Entanglement-assisted quantum communication beating the quantum Singleton bound

Markus Grassl

Brun, Devetak, and Hsieh [Science 314, 436 (2006)] demonstrated that preshared entanglement between the sender and receiver enables quantum communication protocols that have better parameters than schemes without the assistance of entanglement. Subsequently, the same authors derived a version of the so-called quantum Singleton bound that relates the parameters of the entanglement-assisted quantum-error-correcting codes proposed by them. We present an entanglement-assisted quantum communication scheme with parameters violating this bound in certain ranges. For a fixed transmission rate, our scheme allows one to correct a larger fraction of errors.

Polarization-Encoded Colocalization Microscopy at Cryogenic Temperatures

Daniel Böning, Franz Wieser, Vahid Sandoghdar

Super-resolution localization microscopy is based on determining the positions of individual fluorescent markers in a sample. The major challenge in reaching an ever higher localization precision lies in the limited number of collected photons from single emitters. To tackle this issue, it has been shown that one can exploit the increased photostability at low temperatures, reaching localization precisions in the sub-nanometer range. Another crucial ingredient of single-molecule super-resolution imaging is the ability to activate individual emitter within a diffraction-limited spot. Here, we report on photoblinking behavior of organic dyes at low temperature and elaborate on the limitations of this ubiquitous phenomenon for selecting single molecules. We then show that recording the emission polarization not only provides access to the molecular orientation, but it also facilitates the assignment of photons to individual blinking molecules. Furthermore, we employ periodical modulation of the excitation polarization as a robust method to effectively switch fluorophores. We bench mark each approach by resolving two emitters on different DNA origami structures.

Kerker effect, superscattering, and scattering dark states in atomic antennas

Rasoul Alaee Khanghah, Akbar Safari, Vahid Sandoghdar, Robert W. Boyd

We study scattering phenomena such as the Kerker effect, superscattering, and scattering dark states in a subwavelength atomic antenna consisting of atoms with only electric dipole transitions. We show that an atomic antenna can exhibit arbitrarily large or small scattering cross sections depending on the geometry of the structure and the direction of the impinging light. We also demonstrate that atoms with only an electric dipole transition can exhibit a directional radiation pattern with zero backscattering when placed in a certain configuration. This is a special case of a phenomenon known as the Kerker effect, which typically occurs in the presence of both electric and magnetic transitions. Our findings open a pathway to design highly directional emitters, nonradiating sources, and highly scattering objects based on individually controlled atoms.

Broadening the high sensitivity range of squeezing-assisted interferometers by means of two-channel detection

Gaurav Shukla, Dariya Salykina, Gaetano Frascella, Devendra Kumar Mishra, Maria V. Chekhova, Farit Khalili

For a squeezing-enhanced linear (so-called SU(2)) interferometer, we theoretically investigate the possibility to broaden the phase range of sub-shot-noise sensitivity. We show that this goal can be achieved by implementing detection in both output ports, with the optimal combination of the detectors outputs. With this modification, the interferometer has the phase sensitivity independent of the interferometer operation point and, similar to the standard dark port regime, is not affected by the laser technical (excess) noise. Provided that each detector is preceded by a phase-sensitive amplifier, this sensitivity could be also tolerant to the detection loss.

Transverse spinning of unpolarized light

Jörg Eismann, L.H Nicholls, D. J. Roth, M. A. Alonso, Peter Banzer, F. J. Rodríguez-Fortuño, A. V. Zayats, F. Nori, K. Y. Bliokh

It is well known that spin angular momentum of light, and therefore that of<br>photons, is directly related to their circular polarization. Naturally, for<br>totally unpolarized light, polarization is undefined and the spin vanishes.<br>However, for nonparaxial light, the recently discovered transverse spin<br>component, orthogonal to the main propagation direction, is largely independent<br>of the polarization state of the wave. Here we demonstrate, both theoretically<br>and experimentally, that this transverse spin survives even in nonparaxial<br>fields (e.g., tightly focused or evanescent) generated from a totally<br>unpolarized light source. This counterintuitive phenomenon is closely related<br>to the fundamental difference between the degrees of polarization for 2D<br>paraxial and 3D nonparaxial fields. Our results open an avenue for studies of<br>spin-related phenomena and optical manipulation using unpolarized light.<br>

Floquet engineering of molecular dynamics via infrared coupling

Michael Reitz, Claudiu Genes

We discuss Floquet engineering of dissipative molecular systems through periodic driving of an infrared-active vibrational transition, either directly or via a cavity mode. Following a polaron quantum Langevin equations approach, we derive correlation functions and stationary quantities showing strongly modified optical response<br>of the infrared-dressed molecule. The coherent excitation of molecular vibrational modes, in combination with the modulation of electronic degrees of freedom due to vibronic coupling can lead to both enhanced<br>vibronic coherence as well as control over vibrational sideband amplitudes. The additional coupling to an infrared cavity allows for the controlled suppression of undesired sidebands, an effect stemming from the Purcell enhancement of vibrational relaxation rates.

Toward a Corrected Knife-Edge-Based Reconstruction of Tightly Focused Higher Order Beams

Sergejus Orlovas, Christian Huber, Pavel Marchenko, Peter Banzer, Gerd Leuchs

The knife-edge method is an established technique for profiling of even tightly focused light beams. However, the straightforward implementation of this method fails if the materials and geometry of the knife-edges are not chosen carefully or, in particular, if knife-edges are used that are made of pure materials. Artifacts are introduced in these cases in the shape and position of the reconstructed beam profile due to the interaction of the light beam under study with the knife. Hence, corrections to the standard knife-edge evaluation method are required. Here we investigate the knife-edge method for highly focused radially and azimuthally polarized beams and their linearly polarized constituents. We introduce relative shifts for those constituents and report on the consistency with the case of a linearly polarized fundamental Gaussian beam. An adapted knife-edge reconstruction technique is presented and proof-of-concept tests are shown, demonstrating the reconstruction of beam profiles.

Differential diffusional properties in loose and tight docking prior to membrane fusion

Agata Witkowska, Susann Spindler, Reza Gholami Mahmoodabadi, Vahid Sandoghdar, Reinhard Jahn

Fusion of biological membranes, although mediated by divergent proteins, is believed to follow a common pathway. It proceeds through distinct steps including docking, merger of proximal leaflets (stalk formation), and formation of a fusion pore. However, the structure of these intermediates is difficult to study due to their short lifetime. Previously, we observed a loosely and tightly docked state preceding leaflet merger using arresting point mutations in SNARE proteins, but the nature of these states remained elusive. Here we used interferometric scattering (iSCAT) microscopy to monitor diffusion of single vesicles across the surface of giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs). We observed that the diffusion coefficients of arrested vesicles decreased during progression through the intermediate states. Modeling allowed for predicting the number of tethering SNARE complexes upon loose docking and the size of the interacting membrane patches upon tight docking. These results shed new light on the nature of membrane-membrane interactions immediately before fusion.

Spectral extension and synchronization of microcombs in a single microresonator

Shuangyou Zhang, Jonathan M. Silver, Toby Bi, Pascal Del'Haye

Broadband optical frequency combs are extremely versatile tools for precision spectroscopy, ultrafast ranging, as channel generators for telecom networks, and for many other metrology applications. Here, we demonstrate that the optical spectrum of a soliton microcomb generated in a microresonator can be extended by bichromatic pumping: one laser with a wavelength in the anomalous dispersion regime of the microresonator generates a bright soliton microcomb while another laser in the normal dispersion regime both compensates the thermal effect of the microresonator and generates a repetition-rate-synchronized second frequency comb. Numerical simulations agree well with experimental results and reveal that a bright optical pulse from the second pump is passively formed in the normal dispersion regime and trapped by the primary soliton. In addition, we demonstrate that a dispersive wave can be generated and influenced by cross-phase-modulation-mediated repetition-rate synchronization of the two combs. The demonstrated technique provides an alternative way to generate broadband microcombs and enables the selective enhancement of optical power in specific parts of a comb spectrum. Broadband frequency combs are a key enabling technology for frequency metrology and spectroscopy. Here, the authors demonstrate that the spectrum of a soliton microcomb can be extended by bichromatic pumping resulting in two combs that synchronize their repetition rate via cross-phase modulation.

Seven-octave high-brightness and carrier-envelope-phase-stable light source

Ugaitz Elu, Luke Maidment, Lenard Vamos, Francesco Tani, David Novoa, Michael H. Frosz, Valeriy Badikov, Dmitrii Badikov, Valentin Petrov, et al.

High-brightness sources of coherent and few-cycle-duration light waveforms with spectral coverage from the ultraviolet to the terahertz would offer unprecedented versatility and opportunities for a wide range of applications from bio-chemical sensing1 to time-resolved and nonlinear spectroscopy, and to attosecond light-wave electronics. Combinations of various sources with frequency conversion and supercontinuum generation can provide relatively large spectral coverage, but many applications require a much broader spectral range and low-jitter synchronization for time-domain measurements. Here, we present a carrier-envelope-phase (CEP)-stable light source, seeded by a mid-infrared frequency comb, with simultaneous spectral coverage across seven optical octaves, from the ultraviolet (340 nm) into the terahertz (40,000 nm). Combining soliton self-compression and dispersive wave generation in an anti-resonant-reflection photonic-crystal fibre with intra-pulse difference frequency generation in BaGa2GeSe6, the spectral brightness is two to five orders of magnitude above that of synchrotron sources. This will enable high-dynamic-range spectroscopies and provide numerous opportunities in attosecond physics and material sciences.

Reactive oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (re-)myelinate the regenerating zebrafish spinal cord

Vasiliki Tsata, Volker Kroehne, Daniel Wehner, Fabian Rost, Christian Lange, Cornelia Hoppe, Thomas Kurth, Susanne Reinhardt, Andreas Petzold, et al.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) results in loss of neurons, oligodendrocytes and myelin sheaths, all of which are not efficiently restored. The scarcity of oligodendrocytes in the lesion site impairs re-myelination of spared fibres, which leaves axons denuded, impedes signal transduction and contributes to permanent functional deficits. In contrast to mammals, zebrafish can functionally regenerate the spinal cord. Yet, little is known about oligodendroglial lineage biology and re-myelination capacity after SCI in a regeneration-permissive context. Here, we report that, in adult zebrafish, SCI results in axonal, oligodendrocyte and myelin sheath loss. We find that OPCs, the oligodendrocyte progenitor cells, survive the injury, enter a reactive state, proliferate and differentiate into oligodendrocytes. Concomitantly, the oligodendrocyte population is reestablished to pre-injury levels within 2 weeks. Transcriptional profiling revealed that reactive OPCs upregulate the expression of several myelination-related genes. Interestingly, global reduction of axonal tracts and partial re-myelination, relative to pre-injury levels, persist at later stages of regeneration, yet are sufficient for functional recovery. Taken together, these findings imply that, in the zebrafish spinal cord, OPCs replace lost oligodendrocytes and, thus, re-establish myelination during regeneration.

Reconstructing two-dimensional spatial modes for classical and quantum light

Valentin A. Averchenko, Gaetano Frascella, Mahmoud Kalash, Andrea Cavanna, Maria V. Chekhova

We propose a method for finding two-dimensional spatial modes of thermal field through a direct measurement of the field intensity and an offline analysis of its spatial fluctuations. Using this method, in a simple and efficient way we reconstruct the modes of a multimode fiber and the spatial Schmidt modes of squeezed vacuum generated via high-gain parametric down-conversion. The reconstructed shapes agree with the theoretical results.

Maturation of Monocyte-Derived DCs Leads to Increased Cellular Stiffness, Higher Membrane Fluidity, and Changed Lipid Composition

Jennifer J. Lühr, Nils Alex, Lukas Amon, Martin Kräter, Markéta Kubánková, Erdinc Sezgin, Christian H. K. Lehmann, Lukas Heger, Gordon F. Heidkamp, et al.

Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional antigen-presenting cells of the immune system. Upon sensing pathogenic material in their environment, DCs start to mature, which includes cellular processes, such as antigen uptake, processing and presentation, as well as upregulation of costimulatory molecules and cytokine secretion. During maturation, DCs detach from peripheral tissues, migrate to the nearest lymph node, and find their way into the correct position in the net of the lymph node microenvironment to meet and interact with the respective T cells. We hypothesize that the maturation of DCs is well prepared and optimized leading to processes that alter various cellular characteristics from mechanics and metabolism to membrane properties. Here, we investigated the mechanical properties of monocyte-derived dendritic cells (moDCs) using real-time deformability cytometry to measure cytoskeletal changes and found that mature moDCs were stiffer compared to immature moDCs. These cellular changes likely play an important role in the processes of cell migration and T cell activation. As lipids constitute the building blocks of the plasma membrane, which, during maturation, need to adapt to the environment for migration and DC-T cell interaction, we performed an unbiased high-throughput lipidomics screening to identify the lipidome of moDCs. These analyses revealed that the overall lipid composition was significantly changed during moDC maturation, even implying an increase of storage lipids and differences of the relative abundance of membrane lipids upon maturation. Further, metadata analyses demonstrated that lipid changes were associated with the serum low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and cholesterol levels in the blood of the donors. Finally, using lipid packing imaging we found that the membrane of mature moDCs revealed a higher fluidity compared to immature moDCs. This comprehensive and quantitative characterization of maturation associated changes in moDCs sets the stage for improving their use in clinical application.

Mechanical Adaptability of Tumor Cells in Metastasis

Valentin Gensbittel, Martin Kräter, Sébastien Harlepp, Ignacio Busnelli, Jochen Guck, Jacky G. Goetz

The most dangerous aspect of cancer lies in metastatic progression. Tumor cells will successfully form life-threatening metastases when they undergo sequential steps along a journey from the primary tumor to distant organs. From a biomechanics standpoint, growth, invasion, intravasation, circulation, arrest/adhesion, and extravasation of tumor cells demand particular cell-mechanical properties in order to survive and complete the metastatic cascade. With metastatic cells usually being softer than their non-malignant counterparts, high deformability for both the cell and its nucleus is thought to offer a significant advantage for metastatic potential. However, it is still unclear whether there is a finely tuned but fixed mechanical state that accommodates all mechanical features required for survival throughout the cascade or whether tumor cells need to dynamically refine their properties and intracellular components at each new step encountered. Here, we review the various mechanical requirements successful cancer cells might need to fulfill along their journey and speculate on the possibility that they dynamically adapt their properties accordingly. The mechanical signature of a successful cancer cell might actually be its ability to adapt to the successive microenvironmental constraints along the different steps of the journey.

