The development of broadband ultraviolet (UV) detection and imaging systems is in high demand for applications such as security early warning and environmental monitoring. However, conventional UV detection and imaging systems suffer from limited bandgap tunability, leading to poor compatibility with deep UV wavelengths due to their restricted spectral response. To address this, we fabricated a composite glass device with multi-bandgap design, where Gd3+ ions bridge the bandgap mismatch between the host glass and embedded Cs3Cu2I5 nanocrystals (NCs), enabling efficient carrier cascade cooling and the conversion of deep UV photons into visible light. Owing to an energy transfer efficiency approaching 100%, the device exhibits a spectral response from 180 to 350 nm, including the vacuum UV region ( < 200 nm) that was previously inaccessible to single-band UV detectors. Moreover, the visible-light transparency and scalability of the glass subtract enable seamless integration with silicon-based photoresistors and complementary metal-oxide semiconductor imaging systems, achieving large-area, high-resolution (34.7 lp mm-1) imaging performance that significantly surpasses conventional UV detector arrays. This work therefore establishes a scalable strategy for the rational design and fabrication of stable, ultra-broadband UV detectors, paving the way for next-generation UV detection and imaging technologies.

Significance All-inorganic metal halide nanocrystals have attracted extensive attention in recent years owing to their diverse chemical compositions, highly tunable emission wavelengths, large absorption coefficients, and outstanding photoluminescence quantum yields. These remarkable optical properties endow them with great potential in a wide range of applications, including optical detection, display devices, radiation sensing, and high-resolution imaging. However, compared with traditional oxide phosphors and scintillators, all-inorganic metal halide nanocrystals generally suffer from poor thermal stability, vulnerability to moisture, oxygen, light irradiation, and high-energy radiation. These inherent shortcomings severely restrict their long-term stability and practical utilization in real-world optoelectronic and radiation detection systems. Embedding metal halide nanocrystals into inorganic glass matrices to construct nanocrystal-glass composite systems has emerged as an effective and widely adopted strategy to overcome these limitations. The dense and rigid glass network can physically isolate nanocrystals from external aggressive environments, significantly suppressing moisture penetration, ion migration, and thermal degradation. Meanwhile, glass hosts exhibit excellent optical transparency, mechanical strength, thermal endurance, and chemical durability, which are highly compatible with large-scale optical devices and fiber drawing technologies. More importantly, the glass-encapsulation strategy not only preserves the superior luminescence performance of metal halide nanocrystals, but also enables the fabrication of functional composite glass fibers capable of long-distance light transmission, flexible signal routing, and operation in harsh environments. Progress For 3D CsPbX3 perovskite nanocrystals embedded in glass, the emission can be continuously tuned from blue to red through halide substitution while maintaining relatively high photoluminescence efficiency and significantly improved thermal and moisture stability compared with their colloidal counterparts. In contrast, low-dimensional and 0D metal halide nanocrystals usually exhibit broadband emission dominated by self-trapped exciton (STE) recombination or metal-centered electronic transitions, which is highly favorable for applications such as white-light emission, ultraviolet sensing, and scintillation. The rigid encapsulation by glass effectively suppresses nonradiative recombination, stabilizes metastable excited states, and enhances radiation hardness, resulting in excellent photostability under continuous ultraviolet or X-ray irradiation. This review systematically focuses on the crystallization behavior of various all-inorganic metal halide systems within glass matrices and its decisive influence on microstructure evolution, phase formation, and luminescence properties. According to composition and dimensionality, the representative systems discussed in this work mainly include 3D lead-based perovskite nanocrystals (such as CsPbX3, X = Cl, Br, I), as well as low-dimensional lead-free metal halide nanocrystals based on Cu+, Mn2+, Zn2+, and Eu2+ centers. By precisely tuning the glass composition, annealing temperature, and halide ratios, the crystalline phase, nanocrystal size, emission wavelength, and emission bandwidth can be effectively controlled. Furthermore, this review comprehensively summarizes the fabrication strategies of all-inorganic metal halide nanocrystal composite glasses and glass fibers, including in situ crystallization induced by thermal treatment, femtosecond laser irradiation, stress and water assisted crystallization methods, as well as fiber-drawing techniques such as the melt-in-tube process. By precisely controlling the nucleation and crystallization kinetics, nanocrystals with uniform spatial distribution and narrow size dispersion can be successfully precipitated within the glass matrix. Notably, these composite glasses can be directly drawn into flexible fibers with high mechanical strength and excellent optical transparency, while maintaining their luminescence performance without significant degradation, thereby providing a viable platform for integrated photonic and scintillation devices. The optical transmission characteristics of metal halide nanocrystal composite glass fibers are discussed in detail, with emphasis on the origins of optical attenuation. The main loss mechanisms include scattering losses caused by nanocrystal size and refractive-index mismatch between nanocrystals and the glass matrix, absorption losses induced by glass impurities and defect centers, as well as self-absorption effects arising from spectral overlap between absorption and emission bands. By reducing nanocrystal size below the Rayleigh scattering regime, improving glass purity, optimizing heat-treatment conditions, and suppressing reabsorption, optical losses as low as 0.07- 0.10 dB & centerdot;cm(-1) have been achieved in several representative systems. Moreover, efficient optical coupling between nanocrystal composite glass fibers and commercial silica fibers has been realized through direct butt-coupling or fusion splicing, enabling stable optical signal transmission over distances of several meters without obvious intensity degradation. Conclusions and Prospects On this basis, recent advances in radiation detection and high-resolution imaging based on all-inorganic metal halide nanocrystal composite glasses and fibers are systematically reviewed. Benefiting from the high atomic numbers and strong X-ray absorption coefficients of heavy-metal elements, lead-based and certain lead-free metal halide nanocrystals exhibit excellent scintillation performance under X-ray and gamma-ray excitation. When integrated into glass fibers and fiber-array architectures, these materials enable high-sensitivity radiation detection, real-time dose monitoring, flexible imaging geometries, and operation under extreme conditions such as high temperature, underwater environments, and strong radiation fields. In addition, their multi-band responsive luminescence under ultraviolet, visible, and X-ray excitation provides new opportunities for multimodal photon detection and broadband imaging. Finally, this review provides new insights and perspectives for the future development of all-inorganic metal halide nanocrystal composite glasses and fibers. With continuous advances in glass chemistry, nanocrystal growth control, and fiber fabrication technologies, these composite systems are anticipated to play increasingly important roles in next-generation radiation detection, flexible and wearable optoelectronic devices, optical communication, medical imaging, and harsh-environment sensing. The integration of multifunctional luminescence, long-distance optical transmission, and high environmental stability renders all-inorganic metal halide nanocrystal composite glass fibers a highly promising platform for both fundamental research and practical engineering applications.

Persistent luminescence (PersL) materials, which utilize traps to store excited energy and emit photons over extended periods, have attracted extensive attention in the fields of optical information storage, night-vision surveillance, biological imaging, etc. However, precisely modulating the formation of defects and the distribution of trapping energy levels remains challenging. Here, an energy-trap engineering strategy is proposed to construct specific trap states to activate the near-infrared (NIR) PersL of Fe3+, triggering a 600% enhancement of NIR PersL in gallate materials. Structural analyses, spectroscopy measurements, and DFT calculation revealed that neighboring substitution alters the structural symmetry and induces lattice distortion, contributing to the generation of numerous oxygen vacancy defects within the crystal to regulate the PersL properties of Fe3+. Additionally, the changed local lattice environment caused by unbalanced substitution lowers the transition barriers by forming trap levels within the bandgap, thereby accelerating carrier transfer and enhancing NIR PersL intensity. Owing to the remarkable X-ray absorption and conversion capabilities of Fe3+-doped gallate compounds, multifunctional applications in background-free optical radiometry and X-ray imaging are demonstrated. These findings provide a new perspective on the modulation of targeted defects in PersL materials and promote the development of multifunctional X-ray luminescent materials.

