New photonic platform offers a four-lane highway for light

New photonic platform offers a four-lane highway for light
New approach to topological photonics enabled a 'four-lane highway' for unidirectional microwave signals. Credit: Xiaohan Cui et al.

Topological photonics can force propagating light to travel in a single direction—allowing researchers to route optical signals around corners and past defects without any of it scattering backward. So far, however, this one-way flow has only been found at the boundary between two specially engineered "topological insulator" regions, leaving most of the material unavailable for light transport.

After ‘Brand New Day,’ It’s Clear The MCU Will Have Two Spider-Men Soon

brand new day

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Marvel

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is on the verge of breaking an MCU earnings record previously set by Avengers: Endgame with its day one numbers, which could be higher than $70 million on a single Thursday. If it wasn’t clear before, it is now that Spider-Man is the single most important superhero Marvel has, and as such, the studio is going to figure out a way to maximize that further. That, it would seem, lead to the arrival of a second Spider-Man, without the disappearance of the other.