Sensitive Yet Tough Photonic Devices Are Now a Reality: Engineers have achieved a long-sought milestone in photonics: creating tiny optical devices that are both highly sensitive and durable — two qualities that have long been considered fundamentally incompatible

The article reports on engineers at the University of California San Diego developing chip-scale photonic devices that are highly sensitive and durable, overcoming a long-standing trade-off in optical technology. Topics include the design and fabrication of robust photonic devices for scalable production, the use of subwavelength phase singularities to achieve sensitivity, and applications in sensors, optical communication, medical diagnostics, and environmental monitoring.