MIT Team Details Optics-On-A-Chip Device
Fiber-optic networks transmit massive amounts of information quickly, but the signals weaken as the data-carrying light travels long distances. Now, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said they’ve overcome a major obstacle in harnessing the full power and speed of the light waves.
It promises to solve a problem that’s long plagued fiber-optic networks: Light waves gradually weaken over distances as they become polarized, or randomly oriented horizontally and vertically. The tools available to fix it are expensive to deploy on a massive scale.
The MIT researchers reported in a recent edition of the journal Nature Photonics that they’ve devised a solution that utilizes the mass-production capabilities of standard silicon chips.
It’s a promising development as bandwidth-hungry video puts a strain on networks and consumers demand seamless transmissions.
Like polarizing sunglasses that block light waves oriented in different directions, the MIT researchers created a clever device that splits the light beams as they pass through a circuit. The device then rotates one of the polarized beams, before both beams are rejoined on their way out of the circuit, retaining the signals’ strength.
February 11th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
This is awesome news. Imagine when this becomes commercially available. This uses can be wide-ranging.