A plasmonic “molecule” consisting of a radiative element coupled with a subradiant (dark) element is theoretically investigated. The plasmonic molecule shows electromagnetic response that closely resembles the electromagnetically induced transparency in an atomic system. Because of its subwavelength dimension, this electromagnetically induced transparency-like molecule can be used as a building block to construct a “slow light” plasmonic metamaterial.

Effective manipulation of cavity resonant modes is crucial for emission control in laser physics and applications. Using the concept of parity-time symmetry to exploit the interplay between gain and loss (i.e., light amplification and absorption), we demonstrate a parity-time symmetry–breaking laser with resonant modes that can be controlled at will. In contrast to conventional ring cavity lasers with multiple competing modes, our parity-time microring laser exhibits intrinsic single-mode lasing regardless of the gain spectral bandwidth. Thresholdless parity-time symmetry breaking due to the rotationally symmetric structure leads to stable single-mode operation with the selective whispering-gallery mode order. Exploration of parity-time symmetry in laser physics may open a door to next-generation optoelectronic devices for optical communications and computing.

The ultimate in thin-film magnetism: The alignment of the magnetic properties of atoms gives rise to a wealth of simple and exotic properties that can be exploited. As the dimension of the material is reduced, such that the atoms are in a single monolayer, it was widely believed that thermal fluctuations overwhelm and prevent magnetic ordering. Gong and Zhang review the developments that have followed the recent discovery of magnetism in two-dimensional materials. Recognizing that magnetic anisotropy can be used to induce stable magnetism in atomic monolayers, they provide an overview of the materials available and the physical understanding of the effects and then discuss how these effects could be exploited for widespread practical applications. Science , this issue p. eaav4450

Photonic Spin Hall Effect: When charged carriers move in a magnetic field, they are deflected—an effect known as the Hall effect. Electrons possess charge and spin, a property related to magnetism. The symmetry of electromagnetism then allows for a spin Hall effect whereby the spin is deflected by an electric field. In optics, photons, too, have electric and magnetic components and should thus also exhibit a corresponding photonic spin Hall effect. Using designer metamaterial surfaces, Yin et al. (p. 1405 ) show that the spin-orbit coupling for photons can be amplified, giving rise to an observable photonic spin Hall effect.

Metamaterials, artificial composite structures with exotic material properties, have emerged as a new frontier of science involving physics, material science, engineering and chemistry. This critical review focuses on the fundamentals, recent progresses and future directions in the research of electromagnetic metamaterials. An introduction to metamaterials followed by a detailed elaboration on how to design unprecedented electromagnetic properties of metamaterials is presented. A number of intriguing phenomena and applications associated with metamaterials are discussed, including negative refraction, sub-diffraction-limited imaging, strong optical activities in chiral metamaterials, interaction of meta-atoms and transformation optics. Finally, we offer an outlook on future directions of metamaterials research including but not limited to three-dimensional optical metamaterials, nonlinear metamaterials and “quantum” perspectives of metamaterials (142 references).