{"id":431,"date":"2026-04-16T07:52:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T14:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/sciencechina\/?p=431"},"modified":"2026-04-16T07:52:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T14:52:22","slug":"how-scientists-learned-to-read-information-encoded-in-darkness-inside-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/sciencechina\/2026\/04\/16\/how-scientists-learned-to-read-information-encoded-in-darkness-inside-light\/","title":{"rendered":"How Scientists Learned to Read Information Encoded in Darkness Inside Light"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inside a beam of light, there are places where the light simply isn’t. Not dim, not scattered, not absorbed. Absent, a void of zero intensity threading through the beam like a knotted vein of darkness. These are phase singularities: points where the electromagnetic phase becomes undefined, where the wave collapses into nothing. They dart through the beam as it travels, tracing paths that loop and cross and in some cases tie themselves into topological knots, mathematical forms that can no more be untangled without cutting than a pretzel can be unknotted without tearing.<\/p>\n

For decades, no one paid these dark corridors much attention. Interesting physics, certainly, but awkward for any practical purpose: how do you read information encoded in the absence of light? Conventional detectors work by catching photons, and singularities, by definition, have none to offer.<\/p>\n

Reading Darkness With a Neuromorphic Eye<\/h2>\n

A team at Nanjing University has now found a way round that. Their system, called LightELF, treats the darkness not as an obstacle but as the signal itself. Rather than hunting for photons that aren’t there, it watches for the steep gradient at the edge of the void: the intensity cliff that forms wherever a singularity moves. The approach borrows its logic from neuromorphic engineering, the field of computing that models itself on biological nervous systems, and it turns out the two domains fit together rather neatly. Biological neurons don’t sample the world at fixed intervals; they fire when something changes. LightELF’s sensor does something similar, responding asynchronously whenever the light intensity gradient around a singularity crosses a threshold, outputting only the sparse coordinates of the singularity itself and nothing else.<\/p>\n

The implications for data volume are, bluntly, staggering. When the Nanjing team trained a conventional CMOS camera on a trefoil knot beam (one of the simpler topological light structures) it generated 2.82 megabytes of data per frame to capture a singularity it couldn’t actually resolve. LightELF generated 338 bytes. The same information, or rather more of it, in roughly 8,750 times less data.<\/p>\n

That compression isn’t cosmetic. It unlocks speed. Traditional singularity detection required prolonged exposure times to accumulate enough signal from the regions around each dark point, which capped transmission rates at the kind of frame rates you’d recognise from a mediocre webcam. LightELF operates with microsecond temporal resolution. Its detector can refresh at up to 100 kHz; its transmitter, a digital micromirror device that flips tiny mirrors to shape the beam, runs at 10 kHz, roughly 167 times faster than the liquid-crystal spatial light modulators previously used to generate topological light fields. The two devices, both commercially available, haven’t been paired before in this way. No previous detection system was quick enough to bother.<\/p>\n

The system takes its name partly from the quality it exploits: Logarithmic Intensity Gradient Handling Technology for Event-based Links-and-knots Formation, in full. The “elves” of the acronym is a deliberate nod to how the singularities behave: darting and weaving through the beam like creatures difficult to pin down. The team also used the system to transmit a 19th-century oil painting called \u00c4ngs\u00e4lvor<\/em>, or Meadow Elves, painted in 1852 by the Swedish artist August Malmstr\u00f6m. That choice, presumably, was not accidental.<\/p>\n

Knotted Light as an Encoding Alphabet<\/h2>\n

To demonstrate that the knots could actually carry information, the Nanjing group built a complete transmission chain. Twelve distinct topological structures serve as the encoding alphabet, each distinguishable by its topology: the number of crossings, the chirality, the pattern of the singularity’s evolution as the beam propagates. In the 200 x 250-pixel image transmission test, the system achieved a signal-to-noise ratio of around 39.9 decibels and a structural similarity of 99.09%, with a bit error rate of 0.0045 at an average frame rate of 1,451 hertz. These are, by any measure, serviceable figures for a first-generation prototype.<\/p>\n

The topological encoding carries a physical bonus that the paper is at pains to emphasise. Topological invariants are, by their nature, robust to small perturbations: you can nudge a trefoil knot, distort it slightly, subject it to the kind of turbulence and speckle that bedevil optical communications, and it remains a trefoil knot. A different group showed last year that optical knots can be stabilised against atmospheric turbulence; if that work and LightELF can be made to talk to each other, the resulting system might prove usefully hard to scramble.<\/p>\n

