Reprogrammable photonic circuits based on a novel programmable material might speed the rate at which engineers can develop working photonic devices, researchers say.

Electronic integrated circuits (ICs) are nowadays key to many technologies, but their light-based counterparts, photonic integrated circuits (PICs), may offer many advantages, such as lower energy consumption and faster operation. However, current fabrication methods for PICs experience a great deal of variability, such that many of the resulting devices are slightly off base from the desired specifications, resulting in limited yields.