By harnessing plasmonics to intensify light, engineers have created an ultra-compact, nanoscale light source that could ultimately find applications in data communications. Previous research showed that applying an electrical field to crystals produced a similar, though weaker, beam of light. This discovery, known as EFISH—for electric-field-induced second harmonic light generation—hasn’t amounted to more than an interesting bit of scientific knowledge, researchers say, because EFISH devices are big and demand high-powered lasers, large crystals, and thousands of volts of electricity to produce the effect. As a result, they are impractical for all but a few applications.
