Anomalous Structural Evolution and Glassy Lattice in Mixed-Halide Hybrid Perovskites.

Hybrid halide perovskites have emerged as highly promising photovoltaic materials because of their exceptional optoelectronic properties, which are often optimized via compositional engineering like mixing halides. It is well established that hybrid perovskites undergo a series of structural phase transitions as temperature varies. In this work, the authors find that phase transitions are substantially suppressed in mixed-halide hybrid perovskite single crystals of MAPbI3-x Brx (MA = CH3 NH3 + and x = 1 or 2) using a complementary suite of diffraction and spectroscopic techniques. Furthermore, as a general behavior, multiple crystallographic phases coexist in mixed-halide perovskites over a wide temperature range, and a slightly distorted monoclinic phase, hitherto unreported for hybrid perovskites, is dominant at temperatures above 100 K. The anomalous structural evolution is correlated with the glassy behavior of organic cations and optical phonons in mixed-halide perovskites. This work demonstrates the complex interplay between composition engineering and lattice dynamics in hybrid perovskites, shedding new light on their unique properties.

Timothy Grass Pollen Induces Spatial Reorganisation of F-Actin and Loss of Junctional Integrity in Respiratory Cells.

Grass pollens have been identified as mediators of respiratory distress, capable of exacerbating respiratory diseases including epidemic thunderstorm asthma (ETSA). It is hypothesised that during thunderstorms, grass pollen grains swell to absorb atmospheric water, rupture, and release internal protein content to the atmosphere. The inhalation of atmospheric grass pollen proteins results in deadly ETSA events. We sought to identify the underlying cellular mechanisms that may contribute towards the severity of ETSA in temperate climates using Timothy grass (Phleum pratense). Respiratory cells exposed to Timothy grass pollen protein extract (PPE) caused cells to undergo hypoxia ultimately triggering the subcellular re-organisation of F-actin from the peri junctional belt to cytoplasmic fibre assembly traversing the cell body. This change in actin configuration coincided with the spatial reorganisation of microtubules and importantly, decreased cell compressibility specifically at the cell centre. Further to this, we find that the pollen-induced reorganisation of the actin cytoskeleton prompting secretion of the pro-inflammatory cytokine, interleukin-8. In addition, the loss of peri-junctional actin following exposure to pollen proteins was accompanied by the release of epithelial transmembrane protein, E-cadherin from cell-cell junctions resulting in a decrease in epithelial barrier integrity. We demonstrate that Timothy grass pollen regulates F-actin dynamics and E-cadherin localisation in respiratory cells to mediate cell-cell junctional integrity highlighting a possible molecular pathway underpinning ETSA events.

Towards engineering heart tissues from bioprinted cardiac spheroids.

Currentin vivoandin vitromodels fail to accurately recapitulate the human heart microenvironment for biomedical applications. This study explores the use of cardiac spheroids (CSs) to biofabricate advancedin vitromodels of the human heart. CSs were created from human cardiac myocytes, fibroblasts and endothelial cells (ECs), mixed within optimal alginate/gelatin hydrogels and then bioprinted on a microelectrode plate for drug testing. Bioprinted CSs maintained their structure and viability for at least 30 d after printing. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) promoted EC branching from CSs within hydrogels. Alginate/gelatin-based hydrogels enabled spheroids fusion, which was further facilitated by addition of VEGF. Bioprinted CSs contracted spontaneously and under stimulation, allowing to record contractile and electrical signals on the microelectrode plates for industrial applications. Taken together, our findings indicate that bioprinted CSs can be used to biofabricate human heart tissues for long termin vitrotesting. This has the potential to be used to study biochemical, physiological and pharmacological features of human heart tissue.

Background-free fibre optic Brillouin probe for remote mapping of micromechanics.

Brillouin imaging (BI) has become a valuable tool for micromechanical material characterisation, thanks to extensive progress in instrumentation in the last few decades. This powerful technique is contactless and label-free, thus making it especially suitable for biomedical applications. Nonetheless, to fully harness the non-contact and non-destructive nature of BI, transformational changes in instrumentation are still needed to extend the technology's utility into the domain of in vivo and in situ operation, which we foresee to be particularly crucial for wide spread usage of BI, e.g. in medical diagnostics and pathology screening. This work addresses this challenge by presenting the first demonstration of a fibre-optic Brillouin probe, capable of mapping the micromechanical properties of a tissue-mimicking phantom. This is achieved through combination of miniaturised optical design, advanced hollow-core fibre fabrication and high-resolution 3D printing. Our prototype probe is compact, background-free and possesses the highest collection efficiency to date, thus providing the foundation of a fibre-based Brillouin device for remote, in situ measurements in challenging and otherwise difficult-to-reach environments in biomedical, material science and industrial applications.