Non-Hermitian systems extend conventional Hermitian quantum frameworks by incorporating factors like gain and loss, giving rise to novel phenomena such as exceptional points and the non-Hermitian skin effect. Building on these foundations, non-Hermitian topological photonics merges them with topological band theory, enabling unprecedented control of light. The tunability of non-Hermitian parameters allows for on-demand reconfigurable topological devices within a fixed platform, thereby bridging the gap between exotic non-Hermitian topological phenomena and practical applications. Here, we present a reconfigurable non-Hermitian topological photonic lattice with tunable loss, realized on a novel platform of reversible perovskite quantum dot waveguide arrays. By strategically modulating the waveguide loss, we experimentally demonstrate a non-Hermitian-induced topological phase transition and the emergence of interface states. The reversible and tunable characteristics of perovskite quantum dot waveguides establish a versatile platform for exploring topological states and advancing on-chip photonic applications.

Mullite-type Al4B2O9 glass ceramics (GCs) activated by transition metal ions such as Cr3+ and Ni2+ represent a promising class of solid-state photo-conversion materials for near-infrared (NIR) luminescence devices. However, their optical efficiency is often limited by a series of quenching defects that are generated during crystallization. Here, we introduce a partial cation substitution engineering by replacing Al3+ with Ga3+ to regulate crystallization kinetics and defect formation. Structural and thermodynamic analyses reveal that Ga3+ incorporation increases the crystallization activation energy, suppressing grain growth rate and promoting dominant Cr3+ emission from [AlO6] sites. Consequently, the Ga3+-induced (Al4-xGax)B2O9 phase evolution yields significantly enhanced NIR intensity, quantum efficiency (EQE = 34%, IQE = 46%), and thermal stability (I-140 degrees C/I-25 degrees C = 69.2%). The NIR LEDs integrated with the GCs deliver a NIR output power of 464 mW with 9.2% photoelectric conversion efficiency. This work establishes a generalizable approach for defect-controlled crystallization and luminescence engineering in glass ceramics, opening a pathway toward high-power, thermally robust NIR LEDs for next-generation photonic and optoelectronic devices.

Smart prosthetic interfaces strongly rely on soft sensing systems capable of multimodal perception and real-time feedback under complex deformation. Here we report a closed-loop "sensing-analysis-response" prosthetic system integrating stretchable photonic sensors that offer decoupled thermal-tactile sensitivity and a signal processing back-end, enabling intuitive feedback through dual-mode parallel perception. The asymmetric photonic fiber sensor incorporates temperature-pressure dual-mode responsive phosphors (CaZnOS/ZnS:Mn2+,Er3+) within a highly stretchable SEBS substrate. The developed sensor exhibits high thermal sensitivity (0.86% K-1, R-2 = 0.999) and a low pressure detection threshold (<1 N), along with ultrahigh stretchability (similar to 1000%), minimal bending radius (<1 mm), and strong puncture resistance. When integrated with a compact, low-power multispectral module, the sensor can be directly used in a skin-conformal prosthetics interface. It generates a real-time, sub-second response, thermal alerts, and machine-readable feedback. This lightweight-algorithm-based, bio-inspired system provides efficient feedback for the human-machine interface of next-generation smart prosthetics, laying the groundwork for intelligent and lightweight sensing architectures in human-integrated photonics.

