Signal Monash team generates, steers and reads optical information on a single chip (Nature Photonics)

Summary

Researchers at Monash University implemented generation, steering and readout of optical information on a single chip using atomically thin materials and nanostructures, publishing the work in Nature Photonics (DOI: 10.1038/s41566-026-01916-0) on 2 June 2026. The lead author was Dr. Chi Li, with co-first author Dr. Kaijian Xing and senior author Dr. Haoran Ren, leader of the Monash NanoMeta Group; Professor Stefan A. Maier, head of the School of Physics and Astronomy, and Professor Michael S. Fuhrer also contributed. The device operates at room temperature, unlike many quantum systems that require extreme cooling, and successfully encoded and processed two separate images simultaneously, demonstrating it can manage multiple information streams. Dr. Li said: "What we've built is a complete on-chip system that can create, route and read this information with very high precision." The researchers used a stacking approach to integrate ultra-thin materials with metasurfaces, which they say overcomes previous technical barriers in valleytronics development, with potential applications in quantum computing, advanced imaging, optical communications and secure data processing.