--- title: Powerful shrinking technique could enable devices that... description: MIT researchers developed a fabrication technique called 'implosion carving' that shrinks hydrogel structures to about 1/2,000 of their original volume,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/powerful-shrinking-technique-could-enable-devices-that-compute-with-light-azq2lhhtw twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Powerful shrinking technique could enable devices that compute with light | daily.dev og:description: MIT researchers developed a fabrication technique called 'implosion carving' that shrinks hydrogel structures to about 1/2,000 of their original volume,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/powerful-shrinking-technique-could-enable-devices-that-compute-with-light-azq2lhhtw og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/AzQ2lHhtW.png og:image:alt: Powerful shrinking technique could enable devices that compute with light og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Powerful shrinking technique could enable devices that compute with light **[MIT News](https://daily.dev/sources/mit)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary MIT researchers developed a fabrication technique called 'implosion carving' that shrinks hydrogel structures to about 1/2,000 of their original volume, achieving sub-100-nanometer feature sizes. This enables 3D photonic devices capable of manipulating visible light for optical computing. A laser creates vacancies in a photosensitized hydrogel, which is then shrunk via ion soaking and supercritical drying. The team demonstrated a digit-classification device that acts as an optical neural network, diffracting light through patterned layers to identify input digits. Future applications include cell classification in microfluidic devices, high-throughput tissue imaging, and 3D nanofluidic channels. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Fabrication platform could enable flexible, transparent next-generation photonic chips](https://daily.dev/posts/fabrication-platform-could-enable-flexible-transparent-next-generation-photonic-chips-gxipfy8v8) · MIT News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Tiny Quantum Nanostructures Could Make AI Less of an Energy Hog](https://daily.dev/posts/tiny-quantum-nanostructures-could-make-ai-less-of-an-energy-hog-f6owkexkk) · The Quantum Insider · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Soft Photonic Switch Could Drive All‑Optical Logic](https://daily.dev/posts/soft-photonic-switch-could-drive-all-optical-logic-eqtyr54c7) · IEEE Spectrum · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Tiny optical modulator could enable giant future quantum computers](https://daily.dev/posts/tiny-optical-modulator-could-enable-giant-future-quantum-computers-pf7koaedc) · Phys.org · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [New photonic device efficiently beams light into free space](https://daily.dev/posts/new-photonic-device-efficiently-beams-light-into-free-space-ukxgdz30w) · MIT News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#deep-learning](https://daily.dev/tags/deep-learning), [#nanotechnology](https://daily.dev/tags/nanotechnology) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/powerful-shrinking-technique-could-enable-devices-that-compute-with-light-azq2lhhtw) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Powerful shrinking technique could enable devices that compute with light","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/powerful-shrinking-technique-could-enable-devices-that-compute-with-light-azq2lhhtw","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/powerful-shrinking-technique-could-enable-devices-that-compute-with-light-azq2lhhtw"},"datePublished":"2026-05-12T09:01:59.150Z","dateModified":"2026-05-12T09:02:39.116Z","description":"MIT researchers developed a fabrication technique called 'implosion carving' that shrinks hydrogel structures to about 1/2,000 of their original volume,...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/9bd1ba305e87ca6e00fdf73b00acd10c?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/9bd1ba305e87ca6e00fdf73b00acd10c?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"MIT News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"MIT News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/881e20a40aa44b12ba4bd27f5c14289d","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/mit"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/powerful-shrinking-technique-could-enable-devices-that-compute-with-light-azq2lhhtw","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"deep-learning,nanotechnology","timeRequired":"PT6M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MIT News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/mit"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Powerful shrinking technique could enable devices that compute with light"}]} ```