Now entering, lithium niobate valley

Lithium niobate is already one of the most widely used optical materials, well-known for its electro-optic properties but it is notoriously difficult to fabricate high-quality devices on a small scale using lithium niobate, an obstacle that has so far ruled out practical integrated, on-chip applications. Now, researchers have developed a technique to fabricate high-performance optical microstructures using lithium niobate, opening the door to ultra-efficient integrated photonic circuits, quantum photonics, microwave-to-optical conversion and more.