Phystech discovery gives green light to high-speed optical computers?
The Russian scientists are said to have learned how to use what’s known in physics as surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) to transmit data in tiny silicon chips
Aug 19, 2015
A new discovery by physicists at Moscow’s MIPT may pave the way in a near future for the world’s first photonic computers with a capacity incomparable to that of current conventional ones, announced the website of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), also known as Phystech, which is based in the town of Dolgoprudny just outside Moscow.
The Russian scientists are said to have learned how to use what’s known in physics as surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) to transmit data in tiny silicon chips. The discovery is described in detail in scientific journal Optics Express.
According to Dmitry Fedyanin of the team of MIPT developers, SPPs have been considered in the past as data carriers to transmit information; however, their widespread use has been hindered so far because the signal typically dies out fast as it travels along waveguides. The MIPT researchers appear to have found means of solving the problem, which is paving the way for the creation of a new generation of high-capacity optoelectronic chips.
Mr. Fedyanin and his colleagues have obviously leapfrogged in transition from standard electronic gadgets to their futuristic optical analogs. They found a way to ‘compress’ the light by using the so-called plasmon resonators and polaritons, an unusual kind of particles that emerge on the surface of the resonators.
The polariton is a fairly new virtual particle, which simultaneously possesses and reveals—very much like the photon—the properties of both a wave and a particle.
As Mr. Fedyanin explained, the SPPs enable scientists to address a key snag in optoelectronics, which is the inability to make some of photonic computers’ most essential components as minuscule as required.
The Russian scientists are said to have learned how to use what’s known in physics as surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) to transmit data in tiny silicon chips. The discovery is described in detail in scientific journal Optics Express.
According to Dmitry Fedyanin of the team of MIPT developers, SPPs have been considered in the past as data carriers to transmit information; however, their widespread use has been hindered so far because the signal typically dies out fast as it travels along waveguides. The MIPT researchers appear to have found means of solving the problem, which is paving the way for the creation of a new generation of high-capacity optoelectronic chips.
Mr. Fedyanin and his colleagues have obviously leapfrogged in transition from standard electronic gadgets to their futuristic optical analogs. They found a way to ‘compress’ the light by using the so-called plasmon resonators and polaritons, an unusual kind of particles that emerge on the surface of the resonators.
The polariton is a fairly new virtual particle, which simultaneously possesses and reveals—very much like the photon—the properties of both a wave and a particle.
As Mr. Fedyanin explained, the SPPs enable scientists to address a key snag in optoelectronics, which is the inability to make some of photonic computers’ most essential components as minuscule as required.