Upconversion microlasers hold great promise for next-generation photonic devices. Most current designs rely on coating or incorporating lanthanide-doped nanoparticles into dielectric microcavities, typically based on polymers or oxide glass platforms. However, polymers generally exhibit limited thermal stability, oxide glasses require relatively high processing temperatures, and coated structures often introduce interfacial scattering losses, degrading lasing efficiency and stability. Here, we report a coordination polymer (CP) ZnCl2(bIm)2 (bIm = C7H6N2) glass as a low-temperature-processable host that enables uniform and nondestructive incorporation of upconversion nanocrystals via strong interfacial wettability, forming an energy barrier (2.52 × 103 zJ) that preserves efficient luminescence, maintains high-Q characteristics, and supports ultrasmooth microcavity fabrication. To our knowledge, this work highlights the feasibility of multiwavelength upconversion lasing in transparent ZnCl2(bIm)2 composite glass micro-bottles embedded with NaYF4@NaYbF4: 1%Tm3+@NaYF4 nanoparticles. Under continuous-wave 980 nm pumping, efficient lasing from the visible-to-near-infrared (NIR) region is achieved, featuring an ultra-low threshold of 140 nW for the Tm3+: 3H4 → 3H6 transition. Upconversion lasing is also generated in Er3+ and Ho3+-activated composite glass micro-bottles, highlighting the universality of this strategy. These findings establish a versatile platform for engineering lanthanide-based microlasers, paving the way toward compact, multifunctional photonic devices for next-generation optical technologies.

The rapid advancement of optical communication and laser technologies demands materials that simultaneously exhibit broadband tunability and sufficient gain efficiency. However, achieving a harmonious balance between these two critical properties in conventional glass optical fibers remains a significant challenge. Here, we report the development and characterization of erbium-doped yttrium-aluminum-garnet (Er:YAG) nanocrystal composite fibers. The fibers are fabricated using a post-feeding melt-in-tube method by precisely controlling the interfacial reaction time (<10 min), which effectively resulted in Er:YAG nanocrystals embedded in the core region. Spectroscopic studies reveal that the nanocrystal size effect modifies the energy level splitting of erbium ions, leading to an extended emission bandwidth. When deployed in a ring-cavity laser, a 30-cm-length fiber enables a low fusion splicing loss of 0.1 dB with standard single-mode silica fibers and continuous tuning over 126 nm (1494-1620 nm) with an optical signal-to-noise ratio of similar to 70 dB, making it suitable for S+C+L band tunable laser applications. These fibers demonstrate both broad gain bandwidth and high signal-to-noise ratio, positioning them as ideal candidates for wavelength-division multiplexing systems and other optical communication devices.

Carbon dots (CDs) are promising metal-free fluorescent nanomaterials, yet their solid-state application is hindered by aggregation-caused quenching. Inorganic glasses offer an ideal host matrix for UV-emitting CDs due to their high transparency and robust stability. However, the poor thermal stability of organic CDs precursors is fundamentally incompatible with the high-temperature requirements of conventional glass processing. Inspired by nanocrystal-in-glass composites, in this paper, we develop an in situ strategy to fabricate CDs-in-glass composites via a low-temperature solution-combustion technique. This method enables concurrent glass and CDs formation via a self-sustaining reaction that overcomes thermal incompatibility, with the aqueous medium ensuring homogeneous dispersion. The resulting composite exhibits high transparency and excitation-dependent multicolor emission, with an optimal UV emission at 360 nm. Compared to the CDs without glass encapsulation, the embedded CDs in glass exhibit reduced particle size, thus exhibiting blue-shifted emission, indicating strong spatial confinement by the glass matrix. Mechanistic studies reveal that highly mobile K+ ions not only promote the fluorescence of CDs by forming surface states but also bridge them into the glass network via chemical bonding, ensuring stable encapsulation. As a result, the composite demonstrates remarkable thermal and pH stability, highlighting the superior preservation capability of the glass host for the CDs' optical properties.

