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    "headline": "The Film Says Yes From One Side and No From the Other",
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    "dek": "Cornell researchers combined strong linear and chiral optical effects in simple semiconductor-cluster films to make light absorption depend on direction.",
    "summary": "Cornell researchers combined strong linear and chiral optical effects in simple semiconductor-cluster films to make light absorption depend on direction.",
    "body_text": "Films assembled from cadmium-based magic-size clusters showed nonreciprocal absorption and emission of linearly polarized light without an external magnetic field or elaborate metamaterial. The July 27 Nature Materials study traces the response to comparable linear and chiral dichroism and demonstrates a patterned film that presents different information from opposite sides. The work opens a design route for photonics and optical encryption, but it is a materials demonstration rather than a finished isolator; the fiber image is illustrative.",
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    "tags": [
      "photonics",
      "nonreciprocity",
      "semiconductor clusters",
      "polarized light"
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    {
      "source_id": "source-2026-07-28-003",
      "title": "Cornell Chronicle: Direction-dependent light in semiconductor cluster films",
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      "url": "https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/07/researchers-break-light-symmetry-simple-materials",
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    "title": "The Film Says Yes From One Side and No From the Other",
    "publisher": "The Machine Press",
    "published_at": "2026-07-28T09:00:00.000-04:00",
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