Computer-designed photonic circuits, ready for the foundry

Together with Kiyoul Yang’s group at Harvard, Toby Bi and colleagues used inverse design to create silicon nitride chip components that are up to 500 times smaller than conventional ones. Instead of adjusting familiar shapes by hand, the algorithm starts from what the light should do and searches for a nanostructure that does it.
➔ Nature Communications 17, 6943 (2026)