This work demonstrates a novel crystal-in-glass composite structure for multifunctional micro-nano light sources in integrated photonics. Based on a Er3+/Yb3+-codoped glass-ceramic (GC) whispering gallery mode (WGM) microcavity incorporating Ba2TiGe2O8 (BTG) crystals, this microcavity enables dual-mode responses combining upconversion (UC) and frequency-doubled lasing. Made from a low-phonon-energy germanate glass matrix codoped with Er3+/Yb3+ for UC gain, the microcavity is crystallized to form BTG microcrystals for second harmonic generation (SHG). By leveraging the high-quality factor (Q ≈ 5.7 × 104) and small mode volume, we achieve green (550 nm) and red (660 nm) UC lasing in a 30-μm-diameter microcavity with low thresholds of 13.31 μW and 12.97 μW, respectively. Benefitted from the random quasi-phase-matching (RQPM) mechanism in BTG GC, the microcavity also demonstrates an ultrabroadband frequency-doubling response from 900 to 1200 nm. By combining tapered fiber near-field coupling and femtosecond free-space pumping, we achieve simultaneous output of green/red UC lasing and frequency-doubled lasing within a single microcavity. We believe this work offers insights into hybrid material design and cooperative optical field manipulation for tunable lasers and on-chip nonlinear photonic systems. This work presents a crystal-in-glass composite doped with rare-earth ions to create a WGM microcavity that simultaneously enables efficient upconversion and broadband frequency-doubled lasing.

Zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) glasses represent an emerging family of melt-quenched glasses, which exhibit immense potential for applications in gas separation, energy storage, and optics. However, their intrinsic porosity remains elusive due to the inherent challenges in resolving their disordered atomistic structures. Here, we systematically investigate the porosity of ZIF-4 and ZIF-62 crystals and their corresponding glasses. CO2 sorption at 195 K enables quantitative assessment of microporosity in both crystalline and glassy states, allowing the accessible micropore volume of the ZIF glasses to be determined. Moreover, establishing a direct relationship between photonic properties and structural porosity in Zn-based ZIF glasses remains challenging. Here we demonstrate striking broadband blue-light emission from ZIF-4 glass annealed under optimized conditions. A pronounced red shift is observed when increasing the annealing temperature above the glass transition temperature. By correlating the evolution of photoluminescence with structural porosity, we reveal the interplay between the photonic and gas sorption properties of ZIF glasses. These findings provide new insights into the structure-property relationships of ZIF glasses and offer a pathway toward the rational design of multifunctional MOF glasses.

Modern advances in high-energy physics have established neutrons as essential probes in scientific research, enabling breakthroughs ranging from high-energy physics, industrial manufacturing, and materials innovation to heritage conservation, medical diagnostics, and geological prospecting. The diminishing supply of 3He gas detectors has increased the demand for cost-efficient alternative neutron-detecting materials. Solid-state glass scintillators demonstrate particular promise due to their low cost, scalable production, and shape adaptability. However, improving their detection efficiency remains challenging due to the structural complexity of glass systems. This review outlines the neutron detection mechanisms and critical performance benchmarks and evaluates recent advances in the development of glass scintillators. Focusing on activator engineering and matrix optimization, we assess the current progress and existing challenges in scintillator performances. We further discuss the innovations in glass fiber device architectures and their emerging applications in neutron imaging. This article concludes with prospects for future research, emphasizing mechanisms, materials engineering, efficiency optimization, and advanced fiber-based detector systems.

Some zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) represent a new family of glass formers, with hitherto unknown photonic functionalities. In this work, we report the discovery of broadband white light emission in ZIF-62, achieved through a vitrification-pressurization-annealing strategy. In this strategy, visible (blue) light emission was realized after the vitrification of ZIF-62,  subsequently enhanced and broadened upon pressurization. Additionally, a sharp redshift (37 nm) of the emission peak occurred in pressurized ZIF-62 glass as the annealing temperature exceeded a critical annealing temperature (1.07Tg). This implies that the photoluminescence of ZIF-62 can be precisely tailored. The photoluminescence quantum yield of ZIF-62 glass reached 12.2% after annealing at 1.13Tg for 30 min. The origin of the observed phenomena was revealed by conducting structural analyses. Based on the annealed ZIF-62 glass with the best photoluminescent performance, a white light-emitting diode (LED) was fabricated, which exhibited a luminous efficacy of 4.2 lm/W and a high operational stability, i.e., retaining 36.8% of the efficacy after 72 h of operation. This work demonstrated the feasibility of the development of one-component white LEDs by utilizing the annealed ZIF-62 glass.

