Photonic ski-jumps represent a new class of integrated photonic devices on a CMOS-compatible platform, combining a nanoscale waveguide with a piezoelectrically actuated microcantilever to enable vertical, broadband beam scanning from a chip surface.

A Nature News & Views piece explains that this optical beam scanner uses nanoscale light-confining channels bent vertically out of the chip and steered by electrically controlled cantilevers, avoiding moving mirrors.

The approach targets demanding optical beam scanning needs across biomedical imaging, consumer displays, quantum information, and lidar, promising speed, robustness, compactness, and precision beyond traditional mechanical systems.

Performance metrics show a greater-than-1,000-fold Figure of Merit improvement over fiber scanners and more than 50-fold over MEMS/micro-optic scanners, driven by submicron waveguides, minimal hold power around 10 nW, and high scan densities.

A practical demonstration with silicon vacancy centers in diamond shows single-photon emission control and multi-emitter addressing across waveguides, signaling potential for universal fault-tolerant quantum computation via a PIC-based scalable broadcast-capable interface.

The piece provides a detailed account of concept, design, experimental results, and implications for chip-to-world photonic interfaces and quantum technologies.

The device supports 2D beam scanning with bilateral piezoelectric actuators, enabling Lissajous patterns for high-fill, high-speed beam projection and the ability to render full-color 2D images and video without active stabilization, with stability demonstrated over 15 hours.

High performance arises from a small, low-mass cantilever with large out-of-plane curvature engineered via stress-differential bimorphs, enabling diffraction-limited, broadband emission from anywhere on a 200-mm wafer and resonant frequencies from about 1 kHz to beyond 100 kHz.

Overall, converting lever-driven beam steering from bulky moving mirrors to chip-integrated, cantilever-controlled photonic pathways could enable faster, more compact scanning systems for a range of advanced technologies.

Applications span LiDAR, image projection, quantum information processing, and quantum memories, with potential to scale to thousands of optical channels per ski-jump and to form arrays for larger quantum architectures.

Scalability involves trade-offs between spot density and scan speed, with plans for integration using optics, lenses, tiling, micro-lens arrays, and packaging suitable for machine-vision contexts.

While the article highlights advantages and the evolving landscape of chip-scale beam steering, it points readers to the primary research article for detailed experimental data.