Engineers' new topological insulator reroutes photonic 'traffic' on the fly

Photonic chips promise even faster data transfer speeds and information-dense applications, but the components necessary for building them remain considerably larger than their electronic counterparts, due to the lack of efficient data-routing architecture. A photonic topological insulator with edges that can be dynamically redefined, however, would help solve this problem. Being able to route these 'roads' around one another as needed means the entire interior bulk could be used to efficiently build data links.