According to a recent report by the Physicist Organization Network, computer chips that use light to move data will be more energy-efficient and can even be faster than the chips used today. One of the difficulties in achieving this is that the light does not retroreflect when passing through the electromagnetic waveguide to interfere with the subsequent transmission, or even interrupt the operation of the laser.
Today's fiber optic networks often use opto-isolators to block the retroreflection of light. This device is generally made of a special material such as Indium Gallium Garnet, and can only work under the action of a magnetic field, which makes it very bulky. In addition, because the isolator absorbs photons to prevent them from backscattering, it also weakens the forward moving optical signal.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and others have described a new type of metamaterial that can keep photons moving in only one direction, redirecting rogue photons rather than just absorbing them. The researchers said that this is very important, because the loss of photons will limit the number of devices they can integrate, thus constraining the development of large-scale integrated optical devices. Although the prototype used in the experiment was large, no additional magnetic field was applied, so it could, in principle, produce optical elements smaller than current optoisolators. In addition, the construction of a chip-level metamaterial does not require more special metals than the generation of a microprocessor, which can reduce manufacturing costs. The relevant research report was published in the "Journal of the National Academy of Sciences" published this week.
It is the rows of embedded metal antennas that give the new material its light-gathering properties. They look like small propellers vertically and horizontally staggered. Each antenna is connected by a circuit and an opposite antenna located on the bottom surface of the material. The direction of the current passing through the circuit determines the propagation direction of the electromagnetic wave.
Although scientists are trying to obtain chip-level waveguides in many different ways, the new metamaterial provides optical waveguides that are useful for making on-chip devices capable of controlling optical signals. In chip production, these antennas can be easily embedded in silicon. However, the miniaturization of the antenna is not a major obstacle to supporting the operation of metamaterials in the visible and even near-infrared frequencies. The operating frequency is also limited by the transistor switching speed in the current. There is currently no transistor design that can cater to the high conversion speed of visible light. This is exactly what researchers are trying to do. (Zhang Hao)
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