It may seem counterintuitive, but chaos can be a good thing in science and engineering.Xu Yi, assistant professor ofelectrical and computer engineeringat the University of Virginia, in collaboration with Yun-Feng Xiao's group from Peking University and researchers at Caltech, turned to chaos theory to improve devices that create and manipulate light. Yi and the team applied chaos theory to a specific type of photonic device called a microresonator-based frequency comb, or microcomb. The microcomb efficiently converts photons from single to multiple wavelengths. “It's like turning a monochrome magic lantern into a technicolor film projector,†Yi said. The researchers demonstrated the broadest (i.e., most colorful) microcomb spectral span ever recorded.