Photonics

Researchers at MIT and Israel's Technion used a thin-film material composed of layers of gallium-arsenide and indium-gallium-arsenide, overlaid with a layer of graphene, as shown in this diagram, to produce strong interactions between light and particles that could someday enable highly tunable lasers or LEDs.

Researchers devise new way to make light interact with matter

Reducing the wavelength of light could allow it to be absorbed or emitted by a semiconductor, study suggests.

June 4, 2018

This cloaking grenade, used for hiding troop operations from view on the battlefield, is an example of nanoparticles that reflect a particular color of light based on their exact size and composition. New work by MIT researchers provides a way to predict the light-scattering properties of layered nanoparticles – or to design particles to match a desired type of light-scattering behavior.

AI-based method could speed development of specialized nanoparticles

Neural network could expedite complex physics simulations.

June 1, 2018

Engineers at MIT have developed pressure-sensing photonic fibers that they have woven into a typical compression bandage

Engineers design color-changing compression bandage

Bandage is threaded with photonic fibers that change color to signal pressure level.

May 29, 2018

Researchers have developed a technique for assembling on-chip optics and electronic separately, which enables the use of more modern transistor technologies.

Integrating optical components into existing chip designs

Technique would allow addition of optical communication components to existing chips with little modification of their designs.

April 19, 2018

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

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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