Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have created a compact device that can actively control the "handedness" of light as it passes through it, also known as optical chirality. This is achieved by slightly rotating two specially engineered photonic crystal layers.
The project was led by graduate student Fan Du in the lab of Eric Mazur, the Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics. The team designed a reconfigurable twisted bilayer photonic crystal that can be adjusted in real time using an integrated micro-electromechanical system (MEMS). This advance could enable new capabilities in chiral sensing, optical communication, and quantum photonics.
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