All normal dispersion nonlinear fibre supercontinuum source characterization and application in hyperspectral stimulated Raman scattering microscopy

Pedram Abdolghader, Adrian F. Pegoraro, Nicolas Joly, Andrew Ridsdale, Rune Lausten, Francois Legare, Albert Stolow

Hyperspectral stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy is a powerful label-free, chemical-specific technique for biomedical and mineralogical imaging. Usually, broad and rapid spectral scanning across Raman bands is required for species identification. In many implementations, however, the Raman spectral scan speed is limited by the need to tune source laser wavelengths. Alternatively, a broadband supercontinuum source can be considered. In SRS microscopy, however, source noise is critically important, precluding many spectral broadening schemes. Here we show that a supercontinuum light source based on all normal dispersion (ANDi) fibres provides a stable broadband output with very low incremental source noise. We characterized the noise power spectral density of the ANDi fibre output and demonstrated its use in hyperspectral SRS microscopy applications. This confirms the viability and ease of implementation of ANDi fibre sources tier broadband SRS imaging. (C) 2020 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement

Optical quantification of intracellular mass density and cell mechanics in 3D mechanical confinement

Sadra Bakhshandeh, Hubert Taïeb, Raimund Schlüßler, Kyoohyun Kim, Timon Beck, Anna Taubenberger, Jochen Guck, Amaia Cipitria

Biophysical properties of cells such as intracellular mass density and cell mechanics are known to be involved in a wide range of homeostatic functions and pathological alterations. An optical readout that can be used to quantify such properties is the refractive index (RI) distribution. It has been recently reported that the nucleus, initially presumed to be the organelle with the highest dry mass density (ρ) within the cell, has in fact a lower RI and ρ than its surrounding cytoplasm. These studies have either been conducted in suspended cells, or cells adhered on 2D substrates, neither of which reflects the situation in vivo where cells are surrounded by the extracellular matrix (ECM). To better approximate the 3D situation, we encapsulated cells in 3D covalently-crosslinked alginate hydrogels with varying stiffness, and imaged the 3D RI distribution of cells, using a combined optical diffraction tomography (ODT)-epifluorescence microscope. Unexpectedly, the nuclei of cells in 3D displayed a higher ρ than the cytoplasm, in contrast to 2D cultures. Using a Brillouin-epifluorescence microscope we subsequently showed that in addition to higher ρ, the nuclei also had a higher longitudinal modulus (M) and viscosity (η) compared to the cytoplasm. Furthermore, increasing the stiffness of the hydrogel resulted in higher M for both the nuclei and cytoplasm of cells in stiff 3D alginate compared to cells in compliant 3D alginate. The ability to quantify intracellular biophysical properties with non-invasive techniques will improve our understanding of biological processes such as dormancy, apoptosis, cell growth or stem cell differentiation.

Estrogens Determine Adherens Junction Organization and E-Cadherin Clustering in Breast Cancer Cells via Amphiregulin

Philip Bischoff, Marja Kornhuber, Sebastian Dunst, Jakob Zell, Beatrix Fauler, Thorsten Mielke, Anna V. Taubenberger, Jochen Guck, Michael Oelgeschlaeger, et al.

Estrogens play an important role in the development and progression of human cancers, particularly in breast cancer. Breast cancer progression depends on the malignant destabilization of adherens junctions (AJs) and disruption of tissue integrity. We found that estrogen receptor alpha (ER alpha) inhibition led to a striking spatial reorganization of AJs and microclustering of E-Cadherin (E-Cad) in the cell membrane of breast cancer cells. This resulted in increased stability of AJs and cell stiffness and a reduction of cell motility. These effects were actomyosindependent and reversible by estrogens. Detailed investigations showed that the ERa target gene and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) ligand Amphiregulin (AREG) essentially regulates AJ reorganization and E-Cad microclustering. Our results not only describe a biological mechanism for the organization of AJs and the modulation of mechanical properties of cells but also provide a new perspective on how estrogens and anti-estrogens might influence the formation of breast tumors.

The Relative Densities of Cytoplasm and Nuclear Compartments Are Robust against Strong Perturbation

Kyoohyun Kim, Jochen Guck

The cell nucleus is a compartment in which essential processes such as gene transcription and DNA replication occur. Although the large amount of chromatin confined in the finite nuclear space could install the picture of a particularly dense organelle surrounded by less dense cytoplasm, recent studies have begun to report the opposite. However, the generality of this newly emerging, opposite picture has so far not been tested. Here, we used combined optical diffraction tomography and epi-fluorescence microscopy to systematically quantify the mass densities of cytoplasm, nucleoplasm, and nucleoli of human cell lines, challenged by various perturbations. We found that the nucleoplasm maintains a lower mass density than cytoplasm during cell cycle progression by scaling its volume to match the increase of dry mass during cell growth. At the same time, nucleoli exhibited a significantly higher mass density than the cytoplasm. Moreover, actin and microtubule depolymerization and changing chromatin condensation altered volume, shape, and dry mass of those compartments, whereas the relative distribution of mass densities was generally unchanged. Our findings suggest that the relative mass densities across membrane-bound and membraneless compartments are robustly conserved, likely by different as-of-yet unknown mechanisms, which hints at an underlying functional relevance. This surprising robustness of mass densities contributes to an increasing recognition of the importance of physico-chemical properties in determining cellular characteristics and compartments.

Quantum Fisher Information with Coherence

Zdeněk Hradil, Jaroslav Řeháček, Luis Sanchez-Soto, Berthold-Georg Englert

In recent proposals for achieving optical super-resolution, variants of the<br>Quantum Fisher Information (QFI) quantify the attainable precision. We find<br>that claims about a strong enhancement of the resolution resulting from<br>coherence effects are questionable because they refer to very small subsets of<br>the data without proper normalization. When the QFI is normalized, accounting<br>for the strength of the signal, there is no advantage of coherent sources over<br>incoherent ones. Our findings have a bearing on further studies of the<br>achievable precision of optical instruments.<br>

Grain Dependent Growth of Bright Quantum Emitters in Hexagonal Boron Nitride

Noah Mendelson, Luis Morales-Inostroza, Chi Li, Ritika Ritika, Minh Anh Phan Nguyen, Jacqueline Loyola-Echeverria, Sejeong Kim, Stephan Götzinger, Milos Toth, et al.

Point defects in hexagonal boron nitride have emerged as a promising quantum light source due to their bright and photostable room temperature emission. In this work, the incorporation of quantum emitters during chemical vapor deposition growth on a nickel substrate is studied. Combining a range of characterization techniques, it is demonstrated that the incorporation of quantum emitters is limited to (001) oriented nickel grains. Such emitters display improved emission properties in terms of brightness and stability. These emitters are further utilized and integrated with a compact optical antenna enhancing light collection from the sources. The hybrid device yields average saturation count rates of ≈2.9 × 106 cps and an average photon purity of g(2)(0) ≈ 0.1. The results advance the understanding of single photon emitter incorporation during chemical vapor deposition growth and demonstrate a key step towards compact devices for achieving maximum collection efficiency.

High-precision protein-tracking with interferometric scattering microscopy

Richard W. Taylor, Cornelia Holler, Reza Gholami Mahmoodabadi, Michelle Küppers, Houman Mirzaalian Dastjerdi, Vasily Zaburdaev, Alexandra Schambony, Vahid Sandoghdar

The mobility of proteins and lipids within the cell, sculpted oftentimes by the organisation of the membrane, reveals a great wealth of information on the function and interaction of these molecules as well as the membrane itself. Single particle tracking has proven to be a vital tool to study the mobility of individual molecules and unravel details of their behaviour. Interferometric scattering (iSCAT) microscopy is an emerging technique well suited for visualising the diffusion of gold nanoparticle-labelled membrane proteins to a spatial and temporal resolution beyond the means of traditional fluorescent labels. We discuss the applicability of interferometric single particle tracking (iSPT) microscopy to investigate the minutia in the motion of a protein through measurements visualising the mobility of the epidermal growth factor receptor in various biological scenarios on the live cell.

Sub-40  fs pulses at 1.8  µm and MHz repetition rates by chirp-assisted Raman scattering in hydrogen-filled hollow-core fiber

Sébastien Loranger, Philip Russell, David Novoa

The possibility to perform time-resolved spectroscopic studies in the molecular fingerprinting region or extending the cutoff wavelength of high-harmonic generation has recently boosted the development of efficient mid-infrared (mid-IR) ultrafast lasers. In particular, fiber lasers based on active media such as thulium or holmium are a very active area of research since they are robust, compact, and can operate at high repetition rates. These systems, however, are still complex, are unable to deliver pulses shorter than 100 fs, and are not yet as mature as their near-infrared counterparts. Here, we report the generation of sub-40 fs pulses at 1.8 µm, with quantum efficiencies of 50% and without the need for post-compression, in hydrogen-filled, hollow-core photonic crystal fiber pumped by a commercial high-repetition-rate 300 fs fiber laser at 1030 nm. This is achieved by pressure-tuning the dispersion and avoiding Raman gain suppression by adjusting the chirp of the pump pulses and the proportion of higher-order modes launched into the fiber. The system is optimized using a physical model that incorporates the main linear and nonlinear contributions to the optical response. The approach is average power-scalable, permits adjustment of the pulse shape, and can potentially allow access to much longer wavelengths.

Smartphone‐based multimodal tethered capsule endoscopic platform for white‐light, narrow‐band, and fluorescence/autofluorescence imaging

Gargi Sharma, Oana-Maria Thoma, Katharina Blessing, Robert Gall, Maximilian Waldner, Kanwarpal Singh

Multimodal low‐cost endoscopy is highly desirable in poor resource settings such as in developing nations. In this work, we developed a smartphone‐based low‐cost, reusable tethered capsule endoscopic platform that allows white‐light, narrowband, and fluorescence/autofluorescence imaging of the esophagus. The ex‐vivo studies of swine esophagus were performed and compared with a commercial endoscope to test the white‐light imaging capabilities of the endoscope. The efficacy of the capsule for narrow‐band imaging was tested by imaging the vascularization of the tongue. To determine the autofluorescence/fluorescence capability of the endoscope, fluorescein dye with different concentrations was imaged. Furthermore, swine esophagus injected with fluorescein dye was imaged using the fluorescence/autofluorescence and the white‐light imaging modules, ex‐vivo. The overall cost of the capsules is approximately 12 €, 15 €, and 42 € for the white light imaging, the narrow‐band imaging, and the fluorescence/autofluorescence imaging respectively. In addition, the cost of the laser source module required for the narrow‐band imaging and the fluorescence/autofluorescence imaging is approximately 218 €. This device will open the possibility of imaging the esophagus in underprivileged areas.

Acquired demyelination but not genetic developmental defects in myelination leads to brain tissue stiffness changes

Dominic Eberle, Georgia Fodelianaki, Thomas Kurth, Anna Jagielska, Stephanie Möllmert, Elke Ulbricht, Katrin Wagner, Anna V. Taubenberger, Nicolas Träber, et al.

Changes in axonal myelination are an important hallmark of aging and a number of neurological diseases. Demyelinated axons are impaired in their function and degenerate over time. Oligodendrocytes, the cells responsible for myelination of axons, are sensitive to mechanical properties of their environment. Growing evidence indicates that mechanical properties of demyelinating lesions are different from the healthy state and thus have the potential to affect myelinating potential of oligodendrocytes. We performed a high-resolution spatial mapping of the mechanical heterogeneity of demyelinating lesions using atomic force microscope-enabled indentation. Our results indicate that the stiffness of specific regions of mouse brain tissue is influenced by age and degree of myelination. Here we specifically demonstrate that acquired acute but not genetic demyelination leads to decreased tissue stiffness, which could influence the remyelination potential of oligodendrocytes. We also demonstrate that specific brain regions have unique ranges of stiffness in white and grey matter. Our ex vivo findings may help the design of future in vitro models to mimic the mechanical environment of the brain in healthy and diseased states. The mechanical properties of demyelinating lesions reported here may facilitate novel approaches in treating demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis.

Affinity Purification of Label-free Tubulins from Xenopus Egg Extracts

Sebastian Reusch, Abin Biswas, William Graham Hirst, Simone Reber

Compressively certifying quantum measurements

I. Gianani, Y. S. Teo, V. Cimini, H. Jeong, Gerd Leuchs, M. Barbieri, Luis Sanchez-Soto

We introduce a reliable compressive procedure to uniquely characterize any<br>given low-rank quantum measurement using a minimal set of probe states that is<br>based solely on data collected from the unknown measurement itself. The<br>procedure is most compressive when the measurement constitutes pure detection<br>outcomes, requiring only an informationally complete number of probe states<br>that scales linearly with the system dimension. We argue and provide numerical<br>evidence showing that the minimal number of probe states needed is even<br>generally below the numbers known in the closely-related classical<br>phase-retrieval problem because of the quantum constraint. We also present<br>affirmative results with polarization experiments that illustrate significant<br>compressive behaviors for both two- and four-qubit detectors just by using<br>random product probe states.<br>

Combined fluorescence, optical diffraction tomography and Brillouin microscopy

Raimund Schlüßler, Kyoohyun Kim, Martin Nötzel, Anna Taubenberger, Shada Abuhattum Hofemeier, Timon Beck, Paul Müller, Shovamayee Maharana, Gheorghe Cojoc, et al.

Quantitative measurements of physical parameters become increasingly important for understanding biological processes. Brillouin microscopy (BM) has recently emerged as one technique providing the 3D distribution of viscoelastic properties inside biological samples — so far relying on the implicit assumption that refractive index (RI) and density can be neglected. Here, we present a novel method (FOB microscopy) combining BM with optical diffraction tomography and epi-fluorescence imaging for explicitly measuring the Brillouin shift, RI and absolute density with molecular specificity. We show that neglecting the RI and density might lead to erroneous conclusions. Investigating the cell nucleus, we find that it has lower density but higher longitudinal modulus. Thus, the longitudinal modulus is not merely sensitive to the water content of the sample — a postulate vividly discussed in the field. We demonstrate the further utility of FOB on various biological systems including adipocytes and intracellular membraneless compartments. FOB microscopy can provide unexpected scientific discoveries and shed quantitative light on processes such as phase separation and transition inside living cells.

Covariance spectroscopy of molecular gases using fs pulse bursts created by modulational instability in gas-filled hollow-core fiber

Mallika Irene Suresh, Philip Russell, Francesco Tani

We present a technique that uses noisy broadband pulse bursts generated by modulational instability to probe nonlinear processes, including infrared-inactive Raman transitions, in molecular gases. These processes imprint correlations between different regions of the noisy spectrum, which can be detected by acquiring single shot spectra and calculating the Pearson correlation coefficient between the different frequency components. Numerical simulations verify the experimental measurements and are used to further understand the system and discuss methods to improve the signal strength and the spectral resolution of the technique.

Quantitative phase microscopy enables precise and efficient determination of biomolecular condensate composition

Patrick M. McCall, Kyoohyun Kim, Anatol W. Fritsch, J.M. Iglesias-Artola, L.M. Jawerth, Jie Wang, M. Ruer, J. Peychl, Andrey Poznyakovskiy, et al.

Many compartments in eukaryotic cells are protein-rich biomolecular condensates demixed from the cyto- or nucleoplasm. Although much has been learned in recent years about the integral roles condensates play in many cellular processes as well as the biophysical properties of reconstituted condensates, an understanding of their most basic feature, their composition, remains elusive. Here we combined quantitative phase microscopy (QPM) and the physics of sessile droplets to develop a precise method to measure the shape and composition of individual model condensates. This technique does not rely on fluorescent dyes or tags, which we show can significantly alter protein phase behavior, and requires 1000-fold less material than traditional label-free technologies. We further show that this QPM method measures the protein concentration in condensates to a 3-fold higher precision than the next best label-free approach, and that commonly employed strategies based on fluorescence intensity dramatically underestimate these concentrations by as much as 50-fold. Interestingly, we find that condensed-phase protein concentrations can span a broad range, with PGL3, TAF15(RBD) and FUS condensates falling between 80 and 500 mg/ml under typical in vitro conditions. This points to a natural diversity in condensate composition specified by protein sequence. We were also able to measure temperature-dependent phase equilibria with QPM, an essential step towards relating phase behavior to the underlying physics and chemistry. Finally, time-resolved QPM reveals that PGL3 condensates undergo a contraction-like process during aging which leads to doubling of the internal protein concentration coupled to condensate shrinkage. We anticipate that this new approach will enable understanding the physical properties of biomolecular condensates and their function.

