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These articles were highlighted on the covers of the Advanced Optical Materials October issue:

Sensors
The artwork on the front cover represents the detection of trace metals using SERS and a self-assembled nanoparticle film at a water/oil interface. The gold nanoparticles and mercury are shown entering the aqueous phase and assembling at the interface whilst the Raman reporter is entering from the oil phase. J. D. E. T. Wilton-Ely, J. B. Edel, and co-workers use this technology to create a SERS-based mercury sensor capable of mercury vapor detection. The artwork itself was produced by Christopher Wood.

Polarisors
M. T. Cole et al. demonstrate free-standing polarisers based on solid-state extruded multiwalled CNTs. The degree of cohesion within their membranes derives from inter-tube van der Waals interactions, intimately related to the detailed chemical vapour deposition conditions. The membranes form highly aligned, planar metastable morphologies well-suited for a range of polariser applications. For the first time, ultra-broadband polarisation (400 nm–2.5 mm) is demonstrated with the observed transmission corroborated by effective medium and full numerical simulations.