The exploration of efficient broadband portable near-infrared (NIR) light sources is crucial for next-generation NIR spectroscopy-based technologies. However, developing thermally stable and highly efficient NIR photonic materials exceeding 830 nm is met with limited success. Here, a series of broadband NIR phosphors with long-wavelength emission (λem > 830 nm) is designed by incorporating activator Cr3+ ions into ALaMgSbO6 (A = Ca, Sr) double perovskite matrices. Specifically, a cation site substitution strategy is proposed to reduce the Stokes shift of ALaMgSbO6:Cr3+ (A = Ca, Sr), rendering these as-prepared NIR phosphors possess excellent thermal resistance performance (89.80%@423 K) and high quantum efficiency (82.5%) simultaneously. Structural analyses, DFT calculations, and spectroscopy measurements revealed that Cr3+ ions can occupy both [SbO6] and [MgO6] polyhedral sites but prefer to replace Sb5+ ions in ALaMgSbO6 (A = Ca, Sr). The luminescence efficiency and thermal stability of the samples are further improved through a flux strategy, and the emission spectra are effectively broadened by the introduction of Yb3+ as an extra NIR emitter. Furthermore, the designed phosphors exhibit a full visible-spectrum conversion ability from 400 to 800 nm, showing great promise for versatile NIR spectroscopy applications in solar energy harvesting, night vision, non-destructive visualization, and dental analysis.

Photonic temperature glass sensors based on nanocrystal-in-glass composites (NGCs) offer a promising platform for advanced non-contact temperature sensing. By precisely engineering the distribution of functional nanocrystals and modulating energy transfer mechanisms at the microscale, these sensors achieve exceptional performance, including high sensitivity, fast response time, robust anti-interference capability, and excellent environmental adaptability. This review systematically analyzes how nano-scale manipulation innovations enhance the performance of macroscopic temperature sensing. It elucidates key scientific challenges and recent advances, covering fundamental thermometric principles, material fabrication techniques, and innovative breakthroughs in NGC-based photonic temperature sensors. Finally, we highlight remaining challenges and provide insights into future opportunities for advancement.

Bi-doped glass fibers with controllable optical response are essential for next-generation broadband amplifiers and tunable lasers. However, achieving broad wavelength tunability and stable near-infrared (NIR) emission remains challenging due to limited structural modification of conventional silica glasses and variability of Bi active centers (BACs). Here, we propose a cation hybridization strategy to overcome these issues, demonstrating an enhanced ultra-broadband, multi-band NIR optical response in Bi-doped photonic glasses. Alkaline earth metal ions, such as Mg2+ and Ba2+, were employed as the hybrid cations to “repair” (Mg2+) and “tailor” (Ba2+) the flexible glass network of germanate glasses, enabling precise customization of the local environment to stabilize different BACs. Impressively, this enables a tunable optical response, ranging from one main peak emission at 1142 nm to a stable multi-band emission spanning 920, 1142, 1265, and 1516 nm, with an emission bandwidth of 526 nm, which is distinct from conventional rare-earth ions doped glasses. Furthermore, Bi-doped hybrid germanate glass fibers were fabricated and a positive on-off gain in multiple communication bands (O + E + S + C bands) was successfully achieved. The results offer new insights into the Bi NIR luminescence behavior and introduce a promising strategy for developing advanced photonic glass materials.

One of the major challenges in the rapidly advancing field of nanophotonics is creating high-aspect-ratio nanostructures over large-area with consistent precision. Traditional techniques like photolithography and etching fall short, being limited to fabricating structures with a typical feature size of 100 nm and a maximum aspect ratio of 30:1. To break through these barriers, herein we introduce a strategy, called wet-chemical etching assisted aberration-enhanced single-pulsed femtosecond laser-supplemented nanolithography (WEALTH), for manufacturing large-area deep holey nanostructures. This strategy enables fabrication of nanostructures with diameters as small as 25 nm (exceeding 1/30 of Abbe's diffraction limit), aspect ratios greater than 104:1, and large-area holey lattices spanning 10 mm2 with potential scalability up to several cm2. We have successfully harnessed this technique to develop cutting-edge applications, including immunoassay biosensing chips, large-area nanophotonic crystals, nanophotonic crystal microcavities, and chiral nanophotonic devices. Moreover, it is adaptable to a wide range of materials, including crystals, glasses, and silicon-based semiconductors. Our approach offers high flexibility in customizing large-area holey nanophotonic structures, paving the way for breakthrough advancements in 3D integrated optics.