Liquid Phase Separation Controlled by pH

Omar Adame-Arana, Christoph A. Weber, Vasily Zaburdaev, Jacques Prost, Frank Julicher

We present a minimal model to study the effects of pH on liquid phase separation of macromolecules. Our model describes a mixture composed of water and macromolecules that exist in three different charge states and have a tendency to phase separate. This phase separation is affected by pH via a set of chemical reactions describing protonation and deprotonation of macromolecules, as well as self-ionization of water. We consider the simple case in which interactions are captured by Flory-Huggins interaction parameters corresponding to Debye screening lengths shorter than a nanometer, which is relevant to proteins inside biological cells under physiological conditions. We identify the conjugate thermodynamic variables at chemical equilibrium and discuss the effective free energy at fixed pH. First, we study phase diagrams as a function of macromolecule concentration and temperature at the isoelectric point of the macromolecules. We find a rich variety of phase diagram topologies, including multiple critical points, triple points, and first-order transition points. Second, we change the pH relative to the isoelectric point of the macromolecules and study how phase diagrams depend on pH. We find that these phase diagrams as a function of pH strongly depend on whether oppositely charged macromolecules or neutral macromolecules have a stronger tendency to phase separate. One key finding is that we predict the existence of a reentrant behavior as a function of pH. In addition, our model predicts that the region of phase separation is typically broader at the isoelectric point. This model could account for both in vitro phase separation of proteins as a function of pH and protein phase separation in yeast cells for pH values close to the isoelectric point of many cytosolic proteins.

Distillation of squeezing using an engineered pulsed parametric down-conversion source

Thomas Dirmeier, Johannes Tiedau, Imran Khan, Vahid Ansari, Christian R. Müller, Christine Silberhorn, Christoph Marquardt, Gerd Leuchs

Hybrid quantum information processing combines the advantages of discrete and continues variable protocols by realizing protocols consisting of photon counting and homodyne measurements. However, the mode structure of pulsed sources and the properties of the detection schemes often require the use of optical filters in order to combine both detection methods in a common experiment. This limits the efficiency and the overall achievable squeezing of the experiment. In our work, we use photon subtraction to implement the distillation of pulsed squeezed states originating from a genuinely spatially and temporally single-mode parametric down-conversion source in non-linear waveguides. Due to the distillation, we witness an improvement of 0.17 dB from an initial squeezing value of −1.648 ± 0.002 dB, while achieving a purity of 0.58, and confirm the non-Gaussianity of the distilled state via the higher-order cumulants. With this, we demonstrate the source’s suitability for scalable hybrid quantum network applications with pulsed quantum light.

On-chip broadband nonreciprocal light storage

Moritz Merklein, Birgit Stiller, Khu Vu, Pan Ma, Stephen J. Madden, Benjamin J. Eggleton

Breaking the symmetry between forward- and<br>backward-propagating optical modes is of fundamental scientific interest and enables crucial functionalities, such as isolators, circulators, and duplex communication<br>systems. Although there has been progress in achieving optical isolation on-chip, integrated broadband nonreciprocal signal processing functionalities that enable transmitting<br>and receiving via the same low-loss planar<br>waveguide, without altering the frequency or mode of the signal, remain elusive. Here, we demonstrate a nonreciprocal delay scheme based on the unidirectional transfer of<br>optical data pulses to acoustic waves in a chip-based integration platform. We experimentally demonstrate that this scheme is not impacted by simultaneously counterpropagating optical signals. Furthermore, we achieve a bandwidth more than an order of magnitude broader than<br>the intrinsic optoacoustic linewidth, linear operation for a wide range of signal powers, and importantly, show that this scheme is wavelength preserving and avoids complicated multimode structures.

Oscillating bound states for a giant atom

Lingzhen Guo, Anton Frisk Kockum, Florian Marquardt, Göran Johannson

We investigate the relaxation dynamics of a single artificial atom interacting, via multiple coupling points, with a continuum of bosonic modes (photons or phonons) in a one-dimensional waveguide. In the non-Markovian regime, where the traveling time of a photon or phonon between the coupling points is sufficiently large compared to the inverse of the bare relaxation rate of the atom, we find that a boson can be trapped and form a stable bound state. As a key discovery, we further find that a persistently oscillating bound state can appear inside the continuous spectrum of the waveguide if the number of coupling points is more than two since such a setup enables multiple bound modes to coexist. This opens up prospects for storing and manipulating quantum information in larger Hilbert spaces than available in previously known bound states.

Exogenous ethanol induces a metabolic switch that prolongs the survival of Caenorhabditis elegansdauer larva and enhances its resistance to desiccation

Damla Kaptan, Sider Penkov, Xingyu Zhang, Vamshidhar R. Gade, Bharath Kumar Raghuraman, Roberta Galli, Julio L. Sampaio, Robert Haase, Edmund Koch, et al.

The dauer larva ofCaenorhabditis elegans, destined to survive long periods of food scarcity and harsh environment, does not feed and has a very limited exchange of matter with the exterior. It was assumed that the survival time is determined by internal energy stores. Here, we show that ethanol can provide a potentially unlimited energy source for dauers by inducing a controlled metabolic shift that allows it to be metabolized into carbohydrates, amino acids, and lipids. Dauer larvae provided with ethanol survive much longer and have greater desiccation tolerance. On the cellular level, ethanol prevents the deterioration of mitochondria caused by energy depletion. By modeling the metabolism of dauers of wild-type and mutant strains with and without ethanol, we suggest that the mitochondrial health and survival of an organism provided with an unlimited source of carbon depends on the balance between energy production and toxic product(s) of lipid metabolism.

Binary homodyne detection for observing quadrature squeezing in satellite links

Christian R. Müller, Kaushik P. Seshadreesan, C. Peuntinger, C. Marquardt

Optical satellite links open up new prospects for realizing quantum physical experiments over unprecedented length scales. We analyze and affirm the feasibility of detecting quantum squeezing in an optical mode with homodyne detection of only one bit resolution, as is found in satellites already in orbit. We show experimentally that, in combination with a coherent displacement, a binary homodyne detector can still detect quantum squeezing efficiently even under high loss. The sample overhead in comparison to nondiscretized homodyne detection is merely a factor of 3.3.

Proteomic, biomechanical and functional analyses define neutrophil heterogeneity in systemic lupus erythematosus

Kathleen R. Bashant, Angel M. Aponte, Davide Randazzo, Paniz Rezvan Sangsari, Alexander J. T. Wood, Jack A. Bibby, Erin E. West, Arlette Vassallo, Zerai G. Manna, et al.

Objectives <br>Low-density granulocytes (LDGs) are a distinct subset of proinflammatory and vasculopathic neutrophils expanded in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Neutrophil trafficking and immune function are intimately linked to cellular biophysical properties. This study used proteomic, biomechanical and functional analyses to further define neutrophil heterogeneity in the context of SLE.<br><br>Methods <br>Proteomic/phosphoproteomic analyses were performed in healthy control (HC) normal density neutrophils (NDNs), SLE NDNs and autologous SLE LDGs. The biophysical properties of these neutrophil subsets were analysed by real-time deformability cytometry and lattice light-sheet microscopy. A two-dimensional endothelial flow system and a three-dimensional microfluidic microvasculature mimetic (MMM) were used to decouple the contributions of cell surface mediators and biophysical properties to neutrophil trafficking, respectively.<br><br>Results <br>Proteomic and phosphoproteomic differences were detected between HC and SLE neutrophils and between SLE NDNs and LDGs. Increased abundance of type 1 interferon-regulated proteins and differential phosphorylation of proteins associated with cytoskeletal organisation were identified in SLE LDGs relative to SLE NDNs. The cell surface of SLE LDGs was rougher than in SLE and HC NDNs, suggesting membrane perturbances. While SLE LDGs did not display increased binding to endothelial cells in the two-dimensional assay, they were increasingly retained/trapped in the narrow channels of the lung MMM.<br><br>Conclusions <br>Modulation of the neutrophil proteome and distinct changes in biophysical properties are observed alongside differences in neutrophil trafficking. SLE LDGs may be increasingly retained in microvasculature networks, which has important pathogenic implications in the context of lupus organ damage and small vessel vasculopathy.

Spatial localization and pattern formation in discrete optomechanical cavities and arrays

Joaquín Ruiz-Rivas, Giuseppe Patera, Carlos Navarrete-Benlloch, Eugenio Roldán, German de Valcarcel

We investigate theoretically the generation of nonlinear dissipative structures in optomechanical(OM) systems containing discrete arrays of mechanical resonators. We consider both hybridmodels in which the optical system is a continuous multimode field, as it would happen in an OMcavity containing an array of micro-mirrors, and also fully discrete models in which eachmechanical resonator interacts with a single optical mode, making contact with Ludwig andMarquardt (2013Phys.Rev.Lett.101, 073603). Also, we study the connections between both typesof models and continuous OM models. While all three types of models merge naturally in the limitof a large number of densely distributed mechanical resonators, we show that the spatiallocalization and the pattern formation found in continuous OM models can still be observed for asmall number of mechanical elements, even in the presence of finite-size effects, which we discuss.This opens new venues for experimental approaches to the subject.

Nanostructured alkali-metal vapor cells

Tom F. Cutler, William J. Hamlyn, Jan Renger, Kate A. Whittaker, Danielle Pizzey, Ifan G. Hughes, Vahid Sandoghdar, Charles S. Adams

Atom-light interactions in nano-scale systems hold great promise for novel technologies based on integrated emitters and optical modes. We present the design architecture, construction method,<br>and characterization of an all-glass alkali-metal vapor cell with nanometer-scale internal structure. Our cell has a glue-free design which allows versatile optical access, in particular with high numerical aperture optics. By performing spectroscopy in different illumination and detection schemes, we investigate atomic densities and velocity distributions in various nanoscopic landscapes. We apply a two-photon excitation scheme to atoms confined in one dimension within our cells, achieving a resonance line-width of 32 MHz in a counter-propagating geometry, and 57.5 MHz in a co-propagating geometry. Both of these are considerably narrower than the Doppler width (GHz), and are limited<br>by transit time broadening and velocity selection. We also demonstrate sub-Doppler line-widths for atoms confined in two dimensions to micron-sized channels. Furthermore, we illustrate control over vapor density within our cells through nano-scale confinement alone, which could offer a scalable route towards room-temperature devices with single atoms within an interaction volume. Our design offers a robust platform for miniaturized devices that could easily be combined with integrated<br>photonic circuits.

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Ultrafast spinning twisted ribbons of confined electric fields

Thomas Bauer, Svetlana N. Khonina, Ilya Golub, Gerd Leuchs, Peter Banzer

Topological properties of light attract tremendous attention in the optics communities and beyond. For instance, light beams gain robustness against certain deformations when carrying topological features, enabling intriguing applications. We report on the observation of a topological structure contained in an optical beam, i.e., a twisted ribbon formed by the electric field vector per se, in stark contrast to recently reported studies dealing with topological structures based on the distribution of the time averaged polarization ellipse. Moreover, our ribbons are spinning in time at a frequency given by the optical frequency divided by the total angular momentum of the incoming beam. The number of full twists of the ribbon is equal to the orbital angular momentum of the longitudinal component of the employed light beam upon tight focusing, which is a direct consequence of spin-to-orbit coupling. We study this angular-momentum-transfer-assisted generation of the twisted ribbon structures theoretically and experimentally for tightly focused circularly polarized beams of different vorticity, paving the way to tailored topologically robust excitations of novel coherent light–matter states.

Many-body dephasing in a trapped-ion quantum simulator

Harvey B. Kaplan, Lingzhen Guo, Wen Lin Tan, Arinjoy De, Florian Marquardt, Guido Pagano, Christopher Monroe

How a closed interacting quantum many-body system relaxes and dephases as a function of time is a fundamental question in thermodynamic and statistical physics. In this Letter, we analyze and observe the persistent temporal fluctuations after a quantum quench of a tunable long-range interacting transverse-field Ising Hamiltonian realized with a trapped-ion quantum simulator. We measure the temporal fluctuations in the average magnetization of a finite-size system of spin-1/2 particles. We experiment in a regime where the properties of the system are closely related to the integrable Hamiltonian with global spin-spin coupling, which enables analytical predictions for the long-time nonintegrable dynamics. The analytical expression for the temporal fluctuations predicts the exponential suppression of temporal fluctuations with increasing system size. Our measurement data is consistent with our theory predicting the regime of many-body dephasing.

Observation of concentrating paraxial beams

Andrea Aiello, Martin Paúr, Bohumil Stoklasa, Zdeněk Hradil, Jaroslav Řeháček, Luis L Sánchez-Soto

We report the first, to the best of our knowledge, observation of concentrating paraxialbeams of light in a linear nondispersive medium. We have generated this intriguing class of lightbeams, recently predicted by one of us, in both one- and two-dimensional configurations. As wedemonstrate in our experiments, these concentrating beams display unconventional features, suchas the ability to strongly focus in the focal spot of a thin lens like a plane wave, while keepingtheir total energy finite.

Buckling of an Epithelium Growing under Spherical Confinement

Anastasiya Trushko, Ilaria Di Meglio, Aziza Merzouki, Carles Blanch-Mercader, Shada Abuhattum, Jochen Guck, Kevin Alessandri, Pierre Nassoy, Karsten Kruse, et al.

Many organs are formed through folding of an epithelium. This change in shape is usually attributed to tissue heterogeneities, for example, local apical contraction. In contrast, compressive stresses have been proposed to fold a homogeneous epithelium by buckling. While buckling is an appealing mechanism, demonstrating that it underlies folding requires measurement of the stress field and the material properties of the tissue, which are currently inaccessible in vivo. Here, we show that monolayers of identical cells proliferating on the inner surface of elastic spherical shells can spontaneously fold. By measuring the elastic deformation of the shell, we infer the forces acting within the monolayer and its elastic modulus. Using analytical and numerical theories linking forces to shape, we find that buckling quantitatively accounts for the shape changes of our monolayers. Our study shows that forces arising from epithelial growth in three-dimensional confinement are sufficient to drive folding by buckling.

Wigner function for SU(1,1)

Ulrich Seyfarth, Andrei B. Klimov, Hubert de Guise, Gerd Leuchs, Luis Sanchez-Soto

In spite of their potential usefulness, Wigner functions for systems with SU(1,1) symmetry have not been explored thus far. We address this problem from a physically-motivated perspective, with an eye towards applications in modern metrology. Starting from two independent modes, and after getting rid of the irrelevant degrees of freedom, we derive in a consistent way a Wigner distribution for SU(1,1). This distribution appears as the expectation value of the displaced parity operator, which suggests a direct way to experimentally sample it. We show how this formalism works in some relevant examples.