What Still Needs to Work<\/h2>\n

There are real limitations, though. Twelve topological structures is not many encoding symbols for a communication system that aspires to practical use, and augmenting that alphabet will require more topologically complex beam designs rather than just adjustments to the hardware. Speckle from background scatter and stray diffraction orders does trigger spurious responses in the event camera; the team filtered these out using a clustering algorithm, but it adds complexity. And the current bit rate of around 13,000 bits per second is modest by any standard, even if the hardware baud requirements are comparatively lean.<\/p>\n

What LightELF perhaps matters most for right now isn’t data transmission per se. It’s the demonstration that optical singularities, which have spent fifty years as a theoretical curiosity since Nye and Berry first described phase singularities in 1974, can be read quickly and accurately enough to function as information carriers. That proof of concept opens doors. The event-camera approach could, the authors suggest, extend to other topological light structures: optical skyrmions, for instance, which encode information in the spin texture of the electromagnetic field rather than phase. It may also prove useful in precision sensing and metrology, where the sharp spatial gradient at a singularity’s edge is an extremely sensitive probe of whatever perturbed it.<\/p>\n

Information travels in light because light is fast and light is cheap and light can carry more dimensions of variation than most encoding schemes have ever bothered to exploit. The darkness inside it, it turns out, might be worth exploiting too.<\/p>\n

Source: Weng et al., “Neuromorphic vision of optical darkness for high-throughput topological knot signal processing,” PhotoniX<\/em> 7, 20 (2026). DOI: 10.1186\/s43074-026-00235-5<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n

What is a phase singularity and why does it matter for data transmission?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A phase singularity is a point in a light beam where the electromagnetic phase becomes undefined and the light intensity drops to exactly zero. Because they form knotted, topologically stable paths through space, they can serve as distinct, readable symbols that are more resistant to distortion than conventional light-intensity signals. The challenge has always been detecting them without conventional photon-counting sensors, which is precisely what LightELF solves.<\/p>\n

How does a neuromorphic sensor help with detecting dark points in light?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Standard cameras accumulate light intensity over a fixed exposure period, which is exactly the wrong approach for singularities where there’s no intensity to collect. Neuromorphic, or event-based, cameras instead respond to rapid changes in light intensity rather than absolute levels, firing asynchronously when a gradient threshold is crossed. Because a singularity’s edge creates an exceptionally sharp intensity gradient as it moves, the event camera can track the void’s position precisely without ever needing to see a photon from the void itself.<\/p>\n

Could optical knots eventually replace conventional fibre-optic signals?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That’s a long way off, and probably not the right framing. Current LightELF bit rates, around 13,000 bits per second, are far below what modern fibre systems routinely achieve. The more likely near-term application is as an additional encoding dimension layered on top of existing channels, exploiting the topological structure of light to add capacity without adding new wavelengths or fibres. The robustness of knot topology against atmospheric turbulence could also make the approach attractive for free-space optical links where signal scrambling is a real problem.<\/p>\n

Is topological robustness as reliable as it sounds?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Up to a point. Topological invariants genuinely do resist small continuous deformations, which is the mathematical property the researchers are exploiting. But optical knots can be disrupted by sufficiently severe perturbations, and speckle scatter in the LightELF experiments did cause spurious readings that required algorithmic filtering. Separately, a 2025 study showed that optical knot stability under turbulence can be improved with careful beam design, but the two approaches haven’t yet been combined. The robustness is real but shouldn’t be overstated for practical conditions.<\/p>\n

