Controlling integrated optical circuits using patterns of light

Researchers have devised a new approach for controlling light in a silicon chip by bringing the concept of spatial light modulation to integrated optics. Silicon photonics are forming the backbone of next-generation on-chip technologies and optical telecommunication, which are aimed at a wide range of emerging applications including optical interconnects, microwave photonic circuits, and integrated optical sensors. Photonic chip functionality is usually hard-wired by design, however reconfigurab