Partial cloaking of a gold particle by a single molecule

Johannes Zirkelbach, Benjamin Gmeiner, Jan Renger, Pierre Türschmann, Tobias Utikal, Stephan Götzinger, Vahid Sandoghdar

Extinction of light by material particles stems from losses incurred by absorption or scattering. The extinction cross section is usually treated as an additive quantity, leading to the exponential laws that govern the macroscopic attenuation of light. In this work, we demonstrate that the extinction cross section of a large gold nanoparticle can be substantially reduced, i.e., the particle becomes<br>more transparent, if a single molecule is placed in its near field. This partial cloaking eect results from a coherent plasmonic interaction between the molecule and the nanoparticle, whereby each of them acts as a nano-antenna to modify the radiative properties of the other.

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Quantum metamaterials with magnetic response at optical frequencies

Rasoul Alaee Khanghah, Burak Gürlek, Mohammad Albooyeh, Diego-Martin Cano, Vahid Sandoghdar

We propose novel quantum antennas and metamaterials with strong magnetic response at optical frequencies. Our design is based on the arrangement of natural atoms with only electric dipole transition moments at distances smaller than a wavelength of light but much larger than their physical size. In particular, we show that an atomic dimer can serve as a magnetic antenna at its antisymmetric mode to enhance the decay rate of a magnetic transition in its vicinity by several orders of magnitude. Furthermore, we study metasurfaces composed of atomic bilayers with and without cavities and show that they can fully reflect the electric and magnetic fields of light, thus, forming nearly perfect electric/magnetic mirrors. The proposed quantum metamaterials can be fabricated with available state-of-the-art technologies and promise several applications both in classical optics and quantum engineering.

suggested by editors

Ultrahigh-speed imaging of rotational diffusion on a lipid bilayer

Mahdi Mazaheri, Jens Ehrig, Alexey Shkarin, Vasily Zaburdaev, Vahid Sandoghdar

We studied the rotational and translational diffusion of a single gold nanorod linked to a supported lipid bilayer with ultrahigh temporal resolution of two microseconds. By using a home-built polarization-sensitive dark-field microscope, we recorded particle trajectories with lateral precision of three nanometers and rotational precision of four degrees. The large number of trajectory points in our measurements allows us to characterize the statistics of rotational diffusion with unprecedented detail. Our data show apparent signatures of anomalous diffusion such as sublinear scaling of the mean-squared angular displacement and negative values of angular correlation function at small lag times. However, a careful analysis reveals that these effect stem from the residual noise contributions and confirms normal diffusion. Our experimental approach and observations can be extended to investigate diffusive processes of anisotropic nanoparticles in other fundamental systems such as cellular membranes or other two-dimensional fluids.

Point spread function in interferometric scattering microscopy (iSCAT). Part I: aberrations in defocusing and axial localization

Reza Gholami Mahmoodabadi, Richard W. Taylor, Martin Kaller, Susann Spindler, Mahdi Mazaheri, Kiarash Kasaian, Vahid Sandoghdar

Interferometric scattering (iSCAT) microscopy is an emerging label-free technique optimized for the sensitive detection of nano-matter. Previous iSCAT studies have approximated the point spread function in iSCAT by a Gaussian intensity distribution. However, recent efforts to track the mobility of nanoparticles in challenging speckle environments and over extended axial ranges has necessitated a quantitative description of the interferometric point spread function (iPSF). We present a robust vectorial diffraction model for the iPSF in tandem with experimental measurements and rigorous FDTD simulations. We examine the iPSF under various imaging scenarios to understand how aberrations due to the experimental configuration encode information about the nanoparticle. We show that the lateral shape of the iPSF can be used to achieve nanometric three-dimensional localization over an extended axial range on the order of 10 µm either by means of a fit to an analytical model or calibration-free unsupervised machine learning. Our results have immediate implications for three-dimensional single particle tracking in complex scattering media.

Multimode cold-damping optomechanics with delayed feedback

Christian Sommer, Alekhya Ghosh, Claudiu Genes

We investigate the role of time delay in cold-damping optomechanics with multiple mechanical resonances.<br>For instantaneous electronic response, it was recently shown by C. Sommer and C. Genes [Phys. Rev. Lett. 123,<br>203605 (2019)] that a single feedback loop is sufficient to simultaneously remove thermal noise from many<br>mechanical modes. While the intrinsic delayed response of the electronics can induce single-mode and mutual<br>heating between adjacent modes, we propose to counteract such detrimental effects by introducing an additional<br>time delay to the feedback loop. For lossy cavities and broadband feedback, we derive analytical results for the<br>final occupancies of the mechanical modes within the formalism of quantum Langevin equations. For modes<br>that are frequency degenerate collective effects dominate, mimicking behavior similar to Dicke super- and<br>subradiance. These analytical results, corroborated with numerical simulations of both transient and steady state<br>dynamics, allow us to find suitable conditions and strategies for efficient single-mode or multimode feedback<br>optomechanics.

Truncated Metallo-Dielectric Omnidirectional Reflector: Collecting Single Photons in the Fundamental Gaussian Mode with 95% Efficiency

Wancong Li, Luis Morales-Inostroza, Weiwang Xu, Pu Zhang, Stephan Götzinger, Xue-Wen Chen

We propose a novel antenna structure that funnelssingle photons from a single emitter with unprecedented efficiencyinto a low-divergence fundamental Gaussian mode. Our devicerelies on the concept of creating an omnidirectional photonicbandgap to inhibit unwanted large-angle emission and to enhancesmall-angle defect-guided-mode emission. The new photoncollection strategy is intuitively illustrated, rigorously verified,and optimized by implementing an efficient, body-of-revolution,finite-difference, time-domain method for in-plane dipole emitters.We investigate a few antenna designs to cover various boundaryconditions posed by fabrication processes or material restrictions and theoretically demonstrate that collection efficiencies into thefundamental Gaussian mode exceeding 95% are achievable. Our antennas are broadband, insensitive to fabrication imperfections andcompatible with a variety of solid-state emitters such as organic molecules, quantum dots, and defect centers in diamond.Unidirectional and low-divergence Gaussian-mode emission from a single emitter may enable the realization of a variety of photonicquantum computer architectures as well as highly efficient light−matter interfaces.

Molecule-photon interactions in phononic environments

Michael Reitz, Christian Sommer, Burak Gürlek, Vahid Sandoghdar, Diego-Martin Cano, Claudiu Genes

Molecules constitute compact hybrid quantum optical systems that can interface photons, electronic degrees of freedom, localized mechanical vibrations, and phonons. In particular, the strong vibronic interaction between electrons and nuclear motion in a molecule resembles the optomechanical radiation pressure Hamiltonian. While molecular vibrations are often in the ground state even at elevated temperatures, one still needs to get a handle on decoherence channels associated with phonons before an efficient quantum optical network based on optovibrational interactions in solid-state molecular systems could be realized. As a step towards a better understanding of decoherence in phononic environments, we take here an open quantum system approach to the nonequilibrium dynamics of guest molecules embedded in a crystal, identifying regimes of Markovian versus non-Markovian vibrational relaxation. A stochastic treatment, based on quantum Langevin equations, predicts collective vibron-vibron dynamics that resembles processes of sub- and super-radiance for radiative transitions. This in turn leads to the possibility of decoupling intramolecular vibrations from the phononic bath, allowing for enhanced coherence times of collective vibrations. For molecular polaritonics in strongly confined geometries, we also show that the imprint of optovibrational couplings onto the emerging output field results in effective polariton cross-talk rates for finite bath occupancies.

Optical coherence tomography with a nonlinear interferometer in the high parametric gain regime

Gerard J. Machado, Gaetano Frascella, Juan P. Torres, Maria V. Chekhova

We demonstrate optical coherence tomography based on an SU(1,1) nonlinear interferometer with high-gain parametric downconversion. For imaging and sensing applications, this scheme promises to outperform previous experiments working at low parametric gain, since higher photon fluxes provide lower integration times for obtaining high-quality images. In this way, one can avoid using single-photon detectors or CCD cameras with very high sensitivities, and standard spectrometers can be used instead. Other advantages are higher sensitivity to small loss and amplification before detection so that the detected light power considerably exceeds the probing one.

Fundamental quantum limits in ellipsometry

L. Rudnicki, Luis Sanchez-Soto, Gerd Leuchs, R. W. Boyd

We establish the ultimate limits that quantum theory imposes on the accuracy attainable in optical ellipsometry. We show that the standard quantum limit, as usual reached when the incident light is in a coherent state, can be surpassed with the use of appropriate squeezed states and, for tailored beams, even pushed to the ultimate Heisenberg limit.

Stretching and heating cells with light-nonlinear photothermal cell rheology

Constantin Huster, Devavrat Rekhade, Adina Hausch, Saeed Ahmed, Nicolas Hauck, Julian Thiele, Jochen Guck, Klaus Kroy, Gheorghe Cojoc

Stretching and heating are everyday experiences for skin and tissue cells. They are also standard procedures to reduce the risk for injuries in physical exercise and to relieve muscle spasms in physiotherapy. Here, we ask which immediate and long-term mechanical effects of such treatments are quantitatively detectable on the level of individual living cells. Combining versatile optical stretcher techniques with a well-tested mathematical model for viscoelastic polymer networks, we investigate the thermomechanical properties of suspended cells with a photothermal rheometric protocol that can disentangle fast transient and slow 'inelastic' components in the nonlinear mechanical response. We find that a certain minimum strength and duration of combined stretching and heating is required to induce long-lived alterations of the mechanical state of the cells, which then respond qualitatively differently to mechanical tests than after weaker/shorter treatments or merely mechanical preconditioning alone. Our results suggest a viable protocol to search for intracellular biomolecular signatures of the mathematically detected dissimilar mechanical response modes.

Probing the Tavis-Cummings level splitting with intermediate-scale superconducting circuits

Ping Yang, Jan David Brehm, Juha Leppäkangas, Lingzhen Guo, Michael Marthaler, Isabella Boventer, Alexander Stehli, Tim Wolz, Alexey V. Ustinov, et al.

We demonstrate the local control of up to eight two-level systems interacting strongly with a microwave cavity. Following calibration, the frequency of each individual two-level system (qubit) is tunable without influencing the others. Bringing the qubits one by one on resonance with the cavity, we observe the collective coupling strength of the qubit ensemble. The splitting scales up with the square root of the number of the qubits, being the hallmark of the Tavis-Cummings model. The local control circuitry causes a bypass shunting the resonator, and a Fano interference in the microwave readout, whose contribution can be calibrated away to recover the pure cavity spectrum. The simulator's attainable size of dressed states is limited by reduced signal visibility, and -if uncalibrated- by off-resonance shifts of sub-components. Our work demonstrates control and readout of quantum coherent mesoscopic multi-qubit system of intermediate scale under conditions of noise.

Sub-nanometer resolution in single-molecule photoluminescence imaging

Ben Yang, Gong Chen, Atif Ghafoor, Yufan Zhang, Yao Zhang, Yang Zhang, Yi Luo, Jinlong Yang, Vahid Sandoghdar, et al.

Ambitions to reach atomic resolution with light have been a major force in shaping nano-optics, whereby a central challenge is achieving highly localized optical fields. A promising approach employs plasmonic nanoantennas, but fluorescence quenching in the vicinity of metallic structures often imposes a strict limit on the attainable spatial resolution, and previous studies have reached only 8 nm resolution in fluorescence mapping. Here, we demonstrate spatially and spectrally resolved photolumines-cence imaging of a single phthalocyanine molecule coupled to nanocavity plasmons in a tunnelling junction with a spatial reso-lution down to ∼8 Å and locally map the molecular exciton energy and linewidth at sub-molecular resolution. This remarkable resolution is achieved through an exquisite nanocavity control, including tip-apex engineering with an atomistic protrusion, quenching management through emitter–metal decoupling and sub-nanometre positioning precision. Our findings provide new routes to optical imaging, spectroscopy and engineering of light–matter interactions at sub-nanometre scales.

Kinetics of Many-Body Reservoir Engineering

Hugo Ribeiro, Florian Marquardt

Recent advances illustrate the power of reservoir engineering in applications to many-body sys-tems, such as quantum simulators based on superconducting circuits. We present a frameworkbased on kinetic equations and noise spectra that can be used to understand both the transientand long-time behavior of many particles coupled to an engineered reservoir in a number-conservingway. For the example of a bosonic array, we show that the non-equilibrium steady state can beexpressed, in a wide parameter regime, in terms of a modified Bose-Einstein distribution with anenergy-dependent temperature.

Toward High‐Speed Nanoscopic Particle Tracking via Time‐Resolved Detection of Directional Scattering

Paul Beck, Martin Neugebauer, Peter Banzer

Owing to their immediate relevance for high precision position sensors, a variety of different sub‐wavelength localization techniques has been developed in the past decades. However, many of these techniques suffer from low temporal resolution or require expensive detectors. Here, a method is presented that is based on the ultrafast detection of directionally scattered light with a quadrant photodetector operating at a large bandwidth, which exceeds the speed of most cameras. The directionality emerges due to the position dependent tailored excitation of a high‐refractive index nanoparticle with a tightly focused vector beam. A spatial resolution of 1.1nm and a temporal resolution of 8kHz is reached experimentally, which is not a fundamental but rather a technical limit. The detection scheme enables real‐time particle tracking and sample stabilization in many optical setups sensitive to drifts and vibrations.

Novel input polarisation independent endoscopic cross‐polarised optical coherence tomography probe

Katharina Blessing, Judith Schirmer, Gargi Sharma, Kanwarpal Singh

Lead by the original idea to perform noninvasive optical biopsies of various tissues, optical coherence tomography<br>found numerous medical applications<br>within the last two decades. The interference<br>based imaging technique opens the<br>possibility to visualise subcellular morphology up to an imaging depth of 3 mm<br>and up to micron level axial and lateral<br>resolution. The birefringence properties<br>of the tissue are visualisedwith enhanced<br>contrast using polarisation sensitive or<br>cross-polarised optical coherence tomography (OCT) techniques. Although, it<br>requires strict control over the polarisation states, resulting in several polarisation<br>controlling elements. In this work, we propose a novel input-polarisation independent endoscopic system based on cross-polarised OCT. We tested the feasibility of our approach by measuring the polarisation change from a quarter-wave plate for different rotational angles. Further performance tests reveal a lateral resolution of 30 μm and a sensitivity of 103 dB. Images of the human nail bed and cow muscle tissue demonstrate the potential of the system to measure structural and birefringence properties of the tissue endoscopically.

Condensed matter physics in time crystals

Lingzhen Guo, Pengfei Liang

Time crystals are physical systems whose time translation symmetry is spontaneously broken. Although the spontaneous breaking of continuous time-translation symmetry in static systems is proved impossible for the equilibrium state, the discrete time-translation symmetry in periodically driven (Floquet) systems is allowed to be spontaneously broken, resulting in the so-called Floquet or discrete time crystals. While most works so far searching for time crystals focus on the symmetry breaking process and the possible stabilising mechanisms, the many-body physics from the interplay of symmetry-broken states, which we call the condensed matter physics in time crystals, is not fully explored yet. This review aims to summarise the very preliminary results in this new research field with an analogous structure of condensed matter theory in solids. The whole theory is built on a hidden symmetry in time crystals, i.e., the phase space lattice symmetry, which allows us to develop the band theory, topology and strongly correlated models in phase space lattice. In the end, we outline the possible topics and directions for the future research.

