Scientists at Caltech have created a new kind of waveguide. Made of amorphous silicon dioxide and covered in a thin layer of gold, the nanodevice can focus light into a point just a few nanometers across.

Pasadena, California — As technology advances, it tends to shrink. From cell phones to laptops—powered by increasingly faster and tinier processors—everything is getting thinner and sleeker. And now light beams are getting smaller, too.

Engineers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have created a device that can focus light into a point just a few nanometers (billionths of a meter) across—an achievement they say may lead to next-generation applications in computing, communications, and imaging.

Because light can carry greater amounts of data more efficiently than electrical signals traveling through copper wires, today’s technology is increasingly based on optics. The world is already connected by thousands of miles of optical-fiber cables that deliver email, images, and the latest video gone viral to your laptop.