Detection of proteoglycan loss from articular cartilage using Brillouin microscopy, with applications to osteoarthritis.

The degeneration of articular cartilage (AC) occurs in osteoarthritis (OA), which is a leading cause of pain and disability in middle-aged and older people. The early disease-related changes in cartilage extra-cellular matrix (ECM) start with depletion of proteoglycan (PG), leading to an increase in tissue hydration and permeability. These early compositional changes are small (<10%) and hence difficult to register with conventional non-invasive imaging technologies (magnetic resonance and ultrasound imaging). Here we apply Brillouin microscopy for detecting changes in the mechanical properties and composition of porcine AC. OA-like degradation is mimicked by enzymatic tissue digestion, and we compare Brillouin microscopy measurements against histological staining of PG depletion over varying digestion times and enzyme concentrations. The non-destructive nature of Brillouin imaging technology opens new avenues for creating minimally invasive arthroscopic devices for OA diagnostics and therapeutic monitoring.

Widely tunable, low phase noise microwave source based on a photonic chip.

Spectrally pure microwave sources are highly desired for several applications, ranging from wireless communication to next generation radar technology and metrology. Additionally, to generate very pure signals at even higher frequencies, these advanced microwave sources have to be compact, low in weight, and low energy consumption to comply with in-field applications. A hybrid optical and electronic cavity, known as an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO), has the potential to leverage the high bandwidth of optics to generate ultrapure high-frequency microwave signals. Here we present a widely tunable, low phase noise microwave source based on a photonic chip. Using on-chip stimulated Brillouin scattering as a narrowband active filter allows single-mode OEO operation and ultrawide frequency tunability with no signal degeneration. Furthermore, we show very low close-to-carrier phase noise. This Letter paves the way to a compact, fully integrated pure microwave source.

Enhancing and inhibiting stimulated Brillouin scattering in photonic integrated circuits.

On-chip nonlinear optics is a thriving research field, which creates transformative opportunities for manipulating classical or quantum signals in small-footprint integrated devices. Since the length scales are short, nonlinear interactions need to be enhanced by exploiting materials with large nonlinearity in combination with high-Q resonators or slow-light structures. This, however, often results in simultaneous enhancement of competing nonlinear processes, which limit the efficiency and can cause signal distortion. Here, we exploit the frequency dependence of the optical density-of-states near the edge of a photonic bandgap to selectively enhance or inhibit nonlinear interactions on a chip. We demonstrate this concept for one of the strongest nonlinear effects, stimulated Brillouin scattering using a narrow-band one-dimensional photonic bandgap structure: a Bragg grating. The stimulated Brillouin scattering enhancement enables the generation of a 15-line Brillouin frequency comb. In the inhibition case, we achieve stimulated Brillouin scattering free operation at a power level twice the threshold.

Low-threshold Brillouin laser at 2 µm based on suspended-core chalcogenide fiber.

We present, to the best of our knowledge, the first demonstration of a 2 µm Brillouin laser based on a thulium-doped fiber pump and a chalcogenide fiber. A short 1.5 m piece of suspended-core chalcogenide As38Se62 fiber is employed as a gain medium, taking advantage of its small effective mode area and high Brillouin gain coefficient. A record-low lasing threshold of 52 mW is achieved, which is about 10 times lower than previously demonstrated in silica fiber cavities.

Phase-locking and pulse generation in multi-frequency brillouin oscillator via four wave mixing.

There is an increasing demand for pulsed all-fibre lasers with gigahertz repetition rates for applications in telecommunications and metrology. The repetition rate of conventional passively mode-locked fibre lasers is fundamentally linked to the laser cavity length and is therefore typically ~10-100 MHz, which is orders of magnitude lower than required. Cascading stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in nonlinear resonators, however, enables the formation of Brillouin frequency combs (BFCs) with GHz line spacing, which is determined by the acoustic properties of the medium and is independent of the resonator length. Phase-locking of such combs therefore holds a promise to achieve gigahertz repetition rate lasers. The interplay of SBS and Kerr-nonlinear four-wave mixing (FWM) in nonlinear resonators has been previously investigated, yet the phase relationship of the waves has not been considered. Here, we present for the first time experimental and numerical results that demonstrate phase-locking of BFCs generated in a nonlinear waveguide cavity. Using real-time measurements we demonstrate stable 40 ps pulse trains with 8 GHz repetition rate based on a chalcogenide fibre cavity, without the aid of any additional phase-locking element. Detailed numerical modelling, which is in agreement with the experimental results, highlight the essential role of FWM in phase-locking of the BFC.

Hybrid Brillouin/thulium multiwavelength fiber laser with switchable single- and double-Brillouin-frequency spacing.

