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Careening through hairpin turns and racing down straightaways, light packets called photons travel the distance in this nanoscale photonic circuit. By embedding lasers a few nanometers in diameter in silicon, developers can fabricate the circuits using techniques already in place in the chip-making industry.
Ultra-small devices that harness light, such as these, offer the possibility of transmitting data and manipulating very large numbers at speeds and capacities that electronic devices can’t achieve.Image credit: Stefan Preble, Rochester Institute of Technology
