Artistic impression of metamaterial structure
An international team of scientists led by King's College London has taken a step closer towards developing optical components for super-fast computers and high-speed internet services of the future. This has the potential to revolutionise data processing speeds by transmitting information via light beams rather than electric currents. The researchers are studying the science of 'nanoplasmonic devices' whose key components are tiny nanoscale metal structures, more than 1000 times smaller than the size of a human hair, that guide and direct light. Information is routinely sorted and directed in different directions to allow computing, internet connections or telephone conversations to take place. At present, however, computers process information by encoding it in electric signals. It would be much faster to process and transmit information in the form of light instead of electric signals, but until now, it has been difficult for the light beams to be 'changed', that is to interact with other beams of light, while travelling through a material, and this has held up progress. The scientists have solved this by designing a new artificial material, which allows light beams to interact efficiently and change intensity, therefore allowing information to be sorted by beams of light at very high speeds.
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