UMNews (10/02/12) Matt Hodson
A device that controls light could lead to faster Internet downloading speeds, more affordable Internet transmission costs, and lower power consumption. Scientists and engineers at the University of Minnesota developed the microscale device, which uses force generated by light to flip a mechanical switch of light on and off at a very high speed. "This device is similar to electromechanical relays but operates completely with light," says professor Mo Li. In the device, the force of light is so strong that its mechanical property can be dominated completely by the optical effect rather than its own mechanical structure. The effect is amplified to control additional colored light signals at a much higher power level. "This is the first time that this novel optomechanical effect is used to amplify optical signals without converting them into electrical ones," Li notes. Glass optical fibers carry multiple communication channels using different colors of light assigned to different channels. In optical cables, these multi-hued channels do not interfere with each other, ensuring the efficiency of a single optical fiber to transmit more information over very long distances. The new optical relay device operates 1 million times per second, but researchers expect to improve it to several billion times per second.
http://www1.umn.edu/news/news-A device that controls light could lead to faster Internet downloading speeds, more affordable Internet transmission costs, and lower power consumption. Scientists and engineers at the University of Minnesota developed the microscale device, which uses force generated by light to flip a mechanical switch of light on and off at a very high speed. "This device is similar to electromechanical relays but operates completely with light," says professor Mo Li. In the device, the force of light is so strong that its mechanical property can be dominated completely by the optical effect rather than its own mechanical structure. The effect is amplified to control additional colored light signals at a much higher power level. "This is the first time that this novel optomechanical effect is used to amplify optical signals without converting them into electrical ones," Li notes. Glass optical fibers carry multiple communication channels using different colors of light assigned to different channels. In optical cables, these multi-hued channels do not interfere with each other, ensuring the efficiency of a single optical fiber to transmit more information over very long distances. The new optical relay device operates 1 million times per second, but researchers expect to improve it to several billion times per second.
