forces at 6 micron separation

This paper reports a 100-fold improvement in sensitivity for detecting new gravity-like forces at micrometer scales using optically levitated microspheres, establishing the first multi-component vector force measurements and setting stringent new upper limits on Yukawa-type interactions in the 5–10 μm range.

Gautam Venugopalan, Clarke A. Hardy, Kenneth Kohn, Yuqi Zhu, Charles P. Blakemore, Alexander Fieguth, Jacqueline Huang, Chengjie Jia, Meimei Liu, Lorenzo Magrini, Nadav Priel, Zhengruilong Wang, Giorgio Gratta2026-04-14⚛️ hep-ex

A stable phase-locking-free single beam optical lattice with multiple configurations

This paper presents a stable, phase-locking-free method for generating optical lattices by passing a single laser beam through a prism with n-fold symmetric facets, successfully demonstrating various configurations like triangular and ten-fold quasi-crystal lattices with minimal lattice constant variation and positional drift.

Yirong Wang, Xiaoyu Dai, Xue Zhao, Guangren Sun, Kuiyi Gao, Wei Zhang2026-04-14🔬 physics.atom-ph

Introduction of Vacuum Fields to Cavity with Diffraction Loss

This paper establishes a rigorous quantum optical framework for analyzing diffraction-induced vacuum field injection in DECIGO's Fabry-Perot cavities, demonstrating that while such losses slightly increase radiation pressure noise, cavity detuning combined with homodyne detection and optical-spring locking can effectively mitigate these effects to enhance the detector's sensitivity to primordial gravitational waves.

Kurumi Umemura, Tomohiro Ishikawa, Kenji Tsuji, Shoki Iwaguchi, Yutaro Enomoto, Yuta Michimura, Kentaro Komori, Keiko Kokeyama, Seiji Kawamura2026-04-14🔬 physics.optics

Subjective nature of path information in quantum mechanics

This paper challenges classical intuition by demonstrating through a three-source quantum experiment that the assignment of a definite physical origin to a particle is subjective, even when full path information is available and interference visibility is zero.

Xinhe Jiang, Armin Hochrainer, Jaroslav Kysela, Manuel Erhard, Xuemei Gu, Ya Yu, Anton Zeilinger2026-04-14🔬 physics.optics

Fibonacci Waveguide Quantum Electrodynamics

This paper demonstrates that waveguide quantum electrodynamics in aperiodic Fibonacci photonic arrays enables decoherence-free, coherent interactions between quantum emitters by engineering atom-photon bound states that inherit the deterministic complexity and multifractal properties of the underlying Fibonacci-Lucas structure.

Florian Bönsel, Flore K. Kunst, Federico Roccati2026-04-14🔬 physics.optics

A general framework for knowledge integration in machine learning for electromagnetic scattering using quasinormal modes

This paper proposes a universal physics-informed neural network framework for electromagnetic scattering that leverages quasinormal mode expansions to ensure physical consistency, guarantee energy conservation and causality, and significantly improve data efficiency for modeling and inverse design of optical devices.

Viktor A. Lilja, Albin J. Svärdsby, Timo Gahlmann, Philippe Tassin2026-04-14🔬 physics.optics

Directional and contra-directional coupling in Huygens' metawaveguide microring resonators

This paper presents the first integrated Huygens'-based microring resonators and directional/contradirectional couplers operating at S- and C-band wavelengths, demonstrating high-Q resonances with negative group index and near-zero dispersion to enable advanced applications in optical communications, quantum photonics, and sensing.

M. Saad Bin-Alam, Yunus Denizhan Sirmaci, Alejandro Fernández-Hinestrosa, Jianhao Zhang, Ksenia Dolgaleva, Robert W. Boyd, José Manuel Luque-González, Thomas Pertsch, Isabelle Staude, Jens H. Schmid, Pavel Cheben2026-04-14🔬 physics.optics

Super-resolved reconstruction of single-photon emitter locations from $g^{(2)}(0)$ maps

This paper introduces a time-efficient, super-resolution technique that combines raster-scanned $g^{(2)}(0)$ mapping with an inversion-based algorithm to accurately reconstruct the spatial distribution and number of Nitrogen-vacancy centers within sub-focal-spot regions, overcoming the diffraction limits and slow scanning speeds of conventional confocal microscopy.

Sonali Gupta, Amit Kumar, Vikas S Bhat, Sushil Mujumdar2026-04-14🔬 physics.optics

High bandwidth traveling wave electro-optic modulator at 1{\mu}m on thin-film lithium tantalate

This paper presents the first experimental demonstration of a high-bandwidth traveling wave electro-optic modulator on thin-film lithium tantalate operating at 1 μm, achieving a Vπ of 2.4 V, stable DC bias, and less than 2 dB electro-optic roll-off up to 50 GHz.

