I'm not directly involved in this field but some of my work is related to stuff that Ozin does, so I'm sort of a peer. The second link you provide does reveal why this is a breakthrough. Up until now, a lot of people have made photonic crystals, which allow precise control over the propagation of light, but this is the first report (to my knowledge) of a photonic crystal which can be modulated, as they say by applying an external field. This is key to fabricating dynamic structures (i.e., circuits) as opposed to static structures (i.e., simple block of semiconductor). Of course, there may be numerous difficulties to overcome before this technique can actually do some processing, and it may be superseded by some future discovery, but it is a very important advance in this field. The fact that they published in Physical Review Letters is also an indication of the importance, to a broad audience, of this discovery.
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I'm not directly involved in this field but some of my work is related to stuff that Ozin does, so I'm sort of a peer.
The second link you provide does reveal why this is a breakthrough.
Up until now, a lot of people have made photonic crystals, which allow precise control over the propagation of light, but this is the first report (to my knowledge) of a photonic crystal which can be modulated, as they say by applying an external field. This is key to fabricating dynamic structures (i.e., circuits) as opposed to static structures (i.e., simple block of semiconductor). Of course, there may be numerous difficulties to overcome before this technique can actually do some processing, and it may be superseded by some future discovery, but it is a very important advance in this field.
The fact that they published in Physical Review Letters is also an indication of the importance, to a broad audience, of this discovery.
gd