With the future of computing lookingincreasingly likely to become light - based , it pay to work out how to make the switching of luminance as effective as possible . Enter tiny atomic number 14 discs , which have now been prove to be the dissolute ever optical switches at the nanoscale .
create by a team of researcher from Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Australian National University in Canberra , the 250 - nanometer Si platter are open of do by photons much like transistors deal with electrons , amplifying and interchange light or else of electricity . In a series of experiments , the team has shown that the petite devices can switch optical pulses at femtosecond rates . For some context , a femtosecond is a one one-millionth of one billionth of a 2nd , and shift upper of that rate equate to the transmission of hundreds of terabits per second base . Which is fast . PhysOrg explains how it work :
The cognitive process of the all - optical switch create by MSU investigator is based on the fundamental interaction between two femtosecond pulsing . The fundamental interaction leave from the magnetised resonance of the silicon nanostructures . If the pulse arrive at the nanostructure simultaneously , one of them interacts with the other and dampens it due to the effect of two - photon absorption . If there is a 100 - femtosecond hold between the two pulses , the interaction does not occur , and the second heartbeat goes through the nanostructure without change .
The research , which is bring out in Nano Letters , does n’t do much in closing off — but it promise great things down the business line . While electrical transistors are already shrunken down to the nanometer scale , opthalmic shift machine have until now cussedly remained at the scale of microns — C or chiliad of times the size of their electric twin . By demonstrating that it ’s potential to create a reliable nano - ordered series switch that operates at such high speed , the team open up the creation of photonic computer science , with logic gates and other more complex computer architecture the obvious next step .
The future of cypher looks pretty bright .
[ Nano LettersviaPhys Org ]
ComputingPhysics
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