Ayed Al Sayem, Shiekh Zia Uddin, Ting-Chen Hu, Alaric Tate, Mark Cappuzzo, Rose Kopf, Mark Earnshaw2026-04-14🔬 physics.optics

Interference Limited Absorption in Dense Molecular Nanolayers Near Reflecting Surfaces

This paper investigates how interference effects in dense molecular nanolayers near reflecting surfaces lead to non-monotonic absorption behavior, revealing that while free-standing films are limited to 50% absorption due to symmetry, mirror-backed configurations can achieve unity absorption through critical coupling by balancing radiative leakage with intrinsic loss.

Zeyu Zhou, Maxim Sukharev, Abraham Nitzan, Joseph E. Subotnik2026-04-14🔬 physics.optics

Nonlocal current-response theory of structured-light dichroism

This paper develops a microscopic nonlocal current-response theory within a minimal-coupling framework to describe optical absorption and structured-light dichroism, revealing how helicity-odd projections of the nonlocal kernel govern selection rules, off-diagonal coherence, and emergent local phenomena like optical chirality in inhomogeneous fields.

Akihito Kato, Nobuhiko Yokoshi2026-04-14🔬 physics.optics

Quantum geometry of the non-Hermitian skin effect

This paper establishes a geometric characterization of the non-Hermitian skin effect by demonstrating that the localization length scale is encoded in the quantum metric derived solely from right eigenstates, which exhibits power-law divergences at gapless points and discontinuities signaling generalized Brillouin zone cusps.

Ken-Ichiro Imura, Kohei Kawabata2026-04-14🔬 cond-mat.mes-hall

High-speed recording technique by synchronous movement of media and spherical reference wave for holographic data storage

This paper proposes and experimentally validates a novel holographic recording technique that synchronously moves the media and a spherical reference wave while scanning a DMD with a line beam, enabling continuous, high-speed holographic data storage with demonstrated stability at 150 Hz and a bit error rate below 10%.

Shuhei Yoshida, Atsushi Fukumoto, Manabu Yamamoto2026-04-14🔬 physics.optics

Experimental Observation of Time-Domain Bound States in The Continuum

This paper reports the first experimental realization of time-domain Bound States in the Continuum (BICs) using a time-modulated transmission-line network, demonstrating how a sinusoidal wave naturally evolves into a localized, anti-symmetric state with decaying oscillations despite the symmetric modulation.

Zahra Manzoor, Oded Schiller, Yonatan Plotnik, Mordechai Segev, Dimitrios Peroulis2026-04-14🔬 physics.optics

Interference-Protected Subradiance and Bound States in Nested Atomic Arrays

This paper proposes a deterministic method using Minkowski sum-based quasi-disordered atomic arrays to engineer interference-protected subradiant states and bound states that remain robust against positional disorder by selectively suppressing dark-mode interactions while allowing bright-mode hybridization.

Bella Santosa, Daniel Leykam2026-04-14⚛️ quant-ph

Engineering Multi-wavelength Emission in All-Fiber Laser Mode-Locked Through Nonlinear Polarization Rotation

This paper presents a compact, all-fiber erbium-doped laser utilizing nonlinear polarization rotation to achieve continuously tunable and deterministically switchable multi-wavelength mode-locking, enabling flexible spectral control from single to seven wavelengths for applications in dense wavelength-division multiplexing and photonic signal processing.

Subrata Manna, Amala Jose, K. Nithyanandan2026-04-14🔬 physics.optics

Ultrafast decoupling of the pseudogap from superconductivity in a pressurized cuprate

Using ultrafast optical spectroscopy under high pressure, researchers demonstrate that the pseudogap and superconductivity in underdoped Bi $_2$ Sr $_2$ CaCu $_2$ O $_{8+\delta}$ are distinct phenomena that evolve independently, with the pseudogap energy gap suppressing while the superconducting dome persists until a dimensional crossover and eventual insulating transition occur at extreme pressures.

Yanghao Meng, Wenjin Mao, Liucheng Chen, Elbert E. M. Chia, Yifeng Yang, Jianlin Luo, Lin Zhao, Xingjiang Zhou, Xiaohui Yu, Xinbo Wang2026-04-14🔬 physics.optics

Deep Photonic Reservoir Computer Meets UAV Control: An ultra-fast learning-based compensator for agile flight in confined space

This paper presents a hardware-implemented deep photonic reservoir computer that achieves ultra-fast, nanosecond-latency prediction of unmodeled UAV dynamics in confined spaces, significantly enhancing flight stability and training efficiency compared to traditional learning-based compensators.

Qinxiao Ma, Ruiqian Li, Cheng Wang, Yang Wang2026-04-14🔬 physics.optics

Probing lattice fluctuations using solid-state high-harmonic spectroscopy

This study demonstrates that solid-state high-harmonic generation in the superatomic semiconductor Re6Se8Cl2 is profoundly sensitive to thermal lattice fluctuations, which suppress coherent harmonic emission through electronic dephasing and phase dispersion, thereby establishing a new method for probing ultrafast lattice dynamics.

Lance Hatch, Navdeep Rana, Shoushou He, Jessica Yu, Boyang Zhao, Yu Zhang, Haidan Wen, Xavier Roy, Lun Yue, Mette Gaarde, Hanzhe Liu2026-04-14🔬 cond-mat.mtrl-sci

physics.optics