Light conversion breakthrough Marcus Ossiander from the Institute of Experimental Physics at TU Graz. (Courtesy: Lunghammer – TU Graz)"> Light conversion breakthrough Marcus Ossiander from the Institute of Experimental Physics at TU Graz. (Courtesy: Lunghammer – TU Graz)

By combining a band-structure engineered multi-quantum-well heterostructure with a nanostructure known as a metasurface, physicists in Austria and the US have created a device that can efficiently transform light into different frequencies – including those at technologically important near-infrared wavelengths. Their technique, which boosts nonlinear frequency conversion, could help in the development of smaller and more efficient components for telecommunications, quantum information transfer and other photonics technologies.

Nonlinear frequency conversion is an optical process in which a material is used to generate light of a different frequency to that incident on the material.…