A team of Penn State electrical engineers has developed an innovative approach to restrict light from reflecting back in optical devices that could allow progressions in multiple fields such as optical communications, laser systems, and electronics. The conventional methods to break light reciprocity had various limitations which made it difficult to integrate into smaller systems or onto small electronic chips. Researchers have now developed a new technology to break reciprocity not with a device that uses magnets but with a method of high-speed temporal modulation, a way to promptly modify the signal so the reflection accompanies a distinct path.