"There is a strong drive to make smaller and smaller devices," Hui Cao tells PhysOrg.com. "However, there are limitations to what we can do. We want faster devices than what we can get from electronics, so we are looking to photonics. Unfortunately, photonics, while having the potential to be much faster, are larger in size. Devices using electrons are smaller, on the nanoscale, while photonic devices are still on the microscale-defined by the wavelength of light."

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