Pump depletion in parametric down-conversion with low pump energies

Jefferson Flórez, Jeff S. Lundeen, M. V. Chekhova

We report the efficient generation of high-gain parametric down-conversion, including pump depletion, with pump powers as low as 100 μW (energies 0.1 μJ/pulse) and conver- sion efficiencies up to 33%. In our simple configuration, the pump beam is tightly focused into a bulk periodically poled lithium niobate crystal placed in free space. We also observe a change in the photon number statistics for both the pump and down-converted beams as the pump power increases to reach the depleted pump regime. The experimental results are a clear signature of the interplay between the pump and the down-converted beams in highly efficient parametric down-conversion sources

Nonlinear power dependence of the spectral properties of an optical parametric oscillator below threshold in the quantum regime

Golnoush Shafiee, Dmitry V. Strekalov, Alexander Otterpohl, Florian Sedlmeir, Gerhard Schunk, Ulrich Vogl, Harald Schwefel, Gerd Leuchs, Christoph Marquardt

Photon pairs and heralded single photons, obtained from cavity- assisted parametric down conversion (PDC), play an important role in quantum communications and technology. This motivated a thorough study of the spectral and temporal properties of parametric light, both above the Optical Parametric Oscillator (OPO) threshold, where the semiclassical approach is justified, and deeply below it, where the linear cavity approximation is applicable. The pursuit of a higher two- photon emission rate leads into an interesting intermediate regime where the OPO still operates considerably below the threshold but the nonlinear cavity phenomena cannot be neglected anymore. Here, we investigate this intermediate regime and show that the spectral and temporal properties of the photon pairs, as well as their emission rate, may significantly differ from the widely accepted linear model. The observed phenomena include frequency pulling and broadening in the temporal correlation for the down converted optical fields. These factors need to be taken into account when devising practical applications of the high-rate cavity-assisted SPDC sources.

Hybrid Orthorhombic Carbon Flakes Intercalated with Bimetallic Au-Ag Nanoclusters: Influence of Synthesis Parameters on Optical Properties

Muhammad Abdullah Butt, Daria Mamonova, Yuri Petrov, Alexandra Proklova, Ilya Kritchenkov, Alina Manshina, Peter Banzer, Gerd Leuchs

Until recently, planar carbonaceous structures such as graphene did not show any birefringence under normal incidence. In contrast, a recently reported novel orthorhombic carbonaceous structure with metal nanoparticle inclusions does show intrinsic birefringence, outperforming other natural orthorhombic crystalline materials. These flake-like structures self-assemble during a laser-induced growth process. In this article, we explore the potential of this novel material and the design freedom during production. We study in particular the dependence of the optical and geometrical properties of these hybrid carbon-metal flakes on the fabrication parameters. The influence of the laser irradiation time, concentration of the supramolecular complex in the solution, and an external electric field applied during the growth process are investigated. In all cases, the self-assembled metamaterial exhibits a strong linear birefringence in the visible spectral range, while the wavelength-dependent attenuation was found to hinge on the concentration of the supramolecular complex in the solution. By varying the fabrication parameters one can steer the shape and size of the flakes. This study provides a route towards fabrication of novel hybrid carbon-metal flakes with tailored optical and geometrical properties.

Modulational-instability-free pulse compression in anti-resonant hollow-core photonic crystal fiber

Felix Köttig, Francesco Tani, Philip Russell

Gas-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is used for efficient nonlinear temporal compression of femtosecond laser pulses, two main schemes being direct soliton-effect self-compression and spectral broadening followed by phase compensation. To obtain stable compressed pulses, it is crucial to avoid decoherence through modulational instability (MI) during spectral broadening. Here, we show that changes in dispersion due to spectral anti-crossings between the fundamental-core mode and core wall resonances in anti-resonant-guiding hollow-core PCF can strongly alter the MI gain spectrum, enabling MI-free pulse compression for optimized fiber designs. The results are important, since MI cannot always be suppressed by pumping in the normal dispersion regime.

Quantum-limited measurements of intensity noise levels in Yb-doped fiber amplifiers

Alexandra Popp, Victor Distler, Kevin Jaksch, Florian Sedlmeir, Christian Müller, Nicoletta Haarlammert, Thomas Schreiber, Christoph Marquardt, Andreas Tünnermann, et al.

We investigate the frequency-resolved intensity noise spectrum of an Yb-doped fiber amplifier down to the fundamental limit of quantum noise. We focus on the kHz and low MHz frequency regime with special interest in the region between 1 and 10 kHz. Intensity noise levels up to ≥60 dB above the shot noise limit are found, revealing great optimization potential. Additionally, two seed lasers with different noise characteristics were amplified, showing that the seed source has a significant impact and should be considered in the design of high power fiber amplifiers.

Direct measurement of the coupled spatiotemporal coherence of parametric down-conversion under negative group-velocity dispersion

Paula Cutipa, Kirill Spasibko, Maria Chekhova

We present a direct measurement of the spatiotemporal coherence of parametric down-conversion in the range of negative group-velocity dispersion. In this case, the frequency-angular spectra are ring-shaped, and temporal coherence is coupled to spatial coherence. Correspondingly, the lack of coherence due to spatial displacement can be compensated for with the introduction of time delay. We show a simple technique, based on a modified Mach– Zehnder interferometer, which allows us to measure time coherence and near-field space coherence simultaneously, with complete control over both variables. This technique is also suitable for the measurement of second-order coher- ence, where the main applications are related to two-photon spectroscopy.

Nano-Optics in 2020 ± 20

Vahid Sandoghdar

Paclitaxel Drug-Coated Balloon Angioplasty Suppresses Progression and Inflammation of Experimental Atherosclerosis in Rabbits

Mohammed M. Chowdhury, Kanwarpal Singh, Mazen S. Albaghdadi, Haitham Khraishah, Adam Mauskapf, Chase W. Kessinger, Eric A. Osborn, Stephan Kellnberger, Zhonglie Piao, et al.

Paclitaxel drug-coated balloons (DCBs) reduce restenosis, but their overall safety has recently raised concerns. This study hypothesized that DCBs could lessen inflammation and reduce plaque progression. Using 25 rabbits with cholesterol feeding- and balloon injury-induced lesions, DCB-percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA), plain PTA, or sham-PTA (balloon insertion without inflation) was investigated using serial intravascular near-infrared fluorescence−optical coherence tomography and serial intravascular ultrasound. In these experiments, DCB-PTA reduced inflammation and plaque burden in nonobstructive lesions compared with PTA or sham-PTA. These findings indicated the potential for DCBs to serve safely as regional anti-atherosclerosis therapy.

Towards fully integrated photonic displacement sensors

Ankan Bag, Martin Neugebauer, Uwe Mick, Sillke Christiansen, Sebastian A Schulz, Peter Banzer

The field of optical metrology with its high precision position, rotation and wavefront sensors represents the basis for lithography and high resolution microscopy. However, the on-chip integration - a task highly relevant for future nanotechnological devices - necessitates the reduction of the spatial footprint of sensing schemes by the deployment of novel concepts. A promising route towards this goal is predicated on the controllable directional emission of the fundamentally smallest emitters of light, i.e. dipoles, as an indicator. Here we realize an integrated displacement sensor based on the directional emission of Huygens dipoles excited in an individual dipolar antenna. The position of the antenna relative to the excitation field determines its directional coupling into a six-way crossing of photonic crystal waveguides. In our experimental study supported by theoretical calculations, we demonstrate the first prototype of an integrated displacement sensor with a standard deviation of the position accuracy below λ/300 at room temperature and ambient conditions.

Narrowband Vacuum Ultraviolet Light via Cooperative Raman Scattering in Dual-Pumped Gas-Filled Photonic Crystal Fiber

Rinat Tyumenev, Philip Russell, David Novoa

Many fields such as biospectroscopy and photochemistry often require sources of vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) pulses featuring a narrow line width and tunable over a wide frequency range. However, the majority of available VUV light sources do not simultaneously fulfill those two requirements and few if any are truly compact, cost-effective, and easy to use by nonspecialists. Here we introduce a novel approach that goes a long way to meeting this challenge. It is based on hydrogen-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fiber pumped simultaneously by two spectrally distant pulses. Stimulated Raman scattering enables the generation of coherence waves of collective molecular motion in the gas, which together with careful dispersion engineering and control over the modal content of the pump light, facilitates cooperation between the two separate Raman combs, resulting in a spectrum that reaches deep into the VUV. Using this system, we demonstrate the generation of a dual Raman comb of narrowband lines extending down to 141 nm using only 100 mW of input power delivered by a commercial solid-state laser. The approach may enable access to tunable VUV light to any laboratory and therefore boost progress in many research areas across multiple disciplines.

Temperature controlled high-throughput magnetic tweezers show striking difference in activation energies of replicating viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerases

Mona Seifert, Pauline van Nies, Flávia S. Papini, Jamie J. Arnold, Minna M. Poranen, Craig E. Cameron, Martin Depken, David Dulin

RNA virus survival depends on efficient viral genome replication, which is performed by the viral RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). The recent development of high throughput magnetic tweezers has enabled the simultaneous observation of dozens of viral RdRp elongation traces on kilobases long templates, and this has shown that RdRp nucleotide addition kinetics is stochastically interrupted by rare pauses of 1–1000 s duration, of which the short-lived ones (1–10 s) are the temporal signature of a low fidelity catalytic pathway. We present a simple and precise temperature controlled system for magnetic tweezers to characterize the replication kinetics temperature dependence between 25°C and 45°C of RdRps from three RNA viruses, i.e. the double-stranded RNA bacteriophage Φ6, and the positive-sense single-stranded RNA poliovirus (PV) and human rhinovirus C (HRV-C). We found that Φ6 RdRp is largely temperature insensitive, while PV and HRV-C RdRps replication kinetics are activated by temperature. Furthermore, the activation energies we measured for PV RdRp catalytic state corroborate previous estimations from ensemble pre-steady state kinetic studies, further confirming the catalytic origin of the short pauses and their link to temperature independent RdRp fidelity. This work will enable future temperature controlled study of biomolecular complex at the single molecule level.

DryMass: handling and analyzing quantitative phase microscopy images of spherical, cell-sized objects

Paul Müller, Gheorghe Cojoc, Jochen Guck

Quantitative phase imaging (QPI) is an established tool for the marker-free classification and quantitative characterization of biological samples. For spherical objects, such as cells in suspension, microgel beads, or liquid droplets, a single QPI image is sufficient to extract the radius and the average refractive index. This technique is invaluable, as it allows the characterization of large sample populations at high measurement rates. However, until now, no universal software existed that could perform this type of analysis. Besides the choice of imaging modality and the variety in imaging software, the main difficulty has been to automate the entire analysis pipeline from raw data to ensemble statistics.

Magnon-Phonon Quantum Correlation Thermometry

C. A. Potts, Victor A. S. V. Bittencourt, Silvia Viola-Kusminskiy, J. P. Davis

A large fraction of quantum science and technology requires low-temperature environments such as those afforded by dilution refrigerators. In these cryogenic environments, accurate thermometry can be difficult to implement, expensive, and often requires calibration to an external reference. Here, we theoretically propose a primary thermometer based on measurement of a hybrid system consisting of phonons coupled via a magnetostrictive interaction to magnons. Thermometry is based on a cross-correlation measurement in which the spectrum of back-action driven motion is used to scale the thermomechanical motion, providing a direct measurement of the phonon temperature independent of experimental parameters. Combined with a simple low-temperature compatible microwave cavity readout, this primary thermometer is expected to become a promising alternative for thermometry below 1 K.

A comparison of microfluidic methods for high-throughput cell deformability measurements

Marta Urbanska, Hector E. Munoz, Josephine Shaw Bagnall, Oliver Otto, Scott R. Manalis, Dino Di Carlo, Jochen Guck

The mechanical phenotype of a cell is an inherent biophysical marker of its state and function, with many applications in basic and applied biological research. Microfluidics-based methods have enabled single-cell mechanophenotyping at throughputs comparable to those of flow cytometry. Here, we present a standardized cross-laboratory study comparing three microfluidics-based approaches for measuring cell mechanical phenotype: constriction-based deformability cytometry (cDC), shear flow deformability cytometry (sDC) and extensional flow deformability cytometry (xDC). All three methods detect cell deformability changes induced by exposure to altered osmolarity. However, a dose-dependent deformability increase upon latrunculin B-induced actin disassembly was detected only with cDC and sDC, which suggests that when exposing cells to the higher strain rate imposed by xDC, cellular components other than the actin cytoskeleton dominate the response. The direct comparison presented here furthers our understanding of the applicability of the different deformability cytometry methods and provides context for the interpretation of deformability measurements performed using different platforms.<br> This Analysis compares microfluidics-based methods for assessing mechanical properties of cells in high throughput.

Intelligent image-based deformation-assisted cell sorting with molecular specificity

Ahmad Ahsan Nawaz, Marta Urbanska, Maik Herbig, Martin Nötzel, Martin Kräter, Philipp Rosendahl, Christoph Herold, Nicole Töpfner, Markéta Kubánková, et al.

Although label-free cell sorting is desirable for providing pristine cells for further analysis or use, current approaches lack molecular specificity and speed. Here, we combine real-time fluorescence and deformability cytometry with sorting based on standing surface acoustic waves and transfer molecular specificity to image-based sorting using an efficient deep neural network. In addition to general performance, we demonstrate the utility of this method by sorting neutrophils from whole blood without labels.<br> Sorting RT-FDC combines real-time fluorescence and deformability cytometry with sorting based on standing surface acoustic waves to transfer molecular specificity to label-free, image-based cell sorting using an efficient deep neural network.

High spatiotemporal resolution data from a custom magnetic tweezers instrument

Eugeniu Ostrofet, Flavia S. Papini, David Dulin

Gene expression is achieved by enzymes as RNA polymerases that translocate along nucleic acids with steps as small as a single base pair, i.e., 0.34 nm for DNA. Deciphering the complex biochemical pathway that describes the activity of such enzymes requires an exquisite spatiotemporal resolution. Magnetic tweezers are a powerful single molecule force spectroscopy technique that uses a camera-based detection to enable the simultaneous observation of hundreds of nucleic acid tethered magnetic beads at a constant force with subnanometer resolution [1,2]. High spatiotemporal resolution magnetic tweezers have recently been reported [3-5]. We present data acquired using a bespoke magnetic tweezers instrument that is able to perform either in high throughput or at high resolution. The data reports on the best achievable resolution for surface-attached polystyrene beads and DNA tethered magnetic beads, and highlights the influence of mechanical stability for such assay. We also present data where we are able to detect 0.3 nm steps along the z-axis using DNA tethered magnetic beads. Because the data presented here are in agreement with the best resolution obtained with magnetic tweezers, they provide a useful benchmark comparison for setup adjustment and optimization. (C) 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc.

Spectral properties of second, third and fourth harmonics generation from broadband multimode bright squeezed vacuum

Denis A Kopylov, Andrei V Rasputnyi, Tatiana V Murzina, Maria V. Chekhova

We study theoretically the spectra of second, third and fourth harmonics from multimode bright squeezed vacuum obtained by type-I broadband high-gain parametric down conversion. The different contributions to the spectra of harmonics are analyzed. A new method for the measurement of second-order correlation function g(2)(0) of parametric down conversion radiation is suggested.

