Exceptional properties of Lithium Niobate (LN) harnessed by photonic chips to benefit farming, space navigation

https://techxplore.com/news/2023-01-advances-material-vogue.html

"LN can generate and manipulate electro-magnetic (EM) waves across full spectrum of light... LN thin films on semiconductor wafers... Photonic circuits printed into LN layer... Moon rover detect IR signals where there is no GPS... Gas emitted by ripe fruit absorbed by light in mid-IR... drone in orchard transmit light to another which would sense degree to which the light is absorbed and when fruit is ready for harvesting... smaller, easily deployed"