[Am-info] Tiny Pathways See The Light

[Fred A. Miller]

Tiny Pathways See The Light

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 
have developed a way to create optical pathways small enough to 
be used in a new class of optical switches and computers.

The technique could enable the simple and inexpensive 
construction of optical components that manipulate signals along 
routes less than 1 micron wide or around bends with radii in the 
1-micron range. It could be used in futuristic components such as 
microlasers, optical switches, optical transistors, and tunable 
lasers and may become the basis for new types of networking and
computing devices, scientists say. The technique could result in 
optical integrated circuits, which would be the building blocks 
for optical computers capable of performing calculations hundreds 
of times faster than those made with electronic integrated 
circuits.

The researchers have created optical waveguides within photonic 
crystals, known as 3-D photonic bandgap materials, using a laser 
beam that "writes" the waveguides within a silicon crystal. A 
laser beam is focused inside a photonic crystal composed of 
uniform spheres of silicon, treated beforehand with a 
photoreactive monomer liquid. At its focal point, the laser 
creates a 3-D pattern within the crystal by turning the monomer 
liquid into a polymer solid, which defines the shape of optical 
waveguide.

The experiment results in waveguides 1.58 microns wide. It proves 
"we can write a [3-D] pattern, and we can do that within the 
crystal," says Paul Braun, assistant professor of materials 
science and engineering at the university and lead scientist in 
the experiment. The optical waveguides could work side by side
with conventional integrated circuits on the same chip, he says. 
The laser-writing process is simpler and potentially less 
expensive than other techniques for making optical waveguides, 
which include building them layer by layer and the more 
error-prone process of waveguide self-assembly. - John
Rendleman

Read on
Spreading Light On Optical Networks
http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=eGTQ0Bce7K0V20BZkk0AP

-- 
Fred A. Miller
Systems Administrator
Cornell Univ. Press Services
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