Communications of the ACM
Point of Light
The waveguide device focuses coupled electron oscillations, called surface plasmon polaritons.
Credit: Young-Hee Lee / Caltech
California Institute of Technology (Caltech) researchers have created a device that can focus light into a point just a few nanometers across, a breakthrough they say could lead to next-generation applications in computing, communications, and imaging.
In conventional electronics, light can only be focused down to the size of the wavelength, an amount known as the diffraction limit. The Caltech device, called a waveguide, can break this diffraction limit. As light is sent through the waveguide, the photons interact with electrons causing them to oscillate, and the oscillations move along the device as waves. Since the electron oscillations are directly coupled with the light, they carry the same information and properties and can serve as a proxy for the light.
The device is built on a semiconductor chip with standard nanofabrication techniques, which makes it able to integrate with existing technology, notes Caltech professor Hyuck Choo.
"Our new device is based on fundamental research, but we hope it's a good building block for many potentially revolutionary engineering applications," says Caltech researcher Myung-Ki Kim. The device could lead to new computer hard drives that hold more memory via heat-assisted magnetic recording, or new data-transfer and communication applications.
From Caltech
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2012 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
No entries found