New Depiction of Light Could Boost Telecommunications Channels

ScienceDaily ^ | 8/26/11

[LibWhacker]

ScienceDaily (Aug. 26, 2011) — Physicists with the Institute of Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers (IUSL) at The City College of New York have presented a new way to map spiraling light that could help harness untapped data channels in optical fibers. Increased bandwidth would ease the burden on fiber-optic telecommunications networks taxed by an ever-growing demand for audio, video and digital media. The new model, developed by graduate student Giovanni Milione, Professor Robert Alfano and colleagues, could even spur enhancements in quantum computing and other applications.

"People now can detect (light in) the ground channel, but this gives us a way to detect and measure a higher number of channels," says Mr. Milione. With such heavy traffic funneled through a single channel, there is great interest in exploiting others that can be occupied by complex forms of light, he explains.

[LibWhacker]

This is going to be huge in so many areas. For instance, in astronomy (one of my favorites :-)), an unbelievable amount of information can already be gleaned by studying starlight. Who knows how much more the star men are going to be able to figure out? I'm guessing it'll shock us all. And that's just one area. ('Course, I tend to be on the excitable side.)

[BikerJoe]

This sounds almost like the optical equivalent of sideband.

[Bigh4u2]

I was thinking more along the lines of ‘spread spectrum’.

Sideband would narrow the signal to 1/3 of it’s useful bandwidth.

[BikerJoe]

I was thinking more along the lines of ‘spread spectrum’. Sideband would narrow the signal to 1/3 of it’s useful bandwidth.

I stand corrected!