Significance Upconversion (UC) laser has the characteristics of anti-Stokes displacement, monochromatism, and high stability. Hence, rare earth (RE) ion-doped upconversion micro/nano laser has shown potential applications in various fields, such as biomedicine, holographic projection, visible light communication, data storage, and new-generation display technologies, resulting in extensive attention in recent years. The optical feedback from photon scattering of the porous upconversion nanoparticles clusters has been reported to produce upconversion random lasers. Light bouncing back and forth between two reflective surfaces or internal surfaces has been utilized to achieve modulated upconversion lasing emission. In addition, plasmonic cavities with enhanced electromagnetic fields can amplify the upconversion process within the sub-diffraction-limiated volumes and produce highly efficient upconversion lasers. In this review, the recent advances in RE ions-doped upconversion materials for random, Fabry-Perot (F - P)/ whispering gallery mode (WGM) cavity-, and plasmonic cavity-modulated upconversion micro/nano lasers are overviewed. The main factors affecting the output of upconversion micro/nano lasers are summarized. Current challenges and future directions of the upconversion micro/nano lasers are also discussed. Progress First, upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) can be employed as cavities for feedback and resonance based on their own scattering effect to produce random lasing emission. For example, a type of high-temperature-operated compact self-cooling laser has been demonstrated using Ba2LaF7: Yb3+ , Er3+ nanocrystals (NCs)-embedded glass-ceramics. Additionally, by using core-shell UCNPs as the gain medium, a highly efficient single-segment white random laser and tunable random lasing emission from 309 to 363 nm have also been achieved. Unlike random lasers induced by the scattering effect, F -P cavities and whispering gallery modes (WGMs) are commonly employed as micro-resonator geometries for upconversion lasing emission owing to their high quality factors. F-P microcavities, constructed with two or more parallel mirrors, allow light to bounce back and forth between the reflective surfaces. Resonance occurs when the optical path length equals an integer multiple of the light wavelength. Based on this principle, upconversion lasing emission has been achieved by designing an F-P cavity-consisting of a quartz tube sandwiched between a distributed Bragg reflector and an Al mirror-with a NaYF4:Yb3+ , Er3+@NaYF 4 core-shell NC solution as the gain medium. However, the relatively long cavity length makes it challenging to obtain a finely structured lasing spectrum. WGM microcavities can confine light in a narrow ring along the equatorial surface of the cavity via total internal reflection. WGM cavities, which have various shapes such as bottles, spheres, toroids, and rings, have been further explored and demonstrated as one of the optimal cavities for microlasers with low thresholds and narrow linewidths, owing to their high quality factors and small mode volumes. A bottle-like WGM microcavity enables upconverted blue, green, red, and deep ultraviolet lasing emission by coating a drop of silica resin containing UCNPs onto an optical fiber. To reduce the size of upconversion microlasers, a single hexagonal NaYF4:Yb3+ , Tm3+ , Er3+ microrod was utilized to achieve multicolor upconversion lasing emission, supported by total internal reflection between its six flat surfaces. After depositing efficient energy-looping NCs onto the surface of a polystyrene microsphere, low-threshold upconversion lasing emission pumped by continuous wave was achieved. Furthermore, WGM microcavities fabricated from RE ion-doped glass ceramics exhibited upconversion lasing emission with extremely low thresholds, reaching the microwatt level. One strategy to lower the threshold of lanthanide upconverting lasers is to enhance the upconversion efficiency of the gain medium. Plasmonic structures with locally enhanced electromagnetic fields can amplify the upconversion process within sub-diffraction-limited volumes. As typical plasmonic materials, silver and gold nanoparticles with tailorable resonance modes matching upconversion excitation or emission wavelengths have been shown to enhance upconversion efficiency. Accordingly, plasmonic arrays consisting of silver nanopillars were fabricated to provide a high-quality single-mode lattice plasmon with a sharp resonance peak. After depositing NaYF4:20 degrees o Yb3+ , 20 degrees o Er3+ @NaYF4 NPs onto the surface of the plasmonic nanoarray to form a microcavity, continuous-wave upconversion lasing with an ultralow threshold of 70 W /cm2 was achieved. A typical laser device consists of three crucial components: a gain medium, a pumping source, and an optical cavity. These are also the main factors affecting the output of upconversion lasers. To achieve lasing emission, the gain medium must satisfy the requirement of population inversion, meaning that the population in the excited states should exceed that in the ground state. Furthermore, to realize net gain after each feedback cycle, the number of emitted photons in the gain medium must exceed the losses induced by scattering or re-absorption. Increasing the pumping power leads to successive amplified spontaneous emission and stimulated emission (lasing action). For the optical cavity, it must have a high quality factor, i.e., the optical loss should be low. Conclusions and Prospects This review summarizes recent progress in RE ion-doped upconversion micro/nano lasers. The excellent frequency conversion properties of upconversion nanoparticles provide numerous opportunities for upconversion lasing, such as the upconversion random lasing, WGM/F -P cavity-modulated upconversion lasing, and plasmonic cavity-based upconversion lasing. Moreover, the emission wavelength of upconversion microlasers has been expanded from the deep ultraviolet to the near-infrared region. Low-threshold continuous-wave-pumped upconversion lasing has been achieved through the design of microcavities with WGM and lattice plasmon modes, showing potential applications in solid-state holographic display, underwater monitoring, high-speed information transmission, bioimaging and tracking, and water purification. However, challenges remain. For instance: (1) Further exploration is needed to improve upconversion efficiency, thereby reducing the lasing threshold; (2) It is necessary to enhance the thermal stability of the gain medium to avoid the influence of thermal effects on laser performance under high pumping power; (3) Smart cavities with high-Q-factor WGMs, F -P cavities, and plasmonic enhancement should be further developed for various

Zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) glasses represent a newly emerged class of melt-quenched glasses, characterized by their intrinsic nanoporous structure, good processability, and multifunctionalities such as gas separation and energy storage. However, creating photonic functionalities in Zn-based ZIF glasses remains elusive. Here we show a remarkable broadband white light-emitting behavior in a Zn-based ZIF glass, which can be enhanced by annealing. Furthermore, we discovered a sharp red shift upon increasing annealing temperature above the critical temperature of 1.07Tg, where Tg is the glass transition temperature, for a short duration of 30 min. Finally, we achieved a high absolute internal photoluminescence quantum yield of 12.2

This paper presents a low-Al-doped, Ge-free erbium-doped fiber (EDF) designed to mitigate the severe gain degradation problem in erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) for space laser communication. The fiber features an F-doped cladding that replaces the conventional silica cladding, and a core fabricated using low-temperature chelate deposition technology. This design suppresses clustering of Er3+ ions even with very low co-dopant concentrations, overcoming the long-standing limitations of erbium-doped fibers in irradiated environments. Co-dopants in EDFs effectively enhance the doping concentration of Er3+ ions and improve gain performance, but they also increase irradiation-induced damage effects. The reported irradiation-resistant fiber, with an Al concentration of 0.5 mol%, achieves an absorption coefficient of 6 dB/m at 980 nm. At an irradiation dose of 100 krad, the irradiation-induced loss of the non-cerium-doped samples was reduced by 79 %, while that of the cerium-doped samples was reduced to 83 %. Additionally, the fiber demonstrated irradiation-induced gain variation of less than 2.9 dB. This work offers a novel strategy for developing irradiation-hardened erbium-doped fibers, addressing the inherent trade-off between Er3+ ions doping and irradiation resistance.