GHz-speed wavefront shaping metasurface modulators enabled by resonant electro-optic nanoantennas

Advanced Materials (2025)

 

In this paper, scientists detail how they have developed a new kind of ultrathin optical device, or metasurface, that can control light using electrical signals. These devices are made of tiny silicon antennas that sit on a special material called lithium niobate.

By applying a small voltage, they can change how much light passes through and how the light waves bend or shift — important functions for quantum communication and sensing. This design works well at telecom wavelengths, reaches high speeds (over 1 GHz), and can be manufactured using modern foundry-scale methods.

The team also demonstrated a version that can split light beams and adjust their strength quickly, making this technology promising for fast, compact optical systems like those used in wireless data transmission, advanced sensors, and solid-state components that can potentially be used to create reconfigurable entangled quantum optical resources.

The research was conducted by Sahil Dagli, Jiyong Shim, Hamish Carr Delgado, Halleh Balch, Sajjad Abdollahramezani, Chih-Yi Chen, Varun Dolia, Elissa Klopfer, Jefferson Dixon, Jack Hu, Babatunde Ogunlade, Jung-Hwan Song, Mark Brongersma, David Barton and Jennifer Dionne, who conducted their research at Stanford University, National University of Singapore and Northwestern University.