acm-header
Sign In

Communications of the ACM

ACM TechNews

Laser Bursts Drive Fastest-Ever Logic Gates


View as: Print Mobile App Share:

Synchronized laser pulses (red and blue) generate a burst of real and virtual charge carriers in graphene that are absorbed by gold metal to produce a net current.

Credit: Michael Osadciw/University of Rochester

Researchers at the University of Rochester and Germany's Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) have created the fastest logic gate to date, powered by laser-generated ultrafast bursts of electricity.

The researchers harnessed gold-graphene-gold junctions to produce "real" and "virtual" versions of particles carrying the electrical bursts' component charges.

Real charge carriers are light-excited electrons that remain in directional motion even after the laser pulse is deactivated, while virtual charge carrier electrons' directional motion ceases when the pulse terminates.

The graphene-gold connection's metal absorbs the real and virtual charge carriers to generate a net current.

The researchers were able to control both charge carriers independently by changing the shape of the laser pulse.

The team experimentally enabled femtosecond-operating logic gates, which demonstrated "that lightwave electronics is practically possible," according to FAU's Tobias Boolakee.

From University of Rochester NewsCenter
View Full Article

 

Abstracts Copyright © 2022 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA


 

No entries found

Sign In for Full Access
» Forgot Password? » Create an ACM Web Account