A Monash University team has combined advanced materials and nanotechnology to solve a major challenge in an emerging field known as valleytronics.

Valleytronics explores new ways of processing information using quantum properties of materials, with potential applications in computing, data processing and communications.

The team has created a system that generates light signals, precisely guides them, and converts them into electrical signals. This is all within a compact, chip-based device.

Lead author of the study, Dr Chi Li says the research overcomes a key limitation that has held the field back for years.

“Until now, we could generate or detect these signals, but not do everything in one integrated device,” Dr Li says. “What we’ve built is a complete on-chip system that can create, route and read this information with very high precision.”

The device combines ultra-thin materials, only a few atoms thick, with specially designed nanostructures that control light.

Using light can deliver much higher speeds, greater bandwidth, and lower energy use. That means there’s high potential for applications in quantum computing, advanced imaging and future communication systems.

Importantly, the system works at room temperature, unlike many quantum technologies that require extremely cold conditions to operate.

“This is an important step toward technologies that use light instead of electricity to process information,” says senior author Dr Haoran Ren, ARC Future Fellow and leader of the Monash NanoMeta Group.

This work helps bridge the gap between experimental physics and practical technology, positioning Australia as a player in valleytronics.

Read the study, an international collaboration, published in Nature Photonics.

Image (above): An artist’s illustration of Monash’s photonic valleytronic chip. Credit: Chi Li.