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This story is from the category Computing Power
Date posted: 20/07/2009 Demonstrating a fundamentally new optical phenomenon, researchers at Yale University have shown the second half of an optical force that could make silicon photonics devices - such as those used in high-speed communications, network cards, even video and TV cables - faster and more capable. Results like these showing novel ways to control light "don't come along very often," says Oskar Painter, a microphotonics researcher at Caltech who was not involved in the work. "There's a push to do more with optical components," Painter adds, and the Yale group's results are "totally new." Scientists theorized in 2005 that tiny beams of light confined on a silicon chip could attract or repel each other when placed in close proximity, similar to the electromagnetic forces between positive and negative charges. Last year a group led by Yale University professor Hong Tang first demonstrated the "attractive" side of this optical force. Now the group has demonstrated the second side of the force, repulsion, which makes its effects reversible. Previously, says Mo Li, the lead author of the paper published in Nature Photonics, they could "pull" with the force, but they couldn't "push." Now the researchers can do both. The accomplishment opens the possibility of using light to manipulate light in microphotonic devices, rather than using mechanical elements like microheaters or power-hungry optical crystals. See the full Story via external site: www.technologyreview.com Most recent stories in this category (Computing Power): 22/05/2013: Stacking 2-D materials produces surprising results |
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