Now entering, Lithium Niobate Valley

If the epicenter of the electronics revolution is named after the material that made it possible - silicon - then the birthplace of the photonics revolution may well be named after lithium niobate. While, Lithium Niobate Valley doesn't have the same ring as Silicon Valley, this material could be for optics what silicon was for electronics. Lithium niobate is already one of the most widely used optical materials, well-known for its electro-optic properties, meaning it can efficiently convert electronic signals into optical signals. Lithium niobate modulators are the backbone of modern telecommunications, converting electronic data to optical information at the end of fiber optic cables. But is it notoriously difficult to fabricate high-quality devices on a small scale using lithium niobate, an obstacle that has so far ruled out practical integrated, on-chip applications. Now, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a technique to fabricate high-performance optical microstructures using lithium niobate, opening the door to ultra-efficient integrated photonic circuits, quantum photonics, microwave-to-optical conversion and more. The research is published in Optica.  "This research challenges the status quo," said Marko Loncar , the Tiantsai Lin Professor of Electrical Engineering at SEAS and senior author of the paper.