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OSU physicists discover faster optical signals
Portland Business Journal
Physicists at Oregon State University have discovered a way to manipulate the transmission of optical signals in tiny wires, slowing, stopping or even speeding them up to velocities faster than the speed of light.
They say that is a major advance that could open the door to a new era of computing and information processing based on optics.
The findings, being published in the journal Physical Review Letters, are a step toward manipulating light pulses in the same conceptual way that conventional electronics, since the dawn of switches, semiconductors and transistors, has manipulated electrons.
The potential payoff, the physicists say, might be a new generation of computers, communications or other devices that are no longer hamstrung by the limited speed of electrons -- a speed that may seem extraordinarily fast in one sense, but is slow compared to the visionary possibilities of optics.
"At least in theory, computers based on optics might be a million times faster than those used today," said Viktor Podolskiy, an OSU assistant professor of physics. "This is because the frequency of light is about one million times faster than that of electrons, and the devices we envision would be based on photonics rather than the movement of electrons."
Some important uses of photonics are already in common use, such as the fiber-optic cables used for high speed telecommunication, the optical disk readouts used in most PCs. But there currently is no way to manage and manipulate optics in any small device the way that electrons can easily be controlled in everything from computers to cell phones.
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