Trends in scintillators that are used in many applications, such as medical imaging, security, oil-logging, high energy physics and non-destructive inspections are reviewed. First, we address traditional inorganic and organic scintillators with respect of limitation in the scintillation light yields and lifetimes. The combination of high–light yield and fast response can be found in Ce ${}^{3+}$ , Pr ${}^{3+}$ and Nd ${}^{3+}$ lanthanide-doped scintillators while the maximum light yield conversion of 100,000 photons/MeV can be found in Eu ${}^{3+}$ doped SrI ${}_2$ . However, the fabrication of those lanthanide-doped scintillators is inefficient and expensive as it requires high-temperature furnaces. A self-grown single crystal using solution processes is already introduced in perovskite photovoltaic technology and it can be the key for low-cost scintillators. A novel class of materials in scintillation includes lead halide perovskites. These materials were explored decades ago due to the large X-ray absorption cross section. However, lately lead halide perovskites have become a focus of interest due to recently reported very high photoluminescence quantum yield and light yield conversion at low temperatures. In principle, 150,000–300,000 photons/MeV light yields can be proportional to the small energy bandgap of these materials, which is below 2 eV. Finally, we discuss the extraction efficiency improvements through the fabrication of the nanostructure in scintillators, which can be implemented in perovskite materials. The recent technology involving quantum dots and nanocrystals may also improve light conversion in perovskite scintillators.

The integration of efficient, miniaturized group IV lasers into CMOS architecture holds the key to the realization of fully functional photonic-integrated circuits. Despite several years of progress, however, all group IV lasers reported to date exhibit impractically high thresholds owing to their unfavourable bandstructures. Highly strained germanium with its fundamentally altered bandstructure has emerged as a potential low-threshold gain medium, but there has yet to be a successful demonstration of lasing from this seemingly promising material system. Here we demonstrate a low-threshold, compact group IV laser that employs a germanium nanowire under a 1.6% uniaxial tensile strain as the gain medium. The amplified material gain in strained germanium can sufficiently overcome optical losses at 83 K, thus allowing the observation of multimode lasing with an optical pumping threshold density of ~3.0 kW cm⁻². Our demonstration opens new possibilities for group IV lasers for photonic-integrated circuits.

In this paper, we report a compact wavelength-flattened directional coupler (WFDC) based chemical sensor featuring an incorporated subwavelength grating (SWG) structure for the mid-infrared (MIR). By incorporating a SWG structure into directional coupler (DC), the dispersion in DC can be engineered to allow broadband operation which is advantageous to extract spectroscopic information for MIR sensing analysis. Meanwhile, the Bragg reflection introduced by the SWG structure produces a sharp trough at the Bragg wavelength. This sharp trough is sensitive to the surrounding refractive index (RI) change caused by the existence of analytes. Therefore, high sensitivity can be achieved in a small footprint. Around fivefold enhancement in the operation bandwidth compared to conventional DC is achieved for 100% coupling efficiency in a 40 µm long WFDC experimentally. Detection of dichloromethane (CH₂Cl₂) in ethanol (C₂H₅OH) is investigated in a SWG-based WFDC sensor 136.8 µm long. Sensing performance is studied by 3D finite-difference time domain (FDTD) simulation while sensitivity is derived by computation. Both RI sensing and absorption sensing are examined. RI sensing reveals a sensitivity of −0.47% self-normalized transmitted power change per percentage of CH₂Cl₂ concentration while 0.12% change in the normalized total integrated output power is realized in the absorption sensing. As the first demonstration of the DC based sensor in the MIR, our device has the potential for tertiary mixture sensing by utilizing both changes in the real and imaginary part of RI. It can also be used as a broadband building block for MIR application such as spectroscopic sensing system.

For long distance optical interconnects, 1.3-μm surface-emitting lasers are key devices. However, the low output power of several milliwatts limits their application. In this study, by introducing a two-dimensional photonic-crystal and using InAs quantum dots as active materials, a continuous-wave, 13.3-mW output power, 1.3-μm wavelength, room-temperature surface-emitting laser is achieved. In addition, such a device can be operated at high temperatures of up to 90 °C. The enhanced output power results from the flat band structure of the photonic crystal and an extra feedback mechanism. Surface emission is realized by photonic crystal diffraction and thus the distributed Bragg reflector is eliminated. The proposed device provides a means to overcome the limitations of low-power 1.3-μm surface-emitting lasers and increase the number of applications thereof.