Nanotechnology to Supercharge Internet
Canadian researchers have shown that nanotechnology can be used to pave the way to a supercharged Internet based entirely on light. The discovery could lead to a network 100 times faster than today's.
In a study published today in Nano Letters, Professor Ted Sargent and
colleagues advance the use of one laser beam to direct another with
unprecedented control, a featured needed inside future fibre-optic networks.
"This finding showcases the power of nanotechnology: to design and create
purpose-built custom materials from the molecule up," says Sargent, a
professor at U of T's Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering.
Until now, engineering researchers have been unable to capitalize on
theoreticians' predictions of the power of light to control light. The
failure of real materials to live up to their theoretical potential has
become known as the "Kuzyk quantum gap" in molecular nonlinear optics.
"Molecular materials used to switch light signals with light have, until
now, been considerably weaker than fundamental physics say they could be,"
says Sargent. "With this work, the ultimate capacity to process
information-bearing signals using light is within our practical grasp."
To breach the Kuzyk quantum gap, Carleton University chemistry professor
Wayne Wang and colleague Connie Kuang designed a material that combined
nanometre-sized spherical particles known as "buckyballs" (molecules of
carbon atoms resembling soccer balls) with a designed class of polymer. The
polymer and buckyball combination created a clear, smooth film designed to
make light particles pick up each other's patterns.
Sargent and U of T colleague Qiying Chen then studied the optical properties
of this new hybrid material. They found that the material was able to
process information carried at telecommunications wavelengths - the infrared
colours of light used in fibre-optic cables. "Photons - particles of light -
interacted unusually strongly with one another across the set of wavelengths
used for communications," says Sargent. "Calculations based on these
measurements reveal that we came closer than ever to achieving what quantum
mechanical physics tells us is possible."
According to Sargent, future fibre-optic communication systems could relay
signals around the global network with picosecond (one trillionth of a
second) switching times, resulting in an Internet 100 times faster. To do
this, they need to avoid unnecessary conversions of signals between optical
and electronic form. Says Sargent: "By creating a new hybrid material that
can harness a light beam's power, we've demonstrated a new class of
materials which meets the engineering needs of future photonic networks."
The paper addresses a limit originally predicted by Washington State
University theorist and physicist Professor Mark Kuzyk. Kuzyk was the first
to predict the fundamental physical limits on the nonlinear properties of
molecular materials in 2000 and says that by approaching the quantum limit,
the U of T-Carleton team has succeeded where all other researchers have
failed.
"The report on reaching the quantum limit by the Toronto and Carleton team
of researchers is a major advance in the science of nonlinear optical
materials that will impact directly many important technologies," says
Kuzyk. "This intelligent nanoscale approach to engineering nonlinear-optical
materials, which is guided by principles of quantum physics, is the birth of
a new and significant materials development paradigm in synthetic research."
The research was supported by the Ontario Research and Development Challenge
Fund, Nortel Networks, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
of Canada, Canada Research Chairs Foundation, the Canada Foundation for
Innovation and the Ontario Innovation Trust.
CONTACT:
Ted Sargent Kristi Gourlay
Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering U of T Public Affairs
416-946-5051 416-978-6974
ted.sargent@utoronto.ca
kristi.gourlay@utoronto.ca