Seoul National University College of Engineering announced that a joint research team led by Professor Namkyoo Park and Professor Sunkyu Yu of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at SNU, in collaboration with Professor Xianji Piao of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Seoul, has developed a photonic integrated circuit that can slow light on demand.

With the rapid advancement of generative AI and large-scale AI models, computational demands have surged, exposing the limitations of conventional electronic semiconductors, including high power consumption and limited data transmission speeds. As a result, demand for optical computing technologies capable of low-power, ultrafast processing is increasing. However, because light travels at a fixed speed, implementing buffer and memory functions—essential for optical computing—has remained fundamentally challenging.

To address this issue, the joint research team devised a method to freely control both the speed and shape of optical signals using a programmable photonic integrated circuit. Through this approach, the team demonstrated the ability to control “slow light” with a higher degree of freedom than any previously proposed method.