Universal compressive characterization of quantum dynamics

Yosep Kim, Yong Siah Teo, Daekun Ahn, Dong-Gil Im, Young-Wook Cho, Gerd Leuchs, Luis Sanchez-Soto, Hyunseok Jeong, Yoon-Ho Kim

Recent quantum technologies utilize complex multidimensional processes that<br>govern the dynamics of quantum systems. We develop an adaptive<br>diagonal-element-probing compression technique that feasibly characterizes any<br>unknown quantum processes using much fewer measurements compared to<br>conventional methods. This technique utilizes compressive projective<br>measurements that are generalizable to arbitrary number of subsystems. Both<br>numerical analysis and experimental results with unitary gates demonstrate low<br>measurement costs, of order O(d^2) for d-dimensional systems, and<br>robustness against statistical noise. Our work potentially paves the way for a<br>reliable and highly compressive characterization of general quantum devices.<br>

Broadband terahertz solid-state emitter driven by Yb:YAG thin-disk oscillator

Gaia Barbiero, Haochuan Wang, Jonathan Brons, Bo-Han Chen, Vladimir Pervak, Hanieh Fattahi

We report on a table-top, high-power, terahertz (THz) solid-state emitter driven by few-cycle near-infrared pulses at 16 MHz repetition rate in gallium phosphide (GaP) crystals. Two external nonlinear multi-pass cells are used to shorten the output of a home-built, 100W, 265 fs, 6.2 mu J Yb:YAG thin-disk oscillator, operating at 1030 nm, to 18 fs with 3.78 mu J pulse energy. The broadband spectrum of the THz driver allowed for the extension of the THz cutoff frequency to 5.7 THz at the dynamic range of 10(4). By employing the high-power Yb:YAG thin-disk oscillator, the low efficiency of the THz generation is circumvented, resulting in the generation of up to 100 mu W, multi-octave THz pulses at 5 THz cutoff frequency in a 2 mm thick GaP crystal.

Recent progress and current opinions in Brillouin Microscopy for life science application

Giuseppe Antonacci, Timon Beck, Alberto Bilenca, Jürgen Czarske, Kareem Elsayad, Jochen Guck, Kyoohyun Kim, Benedikt Krug, Francesca Palombo, et al.

Many important biological functions and processes are reflected in cell and tissue mechanical properties such as elasticity and viscosity. However, current techniques used for measuring these properties have major limitations, such as that they can often not measure inside intact cells and/or require physical contact—which cells can react to and change. Brillouin light scattering offers the ability to measure mechanical properties in a non-contact and label-free manner inside of objects with high spatial resolution using light, and hence has emerged as an attractive method during the past decade. This new approach, coined “Brillouin microscopy,” which integrates highly interdisciplinary concepts from physics, engineering, and mechanobiology, has led to a vibrant new community that has organized itself via a European funded (COST Action) network. Here we share our current assessment and opinion of the field, as emerged from a recent dedicated workshop. In particular, we discuss the prospects towards improved and more bio-compatible instrumentation, novel strategies to infer more accurate and quantitative mechanical measurements, as well as our current view on the biomechanical interpretation of the Brillouin spectra.

Sub-two-cycle octave-spanning mid-infrared fiber laser

Jiapeng Huang, Meng Pang, Xin Jiang, Felix Köttig, Daniel Schade, Wenbin He, Martin Butryn, Philip Russell

Compact and powerful ultrafast light sources at high pulse repetition rates, based on mode-locked near infrared fiber lasers, are now widely available and are being used in applications such as frequency metrology, molecular spectroscopy, and laser micro-machining. The realization of such lasers in the mid-infrared has, however, remained a challenge for many years. Here we report a record-breaking three-stage fiber laser system that uses an Er-doped fluoride fiber as gain medium, delivering W-level few-cycle pulses at 2.8 µm at a repetition rate of 42.1 MHz. A fiber-based seed oscillator, cavity dispersion-managed by a pulse-stretcher, generates near-100-fs mid-infrared pulses with >110nm spectral bandwidth. These pulses are amplified to an average power of ∼1 W in a chirp-engineered fiber amplifier, and then compressed to ∼16 fs in a short length of highly nonlinear ZBLAN fiber, resulting in a more-than-octave-wide spectrum reaching from 1.8 µm to 3.8 µm with a total power of 430 mW.

Optomechanical cooling and self-stabilization of a waveguide coupled to a whispering-gallery-mode resonator

Riccardo Pennetta, Shangran Xie, Richard Zeltner, Jonas Hammer, Philip Russell

Laser cooling of mechanical degrees of freedom is one of the most significant achievements in the field of optomechanics. Here, we report, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, efficient passive optomechanical cooling of the motion of a freestanding waveguide coupled to a whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) resonator. The waveguide is an 8 mm long glass-fiber nanospike, which has a fundamental flexural resonance at Ω/2π=2.5  kHz and a Q-factor of 1.2×10^5. Upon launching ∼250  μW laser power at an optical frequency close to the WGM resonant frequency, we observed cooling of the nanospike resonance from room temperature down to 1.8 K. Simultaneous cooling of the first higher-order mechanical mode is also observed. The strong suppression of the overall Brownian motion of the nanospike, observed as an 11.6 dB reduction in its mean square displacement, indicates strong optomechanical stabilization of linear coupling between the nanospike and the cavity mode. The cooling is caused predominantly by a combination of photothermal effects and optical forces between nanospike and WGM resonator. The results are of direct relevance in the many applications of WGM resonators, including atom physics, optomechanics, and sensing.

Coherently refreshed acoustic phonons for extended light storage

Birgit Stiller, Moritz Merklein, Christian Wolff, Khu Vu, Pan Ma, Stephen J. Madden, Benjamin J. Eggleton

Acoustic waves can serve as memory for optical information; however, propagating acoustic phonons in the gigahertz (GHz) regime decay on the nanosecond time scale. Usually this is dominated by intrinsic acoustic loss due to inelastic scattering of the acoustic waves and thermal phonons. Here we show a way to counteract the intrinsic acoustic decay<br>of the phonons in a waveguide by resonantly reinforcing the acoustic wave via synchronized optical pulses. We experimentally demonstrate coherent on-chip storage in amplitude and phase up to 40 ns, 4 times the intrinsic acoustic lifetime in the waveguide. Through theoretical considerations, we anticipate that this concept allows for storage times up to microseconds within realistic experimental limitations while maintaining a GHz bandwidth of the optical signal.

Ising model in a light-induced quantized transverse field

Jonas Rohn, Max Hörmann, Claudiu Genes, Kai Phillip Schmidt

We investigate the influence of light-matter interactions on correlated quantum matter by studying the<br>paradigmatic Dicke-Ising model. This type of coupling to a confined, spatially delocalized bosonic light mode,<br>such as provided by an optical resonator, resembles a quantized transverse magnetic field of tunable strength. As<br>a consequence, the symmetry-broken magnetic state breaks down for strong enough light-matter interactions to<br>a paramagnetic state. The nonlocal character of the bosonic mode can change the quantum phase transition in<br>a drastic manner, which we analyze quantitatively for the simplest case of the Dicke-Ising chain geometry.<br>The results show a direct transition between a magnetically ordered phase with zero photon density and a<br>magnetically polarized phase with superradiant behavior of the light. Our predictions are equally valid for the<br>dual quantized Ising chain in a conventional transverse magnetic field.

Antiferromagnetic cavity optomagnonics

Tahereh S. Parvini, Victor A. S. V. Bittencourt, Silvia Viola-Kusminskiy

Currently there is a growing interest in studying the coherent interaction between magnetic systems and electromagnetic radiation in a cavity, prompted partly by possible applications in hybrid quantum systems. We propose a multimode cavity optomagnonic system based on antiferromagnetic insulators, where optical photons couple coherently to the two homogeneous magnon modes of the antiferromagnet. These have frequencies typically in the THz range, a regime so far mostly unexplored in the realm of coherent interactions, and which makes antiferromagnets attractive for quantum transduction from THz to optical frequencies. We derive the theoretical model for the coupled system, and show that it presents unique characteristics. In particular, if the antiferromagnet presents hard-axis magnetic anisotropy, the optomagnonic coupling can be tuned by a magnetic field applied along the easy axis. This allows us to bring a selected magnon mode into and out of a dark mode, providing an alternative for a quantum memory protocol. The dynamical features of the driven system present unusual behavior due to optically induced magnon-magnon interactions, including regions of magnon heating for a red-detuned driving laser. The multimode character of the system is evident in a substructure of the optomagnonically induced transparency window.

Three-photon head-mounted microscope for imaging deep cortical layers in freely moving rats

Alexandr Klioutchnikov, Damian James Wallace, Michael H. Frosz, Richard Zeltner, Jürgen Sawinski, Verena Pawlak, Kay-Michael Voit, Philip St. J. Russell, Jason Kerr

We designed a head-mounted three-photon microscope for imaging deep cortical layer neuronal activity in a freely moving rat. Delivery of high-energy excitation pulses at 1,320 nm required both a hollow-core fiber whose transmission properties did not change with fiber movement and dispersion compensation. These developments enabled imaging at >1.1 mm below the cortical surface and stable imaging of layer 5 euronal activity for >1 h in freely moving rats performing a range of behaviors.

Efficient cavity control with SNAP gates

Thomas Fösel, Stefan Krastanov, Florian Marquardt, Liang Jiang

Microwave cavities coupled to superconducting qubits have been demonstrated to be a promising platform for quantum information processing. A major challenge in this setup is to realize universal control over the cavity. A promising approach are selective number-dependent arbitrary phase (SNAP) gates combined with cavity displacements. It has been proven that this is a universal gate set, but a central question remained open so far: how can a given target operation be realized efficiently with a sequence of these operations. In this work, we present a practical scheme to address this problem. It involves a hierarchical strategy to insert new gates into a sequence, followed by a co-optimization of the control parameters, which generates short high-fidelity sequences. For a broad range of experimentally relevant applications, we find that they can be implemented with 3 to 4 SNAP gates, compared to up to 50 with previously known techniques.

Thermally tunable whispering-gallery mode cavities for magneto-optics

Serge Vincent, Xin Jiang, Philip Russell, Frank Vollmer

We report the experimental realization of magneto-optical coupling between whispering-gallery modes in a germanate (56GeO2-31PbO9Na2O-4Ga2O3) microspherical cavity due to the Faraday effect. An encapsulated gold conductor heats the resonator and tunes the quasitransverse electric (TE) and quasi-transverse magnetic (TM) polarized modes with an efficiency of 65 fm/V at a peak-to-peak bias voltage of 4 V. The signal parameters for a number of heating regimes are quantified to confirm sensitivity to the generated magnetic field. The quasi-TE and quasi-TM resonance frequencies stably converge near the device’s heating rate limit (equivalently, bias voltage limit) in order to minimize inherent geometrical birefringence. This functionality optimizes Faraday rotation and thus enables the observation of subsequent magneto-optics.

Chiral Surface Lattice Resonances

Eric S. A. Goerlitzer, Reza Mohammadi, Sergey Nechayev, Kirsten Volk, Marcel Rey, Peter Banzer, Matthias Karg, Nicolas Vogel

RNA-Induced Conformational Switching and Clustering of G3BP Drive Stress Granule Assembly by Condensation

Jordina Guillén Boixet , Andrii Kopach , Alex S. Holehouse, Sina Wittmann , Marcus Jahnel, Raimund Schlüssler, Kyoohyun Kim, Irmela Trussina , Jie Wang , et al.

Stressed cells shut down translation, release mRNA molecules from polysomes, and form stress granules (SGs) via a network of interactions that involve G3BP. Here we focus on the mechanistic underpinnings of SG assembly. We show that, under non-stress conditions, G3BP adopts a compact auto-inhibited state stabilized by electrostatic intramolecular interactions between the intrinsically disordered acidic tracts and the positively charged arginine-rich region. Upon release from polysomes, unfolded mRNAs outcompete G3BP auto-inhibitory interactions, engendering a conformational transition that facilitates clustering of G3BP through protein-RNA interactions. Subsequent physical crosslinking of G3BP clusters drives RNA molecules into networked RNA/protein condensates. We show that G3BP condensates impede RNA entanglement and recruit additional client proteins that promote SG maturation or induce a liquid-to-solid transition that may underlie disease. We propose that condensation coupled to conformational rearrangements and heterotypic multivalent interactions may be a general principle underlying RNP granule assembly.

Input polarization-independent polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography using a depolarizer

Shivani Sharma, Georg Hartl, Sheeza K. Naveed, Katharina Blessing, Gargi Sharma, Kanwarpal Singh

Polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography is gaining attention because of its ability to diagnose certain pathological conditions at an early stage. The majority of polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography systems require a polarization controller and a polarizer to obtain the optimal polarization state of the light at the sample. Such systems are prone to misalignment since any movement of the optical fiber normally coupled to the light source will change the polarization state of the incident beam. We propose and demonstrate an input polarization-independent polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography system using a depolarizer that works for any input polarization state of the light source. The change in the optical power at the sample for arbitrary input polarized light for the standard polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography system was found to be approximately 84% compared to 9% for our proposed method. The developed system was used to measure the retardance and optical axis orientation of a quarter-wave plate and the obtained values matched closely to the expectation. To further demonstrate the capability of measuring the birefringent properties of biological samples, we also imaged the nail bed. We believe that the proposed system is a robust polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography system and that it will improve the diagnostic capabilities in clinical settings.

Bragg Reflection and Conversion Between Helical Bloch Modes in Chiral Three-Core Photonic Crystal Fiber

Sébastien Loranger, Yang Chen, Paul Roth, Michael Frosz, Gordon Wong, Philip Russell

Optical fiber modes carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) have many applications, for example in mode-division-multiplexing for optical communications. The natural guided modes of N-fold rotationally symmetric optical fibers, such as most photonic crystal fibers, are helical Bloch modes (HBMs). HBMs consist of a superposition of azimuthal harmonics (order m) of order l_A(m)=l_A(0)+mN. When such fibers are twisted, these modes become circularly and azimuthally birefringent, that is to say HBMs with equal and opposite values of l_A(0) and spin s are non-degenerate. In this article we report the use of Bragg mirrors to reflect and convert HBMs in a twisted three-core photonic crystal fiber, and show that by writing a tilted fiber Bragg grating (FBG), reflection between HBMs of different orders becomes possible, with high wavelength-selectivity. We measure the near-field phase and amplitude distribution of the reflected HBMs interferometrically, and demonstrate good agreement with theory. This new type of FBG has potential applications in fiber lasers, sensing, quantum optics, and in any situation where creation, conversion, and reflection of OAM-carrying modes is required.

