New topological insulator reroutes photonic 'traffic' on the fly

https://phys.org/news/2019-09-topological-insulator-reroutes-photonic-traffic.html

"By "pumping" the chip with an external laser, targeted to alter the photonic properties of individual rings, they are able to alter which of those rings constitute the boundaries of a waveguide.

The result is a reconfigurable topological insulator. By changing the pumping patterns, photons headed in different directions can be routed around each other, allowing photons from multiple data packets to travel through the chip simultaneously, like a complicated highway interchange."

- Topological insulators are generally the most exotic possibility for quantum computing. Here, they are working on using topological insulators for data transmission.