30-04-2012, 05:11 PM
NANOTECHNOLOGY IN PHOTONICS COMMUNICATION
[attachment=20984]
Manipulating Light with Crystals:
As our technology still seeks to increase the speed at which information travels, the scale gets global and we find the information super highway. Although the information super highway has often been used as just another name for the internet, it also describes the vast network of optical and electrical cables now used to carry information. Nano technology is set to take the next step and improve the highway again.
This over complicated, axed-out scene could use some simplifying. Crystals designed on the nano scale could replace electrical routers by directing the light itself instead of first converting it into electrical signals. The fiber-optic cables we use to carry information are potentially capable of transferring data at 10 to 40 Gbps. But most electrical routing occurs at less than 1% of that rate if we transfer to an all-optical router we could route most data packets in less than 1 trillionth of a second, pushing routing speed till it can handle the full capacity of the fiber-optic cable network.
Getting hooked on Photonics:
A photon is the smallest unit of light and doesn't really have a shape or size and mass. They are the building blocks of light and they travel normally in big groups. The information super highway requires orderly photons for information transmission. So, orderly photons have to be made before they can be used as signal carriers. The trick is photons can't really carry anything (as they are weightless) so they are not the messenger, they are also the message. By varying the number of photons we ca form a code of high and low pulses. When we work at the nano scale, we rarely encounter large mobs of photons instead; we have to deal with a few photons at a time. If our nano-crystal accidentally stops just one of the photons, we have immediately lost most of our information. Stopping light is ridiculously easy.
Wavelengths: Creating nano-size IDs
The photons can be considered as a wave because they are vibrating and they can be considered as particle depending on the situation. Photons have detectable vibrations. In fact the length of the space it takes for them to go through one cycle of vibration determines the wavelength of a distinct bunch of photons. Moist of the light we dealt with as a wave length of few hundred nano meters. And it turns out that any nano-crystal router is going to have used the wave lengths of photons as a way to identify them. The nanoscopic crystal identifies different wavelengths of light by responding to how they travel. In fact different wavelengths of light travel at different angles when they are passing through a medium.
Controlling light: Photonic band gaps
Photons and electrons don’t have a lot in common but similar technology is needed to manipulate each of them. When we replace a slow electrical device with a quicker optical one the same old design can be used to generate ideas for the new one. To get semi transparent structures, we have to add just enough of the right impurities to our nano crystals. These semi transparent structures can be used to filter the photons.
Magic with Mirrors
Mirrors are a handy, easy way to direct light around and they control the information super highway. Reflecting large portions of light beam is pretty easy. When we change the direction that mirror faces, we change the direction that the information flows. While it doesn’t get the details sorted out, it does move a lot more data around than the photonic crystals could by them selves.
[attachment=20984]
Manipulating Light with Crystals:
As our technology still seeks to increase the speed at which information travels, the scale gets global and we find the information super highway. Although the information super highway has often been used as just another name for the internet, it also describes the vast network of optical and electrical cables now used to carry information. Nano technology is set to take the next step and improve the highway again.
This over complicated, axed-out scene could use some simplifying. Crystals designed on the nano scale could replace electrical routers by directing the light itself instead of first converting it into electrical signals. The fiber-optic cables we use to carry information are potentially capable of transferring data at 10 to 40 Gbps. But most electrical routing occurs at less than 1% of that rate if we transfer to an all-optical router we could route most data packets in less than 1 trillionth of a second, pushing routing speed till it can handle the full capacity of the fiber-optic cable network.
Getting hooked on Photonics:
A photon is the smallest unit of light and doesn't really have a shape or size and mass. They are the building blocks of light and they travel normally in big groups. The information super highway requires orderly photons for information transmission. So, orderly photons have to be made before they can be used as signal carriers. The trick is photons can't really carry anything (as they are weightless) so they are not the messenger, they are also the message. By varying the number of photons we ca form a code of high and low pulses. When we work at the nano scale, we rarely encounter large mobs of photons instead; we have to deal with a few photons at a time. If our nano-crystal accidentally stops just one of the photons, we have immediately lost most of our information. Stopping light is ridiculously easy.
Wavelengths: Creating nano-size IDs
The photons can be considered as a wave because they are vibrating and they can be considered as particle depending on the situation. Photons have detectable vibrations. In fact the length of the space it takes for them to go through one cycle of vibration determines the wavelength of a distinct bunch of photons. Moist of the light we dealt with as a wave length of few hundred nano meters. And it turns out that any nano-crystal router is going to have used the wave lengths of photons as a way to identify them. The nanoscopic crystal identifies different wavelengths of light by responding to how they travel. In fact different wavelengths of light travel at different angles when they are passing through a medium.
Controlling light: Photonic band gaps
Photons and electrons don’t have a lot in common but similar technology is needed to manipulate each of them. When we replace a slow electrical device with a quicker optical one the same old design can be used to generate ideas for the new one. To get semi transparent structures, we have to add just enough of the right impurities to our nano crystals. These semi transparent structures can be used to filter the photons.
Magic with Mirrors
Mirrors are a handy, easy way to direct light around and they control the information super highway. Reflecting large portions of light beam is pretty easy. When we change the direction that mirror faces, we change the direction that the information flows. While it doesn’t get the details sorted out, it does move a lot more data around than the photonic crystals could by them selves.