Work could “open doors to the next generation of high-speed gadgets”
Technology is changing at the speed of light, quite literally.
Two Clemson University researchers have discovered a breakthrough process enabling electronics to transmit information by light instead of electrical current.
Ramakrishna Podila and Apparao Rao developed an all-carbon based optical diode, composed of an atom-thick graphene sheet and nanometer-thick fullerene film, which allows light to pass through it in only one direction. Logical computing requires that information travel only one way, but that “goes against the basic nature of light,” Podila said.
The optical diode is a sandwich structure that restricts light by allowing it to pass through from the graphene side but not from the fullerene side. To picture this in non-scientific terms, imagine two people sitting across from each other, Podila said. “You could see me, but I could not see you.”
To the naked eye, the sandwich looks like a black square, but under a microscope it looks like a honeycomb lattice layered with soccer balls.
Instead of using copper wires and silicon chips to transmit information, the new technology would use photonic circuits. Also, unlike silicon chips, which are individually cut from a large sheet, each graphene-fullerene sandwich is constructed bottom-up with atoms, he said.
The technology that results from this new discovery could make light computing cost-effective to use in gadgets such as cellphones and computers and speed up the performance of electronics, Podila said.
Consumers will have to wait an estimated 10 years, however, until the technology is fully developed for mass-market products.
“Their research could improve the speed and security of data processing, and ease Internet traffic,” said Mark Leising, chairman of Clemson’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, in a release.
Podila and Rao will expand on their discovery by modifying graphene with nitrogen and boron to try augmenting performance. Known as doping, the process heats methane to a level where hydrogen atoms break off and are then added to the graphene.
“This could open doors to the next generation of high-speed gadgets,” Podila said. “We’re looking for industry partners to take this research to the next level.”
The Clemson team collaborated with the Raman Research Institute and the Sri Sathya Sai Institute for Higher Learning, India.