What other uses beyond data transmission might LightELF have?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Nanjing team points to precision optical sensing and metrology, where the extremely sharp spatial gradient at a singularity’s edge could make for a finely calibrated probe of whatever local perturbation caused a singularity to shift. There’s also potential in the study of speckle fields: singularities appear throughout speckle patterns in ways that aren’t well understood, and an event camera capable of tracking them in real time might illuminate some of that behaviour. More speculatively, the framework may extend to other topological light structures such as optical skyrmions, opening a broader family of encoding possibilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inside a beam of light, there are places where the light simply isn’t. Not dim, not scattered, not absorbed. Absent, a void of zero intensity threading through the beam like a knotted vein of darkness. These are phase singularities: points where the electromagnetic phase becomes undefined, where the wave collapses into nothing. They dart through … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1299,"featured_media":432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-physics-mathematics","category-technology","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Scientists Learned to Read Information Encoded in Darkness Inside Light - SciChi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/sciencechina\/2026\/04\/16\/how-scientists-learned-to-read-information-encoded-in-darkness-inside-light\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Scientists Learned to Read Information Encoded in Darkness Inside Light\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Inside a beam of light, there are places where the light simply isn’t. 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Slide a bead up, slide a bead down \u2014 each rod operates independently, and the number it represents depends only on where the beads sit. Break one rod and the rest carry on just fine. It is, in a sense,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Physics & Mathematics"","block_context":{"text":"Physics & Mathematics","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/sciencechina\/category\/physics-mathematics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Figure | Architecture of SUANPAN. a, The schematic diagram of SUANPAN architecture, consisting of a series of independent emitter-detector pairs. Left insets show the schematic and microscope photograph of a single VCSEL. Right insets show the schematic and microscope photograph of a single MoTe2 PD. b, The optical image of the VCSEL array. c, The optical image of the MoTe2 PD array.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/sciencechina\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2026\/02\/photonic-chip.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/sciencechina\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2026\/02\/photonic-chip.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/sciencechina\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2026\/02\/photonic-chip.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/sciencechina\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2026\/02\/photonic-chip.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":173,"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/sciencechina\/2025\/05\/27\/scientists-turn-immune-cells-into-light-controlled-robots\/","url_meta":{"origin":431,"position":2},"title":"Scientists Turn Immune Cells Into Light-Controlled Robots","author":"SciChi","date":"May 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Chinese researchers have developed a new type of microrobot that transforms ordinary immune cells into precision-guided warriors using nothing more than focused light beams. The \"phagobots\"\u2014macrophage cells that can be awakened and steered with near-infrared laser light\u2014represent a major advance in biomedical robotics by combining the natural power of immune\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Health"","block_context":{"text":"Health","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/sciencechina\/category\/health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The phagobot\u2019s \u201cwake-up\u201d program is triggered by localized optothermal stimulation of a resting macrophage using near-infrared (NIR) micro-irradiation. Once activated, the phagobot\u2019s movement can be precisely guided through optical control of the macrophage\u2019s extended filopodia. It can then be directed to carry out immune clearance tasks by phagocytosing a range of bio-threats of varying sizes, both in vitro and in vivo, within a living zebrafish.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/sciencechina\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/05\/image.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":51,"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/sciencechina\/2025\/04\/17\/tiny-light-rings-enable-massive-quantum-leap\/","url_meta":{"origin":431,"position":3},"title":"Tiny Light Rings Enable Massive Quantum Leap","author":"SciChi","date":"April 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Scientists have created the largest quantum entanglement network ever built on a single chip, potentially unlocking new possibilities for ultra-secure communications and next-generation computing. The breakthrough, achieved by researchers from Peking University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, connects 60 distinct light modes in a coordinated quantum dance within a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Physics & Mathematics"","block_context":{"text":"Physics & Mathematics","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/sciencechina\/category\/physics-mathematics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The microresonator supports multiple spectral qumodes, several of which are simultaneously pumped using equally spaced continuous-wave lasers. Quantum microcombs with varying entanglement structures are generated through two-mode squeezing (TMS), enabled by either degenerate or non-degenerate four-wave mixing (FWM) processes.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/sciencechina\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/04\/microresonator.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/sciencechina\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/04\/microresonator.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/sciencechina\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/04\/microresonator.webp?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":375,"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/sciencechina\/2026\/02\/23\/chinese-scientists-build-first-low-power-superconducting-space-thruster\/","url_meta":{"origin":431,"position":4},"title":"Chinese Scientists Build First Low-Power Superconducting Space Thruster","author":"SciChi","date":"February 23, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Inside a vacuum chamber in Hefei, China, a thread of glowing plasma hangs in space. Argon gas feeds into the device at five milligrams per second \u2014 barely a trickle. Electromagnetic forces tear the gas apart into ions and electrons, then hurl it backward at extraordinary speed. The thrust produced\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Physics & Mathematics"","block_context":{"text":"Physics & Mathematics","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/sciencechina\/category\/physics-mathematics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Schematic of The High Temperature Superconducting Applied Field MPD Thruster","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/sciencechina\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2026\/02\/Schematic-of-The-High-Temperature-Superconducting-Applied-Field-MPD-Thruster-.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/sciencechina\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2026\/02\/Schematic-of-The-High-Temperature-Superconducting-Applied-Field-MPD-Thruster-.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/sciencechina\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2026\/02\/Schematic-of-The-High-Temperature-Superconducting-Applied-Field-MPD-Thruster-.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/sciencechina\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2026\/02\/Schematic-of-The-High-Temperature-Superconducting-Applied-Field-MPD-Thruster-.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":277,"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/sciencechina\/2025\/10\/10\/paper-thin-led-shines-like-the-sun-indoors\/","url_meta":{"origin":431,"position":5},"title":"Paper-Thin LED Shines Like the Sun Indoors","author":"SciChi","date":"October 10, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Light bulbs have changed a lot since Edison, yet few could be mistaken for wallpaper. 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