We demonstrate a multiwavelength laser at 2 µm based on a hybrid gain scheme consisting of a Brillouin gain medium and a thulium-doped fiber. The laser has switchable frequency spacing, corresponding to the single and double Brillouin frequency shifts. In the 20 dB bandwidth, seven lasing channels with a frequency spacing of 0.1 nm (7.62 GHz) and eleven channels with a double-spacing of 0.2 nm (15.24 GHz) are obtained. A wavelength tunability of 1.3 nm is realized for both laser configurations by shifting the pump wavelength. Strong four wave mixing is observed in the double-spacing laser resulting in an improved performance: larger number of channels and better temporal stability.

Cavity Optical Pulse Extraction: ultra-short pulse generation as seeded Hawking radiation.

We show that light trapped in an optical cavity can be extracted from that cavity in an ultrashort burst by means of a trigger pulse. We find a simple analytic description of this process and show that while the extracted pulse inherits its pulse length from that of the trigger pulse, its wavelength can be completely different. Cavity Optical Pulse Extraction is thus well suited for the development of ultrashort laser sources in new wavelength ranges. We discuss similarities between this process and the generation of Hawking radiation at the optical analogue of an event horizon with extremely high Hawking temperature. Our analytic predictions are confirmed by thorough numerical simulations.

Narrow linewidth Brillouin laser based on chalcogenide photonic chip.

We present, to the best of our knowledge, the first demonstration of a narrow linewidth, waveguide-based Brillouin laser that is enabled by large Brillouin gain of a chalcogenide chip. The waveguides are equipped with vertical tapers for low-loss coupling. Due to optical feedback for the Stokes wave, the lasing threshold is reduced to 360 mW, which is five times lower than the calculated single-pass Brillouin threshold for the same waveguide. The slope efficiency of the laser is found to be 30%, and the linewidth of 100 kHz is measured using a self-heterodyne method.

Model for distributed feedback Brillouin lasers.

We present a propagation model for the dynamics of distributed feedback Brillouin lasers. The model is applied to the recently demonstrated DFB Brillouin laser based on a π-phase shifted grating in a highly nonlinear silica fiber. Steady state results agree with the experimental values for threshold and efficiency. We also simulate a DFB Brillouin laser in chalcogenide and find sub-milliwatt thresholds and the possibility of centimeter-long Brillouin-DFB's.

Multi-wavelength gratings formed via cascaded stimulated Brillouin scattering.

We present the experimental observation of multi-wavelength fiber Bragg gratings in As2Se3 fiber. The gratings are internally written via two-photon absorption of 1550 nm pump light and its first and second order Stokes waves generated by cascaded stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS). We demonstrate a parameter regime that allows for 4 dB grating enhancement by suppression of SBS.

Dynamics of photoinduced refractive index changes in As2S3 fibers.

We investigate the dynamics of photoinduced index changes in chalcogenide As(2)S(3) fibers. Using a novel phase sensitive technique for measuring the photoinduced index change, we find that the index evolution is a two-stage process: it consists of a fast reduction and a subsequent slow increase in the refractive index. We show that the index change depends strongly on the beam intensity with both positive and negative changes possible. These findings can have application in design and fabrication of photoinduced devices such as Bragg gratings and photonic cavities.

Photoinduced whispering gallery mode microcavity resonator in a chalcogenide microfiber.

We demonstrate an approach to creating localized whispering gallery mode (WGM) microcavities by exploiting the photosensitivity of a chalcogenide (As2S3) microfiber. A highly prolate WGM microcavity with cavity quality factors (Q) exceeding 2×10(5) is fabricated and characterized. Without the need for geometrical shaping, our approach enables the cavity properties to be monitored during fabrication for the first time.

Bragg grating-based optical switching in a bismuth-oxide fiber with strong χ3-nonlinearity.

We report the first experimental demonstration of Bragg grating-based nonlinear switching in a bismuth-oxide single-mode fiber. Exploiting the strong χ3-nonlinearity of this fiber in a cross-phase modulation scheme, we change the transmission of a probe near the grating stop band from 90 % to 20 %, a 6.5 dB extinction ratio, at powers as low as 55 W. This is an 18-fold improvement in the switching power compared to the best demonstrations in silica. The experimental results agree well with numerical simulations.

All-optical self-switching in optimized phase-shifted fiber Bragg grating.

We experimentally demonstrate all-optical self-switching based on sub nanosecond pulse propagation through an optimized fiber Bragg grating with a pi phase-jump. The jump acts as a cavity leading to an intensity enhancement by factor 19. At pulse peak powers of 1.5 kW we observe 4.2 dB nonlinear change in transmission. Experimental results are consistent with numerical simulations.