Caltech’s tiny new chip can steer light in 74 quadrillionths of a second

Caltech engineers developed a metasurface of amorphous silicon with nanoscale pillars that deflects a light beam with another beam in 74 femtoseconds — about the time light takes to travel through a human hair. The device uses the optical Kerr effect and deflects the beam at angles up to 13 degrees.

• Switching speed is 74 femtoseconds, limited by laser pulse duration
• Amorphous silicon metasurface with nanopillars enhances Kerr effect
• Beam deflected at angles up to 13 degrees without electrical signal
• Results published in Nature Nanotechnology