Posted on 02/02/2016 5:19:02 AM PST by BenLurkin
Applying a small voltage causes an atom to relocate, turning the switch on or off.
The quantity of data exchanged via communications networks around the globe is growing at a breathtaking rate. The volume of data for wired and mobile communications is currently increasing by 23 and 57 percent respectively every year. It is impossible to predict when this growth will end. This also means that all network components must constantly be made more efficient.
These components include so-called modulators, which convert the information that is originally available in electrical form into optical signals. Modulators are, therefore, nothing more than fast electrical switches that turn a laser signal on or off at the frequency of the incoming electrical signals. Modulators are installed in data centers in their thousands. However, they all have the disadvantage of being quite large. Measuring a few centimeters across, they take up a great deal of space when used in large numbers.
Six months ago, a working group led by Jürg Leuthold, Professor of Photonics and Communications at ETH Zurich, already succeeded in proving that the technology could be made smaller and more energy-efficient. As part of that work, the researchers presented a micromodulator measuring just 10 micrometers across - or 10,000 times smaller than modulators in commercial use.
Leuthold and his colleagues have now taken this to the next level by developing the world’s smallest optical modulator. And this is probably as small as it can get: the component operates at the level of individual atoms. The footprint has, therefore, been further reduced by a factor of 1,000 if you include the switch together with the light guides. However, the switch itself is even smaller, with a size measured on the atomic scale. The team’s latest development was recently presented in the journal Nano Letters.
(Excerpt) Read more at scientificcomputing.com ...
Big boost for fiber, if it proves commercially viable. The irony is, the faster they make the switches and mods, the more data people will demand, until the advantage is used up and another technological innovation is required.
Same thing happens when they expand a highway.
but if they know the position of the atom can they really know what the switching speed is?
Are you applying Heisenberg here? Or am I misunderstanding the question?
yes - just trying to be cute, but it’s harder to pull off the older I get...
Hear the one about Heisenberg, Schrodinger, and Ohm being pulled over by the cops?
Cop asks how fast were you going.
Heisenberg says I don’t know but I know where I am
Cop says you were going 75 in a 55
Heisenberg says great now we’re lost
Cop gets suspicious and says open your trunk
Then says - You know you have a dead cat in here
Schrodinger says we do now asshole
Cop goes to arrest them and Ohm resists.
badump bump
... wait for it ...
"Relative."
nice
Am I correct is assuming that the smaller these get, the more vulnerable they are to an EMP?
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