A new class of fascinating technologies—including optics in computing, telecommunications links and switches, and virtually any other optical component—could be created simply by configuring a mesh of light-controlling devices known as interferometers. This is similar to the way electronic semiconductors can fashion the wide array of digital technologies we have at our disposal today.
Optical technologies have the potential to greatly reduce the power consumption of computers, speed telecommunications, and enhance the sensitivity of chemical and biological sensors. The basic building blocks of traditional optics, however, mirrors and lenses, lack the versatility to readily perform these functions and are difficult to scale to the small sizes needed for many applications.
A fundamentally new approach to designing optical technologies—based on a single device known as a Mach-Zehnder interferometer—could overcome these limitations and lead to a variety of breakthrough applications, thus, paving the way for an entirely new class of technologies that could give optics the kind of versatility we see in electronics.
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