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The authors demonstrate ultra-broadband microscale optical dispersion in LiNbO₃ crystals, enabling precise and robust on-demand dispersion engineering in free space, with strong potential for applications in informatics and spectroscopy.

Zhang et al. report the incorporation of copper halide perovskite nanocrystals into glass fibre arrays for high-resolution remote scintillation over 5 m without crosstalk. Real-time and 3D X-ray imaging are demonstrated employing 1600 densely packed fibres with a single pixel diameter of about 10.4 µm.

Controllable dislocations are desirable for modulating the physicochemical properties of materials. Here authors present a light-driven strategy for reversible high-density dislocation writing in ferroelectric crystals, enabling multidimensional manipulation and repeatable erasure, with potential for innovating informatics and functional materials.

Here, the authors report immunogenicity and safety of AR-MPXV5, a penta-component mRNA vaccine, in naive and simian immunodeficiency virus infected nonhuman primates (NHPs), and demonstrate protection in naïve male NHPs after immunization with two doses of AR-MPXV5.

Nonlinear activation function (NAF) devices are important for the implementation of optical neural networks. Here, the authors report the integration of 2D MoTe₂ with optical waveguides to fabricate broadband all-optical NAF devices exhibiting activation thresholds down to 0.94 μW, a device size of ~50 μm^2, and response rates up to 2.08 THz.

Ag clusters dispersed in glass are critical for optical storage media. The authors present fluorine-modified glass with high Ag⁺ ion solubility, enhancing the formation of Ag clusters under low-energy laser irradiation. The inert network effectively confines Ag clusters uniformly within the glass.

Achieving dynamic multimodal luminescence in a single material is promising but challenging. Here, the authors engineer a phosphor with dynamic multicolor luminescence and photo-thermomechanically responsive emissions by adding Mn²⁺ to a self-activated CaGa₄O₇ host.

Transparent composites are significant for various applications. Here, the authors propose the co-solidification strategy of crystal and glass melts for preparing transparent glass composite with high crystallinity and apply for neutron detection.

Luminescent CsPbBr₃ quantum dots can be written into glass using femtosecond laser pulses and thermal annealing, and erased by further femtosecond laser irradiation. The resulting quantum dot patterns could prove useful for data storage, decoration or security purposes.

Long persistent luminescence of Gd³⁺ is reported and a possible mechanism of the trivalent lanthanides’ persistent luminescence in wide bandgap hosts is proposed.

Ultra-fast optical time-___domain transformation (UO-TDT) techniques are used to encode spatial and spectral information from ultra-short pulses into the time ___domain. In this Primer, Zhang et al. cover the physical and mathematical basis of UO-TDT and its application in various imaging platforms, and conclude with an outlook on how these techniques could be applied to novel applications and imaging modalities.

Phosphor-glass/ceramic composites are attractive for high-power white light-emitting diodes, but interfacial reaction leads to loss of quantum efficiency. Here the authors report a reduction sintering method for embedment of phosphors into silica glass with limited interfacial reaction.

Single-molecule sensing is very challenging due to weak emitted signals and environmental interference. Here the authors design a method (i-SET) for single molecule sensing with core-shell upconverting nanoparticles, which relies on signal enhancement by the activator-rich probes to quantify fluorophores attached to a single nanoparticle.

Removal of damaged mitochondria maintains cellular homeostasis and regulates inflammation. Qian and colleagues describe a mechanism by which intracellular bacteria such as Listeria can elicit mitophagy to enable their survival.

Novel Cr³⁺-doped non-gallate near-infrared phosphorescent phosphor, Zn₂SnO₄: Cr, with the special optical characteristics of broad emission band (650–1200 nm, peaking at 800 nm) and long afterglow duration (>35 h) was presented, which successfully avoid the existing ubiquitous reliance on gallates as hosts in Cr³⁺-doped phosphorescent phosphors. This research also deals with the method of finely tailoring the local crystal field around the activator center, Cr³⁺, along with essential redeployment of trap distributions by adding Al. Indeed, such redeployment permits band gap adjustment and the dynamic variation of the annihilation and formation of defects.

We delineate a femtosecond laser-direct writing method that allows customizing the refractive index profile (both shape and distribution) of 3D waveguides in a variety of glasses with high spatial precision.

In a nested case-control study from the China Kadoorie Biobank, lowering blood low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels confers lower risk for ischemic stroke but elevated risk for intracerebral hemorrhage, which was confirmed by genetic Mendelian randomization analyses.

A new surface-directed crystallization mechanism enabled by the chemical and structural inhomogeneity of the glass substrate through self-limited nanocrystallization of glassy phase was proposed and demonstrated. Benefiting from the intricate interplays between nanoscale force and heterogeneous surface, the strategy offers new opportunities in the large-scale development of various metastable crystallization products and also serves practical purpose.

A full-color, solid-state, volumetric display based on second harmonic generation in a transparent glass-ceramic (GC) containing second-order optical nonlinear crystals is described. The device uses infrared femtosecond laser beams that focus inside the GC to address red, green and blue voxels. Three-dimensional images are drawn by scanning the point of focus of the lasers inside of the material. The prototype device is demonstrated using conventional focusing optics and mechanical scanners, and the image is bright enough to be seen in ambient room lighting conditions.

A new principle for management of dopant–dopant and dopant–host interactions by manipulation of mesoscale heterogeneity in a single active material is presented. The proposed mesoscale engineering approach results in dramatically inhomogeneous broadening of dopant, and for the first time show success in simultaneously extending emission bandwidth and flattening spectral shape in a doped glass and fiber.