The mechanics of myeloid cells

Kathleen R. Bashant, Nicole Toepfner, Christopher J. Day, Nehal N. Mehta, Mariana J. Kaplan, Charlotte Summers, Jochen Guck, Edwin R. Chilvers

The effects of cell size, shape and deformability on cellular function have long been a topic of interest. Recently, mechanical phenotyping technologies capable of analysing large numbers of cells in real time have become available. This has important implications for biology and medicine, especially haemato-oncology and immunology, as immune cell mechanical phenotyping, immunologic function, and malignant cell transformation are closely linked and potentially exploitable to develop new diagnostics and therapeutics. In this review, we introduce the technologies used to analyse cellular mechanical properties and review emerging findings following the advent of high throughput deformability cytometry. We largely focus on cells from the myeloid lineage, which are derived from the bone marrow and include macrophages, granulocytes and erythrocytes. We highlight advances in mechanical phenotyping of cells in suspension that are revealing novel signatures of human blood diseases and providing new insights into pathogenesis of these diseases. The contributions of mechanical phenotyping of cells in suspension to our understanding of drug mechanisms, identification of novel therapeutics and monitoring of treatment efficacy particularly in instances of haematologic diseases are reviewed, and we suggest emerging topics of study to explore as high throughput deformability cytometers become prevalent in laboratories across the globe.

Progress toward third-order parametric down-conversion in optical fibers

A. Cavanna, J. Hammer, C. Okoth, E. Ortiz-Ricardo, H. Cruz-Ramirez, K. Garay-Palmett, A. B. U’Ren, M. Frosz, X. Jiang, et al.

Optical fibers have been considered an optimal platform for third-order parametric down-conversion since they can potentially overcome the weak third-order nonlinearity by their long interaction length. Here we present, in the first part, a theoretical derivation for the conversion rate both in the case of spontaneous generation and in the presence of a seed beam. Then we review three types of optical fibers and we examine their properties in terms of conversion efficiency and practical feasibility.

Broadly tunable photon-pair generation in a suspended-core fiber

Jonas Hammer, Maria V. Chekhova, Daniel Häupl, Riccardo Pennetta, Nicolas Y. Joly

Nowadays fiber biphoton sources are nearly as popular as crystal-based ones. They offer a single spatial mode and easy integrability into optical networks. However, fiber sources lack the broad tunability of crystals, which do not require a tunable pump. Here, we report a broadly tunable biphoton source based on a suspended core fiber. This is achieved by introducing pressurized gas into the fibers hollow channels, changing the step index. The mechanism circumvents the need for a tunable pump laser, making this a broadly tunable fiber biphoton source with a convenient tuning mechanism, comparable to crystals. We report a continuous shift of 0.30 THz/bar of the sidebands, using up to 25 bar of argon.

Properties of bright squeezed vacuum at increasing brightness

P. R. Sharapova, Gaetano Frascella, A. M. Perez, O. V. Tikhonova, S. Lemieux, R. W. Boyd, Gerd Leuchs, M. V. Chekhova

A bright squeezed vacuum (BSV) is a nonclassical macroscopic state of light, which is generated through high-gain parametric down-conversion or four-wave mixing. Although the BSV is an important tool in quantum optics and has a lot of applications, its theoretical description is still not complete. In particular, the existing description in terms of Schmidt modes with gain-independent shapes fails to explain the spectral broadening observed in the experiment as the mean number of photons increases. Meanwhile, the semiclassical description accounting for the broadening does not allow us to decouple the intermodal photon-number correlations. In this work, we present a new generalized theoretical approach to describe the spatial properties of a multimode BSV. In the multimode case, one has to take into account the complicated interplay between all involved modes: each plane-wave mode interacts with all other modes, which complicates the problem significantly. The developed approach is based on exchanging the (k, t ) and (ω, z) representations and solving a system of integrodifferential equations. Our approach predicts correctly the dynamics of the Schmidt modes and the broadening of the angular distribution with the increase in the BSV mean photon number due to a stronger pumping. Moreover, the model correctly describes various properties of a widely used experimental configuration with two crystals and an air gap between them, namely, an SU(1,1) interferometer. In particular, it predicts the narrowing of the intensity distribution, the reduction and shift of the side lobes, and the decline in the interference visibility as the mean photon number increases due to stronger pumping. The presented experimental results confirm the validity of the new approach. The model can be easily extended to the case of the frequency spectrum, frequency Schmidt modes, and other experimental configurations.

Towards Polarization-based Excitation Tailoring for Extended Raman Spectroscopy

Simon Grosche, Richard Hünermann, George Sarau, Silke Christiansen, Robert W. Boyd, Gerd Leuchs, Peter Banzer

Undoubtedly, Raman spectroscopy is one of the most elaborated spectroscopy tools in materials science, chemistry, medicine and optics. However, when it comes to the analysis of nanostructured specimens, <br> accessing the Raman spectra resulting from an exciting electric field component oriented perpendicularly to the substrate plane is a difficult task and conventionally can only be achieved by mechanically tilting the sample, or by sophisticated sample preparation.<br>Here, we propose a novel experimental method based on the utilization of polarization tailored light for Raman spectroscopy of individual nanostructures. As a proof of principle, we create three-dimensional electromagnetic field distributions at the nanoscale using tightly focused cylindrical vector beams impinging normally onto the specimen, hence keeping<br>the conventional beam-path of commercial Raman systems. Using this excitation<br>scheme, we experimentally show that the recorded Raman spectra of individual<br>gallium-nitride nanostructures of sub-wavelength diameter used as a test<br>platform depend sensitively on their location relative to the focal vector field. The observed Raman spectra can be attributed to the interaction with transverse or longitudinal electric field components. This novel technique may pave the way towards a characterization of Raman active nanosystems using full information of all Raman modes.

Ensemble-induced strong light-matter coupling of a single quantum emitter

Stefan Schütz, Johannes Schachenmayer, David Hagenmüller, Gavin K. Brennen, Thomas Volz, Vahid Sandoghdar, Thomas W. Ebbesen, Claudiu Genes, Guido Pupillo

We discuss a technique to strongly couple a single target quantum emitter to a cavity mode, which is enabled by virtual excitations of a nearby mesoscopic ensemble of emitters. A collective coupling of the latter to both the cavity and the target emitter induces strong photon nonlinearities in addition to polariton formation, in contrast to common schemes for ensemble strong coupling. We demonstrate that strong coupling at the level of a single emitter can be engineered via coherent and dissipative dipolar interactions with the ensemble, and provide realistic parameters for a possible implementation with <br>SiV− defects in diamond. Our scheme can find applications, amongst others, in quantum information processing or in the field of cavity-assisted quantum chemistry.

Robust excitation and Raman conversion of guided vortices in a chiral gas-filled photonic crystal fiber

Sona Davtyan, Yang Chen, Michael Frosz, Philip Russell, David Novoa

The unique ring-shaped intensity patterns and helical phase fronts of optical vortices make them useful in many applications. Here we report for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, efficient Raman frequency conversion between vortex modes in a twisted hydrogen-filled single-ring hollow core photonic crystal fiber (SR-PCF). High-fidelity transmission of optical vortices in an untwisted SR-PCF becomes<br>more and more difficult as the orbital angular momentum (OAM) order increases, due to scattering at structural imperfections in the fiber microstructure. In a helically twisted<br>SR-PCF, however, the degeneracy between left- and righthanded versions of the same mode is lifted, with the result<br>that they are topologically protected from such scattering. With launch efficiencies of ∼75%, a high damage threshold and broadband guidance, these fibers are ideal for performing nonlinear experiments that require the polarization<br>state and azimuthal order of the interacting modes to be preserved over long distances. Vortex coherence waves of internal molecular motion carrying angular momentum are excited in the gas, permitting the polarization and OAM of the Raman bands to be tailored, even in spectral regions where conventional solid-core waveguides are opaque or susceptible to optical damage.

Efficient single-cycle pulse compression of an ytterbium fiber laser at 10 MHz repetition rate

Felix Köttig, Daniel Schade, Johannes Köhler, Philip Russell, Francesco Tani

Over the past years, ultrafast lasers with average powers in the 100 W range have become a mature technology, with a multitude of applications in science and technology. Nonlinear temporal compression of these lasers to few- or even single-cycle duration is often essential, yet still hard to achieve, in particular at high repetition rates. Here we report a two-stage system for compressing pulses from a 1030 nm ytterbium fiber laser to single-cycle durations with 5 µJ output pulse energy at 9.6 MHz repetition rate. In the first stage, the laser pulses are compressed from 340 to 25 fs by spectral broadening in a krypton-filled single-ring photonic crystal fiber (SR-PCF), subsequent phase compensation being achieved with chirped mirrors. In the second stage, the pulses are further compressed to single-cycle duration by soliton-effect self-compression in a neon-filled SR-PCF. We estimate a pulse duration of ∼3.4 fs at the fiber output by numerically back-propagating the measured pulses. Finally, we directly measured a pulse duration of 3.8 fs (1.25 optical cycles) after compensating (using chirped mirrors) the dispersion introduced by the optical elements after the fiber, more than 50% of the total pulse energy being in the main peak. The system can produce compressed pulses with peak powers >0.6 GW and a total transmission exceeding 66%.

Roadmap on quantum light spectroscopy

Shaul Mukamel, Matthias Freyberger, Wolfgang Schleich, Marco Bellini, Alessandro Zavatta, Gerd Leuchs, Christine Silberhorn, Robert W. Boyd, Luis Lorenzo Sánchez-Soto, et al.

Conventional spectroscopy uses classical light to detect matter properties through the variation<br>of its response with frequencies or time delays. Quantum light opens up new avenues for<br>spectroscopy by utilizing parameters of the quantum state of light as novel control knobs and<br>through the variation of photon statistics by coupling to matter. This Roadmap article focuses on<br>using quantum light as a powerful sensing and spectroscopic tool to reveal novel information<br>about complex molecules that is not accessible by classical light. It aims at bridging the quantum<br>optics and spectroscopy communities which normally have opposite goals: manipulating<br>complex light states with simple matter e.g. qubits versus studying complex molecules with<br>simple classical light, respectively. Articles cover advances in the generation and manipulation<br>of state-of-the-art quantum light sources along with applications to sensing, spectroscopy,<br>imaging and interferometry.

Logic Gates Based on Interaction of Counterpropagating Light in Microresonators

Niall Moroney, Leonardo Del Bino, Michael T. M. Woodley, George N. Ghalanos, Jonathan M. Silver, Andreas O. Svela, Shuangyou Zhang, Pascal Del'Haye

Optical logic has the potential to replace electronics with photonic circuits in applications for which optic-to-electronic conversion is impractical and for integrated all-optical circuits. Nonlinear optics in whispering gallery mode resonators provides low power, scalable methods to achieve optical logic. We demonstrate, for the first time, an all-optical, universal logic gate using counterpropagating light in which all signals have the same operating optical frequency. Such a device would make possible the routing of optical signals without the need for conversion into the electronic domain, thus reducing latency. The operating principle of the device is based on the Kerr interaction between counter-propagating beams in a whispering gallery mode resonator which induces a splitting between the resonance frequencies for the two propagating directions. Our gate uses a fused silica microrod resonator with a Q-factor of 2 x 10(8). This method of optical logic gives a practical solution to the on-chip routing of light.

Oncogenic signaling alters cell shape and mechanics to facilitate cell division under confinement

Helen K Matthews, Sushila Ganguli, Katarzyna Plak, Anna V. Taubenberger, Zaw Win, Max Williamson, Matthieu Piel, Jochen Guck, Buzz Baum

To divide in a tissue, both normal and cancer cells become spherical and mechanically stiffen as they enter mitosis. We investigated the effect of oncogene activation on this process in normal epithelial cells. We found that short-term induction of oncogenic RasV12 activates downstream mitogen-activated protein kinase (MEK-ERK) signaling to alter cell mechanics and enhance mitotic rounding, so that RasV12-expressing cells are softer in interphase but stiffen more upon entry into mitosis. These RasV12-dependent changes allow cells to round up and divide faithfully when confined underneath a stiff hydrogel, conditions in which normal cells and cells with reduced levels of Ras-ERK signaling suffer multiple spindle assembly and chromosome segregation errors. Thus, by promoting cell rounding and stiffening in mitosis, oncogenic RasV12 enables cells to proliferate under conditions of mechanical confinement like those experienced by cells in crowded tumors.

Iso-entangled mutually unbiased bases, symmetric quantum measurements and mixed-state designs

Jakub Czartowski, Dardo Goyeneche, Markus Grassl, Karol Życzkowski

Discrete structures in Hilbert space play a crucial role in finding optimal schemes for quantum measurements. We solve the problem whether a complete set<br>of five iso-entangled mutually unbiased bases exists in dimension four, providing an explicit analytical construction. The reduced density matrices of these 20 pure states forming this generalized quantum measurement form a regular dodecahedron inscribed in a sphere of radius sqrt{3/20} located inside the Bloch ball of radius 1/2. Such a set forms a mixed-state<br>2-design --- a discrete set of quantum states with the property that the mean value of any quadratic function of density matrices is equal to the integral over the entire set of mixed states with respect to the flat Hilbert-Schmidt measure. We establish necessary and sufficient conditions mixed-state designs<br>need to satisfy and present general methods to construct them. Furthermore, it is shown that partial traces of a projective design in a composite Hilbert<br>space form a mixed-state design, while decoherence of elements of a projective design yields a design in the classical probability simplex. We identify a distinguished two-qubit orthogonal basis such that four reduced states are evenly distributed inside the Bloch ball and form a mixed-state 2-design.

Quantum concepts in optical polarization

Aaron Z. Goldberg, Pablo de la Hoz, Gunnar Bjork, Andrei B. Klimov, Markus Grassl, Gerd Leuchs, Luis Sanchez-Soto

We comprehensively review the quantum theory of the polarization properties<br>of light. In classical optics, these traits are characterized by the Stokes<br>parameters, which can be geometrically interpreted using the Poincaré sphere.<br>Remarkably, these Stokes parameters can also be applied to the quantum world,<br>but then important differences emerge: now, because fluctuations in the number<br>of photons are unavoidable, one is forced to work in the three-dimensional<br>Poincaré space that can be regarded as a set of nested spheres. Additionally,<br>higher-order moments of the Stokes variables might play a substantial role for<br>quantum states, which is not the case for most classical Gaussian states. This<br>brings about important differences between these two worlds that we review in<br>detail. In particular, the classical degree of polarization produces<br>unsatisfactory results in the quantum domain. We compare alternative quantum<br>degrees and put forth that they order various states differently. Finally,<br>intrinsically nonclassical states are explored and their potential applications<br>in quantum technologies are discussed.

Coherent suppression of backscattering in optical microresonators

Andreas Ø. Svela, Jonathan M. Silver, Leonardo Del Bino, Shuangyou Zhang, Michael T. M. Woodley, Michael R. Vanner, Pascal Del'Haye

As light propagates along a waveguide, a fraction of the field can be reflected by Rayleigh scatterers. In high quality-factor whispering-gallery-mode microresonators, this intrinsic backscattering is primarily caused by either surface or bulk material imperfections. For several types of microresonator-based experiments and applications, minimal backscattering in the cavity is of critical importance, and thus the ability to suppress the backscattering is essential. We demonstrate that introducing an additional scatterer in the near-field of a high-quality-factor microresonator can coherently suppress the amount of backscattering in a microresonator by more than 30 dB. The method relies on controlling the scatterer's position in order for the intrinsic and scatterer-induced backpropagating fields to destructively interfere. This technique is useful in microresonator applications where backscattering is currently limiting the performance of devices, such as ring-laser gyroscopes and dual frequency combs that both suffer from injection locking. Moreover, these findings are of interest for integrated photonic circuits in which backreflections could negatively impact the stability of laser sources or other components.

