Researchers discover way to manipulate properties of light in new breakthrough
Researchers say what was once just a concept is now a reality, thanks to efforts led by Dr Marcello Ferrera and his team of scientists.

Researchers at a Scottish university say they have made a discovery that marks a new era in photonic, or light, technology.
Scientists at Heriot-Watt University (HWU) revealed on Tuesday (March 18) that they have made a breakthrough that proves the scientific theory of manipulating the optical properties of light by adding the dimension of time.
They say the concept has now become reality thanks to nanophotonics experts from the university’s school of engineering and physical sciences in Edinburgh.
It comes as the university was recently awarded a share of £6.5m from the UK-Canada quantum for science research collaboration to advance its research over the next two years.
The team experimented with nanomaterials called transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) – a type of glass that changes how light moves through the material at fast speeds.
TCOs are in solar panels and touchscreens, and can be shaped as ultra-thin films measuring 250 nanometers, or 0.00025mm – which is shorter than the wavelength of visible light.
The breakthrough manipulates the TCOs to control the speed at which photons travel.
Researchers say they are essentially adding a fourth dimension, leading to light transformations, including amplification, the creation of quantum states, and new forms of light control.
He said they were able to “sculpt” the way TCOs react by radiating the material with ultra-fast pulses of light.
They said the resulting temporally engineered layer was able to simultaneously control the direction and energy of individual particles of light, known as photons, a functionality which up until now had been unachievable.
They said this discovery could lead to processing data at a much faster speed and volume than what is currently possible.
They think it will be pivotal in advancing various areas such as optical computing, AI, integrated quantum technologies and ultra-fast physics.

“By using a nonlinear material to fully exploit optical bandwidth, companies and major organisations can process so much more information.
“This will hold huge benefits to the likes of data centres and advancing AI technology, among others, and will underpin exciting new technologies we cannot fully understand at this time.”
Commenting further on the potential future uses arising from this research, Dr Ferrera added: “Society is thirsty for bandwidth. If we are aiming at making a virtual meeting a fully immersive 3D experience, this would demand enormous computational power and processing speed, which only ultra-fast all-optical components can provide.
“The material properties we are investigating here could increase computational speed by several orders of magnitude, enabling handling much greater volumes of information at a fraction of current energy expenditure.
“What science and technology is trying to do is emulate the human brain but by using electronic hardware.
“The materials we are working on are the ingredients towards this goal that can lower the energy consumption of these computational units, reducing costs and increasing processing power.”
Dr Wallace Jaffray, a postdoctoral research associate and Sven Stengel, a doctoral researcher, have been working alongside Dr Ferrera on the research at HWU.
“This new class of time-varying media is the biggest leap forward towards the perfect optically controllable material in decades enabling a large variety of novel and exciting effects that scientists all over the world are rushing to attempt. This is a new age in nonlinear optics which targets full light control without the need of slow electric signals.”
The findings have been published in the peer reviewed journal, Nature Photonics.
Vladimir Shalaev, a distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University, who assisted in the research, said: “These low-index transparent conductors have brought a real revolution within the field of integrated nonlinear optics, allowing for the effective and energy-efficient manipulation of optical signals on unprecedentedly short time scales.”
Alexandra Boltasseva, also a distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University, added: “Our common research effort demonstrates that with these materials we can finally use the variable of time for engineering the optical properties of compounds beyond what is currently possible by using standard fabrication processes.”