Building Better Photonic Crystals

Abstract

Self-assembly has the potential to transform not only electronics but photonics as well. Researchers are using self-assembly techniques to grow photonic crystals, devices in which a regular array of tiny holes or other features patterned into a material steer light beams exactly where researchers want them to go. By building such beam-steering devices into computer chips, technologists hope to simplify and speed the conversion of digital information from photons—used to carry data over communications networks—into electrons, which process information on chips.