Objective Compressive Quantum Process Tomography

Y. S. Teo, G. I. Struchalin, E. V. Kovlakov, D. Ahn, H. Jeong, S. S. Straupe, S. P. Kulik, Gerd Leuchs, Luis Sanchez-Soto

We present a compressive quantum process tomography scheme that fully<br>characterizes any rank-deficient completely-positive process with no a priori<br>information about the process apart from the dimension of the system on which<br>the process acts. It uses randomly-chosen input states and adaptive output von<br>Neumann measurements. Both entangled and tensor-product configurations are<br>flexibly employable in our scheme, the latter which naturally makes it<br>especially compatible with many-body quantum computing. Two main features of<br>this scheme are the certification protocol that verifies whether the<br>accumulated data uniquely characterize the quantum process, and a compressive<br>reconstruction method for the output states. We emulate multipartite scenarios<br>with high-order electromagnetic transverse modes and optical fibers to<br>positively demonstrate that, in terms of measurement resources, our<br>assumption-free compressive strategy can reconstruct quantum processes almost<br>equally efficiently using all types of input states and basis measurement<br>operations, operations, independent of whether or not they are factorizable<br>into tensor-product states.<br>

Chimera states in small optomechanical arrays

Karl Pelka, Vittorio Peano, Andre Xuereb

Synchronization of weakly-coupled non-linear oscillators is a ubiquitous phenomenon that has been observedacross the natural sciences. We study the dynamics of optomechanical arrays—networks of mechanically com-pliant structures that interact with the radiation pressure force—which are driven to self-oscillation. Thesesystems offer a convenient platform to study synchronization phenomena and have potential technological ap-plications. We demonstrate that this system supports the existence of long-lived chimera states, where parts ofthe array synchronize whilst others do not. Through a combined numerical and analytical analysis we show thatthese chimera states can only emerge in the presence of disorder.

Shaping Field Gradients for Nanolocalization

Sergey Nechayev, Jörg Eismann, Martin Neugebauer, Peter Banzer

Deep sub-wavelength localization and displacement sensing of optical nanoantennas have emerged as extensively pursued objectives in nanometrology, where focused beams serve as high-precision optical rulers while the scattered light provides an optical readout. Here, we show that in these schemes using an optical excitation as a position gauge implies that the sensitivity to displacements of a nanoantenna depends on the spatial gradients of the excitation field. Specifically, we explore one of such novel localization schemes based on appearance of transversely spinning fields in strongly confined optical beams, resulting in far-field segmentation of left- and right-hand circular polarizations of the scattered light, an effect known as the giant spin-Hall effect of light. We construct vector beams with augmented transverse spin density gradient in the focal plane and experimentally confirm enhanced sensitivity of the far-field spin-segmentation to lateral displacements of an electric-dipole nanoantenna. We conclude that sculpturing of electromagnetic field gradients and intelligent design of scatterers pave the way towards future improvements in displacement sensitivity.

Maxwell's lesser demon: A Quantum Engine Driven by Pointer Measurements

Stella Seah, Stefan Nimmrichter, Valerio Scarani

We discuss a self-contained spin-boson model for a measurement-driven engine, in which a demongenerates work from random thermal excitations of a quantum spin via measurement and feedbackcontrol. Instead of granting it full direct access to the spin state and to Landauer’s erasure strokes foroptimal performance, we restrict this lesser demon’s action to pointer measurements, i.e. random orcontinuous interrogations of a damped mechanical oscillator that assumes macroscopically distinctpositions depending on the spin state. The engine could reach simultaneously high output powersand efficiencies and can operate in temperature regimes where quantum Otto engines would fail.

Prospects of reinforcement learning for the simultaneous damping of many mechanical modes

Christian Sommer, Muhammad Asjad, Claudiu Genes

We apply adaptive feedback for the partial refrigeration of a mechanical resonator, i.e. with the aim to<br>simultaneously cool the classical thermal motion of more than one vibrational degree of freedom. The<br>feedback is obtained from a neural network parametrized policy trained via a reinforcement learning<br>strategy to choose the correct sequence of actions from a fnite set in order to simultaneously reduce<br>the energy of many modes of vibration. The actions are realized either as optical modulations of the<br>spring constants in the so-called quadratic optomechanical coupling regime or as radiation pressure<br>induced momentum kicks in the linear coupling regime. As a proof of principle we numerically illustrate<br>efcient simultaneous cooling of four independent modes with an overall strong reduction of the total<br>system temperature.

Quench dynamics in one-dimensional optomechanical arrays

Sadegh Raeisi, Florian Marquardt

Non-equilibrium dynamics induced by rapid changes of external parameters is relevant for a widerange of scenarios across many domains of physics. For waves in spatially periodic systems, quencheswill alter the bandstructure and generate new excitations. In the case of topological bandstructures,defect modes at boundaries can be generated or destroyed when quenching through a topologicalphase transition. Here, we demonstrate that optomechanical arrays are a promising platform forstudying such dynamics, as their bandstructure can be tuned temporally by a control laser. Westudy the creation of nonequilibrium optical and mechanical excitations in 1D arrays, including abosonic version of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. These ideas can be transferred to other systemssuch as driven nonlinear cavity arrays.

Swept source cross-polarized optical coherence tomography for any input polarized light

Gargi Sharma, Shivani Sharma, Katharina Blessing, Georg Hartl, Maximilian Waldner, Kanwarpal Singh

Cross polarized optical coherence tomography offers enhanced contrast in certain<br>pathological conditions. Traditional cross-polarized optical coherence tomography systems<br>require a defined input polarization and thus require several polarization controlling elements<br>increasing the overall complexity of the system. Our proposed system requires a single<br>quarter wave plate as a polarization controller thus simplifying the system significantly.<br>Majority of Cross-polarized optical coherence tomography systems are spectrometer based<br>which suffers from slow speed and low signal to noise ratio. In this work, we present a swept<br>source based cross-polarized optical coherence tomography system that works for any input<br>polarization state. The system was tested against known birefringent materials such as quarter<br>wave plate. Furthermore, biological samples such as finger, nail and chicken breast were<br>imaged to demonstrate the potential of our technique.

Optical memories and switching dynamics of counterpropagating light states in microresonators

Leonardo Del Bino, Niall Moroney, Pascal Del'Haye

The Kerr nonlinearity can be a key enabler for many digital photonic circuits as it allows access to bistable states needed for all-optical memories and switches. A common technique is to use the Kerr shift to control the resonance frequency of a resonator and use it as a bistable, optically-tunable filter. However, this approach works only in a narrow power and frequency range or requires the use of an auxiliary laser. An alternative approach is to use the asymmetric bistability between counterpropagating light states resulting from the interplay between self- and cross-phase modulation, which allows light to enter a ring resonator in just one direction. Logical HIGH and LOW states can be represented and stored as the direction of circulation of light, and controlled by modulating the input power. Here we study the switching speed, operating laser frequency and power range, and contrast ratio of such a device. We reach a bitrate of 2 Mbps in our proof-of-principle device over an optical frequency range of 1 GHz and an operating power range covering more than one order of magnitude. We also calculate that integrated photonic circuits could exhibit bitrates of the order of Gbps, paving the way for the realization of robust and simple all-optical memories, switches, routers and logic gates that can operate at a single laser frequency with no additional electrical power.

Nonreciprocal topological phononics in optomechanical arrays

Claudio Sanavio, Vittorio Peano, André Xuereb

We propose a platform for robust and tunable nonreciprocal phonon transport based on arrays of optomechanical microtoroids. In our approach, time-reversal symmetry is broken by the interplay of photonic spin-orbit coupling, engineered using a state-of-the-art geometrical approach, and the optomechanical interaction. We demonstrate the topologically protected nature of this system by investigating its robustness to imperfections. This type of system could find application in phonon-based information storage and signal-processing devices.

Nonlinear dynamics of weakly dissipative optomechanical systems

Thales Figueiredo Roque, Florian Marquardt, Oleg M. Yevtushenko

Optomechanical systems attract a lot of attention because they provide a novel platform for quantum measurements, transduction, hybrid systems, and fundamental studies of quantum physics. Their classical nonlinear dynamics is surprisingly rich and so far remains underexplored. Works devoted to this subject have typically focussed on dissipation constants which are substantially larger than those encountered in current experiments, such that the nonlinear dynamics of weakly dissipative optomechanical systems is almost uncharted waters. In this work, we fill this gap and investigate the regular and chaotic dynamics in this important regime. To analyze the dynamical attractors, we have extended the "Generalized Alignment Index" method to dissipative systems. We show that, even when chaotic motion is absent, the dynamics in the weakly dissipative regime is extremely sensitive to initial conditions. We argue that reducing dissipation allows chaotic dynamics to appear at a substantially smaller driving strength and enables various routes to chaos. We identify three generic features in weakly dissipative classical optomechanical nonlinear dynamics: the Neimark-Sacker bifurcation between limit cycles and limit tori (leading to a comb of sidebands in the spectrum), the quasiperiodic route to chaos, and the existence of transient chaos.

Zebrafish spinal cord repair is accompanied by transient tissue stiffening

Stephanie Möllmert, Maria A. Kharlamova, Tobias Hoche, Anna V. Taubenberger, Shada Abuhattum, Veronika Kuscha, Thomas Kurth, Michael Brand, Jochen Guck

Severe injury to the mammalian spinal cord results in permanent loss of function due to the formation of a glial-fibrotic scar. Both the chemical composition and the mechanical properties of the scar tissue have been implicated to inhibit neuronal regrowth and functional recovery. By contrast, adult zebrafish are able to repair spinal cord tissue and restore motor function after complete spinal cord transection owing to a complex cellular response that includes neurogenesis and axon regrowth. The mechanical mechanisms contributing to successful spinal cord repair in adult zebrafish are, however, currently unknown. Here, we employ AFM-enabled nano-indentation to determine the spatial distributions of apparent elastic moduli of living spinal cord tissue sections obtained from uninjured zebrafish and at distinct time points after complete spinal cord transection. In uninjured specimens, spinal gray matter regions were stiffer than white matter regions. During regeneration after transection, the spinal cord tissues displayed a significant increase of the respective apparent elastic moduli that transiently obliterated the mechanical difference between the two types of matter, before returning to baseline values after completion of repair. Tissue stiffness correlated variably with cell number density, oligodendrocyte interconnectivity, axonal orientation, and vascularization. The presented work constitutes the first quantitative mapping of the spatio-temporal changes of spinal cord tissue stiffness in regenerating adult zebrafish and provides the tissue mechanical basis for future studies into the role of mechanosensing in spinal cord repair.

Idealized Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen states from non–phase-matched parametric down-conversion

Cameron Okoth, E. Kovlakov, F. Bönsel, Andrea Cavanna, S. Straupe, S. P. Kulik, Maria Chekhova

The most common source of entangled photons is spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC). The degree of energy and momentum entanglement in SPDC is determined by the nonlinear interaction volume. By reducing the length of a highly nonlinear material, we relax the longitudinal phase-matching condition and reach record levels of transverse momentum entanglement. The degree of entanglement is estimated using both correlation measurements and stimulated emission tomography in wave-vector space. The high entanglement of the state in wave-vector space can be used to massively increase the quantum information capacity of photons, but more interestingly the equivalent state measured in position space is correlated over distances far less than the photon wavelength. This property promises to improve the resolution of many quantum imaging techniques beyond the current state of the art.

Efficient generation of temporally shaped photons using nonlocal spectral filtering

V. Averchenko, D. Sych, C. Marquardt, G. Leuchs

We study the generation of single-photon pulses with the tailored temporal shape via nonlocal spectral filtering. A shaped photon is heralded from a time-energy entangled photon pair upon spectral filtering and time-resolved detection of its entangled counterpart. We show that the temporal shape of the heralded photon is defined by the time-inverted impulse response of the spectral filter and does not depend on the heralding instant. Thus one can avoid postselection of particular heralding instants and achieve a substantially higher heralding rate of shaped photons as compared to the generation of photons via nonlocal temporal modulation. Furthermore, the method can be used to generate shaped photons with a coherence time in the ns-μs range and is particularly suitable to produce photons with the exponentially rising temporal shape required for efficient interfacing to a single quantum emitter in free space.

Single Photons Emitted by Nanocrystals Optically Trapped in a Deep Parabolic Mirror

Vsevolod Salakhutdinov, Markus Sondermann, Luigi Carbone, Elisabeth Giacobino, Alberto Bramati, Gerd Leuchs

We investigate the emission of single photons from CdSe/CdS dots-in-rod which are optically trapped in the focus of a deep parabolic mirror. Thanks to this mirror, we are able to image almost the full 4π emission pattern of nanometer-sized elementary dipoles and verify the alignment of the rods within the optical trap. From the motional dynamics of the emitters in the trap, we infer that the single-photon emission occurs from clusters comprising several emitters. We demonstrate the optical trapping of rod-shaped quantum emitters in a configuration suitable for efficiently coupling an ensemble of linear dipoles with the electromagnetic field in free space.

The mechanics of myeloid cells

Kathleen R. Bashant, Nicole Toepfner, Christopher J. Day, Nehal N. Mehta, Mariana J. Kaplan, Charlotte Summers, Jochen Guck, Edwin A Chilvers

The effects of cell size, shape and deformability on cellular function have long been a topic of interest. Recently, mechanical phenotyping technologies capable of analysing large numbers of cells in real time have become available. This has important implications for biology and medicine, especially haemato‐oncology and immunology, as immune cell mechanical phenotyping, immunologic function, and malignant cell transformation are closely linked and potentially exploitable to develop new diagnostics and therapeutics. In this review, we introduce the technologies used to analyse cellular mechanical properties and review emerging findings following the advent of high throughput deformability cytometry. We largely focus on cells from the myeloid lineage, which are derived from the bone marrow and include macrophages, granulocytes and erythrocytes. We highlight advances in mechanical phenotyping of cells in suspension that are revealing novel signatures of human blood diseases and providing new insights into pathogenesis of these diseases. The contributions of mechanical phenotyping of cells in suspension to our understanding of drug mechanisms, identification of novel therapeutics and monitoring of treatment efficacy particularly in instances of haematologic diseases are reviewed, and we suggest emerging topics of study to explore as high throughput deformability cytometers become prevalent in laboratories across the globe.

Deterministic generation of hybrid high-N N00N states with Rydberg ions trapped in microwave cavities

Naeimeh Mohseni, Carlos Navarrete-Benlloch, Shahpoor Saeidian, Jonathan P Dowling

Trapped ions are among the most promising platforms for quantum technologies. They are atthe heart of the most precise clocks and sensors developed to date, which exploit the quantumcoherence of a single electronic or motional degree of freedom of an ion. However, future high-precision quantum metrology will require the use of entangled states of several degrees of freedom.Here we propose a protocol capable of generating high-N00N states where the entanglement is sharedbetween the motion of a trapped ion and an electromagnetic cavity mode, a so-called ‘hybrid’configuration. We prove the feasibility of the proposal in a platform consisting of a trapped ionexcited to its circular-Rydberg-state manifold, coupled to the modes of a high-Q microwave cavity.This compact hybrid architecture has the advantage that it can couple to signals of very differentnature, which modify either the ion’s motion or the cavity modes. Moreover, the exact same setupcan be used right after the state-preparation phase to implement the interferometer required forquantum metrology.