Photonics

Ayar Labs' optoelectronic chips move data around with light but compute electronically.

Photonic communication comes to computer chips

Startup’s optoelectronic chips could reduce energy usage by up to 50 percent in data centers while increasing computing speeds.

April 5, 2018

Engineers turn plastic insulator into heat conductor

Technique could prevent overheating of laptops, mobile phones, and other electronics.

March 30, 2018

Scientists at MIT, Harvard University, and elsewhere have now demonstrated that photons can be made to interact — an accomplishment that could open a path toward using photons in quantum computing, if not in light sabers.

Physicists create new form of light

Newly observed optical state could enable quantum computing with photons.

February 15, 2018

AIM Photonics Winter Academy drew more than 60 people together at MIT Jan. 16-18 for lectures and design labs on integrated photonics.

Integrating the promise of photonics

AIM Photonics Academy winter session draws over 60 participants from industry and academia.

January 29, 2018

A drawing illustrates the unusual topological landscape around a pair of features known as exceptional points (red dots), showing the emergence of a Fermi arc (pink line at center), and exotic polarization contours that form a Mobius-strip-like texture (top and bottom strips).

New exotic phenomena seen in photonic crystals

Researchers observe, for the first time, topological effects unique to an “open” system.

January 11, 2018

Dignitaries gather at the National Manufacturing Day event held earlier this fall: (l-r) UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, Lincoln Laboratory Microelectronics Laboratory Manager Daniel Pulver, Lincoln Laboratory Quantum Information and Integrated Nanosystems Group leader Paul Juodawlkis, and Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker.

Advancing integrated photonics at Lincoln Laboratory

State award is funding a new germanium deposition reactor for building the next generation of photonic integrated circuits.

December 20, 2017

MIT AIM Photonics Academy Executive Director Lionel Kimerling speaks during a meeting at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts, on Nov. 14. “With the help of the state, Massachusetts can be the Silicon Valley for the growth of ultra-high performance communications systems using integrated photonics,” he said.

MIT's AIM Photonics Academy looks to expand

Recent Stonehill College meeting puts laser focus on plan to grow and enhance regional integrated photonics education and training.

November 30, 2017

A new material produced by Juejun Hu and his team can be repeatedly stretched without losing its optical properties.

Researchers develop flexible, stretchable photonic devices

Light-based devices could be used as biomedical sensors or as flexible connectors for electronics.

November 7, 2017

Researchers have designed a light-emitter and detector that can be integrated into silicon CMOS chips. This illustration shows a molybdenum ditelluride light source for silicon photonics.

Material could bring optical communication onto silicon chips

Ultrathin films of a semiconductor that emits and detects light can be stacked on top of silicon wafers.

October 23, 2017

The new MIT Materials Research Laboratory (MRL) will streamline the organization of materials research on campus and enhance collaboration, Vice President for Research Maria Zuber (center) says. To Zuber’s left is MRL Director Carl Thompson, the Stavros Salapatas Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. They are joined by newly named MRL Co-Director Geoffrey Beach, who is an associate pro...

Introducing the Materials Research Laboratory at MIT

Materials Processing Center, Center for Materials Science and Engineering merger brings together formidable resources for advancing next-generation materials.

October 10, 2017

Researchers have created in simulations the first system in which can be manipulated by a beam of ordinary light rather than the expensive specialized light sources required by other systems.

Tiny “motors” are driven by light

Researchers demonstrate nanoscale particles that ordinary light sources can set spinning.

June 30, 2017

This futuristic drawing shows programmable nanophotonic processors integrated on a printed circuit board and carrying out deep learning computing.

New system allows optical “deep learning”

Neural networks could be implemented more quickly using new photonic technology.

June 12, 2017

"We now have the ability to have a second-order nonlinearity in silicon, and this is the first real demonstration of that, says Michael Watts, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT.

New resource for optical chips

Study: Silicon can reproduce physical phenomena exploited by high-end telecommunications devices.

February 20, 2017

Left to right: Yashu Kauffman, director of assessment and evaluation for AIM Photonics Academy at MIT; Brian Anthony, director of MIT’s master of engineering in manufacturing program; and Abraham Michelen, Advanced Technological Education Council member and professor at Hudson Valley Community College, lead a roundtable discussion on roadmap competency needs in integrated photonics manufacturing...

Commercializing integrated photonics

AIM Photonics fall meeting attendees tackle plans for making computer chips with integrated optical devices and developing a regional workforce.

November 30, 2016

This image shows simulated iso-frequency contours of a photonic crystal slab superimposed on each other and tiled.

New method for analyzing crystal structure

Exotic materials called photonic crystals reveal their internal characteristics with new method.

November 25, 2016

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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